Robot

NK (natural killer) cells are a special type of white blood cell discovered at Karolinska Institutet in the 1970s that can recognise and kill cancer cells. In recent years, much knowledge has been generated on the biology of the cells and their ability to recognise tumour cells. Research into immunotherapy, […]

Humans need the chemical element selenium for good health. The selenium-containing enzyme thioredoxin reductase 1 (TrxR1) can be used to support the growth of various cells and to protect them from harmful forms of oxygen radicals, known as oxidative stress. Selenium intake has long been a topic of discussion in […]

The vasculature of the brain is, like elsewhere on the body, made up of arteries, veins and thin, intervening vessels called capillaries through which the main exchange of oxygen, nutrients and waste products takes place. However, the vessels of the brain differ from others in one important respect – the […]

Researchers have found that excess levels of calcium in brain cells may lead to the formation of toxic clusters that are the hallmark of Parkinson’s disease. The international team, led by the University of Cambridge, found that calcium can mediate the interaction between small membranous structures inside nerve endings, which […]

Sleep disruptions are one of the most commonly reported complaints among menopausal women. A new study of middle-aged women found that sleep problems vary across the stages of menopause, yet are consistently correlated with hot flashes and depression. The findings suggest that addressing those risk factors may also address sleep disruptions, as […]

Researchers from KU Leuven, Belgium, and the universities of Pittsburgh, Stanford and Penn State have identified 15 genes that determine our facial features. The findings were published in Nature Genetics. Our DNA determines what we look like, including our facial features. That appeals to the popular imagination, as the potential […]

The National Institutes of Health Tuesday released to the scientific community an unparalleled dataset from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study. To date, more than 7,500 youth and their families have been recruited for the study, well over half the participant goal.  Approximately 30 terabytes of data (about three […]

For most prostate cancer patients, androgen-deprivation therapy, either through surgical removal of the testicles or the use of drugs that suppress testosterone production, is the standard treatment. Unfortunately, androgen deprivation stops working for almost all patients, leading to what is called castration-resistant disease. In such patients whose cancer has not […]

Nitrate in groundwater and drinking water, which primarily comes from fertilisers used in the agricultural production, has not only been subject to decades of environmental awareness – it has also been suspected of increasing the risk of cancer. The largest epidemiological study ever carried out in this area now shows that […]

In many modern animated movies, the trick to achieving realistic movements for individual characters and objects lies in motion-capture technology. This process often involves someone wearing a tracking suit covered in small, colored balls while a camera captures the position of those colored balls, which is then used to represent […]

Long after cancer has left the body, many patients continue to deal with one particular symptom that refuses to go away: fatigue. In a new study, researchers at Harvard Medical School, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) have found that the power of placebos, even […]

People who inherit a mutated version of the ATF6 gene are born with a malformed or missing fovea, the eye region responsible for sharp, detailed vision. From birth, their vision is severely limited, and there is no cure. Jonathan Lin, MD, PhD, associate professor of pathology at University of California […]

New insights from neutron analysis of glaucoma drugs and their enzyme target may help scientists design drugs that more effectively target aggressive cancers. A team of researchers led by the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory used neutron macromolecular crystallography to investigate the different states of three glaucoma drugs […]

An accidental discovery by Rochester researchers in 2003 touched off a wave of research into the area of neuroplasticity in adults, or how the brain’s neural connections change throughout a person’s lifespan. Fifteen years ago, Shawn Green was a graduate student of Daphne Bavelier, then an associate professor of brain […]

Our ears are exquisite detection instruments, capable of discerning a whisper or distinct notes of music within a symphony. To pick up these sounds, tiny hair-like filaments in the inner ear must be packed into precisely arranged bundles, all facing the same direction. Images of the normal, tidy architecture of […]

For years, Kathi Sigona felt like she had “a chest full of writhing worms in a bag.” The 57-year-old middle school principal also tired easily, but multiple visits to the doctor had found no heart trouble. Then, 12 years ago, Sigona was at her doctor’s office in Modesto, Calif., for […]

Prostate cancer survivors make up the largest group, 41 percent, of male cancer survivors. In these survivors, early detection of recurrence can lead to life-saving interventions, but in older men who survived low-risk cancer and have limited life expectancy, those same interventions may do more harm than good. However, when UC San […]

A new UC San Francisco study has shown that a cancer-killing (“oncolytic”) virus currently in clinical trials may function as a cancer vaccine – in addition to killing some cancer cells directly, the virus alerts the immune system to the presence of a tumor, triggering a powerful, widespread immune response […]

Treatment with an investigational androgen receptor inhibitor significantly delayed the development of metastasis in patients with prostate cancer that had become resistant to standard androgen-deprivation therapy. The results of a multi-institutional, phase 3 clinical trial of apalutamide – led by investigators from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and University of California […]

New imaging tool for recording changes over time, space and function Researchers who work with stem cells have ambitious goals. Some want to cure cancer or treat heart disease. Others want to grow the tissues and organs that patients need for transplants. Some groups are even working to develop highly […]

Future cancer drugs that are activated by light and don’t cause the toxic side-effects of current chemotherapy treatments are closer to becoming a reality, thanks to new research made possible by the Monash Warwick Alliance, an intercontinental collaboration between the University of Warwick (UK) and Monash University (Australia). Led by […]

Research has shown that older persons who have acquired positive beliefs about old age from their surrounding culture are less likely to develop dementia. This protective effect was found for all participants, as well as among those carrying a gene that puts them at higher risk of developing dementia, a […]

A Yale-led research team has developed an antibody that blocks tumors in animal models of colorectal cancer. If the finding is confirmed in clinical trials, the antibody-based treatment could become an effective weapon against colorectal cancer, and possibly other cancers, that resist current immunotherapies, the researchers said. The study was published […]

A research team led by a biochemist at the University of California, Riverside has solved the crystal structure for an enzyme that plays a key role in DNA methylation, the process by which methyl groups are added to the DNA molecule. DNA methylation alters gene expression. This fundamental cellular mechanism […]

“Our results are exciting and open the way for a medical treatment of this serious vascular disease,” says Professor Jesper Z. Haeggström at Karolinska Institutet’s Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics. An aortic aneurysm occurs when the wall of the body’s largest artery, the aorta, weakens and swells. The disease progresses slowly and […]

But this insidious killer has an Achilles’ heel. Many leukemia cells are betrayed by a molecule on their exterior surfaces known as CD19. When activated, CD19 will kill the cancer cell to which it is attached. To cancer biochemists, CD19 is like a tiny radio signal broadcasting to the world, […]

The study, funded by the charity Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund, suggests that the new technique could potentially become a promising new treatment for patients with the aggressive disease, and could be combined with existing chemotherapy to improve chances of survival. Dr Stella Man, from BCI, said: “We’ve shown for the […]

Injecting minute amounts of two immune-stimulating agents directly into solid tumors in mice can eliminate all traces of cancer in the animals, including distant, untreated metastases, according to a study by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine. The approach works for many different types of cancers, including those that […]

Investigators in the Division of Allergy, Pulmonary and Critical Care have launched a pilot study to see if patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) can tolerate the addition of a commonly used antiviral drug to standard IPF treatments. The research team believes the drug may ultimately help slow progression of […]

High exposure to radiofrequency radiation (RFR) in rodents resulted in tumors in tissues surrounding nerves in the hearts of male rats, but not female rats or any mice, according to draft studies from the National Toxicology Program (NTP). The exposure levels used in the studies were equal to and higher […]