General

Researchers at the University of Oxford, in collaboration with colleagues from Hannover Medical School and Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, have discovered the specific gene mutations that are required for the development of leukaemia in children with Down’s syndrome. Children with Down’s syndrome have a 150-fold increased risk of myeloid leukaemia, and while […]

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, is an adult-onset neurodegenerative disease that causes paralysis and ultimately death when the nerves enervating the lungs cease to carry the signals needed for breathing. The disease has what is called a “focal onset,” where paralysis starts with an arm or a leg and spreads […]

A research team headed by scientists at University of California San Diego School of Medicine and the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research at UC San Diego has identified an enzyme involved in remodeling the plasma membrane of multiple cancer cell types that is critical to both survival of tumors and […]

A promising new way to treat some types of cancer is to program the patient’s own T cells to destroy the cancerous cells. This approach, termed CAR-T cell therapy, is now used to combat some types of leukemia, but so far it has not worked well against solid tumors such […]

University of Southampton researchers have developed an innovative solution to treating sight loss in old age. Led by Professors Andrew Lotery, Jessica Teeling and Dr Arjuna Ratnayaka, the study has been able to replicate important features of dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in mice. These mice quickly develop damage in their retinas similar to […]

High intensity interval training (HIIT) may be doing more than just keeping you fit and strong – it may also help prevent age-related cognitive illnesses, such as dementia. A University of Queensland study found high intensity interval exercise may be more effective than continuous exercise in increasing brain blood flow […]

Researchers at the University of Toronto have uncovered an immune mechanism where host cells combat bacterial infection – and that a protein crucial to the process can sense and respond to misfolded proteins in all mammalian cells. The protein is called heme-regulated inhibitor, or HRI, and the researchers showed that […]

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have studied the mechanism of action of a drug used to treat multiple sclerosis. The results, which are published in the journal Nature Communications, show that the drug affects cells in the innate immune system and that there is an unexpected link between therapeutic […]

A new study by Harvard Medical School scientists at Massachusetts General Hospital is offering clues about how to prevent inflammation of brain tissue, which promotes Alzheimer’s disease. The findings of this study, published in the journal Neuron, could contribute to the development of new therapies for Alzheimer’s disease. It’s known that […]

Researchers at Penn Medicine and Geisinger find only 5 percent of patients with a mutation of the TTN gene have dilated cardiomyopathy, despite changes in heart function. More than 750,000 people in the United States have dilated cardiomyopathy, a potentially life-threatening condition in which the heart’s main pumping chamber, the […]

Babies whose mothers underwent surgery before pregnancy have an increased risk of opioid withdrawal symptoms at birth, according to a new study done at the University of Montreal Hospital Research Centre (CRCHUM) and published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. “Use of opioids for pain control after surgery may increase the risk of […]

A new study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet shows that the protein alpha-synuclein, which accumulates in patients with Parkinson’s disease, occurs bound to lipoprotein particles in cerebrospinal fluid, which may explain how the disease spreads in the nervous system. The study is published in the scientific journal PNAS. Some 23,000 […]