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New gene therapy to treat cancer in children, young adults offers hopes and challenges

The first gene therapy for cancer, approved by the Food Drug Administration in August, will transform the treatment of a particular kind of cancer in children and young adults. It's transformative because it uses a patient's own immune cells to attack the cancer cells.

3 Oct 2017

Researchers win $2 million grant to refine and expand use of unique microscope

Researchers from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus and the University of Colorado Boulder have won a $2 million grant allowing them to refine a unique microscope they have developed while expanding its use to other scientists across the country.

3 Oct 2017

Liquid biopsy can reveal response to checkpoint inhibitor-based immunotherapies

In a first-of-its-kind study, University of California San Diego School of Medicine researchers report that a blood sample, or liquid biopsy, can reveal which patients will respond to checkpoint inhibitor-based immunotherapies.

3 Oct 2017

Estrogen acts as upstream regulator for energy metabolism and muscle cell viability, study finds

According to a research conducted at the University of Jyväskylä, estrogen acts as a regulator of muscle energy metabolism and muscle cell viability. Menopause leads to the cessation of ovarian estrogen production concurrent to the deterioration of muscle function.

3 Oct 2017

Statin use linked to reduced risk of S aureus bloodstream infection

Users of statins, widely prescribed for prevention of cardiac disease, have a 27% lower risk of contracting a Staphylococcus aureus (S aureus) bloodstream infection outside of a hospital, according to a new study in Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

3 Oct 2017

FDA approves Verzenio for advanced metastatic breast cancer

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a new drug Verzenio (abemaciclib) for the treatment of advanced or metastatic hormone receptor (HR)-positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-negative breast cancer.

2 Oct 2017

“Chemical surgery” on embryos to free them of a gene causing thalassemia

A team of Chinese researchers have for the first time “mended” defective embryos using chemical surgery to free them of a faulty gene that leads to beta thalassemia. Until now this defect was found to be incorrigible caused due to a single misspelling in the DNA code. Beta thalassemia is a dreaded blood disorder wherein the child is unable to make healthy blood needing blood transfusions on a regular basis. The study was published this week in the journal Protein and Cell.

2 Oct 2017

Zinc may help stop growth of esophageal cancer

Researchers at the University of Texas at Arlington have discovered that zinc targets and blocks a specific calcium channel in esophageal cancer cells, preventing them from proliferating.

2 Oct 2017

NsXeR protein: A new optogenetic tool to control muscle and neuronal cells

Scientists have examined a protein that will find application in optogenetics and could be used to control muscle and neuronal cells. The paper on the light-sensitive NsXeR protein of the xenorhodopsin class was published in Science Advances by the international team of researchers from MIPT, Research center Jülich, and Institut de Biologie Structurale.

30 Sep 2017

Researchers produce fluorinated molecules in living cells

Natural organic compounds that contain fluorine are rare because living organisms—with a few exceptions—do not produce them. American scientists have now genetically engineered a microbial host for organofluorine metabolism, allowing it to produce a fluoridated intermediate known as a diketide.

30 Sep 2017

TSRI scientists developed new strategy to discover novel anti-cancer therapies

Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have developed and demonstrated a promising new strategy for the discovery of novel anti-cancer therapies.

30 Sep 2017

Biochemists discover genes that determine animal complexity

Genes which determine animal complexity – or what makes humans so much more complex than a fruit fly or a sea urchin – have been identified for the first time.

30 Sep 2017

Impairing critical partnership between brain cells can lead to Alzheimer's disease

Researchers have discovered that impairing a critical partnership between brain cells can lead to neurodegeneration. The study published in Cell Metabolism reports a mechanism by which two types of brain cells, neurons and glia, normally support each other's functions.

30 Sep 2017

Scientists explore the reason behind impaired sense of smell in Parkinson's disease

The first symptom of Parkinson's disease is often an impaired sense of smell. This neurodegenerative disease primarily causes irreparable damage to nerve cells in a brain area involved in movement control.

30 Sep 2017

Researchers develop new surgical screws from human bone material

To heal broken bones using medical help, the surgical method of choice for decades have been metal screws, mainly made of titanium or stainless steel. During and after the healing process, these metal screws are seen by the body as disturbing foreign bodies and often have to be removed in a further unpleasant surgical intervention.

30 Sep 2017

Reducing antioxidant levels in the colon may have positive effect on GI inflammation

A new study finds that lowering the levels of an antioxidant in the colon has an unexpectedly positive effect on gastrointestinal (GI) inflammation. The paper is published ahead of print in the American Journal of Physiology - Gastrointestinal and Liver Physiology.

28 Sep 2017

Researchers develop new method to create endocytosis on demand

A solution to the problem of creating endocytosis on demand is being compared to 'hotwiring' a car. A team at Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick, has managed to trigger clathrin-mediated endocytosis in the lab. They did it by using a chemical rapamycin which diffuses in to the cell allowing them to trigger endocytosis to occur all over the cell.

28 Sep 2017

Novartis partners with UC Berkeley to pursue 'undruggable' disease targets

Novartis has joined forces with researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, to develop new technologies for the discovery of next-generation therapeutics, pursuing the vast number of disease targets in cancer and other illnesses that have eluded traditional small-molecule compounds and are considered "undruggable."

28 Sep 2017

Study identifies possibility of umbilical cord-derived stem cells in treating heart failure

A new study published in the American Heart Association Journal Circulation Research suggests that stem cells derived from umbilical cord show promise in treating heart failure.

28 Sep 2017