2021

A team of researchers co-led by Michael Frohman of Stony Brook University has identified an important cause of congenital heart disease. The researchers discovered that certain loss of functions in the PLD1 (phospholipase D1) gene causes congenital right-sided cardiac valve defects and neonatal cardiomyopathy. The findings are detailed in a paper in […]

Researchers are perfecting a new generation of anticancer drugs that will be able to specifically target the low-oxygen environment of solid tumors. So far, the new drug has been tested in preliminary experiments with human tumors transplanted into otherwise healthy adult mice. Low oxygen levels among the densely packed cells […]

A study with first-time learners of Japanese has measured how brain activity changes after just a few months of studying a new language. The results show that acquiring a new language initially boosts brain activity, which then reduces as language skills improve. “In the first few months, you can quantitatively […]

People previously infected with SARS-CoV-2 show significantly higher T cell and antibody responses following a single dose of Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine compared with uninfected individuals, a collaborative study involving University of Liverpool researchers has found, While both groups show robust immune responses after one dose, the higher response experienced by previously […]

A rare isotope in high demand for treating cancer is now more available to pharmaceutical companies developing and testing new drugs. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently acknowledged receipt of Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s drug master file for actinium-225 nitrate, which enables pharmaceutical companies to reference the document to […]

Cholinesterase inhibitors are a group of drugs recommended for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, but their effects on cognition have been debated and few studies have investigated their long-term effects. A new study involving researchers from Karolinska Institutet and published in the journal Neurology shows persisting cognitive benefits and reduced […]

Sydney researchers are testing whether an existing medication could be repurposed to treat sarcoma. Recruitment is now open for a national clinical trial that will test whether an existing therapy for psoriasis can help treat patients with sarcomas, which are rare cancers arising in the connective tissues (bone, muscle, tendons, […]

New clues to a long-pursued drug target in cancer may reside within immune cells, researchers at the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center have discovered. The findings, which appear in Nature Immunology, not only shed new light on cancer immunology, they also suggest clinical trials related to this key target — an interaction that […]

Scientists have genetically engineered immune cells, called myeloid cells, to precisely deliver an anticancer signal to organs where cancer may spread. In a study of mice, treatment with the engineered cells shrank tumors and prevented the cancer from spreading to other parts of the body. The study, led by scientists […]

Researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have discovered specific regions within the DNA of neurons that accumulate a certain type of damage (called single-strand breaks or SSBs). This accumulation of SSBs appears to be unique to neurons, and it challenges what is generally understood about the cause of […]

A recent study published in JCI found that a neutrophil’s endoplasmic reticulum, the organelle that normally makes proteins in the cell, becomes stressed in the autoimmune disorder lupus. This stress activates a molecule called IRE1α, which appears to play a critical role in lupus pathogenesis in mice. A multidisciplinary research group at the University […]

Scientists are preparing a cancer modeling study to run on Argonne’s upcoming Aurora supercomputer before it goes online in 2022. The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory will be home to one of the nation’s first exascale supercomputers when Aurora arrives in 2022. To prepare codes for the architecture and scale of […]

Two papers by University at Buffalo researchers reveal important new findings as to how regeneration of myelin in multiple sclerosis fails and, potentially, more efficient ways to treat it. The findings include the first demonstration that an existing drug, currently being studied as a cancer therapy, can alter key signalling […]

Epileptics, listen up: imagine being able to have a “weather forecast for your brain,” a way to get advance of the onset of your next seizure, thanks to a microchip planted under your scalp. Science fiction, you think? Not for two researchers at the Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal […]

New research provides insights into the process of diffusion in living systems, with implications from novel active coatings to understanding how pathogens are cleared from lungs. A drop of food colouring slowly spreading in a glass of water is driven by a process known as diffusion. While the mathematics of […]

A new study led by University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Veterinary Medicine professor Erin Lashnits shows evidence of Bartonella infection in the blood of people with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder. “Researchers have been looking at the connection between bacterial infection and neuropsychiatric disease for some time,” Lashnits says in a news release by North Carolina […]

Excessive fat accumulation in the liver can lead to serious medical problems, including liver failure. Thus, understanding the distribution of lipids within the liver is a critical step in diagnosing fatty liver diseases. A team of researchers at Tokyo University of Science has now shown that near-infrared hyperspectral imaging permits […]

