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As a chemical engineer, Hadley Sikes loves studying complex systems such as networks of chemical reactions. But in her work designing practical devices for diagnostics and other applications, she embraces simplicity. Sikes, an associate professor who recently earned tenure in MIT’s Department of Chemical Engineering, devotes much of her lab’s […]

A new grant will help Iowa State University researchers develop innovative gene-editing technology to better understand how human genetics affect susceptibility to disease. The four-year, $2.8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health allows Maura McGrail, an associate professor of genetics, development and cell biology and principal investigator, and her […]

This open access paper provides a good high-level overview of what is known of the molecular mechanisms underpinning the beneficial response to calorie restriction and intermittent fasting. In short-lived species, quite sizable gains in life span are possible, though this is not the case for longer-lived species such as our own. The metabolic responses to […]

Nutraceuticals are compounds derived from foods, usually plants. In principle one can find useful therapies in the natural world, taking the approach of identifying interesting molecules and refining them to a greater potency than naturally occurs in order to produce a usefully large therapeutic effect. Unfortunately, in practice the nutraceutical industry […]

As people get older, they often feel less energetic, mobile or active. This may be due in part to a decline in mitochondria, the tiny powerhouses inside of our cells, which provide energy and regulate metabolism. In fact, mitochondria decline with age not only in humans, but in many species. […]

Researchers from Sechenov University (a Project 5-100 participant) and University of Pittsburgh (USA) discovered that the resistance of innate immune cells, macrophages, to ferroptosis – a type of programmed cell death – depends on the type of their activation. It turned out that cells helping tissues to recover from inflammation […]

Study identifies potential drug treatments for telomere diseases. Capping decades of research, a new study may offer a breakthrough in treating dyskeratosis congenita and other so-called telomere diseases, in which cells age prematurely. Using cells donated by patients with the disease, researchers at the Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Center identified several […]

Julie H. Simpson receives an NSF CAREER award to study how neural circuits coordinate behaviors. Everything we do comes down to a series of neural signals that translate into physical behaviors. We receive information through our senses, sensory neurons convert this information into electrical and chemical signals that are processed […]

Researchers use old equations coupled with new methods to help decode the massively complex gut microbiome. For something that has evolved with us over millions of years, and remains part of our physiology over our entire lives, our gut microbiome, oddly, remains somewhat of a mystery. Comprised of trillions of […]

Talk about motherly instincts: Biologists at the University of Iowa have learned that female roundworms can alert their future offspring of dangers they will encounter when born, and the mothers pass on these warnings even before the offspring have been conceived. The study shows that a mother roundworm releases a chemical […]

Drug that reduces swelling may help protect against brain and spinal cord injury. Every year, millions of people around the world suffer brain and spinal cord injuries resulting from trauma, accidents, infections, or stroke. These injuries trigger swelling that can lead to death or long-lasting disabilities, but current treatment options […]

An off-label experiment in mice using disulfiram, which has been used to treat alcohol use disorder for more than 50 years, consistently normalized body weight and reversed metabolic damage in obese middle-aged mice of both sexes. The international study was led by researchers at the National Institute on Aging (NIA), […]

A new tool invented by the University of Alberta biologists to sequence circular DNA will provide scientists with richer, more accurate data that could help advance research on viruses, agriculture, and perhaps even cancer. The tool—called CIDER-Seq, which uses DNA sequencing technology called PacBio—was made available online by the U of […]

A large international trial has confirmed previous findings that a commonly used antidepressant is not effective in supporting the recovery of patients who have had a stroke. The results of the study, led by researchers from The University of Western Australia and The George Institute for Global Health in Sydney, were […]

Prostate cancer therapies have shown significant advances during the past decade, with multiple new therapies being introduced for patients with advanced disease. Now, the early results of a clinical trial published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) reveals for the first time that therapies based on tumor genetics – specifically DNA repair […]

Early results for a potentially revolutionary brain disease therapy given under compassionate use to a 2 year-old has shown promise, a University of Manchester scientist will tell an international conference. Professor Brian Bigger will tell the American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy that the safety and feasibility of the […]

A team of researchers from Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Socios En Salud, and the Broad Institute at Harvard and MIT report they have identified the single largest genetic contributor to height known to date. The findings, published in Nature, are based on an analysis of samples from […]

For decades, the enormous disease-curing potential of human stem cells has been thwarted by the inability to produce sufficient quantities of mature human cells in vivo — in a living organism. Now, a team led by University at Buffalo scientists has developed a method that dramatically ramps up the production […]

Promising Research May Have Been Sullied by Shoddy Science. A protocol comprising dietary supplements and lifestyle changes that claim to prevent or reverse Alzheimer’s disease and cognitive decline has drawn media fanfare and critical acclaim from health gurus and even physicians. But the endorsement of these claims is frequently based […]

Even after successful antiretroviral therapy, HIV can hide dormant in a tiny number of immune system cells for decades and re-emerge to threaten the life of its host. Now Yale University researchers have discovered a molecular explanation for how the virus accomplishes this insidious trick, they report in the journal […]

A USC study found that a combination of a fasting-mimicking diet plus vitamin C delayed tumor progression and even caused disease regression in mice. Scientists from USC and the IFOM Cancer Institute in Milan have found that a fasting-mimicking diet could be more effective at treating some types of cancer when […]

An imbalance of unstable molecular species called ‘free radicals’ will change the colour of cells – and a new imaging technique could one day allow scientists to detect and decode this colour without needing to take samples from the body, a new study by UNSW Sydney researchers has found. The […]

Frequently, promising cancer therapies fail when applied to patients in the real clinical setting. This occurs despite many of these new treatments demonstrating promising results at the preclinical stage in the lab. One explanation is that many of the tumor models used in early research phases are established cell lines […]

Fatty food may feel like a friend during these troubled times, but new research suggests that eating just one meal high in saturated fat can hinder our ability to concentrate – not great news for people whose diets have gone south while they’re working at home during the COVID-19 pandemic. […]

Two in 10,000 people are at risk of serious sight loss from a form of eye inflammation known as uveitis. A new clinical research study, led by the University of Bristol and University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust (UHBW), will evaluate a drug combination treatment for the eye […]

Whether we like it or not, our hair continually grows. Its regenerative powers reside deep inside each hair follicle, in a cluster of dividing stem cells—some of which will specialize and eventually give rise to new hair while others will produce new stem cells. Scientists have delineated numerous mechanisms that […]

Activating the G protein-coupled estrogen receptor (GPER) – a receptor found on the surface of many normal and cancer tissues – has been shown to stop pancreatic cancer from growing, but may also make tumors more visible to the immune system and thus more susceptible to modern immunotherapy. Researchers at […]

Researchers from McMaster University have found that the potato, primarily known as a starchy vegetable, can be a source of high-quality protein that helps to maintain muscle. The findings, reported in the journal Nutrients, highlight the potential benefits of what is considered a non-traditional source of protein, particularly as dietary […]

New imaging technology allows scientists to see the widespread loss of brain synapses in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease, a finding that one day may help aid in drug development, according to a new Yale University study. The research, published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s […]

UC Riverside-led study identifies role played by an immune signaling molecule in regulating memory function in the normal and injured brain. A study examining the effect of the immune receptor known as Toll-like Receptor 4, or TLR4, on how memory functions in both the normal and injured brain have found […]