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The targeted drug palbociclib may boost the effectiveness of chemotherapy in pancreatic cancer if the two treatments are given in the right sequence, according to new preclinical research by Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian investigators. The study, published in Cancer Cell, found that palbociclib may stop pancreatic cancer cells from repairing […]

Errors during cell division can trigger the development of cancer. No wonder that this central process is controlled by multiple regulators and guards. Alex Bird's research group at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology has discovered a hitherto unknown key player and how it provides the necessary stability to […]

CRISPR-Cas9 has revolutionized the field of genetics by its ability to cut DNA at defined target sites. Researchers are using the Cas9 enzyme to specifically switch off genes, or insert new DNA fragments into the genome. But no matter how specific the Cas9 enzyme is – sometimes it cuts where […]

If the heart pumps too little blood into the body, the brain is usually not adequately supplied with oxygen. Until now, however, it was unclear how this affects brain structure. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences together with colleagues from the Leipzig Heart Clinic, […]

Epigenetic clocks are multiplying year by year. Each is a weighted algorithmic combination of the status of various methylation sites on the genome, built by analyzing the epigenome of many different people at different ages in order to arrive at correlations with chronological age, or, more usefully, with metrics such as mortality risk that reflect biological […]

Researchers from Karolinska Institutet led by Professor Erik Melén have together with an international team mapped the relationship between the length of pregnancy and chemical DNA changes in more than 6,000 newborn babies. For each week's longer pregnancy, DNA methylation changes in thousands of genes were detected in the umbilical […]

Scientists have developed a probe named CoxFluor that can distinguish between Cyclooxygenase-2, an enzyme that plays a major role in driving the progression of cancer, and the enzyme Cyclooxygenase-1, which is expressed in all cells. Led by Jefferson Chan, a chemist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a paper detailing […]

In recent years, diet trends such as Intermittent Fasting have popularized the practice of delayed or restricted eating for many individuals looking to manage caloric intake. Still, many people open to restructuring their schedules have the same question: When is the right time to avoid eating? According to a new […]

A new study by investigators at Brigham and Women’s Hospital puts the results of a landmark trial about blood pressure control into terms that may be easier to interpret and communicate to patients. When data from The Systolic Blood Pressure Intervention Trial (SPRINT) were published in 2015, the medical community responded enthusiastically […]

The death of a spouse often means the loss of intimacy, companionship and everyday support for older adults. A new study finds that widowhood can have another profound effect: It may accelerate cognitive decline. Investigators from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital analyzed older, cognitively normal Americans enrolled […]

Many tests for cytomegalovirus infection are difficult to interpret because most of its DNA fragments are too small to be detected in the blood of infected people through current assays.  Laboratory medicine experts at the University of Washington School of Medicine are looking at this problem to find better ways […]

Scientists from UC San Diego, UC Santa Cruz and Duke University synchronized their research watches to study what makes our biological clocks tick. Specifically they set out to understand why some people are what they call extreme “morning larks” who operate on a shorter 20-hour cycle compared to a regular 24-hour pattern. […]