Related Science News

January 4, 2021

Rare transplant aims to resolve woman’s long bout of cancer

A Washington state woman is recovering after a landmark organ transplant that she hopes will end her nearly decade-long bout with cancer. Kris Anderson, 51, of Redmond, received a lobe of liver from her daughter Lauren, 26, on Dec. 8. It was the Pacific Northwest’s first living-donor liver transplant for metastatic colorectal […]
January 3, 2021

Resveratrol is Not an Effective Calorie Restriction Mimetic

Resveratrol and derived molecules were for a time excessively hyped as a means to trigger some of the beneficial metabolic response produced by calorie restriction, by acting on sirtuins, and thus have a positive impact on aging. The company Sirtris was founded to develop this area of research into a […]
January 2, 2021

A Proof of Concept Attempt to Assess the Impact of First Generation Senolytic Drugs by Looking at Past Usage

Senolytic drugs are those capable of selectively destroying senescent cells. A range of such therapies are at various stages of development, including those that have reached initial human clinical trials. Senescent cell accumulation is an important cause of degenerative aging, and the removal of such cells via senolytic treatments has […]
December 31, 2020

Axin for a friend: Protein could hold the key to longer, healthier life

Axin is a VIP – a Very Important Protein. It’s essential to the development of an embryo. It’s a key player in allowing the body’s cells to divide without going haywire and forming a tumour. It regulates the body’s production of lipids, or fats, which can affect aging. Essentially, it […]
December 31, 2020

A pursuit of better testing to sort out the complexities of ADHD

The introduction of computer simulation to the identification of symptoms in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has potential to provide an additional objective tool to gauge the presence and severity of behavioural problems, Ohio State University researchers suggest in a new publication. Most mental health disorders are diagnosed and treated based […]
December 30, 2020

Frailty Is a Factor in Higher Mortality for Women Awaiting Liver Transplants

Women awaiting liver transplants in the United States are known to be about one-third more likely than men to become too ill to undergo surgery or die before receiving a liver. Now a study headed by UC San Francisco and Columbia University highlights the role that frailty plays in this […]
December 29, 2020

The Body is a Network: Cell Signaling in Age-Slowing Interventions

The authors of this open access papers discuss the prominent role of cell signaling in the better known classes of intervention that have been shown to slow aging in worms, flies, and mice. The body is a network in which cells in one tissue influence the behavior of cells in […]
December 29, 2020

Study links metabolic syndrome to higher cardiovascular risk in patients with psoriasis

Psoriasis, a chronic inflammatory skin disease, has long been known to increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, which includes heart attack and stroke. Now, researchers have identified a key culprit: the presence of metabolic syndrome (MetSyn), a condition that includes obesity, diabetes, high cholesterol, and hypertension, and is highly prevalent […]
December 29, 2020

AI-powered microscope could check cancer margins in minutes

When surgeons remove cancer, one of the first questions is, “Did they get it all?” Researchers from Rice University and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have created a new microscope that can quickly and inexpensively image large tissue sections, potentially during surgery, to find the answer. The […]
December 28, 2020

Blood Pressure Drug may be Key to Increasing Lifespan, New Study Shows

Metolazone, a drug used to treat hypertension, activates a mitochondrial stress response that prolongs lifespan in the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans A stress response of mitochondria, the part of our cells that produce energy to power bodily functions, is important to a longer life. A team of scientists from Osaka City […]
December 28, 2020

Light flips genetic switch in bacteria inside transparent worms

Baylor College of Medicine researcher Meng Wang had already shown that bacteria that make a metabolite called colanic acid (CA) could extend the lifespan of worms in her lab by as much as 50%, but her collaboration with Rice University synthetic biologist Jeffrey Tabor is providing tools to answer the bigger question of how […]
December 28, 2020

High levels of dementia found in the Torres Strait

James Cook University’s Professor Edward Strivens and Associate Professor Sarah Russell from JCU’s Healthy Ageing Research Team have found were part of a group that examined 276 Torres Strait residents aged between 45 and 93. The study took in all 18 island and 5 mainland communities in the Torres Strait […]
December 27, 2020

