Robot

In 2015, University of California San Diego biologists Ethan Bier and Valentino Gantz developed a breakthrough technology known as “active genetics,” which results in parents transmitting a genetic trait to most of their offspring (instead of 50 percent receiving the trait under standard inheritance). Immediate targets of active genetics included gene-drive systems […]

A discovery by Queensland scientists could be the key to stopping damage caused by uncontrolled inflammation in a range of common diseases including liver disease, Alzheimer’s and gout. University of Queensland researchers have uncovered how an inflammation process automatically switches off in healthy cells, and are now investigating ways to stop […]

In the issue of the journal Nature, researchers describe how two normally mismatched bases in human DNA, guanine and thymine, are able to change shape in order to form an inconspicuous rung on the helical DNA “ladder.” This allows them to survive by avoiding the body’s natural defenses against genetic mutations. […]

Requiring physicians to report patients with dementia to state driver’s licensing authorities is not associated with fewer hospitalizations from motor vehicle crashes. However, in-person license renewal laws and vision testing dramatically cut crashes involving drivers with dementia, according to a new study led by the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of […]

Neuroblastoma forms in the peripheral nervous system and is one of the most common forms of solid cancer in young children. The disease mainly affects babies and young children, and while in some cases the tumours can disappear of their own accord, the majority are aggressive, metastasising cancer tumours that […]

As components of two entirely separate systems in the body, you wouldn’t think ovaries have much in common with bones. But it turns out they do – and their commonalities may help explain why dwarfs such as actors Peter Dinklage and David Rappaport are so short, say UConn Health scientists. […]

Research on HIV over the past decade has led to many promising ideas for vaccines to prevent infection by the AIDS virus, but very few candidate vaccines have been tested in clinical trials. One reason for this is the technical difficulty of manufacturing vaccines based on the envelope proteins of […]

In one of many ways cancer attacks the body, it activates an enzyme that is typically absent in normal, healthy cells. The enzyme is also present in stem cells. When stem cells in our bodies divide, chromosomes within those cells, which carry our genetic material, shorten. If they become too […]

Two independent chemistry breakthroughs have opened a plethora of doors that were previously locked to drug developers and cancer researchers. The discoveries, which involved adding new materials to a previously unstable chemical scaffold and building molecules onto the “pigments of life”, will also offer new possibilities to molecular engineers, materials […]

With new findings, scientists may be poised to break a long impasse in research on Huntington’s disease, a fatal hereditary disorder for which there is currently no treatment. One in 10,000 Americans suffer from the disease, and most begin to show symptoms in middle age as they develop jerky movements—and […]

A new method for monitoring interactions between cells, dubbed LIPSTIC by its creators, is much more than a cosmetic improvement over existing techniques. The breakthrough, led by The Rockefeller University assistant professor Gabriel Victora, offers scientists in a wide range of disciplines a powerful new tool for studying complex biological events […]

UC San Francisco scientists have invented a technique that lets them precisely and reversibly disrupt the action of specific cellular proteins at a microscopic scale by making them split apart when illuminated with blue light. The researchers envision a vast number of applications for the technique in the study of […]