A large study of people living on five continents, led by researchers at McMaster University and the University of Toronto, has found a diet high in poor quality carbohydrates leads to a higher risk of heart attacks, strokes, and death. The higher risks of a diet high in poor quality […]

Graybiel lab identifies genes linked to abnormal repetitive behaviors often seen in models of addiction and schizophrenia. Extreme repetitive behaviors such as hand-flapping, body-rocking, skin-picking, and sniffing are common to a number of brain disorders including autism, schizophrenia, Huntington’s disease, and drug addiction. These behaviors, termed stereotypies, are also apparent in animal models […]

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) President and CEO Bruce Stillman have been dissecting DNA replication, a critical step in cell division, since the 1980s. His lab studies how Origin Recognition Complexes—ORCs—coordinate DNA duplication. They discovered how our cells assemble and disassemble ORCs during the cell division cycle. One ORC protein is sequestered […]

‘We noticed that the patient monitoring processes in hospitals are inefficient. They also lack digital solutions and generate unnecessary manual and administrative tasks for the overworked nurses and doctors.’ says Miklós Knebel. Knebel and Péter Dános participated in a project run by EIT Digital Master School in which students designed a new type […]

Newborn babies with indicators of alcohol in their stool are more likely to face behavioral difficulties later in childhood, according to new study from a team of multi-disciplinary researchers at Case Western Reserve University. The research, published recently in the Journal of Drug and Alcohol Dependence, suggests that a biomarker at birth […]

A review of nearly 28,000 emergency department records shows less than 2% of patients diagnosed with COVID-19 suffered an ischemic stroke but those who did had an increased risk of requiring long-term care after hospital discharge. Those are the findings from a study conducted by researchers from the University of Missouri […]

Triggering‌ ‌bad‌ ‌memories‌ ‌to‌ ‌reactivate‌ ‌in‌ ‌REM‌ ‌sleep‌ ‌–‌ ‌the‌ ‌period‌ ‌when‌ ‌people‌ ‌dream‌ ‌most‌ ‌vividly‌ ‌–‌ ‌reduces‌ ‌the‌ ‌emotion‌ ‌associated‌ ‌with‌ ‌these‌ ‌memories‌ ‌on‌ ‌waking,‌ ‌a‌ ‌new‌ ‌study‌ ‌has‌ ‌suggested.‌ ‌ It‌ ‌is‌ ‌the‌ ‌first‌ ‌research‌ ‌to‌ ‌suggest‌ ‌this‌ ‌technique‌ ‌could‌ ‌have‌ ‌the potential‌ ‌for‌ ‌use‌ ‌as‌ ‌a‌ ‌tool‌ ‌for‌ ‌the‌ […]

In a study of mice, treatment with the engineered cells shrank tumors and prevented the cancer from spreading to other parts of the body. Scientists have genetically engineered immune cells, called myeloid cells, to precisely deliver an anticancer signal to organs where cancer may spread. In a study of mice, […]

Scientists peering into the beating heart have solved a decades-old, fundamental mystery about how the heart works. The revelation could herald the development of new treatments for heart diseases — the leading cause of death worldwide. Researchers from Eastern Virginia Medical School, Florida State University and the University of Virginia […]

Fish oil supplements are a billion-dollar industry built on a foundation of purported, but not proven, health benefits. Now, new research from a team led by a University of Georgia scientist indicates that taking fish oil only provides health benefits if you have the right genetic makeup. The study, led by Kaixiong Ye […]

Epigenetic age acceleration is the degree to which epigenetic age is higher than chronological age. Epigenetic age is assessed via one of the epigenetic clocks, measuring the status of DNA methylation at numerous CpG sites on the genome. Some changes in DNA methylation patterns are characteristic of aging, a reaction […]

Evolutionary forces drive a glaring gender imbalance in the occurrence of many health conditions, including autism, a team of genetics researchers has concluded. The human genome has evolved to favour the inheritance of very different characteristics in males and females, which in turn makes men more vulnerable to a host […]

Another step towards understanding Alzheimer's disease has been taken at the Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital Research Centre. Molecular biologist  Gilbert Bernier, and professor of neurosciences at Université de Montréal, has discovered a new function for the BMI1 gene, which is known to inhibit brain ageing. The results of his work have just been […]