2021

Human babies do even more than we thought while sleeping. A new study from University of Iowa researchers provides further insights into the coordination that takes place between infants’ brains and bodies as they sleep. The Iowa researchers have for years studied infants’ twitching movements during REM sleep and how those twitches […]

A Rice University professor involved in the search for a way to treat and perhaps cure sickle cell disease is available to comment on a major advance revealed today in Science Translational Medicine. Rice University bioengineer Gang Bao is a pioneer in sickle cell research and a co-author of the breakthrough study released led […]

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, breast cancer ranks as the most prevalent cancer among American women. For over 40 years, mammography was the standard of care for breast cancer screening and detection but recently the popularity and use of digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT), or 3D mammography, […]

Adults who skip breakfast are likely to miss out on key nutrients that are most abundant in the foods that make up morning meals, a new study suggests. An analysis of data on more than 30,000 American adults showed that skipping breakfast – and missing out on the calcium in […]

High blood lipids and inactivity are two risk factors for atherosclerosis in humans. When the European brown bear (Ursus arctos) hibernates during winter, it is inactive for 5-6 months and also develops high blood lipids, but still show no signs of atherosclerosis. Professor Johan Frostegård´s research group at the Institute of […]

There’s a pill for many ailments, but ageing isn’t one of them. And while some mounting difficulty in thinking and processing is expected as you grow older, cognition experts say you can take steps to slow it down, no prescription required. Benjamin Hampstead, PhD, recently explained what we know about […]

Chatbots hold promise for dementia patient or caregiver support, but are still in their infancy, finds a paper published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research. None of the interactive digital apps tested by medical researchers and a computer scientist performed well on all testing criteria, and all the apps […]

University of Utah Health scientists and collaborators with the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Consortium have developed a rich resource for studying how the brain changes and matures during adolescence: a collection of functional MRI scans revealed patterns of brain activity in more than 6,000 nine- and ten-year-old children. The […]

Scientists are developing virus-sized robots that could defuse blood clots, explore human cells or even scrub water of impurities. But as these inventions get smaller, the laws of motion that govern these machines are not very intuitive, so researchers are drawing inspiration from nature, says Brad Nelson, professor of robotics […]

Researchers at the University of Virginia School of Medicine have taken a new approach to understanding how our genes determine the strength of our bones, allowing them to identify several genes not previously known to influence bone density and, ultimately, our risk of fracture. The work offers important insights into […]

Nearly 3,000 Canadians are living with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease or Charcot's disease. Each year, close to 1,000 people are diagnosed with ALS and as many will die from it. ALS is an incurable neurodegenerative disorder characterized by the selective loss of motor neurons. […]

Scientists at UC Santa Barbara, University of Southern California (USC), and the biotechnology company Regenerative Patch Technologies LLC (RPT) have reported new methodology for the preservation of RPT’s stem cell-based therapy for age-related macular degeneration (AMD). The new research, recently published in Scientific Reports(link is external), optimizes the conditions to cryopreserve, […]

Treatment options for a deadly liver cancer, fibrolamellar carcinoma, are severely lacking. Drugs that work on other liver cancers are not effective, and although progress has been made in identifying the specific genes involved in driving the growth of fibrolamellar tumors, these findings have yet to translate into any treatment. […]

The term “doomscrolling” describes the act of endlessly scrolling through bad news on social media and reading every worrisome tidbit that pops up, a habit that unfortunately seems to have become common during the COVID-19 pandemic. The biology of our brains may play a role in that. Researchers at Washington […]

Children growing up with HIV infection have concerning deficits in skeletal strength which become more apparent towards the end of pubertal growth, finds the largest study to date to investigate the link between HIV and skeletal health in children. The study, conducted in Zimbabwe and published in The Lancet Child […]

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a degenerative disease of the macula, the central area of the retina. There is currently no cure for the disease and it is characterised by a gradual loss of central vision and is the leading cause of blindness in developed countries in people over the […]

Two teams of scientists from the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine (WFIRM) in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, have won first and second place in NASA's Vascular Tissue Challenge. The prize competition aims to accelerate tissue engineering innovations to benefit people on Earth today and space explorers in the future. Competing as teams […]

In early 2020, when the novel coronavirus was gaining momentum but had not yet been named a pandemic, computational chemist Marti Head of Oak Ridge National Laboratory – along with scientists and researchers around the globe – abruptly switched her focus to the fight against COVID-19. The world was struggling to understand this new […]

Using chemical synthesis, Bright Peak Therapeutics can produce proteins that have never before existed. This holds great potential for cancer immunotherapy. The Basel-​based spin-off has its beginnings at ETH Zurich. Jeffrey Bode’s long, bold journey began over an after-work beer in Tokyo. A biologist friend said to the then postdoc, […]

Vaccine generates robust immune responses against SARS-CoV-2 variants. In the three months since Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine was granted an emergency use authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, more than 10 million Americans have received the vaccine, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. […]

Researchers at Tel Aviv University (TAU) have developed nanotechnology that can serve as a basis for innovative medical approaches to diagnosing and delivering light-activated drug therapies for cancer patients. The technology transforms a transparent calcite nanoparticle into a sparkling gold-like particle, turning an “invisible” particle into one that is visible despite […]

Melanoma is a common type of skin cancer – it is pretty much the reason why you have to put sunscreen on every time you leave the house. Melanoma can develop very rapidly, but scientists at the University of Queensland have now found a way to put the brakes on […]

Tasmanian tree skinks, as the name suggests, are lizards native to Tasmania. They live in a huge variety of habitats – from rocky coastlines to actual trees. They eat insects, spiders and sand hoppers, while sometimes enjoying an occasional amphipod. Now scientists at the University of Tasmania found that Tasmanian […]

COVID-19 is a common pandemic disease. In fact, it is likely that you know several people who had it or you had it yourself. After you get better from this infection, your body’s immune system knows how to protect you from COVID-19 for quite some time. But how long does […]

Regular physical activity has positive effects on children's developing brain circuits, finds a Boston Children's Hospital study using neuroimaging data from nearly 6,000 early adolescents. Physical activity of any kind was associated with more efficiently organized, flexible, and robust brain networks, the researchers found. The more physical activity, the more “fit” […]

Salk research shows how to optimize the production of insulin-producing cells from stem cells. Type 1 diabetes, which arises when the pancreas doesn’t create enough insulin to control levels of glucose in the blood, is a disease that currently has no cure and is difficult for most patients to manage. […]

Salk research reveals clues about molecular changes underlying muscle loss tied to aging. One of the many effects of aging is loss of muscle mass, which contributes to disability in older people. To counter this loss, scientists at the Salk Institute are studying ways to accelerate the regeneration of muscle […]

Young infants show strong immune responses to SARS-CoV-2, new research has found. In particular, compared with adults, young infants produce relatively high levels of antibodies and immune cells that can specifically protect against COVID-19. The study led by academics and paediatricians at the University of Bristol and Bristol Royal Hospital […]

Throwing out one’s back is a universal, albeit clichéd, a sign of middle age. What’s less common is 50-year-old men with the fragile bone strength of men in their 80s. Researchers at Michigan Medicine found a subset of middle-aged men with cerebral palsy is up to 5.6 times more likely […]

By making a game out of getting their daily steps, new research points to the possibility that people with diabetes could be nudged toward increasing their physical activity, with changes lasting for a full year. Since many now use apps or other digital means to manage their diabetes, this program […]