General

Metastasizing breast cancers typically seek out the bones, lung and brain. Brain metastases are especially dangerous; many people survive for less than a year after diagnosis. How is the cancer able to get past the blood-brain barrier? And can it be blocked? Those questions led Harvard PhD candidate Golnaz Morad and her […]

The KRAS gene is one of the commonly mutated genes in cancer. More than 40 percent of colorectal cancers have a mutated KRAS gene, or oncogene, that is at least partially responsible for cancer development. Mutated KRAS genes are commonly found in other cancers as well, including pancreatic, lung, myeloma and endometrial, and not all KRAS mutations in […]

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia but the changes in brain cell function underlying memory loss remains poorly understood. Researchers at the University of Bristol have identified that calcium channel blockers may be effective in treating memory loss. The team's findings, published in Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience, […]

A new method for making stem cell colonies that mimic parts of early human development could help investigate important questions in maternal and child health, such as: What chemicals pose risks to developing embryos, and what causes certain birth defects and multiple miscarriages? The technique, developed at the University of […]

When Mason Thomas needed a heart transplant at age six, he asked to see his damaged heart so he could understand what was wrong with it, but the old organ was discarded after the surgery. Today, two years later, Mason got his wish, thanks to an innovative project by a […]

CAR T-cell therapy, a rapidly emerging form of immunotherapy using patients’ own cells to treat certain types of cancers, may be a viable treatment option for another life-threatening condition: heart disease. In a first-of-its-kind study, published in Nature, researchers at Penn Medicine used genetically modified T cells to target and remove activated […]

UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals have successfully treated a months-old infant with a rare childhood leukemia using a targeted therapy approved for adults with inoperable liver cancer and advanced kidney cancer. The decision to use the drug, sorafenib, was made after pathologists identified a unique mutation in the form of two […]

Efforts to extend the human lifespan, or in more exotic cases – even to achieve immortality, have recently been rejuvenated by a small clinical trial which demonstrated that the body’s “epigenetic clock” which measures a person’s biological age might be amenable to successful pharmaceutical manipulation. In the trial, published on […]

A research team from the University of Georgia’s Regenerative Bioscience Center has found that a compound molecule used for drug delivery of insulin could be used to treat glioblastoma, an aggressive, usually fatal form of brain cancer. Glioblastoma, also known as GBM, is a fast-growing, web-like tumor that arises from supportive […]

Nearly two decades ago, a gene therapy restored vision to Lancelot, a Briard dog who was born with a blinding disease. This ushered in a period of hope and progress for the field of gene therapy aimed at curing blindness, which culminated in the 2017 approval of a gene therapy […]

New research reveals the mechanism that allows breastfeeding babies to absorb large amounts of calcium and build healthy bones—a discovery that could lead to treatment for osteoporosis and other bone diseases later in life. “We build our bone mineral density until we’re early adults and then stop, so we think […]

Fine motor skills – used for eating, writing and buttoning clothing – may be a strong predictor for identifying whether children with autism are at risk for long-term language disabilities, according to a Rutgers-led study. The study, in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, highlights the association between fine motor skills […]