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Researchers discover how specific mutation obstructs healthy blood cell maturation

In the veins, stem cells constantly mature and develop into different blood cells that are necessary for the body to work properly.

5 Apr 2019

Scientists use a promiscuous inhibitor to uncover cancer drug targets

Scientists at Harvard Medical School and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have developed a method that exploits the multitargeted nature of a chemical inhibitor to pinpoint vulnerabilities within cancer cells.

5 Apr 2019

Ground-breaking research helps better understand the threat posed by antifungal drug resistance

Ground-breaking work by university experts in Tennessee, Texas and Swansea is helping develop a better understanding of the growing threat posed by antifungal drug resistance.

4 Apr 2019

Mutation in Huntington’s disease may alter interactions of Huntingtin protein with Rac1

Since 1993, when the gene that causes Huntington's disease was identified, there has been intense focus on understanding how this genetic mutation causes the disease's severe progressive neural deterioration.

4 Apr 2019

Study identifies possible way to predict which melanomas are hot and cold

Melanomas tend to be "hot" or "cold" - if they're hot, immunotherapy lights melanoma tumors like beacons for elimination by the immune system; but 40-50 percent of melanomas are cold, making them invisible to the immune system, and patients with cold tumors tend to show little benefit from immunotherapies.

4 Apr 2019

Novel strategy to ameliorate symptoms of mitochondrial disease

Diseases affecting mitochondria, the powerhouses of our cells, are often caused by mutations in the mitochondrial DNA. Symptoms of such mitochondrial diseases in mice can be ameliorated by increasing their levels of mitochondrial DNA, according to a study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet.

3 Apr 2019

Salk researchers reveal new role for a driver of metastatic cancers

Metastatic ovarian, prostate and breast cancers are notoriously difficult to treat and often deadly. Now, Salk Institute researchers have revealed a new role for the CDK12 protein. The findings were published in the print version of Genes & Development on April 1, 2019.

3 Apr 2019

Researchers discover natural gene therapy for intractable skin disease

Pathogenic gene mutations causing a type of intractable skin disease can be eliminated from some parts of patients' skin as they age, according to Hokkaido University researchers and their collaborators in Japan. This represents a form of natural gene therapy.

1 Apr 2019

ETH researchers take major step towards personalized cancer immunotherapy

Cells belonging to the body's own immune system can help fight tumours. For several years now, this has allowed oncologists to use medications known as checkpoint inhibitors to encourage T cells to eliminate tumor cells.

30 Mar 2019

Study finds two new genes in the developmental defects of canine enamel

In addition to humans, hereditary disorders of enamel development occur in dogs, greatly impacting their dental health and wellbeing. A recent study reveals canine enamel disorders similar to those found in humans, linking them with ENAM and ACP4, two genes previously described in humans.

29 Mar 2019

Scientists identify two, extremely rare genetic variants linked to Alzheimer disease

Researchers have identified two, extremely rare genetic variants linked to Alzheimer disease (AD) for the first time.

29 Mar 2019

New migraine-associated mechanism discovered

A mutation in the gen that codes the ionic channel TRESK -involved in the control of neuron irritability- causes the dysfunction of some neurons that increase neuronal activity and induce migraine pain.

29 Mar 2019

UAB aging and longevity experts receive international prize

University of Alabama at Birmingham aging expert -- and once-upon-a-time lion trainer -- Steven Austad, Ph.D., and UAB postdoctoral fellow in longevity research Jessica Hoffman, Ph.D., have won the George C. Williams prize from the International Society for Evolution, Medicine and Public Health, or ISEMPH.

29 Mar 2019

Researchers develop new strategy to treat sickle cell disease and beta thalassemia

Researchers at Dana-Farber/Boston Children's Cancer and Blood Disorders Center and the University of Massachusetts Medical School have developed a strategy to treat two of the most common inherited blood diseases -- sickle cell disease and beta thalassemia -- applying CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing to patients' own blood stem cells.

29 Mar 2019

Woman who does not feel pain

A woman has been identified by doctors to be able to withstand pain. Surgeons were surprised to encounter her when they noticed that she made a completely painless recovery after a surgery.

28 Mar 2019

Study describes new muscular disease caused by mutation in myoglobin gene

Researchers of the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute led by Dr. Montse Olivé have described in Nature Communications a new muscular disease caused by a mutation in the myoglobin gene.

28 Mar 2019

Researchers discover underlying cause of hereditary muscle disease

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have discovered the underlying cause of a hereditary muscle disease first characterised in a Swedish family in 1980. It proves to be the first identified disease caused by defective myoglobin, the protein that transports oxygen in muscle cells.

27 Mar 2019

Discovery could lead to new drugs for pain conditions

If a particular protein is missing during the fetal stage, no neurons develop that convey pain, temperature and itch, a study from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden published in the journal Cell Reports shows. The discovery can eventually lead to new drugs for pain conditions.

27 Mar 2019

Immune system errors linked to development of childhood leukemia

Genetic mutations that drive the development of a common type of childhood leukemia can be traced back to errors by the immune system during the production of antibodies.

25 Mar 2019

Understanding genetic interactions holds key to new personalized therapies

When the Human Genome Project was completed, in 2003, it opened the door to a radical new idea of health - that of personalized medicine, in which disease risk and appropriate treatment would be gleaned from one's genetic makeup.

25 Mar 2019