Robot

Death is not a single event. It is a series of events as life fades away. Part of it happens to be rigor mortis – a period of stiffness, which makes body somewhat rigid as muscles contract and joints lose flexibility. For humans it occurs after the main event of […]

Dramatic calorie restriction, diets reduced by 40 percent of a normal calorie total, have long been known to extend health span, the duration of disease-free aging, in animal studies, and even to extend life span in most animal species examined. Further research has shown that animals fed restricted-calorie diets are […]

Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania have developed a gene therapy that successfully treats a form of macular degeneration in a canine model. The work sets the stage for translating the findings into a human therapy for an inherited disease that results in a progressive loss of central vision and which is […]

Cancer arises when cells acquire errors (mutations) at certain locations in the DNA. These mutations are responsible for the characteristics of the cancer cells, and knowledge about the mutations present in a patient’s cancer is important for the diagnosis and treatment. A subset of these mutations may even be “druggable” […]

Older women residing in the U.S territories are less likely to receive recommended or timely care for breast cancer compared with similar women residing in the continental United States, according to Yale researchers. Their findings were published in the March issue of Health Affairs. Using Medicare claims data from 2008 to […]

In many organs, damaged tissue can be repaired by generating new cells of the type that were lost. However, after an injury to the central nervous system, a special type of scar tissue is formed which inhibits this regeneration. Injuries to the brain and spinal cord therefore often lead to […]

Team engineers protein to enhance T cells for fight against cancer cells UCLA engineers and scientists have engineered a type of synthetic protein — a chimeric antigen receptor, or CAR, that responds to soluble protein targets. The advance shows great promise for helping the body’s immune system seek out and […]

A new discovery about the immune system may allow doctors to treat harmful inflammation that damages the brain in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s. It might also let doctors save patients from the potentially deadly inflammation of sepsis, a full-body infection that kills a quarter-million Americans every year. The finding […]

Improving the trafficking of cellular proteins in brain cells holds possibilities for new treatments and even prevention for Alzheimer's disease, results of a new study suggest. Researchers found that a compound that enhances the shuttling of proteins within cells reduced the production of forerunners of two proteins implicated in brain […]

People with stage III colon cancer who regularly eat nuts are at significantly lower risk of cancer recurrence and mortality than those who don’t, according to a new, large study led by researchers at Yale Cancer Center. The findings were published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. The study followed 826 […]

Her two-year study, begun with funding from Women’s Health Research at Yale in 2005, found that long-term treatment with the sex hormones estrogen and progesterone did not improve memory as anticipated. “It was surprising, because we thought for sure we’d see a benefit of at least some of our treatments,” […]

Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer in women. In Sweden, almost two thousand patients die of the disease every year. The fatalities are almost exclusively a consequence of tumours in the breast spreading to other organs, such as the skeleton, the brain and the liver. Metastases in […]

Our bodies are not just passively growing older. Cells and tissues continuously use information from our environments—and from each other—to actively coordinate the aging process. A new study from the University of Michigan Life Sciences Institute now reveals how some of that cross-talk between tissues occurs in a common model […]

Prenatal exposure to male hormones influences which activities girls are interested and engage in, but the effects of those hormones don’t extend to gender identity or who they socialize with, according to Penn State researchers. The researchers explored how prenatal exposure to androgens — hormones that are typically higher in […]

Brain tumors are among the deadliest forms of cancer, due in large part to their sensitive location and the challenge of performing surgery to remove them. New research led by David Solomon, MD, PhD, an assistant professor in the Department of Pathology at UC San Francisco, provides much-needed targeted treatment options for […]

Jesse Persily spent his summer chasing after answers to questions about one of the most deadly kinds of cancer. Persily, a fourth-year human biology major, received a Harrison Undergraduate Research Award last year to perform research on a specific subset of cancer patients. His work analyzed cell surface receptors on […]

DTU is opening a new Center of Excellence for Microbial Secondary Metabolites (CeMiSt), which aims to identify why microorganisms produce penicillin and other antibiotic substances, so-called secondary metabolites. The centre will be a training platform for a new generation of researchers, and the research will both pave the way for discovering fundamental biological principles […]

Science continues to peel away layers of the skin microbiome to reveal its protective properties. In a study published in Science Advances, University of California San Diego School of Medicine researchers report a potential new role for some bacteria on the skin: protecting against cancer. “We have identified a strain of Staphylococcus […]

The prospects – and consequences – of ageing are of concern to us all, especially when considering the likelihood of developing wrinkles. They are not only a hallmark of ageing but also play a fundamental role in how we physically interact with many products and devices, from moisturiser cream and […]

Artificial sweeteners are used in diet drinks and foods but also could someday be used as treatments targeting carbonic anhydrase IX (CA IX), a protein associated with aggressive cancers. Although several drugs have been approved that target similar forms of CA, they aren’t selective and may cause side effects, including […]

The cells, which were previously thought to be immobile, propel themselves forward toward wounds with a wormlike wave motion, rather than adhering to and pushing off from other structures like most motile cells do. University of Bristol Schools of Biochemistry, and Physiology & Pharmacology & Neuroscience Professor Paul Martin commented: […]

A new clinical study led by the National Eye Institute (NEI), part of the National Institutes of Health, will follow 500 people over five years to learn more about the natural history of early age-related macular degeneration (AMD). By using the latest technologies to visualize structures within the eye and measure […]

Women have been told for years that if they don’t have children before their mid-30s, they may not be able to. But a new study from Princeton University’s Coleen Murphy has identified a drug that extends egg viability in worms, even when taken midway through the fertile window, which could theoretically extend […]

A research team at the University of California, Riverside has discovered a way for chemotherapy drug paclitaxel to target migrating, or circulating, cancer cells, which are responsible for the development of tumor metastases. Until now, paclitaxel has only been used to target rapidly dividing cancer cells. The team was successful […]

A Sandia National Laboratories team has designed and synthesized nanoparticles that glow red and are stable, useful properties for tracking cancer growth and spread. This work is the first time the intrinsic luminescence of metal-organic framework materials, or MOFs, for long-term bioimaging has been reported, materials chemist Dorina Sava Gallis […]

Led by researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine, a diverse team of neuroscientists and surgeons successfully grafted human neural progenitor cells into rhesus monkeys with spinal cord injuries. The grafts not only survived, but grew hundreds of thousands of human axons and synapses, resulting in improved […]

Being frail or vulnerable were stronger predictors of post-operative outcomes than age, according to a comprehensive study by University of Alberta researchers. “One-third of patients 65-plus who underwent emergency abdominal surgery were either readmitted to hospital or died six months later. That high number alone surprised us,” said Rachel Khadaroo, a […]

Analyzing the genetics and smoking habits of more than half a million people has shed new light on the complexities of controlling blood pressure, according to a study led by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The research, published in The American Journal of Human Genetics, […]

Recent research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis demonstrated that mature cells in the stomach sometimes revert back to behaving like rapidly dividing stem cells. Now, the researchers have found that this process may be universal; no matter the organ, when tissue responds to certain types of […]

Scientists have shown in mice that skin cells re-programmed into brain stem cells, transplanted into the central nervous system, help reduce inflammation and may be able to help repair damage caused by multiple sclerosis (MS). The study, led by researchers at the University of Cambridge, is a step towards developing […]