General

Many diseases, including cirrhosis and hepatitis, can lead to liver failure. More than 17,000 Americans suffering from these diseases are now waiting for liver transplants, but significantly fewer livers are available. To help address that shortage, researchers at MIT, Rockefeller University, and Boston University have developed a new way to […]

Variants of a gene thought to be linked to longevity appear to influence aging into the 90s, but do not appear to affect exceptional longevity, or aging over 100, a new study has found. The research challenges previous findings that indicated some variants of the gene, FOXO3, played a role […]

Arteriogenesis is a critical event – not only during development but also in adult life. Cardiovascular life-threatening events, triggered by disease, could be overcome by alternatives to existing therapies, for example by inducing the formation of new arteries. However, the mechanisms of artery formation are not well understood. A team […]

Since highly versatile human stem cells were discovered at the University of Wisconsin–Madison nearly 20 years ago, their path to the market and clinic has been slowed by a range of complications. Both embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells are valued for their ability to form any cell […]

A University of Wisconsin–Madison spinoff that makes an innovative material designed to speed healing of serious burns has begun a large clinical trial for the “regenerative skin tissue” it has been developing since 2000. Stratatech, now a Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals company, aims to prove to the Food and Drug Administration that the material, […]

Hormone replacement therapies, or medications containing female hormones that substitute those no longer produced by the body, often are prescribed to reduce the effects of menopausal symptoms in women. Research has indicated that women who take hormone replacement therapies have a higher incidence of breast cancer. Now, researchers at the […]

Stem cell biologists have tried unsuccessfully for years to produce cells that will give rise to functional arteries and give physicians new options to combat cardiovascular disease, the world’s leading cause of death. But new techniques developed at the Morgridge Institute for Research and the University of Wisconsin–Madison have produced, […]

There is an old saying that being smart is bad for you. Smarter people are usually less social and more often suffer from depression and anxiety. However, there are many advantages of being more intelligent. Scientists from The University of Edinburgh have conducted a research, which showed that children with […]

Researchers at the University of Tokyo have developed a cell culture method that generates three-dimensional bone-like tissues from mouse pluripotent stem cells—cells which can differentiate into various tissue types and have infinite growth potential—using only small molecules, in given conditions, as inducers. The current result serves as a step toward […]

Patients with dementia may actually die sooner if their family caregivers are mentally stressed, according to a new UC Berkeley study. From 2007 until 2016, UC Berkeley researchers tracked the mortality of 176 patients with neurodegenerative diseases that are corrosive to brain function. They also measured the mental health of […]

As calming music plays in the background, 11 older women listen as physical therapist Diane Brose enters a warm-up for a discipline known as Tai Chi Fundamentals: “Feel your feet. Feel the four corners of your feet. Your knees are soft, your tailbone is heavy. Don’t worry about yesterday, tomorrow […]

Compounds from grapes may kill colon cancer stem cells both in a petri dish and in mice, according to a team of researchers. The compounds — resveratrol —which are found in grape skins and seeds, could also eventually lead to treatments to help prevent colon cancer, said Jairam K.P. Vanamala, […]

It sounds like something out of a sci-fi movie — human organs, grown in a lab. But it’s real. In fact, it’s been going on for years, and you can learn all about them at a lecture put on by the UO’s Developmental Biology Program on Sunday, June 25. As […]

While short-term aspirin use after a stroke or heart attack has clear benefits, the authors say that patients over 75 who take aspirin on a daily basis should be prescribed a proton-pump inhibitor (heartburn drugs) to reduce the risk of bleeding. Roughly 40-60% of adults aged 75 or older in […]

Patients with severe and end-stage heart failure have few treatment options available to them apart from transplants and “miraculous” stem cell therapy. But a new Tel Aviv University study finds that stem cell therapy may, in fact, harm heart disease patients. The research, led by Prof. Jonathan Leor of TAU's […]

Scientists have shown how the precursors of egg and sperm cells – the cells that are key to the preservation of a species – arise in the early embryo by studying pig embryos alongside human stem cells. In research published in Nature, researchers at the University of Cambridge and the […]

Researchers at the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN) of A*STAR have engineered a three-dimensional heart tissue from human stem cells to test the safety and efficacy of new drugs on the heart. “Cardiotoxicity, which can lead to heart failure and even death, is a major cause of drug withdrawal […]

University of Rochester Medical Center researchers have discovered that loss of muscle stem cells is the main driving force behind muscle decline in old age in mice. Their finding challenges the current prevailing theory that age-related muscle decline is primarily caused by loss of motor neurons. Study authors hope to […]

Ophir Klein is growing teeth, which is just slightly less odd than what Jeffrey Bush is growing – tissues that make up the face. Jason Pomerantz is growing muscle; Sarah Knox is growing salivary glands; and Edward Hsiao is printing 3-D bone using a machine that looks about as complex as […]

Whether using embryonic or adult stem cells, coercing these master cells to convert to the desired target cell and reproduce flawlessly is difficult. Now an international team of researchers has a two-part system that can convert the cells to the targets and then remove the remnants of that conversion, leaving […]

Researchers at UC San Francisco have found that older people with persistent pain show quicker declines in memory as they age and are more likely to have dementia years later, an indication that chronic pain could somehow be related to changes in the brain that contribute to dementia. The study, […]