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A protein-coding gene associated with autoimmune diseases such as Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, collectively referred to as inflammatory bowel disease, or IBD, will be the focus of new research in the School of Medicine at the University of California, Riverside. The work is made possible by a National Institutes of […]

Systems biologist Paola Picotti receives this year’s Rössler Prize for her groundbreaking work in the field of proteomics. She has developed a method of measuring structural changes in thousands of proteins at the same time, paving the way for personalised therapy. The announcement in March 2003 that a human genome […]

New studies show how DNA crossovers can drive healthy, abnormal sperm, egg cell division. In the famous words of movie character Forrest Gump, “Life is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you're gonna get.” The same principle applies to human genetics. When the body forms sperm or […]

NIH funded study supports link between high levels of gram-negative bacteria and a stroke- seizure- and headache-inducing vascular malformation. In a nationwide study, NIH funded researchers found that the presence of abnormal bundles of brittle blood vessels in the brain or spinal cord, called cavernous angiomas (CA), are linked to […]

Checkpoint inhibitors, a type of immunotherapy, that target myeloid immune cells and slow tumor growth were discovered by a team from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and other institutions. Reporting in Nature Cancer, the researchers showed for the first time in human cells and a mouse model that inhibiting the […]

Canadian scientists have achieved a first in the study of telomerase, an essential enzyme implicated in aging and cancer. In today’s edition of the prestigious journal Molecular Cell, scientists from Université de Montréal used advanced microscopy techniques to see single molecules of telomerase in living cells. A flaw in the replication […]

Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers have discovered a better way to separate actinium-227, a rare isotope essential for an FDA-approved cancer treatment. To produce Ac-227, researchers recover radium-226 from obsolete medical devices and fabricate it into targets that are irradiated in the High Flux Isotope Reactor. Ac-227 is then separated from […]

A team of scientists from Japan recently achieved more efficient degradation of the human serum albumin protein―an important protein in the blood―via high-intensity infrared irradiation, by attaching a zinc metal complex to the protein. Their findings indicate the potential for future application of certain metal complexes to therapeutic interventions for […]

What we eat can affect the outcome of chemotherapy – and likely many other medical treatments – because of ripple effects that begin in our gut, new research from the University of Virginia suggests. Scientists found that diet can cause microbes in the gut to trigger changes in the host’s […]

A new study from the University of Georgia has shown that exposure to a now-banned flame retardant can alter the genetic code in sperm, leading to major health defects in children of exposed parents. Published recently in Scientific Reports, the study is the first to investigate how polybrominated biphenyl-153 (PBB153), the […]

Octopuses, squids and other sea creatures can perform a disappearing act by using specialized tissues in their bodies to manipulate the transmission and reflection of light, and now researchers at the University of California, Irvine have engineered human cells to have similar transparent abilities. In a paper published in Nature […]

One promising strategy to treat cancer is stimulating the body’s own immune system to attack tumors. However, tumors are very good at suppressing the immune system, so these types of treatments don’t work for all patients. MIT engineers have now come up with a way to boost the effectiveness of […]

In a population-based cohort study from Sweden and Denmark of patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) during 1969-2017 and matched reference individuals from the general population, Ola Olén, Jonas F Ludvigsson and colleagues found that IBD patients had an increased risk of small bowel cancer. The excess risks were especially […]

In most species, including our own, females live longer than males. Why this is the case is likely one of those simple questions that lacks a simple answer. At the root of it all are evolutionary pressures relating to sex-specific differences in mating strategy, but that says little about how and why an […]

One has to be cautious about studies in which metabolism is broken in some way, and symptoms of aging start to appear earlier as a result. Whether or not this has any relevance to normal aging is dependent on the fine details of the biochemistry involved, and can often be argued either […]

