General

Obesity has been linked to increased risk for over a dozen different types of cancer, as well as worse prognosis and survival. Over the years, scientists have identified obesity-related processes that drive tumour growth, such as metabolic changes and chronic inflammation, but a detailed understanding of the interplay between obesity […]

An international team of researchers has connected specific genetic regions which influence facial features. This means they can see the signals of normal facial features in the genome – but it is also hoped their work can shed light on craniofacial malformations such as cleft lip and palate. The findings […]

The lab of Kris Saha at the University of Wisconsin–Madison has developed an innovative combination of gene-editing tools and computational simulations that can be used to develop new strategies for editing genes associated with genetic disorders. In proof-of-concept experiments, the lab’s researchers efficiently corrected multiple mutations responsible for a rare metabolic disorder, known […]

Big changes are taking place in the research laboratories at DTU Biosustain on Lyngby Campus—but it requires a microscope to spot them, as the changes are occurring in microorganisms such as the bacterium, Streptomyces.  The bacterium is known to produce antimicrobial agents. In the New Bioactive Compound Section, researchers are […]

In his first year of graduate school, Rice University biochemist Zachary Wright discovered something hidden inside a common piece of cellular machinery that’s essential for all higher-order life from yeast to humans. What Wright saw in 2015 — subcompartments inside organelles called peroxisomes — is described in a study published in Nature […]

The ability of certain fish to heal damage to their hearts could lead to new treatments for patients who have suffered heart attacks and may also help to unravel how the lifestyle of our parents and grandparents can affect our own heart health. The human heart cannot heal itself. After […]

Cutting-edge research being led by the NIHR Manchester Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) and the University of Manchester, aimed at increasing adult hearing aid use, could make a dramatic change to people with hearing loss. The study ‘Follow-up and structured monitoring for adults offered an NHS hearing aid for the first […]

ETH scientists use magnetic bacteria to control liquids at the micro-level. They are already thinking about using them in the human bloodstream for precision delivery of cancer drugs to a tumour. Cancer drugs have side effects, so for many years, scientists have been exploring ways to transport the active substances […]

A novel form of an Alzheimer’s protein found in the fluid that surrounds the brain and spinal cord indicates what stage of the disease a person is in, and tracks with tangles of tau protein in the brain, according to a study from researchers at Washington University School of Medicine […]

Just like other organisms, plants must respond dynamically to a variety of cues over their lifetime. Going through different developmental stages, or altering their form in response to a drought or drastic temperature change requires altering which of their genes are expressed into proteins and when those processes occur. In […]

Researchers have developed a potential new treatment for the eye disease glaucoma that could replace daily eye drops and surgery with a twice-a-year injection to control the buildup of pressure in the eye. The researchers envision the injection being done as an office procedure that could be part of regular […]

Using the same strain of yeast that ferments wine and makes dough rise, a team led by the University of California, Irvine and Harvard Medical School researchers has developed an in vitro technology that can rapidly hypermutate antibodies. The new technology generates antibodies faster than animal immune systems and better than […]

We live in a world that cultivates eternal youth. The pharmaceutical market is full of new, shiny, “revolutionary” products, which are meant to put us in good shape and give us a pristine, young appearance, and long life in well-shape. Advertisements scream of various supplements, vitamins, or syrups, supposed to […]

Whether they are working with patients in clinical trials or with chromosomes in cell cultures, scientists and physicians in the Boston area and beyond are testing a wide variety of new ways to help people with Down syndrome. At the New England Down Syndrome Symposium, presented by the Alana Down […]

“Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking of them.” In this quote, the philosopher A. Whitehead underlines the importance of automated low-level tasks when performing a complex and repetitive task. Tying shoelaces, writing, walking… our mind is relieved from the elementary actions […]

Using a new variant to repair DNA will improve both safety and effectiveness of the much-touted CRISPR-Cas9 tool in genetic research, Michigan Medicine researchers say. Those two key problems – safety and efficacy – are what continue to hold CRISPR-Cas9 gene targeting back from its full clinical potential, explains co-senior […]

Researchers at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine have identified a new target in the development of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) that could lead to therapies focused on treating the neurodegenerative condition early in its progression. The discovery helps bolster a promising approach to AD research: finding and manipulating […]

In recent years, targeted therapies have cemented their place as some of the most important tools in cancer treatment. These medicines are designed to block specific signals that tumour cells use to grow and spread, while at the same time leaving normal cells unharmed. Targeted therapies can significantly extend patients’ […]

Doctors at the University of Virginia School of Medicine are launching an ambitious effort in sub-Saharan Africa to target the dual scourges of sepsis and tuberculosis, a combination that kills up to half the people who contract it. UVA Health Drs. Scott Heysell, Christopher Moore and Tania Thomas are seeking to […]

When scientists study the neuronal mechanisms responsible for neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s, they can open the door to promising new approaches to treating those diseases with drugs. But when a person with Parkinson's dies, looking at their brain reveals little about the cells inside and offers only a glimpse into […]

Researchers at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research have uncovered a new form of DNA modification in the genome of zebrafish, a vertebrate animal that shares an evolutionary ancestor with humans ~400 million years ago. Dr Ozren Bogdanovic and his team discovered that unusually high levels of DNA repeats of […]

An international study co-led by researchers at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research has provided new guidance for the clinical treatment of two rare inherited immune disorders. Researchers combined global data on the two conditions, caused by variants of the genes CD27 and CD70, and diagnosed mostly in children. Their study revealed that […]

A large-scale study by Cardiff University and the University of Exeter has found the strongest evidence to date that genetics play a major role in most cases when babies born at full term are in the top or bottom 10% of the birth-weight spectrum. However, in the 3% of babies […]

The National Institutes of Health today announced 19 recommendations in six key areas of asthma diagnosis, management and treatment. The new guidance, published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, represents the first updates to federal comprehensive asthma management and treatment guidelines in more than a decade and focuses on […]

Immunotherapies are a promising anticancer arsenal and work by mobilizing the immune system to recognize and destroy cancer cells. Currently, however, only a third of patients respond to immunotherapies, in part because the tumour environment can be hostile to immune cells, depriving them of their source of energy, which diminishes treatment […]

A consensus more than 90-years-old on the mechanisms which regulate the day-night rhythm in heart rate has been fundamentally challenged by an international team of scientists from Manchester, London, Milan, Maastricht, Trondheim and Montpellier. The vagus nerve – one of the nerves of the autonomic nervous system which supplies internal […]

An international study has found a link between the brain’s network connections and grey matter atrophy caused by certain types of epilepsy, a major step forward in our understanding of the disease. In neuroscience, it is becoming increasingly clear that the brain’s connectome is as important as its anatomy when […]

Scientists reverse age-related vision loss, glaucoma damage in mice. Harvard Medical School scientists have successfully restored vision in mice by turning back the clock on aged eye cells in the retina to recapture youthful gene function. The team’s work, described in Nature, represents the first demonstration that it may be possible […]

The labyrinth of jumbled blood vessels in the tumour microenvironment remains one of the toughest blockades for cellular therapies to penetrate and treat solid tumours. Now, in a new study published online in Nature Cancer, Penn Medicine researchers found that combining chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy with a PAK4 […]

Rusted iron pipes can react with residual disinfectants in drinking water distribution systems to produce carcinogenic hexavalent chromium in drinking water, reports a study by engineers at UC Riverside. Chromium is a metal that occurs naturally in the soil and groundwater. Trace amounts of trivalent chromium eventually appear in the drinking […]