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DNA-repair enzymes help cells survive damage to their genomes, which arises as a normal byproduct of cell activity and can also be caused by environmental toxins. However, in certain situations, DNA repair can become harmful to cells, provoking an inflammatory response that produces severe tissue damage. MIT Professor Leona Samson […]

A new method uses fluorescence to detect potentially disease-causing forms of proteins as they unravel due to stress or mutations. A team of researchers from Penn State and the University of Washington reengineered a fluorescent compound and developed a method to simultaneously light up two different proteins as they misfold […]

National Eye Institute scientists led a collaborative study and zeroed in on genes associated with age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a leading cause of vision loss and blindness among people age 65 and older. These findings provide a more expanded and in-depth picture of the genetic contributions to AMD, and they […]

High cholesterol has been found to be a possible risk factor for the development of motor neurone disease (MND), according to a large study of genetic data led in the UK by Queen Mary University of London, in collaboration with the National Institutes of Health in the USA. The results […]

A study provides new insight into how the stiffening of breast tissue plays a role in breast cancer development. By examining how mammary cells respond in a stiffness-changing hydrogel, bioengineers at the University of California San Diego discovered that several pathways work together to promote the transformation of breast cells […]

For some of us, they carry the bright blue of our grandfather’s eyes. For others they result in the characteristic cleft chin or the familial tendency toward color blindness. But in some families, the genetic mutations handed down from generation to generation aren’t as benign. And for one family in […]

Getting enough sleep is key to good health, and studies have shown that insufficient sleep increases the risk of serious problems, including cardiovascular disease. Now, Harvard Medical School researchers based at Massachusetts General Hospital have discovered one way that sleep protects against atherosclerosis, the buildup of arterial plaques. In their […]

Hearing impairment is a common consequence of advancing age. Almost three-quarters of U.S. adults age 70 and older suffer from some degree of hearing loss. One unanswered question has been to what degree hearing impairment intersects with and influences age-related cognitive decline. In a new study, researchers at University of […]

An international research team led by The University of Western Australia and The Baker Institute in Melbourne has found a morning bout of exercise reduces the detrimental impact on the pattern of brain blood flow of prolonged sitting in older adults who are overweight or obese. Lead researcher Michael Wheeler, […]

Oxford University Radcliffe Department of Medicine researchers have developed a new method that uses a protein originally found in marine corals to visualise the flow of calcium that makes the heart beat.  In a paper published in the journal Circulation Research, they used this technique to uncover the effects of genetic […]

Rotator cuff tears are common injuries, and proper healing of the shoulder muscle is often difficult. “Chronic tears often result in fat accumulation within the rotator cuff muscles, resulting in negative clinical outcomes, including weakening and atrophy of the muscles,” says Manuel Schubert, M.D., resident in orthopaedic surgery at Michigan Medicine. […]

Syrian hamsters are golden-haired rodents often kept as house pets. Cold and darkness can cause the animals to hibernate for 3-4 days at a time, interspersed with short periods of activity. Surprisingly, the hibernation spurts of these cute, furry creatures could hold clues to better treatments for Alzheimer’s disease (AD), […]