Artificial intelligence may diagnose the leading cause of blindness much earlier

Artificial intelligence is able to analyze vast amounts of information very quickly and efficiently. And, therefore, unsurprisingly it is very useful in medicine. Scientists from UCL and the Western Eye Hospital have now developed a new eye test, which takes advantage of AI technology to predict wet age-related macular degeneration […]
December 27, 2020

Testosterone therapy may help preventing type 2 diabetes

Type 2 diabetes is oftentimes called a lifestyle disease, because it is associated with obesity, poor levels of physical activity and a terrible diet. It can be prevented through lifestyle changes, but what are other options? A team of scientists led by the University of Adelaide conducted a 2 year […]
December 27, 2020

Scientists discover how our brains track where we and others go

For the first time, scientists have recorded how our brains navigate physical space and keep track of others’ location. Researchers used a special backpack to wirelessly monitor the brain waves of epilepsy patients as each one walked around an empty room hunting for a hidden, two-foot spot. In an article […]
December 27, 2020

Scientists at TAU develop new gene therapy for deafness

A new study from Tel Aviv University (TAU) presents an innovative treatment for deafness, based on the delivery of genetic material into the cells of the inner ear. The genetic material “replaces” the genetic defect and enables the cells to continue functioning normally. The scientists were able to prevent the gradual deterioration […]
December 26, 2020

Ketamine: New use for an old drug

Researchers at three Canadian universities find the key to unlocking the antidepressant effect of ketamine in the brain. A group of proteins called 4E-BPs involved in memory formation are key to unlocking the antidepressant effect of ketamine in the brain, according to a new study by researchers from three Canadian […]
December 26, 2020

UCSF and BridgeBio Pharma to Accelerate Therapies for Genetic Diseases

UC San Francisco and BridgeBio Pharma, Inc. (NASDAQ: BBIO) today announced a partnership to drive the advancement of academic innovations in genetically driven diseases into potential therapeutics for patients. “The BridgeBio team is developing close relationships with our investigators at UCSF with the mission of bringing potential therapies into the […]
December 26, 2020

Decoding our immune response is nothing but a genetic ‘turn off’

How genes get ‘switched on’ has fascinated scientists for decades, but equally important questions about how they are ‘turned off’ have been largely overlooked. As the messengers carrying instructions from DNA for the creation of proteins, the formation and decay of cellular RNAs is critical to maintaining cell stability and […]
December 25, 2020

Spatial maps give new view of gut microbiome

What microbes are in your gut, and where? Cornell researchers developed an imaging tool to create intricate spatial maps of the locations and identities of hundreds of different microbial species, such as those that make up the gut microbiome. The tool will help scientists understand how complex communities of microorganisms […]
December 25, 2020

Sex peptide causes female fruit fly’s gut to grow

Scientists have known that females of many species eat more to meet the demands of reproduction, and that females undergo widespread physiological and behavioral changes after mating. The mechanisms of these changes, however, are not well understood. A new study of the common fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) has identified a […]
December 25, 2020

What social distancing does to a brain

Have you recently wondered how social-distancing and self-isolation may be affecting your brain? An international research team led by Erin Schuman from the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research discovered a brain molecule that functions as a “thermometer” for the presence of others in an animal’s environment. Zebrafish “feel” the […]
December 25, 2020

Charting the developing brain

How can you build neuronal networks that are more complex than anything known today? Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt, Germany, have mapped the development of inhibitory neuronal circuitry and report the discovery of distinct circuit formation principles. Their findings enable scientists to monitor the […]
December 25, 2020

Embryonic development in a Petri dish

By growing mouse stem cells in a special gel, a Berlin research team succeeded to grow structures similar to parts of an embryo. The trunk-like structures develop the precursors for neural, bone, cartilage and muscle tissues from cellular clumps within five days. This could allow the investigation of the effects […]
December 25, 2020

New drug inhibits the growth of cancer cells

A newly developed compound starves cancer cells by attacking their “power plants” – the so-called mitochondria. The new compound prevents the genetic information within mitochondria from being read. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing in Cologne, the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and the University of Gothenburg […]