BCL-xL is a mitochondrial protein that acts to suppress the programmed cell death response of apoptosis, and is overexpressed in some cancers, as well as in senescent cells. Thus small molecules that bind to BCL-xL have been used as chemotherapeutics and more recently as senolytics that selectively destroy senescent cells. That removal of senescent cells is a legitimate rejuvenation therapy that quite literally turns back aging in animal […]

The anaesthetic drug ketamine has been shown, in low doses, to have a rapid effect on difficult-to-treat depression. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet now report that they have identified a key target for the drug: specific serotonin receptors in the brain. Their findings, which are published in Translational Psychiatry, give hope […]

What is and is not possible for natural evolution may be explained using models and calculations from theoretical physics, say researchers in Japan. Theoretically, every component of every chemical in every cell of all living organisms could vary independently of all the others, a situation researchers refer to as high […]

Fibre laser microscopy to be used in clinical applications. When investigating how tumors grow, or how pharmaceuticals affect different types of cells, researchers have to understand how molecules within a cell react – and interact. This is possible with modern laser microscopy. Until now, however, molecules in cell specimens had […]

People with an autism spectrum disorder, or ASD, may experience sensory hypersensitivity more often than people without ASD, according to the National Autism Association. Among other responses, this hypersensitivity can lead to “sensory overload,” when sensory systems like vision or hearing are “overwhelmed” by stimuli. Scientists do not fully understand […]

Researchers have found a way to design an antibody that can identify the toxic particles that destroy healthy brain cells – a potential advance in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease. Their method is able to recognise these toxic particles, known as amyloid-beta oligomers, which are the hallmark of the disease, […]

5.8 million Americans live with Alzheimer’s dementia, including 10% of all seniors 65 and older. Scientists at Cornell have discovered links between “stalls,” or clogged blood vessels in the brain, and Alzheimer’s. Stalls can reduce overall blood flow in the brain by 30%. The ability to prevent or remove stalls may […]

Many proteins are useful as drugs for disorders such as diabetes, cancer, and arthritis. Synthesizing artificial versions of these proteins is a time-consuming process that requires genetically engineering microbes or other cells to produce the desired protein. MIT chemists have devised a protocol to dramatically reduce the amount of time […]

A team of researchers led by ETH professor Martin Fussenegger has succeeded in using an electric current to directly control gene expression for the first time. Their work provides the basis for medical implants that can be switched on and off using electronic devices outside the body. This is how […]

A new study has been initiated to evaluate whole-genome and RNA-sequencing as a first-line diagnostic approach for patients in Sweden with acute leukemia. The study is conducted jointly by the national R&D platform Genomic Medicine Sweden and the biotech company Illumina – and is coordinated from Karolinska Institutet. The aim […]

A team of researchers has generated a developmental map of a key sound-sensing structure in the mouse inner ear. Scientists at the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), part of the National Institutes of Health, and their collaborators analyzed data from 30,000 cells from a mouse cochlea, […]

Pairing a blood-thinning drug with aspirin daily for patients who have an angioplasty with a stent can contribute to better health outcomes, including lower risk of death, than aspirin alone, according to a recent study by cardiologists at the University of Alberta and Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute. Led by Kevin […]

For most people who die of cancer, the spread of the initial tumor is to blame. “Metastasis is what kills most cancer patients,” says Serge Fuchs, a professor in Penn’s School of Veterinary Medicine. “Yet there are not many, if any, drugs that specifically target metastatic processes.” In a paper in […]

In recent wars, about 53,000 U.S. military veterans have suffered serious injuries, often involving large amounts of tissue loss. Many more Americans also suffer from long-term injuries resulting from car crashes, accidents, and surgeries. Many of these injuries are disfiguring and debilitating. Now, imagine if lost skeletal muscle could be […]

UC Riverside engineers are transforming yeast, both the domesticated kind used to make bread and beer and lesser-known wild species, so it can be used in a variety of new ways — including fighting cancer. Yanran Li, a UC Riverside assistant professor of chemical and environmental engineering, is working with […]