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Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and the University of Milan in Italy have identified a gene in human neurons that protects against the degeneration of motor neurons in the deadly diseases ALS and SMA. Gene therapy in animal models of these diseases was shown to protect against cell death […]

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a debilitating neurodegenerative disorder, impairing the motor functions of millions of elderly people worldwide. Often, people with PD will experience disturbances in gastrointestinal function, such as constipation, years before motor symptoms set in. Postmortem examinations of the brains of people with PD have shown that their […]

A new study that reveals the dozens of molecular changes that bring about endometrial cancer offers insight into how physicians might be able to better identify which patients will need aggressive treatment and why a common treatment is not effective for some patients. The study appears in the journal Cell. […]

Six research discoveries with the potential to provide benefit to society have been awarded funding from the University’s Intellectual Property Accelerator Fund, which aims to speed the development of innovative projects into real-world applications. The projects address a range of societal challenges, from new treatments for cancer, hepatitis B and obesity, […]

Many people consult their friends and neighbors before making a big decision. It turns out that cells also consult their neighbors — in the human body. Scientists and physicians have long known that immune cells migrate to the site of an infection, which individuals experience as inflammation — swelling, redness […]

New research has shed fresh light on how the build-up of two proteins in the brain might affect the activity of genes involved in Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers at the University of Exeter worked in collaboration with Eli Lilly and Company to examine the brains of mice carrying mutations in the genes for […]

Researchers at the University of Oxford are now closer to finding the cell of origin of ovarian cancer, and their ultimate aim of developing a much needed screening tool for ovarian cancer. Ovarian cancer is the sixth most common cancer in women, with around 7,500 new cases diagnosed in the […]

Scientists have created one of the most detailed maps of breast cancer ever achieved, revealing how genetic changes shape the physical tumour landscape, according to research funded published in Nature Cancer. An international team of scientists, brought together by a £20 million Grand Challenge award from Cancer Research UK, has developed […]

The key to a better understanding of schizophrenia may exist in a genetic disorder so rare that researchers haven’t been able to conduct an adequate study — until now. The genetic disorder 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11DS), caused by a small segment of missing DNA on chromosome 22, is the strongest […]

Plant cells tend to grow longer instead of wider due to the alignment of the many layers of cellulose that make up their cell walls, according to a new study that may have implications for biofuels research. The study, which appeared in the Journal of Experimental Botany, reveals that the protein CSI1 […]

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is progressive, but slow to develop — or at least to reveal itself. In a new study, published in the journal Biological Psychiatry, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine, with colleagues elsewhere, report that early, subtle differences in cognitive performance, such as fewer […]

Bioengineers are on the brink of developing artificial organisms that will open up new applications in medicine and industry. Beat Christen discusses their risks and benefits. Every living creature on earth has parents, grandparents, great-​grandparents and so on – representing an unbroken line of ancestry all the way back to […]