General

Triggers in everyday life such as running into a former drinking buddy, walking by a once- familiar bar, and attending social gatherings can all cause recovering alcoholics to “fall off the wagon.” About 40 to 60 percent of people who have gone through treatment for substance abuse will experience some […]

Cancer immunotherapy drugs trigger the body’s immune system to attack tumors and have revolutionized the treatment of certain cancers, such as lymphoma, lung cancer, and melanoma. Yet, while some patients respond well to the drugs, others don’t respond at all. Cancer immunologists want to change that. A new study by […]

First evidence of immune response targeting brain cells in autism. Autism spectrum disorders affect one in 59 American children by age eight. With no known quantitative biological features, autism diagnoses are currently based on expert assessments of behavioral symptoms, including impaired social and communication skills, repetitive behaviors and restricted interests. […]

The immune system must strike an exquisite balance between vanquishing infections and cancer, while at the same time restraining its activity to avoid inadvertently attacking the body’s healthy tissues and organs. This balancing feat is accomplished by a host of regulatory genes that calibrate the immune response. When this calibration […]

An interdepartmental team at the University of Michigan obtains a prestigious NIH grant that will support an advanced imaging strategy to improve methods for early cancer detection. Worldwide, the incidence of cancer is steadily growing. Research has shown time and time again that this rise is often connected to the […]

A study of the genetic make-up of zebrafish has provided brand new insights into the cause of congenital hearing disorders in humans. A team including scientists from Cardiff University has identified how specific genes can dictate the patterns of the tiny cells – so-called hair cells – within our ears […]

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), which includes lung diseases such as emphysema and asthma, is the third leading cause of death of people worldwide. COPD patients can experience exacerbations, or intense “flare-ups,” of their conditions leading to hospitalization, breathing tube intubation and even death. A new study co-led by University of Minnesota School of […]

Cancer is a terrible disease, affecting humans and animals. Its exact causes and mechanism is still poorly understood, but in some cases it can be triggered by a virus. For example, now scientists from The University of Sydney found that a virus may be causing liver cancer in companion cats. […]

Inside a living cell, many important messages are communicated via interactions between proteins. For these signals to be accurately relayed, each protein must interact only with its specific partner, avoiding unwanted crosstalk with any similar proteins. A new MIT study sheds light on how cells are able to prevent crosstalk […]

Most cancers kill because tumor cells spread beyond the primary site to invade other organs. Now, a USC study of brain-invading breast cancer cells circulating in the blood reveals they have a molecular signature indicating specific organ preferences. The findings, which appeared in Cancer Discovery, help explain how tumor cells […]

Scientists at the University of East Anglia are pioneering a new way of finding the bacteria and viruses associated with cancer. Some infections have already been linked with cancers including stomach cancer and cervical cancer. New research published in Genome Biology shows how genomic data collected from tumours could be sequenced […]

They’re among the most ruthless opponents for pediatric oncologists: brain tumors that can’t be surgically removed or that resist standard therapies. Doctors have limited weapons to fight them, contributing to why brain cancer is still the leading cause of cancer-related death in children. But some institutions are re-thinking their approach. […]

Running and lifting weights might be a crucial step in helping your body delay the effects of aging, but those exercises may be only part of the story. In a new article published in Psychological Bulletin, a University of Georgia researcher found that the type of activity you choose may also have […]

Neural crest cells — embryonic cells in vertebrates that travel throughout the body and generate many cell types — have been thought to originate in the ectoderm, the outermost of the three germ layers formed in the earliest stages of embryonic development. But the capacity of neural crest cells to […]

Yale Cancer Center scientists have built a powerful genomic research platform to study cervical cancer, a disease that often is untreatable if it progresses after surgery or primary chemo-radiation treatment. The work is described in a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). “We have identified […]

Scientists at the University of Virginia School of Medicine have discovered a strange new organelle inside our cells that helps to prevent cancer by ensuring that genetic material is sorted correctly as cells divide. The researchers have connected problems with the organelle (a subcellular structure) to a subset of breast cancer […]

Is it dangerous to have high blood pressure when exercising? “It depends”, is the answer from a newly published study. One important parameter used to give a prognosis or diagnosis in several conditions is blood pressure during exercise. A new study led by LiU scientist Kristofer Hedman shows that high […]

A study from McMaster has found a potential mechanism explaining why some people who take drugs to lower their cholesterol develop sore, aching muscles. The use of statin drugs to significantly lower cholesterol, and ultimately reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, has become widespread and large-scale studies suggest that nearly […]

If you’re a human embryonic stem cell — and who among us hasn’t been — the G1 (“Gap 1”) phase of development is an important time. For the first few hours of this phase that occurs within the larger process of the cycle of cell division, you’re deliberating the nature […]

Zebrafish—striped fish a few centimeters long—have the ability to regrow up to 20 percent of their hearts after sustaining major damage. Now, Caltech scientists have discovered that embryonic cells from the hindbrain, called neural crest cells, migrate to the developing heart and form heart muscle in zebrafish and other species. […]

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have followed children who have sought emergency care for wheezing during their first years of life and found specific biomarkers that can predict the need for asthma medication several years later. The study is published in the prestigious European Respiratory Journal. Today, biomarkers for asthma are […]

People with multiple sclerosis who can walk at a relatively normal speed and effectively process information are more likely to continue to participate in social activities, according to a new study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden published in the Multiple Sclerosis Journal. The findings highlight the importance of […]

Could an animal’s personality and problem-solving skills help it to cope with environmental adversity? Cairns animal behaviourist, Dr Tasmin Rymer, is working with Australian native rats to identify the characteristics that make some individuals better able to cope and survive in damaged and changed environments than others. The James Cook […]

New research into the mechanics of cellular sleep and shutdown could shed light on the aging process and how to potentially intervene. A University of Arizona-led research team challenged the traditional understanding of cellular sleep and discovered new information that could lead to  interventions in the aging process. As we […]

People with atopic eczema have many more Staphylococcus aureus bacteria in their skin than those with healthy skin or psoriasis, according to a study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and the University of Helsinki in Finland. The study, published in Nature Communications, shows how the S. aureus bacteria […]

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have developed a new cheap method that can identify highly heterogeneous tumours that tend to be very aggressive, and therefore need to be treated more aggressively. The technique is presented in the scientific journal Nature Communications. A common feature of cancer cells is alterations in the […]

For all the attention the human microbiome has been getting over the last few years, one aspect of the research rarely makes headlines: the difficulty of observing how the microbiome changes over time in response to various stimuli. The most common analysis method is extracting bacteria from fecal samples and […]

Engineers at MIT and elsewhere have tracked the evolution of individual cells within an initially benign tumor, showing how the physical properties of those cells drive the tumor to become invasive, or metastatic. The team carried out experiments with a human breast cancer tumor that developed in the lab. As […]

In what sounds like a scene from a science fiction movie, researchers in 2005 stitched together with old and young mice so they shared a circulatory system. Youthful blood seemingly rejuvenated many tissues of the elderly rodents, boosting their cognitive and physical performance. Now, scientists are examining whether certain molecules […]

With significant funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), a researcher at The University of Texas at Arlington is investigating fundamental biological processes that lead to fertility problems in humans. Sen Xu, assistant professor of biology at UTA, received a five-year, $1.89 million grant from the NIH to use […]