General

A new study from Harvard Medical School researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital has found that the hypertension drug losartan, which targets the angiotensin signaling pathway, may improve the effectiveness of chemotherapy agents used to treat ovarian cancer. Previous research from the same team identified a similar effect for losartan in […]

Using a novel patient-specific stem cell-based therapy, researchers at the National Eye Institute (NEI) prevented blindness in animal models of geographic atrophy, the advanced “dry” form of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), which is a leading cause of vision loss among people age 65 and older. The protocols established by the […]

Nerve axons serve as the wiring of the nervous system, sending electrical signals that control movement and sense of touch. When axons are damaged, whether by injury or as a side effect of certain drugs, a program is triggered that leads axons to self-destruct. This destruction likely plays an important […]

Scientists working to develop more effective treatments for diabetes are turning to stem cells. Such cells can be transformed into cells that produce insulin, the hormone that controls blood sugar. But there’s a major challenge: the amount of insulin produced by theses cells is difficult to control. Now, by tweaking […]

Up to 20 percent of women develop gestational diabetes – high blood sugar – during pregnancy, but the long-term effects on their children haven’t been known. Now, the first study to analyze the long-term effects found the 10-to-14-year-old children of women who had untreated gestational diabetes are more likely to […]

Early adult general cognitive ability (GCA) — the diverse set of skills involved in thinking, such as reasoning, memory and perception — is a stronger predictor of cognitive function and reserve later in life than other factors, such as higher education, occupational complexity or engaging in late-life intellectual activities, report […]

Young adults in the U.S. are engaging in binge drinking later into their 20s, according to a recent analysis from the long-term Monitoring the Future study that has tracked the attitudes and behaviors of young adults since the 1970s. The analysis, led by University of Minnesota Professor Megan Patrick, Ph.D., was recently published in […]

Many people nowadays are experiencing sleeping problems. Sometimes it is difficult to fall asleep and sometimes it is actually difficult to get some rest. A new study from the University of Adelaide revealed that older men who are suffering from extended episodes of interrupted breathing while asleep have a high […]

Hundreds of thousands of deaths every year can be traced back to hypertension, better known simply as high blood pressure. This condition plays a role in such diseases as heart attack, kidney disease and stroke. Now a team of scientists led by the University of Edinburgh discovered that a particular […]

Research scientists around the world are now able to investigate the structural, cellular and developmental intricacies of the human brain using bioengineered stem cell-based models called organoids. But the ethics to help guide researchers and regulators lag behind the technological capability to “grow” brains in a petri dish. That is […]

Exercise can protect both muscle and nerves from damage caused by the restoration of blood flow after injury or surgery, new research from the University of Virginia School of Medicine shows. UVA’s Zhen Yan, an expert on the cellular benefits of exercise, and his team are working to better understand how the […]

With a little help from HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” University of California, Irvine neurobiologists have uncovered a key component of how the human brain marks time. Using high-powered functional MRI on college students watching the popular TV show, they were able to capture the processes by which the brain stores […]

A new study by researchers at the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT finds that the protein CPG2 is significantly less abundant in the brains of people with bipolar disorder (BD) and shows how specific mutations in the SYNE1 gene that encodes the protein undermine its expression and […]

Researchers have developed a new way to image the brain with unprecedented resolution and speed. Using this approach, they can locate individual neurons, trace connections between them, and visualize organelles inside neurons, over large volumes of brain tissue. The new technology combines a method for expanding brain tissue, making it […]

3D printed implants could one day help restore neural connections and lost motor function in patients with spinal cord injury. The implants, developed by engineers and neuroscientists at the University of California San Diego, are soft bridges that guide new nerve cells to grow across the site at which the […]

Scientists at UNSW Sydney have made a breakthrough discovery about cholesterol transportation in cells that opens the way for new drugs to increase the body’s ‘good cholesterol’ levels. And the knowledge could also be used to develop a new strategy to fight cancer. Until now, drugs including statins – the […]

Genetic testing for breast cancer has become more complex. Newer tests now evaluate a panel of multiple genes, compared to older tests looking only at BRCA genes. The new complexity often brings more uncertainty about the results. But, a new study finds that these more extensive tests are not causing […]

new anti-inflammatory compound developed at the University of California, Davis, acts as a “surge protector” to suppress inflammation and reduce cancer growth, at least in mouse models of cancer. The work was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “We are excited about this research and its potential,” […]

When it comes to disease and health, which is more powerful—ZIP code or genetic code? The degree to which nature and nurture affect disease and health remains one of the eternal—and still unanswerable—questions in medicine. Now a team of investigators from Harvard Medical School and the University of Queensland in Australia […]

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a fatal condition that leaves lung tissue permanently scarred and leads to the decline and eventual failure of the respiratory system. For those diagnosed with the disease, treatment options are limited and the prognosis is poor. But a new study published in the journal Nature Immunology breathes […]

In laboratory experiments, UC San Francisco researchers successfully beat back the growth of aggressive liver cancers using a surprising new approach. Traditionally, targeted cancer therapies aim to disable proteins borne of cancer-driving genes. Instead, the UCSF scientists prevented these proteins, including those that shield tumors from the immune system, from […]

For cancer to spread, it needs a hospitable environment in distant organs. This fertile “soil” can provide a home to circulating malignant cells. Recent research has shown that cancer cells from the primary tumor can help ready this soil by sending out small vesicles. These vesicles contain a cocktail of […]

Gene defect in hereditary forms of the neurological disorder results in manganese poisoning inside cells. A new X-ray study has revealed one of the key mechanisms behind certain familial-parkinsonian disorders. The study demonstrates in detail how poisoning with the metal manganese occurs inside a cell, leading to parkinsonian symptoms. It […]

Everyone wants to live a long and healthy life. It is a bit of a goal that everyone has or should have. And we do our best – we work out, we get frequent check-ups, we eat healthy, but still, a big secret to longevity is our genes. Now scientists […]

Leaky capillaries in the brain portend early onset of Alzheimer’s disease as they signal cognitive impairment before hallmark toxic proteins appear, new USC research shows. The findings, which appeared in the journal Nature Medicine, could help with earlier diagnosis and suggest new targets for drugs that could slow or prevent the […]

Short-lived wild insects “get old” – losing some of their physical abilities – before they die, new research shows. Few studies have examined whether insects such as field crickets – whose adult life lasts a few weeks – experience “ageing” in the sense of physical decline in nature. Insects are used […]

Scientists have created the most comprehensive method yet to predict a woman’s risk of breast cancer, according to a study led by researchers at the University of Cambridge. The study, funded by Cancer Research, is published today in Genetics in Medicine. They have a developed a way of calculating the […]

Couples considering medically assisted reproduction (MAR) because they have difficulties conceiving naturally, have feared that they could do harm to their baby by opting for medical intervention. Doctors may warn that MAR raises the risk of preterm birth (less than 37 weeks of pregnancy) and low birth weight (less than […]

Differences in the geographic origin of genes may affect the function of human mitochondria — energy-generating organelles inside of cells — according to a new study. Mitochondria have their own genome, separate from the nuclear genome contained in the nucleus of the cell, and both genomes harbor genes integral to […]

For the first time, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine and Institute of Engineering in Medicine have used rapid 3D printing technologies to create a spinal cord, then successfully implanted that scaffolding, loaded with neural stem cells, into sites of severe spinal cord injury in rats. […]