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Super agers' resilience against Alzheimer's disease linked to protective gene variant

The gene variant posing the greatest genetic risk of late-onset Alzheimer's disease (AD) is called APOE-ε4. A different variant of the same gene, APOE-ε2, is thought to confer protection against AD.

19 Jan 2026

UC San Diego project aims to bioprint patient-specific transplantable human livers

Liver failure is one of the most serious and deadly medical conditions, claiming thousands of lives each year as patients in the United States wait for a donor organ.

14 Jan 2026

Novel liquid biopsy technology could advance cancer diagnostics and monitoring

A novel liquid biopsy technology is set to advance cancer diagnostics and monitoring by overcoming the long-standing challenge of simultaneously achieving high sensitivity, broad coverage, and simple workflow.

14 Jan 2026

APOE gene: A major driver in Alzheimer's disease

Potentially more than 90% of Alzheimer's disease cases would not occur without the contribution of a single gene (APOE), according to a new analysis led by UCL researchers.

9 Jan 2026

TAAR1 mutation impairs brain signaling in schizophrenia

A genetic mutation passed from mother to children in families affected by schizophrenia has now been shown to completely silence a brain receptor that pharmaceutical companies are racing to target with new drugs.

6 Jan 2026

High-fat cheese and cream consumption links to lower dementia risk over 25 years

Higher intake of high-fat cheese and cream was associated with a lower risk of all-cause dementia over 25 years in a large Swedish cohort, while low-fat dairy showed no association. Associations were strongest for vascular dementia and among APOE ε4 non-carriers, with findings remaining observational.

23 Dec 2025

Simple blood test maps hidden Alzheimer’s disease changes

This population-based study used plasma pTau217 to estimate how common Alzheimer’s disease neuropathological changes are across age and cognitive status in a Norwegian community cohort. Prevalence rose steeply with age and was strongly associated with APOE ε4 genotype, education level, and kidney function, with implications for future use of blood biomarkers in clinical practice.

21 Dec 2025

Highly sensitive CRISPR-based method designed to detect low-frequency cancer mutations

Liquid biopsy is increasingly recognized as a promising tool for cancer detection and treatment monitoring, yet its effectiveness is often limited by the extremely low levels of tumor-derived DNA circulating in the blood.

9 Dec 2025

Bacterial enzyme linked to heart complications in pneumonia

Pneumonia is a disease that burdens the healthcare system with more that 1.2 million emergency room visits each year and more than 41,000 adult deaths in the United States.

4 Dec 2025

Human gene maps show widespread gaps in non-European representation

Human gene maps contain major blind spots because they were built largely from the DNA sequences of people with European ancestry, according to a study published today in Nature Communications.

3 Dec 2025

AI model ranks genetic variants from severe to mild disease mutations

popEVE combines evolutionary insights with human population data to identify damaging genetic mutations, improving variant scoring for rare diseases.

3 Dec 2025

Whole genome sequencing reveals how much human heritability we can finally explain

Whole genome sequencing in nearly 500,000 UK Biobank participants shows that observed rare and common variants now explain about 88% of family based heritability for many human traits. By partitioning heritability into rare versus common and coding versus non-coding components, the study narrows where missing heritability still hides and highlights traits that remain only partly understood.

13 Nov 2025

Switching APOE4 to APOE2 in adult mice reduces Alzheimer’s pathology and improves memory

Replacing APOE4 with APOE2 in adult mice rapidly reshapes brain lipids and gene expression, even after development is complete. This switch, especially when targeted to astrocytes, reduces amyloid burden, dampens gliosis, and improves associative memory despite E2-like peripheral lipid risks.

12 Nov 2025

Genetic and cellular mechanisms underlying steatotic liver disease

Steatotic liver disease (SLD), mainly encompassing metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), alcohol-related liver disease (ALD), and metabolic dysfunction and ALD (MetALD), has emerged as the dominant cause of chronic liver disease worldwide, displacing viral hepatitis as the primary aetiology.

10 Nov 2025

Alzheimer’s breakthrough reveals how tweaking one gene shields brain connections

Lowering the transcription factor PU.1 reprograms microglia into a neuroprotective, lymphoid-like state that compacts amyloid, blocks tau spread, and preserves synapses in Alzheimer’s disease. Microglial CD28 signaling helps restrain inflammation, revealing a regulatory switch that may inform future immunotherapies targeting microglia rather than neurons.

6 Nov 2025

Proimmune Ltd introduces Prove® SL Self-Loading MHC Class I Monomers to improve T cell research flexibility

ProImmune Ltd, a global leader in life science reagents and services, today announced the launch of its new ProVE® SL Self-Loading MHC Class I Monomers.

31 Oct 2025

Nuclear binding protein identified as key contributor to trisomy 21-related CHDs

Three copies of chromosome 21 causes Down syndrome (DS), and roughly half of children born each year in the United States with DS-approximately 2,600-also have congenital heart defects (CHDs).

22 Oct 2025

Genetic inflammatory signature defines depression subtypes and treatment response

Researchers led by Prof. Alessandro Serretti at Kore University of Enna have identified a genetic inflammatory signature that defines specific depression subtypes and influences how patients respond to antidepressant medications, according to new peer-reviewed research published today in Genomic Psychiatry.

21 Oct 2025

Researchers develop a powerful new tool to sharpen the accuracy of genetic testing

Researchers at Texas Children's Neurological Research Institute (NRI) and Baylor College of Medicine have developed a powerful new tool within the Genome Aggregation Database (gnomAD) to sharpen the accuracy of genetic testing – a breakthrough with direct implications for patient diagnoses and care worldwide.

6 Oct 2025

Study identifies hundreds of genes, including novel ones, governing blood molecule levels

A new study, published today in Nature Genetics, created the largest genetic map of human metabolism, revealing new insights on the role of metabolites in health and disease and creating a blueprint for further research.

3 Oct 2025