General

The legal and regulatory tools designed to protect the public from the marketing of unproven stem cell therapies will remain ineffective without bureaucratic will and grassroots efforts, according to a University of Alberta health law expert. “There's this perception that stem cells are revolutionizing science and they have transformed medicine […]

Researchers have identified a potential new drug target in the fight against cancer. In a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, an international team of researchers describe how a cancer-linked version of the protein mitoNEET can close the primary gateways in the outer surface of mitochondria, the “power plants” […]

Researchers at the University of California, Riverside, are part of an ambitious plan at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA, to eliminate animal testing by 2035. Their contribution: developing a way to test whether chemicals cause musculoskeletal birth defects using lab-grown human tissue, not live animals. Nicole zur Nieden, an […]

Every year, nearly 700,000 American women have surgery to remove their uterus (hysterectomy) or uterine fibroids (myomectomy). A laparoscopic surgical technique once commonly used in these procedures could be worsening the outcomes for women who have undiagnosed uterine cancer at the time of the procedure, reports a Yale-led study in the […]

A team of geneticists with a desire to understand the inner workings of genes implicated in cellular identity has discovered new biological targets that may help devise alternative therapies for cancers that are becoming resistant to existing drugs. First discovered in fruit flies, Polycomb genes were initially studied due to their essential […]

Concerted effort by friends, family and non-physician health workers can make a dramatic difference in reducing the risk factors for heart problems in patients with hypertension, an international study by Hamilton researchers has found. People with new or poorly controlled hypertension given an integrated and comprehensive intervention by non-physician health […]

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the major cause of death among middle-aged adults around the world; however, in high-income countries deaths from cancer have become twice as frequent as those from CVD. The findings come from the first large prospective international study documenting the frequency of common diseases and death rates […]

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) today awarded the University of California (UC), University of Vienna and Emmanuelle Charpentier a patent for CRISPR-Cas9 that, along with two others awarded this month, brings the team’s comprehensive portfolio of gene-editing patents to 14. The newest patent, U.S. 10,415,061, covers compositions comprising […]

The expression “you are what you eat” has taken on new meaning. In an experiment in fruit flies, or Drosophila melanogaster, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have found that adding different species of microbes to the flies’ food caused populations to diverge genetically, racking up significant genomic changes in just five […]

The first signs of Huntington’s, an inherited disease that slowly deteriorates bodies and minds, don’t typically surface until middle age. But new findings suggest that something in the brain might be amiss long before symptoms arise, and earlier than has ever been observed. Using a new technology, Rockefeller scientists were […]

Two years after discovering a way to neutralize a rogue protein linked to Alzheimer’s disease, University of Alberta Distinguished University Professor and neurologist Jack Jhamandas has found a new piece of the Alzheimer’s puzzle, bringing him closer to a treatment for the disease. In a study published in Scientific Reports, Jhamandas and his team found two […]

There’s a perception that surgery to treat prostate cancer will spell the end of a man’s sex life. And while that often used to be the case, survivorship programs, like the one at the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center, offer counseling and interventions to promote sexual recovery after cancer treatment. […]

Science is with James Corden. Fat shaming shouldn’t make a comeback, and it won’t solve the nation’s obesity epidemic. Through countless published scientific papers, research has continually exposed the complexity of obesity and being overweight, which affects more than 1.9 billion people worldwide. That research has led experts to conclude that potential treatment options […]

Caltech researchers have helped to design a new generation of heart valves that are longer-lasting, cost less to manufacture, and are more biocompatible than options that are currently available to patients. As part of an FDA trial, one of the new valves was implanted into a human for the first […]

Women have an increased risk of high-grade cervical lesions returning after surgery if there have been lesions in the resection margin, especially if high-risk HPV (human papillomavirus) is found in the follow-up test, reports a new longitudinal study from Karolinska Institutet published in The American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. […]

A new method, developed by Banushree Kumar and Simon Elsässer at Karolinska Institutet, produces quantitative maps for modifications of so-called histone proteins that package the DNA molecules in every eukaryotic cell. The study, published in the journal Cell Reports, describes new properties of naïve pluripotent stem cells. Embryonic stem cells […]

Can a computer be used to explain why an environmental toxin might lead to neurodegenerative disease? According to Penn State College of Medicine researchers, a computer generated-simulation allowed them to see how a toxin produced by algal blooms in saltwater might cause Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). The researchers investigated an […]

Ventrix, a University of California San Diego spin-off company, has successfully conducted a first-in-human, FDA-approved Phase 1 clinical trial of an injectable hydrogel that aims to repair damage and restore cardiac function in heart failure patients who previously suffered a heart attack. The trial is the first to test a […]

Eating your tomato sauce with meatballs piled on top could have a surprising downside, new research suggests. Some of the anti-cancer benefits of tomatoes, specifically those from a compound called lycopene, could disappear when they’re eaten with iron-rich foods, according to a new study from The Ohio State University. Researchers analyzed […]

Case Western Reserve University and Boston-based Akouos have entered into an exclusive licensing agreement to develop a patented gene therapy with the potential to treat hearing loss associated with a type of Usher syndrome,  the most common deaf-blind disorder. Usher syndrome is characterized by partial or total hearing loss and vision loss that worsens […]

A new study led by Harvard Medical School researchers at the MassGeneral Hospital for Children has found that adolescent sleep timing preferences and patterns should be considered risk factors for obesity and cardiometabolic health, and that the effects are greater in girls than in boys. Poor quality and short duration […]

A single high dose of radiation aimed at the heart significantly reduces episodes of a potentially deadly rapid heart rhythm, according to results of a phase one/two study at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Patients in the study were severely ill and had exhausted other standard treatment […]

Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis appear to have solved a decades-long mystery regarding the precise biochemical pathway leading to a fatal genetic disorder in children that results in seizures, developmental regression and death, usually around age 3. Studying a mouse model with the same human […]

If your child has celiac disease, you will need two of everything in your kitchen—just one source of extra expense faced by families dealing with Canada’s most common autoimmune disorder. A new guide for parents, Growing Up Celiac, recommends that food for celiac children be prepared using a separate toaster, butter […]

Human life expectancy has more than doubled over the last century, and this sudden leap in longevity is triggering major shifts in our politics, economy and society — not to mention our personal health. Next week, UC Berkeley will host the second annual Aging, Research, and Technology Innovation Summit, a daylong […]

People living with inflammatory autoimmune disease could benefit from an ‘immune system reboot’, and researchers have isolated specific cells to target. The University of Queensland’s Professor Ranjeny Thomas said the research findings give hope for similar new immunotherapies for people with diseases like rheumatoid arthritis and vasculitis. “People with these diseases currently […]

The chances of surviving oral cancers can be predicted by state of the art AI algorithms – developed by scientists at the Department of Computer Science at the University of Warwick – that precisely calculate the abundance of immune cells in the midst of tumour cells to help better understand […]

The patient in question – a 27-year-old male citizen of China – was diagnosed with AIDS back in 2016, and two weeks later found out he also had lymphoblastic leukaemia. With prospects bleak, the patient was offered to receive a bone marrow transplant engineered with CRISPR-Cas9 to be free of […]

Researchers have identified another part of the machinery that cells use to efficiently and precisely turn DNA into protein. The two factors that were identified might be useful drug targets for new ways to treat bacterial infections. The genetic information coded in our DNA goes through multiple processing steps before […]

Allergy to peanut, which is often severe, is one of the most common food allergies in the United States. Although previous studies have shown that peanut oral immunotherapy (OIT) — ingesting small, controlled amounts of peanut protein —can desensitize adults and children and prevent life-threatening allergic reactions, the optimal duration […]