General

The stem cells tasked with creating and maintaining biological tissues have a difficult job. They have to precisely divide to form new specialized cells, which are destined to different fates even though they contain identical DNA. An obvious question then is: How do the cells divide in all the right […]

A deadly combination of two mosquito-borne viruses may be a trigger for stroke, new research published in The Lancet Neurology has found. University of Liverpool researchers and Brazilian collaborators have been investigating the link between neurological disease and infection with the viruses Zika and chikungunya. These viruses, which mostly circulate in […]

SLC25A51 gene encodes a protein that transports NAD+, a critical coenzyme in cellular metabolism, to mitochondria. Penn Medicine researchers have solved a decades-old mystery around a key molecule fueling the power plant of cells that could be exploited to find new ways to treat diseases, from neurodegenerative disorders to cancer. […]

Researchers have gained a better understanding of the complexity of the environment in which T cells thrive and, by extension, the tolerance mechanisms of these cells which are an obstacle to cellular immunity. Published in Nature Communications, the new study was directed by Dr. Marie-Ève Lebel, a post-doctoral intern at the […]

“Do not erase.” “Recycle me.” “Free to a good home.” Humans post these signs to indicate whether something has value or not, whether it should be disposed of or not. Inside our cells, a sophisticated recycling system uses its own enzymatic signs to flag certain cells for destruction — and […]

Your spine deteriorates naturally over time, even if you tread lightly and are mindful of good posture. Radiologists are keenly aware of this truth due to an endless queue of patients with low back pain whose imaging scans reveal no acute injury but, instead, show typical signs of activity, gravity, […]

Two new grants totaling nearly $14 million over three years will jump-start research at UC Berkeley into the molecular and genetic causes of Parkinson’s disease, a neurodegenerative disorder that afflicts more than 1 million Americans, yet whose cause remains a mystery. The grants are among 21, for a total of […]

As society ages, we have more and more people living with dementia. It is an incurable disease and we are sort of accepting it as a sad part of life. Your lifestyle, genes and some other factors influence the risk of dementia. And the goal for you is to reduce […]

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet describe molecular and cellular consequences of unique genetic mutations affecting the CASK gene which has been implicated in various neurodevelopmental disorders. Notably, the results indicate differences in the development of presynapses of inhibitory neurons in individuals with specific mutations. The findings elucidate key mechanisms during early […]

You have probably heard of the promise of bioprinting for controllably creating tissues and organs thanks to a layer-by-layer deposition of biomaterial-based inks (bioinks). So far, it is fulfilling those expectations as it is now one of the most rapidly growing sectors thanks to the regenerative capacity of most of […]

Babies who have life-saving surgery for congenital heart problems within the first month of life face a lifelong risk of chronic kidney disease and high blood pressure, according to new research led by University of Alberta pediatric specialists. “We know that kidneys, like all organs, have to last a lifetime,” said Catherine Morgan, […]

Penn Medicine researchers have found that middle-aged individuals — those born in the late 1960s and the 1970s — may be in a perpetual state of H3N2 influenza virus susceptibility because their antibodies bind to H3N2 viruses but fail to prevent infections, according to a new study led by Scott Hensley, […]

Tearing an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) can be an excruciatingly painful injury. Nearly 50 percent of these patients will develop a secondary form of osteoarthritis, deemed post-traumatic osteoarthritis (PTOA). Researchers from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and the UC Davis Medical Center have found that treatment with antibiotics prior to the injury could reduce inflammation […]

Lab study shows promise of aiming genetically engineered T-cell therapy at a gene fusion. Precision immunotherapies that aim the power of the body’s soldier cells at cancer have revolutionized the care of certain types of leukemia. But not all types — yet. New research by a team from Fred Hutchinson […]

A research team led by Professor Kim Gyo-beom of Dongguk University's Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering has developed the latest technology for joint tissue regeneration via simultaneous delivery of therapeutic growth factors and adi-pose derived stem cells into the body. The work was published in the Journal of Controlled […]

How old are you for your age? Scientists who study ageing have begun to distinguish chronological age: how long it's been since a person was born, and so-called biological age: how much a body is “aged” and how close it is to the end of life. These researchers are uncovering […]

Greater maternal stress during pregnancy is linked with significant increases in the number and variety of infant illness during the first year of life, independent of the level of stress after birth, according to a study led by researchers at UC San Francisco. The study, published in the Journal of […]

Genomes are routinely subjected to DNA damage. But most cells have DNA repair systems that enforce genome stability and, ideally, prevent diseases like cancer. The trouble gets serious when these systems break down. When that happens, damage such as unrepaired DNA lesions can lead to tumors, and genomic chaos ensues. […]

Batteries fade as they age, slowly losing power and storage capacity. As in people, aging plays out differently from one battery to another, and it’s next to impossible to measure or model all of the interacting mechanisms that contribute to decline. As a result, most of the systems used to […]

A team of scientists led by a researcher at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine is making strides to fight deadly metastatic breast cancer by combining nanotechnology with immunotherapy. Efstathios “Stathis” Karathanasis, an associate professor of biomedical engineering, is directing the novel technique—sending nanoparticles into the body to […]

Species typically evolve over the course of eons, but researchers at the University of Minnesota have developed a way to do it in less than a year. A team of scientists led by Mike Smanski, Ph.D., in the College of Biological Sciences (CBS) has generated speciation events in fruit flies so that engineered […]

A team of researchers at CHU Sainte-Justine and Université de Montréal has succeeded in using bioinformatics to develop a statistical model to assess how the gain or loss of genetic material impacts the risk of autism. The results of this work are presented in the American Journal of Psychiatry. This […]

The immune system usually mounts a strong immune response to infection by SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. That defensive response, however, appears to be weaker in men and people over the age of 60, a study led by researchers at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle has […]

UT Health physicians use supercomputers to interpret results of traumatic brain injury clinical trial. Individuals with traumatic brain injuries, or TBIs, frequently experience the shrinking or atrophying of brain tissue near where the injury occurred, causing additional damage beyond the original harm. If this can be prevented, many could function […]

Researchers are able to visualize the retina's function at the cellular level, which will help accelerate cures for blinding diseases. While there is no cure for blindness and macular degeneration, scientists have accelerated the process to find a cure by visualizing the inner workings of the eye and its diseases at […]

A cure for type-1 diabetes has come closer with the development of a new method for keeping transplanted insulin-producing cells alive and functional in recipients for long periods even when transplanted underneath the skin. A team led by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania […]

A new study from McGill University’s Goodman Cancer Research Centre (GCRC) has revealed significant biological changes in mice expressing an activated, mutant form of the Estrogen Receptor alpha (ER alpha), shedding new light on the role of this important gene in development and cancer. Over-expressed in approximately 70 % of breast cancer cases, the Estrogen Receptor is often associated […]

For artificial intelligence (AI) tools being developed at Case Western Reserve University to have impact in the fight against cancer, they’re going to have to be validated in rigorous human clinical trials. That validation may be a step closer following two recent agreements among bioengineering pioneer Anant Madabhushi, a longtime […]

People with autism spectrum disorder have lower levels of a protein that regulates the amount of serotonin in the brain, a paper from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry reports. For their study, the researchers used a molecular brain imaging technique to compare people with and […]

An experimental treatment for eczema that aims to modify the skin microbiome safely reduced disease severity and increased quality of life for children as young as 3 years of age, a National Institutes of Health study has found. These improvements persisted for up to eight months after treatment stopped, researchers report […]