Related Science News

Knowing precisely where proteins are frustrated could go a long way toward making better drugs. That’s one result of a new study by Rice University scientists looking for the mechanisms that stabilize or destabilize key sections of biomolecules. Atom-scale models by Rice theorist Peter Wolynes, lead author and alumnus Mingchen Chen […]

UCI’s Center for Neural Circuit Mapping is redrawing our understanding of mechanisms underlying several common disorders. Thanks to Xiangmin Xu and his team at the UCI School of Medicine’s Center for Neural Circuit Mapping, lazy eye, Alzheimer’s and other neurological diseases could become a thing of the past. Opened earlier […]

An international research team led by UC San Francisco scientists has shown, for the first time, that gut immune cells travel to the brain during multiple sclerosis (MS) flare-ups in patients. These gut cells seem to be playing a protective role, helping drive MS symptoms back into remission. Scientists know […]

When David Zeevi and Liat Shenhav began analyzing the genomes of marine microbes, their goal was to find biological tools to combat plastic pollution in the ocean. But in the course of their study, a curious observation led them to discover something much more universal: an aspect of evolution that […]

All the cells of the body come from the same tiny clump of stem cells and share the same set of genes. But by following different patterns of activating those genes, they quickly embark towards different destinies, becoming tissues as diverse as liver, blood and brain.Tracking this process in humans—who […]

Researchers at the University of Tokyo have identified how the architecture of the cell nucleus can change gene activity in plants. This discovery reveals fundamental knowledge about genome regulation and points towards future methods for potentially manipulating the expression of many genes simultaneously. The long strands of DNA and the […]

University of Virginia Cancer Center researchers have identified a gene responsible for the spread of so-called “triple-negative” breast cancer to other parts of the body – a process called metastasis – and developed a potential way to stop it. Triple-negative breast cancer is an aggressive form of breast cancer that […]

As many as 75 percent of the women in North American experience hot flashes, and many of these women still look to hormone therapy to relieve the surge of hormones, otherwise known as vasomotor symptoms, or VMS. But new research, shared recently at the Annual North American Menopause Society Conference, shows the direction of […]

Five years ago, a Yale-led partnership launched a landmark study to identify the biomarkers, or biological indicators, of autism that could help diagnose, track, and assess treatments in patients. Since then, the Autism Biomarkers Consortium for Clinical Trials has discovered the first two biomarkers for any psychiatric disorder to be accepted into […]

Prostate cancer growth is often driven by male sex hormones called androgens. Hormone therapy is commonly administered to lower the level of androgens in the body, but relapse is common when the cancer cells develop resistance to these therapies. A multidisciplinary team of cancer researchers led by Angela Koehler, the […]

Current chemotherapy regimens slow cancer progression and save lives, but these powerful drugs affect both healthy and cancerous cells. Now, researchers reporting in ACS’ Nano Letters have designed DNA-based nanogels that only break down and release their chemotherapeutic contents within cancer cells, minimizing the impacts on normal ones and potentially eliminating painful […]

Women with breast cancer whose eggs or ovarian tissue were frozen had more children after their diagnosis than women who did not undergo fertility preservation using those methods before the start of cancer treatment. That is according to a study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, published in JAMA […]

The National Institutes of Health will fund more than 175 grants, totalling nearly $500 million, through the NIH’s Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative, part of a large effort among federal and non-federal partners to use knowledge about how the brain works to develop more effective therapies for […]

A new study from Tel Aviv University (TAU) and the Shamir Medical Center in Israel indicates that hyperbaric oxygen treatments (HBOT) in healthy aging adults can stop the aging of blood cells and reverse the aging process. In the biological sense, the adults’ blood cells actually grow younger as the progress […]

Researchers at the Montreal Clinical Research Institute, Université de Montréal and McMaster University think they’ve found a fountain of youth — and it’s unique to a few French Canadian families. Canadian scientists looking at a rare genetic mutation think they may have discovered the proverbial fountain of youth. But it’s […]

