2021

Heart disease deaths have declined among older people, but the trend is less encouraging among younger people, particularly women. Indeed, research suggests that heart disease and death rates from heart disease in these younger groups have remained unchanged or have even gone up slightly. To understand which factors put younger […]

Every living organism has DNA, and every living organism engages in DNA replication, the process by which DNA makes an exact copy of itself during cell division. While it’s a tried-and-true process, problems can arise. Break-induced replication (BIR) is a way to solve those problems. In humans, it is employed chiefly […]

Scientists have very precise instruments, but measuring properties of tiny little cells is still very difficult. Now researchers at the University of Queensland have developed a new tool to measure heat transfer inside living cells. It includes actual diamonds and it can work as both a heater and a thermometre. […]

Brain stimulation is a relatively new way to treat various neurological conditions. It is typically an invasive procedure because electrodes need to be implanted in the brain. However, now scientists at UCL have found a way to use non-invasive brain stimulation to ease tremors typically found in conditions such as […]

Macrophages – immune cells that both fight infections and fix the damage they cause – are often placed into two categories: those that increase inflammation (known as “M1”) to attack, and those that decrease inflammation to begin the healing process (“M2”). Researchers in the lab of Kathryn Miller-Jensen, associate professor […]

Scientists have identified a key factor in mental aging and shown that it might be prevented or reversed by fixing a glitch in the immune system’s front-line soldiers. Suppose Smokey Bear were to lose it and start setting forest fires instead of putting them out. That roughly describes the behaviour […]

A new study suggests that a lot of people might be going through life with symptoms that resemble concussion – a finding supporting researchers’ argument that athletes recovering from a brain injury should be assessed and treated on a highly individualized basis. In the national study, between 11% and 27% […]

When cancer is confined to one spot in the body, doctors can often treat it with surgery or other therapies. Much of the mortality associated with cancer, however, is due to its tendency to metastasize, sending out seeds of itself that may take root throughout the body. The exact moment […]

If you’ve ever had a bad case of jet lag, you know how a disruption to your body’s circadian rhythm makes it difficult to function. Molecular circadian “clocks” exist in cells throughout the body, governing more than just sleep and wake cycles — they are crucial to many aspects of […]

Exposure to mutagens, or mutation-causing agents, can not only bring about changes in DNA but also appear to induce errors when genes are transcribed to make proteins, which may be an important factor in age-related diseases. USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology Assistant Professor Marc Vermulst and colleagues made the discovery by […]

Using stem cells to regenerate parts of the skull, USC scientists partially corrected a skull deformity and reversed learning and memory deficits in young mice with craniosynostosis, a condition estimated to affect 1 in every 2,500 infants born in the United States. The only current therapy is complex surgery within […]

The study, published in Science Immunology, analysed antibody and T cell responses in 136 London healthcare workers who had mild or asymptomatic Covid-19 infection dating back to March 2020. The team, including researchers from Queen Mary, Imperial College London and University College London, found that 89 per cent of healthcare workers […]