General

Gene editing for the development of new treatments, and for studying disease as well as normal function in humans and other organisms, may advance more quickly with a new tool for cutting larger pieces of DNA out of a cell’s genome, according to a new study by UC San Francisco […]

Hair loss seems like a minor problem to many. You got bald, so what? Some people prefer this look. However, for many men going bald is a terrible experience and they would pay good money to avoid it. Now scientists at the University of Helsinki have identified a mechanism that […]

Multidrug resistance (MDR) – a process in which tumours become resistant to multiple medicines –– is the main cause of failure of cancer chemotherapy. Tumour cells often acquire MDR by boosting their production of proteins that pump drugs out of the cell, rendering the chemotherapies ineffective. Now, researchers reporting in […]

A team led by scientists in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania has produced a detailed picture of fuel and nutrient use by the human heart. The study, published in Science, was the first of its kind, involving the simultaneous sampling of blood from different parts […]

For a tiny embryo to develop into an adult organism, its cells must develop in precise patterns and interact with their neighbours in carefully orchestrated ways. To create complex tissues and organs – from the pattern of rods and cones in the retina to the Byzantine filtration systems of the […]

The thymus is a small organ in which thymocytes generated in the bone marrow mature to become T cells of the adaptive immune system. Unfortunately, the thymus atrophies with age, its active tissue largely replaced by fat in most people by age 50 or so. Thereafter the adaptive immune system […]

It’s called senescence, when stressed cells can no longer divide to make new cells, and it’s considered a factor in aging and in some diseases. Now scientists have some of the first evidence that at a younger age at least, senescent cells show up quickly after a major injury and […]

Most research on the microbial life of the body in the context of aging is focused on the gut microbiome, though a fair amount of investigation of oral microbial populations also takes place. In both cases, changes occur with age that allow harmful species of microbe to prosper, contributing to […]

The microbiome of the gut changes with age, and this is presently thought to have a meaningful influence over the course of aging. It is perhaps in the same ballpark as the effects of exercise on the pace of aging and risk of age-related disease, and certainly overlaps with the […]

Age-related dementia is in the cards for many. It is an incurable condition, which is one of the worst things about aging. It is debilitating to the patient as well as his entire family. Now scientists at UCL have developed an artificial intelligence based app, which can help screening people […]

Researchers here report on an interesting proof of concept, incorporating electronic device capabilities into the flexible biomaterials used as scaffolding for blood vessel tissue engineering. As a next generation technology to potentially replace the use of stents in the treatment of cardiovascular disease, bioartificial blood vessel sections are already promising. […]

As organisms develop, mechanical forces exert pressure on their cells, and scientists have long wondered how cells keep their shape—and therefore remain healthy—through the process. Now, a study led in part by a University of Michigan physicist has observed for the first time that cells use tiny fibers called apical […]

Vanderbilt University researchers have reported the counterintuitive discovery that certain chemotherapeutic agents used to treat tumors can have the opposite effect of tissue overgrowth in normal, intact mammary glands, epidermis and hair follicles. The researchers also are the first to report the discovery of an innate immune signaling pathway in […]

Many cells in the body must pass through tissue, which sometimes requires them to get out of tight corners. An international research team co-​led by ETH Zurich has now examined how cells recognise and escape from such bottlenecks. Among the results of the team’s work are new pointers for how […]

Are there common regulators of aging to be found among transcription factors? Sweeping, complex, tissue-specific and species-specific changes in gene expression take place over the course of aging. If these are reactions to comparatively straightforward processes of molecular damage at the root of aging, processes that are similar between species, […]

The immune system is inconveniently complicated. Aging is also inconveniently complicated. The overlap between the two is a particularly dark forest for the research community, with few well-tracked paths. The fine details of how exactly the immune system becomes dysfunctional with age, and the sizable variation in those details between […]

Researchers here provide an interesting demonstration of the beneficial role of transient cellular senescence in injury. Applying senolytics to selectively destroy senescent cells immediately following traumatic injury greatly worsens the consequences. Senescent cells are harmful when they build up and linger in tissues over the course of later life. The […]

Heart failure is a debilitating condition that impairs quality of life and shortens life span. Rates of heart failure continue to rise to epidemic levels, in parallel with its risk factors—obesity, diabetes, and hypertension. In essence, heart failure is a condition in which the heart has difficulty generating the pumping […]

U of A researchers, precision health company team up to develop sensor small enough to wear behind the ear but powerful enough to reduce costly hospital visits. University of Alberta researchers are teaming up with a precision-health innovator to develop a low-cost wearable sensor to help people suffering from chronic […]

Using specialized nanoparticles, researchers from Penn Engineering and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed a way to turn off specific genes in cells of bone marrow, which play an important role in producing blood cells. These particles could be tailored to help treat heart disease or to boost […]

Risks for neuropsychiatric disorders including autism, schizophrenia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are in part genetically determined. Now UC San Francisco researchers are finding new clues to how these disorders unfold by focusing on the role of a little-studied form of DNA in early brain development. Like a late-night […]

UW Medicine scientists are driving a bold, multi-partner experiment to stimulate the repair and regeneration of human kidney cells. A favorable outcome could jump-start a new therapy model for 850 million people worldwide who live with kidney disease. The National Institutes of Health recently announced the project’s funding: $4 million over five […]

There are more than 5 million Americans living with Alzheimer’s disease, and 50 million with other dementias, according to figures from the Alzheimer’s Association. Research into these diseases and how to prevent them is key as more and more Americans live longer, raising their risk for developing cognitive impairment. In a new […]

A rare genetic condition which causes inflammatory bowel disease can be successfully treated by bone marrow transplant, according to the University of Manchester and Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust researchers. The disease, called G6PC3 deficiency, affects around one in a million people and causes inflammation of the bowel, as well as lung infections. The […]

Tool developed at MIT simultaneously measures chemical and electrical brain signals, revealing unexpectedly complex relationship between brain signals. As the brain processes information, electrical charges zip through its circuits and neurotransmitters pass molecular messages from cell to cell. Both forms of communication are vital, but because they are usually studied […]

Boosting the efficiency of single-cell RNA-sequencing helps reveal subtle differences between healthy and dysfunctional cells. Sequencing RNA from individual cells can reveal a great deal of information about what those cells are doing in the body. MIT researchers have now greatly boosted the amount of information gleaned from each of […]

The closer people are physical to one another, the higher the chance for exchange, of things like ideas, information, and even infection. Now researchers at MIT and Boston Children’s Hospital have found that, even in the microscopic environment within a single cell, physical crowding increases the chance for interactions, in […]

Children with high-risk cancers have received effective treatments leading to complete or partial regression of their cancer thanks to a pioneering research program that tailors therapy based on the complete DNA sequence of a patient’s individual tumour. A report of 247 participants of the Zero Childhood Cancer Program published in […]

Researchers from Karolinska Institutet demonstrate that genetic risk score for ADHD can influence how autistic individuals respond to standard interventions and the specific program on social skills training KONTAKT®. This study is now published in npj Genomic Medicine. “Our ultimate goal is to be able to use genetic information to […]

Differences in the microstructure of the nucleus accumbens (NAcc), a region in the brain that plays an important role in processing food and other reward stimuli, predict increases in indicators of obesity in children, according to a study funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and nine other […]