2021

One of the worst problems of our times is air pollution. Our transport and industries produce poisonous gases that all people, especially the ones in the city, have to breathe. Of course it is not healthy – scientists have found associations between air pollution and all kinds of diseases, including […]

University of Missouri researchers develop a noninvasive way for identifying the major functions of the gastrointestinal tract. A healthy person has a general balance of good and bad bacteria. But that balance is thrown off when someone gets sick. So, to help boost their levels of good bacteria, many people […]

Powerful Frog-Embryo Model Unveils New Role for Risk Genes, Protective Effect of Estrogen. A new study of autism risk genes by UC San Francisco and UC Berkeley scientists implicates disruption in prenatal neurogenesis – a process in which specialized “progenitor” cells give rise to new brain cells – in the […]

A newly discovered genetic condition caused by faulty protein synthesis which causes delayed development and learning difficulties could be treated by a compound originally isolated from human sperm, say, scientists. The University of Manchester researchers, with collaborators from the UK, France and US, identified rare changes in a gene called […]

Our cells are filled with ‘bones,' in a sense. Thin, flexible protein strands called actin filaments help support and move around the bulk of the cells of eukaryotes, which includes all plants and animals. Always on the go, actin filaments constantly grow, shrink, bind with other things, and branch off […]

Amyloid-beta and tau are the two key abnormal protein deposits that accumulate in the brain during the development of Alzheimer’s disease. Detecting the buildup of these proteins at an early stage may allow clinicians to intervene before the condition has a chance to take hold. A team led by Harvard […]

For patients with cancers that do not respond to immunotherapy drugs, adjusting the composition of microorganisms in the intestines — known as the gut microbiome — through the use of stool, or fecal, transplants may help some of these individuals respond to the immunotherapy drugs, a new study suggests. Researchers […]

All things being equal, large, long-lived animals should have the highest risk of cancer. The calculation is simple: Tumors grow when genetic mutations cause individual cells to reproduce too quickly. A long life creates more opportunities for those cancerous mutations to arise. So, too, does a massive body: Big creatures […]

For the millions of Americans living with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD), access to specialized geriatric providers — such as geriatricians — could improve the quality of their care. However, these providers are often in short supply, raising questions about access to the unique care that dementia patients need. […]

Researchers can now determine the age and sex of living beluga whales in Alaska’s Cook Inlet thanks to a new DNA-based technique that uses information from small samples of skin tissue. Accurate age estimates are vital to conservation efforts for Cook Inlet belugas, which were listed as endangered following a significant population […]

In biological cells, proteins are everywhere: these building blocks of life perform countless important functions. A human cell contains thousands of different proteins at any given time, often with copies of each protein type present in their hundreds or even thousands simultaneously. In recent years, researchers have succeeded in using […]

We are gradually learning more about the cells of the human body than any researcher has ever dared to dream of. But what’s the purpose? The mere thought of what one plunges into when deciding to research cells is mind-blowing: The human body contains 37 trillion cells, plus/minus a few […]