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UC Santa Cruz leads collaborative project to develop novel technology for improving wound healing

UC Santa Cruz will lead a collaborative project to develop innovative technology for improving the healing of serious wounds, funded by a contract worth up to $16 million from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

27 Feb 2020

Two new grants will help researchers to study neurotechnology, drug delivery system

Two grants will fund interdisciplinary research at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, including a look at how neurons and muscle cells communicate with each other and also to develop a drug delivery system for treatment of Alzheimer's disease.

23 Feb 2020

Harmful levels of metal linked to DNA damage found in the urine of e-cigarette users

Researchers at the University of California, Riverside, have completed a cross-sectional human study that compares biomarkers and metal concentrations in the urine of e-cigarette users, nonsmokers, and cigarette smokers.

20 Feb 2020

Researchers map the cellular diversity of entire salivary gland tumors

What goes on inside and between individual cells during the very earliest stages of tumor development? Single cell sequencing technologies and a mouse model have enabled researchers to comprehensively map the cellular diversity of whole salivary gland tumors and trace the path of cancer stem cells.

20 Feb 2020

Study uses machine learning to identify personalized brain networks in kids

Machine learning is helping Penn Medicine researchers identify the size and shape of brain networks in individual children, which may be useful for understanding psychiatric disorders.

19 Feb 2020

Gene-editing taken to advanced levels in human stem cells

A new study published in the journal Stem Cell Reports in January 2020 reports the use of an adaptation to a commonly used gene editing technology to achieve a more than 900% increase in efficiency.

30 Jan 2020

Study on axolotl's ability to regenerate might help find ways to restore damaged tissue in humans

The type of salamander called axolotl, with its frilly gills and widely spaced eyes, looks like an alien and has other-worldly powers of regeneration. Lose a limb, part of the heart or even a large portion of its brain? No problem: They grow back.

28 Jan 2020

Snake stem cells create real venom to use as medicine

Poisonous snakes kill more than 90,000 people each year across the globe, with about 1.2 million to 5.5 million snake bites occur annually. Despite the venomous bite, scientists have limited knowledge of the snake’s venom, complicating efforts to develop treatments. A new study has found that snake venom gland cells can be cultured in the lab as adult-stem-cell-based organoids, producing real venom, which can be used to develop treatments.

26 Jan 2020

Protein linked with neurodegenerative diseases may help explore the aggressive behavior of gliomas

A protein typically associated with neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's might help scientists explore how gliomas, a type of cancerous brain tumor, become so aggressive.

22 Jan 2020

NAU scientists study zebrafish to find powerful melanoma-fighting drugs

Melanoma is the most lethal type of skin cancer and unusually common in Arizona, where residents are exposed to higher-than-average amounts of ultraviolet radiation. However, Northern Arizona University scientists believe the formula for a combination of melanoma-fighting drugs is within reach.

21 Jan 2020

NAU scientists in search of a powerful combination of melanoma-fighting drugs

Melanoma is the most lethal type of skin cancer and unusually common in Arizona, where residents are exposed to higher-than-average amounts of ultraviolet radiation.

13 Jan 2020

Boosting the number of neurons improves learning and memory of old mice

We all will experience it at some point, unfortunately: The older we get the more our brains will find it difficult to learn and remember new things.

9 Jan 2020

Loss of stress hormone is a hallmark of pancreatitis, shows study

In work that could have clinical implications, UT Southwestern researchers find that humans and mice with pancreatitis are deficient in a stress hormone called FGF21.

9 Jan 2020

Dresden scientists identify newborn neurons in zebrafish

The zebrafish is a master of regeneration: If brain cells are lost due to injury or disease, it can simply reproduce them - contrary to humans where this only happens in the fetal stage. However, the zebrafish is evolutionarily related to humans and, thus, possesses the same brain cell types as humans.

7 Jan 2020

Discovery of cellular 'hands' could have implications in the fields of cell, developmental biology

The protein, called syndecan-4, combines with fellow cell membrane proteins, called integrins, to form protruding 'hands' that sense the environment outside the cell.

6 Jan 2020

Genetic mystery of infertility in fruit flies discovered

Researchers have discovered a novel parasitic gene in fruit flies that is responsible for destroying the eggs in the ovaries of their daughters.

17 Dec 2019

Penn researchers track defective sperm epigenome linked to male infertility

One out of eight couples has trouble conceiving, with nearly a quarter of those cases caused by unexplained male infertility. For the past decade, research has linked that infertility to defective sperm that fail to "evict" proteins called histones from DNA during development.

16 Dec 2019

New gene technology shows 100-fold efficiency in targeting antibiotic-resistant bacteria

Taking advantage of powerful advances in CRISPR gene editing, scientists at the University of California San Diego have set their sights on one of society's most formidable threats to human health.

16 Dec 2019

Purification scheme allows collection of elusive blood stem cells from zebrafish

Hematopoietic stem cells are multipotent cells that can develop into every type of blood cell in the body.

2 Dec 2019

UCLA scientists discover link between a protein and human blood stem cell self-renewal

UCLA scientists have discovered a link between a protein and the ability of human blood stem cells to self-renew. In a study published today in the journal Nature, the team reports that activating the protein causes blood stem cells to self-renew at least twelvefold in laboratory conditions.

27 Nov 2019