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Mastering a new skill — whether a sport, an instrument or a craft — takes time and training. While it is understood that a healthy brain is capable of learning these new skills, how the brain changes in order to develop new behaviors is a relative mystery. More precise knowledge […]

Oestrogen receptive positive breast cancer can be treated by drugs, such as fulvestrant, that interfere with the action of oestrogen. Although these drugs are often effective for a while, the cancer can frequently become resistant and the drugs stop working. In the trial, researchers investigated whether they could reverse or […]

Sleeping with a television or light on in the room may be a risk factor for gaining weight or developing obesity, according to scientists at the National Institutes of Health. The research, which was published online in JAMA Internal Medicine, is the first to find an association between any exposure […]

A treatment affecting the immune system effectively slowed the progression to clinical type 1 diabetes in high risk individuals, according to findings from National Institutes of Health-funded research. The study is the first to show that clinical type 1 diabetes can be delayed by two or more years among people who are […]

Many chemotherapy drugs kill cancer cells by severely damaging their DNA. However, some tumors can withstand this damage by relying on a DNA repair pathway that not only allows them to survive, but also introduces mutations that helps cells become resistant to future treatment. Researchers at MIT and Duke University […]

The pecan is a North American deciduous walnut tree. Its seeds, pecan nuts, are sweeter in flavor than walnuts and are said to be more popular than almonds in the U.S. What deserves attention is the pecan nut’s antioxidant power. It’s said to have more anti-aging effect than the walnut, […]

A two-week course of an experimental immunotherapy called teplizumab dramatically reduced type 1 diabetes (T1D) diagnosis rates in people at high risk for the disease, according to newly published phase II clinical trial results. This is the first time a drug has been able to delay or prevent the disease, […]

Treatments for both adults and children need to change to avoid a type 2 diabetes epidemic, researchers say. Intervening aggressively to roll back the onset of type 2 diabetes does works in adults, but once the medication and treatment ends, the disease always returns, according to a study published in the journal Diabetes […]

Doctors could soon get some help from an artificial intelligence tool when diagnosing brain aneurysms – bulges in blood vessels in the brain that can leak or burst open, potentially leading to stroke, brain damage or death. The AI tool, developed by researchers at Stanford University and detailed in a […]

Taking a daily vitamin D supplement does not prevent type 2 diabetes in adults at high risk, according to results from a study funded by National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), part of the National Institutes of Health.  The Vitamin D and Type 2 Diabetes (D2d) study enrolled 2,423 adults […]

BRCA—the family of DNA-repair proteins associated with breast, ovarian prostate, and pancreatic cancers—interacts with a multipart, molecular complex that is also responsible for regulating the immune system. When certain players in this pathway go awry, autoimmune disorders, like lupus, can arise. Now, researchers in the Perelman School of Medicineat the University […]

Researchers encourage more conversation, better documentation of wishes. Careful documentation of a hospice patient’s end-of-life wishes – and prominently noting that information in health records early – could prevent unwanted hospitalizations and medical interventions, a new study suggests. Researchers at The Ohio State University analyzed the health records of 1,185 […]

Cells prepare for different developmental paths and make multiple choices on their way to their final state, a study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet, Harvard Medical School and elsewhere published in Science shows. The findings can help pinpoint where cells may “take the wrong turn” and become malignant. The human […]

PNNL scientist sifts for clues from more than 1,000 human brains A substance known as amyloid beta protein gets a lot of attention from scientists. Beta amyloid, as it’s also called, is a normal brain protein found in everyone, but for unknown reason it gunks up in the brains of […]

According to the Mayo Clinic, about 20% of breast cancers make abnormally high levels of a protein called human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2). When displayed on the surface of cancer cells, this signaling protein helps them proliferate uncontrollably and is linked with a poor prognosis. Now, researchers have […]

From the light-sensing cones of the retina to the blood-pumping muscle of the heart to the waste-filtering units of the kidneys, the human body is made up of hundreds of cell types exquisitely specialized to perform their jobs with great precision. This complexity, however, belies the fact that each of […]

To treat large gaps in long bones, like the femur, which result from bone tumor removal or a shattering trauma, researchers at Penn Medicine and the University of Illinois at Chicago developed a process that partially recreates the bone growth process that occurs before birth. A bone defect of more […]

A mutation has been found in a rare form of brain aneurysm that might be treated with a drug already approved for cancer therapy. The finding suggests that other, more common, forms of aneurysms may be caused by yet undiscovered mutations.  These might also be treated with medication instead of […]

Schizophrenia, a psychiatric disorder that affects about 1% of the population, is a leading cause of functional disability in the United States. Typically diagnosis has hinged on the display of visible “positive symptoms” such as hallucinations and delusions, but one key to earlier identification and treatment is a recognition of […]

Nematodes, worms found in virtually all environmental habitats, are among the most studied model organisms. They reproduce quickly and their genome contains nearly the same number of genes as the human genome. A new Tel Aviv University study finds a mechanism exhibited in nematodes allows the nervous system cells — neurons — […]

A new study by researchers at the University of Virginia and other institutions has discovered a type of pigment cell in zebrafish that can transform after development into another cell type. David Parichy, the Pratt-Ivy Foundation Distinguished Professor of Morphogenesis in UVA’s Department of Biology, said that researchers in his […]

A new phase of the IGNITE Network will conduct clinical trials of genomic medicine interventions. The National Institutes of Health will fund clinical trials to assess the benefits, applicability and efficacy of applying genomic medicine interventions to improve management of diseases such as high blood pressure, depression and chronic pain. […]

Parkinson's disease is a debilitating neurodegenerative disease, affecting everything from speech, posture and gait to digestion, sleep, impulse control and cognition. Therapies exist that alleviate some symptoms of the disease, but there is still no cure for Parkinson's, which affects close to one million Americans and 10 million people worldwide. […]

A new study has found that not sticking to a regular bedtime and wakeup schedule — and getting different amounts of sleep each night — can put a person at higher risk for obesity, high cholesterol, hypertension, high blood sugar and other metabolic disorders. In fact, for every hour of variability […]

Pancreatic cancer kills more than 45,000 people in the U.S. each year, mostly due to the fact that it is detected too late for surgery to remove and halt the spread of the cancer. Cysts in the pancreas sometimes develop into the invasive cancer, depending on the type of cyst, […]

Like fishermen, Rice University bioengineers are angling for their daily catch. But their bait, biomolecules in a hydrogel scaffold, lures microscopic stem cells instead of fish. These, they say, will seed the growth of new tissue to heal wounds. The team led by Brown School of Engineering bioengineer Antonios Mikos and graduate student Jason Guo […]

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the University of Pennsylvania have developed a unique technique that uses stem cells and flexible implantable bone-stabilizing plates to help speed the healing of large breaks or defects. The technique allows the stem cells applied to break sites to experience some […]

Cancer-related inflammation impacts significantly on cancer development and progression. New research has observed in zebrafish, for the first time, that inflammatory cells use weak spots or micro-perforations in the extracellular matrix barrier layer to access skin cancer cells. The research, led by the University of Bristol and published in Cell Reports, used translucent […]

Children can keep full visual perception — the ability to process and understand visual information — after brain surgery for severe epilepsy, according to a study funded by the National Eye Institute (NEI), part of the National Institutes of Health. While brain surgery can halt seizures, it carries significant risks, […]

A mouse model of autism has revealed how exercise changes the structure of the brain by eliminating the excess connections between neurons characteristic of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). After one month of voluntary running on a wheel, behavioral differences disappeared and structural differences in ASD model mice’s brains were reduced. […]