Related Science News

Pioneering research has given a fascinating fresh insight into how animal nervous systems evolved from simple structures to become the complex network transmitting signals between different parts of the body. The new study used simple multicellular organisms called Placozoa to reveal the beginnings of the nervous systems found in more complex […]

Neurons in the human brain receive electrical signals from thousands of other cells, and long neural extensions called dendrites play a critical role in incorporating all of that information so the cells can respond appropriately. Using hard-to-obtain samples of human brain tissue, MIT neuroscientists have now discovered that human dendrites […]

A new Tel Aviv University study finds that certain environmental conditions may precipitate structural changes that take place in myelin sheaths in the onset of multiple sclerosis (MS). Myelin sheaths are the “insulating tape” surrounding axons; axons carry electrical impulses in neurons. The research demonstrates that myelin sheaths undergo structural transitions when […]

A team from the University of Pennsylvania, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison are launching a project to develop new strategies for treating vision disorders using cells implanted in the retina. The work is one of five initiatives newly funded by the National Institutes of Health’s National Eye Institute (NEI) Audacious Goals Initiative. The program’s […]

Using the CURATE.AI artificial intelligence (AI) platform, a research team led by the National University of Singapore (NUS) managed to halt the progression of advanced prostate cancer in a patient by delivering optimal doses of medication. In a clinical study published in the journal Advanced Therapeutics, the researchers deployed the […]

Researchers from the University of Georgia have discovered that timing of exposure is a key factor in how certain contaminants affect the reproductive system—information that may help scientists understand the causes of reproductive disorders in wildlife and women. Scientists observed many of the negative effects of estrogen-mimicking contaminants on the reproductive […]

Using a combination of computational modeling and experimental techniques, a research team has developed new information about how intercellular communication affects the differentiation of an embryonic stem cell colony over time. By providing new information about the role of communication among cells, the research could lead to a better understanding […]

The discovery, published in Nature Materials, is the first chemically programmed approach to producing an artificial tissue. The findings, which could have major health applications in the future, could see chemically programmed synthetic tissue being used to support failing living tissues and to cure specific diseases. The development of synthetic tissue […]

Almost eight years ago, Stanford University bioengineer Manu Prakash was looking for a way to watch every cell in an adult living, behaving animal in elaborate detail. He searched the catalog of life and happened upon the simple marine animal Trichoplax adhaerens – or Tplax, as Prakash has come to call it. This ultra-flat […]

A new blood test for children with brain tumors may offer a safe way to allow doctors to measure the effectiveness of treatment even before changes are identified on scans, according to research led by UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals and Children’s National Health System. Unlike a standard brain biopsy, which entails […]

A detailed new review of nutritional science argues that most American diets are deficient in a key class of vitamins and minerals that play previously unrecognized roles in promoting longevity and in staving off chronic diseases such as heart disease, cancer and, potentially, neurodegeneration. In the review, published as a […]

Only a small proportion of cases of dementia are thought to be inherited – the cause of the vast majority is unknown. Now, in a study published in the journal Nature Communications, a team of scientists led by researchers at the University of Cambridge believe they may have found an explanation: […]