General

Four months after treating them, Yasuhiro Shiga, MD, PhD, checked on his rats. Walking into the lab, he carried minimal expectations. Treating spinal cord injuries with stem cells had been tried by many people, many times before, with modest success at best. The endpoint he was specifically there to measure […]

By combining RNA sequencing, bioinformatics and mathematical modeling, University of California San Diego School of Medicine and Moores Cancer Center researchers identified a sudden transcriptomic switch that turns healthy liver tissue cancerous. The finding was used to develop a quantitative analytical tool that assesses cancer risk in patients with chronic […]

A recent study shows that people at low genetic risk for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are not only less likely to have the disorder, they also have better than expected economic, health and behavioral outcomes in later life. The results, published in the journal Psychological Medicine, “capture far more than just […]

A team of researchers at CHU Sainte-Justine and Université de Montréal has discovered a new mechanism involved in a common congenital disease of the aortic valve. The findings of the study, conducted in collaboration with the Hadassa Hebrew University Medical Center, were published in the prestigious journal Nature Genetics. Valve disease […]

The largest study of its kind so far shows that the eight most common psychiatric disorders have a common genetic structure. Researchers from iPSYCH and the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium are behind the new results, which could help to develop more precise diagnoses and improved treatment. Over the course of a […]

Mathematicians at the University of Alberta have developed a model that explains how the immune system interacts with cancer—and in some cases, may help cancer spread to other areas of the body. “Past research has shown that sometimes, the immune system has the opposite effect of what we might expect,” […]

A new study led by Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis suggests there is a link between bacteria that live in the upper airway and the severity of asthma symptoms among children with mild to moderate asthma. The study raises the possibility that the airway’s microbiome could have […]

Researchers at the National Eye Institute (NEI) are launching a clinical trial to test the safety of a novel patient-specific stem cell-based therapy to treat geographic atrophy, the advanced “dry” form of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a leading cause of vision loss among people age 65 and older. The geographic […]

Investigators at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine discovered that blocking interleukin-1α (IL1α), a protein that controls inflammation in the gut markedly decreases the severity of intestinal inflammation in a mouse model of Crohn’s disease (CD). The anti-inflammatory effects of the biological therapies used to neutralize IL1α were […]

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet and from the Netherlands have developed a simple tool that shows the survival probability of a person with dementia disease over three years. This, they hope, will facilitate dialogue with the most seriously affected and help doctors and others plan the necessary care. The study is […]

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have developed a new method for identifying which proteins are affected by specific drugs. The tool and the results it has already generated have been made freely available online. The method is described in the scientific journal Nature Communications. Every cell contains a vast number of […]

Scientists have developed a new gene-therapy technique by transforming human cells into mass producers of tiny nano-sized particles full of genetic material that has the potential to reverse disease processes. Though the research was intended as a proof of concept, the experimental therapy slowed tumor growth and prolonged survival in […]

It’s estimated that there are approximately 80,000 industrial chemicals currently in use, in products such as clothing, cleaning solutions, carpets, and furniture. For the vast majority of these chemicals, scientists have little or no information about their potential to cause cancer. The detection of DNA damage in cells can predict […]

While the rate of death from cancer has been declining since the 1990s, an estimated 9.6 million people died from cancer in 2018, making it the second-leading cause of death worldwide [1]. According to the NCI Cancer Trends Progress Report, in the United States, the incidence and death rates of some […]

When do cancer-prone cells turn into full-blown cancer? A Rice University scientist and his colleague believe there’s a way to know. It may become possible for biomarkers in the blood to reveal whether mutated cells have turned a corner toward forming tumors, and how long the process — depending on […]

Fragmented sleep in older people with and without Alzheimer’s disease may have an effect on the brain’s immune cells and impact people’s cognitive abilities, according to a new study by University of Toronto researchers. The study by Dr. Andrew Lim, an associate professor in neurology at U of T’s Faculty of Medicine, […]

New study, led by Penn Medicine, reveals that this genetic cause of heart failure, which is now treatable, is significantly underdiagnosed. A genetic variant in the gene transthyretin (TTR)—which is found in about 3 percent of  individuals of African ancestry—is a more significant cause of heart failure than previously believed, […]

Chemotherapy drugs have been used to treat cancer since the 1950s. While the drugs are often lifesaving for cancer patients, they are also linked to reproductive problems, breast cancer, and other health issues in the medical staff who work with the medications. To help protect health care workers, the University […]

New findings published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation suggest that specific immune T cells from people with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) show disruptions in the way they produce energy. The research was supported by the National Institutes of Health. “This research gives us additional evidence for the role […]

New research suggests that physicians evaluating young patients with hip pain should consider more than such patients’ physical health. They also should consider screening those patients for clinical depression and anxiety — impairments that researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found can have a negative […]

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most aggressive and deadly cancers. Following diagnosis, patients have an average survival of less than 6 months; sadly around 10,000 patients in the UK per year die from this type of cancer. Researchers from the University of Bath have made three new molecules similar […]

Autoimmune disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, and Crohn’s disease plague tens of millions of Americans and are the result of the body’s immune system, whose role is to fight against disease-causing pathogens, turning against itself. Thankfully, several new drugs designed to fight these diseases are now available. The downside—the […]

New findings could provide doctors with vital clues about how the immune system prevents cancer from recurring. The study from Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University looked at whether immune cells were present in tumor samples removed from patients with kidney and other urologic cancers. For those patients where the […]

New research from the University of Minnesota examines how secondhand smoke might impact children and adolescent cardiovascular health. Published in Pediatric Research, researchers studied the carotid artery in the neck, brachial artery in the upper arm and abdominal aorta right above the belly button in 298 people. All were between the […]

In the last decade, scientists discovered that blocking a key regulator of the immune system helped unleash the body’s natural defenses against several forms of cancer, opening up a new era of cancer immunotherapy. Now Yale scientists have essentially flipped this script and found that when impaired a molecularly similar […]

A shorter course of higher-dose radiation treatment to part of the breast is showing promise in women with early-stage breast cancer who undergo breast conserving surgery, says a study led by Hamilton researchers. Accelerated partial breast irradiation (APBI) sees larger doses of radiation delivered to parts of the breast affected […]

Researchers from Sechenov University (Project 5-100 participant) and University College Cork (Ireland) developed a new method for studying mitochondrial polarisation in live cells and tissues. This approach enables studies of mitochondria in live cells, tissues and organoids and complements existing microscopy methods. The research was published in Cytometry Part A. […]

Members of a polar research expedition have provided researchers from Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin and the Max Planck Institute for Human Development with an opportunity to study the effects of social isolation and extreme environmental conditions on the human brain. The researchers found changes to the dentate gyrus, an area […]

Cystic fibrosis is caused by an inherited mutation in the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) gene. Due to this mutation, the CFTR protein doesn’t embed in cell membranes to form a channel for chlorine ions the way it should. As a result, mucus-producing cells secrete a thicker-than-normal mucus that can create […]

The concept of meaning as it pertains to human lives has been one of the cornerstones of philosophy for millennia. During the past three-or-so decades, however, it has also emerged as an important data point in medical research, especially when it comes to aging populations. As it turns out, far […]