A research team at the University of Bath, in collaboration with biotechnology company Sapience Therapeutics, is redoubling its efforts to discover new peptide-based treatments capable of acting upon 'undruggable' targets in cancer cells. Some cancers are notoriously resistant to treatment – it is these tumours that are the focus of the […]

Cells move constantly throughout our bodies, performing myriad operations critical to tissue development, immune responses and general wellbeing. This bustle is guided by chemical cues long studied by scientists interested in cellular migration. To better understand this phenomenon, a team of biologists and physicists, led by UC Santa Barbara’s Distinguished […]

Yale researchers have helped identify the mechanisms behind a major cause of morbidity and mortality in COVID-19 patients. Extensive blood clots in both large and small blood vessels in the lungs and throughout many major organs in the body have been linked to worse outcomes in patients hospitalized with severe […]

Researchers at the University of California San Diego have identified new Alzheimer's disease mechanisms in neurons. The scientists have discovered that changes in the structure of chromatin, a tightly coiled form of DNA, trigger neurons to lose their specialized function and revert to an earlier cell state. That results in the loss […]

For many years, investigators have been trying to pin down the tantalizing connection between vitamin D and cancer. Epidemiological studies have found that people who live near the equator, where exposure to sunlight produces more vitamin D, have lower incidence and death rates from certain cancers. In cancer cells in […]

Any given tumor is composed of a multitude of cell types that can each look or behave differently from its neighbors. An emerging body of research suggests that these differences can influence disease progression or the way a tumor responds to drugs. Now, a new study by Harvard Medical School […]

Researchers at Tel Aviv University (TAU) have demonstrated that the CRISPR/Cas9 system is very effective in treating metastatic cancers, a significant step on the way to finding a cure for cancer. The researchers developed a novel lipid nanoparticle-based delivery system that specifically targets cancer cells and destroys them by genetic manipulation. The […]

Early and repeated exposures to diagnostic imaging, such as X-rays and CT scans, may increase the risk of testicular cancer, suggests a new study from Penn Medicine researchers published online in PLOS ONE. “The steady rise in testicular germ cell tumor (TGCT) cases over the past three or four decades suggests there is an […]

Last year, researchers at the University of California, Riverside, identified the early origins of neural crest cells — embryonic cells in vertebrates that travel throughout the body and generate many cell types — in chick embryos. Now the researchers have used a human model to figure out when neural crest cells […]

Case Western Reserve University researchers are part of an international team striving to crack the secrets of how our neurons—the nerve cells that send and receive signals to and from the brain—work together to regulate physical movements. The work is supported by a $3 million grant from the National Institutes […]

New research by University of Georgia scientists sheds light on why people with obstructive sleep apnea may have associated autoimmune disorders. The results could lead to better approaches to treatment and possibly new drug therapies. The study, led by Bradley Phillips, builds on previous research showing that obstructive sleep apnea increases the […]

Cells enter a senescent state constantly throughout life, largely because they have reached the Hayflick limit on replication, but also due to molecular damage, cancerous mutations, injury to tissue, radiation, or other causes. A senescent cell stops replicating, swells in size, and begins to secrete a mix of inflammatory signals, […]

When Meghan Martin ’21, a biochemistry and American Sign Language double major, was a sophomore in high school, she began experiencing intense, chronic pain. An avid runner and soccer player, she was crippled by cramps, nausea, and back spasms that left her unable to participate in the sports she loved. […]

Researchers at Duke University and the University of California, Los Angeles have developed a biomaterial that significantly reduces scar formation after wounding, leading to more effective skin healing. The U.S. National Science Foundation-funded research demonstrates that activating an immune response can trigger regenerative wound healing. The work builds on the team's previous research […]

Researchers from Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART), MIT’s research enterprise in Singapore, have developed a novel microcarrier for large-scale cell production and expansion that offers higher yield and cost-effectiveness compared to traditional methods and reduces steps required in the cell retrieval process. Microcarriers are particles used in bioreactor-based […]