2021

Resilience, meaning the ability to recover from wounds, infection, and other forms of damage, is more or less the flip side of frailty in aging. Frailty increases, resilience decreases. A damaged system is less robustly resilient to further damage, as reliability theory tells us. Degenerative aging is precisely an accumulation […]

The body’s immune system is the first line of defence against infections like bacteria, viruses or cancers. Some cancers, however, have developed the art of molecular deception to avoid destruction by the body’s immune system. However, a University of Missouri researcher might have found a new way to help the […]

When kidneys are removed from deceased organ donors in the United States, they are often subjected to “procurement biopsies” and are discarded if certain abnormalities are seen in the kidney tissue — a practice that worsens the already-severe shortage of transplant-eligible kidneys in the country. However, a large portion of […]

The use of cannabidiol (CBD), the major non-psychoactive compound in cannabis, is on the rise across the United States. Pregnant women, in particular, may view CBD as more “natural” than other remedies for concerns such as nausea and pain, but the consequences of use for the developing fetus are unknown. […]

Exercise is known to improve health and extend the healthy portion of life span, but not extend life span itself in mice. This is a much lesser effect than that of calorie restriction, which does extend maximum life span in addition to improving health. From a very high level view, […]

Cancer is one of the world’s greatest health afflictions because, unlike some diseases, it is a moving target, constantly evolving to evade and resist treatment. In a paper published in an online issue of Nature, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine and the UC San Diego […]

Touted by makers as a “healthy” alternative to traditional nicotine cigarettes, new research indicates the chemicals found in e-cigarettes disrupt the gut barrier and trigger inflammation in the body, potentially leading to a variety of health concerns. In the study, published in the journal iScience, Soumita Das, PhD, associate professor […]

Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine, in collaboration with Dutch scientists, have found that certain metabolites — small molecules produced by the process of metabolism — may be predictive indicators for persons at risk for recurrent major depressive disorder. The findings were published in an online […]

Mutations that occur in certain DNA regions, called tandem repeats, may play a significant role in autism spectrum disorders, according to research led by Melissa Gymrek, assistant professor in the UC San Diego Department of Computer Science and Engineering and School of Medicine. The study, which was published in Nature, […]

Apollomics, Inc., an innovative biopharmaceutical company committed to the discovery and development of mono- and combination- oncology therapies, and GlycoMimetics (Nasdaq: GLYC), announced APL-106 (uproleselan) has been granted Breakthrough Therapy Designation (BTD) from the China National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) Center for Drug Evaluation (CDE) for the treatment of relapsed/refractory […]

Almost 18,000 Americans experience traumatic spinal cord injuries every year. Many of these people are unable to use their hands and arms and can't do everyday tasks such as eating, grooming or drinking water without help. In a small study of physical therapy combined with a non-invasive method of stimulating spinal-cord nerve […]

University of Alberta researchers have found an answer to a fundamental question in genomic biology that has eluded scientists since the discovery of DNA: Within the nucleus of our cells, is the complex package of DNA and proteins called chromatin a solid or a liquid? In a study published in the […]

A new step has been taken in the understanding of the cancer-fighting molecule UM171: a team led by Université de Montréal haematologist Guy Sauvageau has succeeded in describing the molecule’s mechanism of action. “Finally, we know how UM171 works,” said Sauvageau, commenting the results of a study published in Cell Stem Cell. […]

Women who use marijuana could have a more difficult time conceiving a child than women who do not use marijuana, suggests a study by researchers at the National Institutes of Health. Marijuana use among the women’s partners — which could have influenced conception rates — was not studied. The researchers […]

Vanderbilt researchers have discovered a unique pathway that initiates islet β cell inflammation—a hallmark of type 2 diabetes—putting them a step closer to developing targeted therapeutics for the disease that affects one in 10 Americans. The article, “RIPK3-mediated inflammation is a conserved β-cell response to ER stress” was published in the journal Science […]

The ability of our skin to protect us from chemicals is something we inherit. Some people are less well-protected which could imply an increased risk of being afflicted by skin disease or cancer. A new study from Karolinska Institutet that has been published in Environmental Health Perspectives shows how the […]

A new study published in Nutrition Research has found that children born to a mother with low intake of Vitamin B12 during pregnancy were at increased risk of adverse development specific to certain speech and mathematical abilities. The study, from Professor Jean Golding and colleagues at the University of Bristol, used data […]

For those trying to live a healthy lifestyle, the choice between sugar and artificial sweeteners such as saccharin can be confusing. A new study led by Ohio State University researchers found the sugar substitute saccharin doesn’t lead to the development of diabetes in healthy adults as previous studies have suggested. […]

An unfortunate truth about the use of mechanical ventilation to save the lives of patients in respiratory distress is that the pressure used to inflate the lungs is likely to cause further lung damage. In a new study, scientists identified a molecule that is produced by immune cells during mechanical […]

When we experience a new event, our brain records a memory of not only what happened, but also the context, including the time and location of the event. A new study from MIT neuroscientists sheds light on how the timing of memory is encoded in the hippocampus and suggests that […]

Almost 18,000 Americans experience traumatic spinal cord injuries every year. Many of these people are unable to use their hands and arms and can’t do everyday tasks such as eating, grooming or drinking water without help. Using physical therapy combined with a non-invasive method of stimulating nerve cells in the spinal cord, […]

It used to be the case that one could write up a summary of where the research community stood on the treatment of aging as a medical condition (which was varying shades of “not that far along towards practical applications, but definitely promising if they get their act together”) and […]

Scientists have known for years that mutations in the MLL4 gene can cause Kabuki syndrome, a rare developmental disorder. But a study published in Nature Communications illuminates new details regarding how this occurs. The research suggests that MLL4 controls the production of neurons that secrete growth hormone-releasing hormone (GHRH) in a part […]

A major mystery in Alzheimer’s disease research is why some brain cells succumb to the creeping pathology of the disease years before symptoms first appear, while others seem impervious to the degeneration surrounding them until the disease’s final stages. Now, in a study published in Nature Neuroscience, a team of […]

Senescent cell accumulation is a contributing cause of aging, and targeted destruction of senescent cells with senolytic therapies produces meaningful rejuvenation and reversal of age-related disease in animal models. First generation senolytics are largely repurposed small molecules. Second generation senolytics will include a range of more carefully designed strategies, including […]

Researchers at Osaka University have developed a technique of attacking cancer cells with lethal alpha rays from within by using a nutrient transporter to deliver radionuclides into malignant tumors A cancer-specific L-type amino acid transporter 1 (LAT1) is highly expressed in cancer tissues. Inhibiting the function of LAT1 has been […]

A new advanced computing technique using routine medical scans to enable doctors to take fewer, more accurate tumour biopsies, has been developed by cancer researchers at the University of Cambridge. This is an important step towards precision tissue sampling for cancer patients to help select the best treatment. In future […]

Researchers in Japan have made the first observations of biological magnetoreception –  live, unaltered cells responding to a magnetic field in real-time. This discovery is a crucial step in understanding how animals from birds to butterflies navigate using Earth’s magnetic field and addressing the question of whether weak electromagnetic fields […]

Physicians and scientists at the University of Minnesota have opened a new brain cancer clinical trial and have treated their first patient. This Phase I, the first-in-human trial is enrolling patients with a specific type of brain cancer, glioblastoma. The development for this innovative treatment is based on years of […]

UC San Francisco scientists have discovered a new way to control the immune system’s “natural killer” (NK) cells, a finding with implications for novel cell therapies and tissue implants that can evade immune rejection. The findings could also be used to enhance the ability of cancer immunotherapies to detect and […]