General

The Department of Microbiology and Immunobiology at Harvard Medical School will form two independent preclinical departments—Microbiology and Immunology. The creation of two stand-alone academic units is the natural result of the rapidly evolving understanding of the complexity and importance of each of these fields and their numerous intersections with many […]

Epigenetic therapies, which target enzymes that alter the genes that are turned on or off in a cell, are of growing interest in oncology as a way to make cancers less aggressive or less malignant. But now, at least one epigenetic therapy that had looked promising for lung cancer appears […]

Cancer involves unchecked cell growth. A biological pathway known as Hippo, which regulates organ size, is also involved in cancer, and a major player in this pathway, YAP, drives many types of tumors. Now, researchers at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital have solved an ongoing problem: how to […]

One day, MRI brain scans may help predict whether older people will develop dementia, new research suggests. In a small study, MRI brain scans predicted with 89 percent accuracy who would go on to develop dementia within three years, according to research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. […]

Researchers from the University of Minnesota, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and the University of Toronto have discovered a possible path forward in preventing the development of cancers tied to two viruses, including the virus that causes infectious mononucleosis—more commonly known as mono or the “kissing disease”—that infects millions of people around the […]

Researchers at the University of New Hampshire have created an easy-to-make, low-cost injectable hydrogel that could help wounds heal faster, especially for patients with compromised health issues. Wound healing can be complex and challenging, especially when a patient has other health obstacles that seriously impede the process. Often injectable hydrogels […]

Scientist have cast new light on the behaviour of tiny hair-like structures called cilia found on almost every cell in the body. Cilia play important roles in human development and disease. Akin to tiny antennae, they act as cell timers keeping the brakes on cell division until the right growth […]

Scientists have developed a potential new therapeutic approach for synovial sarcoma, one of the most common soft-tissue cancers in teenagers and young adults. At present the long-term survival rates for synovial sarcoma patients is well below 50%; a fact that underlines just how important new discoveries are if we are […]

Scientists have equipped a virus that kills carcinoma cells with a protein so it can also target and kill adjacent cells that are tricked into shielding the cancer from the immune system. It is the first time that cancer-associated fibroblasts within solid tumours – healthy cells that are tricked into […]

Mapping of a certain group of cells, known as oligodendrocytes, in the central nervous system of a mouse model of multiple sclerosis (MS), shows that they might have a significant role in the development of the disease. The discovery can lead to new therapies targeted at other areas than just […]

Pushing the limits of cryo-electron microscopy, University of California, Berkeley, scientists have captured freeze-frames of the changing shape of a huge molecule, one of the body’s key molecular machines, as it locks onto DNA and loads the machinery for reading the genetic code. The molecule, called transcription factor IID, is […]

A single season of high school football may be enough to cause microscopic changes in the structure of the brain, according to a new study by researchers at UC Berkeley, Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The researchers used a new type of magnetic resonance […]