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Every tissue in the human body has an immune cell in it called a macrophage. Macrophages play important roles in the immune system’s initial response to bacteria, viruses and wounds. But beyond that, each tissue macrophage also has specialized functions, tuned to the needs of that particular tissue. For example, […]

The brains of people with congenital deafness may be rewiring themselves in ways that affect how those people learn, suggesting a need to develop new teaching techniques tailored toward those who have never been able to hear. Published in Nature Scientific Reports, the findings by an Oregon State University research […]

Cancer cells – especially the more aggressive ones – seem to have an ability to change. It’s how they evade treatment and spread throughout the body. But how does a cancer cell get the energy it needs to do this? “We wondered if a cancer cell that wants to change its […]

Stanford chemists have developed a new deep-tissue imaging technique that can see beneath the skin of living subjects to illuminate buried tumors with unparalleled clarity. In a new study published in the issue of the journal Nature Biotechnology, the researchers demonstrate how their technique can be used to predict the response […]

Many scientists spend their lives conducting tests on a single gene but, in their quest to develop a drug that will repair injured spinal cords, researchers at The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis are testing thousands of genes in hundreds of thousands of nerve cells in any given week. In […]

Compared to long-term residents, immigrants to Canada have a 40 per cent higher risk of developing prediabetes, which is an early predictor of an individual’s likelihood of developing Type 2 diabetes and associated illnesses, like heart disease. Researchers from the University of Toronto’s Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation in the […]

A triple drug combination has been used to extend the lifespan of fruit flies by 48 percent in a new study led by the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing in Cologne, Germany, and the UCL. The three drugs are all already in use as medical treatments: lithium as […]

Vaccines made from RNA hold great potential as a way to treat cancer or prevent a variety of infectious diseases. Many biotech companies are now working on such vaccines, and a few have gone into clinical trials. One of the challenges to creating RNA vaccines is making sure that the […]

Science may be inching closer to thwarting obesity, heart disease and Type 2 diabetes, as Cornell biochemists have uncovered a key step in how the human body metabolizes sugar, according to new research published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry. Martha S. Field, assistant professor of nutritional sciences, has further […]

How do you repair a damaged heart? With love? Gifts of candy and flowers? Romantic actions? Well, no. A good way to repair a damaged heart is to patch it. Scientists from the University of New South Wales now demonstrated that you can patch the heart with a 3D printer, […]

Even if we don’t think about it this way, we are still just a bunch of animals. We are mammals, connected to the laws of nature as tightly as the next species. And so our lives are divided into biological periods, which for women include menopause. However, for some women […]

Creating an effective gene therapy for inherited diseases requires three key steps. First, scientists must identify and characterize the disease. Second, they must find the gene responsible. And finally, they must find a way to correct the impairment. Four years ago, a team from the University of Pennsylvania, in collaboration with […]

Distinct patterns of electrical activity in the sleeping brain may influence whether we remember or forget what we learned the previous day, according to a new study by UC San Francisco researchers. The scientists were able to influence how well rats learned a new skill by tweaking these brainwaves while […]

Two new studies by an international team of researchers report progress in using stem cells to develop new therapies for Pelizaeus-Merzbacher disease (PMD), a rare genetic condition affecting boys that can be fatal before 10 years of age. Often diagnosed at birth with symptoms of weakness and breathing difficulties, the […]

A new 3D structure for growing cell cultures could enable doctors to test medications on model tumors grown from a patient’s own cells, according to results from a team of engineers and cancer researchers at the University of Michigan. Unlike previous devices, the new structure is made from protein fibers […]

Researchers at the National Institutes of Health have developed a new and improved viral vector—a virus-based vehicle that delivers therapeutic genes—for use in gene therapy for sickle cell disease. In advanced lab tests using animal models, the new vector was up to 10 times more efficient at incorporating corrective genes […]

In a virtual world, a knight in full armour sits in front of me, expectantly waiting for me to deal them some playing cards. As the game progresses, a large black spot grows in the middle of my vision. I try to pick up the deck of cards from the […]

There is now a multitude of therapies to treat cancer, from chemotherapy and radiation to immunotherapy and small molecule inhibitors. Chemotherapy is still the most widely used cancer treatment, but chemotherapy attacks all the rapidly dividing cells that it locates within the body, whether they're ultimately harmful or beneficial. A […]

It may sound odd, but most tests for hereditary cancer risks are prescribed by doctors after the patient has been diagnosed with cancer – past the time when such information would be prospectively most useful to the patient. With that backdrop, UW Medicine researchers will explore the feasibility and benefits of administering […]

A biochemist at the University of California, Riverside, has received a grant from the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs, or CDMRP, of the U.S. Department of Defense to develop a novel lead compound to treat breast cancer, the second most commonly diagnosed cancer among American women. John Jefferson Perry, an assistant professor […]

The National Institute on Aging (NIA) is awarding approximately $37 million over five years to a team of international researchers, led by Emory University, to help accelerate the development of promising new therapies that will effectively treat or prevent Alzheimer’s disease (AD). NIA is part of the National Institutes of […]

People with heart disease or defective or artificial heart valves are at increased risk of developing a potentially deadly valve infection. Rutgers researchers reported that new risk factors for this condition have emerged and that an increasing number of patients admitted to hospitals for other diseases are at risk of […]

A team of researchers from The University of Manchester will help “reveal fundamental rules of life” and, potentially, find improved treatments for diseases such as osteoarthritis and healing wounds. The team, from the Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health (FBMH) and led by Principal Investigator, Professor Karl Kadler, have been awarded £4.6 […]

At some point in your life you may find yourself in a ditch. You may even live in a bad neighbourhood for a while and be rather poor. And it’s hard. However, it is not just hard on your mental state – it is also quite unhealthy. A new UCL-led […]

There are no wild chickens. It is an animal that humans pretty much invented by breeding wild fowls. And we continue improving our chickens until they have all of our desired characteristics. There are more chickens in the world than any other bird and it is incredibly important for us […]

Researchers have developed a new variant of the gene editing technique CRISPR-Cas9 that has the potential to increase precision during gene therapy in humans. The new variant reduced unintended changes in DNA compared to its wildtype, suggesting it could play a role in gene therapies that require high precision. The […]

Within minutes of breaking a bone, the body begins to repair itself. The immune system sends in cells that act as housekeepers, sweeping out small bone pieces and killing germs. The body forms a soft protective callus to bridge the fracture and blood vessels that grow into the area to […]

Collagen is the most abundant protein in mammals, making up skin, bone, tendons and other soft tissues. Its fibrous nature helps cells to move throughout the body, but until now, it wasn’t clear how the length of fibers influences how cells move in groups. Amit Pathak, a mechanical engineer in […]

A paradox of food insecurity in wealthy countries is its association with excess weight. Now, a study led by researchers at UC San Francisco finds that young adults in the United States who are food insecure not only are slightly more likely to be obese, they are significantly more likely […]

The power of mitochondrial science has the potential to unlock new solutions for heart failure, according to a working group co-chaired by researchers at the University of Washington School of Medicine and Boston University School of Medicine and convened by the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute at the National […]