General

MIT researchers pinpoint mechanism and demonstrate that drugs could help. By developing a lab-engineered model of the human blood-brain barrier (BBB), neuroscientists at MIT’s Picower Institute for Learning and Memory have discovered how the most common Alzheimer’s disease risk gene causes amyloid protein plaques to disrupt the brain’s vasculature and […]

Scientists have discovered an important cell signaling pathway in the kidney which if stopped, could hold the key to treating chronic kidney disease as well as other deadly conditions, including heart attack and stroke. The pathway was already known to exist in the brain, where it helps to maintain the […]

Our brains use various reference frames—also known as coordinate systems—to represent the motion of objects in a scene. Some coordinate systems are more useful than others for representing information. To represent a location on Earth, for example, we might use an Earth-centered coordinate system such as latitude and longitude. In […]

We owe a great deal to the hair cells in our inner ear—without them we couldn’t detect sounds or take five steps without tripping. Moreover, these cells happen to be a useful model for biologists who want to understand how tissues self-organize into complex shapes during embryonic development. The cells’ […]

Researchers found that efforts should be focused on optimizing embryo culture to ensure healthy outcomes for mothers and offspring. An experimental study from researchers in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania links a specific procedure – embryo culture – that is part of the assisted reproduction […]

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the first video game therapeutic as a treatment for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children, based on research by UC San Francisco’s Adam Gazzaley, MD, PhD. In 2013, Gazzaley published a paper in Nature reporting that six weeks of training with a video game […]

In 2005, the University of California, Berkeley, researchers made the surprising discovery that making conjoined twins out of young and old mice — such that they share blood and organs — can rejuvenate tissues and reverse the signs of aging in the old mice. The finding sparked a flurry of research […]

Senescent cells accumulate throughout the body with age. They are constantly created and destroyed throughout life, but the balance between creation and destruction is upset with age, leading to an accumulated burden of cellular senescence. These cells secrete a potent mix of signals that produce chronic inflammation, disrupt tissue structure and cell function, and encourage […]

The formation of stress granules in cells is an interesting topic. As the name might suggest, this behavior emerges in cells undergoing stress, such as lack of nutrients, heat, cold, and so forth. Stress granules are transient structures that form within cells, made up of a wide variety of biomolecules that are packed […]

Many aspects of aging correlate with one another, even those with quite different underlying mechanisms and proximate causes. The various forms of root cause damage that result in the aging process, as well as their downstream consequences, all interact with one another. So whether or not any specific correlation teaches us anything […]

Using induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and deleting a key gene, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine have created natural killer cells — a type of immune cell — with measurably stronger activity against a form of leukemia, both in vivo and in vitro. The findings were published in […]

Scientists have developed a new gene therapy approach that offers tremendous promise for one day treating an eye disease that leads to blindness and affects thousands of people across the globe. Researchers from Trinity College Dublin and University College London (UCL) teamed up to pool their expertise in genetics, virology […]

Severed nerve tracts are very difficult to treat. If at all, the damage so far can only be repaired through complex operations. At the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, we have developed materials that stimulate damaged nerves into growth. Results from initial tests on mice show that nerve tracts […]

Scientists from the University of Cambridge, in collaboration with the Hubrecht Institute in The Netherlands, have developed a new model to study an early stage of human development using human embryonic stem cells. The model resembles some key elements of an embryo at around 18-21 days old and allows the […]

Essential processes in mammalian cells are controlled by proteins called transcription factors. For example, the transcription factor HIF-1 is triggered by a low-oxygen situation to cause the cell to adapt to decreased oxygen. Transcription factors operate in healthy cells, but cancer cells can co-opt transcription factors such as HIF-1 into […]

The first few days of embryonic development are a critical point for determining the failure or success of a pregnancy. Because relatively few cells make up the embryo during this period, the health of each cell is vital to the health of the overall embryo. But often, these young cells […]

Humans and dogs share many aspects of their lives: food, homes, and a deep bond of mutual affection. Although these common bonds bring joy and comfort, one connection between the two species is decidedly not positive. Both dogs and humans are uniquely susceptible to a devastating, aggressive brain tumor referred […]

For the past several years, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists and engineers have made significant progress in development of a three-dimensional “brain-on-a-chip” device capable of recording neural activity of human brain cell cultures grown outside the body. Now, LLNL researchers have a way to computationally model the activity and structures of neuronal communities […]

Researchers from the Garvan Institute of Medical Research have uncovered a new precision approach for treating the most common type of lung cancer, in a proof-of-principal laboratory study. The researchers discovered that blocking a specific enzyme in some lung adenocarcinoma cells could improve the efficacy of a common existing therapy. […]

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have discovered that excessive degradation of the power plants of our cells plays an important role in the onset of mitochondrial disease in children. These inherited metabolic disorders can have severe consequences such as brain dysfunction and neurological impairment. The study is published in EMBO Molecular […]

With a surprisingly simple approach in which cancer cells are first grown, ruptured and converted into nanoparticles, and then used as a vaccine, Vanderbilt researchers have developed what appears to be a promising treatment for breast cancer metastasis. Research led by Jenna Dombroski, Ph.D. student and National Science Foundation Graduate Research […]

Almost overnight, the sleep and wake patterns of nearly four billion people may have changed because of COVID-19-spurred lockdowns. A free app built by University of Michigan researchers will help users understand their own sleep rhythms, shedding light on how their biological clock is responding to lockdowns, and give tips […]

Scientists have developed a new test that can help identify people who are likely to develop hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the most common form of liver cancer. The approach uses a simple blood test to check for the patient’s previous exposure to certain viruses. A study of the new approach was […]

A new project supported by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) aims to design and develop new radiotherapy technologies to give more cancer patients in Sub-Saharan Africa access to treatment and to save lives. The project, ‘Innovative Technologies towards building Affordable and equitable global Radiotherapy capacity’ (ITAR), will contribute […]

A new study that looks closely at the cardiac health of flies provides new evidence that liver dysfunction may lead to deterioration of the heart. The research fills in gaps in how scientists understand the links between heart health and other tissues and could inform the development of new therapies […]

Despite researchers’ efforts to understand pregnancy — both healthy and high-risk — the human placenta remains something of a mystery. Tissue samples are nearly impossible to obtain until after birth, making it difficult to study the placenta’s role in pregnancy complications. Now, scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in […]

African Americans who smoke are nearly 2.5 times more likely to have a stroke than those who never smoked, while former smokers show a similarly lower risk as never smokers, according to a new study funded by the National Institutes of Health. The findings from the Jackson Heart Study suggest […]

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet uncover surprising features of mitochondrial protein synthesis. The study, published in Nature Communications, sheds light on the fundamental mechanisms used by the cell’s power plant. Mitochondria are essential organelles containing their own genome and the machinery for its expression. Defects in mitochondrial protein synthesis result in […]

Human eggs use chemical signals to attract sperm. New research from Stockholm University, Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust and The University of Manchester shows that eggs use these chemical signals to “choose” sperm. Different women’s eggs attract different men’s sperm – and not necessarily their partners. Humans spend a lot […]

Cancer can adapt its metabolism in a way that could overcome lipid-focused therapies being developed by drug companies, a University of Toronto study has found. “Several clinical trials have failed because metabolism is such an adaptive process by which cancer cells gain drug resistance,” says Michael Aregger, a co-lead author and research associate […]