Related Science News

A newly announced grant from the MS Society is helping researchers at the University of Alberta to better understand the underlying cause of chronic pain that afflicts an estimated half of people with multiple sclerosis, and how to eradicate it. Bradley Kerr and his team are looking in particular at the peripheral nervous […]

It looks like science fiction: A machine dips into a shallow vat of translucent yellow goo and pulls out what becomes a life-sized hand. But the seven-second video, which is sped-up from 19 minutes, is real. The hand, which would take six hours to create using conventional 3D printing methods, […]

Taking the first deep dive into how the immune system is behaving in patients with multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), researchers at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have found that children with this condition have highly activated immune […]

Study reveals details of how coronavirus infects heart; models of tissue damage may help develop potential therapies. Since early in the pandemic, COVID-19 has been associated with heart problems, including reduced ability to pump blood and abnormal heart rhythms. But it’s been an open question whether these problems are caused […]

An international team of bioethicists and scientists, led by a researcher at Case Western Reserve University, contends it may be justified to go beyond the standing 14-day limit that restricts how long researchers can study human embryos in a dish. Going beyond this policy limit could lead to potential health […]

New treatments for Alzheimer’s disease are desperately needed, but numerous clinical trials of investigational drugs have failed to generate promising options. Now, a team at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital has developed an artificial intelligence-based method to screen currently available medications as possible treatments for Alzheimer’s disease. The method could […]

Concussion linked to short- and long-term risk for overall health. While chronic neurological effects from concussion have been widely studied, little is known about possible links between concussion and long-term medical and behavioural comorbidities. A retrospective analysis published in the Journal of Neurotrauma found that people who had a concussion also […]

Cancers subvert the immune system in order to survive, but also to accelerate their growth. Macrophages are a part of the innate immune system, and have roles in wound healing. They become engaged by a tumor; tumor-associated macrophages assist in the rampant growth of tumor cells by supporting them in […]

Have you been eating well during the lockdown? It is likely that you’ve been ordering a lot of junk food, which is not only making you overweight – it is also slowly killing you. Scientists at the University of Toronto found that consuming lots of poor-quality carbohydrates increases the risk […]

There is no stronger risk factor for cancer than age. At the time of diagnosis, the median age of patients across all cancers is 66. That moment, however, is the culmination of years of clandestine tumor growth, and the answer to an important question has thus far remained elusive: When […]

A human genetics investigator discusses new RNA research developments that may aid in treating and preventing rare genetic diseases. Altogether, over 6,800 rare diseases affect an estimated 25 million to 30 million Americans. A rare disease is defined in the U.S. as one that affects less than 200,000 people in […]

One of the most significant genetic risk factors for developing Alzheimer’s disease is a gene called APOE4, which is carried by almost half of all Alzheimer’s patients. A new study from MIT shows that this gene has widespread effects on brain cells’ ability to metabolize lipids and respond to stress. […]

Berkeley Lab researchers propose model for early pathology of this debilitating disease. Subtle memory deficits are common in normal aging as well as Alzheimer disease (AD), the leading cause of dementia in older adults. This makes AD difficult to diagnose in its early stages. As there is currently no effective […]

Brain cells called astrocytes derived from the induced pluripotent stem cells of patients with bipolar disorder offer suboptimal support for neuronal activity. In a paper in the journal Stem Cell Reports, researchers show that this malfunction can be traced to an inflammation-promoting molecule called interleukin-6 (IL-6), which is secreted by astrocytes. The […]

Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases are both very common neurodegenerative disorders affecting millions in our world. These diseases are incurable, debilitating and completely devastating for the patients and their families. They are also in the cards for many, because they are related to the aging process. Now there is a little […]

Scientists have used a technique to grow bile duct organoids – often referred to as ‘mini-organs’ – in the lab and shown that these can be used to repair damaged human livers. This is the first time that the technique has been used on human organs. The research paves the way […]

injury than teens who smoke cigarettes or marijuana, or vape nicotine, a new University of Michigan study suggests. The result challenges conventional wisdom about vaping nicotine, says the study’s principal investigator, Carol Boyd, the Deborah J. Oakley Collegiate Professor Emerita at the U-M School of Nursing. “I thought that e-cigarettes […]

Acetaminophen is the most popular over-the-counter painkiller in the United States. Overdosing on the product can, however, lead to severe health consequences. “Many people are unaware that acetaminophen overdoses are responsible for nearly 46% of all acute liver failure cases throughout the country,” says Lei Yin, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of […]

Recent research led by Katerina Maximova, an adjunct professor in the University of Alberta's School of Public Health and member of the Cancer Research Institute of Northern Alberta, shows that low consumption of fruits and vegetables combined with a higher intake of processed meats is associated with a greater incidence of cancer for Albertans. […]

Even though the use of rhythm control strategies for treating Paroxysmal Atrial Fibrillation (AF), a common abnormal heart rhythm, have increased overall in the United States, patients from racial and ethnic minority groups and those with lower income were less likely to receive rhythm control treatment – often the preferred […]

A second study of the injectable anti-obesity medication, semaglutide, has confirmed the large weight losses reported in a study earlier this month, establishing the reliability and robustness of this new drug. With obesity affecting more than 40 percent of American adults, the findings could have a major impact on weight […]

Vaccines are an important tool in fighting porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS), but the fast-mutating virus that causes the disease sometimes requires the production of autogenous vaccines tailored to particular variants. The production of autogenous vaccines depends on the ability of scientists to isolate the virus, but sometimes that’s […]

Cancer cells have been described as immortal because, unlike normal cells, they don’t age and die, but instead can continue to multiply without end. In most cases, cancer cells become immortal by invoking a genetic mutation that can trigger the production of an enzyme, known as telomerase, which prevents telomeres from […]

Using high-resolution imaging and 3D computer modelling, a University of Oregon research team has found that the branching arms of neurons weave through space in a way that balances their need to connect to other neurons with the costs of doing so. The discovery about how these dendrites behave came […]

Screening for predictive factors of drug resistance and tailored therapies can improve outcomes in patients with refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. White blood cells or lymphocytes are the soldiers of our immune system that patrol the body via the lymphatic system. While their primary role is to protect the body […]

People who already had COVID-19 develop an immune response, which protects them from repeated infections. This raises a question during the current ongoing vaccination programme – do these people need to be vaccinated? Scientists from UCL 51 UK healthcare workers, around half of whom had a previous laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection, […]

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet show how a certain type of immune cells, macrophages, can be recruited into breast cancer tumors, where they are reprogrammed to support and drive tumor growth. In a study published in the scientific journal PNAS, they describe that low levels of the tumor suppressor protein TAp73 […]

Long thought a vestigial part of human cells, new genetic analysis of the primary cilium shows that it may be tied to common conditions like diabetes and kidney failure. Until recently, scientists believed that the primary cilium – an antenna-like structure found on the surface of most human cells – […]

University of Alberta researchers have found a new, more effective way to measure future heart disease and diabetes risk in youth. By testing the blood for remnant cholesterol (RC), made by the body during the day as food is consumed, researchers were able to show that this non-fasting type of […]

A diet high in poor-quality carbohydrates – known as a high glycemic diet – leads to a higher risk of heart attacks, strokes and death, a large study of people living on five continents has found. White bread, rice, and some potatoes have a high glycemic index, while most fruits, […]