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Twenty years ago this fall, a team of scientists led by James Thomson at the University of Wisconsin–Madison published the first paper describing successful derivation of human embryonic stem cells. The discovery of these master human stem cells empowered a new and promising direction in biomedical research, and for the […]

“Night owls” — people who like to stay up late and have trouble dragging themselves out of bed in the morning — have a higher risk of dying sooner than “larks,” people who have a natural preference for going to bed early and rise with the sun, according to a […]

A new blood test using gold nanoparticles could soon give oncologists an early and more accurate prognosis of how cancer treatment is progressing and help guide the on-going therapy of patients. Researchers at The University of Queensland have developed new nanotechnology to monitor the diversity of individual cancer cells circulating […]

Scientists at the University of Southampton have shown how stimulating a specific location on the surface of immune cells can be targeted with antibodies to help in their fight against cancer. The new work concerns a receptor called CD40 found of the surface of certain immune cells which regulates their […]

Sirtex Medical Ltd. has renewed a grant award to Dan Brown, MD, professor of Radiology and Radiological Sciences and chief of Interventional Oncology, and his Vanderbilt Health colleagues, for a research program designed to treat patients with liver tumors that cannot be addressed with surgery. In 2015, Brown and colleagues […]

Obesity can also alter a young person’s likelihood of developing cancer later in life A Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine researcher has compiled evidence from more than 100 publications to show how obesity increases risk of 13 different cancers in young adults. The meta-analysis describes how obesity has […]

One of the major goals of scientists is to increase the longevity of humans. Our lifespan has been increasing for a long time, but we all want to live longer and healthier lives. Now a team of scientists led by UCL has found that a moderate dietary restriction extend lifespan […]

You see that all the time. A woman gets pregnant and immediately changes her lifestyle in order to keep the baby healthy. This is very beautiful, but is it enough? Scientists from the University of Queensland say that it actually isn‘t enough to make sure that the baby is born […]

Consuming high amounts of carbohydrates and various forms of sugar during the year prior to treatment for head and neck cancer may increase patients’ risks of cancer recurrence and mortality, a new study reports. However, eating moderate amounts of fats and starchy foods such as whole grains, potatoes and legumes […]

Mouse brains are tiny and smooth. Ferret brains are larger and convoluted—and could provide the missing link in understanding how humans acquired big brains. Children with microcephaly, whose brains are abnormally small, have a part in the story too. Microcephaly is notorious for its recent link to the Zika virus, […]

A new type of cancer vaccine has yielded promising results in an initial clinical trial conducted at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania. The personalized vaccine is made from patients’ own immune cells, which are exposed in the laboratory […]

Patients with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia commonly experience sundown syndrome: a sudden worsening of confusion, agitation and aggression at the end of the day. This daily pattern suggested that sundowning, as the phenomenon is also known, may be governed by the body’s internal biological clock. Synchronized by […]

You’ve heard of the face that launched a thousand ships? Margaret “Peg” Geisler, 82, is the case that launched an international search for “extreme survivors” of metastatic breast cancer. Geisler, a retired UW–Madison director of outreach development, has lived with breast cancer for 40 years and with metastatic cancer (meaning it spread […]

Researchers at the National Institutes of Health worked with 15 patients from around the world to uncover a genetic basis of “dripping candle wax” bone disease. The rare disorder, known as melorheostosis, causes excess bone formation that resembles dripping candle wax on x-rays. The results, appearing in Nature Communications, offer […]

A new Tel Aviv University study addresses the challenges of nanoparticle-based cancer-targeting strategies. It also suggests ways of refocusing the collaborative work of cancer researchers and clinicians to move the field forward from “the bench” to the patients. The study follows landmark research published 10 years ago in Nature Nanotechnology that reviewed the full […]

Many cancers start with the flip of a switch. For example, the most common mutation in human cancers affects a small signaling protein called K-Ras, which helps tell our cells when to grow and divide; when K-Ras is mutated, its normal on-off mechanism gets stuck in the “on” position, leading […]

Mothers aged 30 to 34 years have more full-term pregnancies and healthier babies than those in the 20-to-24 age group. These are the findings of a new  epidemiological study led by an Université de Montréal researcher which looked at over 165,000 births in 32 Quebec hospitals from 2008 to 2011. “We’ve always […]

Regularly drinking more than the recommended UK guidelines for alcohol could take years off your life, according to new research from the University of Cambridge. Part-funded by the British Heart Foundation, the study shows that drinking more alcohol is associated with a higher risk of stroke, fatal aneurysm, heart failure […]

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) affects more than 1.75 million individuals in the United States. Because the population is aging, that number will increase to almost 3 million by 2020. Between 80 and 90 percent of cases in this country are the dry version of the condition, for which no effective treatment exists. Now, a team […]

University of Queensland researchers have highlighted a link between fetal brain development and the origins of developmental diseases such as schizophrenia. UQ Faculty of Medicine’s Dr Liam Coulthard said many adult diseases originated during fetal development. “Complement factors – part of the immune system that kills bacteria and helps white […]

Researchers at the University of Washington have designed a convenient and natural product that uses proteins to rebuild tooth enamel and treat dental cavities. The research finding was first published in ACS Biomaterials Science and Engineering. “Remineralization guided by peptides is a healthy alternative to current dental health care,” said lead […]

Cancer is a horrible disease and one of the major causes of death. Humanity is getting closer to curing cancer. In fact, most cancer patients survive for a pretty long time these days. However, wouldn‘t it be great if we could simply vaccinate against cancer? Scientists from the University of […]

In humans and other mammals, the female reproductive cells – the eggs or oocytes – need nourishment in order to grow and remain fertile. It is known that the egg gets its food from little arm-like feeding tubes (called filopodia) that jut out from tiny cells surrounding the egg and […]

Glaucoma is one of the leading causes of blindness around the world. It is hard to treat and even approved methods are not very effective. For example, drops can deliver some medication to the eye, but they have one significant drawback – only around 5 % of the liquid stays […]

Researchers at the University of Liverpool have developed a mathematical model that has the potential to improve the performance of endovascular aneurysm sealing (EVAS), which is an innovative procedure to treat abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA). AAA is a swelling of part of the aorta inside the abdomen caused by a […]

  Harvard Medical School researchers at Massachusetts Eye and Ear have shown that mifepristone, a drug currently FDA-approved for chemical abortion, prevents the growth of vestibular schwannoma (also known as acoustic neuroma) cells. This sometimes-lethal intracranial tumor typically causes hearing loss and tinnitus. The findings, published online in Scientific Reports, suggest that […]

People with the rare disease called primary progressive aphasia may recruit intact brain areas for help with language, according to a new UA-led study. People with a rare dementia that initially attacks the language center of the brain recruit other areas of the brain to decipher sentences, according to new […]

Researchers are now able to use induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) to form a model of human adult-like cardiac muscle by introducing electric and mechanical stimulation at an early stage. Since this muscle is similar to the adult heart, it could serve as a better model for testing the effects […]

Researchers supported by the National Institutes of Health have uncovered molecular characteristics that link the genomic profiles of squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) from five areas of the body and that set these SCCs apart from other cancers. Using a robust dataset of SCCs from the head and neck, lung, esophagus, […]

Researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health have completed a detailed genomic analysis, known as the PanCancer Atlas, on a data set of molecular and clinical information from over 10,000 tumors representing 33 types of cancer. “This project is the culmination of more than a decade of groundbreaking work,” […]