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A series of studies conducted by teams led by Harvard Medical School systems biologists Allon Klein, Marc Kirschner and Sean Megason, as well as the work of teams led by Alexander Schier at Harvard University in collaboration with Aviv Regev at the Broad Institute of MIT-Harvard, have been featured as part of the “2018 Breakthrough of the […]

Of the many outstanding mysteries of neuroscience, the pathogenic origins of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) remain one of the most perplexing neurological puzzles. An estimated 5.7 million Americans are presently afflicted with the disease, which gradually ravages the aging brain, resulting in progressive loss of memory followed by other cognitive abilities. […]

Professor Matt Smalley, from Cardiff University’s European Cancer Stem Cell Research Institute, said: “There are 150 new cases of breast cancer diagnosed in the UK every day. To achieve better outcomes for people facing this disease, we need to better understand how it develops so we can improve therapies. “We […]

With the help of a new human embryonic stem cell line, researchers make initial strides toward treatment for the genetic mutation. Fragile X syndrome is the most common inherited cause of intellectual disability and autism and poses a significant burden to affected families. The syndrome gets its name because — […]

A group of genes that has been largely ignored by scientists could play critical roles in atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries), inflammation, and likely obesity and other metabolic diseases, new research suggests. The discovery was made by researchers at the University of Virginia School of Medicine in the context of how our bodies recognize and remove […]

Jack L. Ivey learned he had cancer in 2007. Though he’d been writing since middle school, he had never penned any poetry. Then he joined the Writing a Life workshop, a program that encourages cancer patients at Penn Medicine’s Abramson Cancer Center (ACC) to express their feelings about cancer through writing. In […]

It was the kind of case no traditional medical textbook could explain. The subject – let’s call him Peter Green – was a white male in his late 80s, enrolled in longitudinal studies of the elderly at the UCSF Memory and Aging Center. Green’s brain scans “were not pretty,” recalls Joel Kramer, […]

Extremely obese people are needing a far higher dose of radiation during x-ray examinations than people of normal weight, increasing their risk of cancer, new research has shown. Extremely obese people are needing a far higher dose of radiation during x-ray examinations than people of normal weight, increasing their risk […]

An immunotherapy clinical trial based in Seattle, among other U.S. sites, was pivotal to the Dec. 19 approval by the Food and Drug Administration of the drug pembrolizumab (Keytruda) to treat Merkel cell carcinoma, a rare and often fatal skin cancer. The FDA’s accelerated approval of the drug was based on findings […]

undreds of new genes linked to blindness and other vision disorders have been identified in a screen of mouse strains. Many of these genes are likely important in human eye vision and the results could help identify new causes of hereditary blindness in patients. The work was published in Nature Communications […]

Two drugs commonly prescribed to treat Type 2 diabetes carry a high risk of cardiovascular events such as heart attack, stroke, heart failure or amputation, according to a new Northwestern Medicine study. “People should know if the medications they’re taking to treat their diabetes could lead to serious cardiovascular harm,” […]

In a new study by Yale Cancer Center (YCC), scientists suggest that as the number of clinical trials in cancer immunotherapy grows exponentially, some caution should be exercised as we continue to better understand the biology of these new therapeutic targets. The findings are published in the journal Cell. Researchers around the world […]

Researchers have discovered age- and health-related differences in fragments of DNA found floating in the bloodstream (not inside cells) called cell-free DNA (cfDNA). These differences could someday be used to determine biological age — whether a person’s body functions as older or younger than their chronological age, the researchers say. In […]

Dermal fibroblasts are specialized cells deep in the skin that generate connective tissue and help the skin recover from injury. Some fibroblasts have the ability to convert into fat cells that reside under the dermis, giving the skin a plump, youthful look and producing a peptide that plays a critical […]

In recent years, public health officials have warned about a rising epidemic of loneliness, with rates of loneliness reportedly doubling over the past 50 years. In a new study, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine put a specific, concerning and surprising face to the issue. Published […]

According to a report released by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in February of 2018, worldwide obesity levels have almost tripled since the 1970’s. What once may have been a shocking revelation cam as little surprise to health professionals at the time, who’ve spent decades tackling one of the world’s […]

Medicine is always created to fulfil a specific purpose. It has to be tried not only to make sure it is effective, but also if it is safe. Knowing all possible side effects is a crucial result of extensive laboratory and clinical tests. However, some drugs can be used to […]

Research led by neuroscientists at Trinity College Dublin has found for the first time that regions of the brain responsible for complex thought do not shut off in the unconscious state. The research sheds new light on how the unconscious mind works and how the human brain gives rise to […]

Millions of people worldwide are living with chronic spinal cord injuries, with 250,000 to 500,000 new cases each year—most from vehicle crashes or falls. The most severe spinal cord injuries completely paralyze their victims and more than half impair a person’s ability to breathe. Now, a breakthrough study published in Nature […]

After learning their son Andrew had a serious peanut allergy, Jennifer and Daniel Ayala did everything they could to protect him, from becoming master label readers to sending him to birthday parties with his own treats. Still, there were times Andrew accidentally ingested peanut, most often from an outside food […]

A change in the genome of Caucasians could explain much higher rates of the most common type of esophageal cancer in this population, a new study finds. It suggests a possible target for prevention strategies, which preliminary work suggests could involve flavonoids derived from cranberries. Flavonoids are a class of […]

Findings from a new study by researchers at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) show that patients treated with chemotherapy for most solid tumors during 2000–2014 experienced an increased risk of therapy-related myelodysplastic syndrome/acute myeloid leukemia (tMDS/AML). The study, which used U.S. population-based cancer registry data from NCI’s Surveillance, Epidemiology, and […]

MIT chemical engineers and neuroscientists have devised a new way to preserve biological tissue, allowing them to visualize proteins, DNA, and other molecules within cells, and to map the connections between neurons. The researchers showed that they could use this method, known as SHIELD, to trace the connections between neurons […]

In 2015, then-President Barack Obama launched a precision medicine initiative, saying that its promise was “delivering the right treatments, at the right time, every time to the right person.” A biomedical engineer at Washington University in St. Louis has answered the call by making a significant step toward precision medicine […]

The technology for an eye specialist to review a picture of a patient’s eye taken miles away to screen for eye disease has been around for decades. Yet, less than half of Wisconsin adults with diabetes, who are particularly vulnerable to vision-threatening diseases, get annual eye screenings. Dr. Yao Liu, […]

Doctors may be able to assess the survival rates of melanoma patients following the discovery of a molecule that allows the cancer to spread from the skin to other parts of the body. University of Queensland researchers hope that targeting this molecule may offer a way to stop the cancer from […]

There is growing evidence that lithium could be re-purposed as an anti-aging drug, and a new study from King’s College London suggests that lithium’s protective effects are due to a slowing down of the molecular aging process in cells. The research, published in Neuropsychopharmacology, also finds some individuals may benefit from […]

Could a change in diet be beneficial to people with autoimmune diseases such as lupus? A Yale-led team of researchers have revealed how a dietary intervention can help prevent the development of this autoimmune disease in susceptible mice. The study was published in Cell Host & Microbe. For the study, led […]

Skin has a remarkable ability to heal itself. But in some cases, wounds heal very slowly or not at all, putting a person at risk for chronic pain, infection and scarring. Now, researchers have developed a self-powered bandage that generates an electric field over an injury, dramatically reducing the healing […]

From birth, it takes humans almost two decades to reach adulthood; for a fruit fly, it takes only about 10 days. During a fly embryo's initial stages of development, the insect looks different from minute to minute, and its body plan is defined in just a few hours. Caltech researchers […]