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For most people, virtual reality is just an interesting piece of entertainment. It is quite an experience to play games or even watch movies in virtual reality. However VR may be a useful research tool for medical scientists as well. Now researchers from UNSW, Australia, are creating virtual reality technology […]

A shorter life may be the price an organism pays for coping with the natural assaults of daily living, according to researchers at the National Institutes of Health and their colleagues in Japan. The scientists used fruit flies to examine the relationship between lifespan and signaling proteins that defend the […]

Hearing loss is the most common form of sensory loss in humans, and almost half of cases stem from genetic causes. Now, a team led by researchers from Harvard Medical School, the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Massachusetts Eye and Ear, Harvard University and Howard Hughes Medical Institute have […]

Gene therapy holds promise for treating a variety of diseases, including some inherited blinding conditions. But for a gene therapy to be effective, one must know the precise gene responsible for a given individual’s disorder and develop a tailored treatment. For diseases that may be caused by mutations in many […]

Oregon State University scientists have developed a nanomedicine platform for cancer that can help doctors know which tissue to cut out as well as kill any malignant cells that can’t be surgically removed. The platform allows for greater precision and thoroughness in cancer treatment. Here’s how it works: Nanoparticles tightly […]

New research has drawn a link between changes in the brain’s anatomy and biomarkers that are known to appear at the earliest stages of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), findings that could one day provide a sensitive but non-invasive test for AD before cognitive symptoms appear. Scientists have known for some time […]

A device attached to a patient’s scalp that delivers a continuous dose of low-intensity electric fields improves survival and slows the growth of a deadly brain tumor, according to a new clinical trial led by a Northwestern Medicine scientist and published in the journal JAMA. The new treatment for glioblastoma uses […]

Scientists have found a new way to explain the hearing loss caused by cisplatin, a powerful drug used to treat many forms of cancer. Using a highly sensitive technique to measure and map cisplatin in mouse and human inner ear tissues, researchers found that forms of cisplatin build up in […]

UC San Francisco physician-scientists have developed a test that can predict how patients with juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia (JMML) will respond to treatment, and may also be able to identify patients who are likely to recover spontaneously with little to no treatment. The researchers are currently optimizing the test for more […]

Immune cells are normally associated with fighting infection, but in a new study scientists have discovered how they also help the nervous system clear debris, potentially clearing the way for nerve regeneration after injury. In a study published in the Journal of Neuroscience, researchers from Case Western Reserve University School of […]

Treatment for the most deadly form of skin cancer could be more effective if combined with a well-known drug for rheumatoid arthritis, new research has shown. The study, by scientists at the University of East Anglia (UEA), found that in mice, using the two treatments together almost completely stopped the […]

New findings by scientists at the University of Southampton could help to predict how people with the most common form of leukaemia will respond to chemotherapy. The findings will help doctors decide which type of treatment to give patients. The researchers, who were funded by the blood cancer research charity […]

Rapidly dividing, yet aberrant stem cells are a major source of cancer. But a new study suggests that mature cells also play a key role in initiating cancer — a finding that could upend the way scientists think about the origins of the disease. Researchers at Washington University School of […]

Research at The City College of New York shows that cancer imaging can be simplified by a photonic process utilizing molecules derived from horse chestnuts. The study with potential to better detect the presence of cancer is led by George John, professor in City College’s Division of Science, in collaboration with Jan Grimm, a […]

Researchers at the University of Tokyo and their collaborators have identified recurrent fusion genes—new genes formed from the combination of two or more separate genes that appear in more than one sample of a disease taken from different patients—tied to a form of pediatric T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL), a […]

FLIM, FRET and FLIRR don’t mean anything to most people, but to scientists studying the inner workings of cells, these high-resolution imaging techniques are essential tools for gaining insights to cellular behavior at the molecular level. Cells communicate with each other and multiply, and how they operate from within is […]

he evidence is clear: Cervical cancer is best treated with brachytherapy, a form of radiation therapy. Yet the use of this potentially life-saving treatment has been declining, and a new study from the University of Virginia School of Medicine may explain why. UVA researchers have determined that offering brachytherapy for […]

‘A Nobel Prize for the biological clock has long been overdue,’ says Dorothee Staiger. What is so remarkable is that the prize has been granted to basic research – that is, to studies on fundamental concepts in nature. Whereas the American colleagues have been analysing the biological clock in animals, […]

The efficacy of many FDA-approved cancer drug combinations is not due to synergistic interactions between drugs, but rather to a form of “bet hedging,” according to a new study published by Harvard Medical School researchers in Cell. Reanalyzing data from 15 clinical trials, the researchers show that independent action—in which drugs […]

  Scientists have identified differences in a group of genes they say might help explain why some people need a lot more sleep — and others less — than most.  The study, conducted using fruit fly populations bred to model natural variations in human sleep patterns, provides new clues to […]

Paralyzed rats with severed spinal cords are walking again, after Tel Aviv University and Technion–Israel Institute of Technology scientists restored their nervous function and sensation through tissue engineering and stem cells taken from the oral mucosa membrane of the mouth, Haaretz recently reported. The research was led by Prof. Daniel Offen of TAU's Sackler School of Medicine and […]

Scientists at the School of Dental Science in Trinity have made an important discovery involving bacteria and a pre-cancerous growth called oral leuoplakia which can precede oral cancer. The researchers examined the microbiome of oral leukoplakia in order to determine if certain bacteria were associated with oral leukoplakia and whether […]

New research by Yale Cancer Center (YCC) researchers shows a majority of pediatric cancer providers endorse the potential use of medical marijuana for children with advanced cancer, although providers who are legally eligible to certify its use are more cautious than those who aren’t. The findings also show clinicians would prefer to […]

A new large-scale international study expands the number of genetic markers now known to be associated with exceptional longevity. Researchers at the University of Connecticut, University of Exeter, University of Wisconsin, and University of Iowa undertook a genome-wide search for variants influencing how long participants’ parents lived. DNA samples carry […]

Human skin is a remarkable organ serving as a barrier protecting us from pathogens, toxic substances and others. Our skin needs to constantly renew throughout our lifetime as well as change its size to perfectly fit and cover the body. To fulfill such a complex and dynamic behavior every cell […]

Aging impairs the immune system’s response to the flu virus in multiple ways, weakening resistance in older adults, according to a Yale study. The research reveals why older people are at increased risk of illness and death from flu, the researchers said. “Influenza virus mortality is the highest in older […]

Researchers at the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA have discovered how high glucose levels — whether caused by diabetes or other factors — keep heart cells from maturing normally. Their findings help explain why babies born to women with diabetes are more likely […]

Looking to bolster the body’s immune system in the fight against infection and cancer, researchers at the University of California San Diego and their colleagues have identified a promising new strategy to program the immune system to meet the pathogen or malignancy in the tissues where they first pose a […]

Rare stem-like tumor cells play a critical role in the spread of breast cancer, but a vulnerability in the pathway that powers them offers a strategy to target these cells using existing drugs before metastatic disease occurs, report University of California San Diego School of Medicine and Moores Cancer Center […]

A simple, non-invasive procedure that can indicate how long patients with cancer that has spread to the brain might survive and whether they are likely to respond to immunotherapy has been developed by researchers in Liverpool. The technique, which can be done using standard hospital-based Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans, […]