General

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 […]

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Professor Anthony Zador has taken the next step in his quest to solve exactly how the brain is wired. Zador, a neuroscientist whose lab studies how the brain’s circuitry mediates and controls complex behaviors, set out about 10 years ago to map three pillars of brain function: connectivity, […]

Caltech researchers have discovered rare brain cell types that are unique to male mice and other types that are unique to female mice. These sex-specific cells were found in a region of the brain that governs both aggression and mating behaviors. The study was done as a collaboration between the […]

“I have no family history of breast cancer,” says the woman in a public service announcement stressing the importance of mammograms for all women. “No one in my family had breast cancer. Not one. But I start chemo next week,” says the woman in another PSA. Unfortunately, people paying only partial attention, […]

One of the more recent trends among parents-to-be is the so-called gender reveal, a party complete with pink or blue cake to answer the burning question, “Is it a boy or girl?” After all, it’s presumed that there’s a 50-50 chance you’d have one or the other. In a new article […]

The immune system struggles to defeat cancer or chronic infections because many of the T cells that leap into action end up “exhausted,” rendering them ineffective against disease. That path to exhaustion and what triggers it is a crucial one that researchers aim to better understand so they can stop […]