Small Molecules News and Research

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Researcher develops small molecules that inhibit derailment of gene expression in cancer

Not everyone person who has a "cancer gene" will inevitably develop this disease in their lifetime. Thanks to a new area of research called epigenetics, we now know that many genes are only read under certain circumstances.

17 May 2018

Researchers are developing new algorithms to predict protein structure

With protein design dating back to the mid-1970s, today’s scientists have access to a huge amount of information and tools that they can use to create proteins – such abundant, diverse material, in fact, that the data they need may be hard to find.

16 May 2018

Scientists find way to inhibit growth of specific gut microbes associated with diseases

Emerging evidence suggests that microbes in the digestive system have a big influence on human health and may play a role in the onset of disease throughout the body.

3 May 2018

Researchers discover blood biomarkers that may help detect, confirm mild traumatic brain injury

Researchers from the University of California, Irvine, Georgetown University and the University of Rochester have found that specific small molecules in blood plasma may be useful in determining whether someone has sustained a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), commonly known as a concussion.

20 Apr 2018

Experts propose new solutions to increase benefit, affordability of targeted cancer medicines

Spending on cancer drugs in the United States has nearly doubled in the past five years and continues to grow, imposing substantial financial burden on patients with cancer.

18 Apr 2018

UT Southwestern's Dr. Nijhawan selected for ASCI's 2018 Seldin-Smith Award

UT Southwestern's Dr. Deepak Nijhawan became a co-recipient of the 2018 Donald Seldin-Holly Smith Award for Pioneering Research. The award recognizes Dr. Nijhawan's work identifying targets for cancer treatment.

10 Apr 2018

Researcher finds that shape of misfolded proteins may contribute to Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Huntington’s disease

Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Huntington's disease may have more in common than their effects on the functions of the brain and spinal cord. And finding that common thread could lead to a treatment that could work for all three.

2 Apr 2018

USC researchers launch global project that aims to curb worldwide rise of diabetes

USC researchers have launched a massive scientific effort to construct a detailed, virtual 3-D model of the pancreatic beta cell and its components -- a global project that aims to one day curb the worldwide rise of diabetes.

26 Mar 2018

Restoring enzyme may help reverse effects of vascular aging, study shows

As people age, their blood-vessel density and blood flow decrease, which is why it's harder to maintain muscle mass after 40 and endurance in the later decades, even with exercise.

23 Mar 2018

Researchers identify new mechanism to disrupt HIV latency

HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, has a secret life. Though anti-retroviral therapy can reduce its numbers, the virus can hide and avoid both treatments and the body's immune response.

8 Mar 2018

Research identifies new biomarkers for future dementia risk

Sudha Seshadri, M.D., founding director of the Glenn Biggs Institute for Alzheimer's & Neurodegenerative Diseases at UT Health San Antonio, is co-leader and senior author on research announced March 6 that identifies novel biomarkers of risk for future dementia.

6 Mar 2018

Salk researchers uncover power switch for muscles

If you've ever wondered how strenuous exercise translates into better endurance, researchers at the Salk Institute may have your answer. In a study published in the journal Cell Reports on March 6, 2018, scientists in Ronald Evans' lab have shown that the protein ERRγ (ERR gamma) helps deliver many of the benefits associated with endurance exercise.

6 Mar 2018

Researchers develop method to identify splicing-based biomarkers for liver cancer

Because liver cancer is particularly diverse, genetically, and prone to relapse, identifying biomarkers that can predict disease progression is a critical goal in the fight against it.

2 Mar 2018

New discovery may allow doctors to treat inflammation in neurodegenerative diseases

A new discovery about the immune system may allow doctors to treat harmful inflammation that damages the brain in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's. It might also let doctors save patients from the potentially deadly inflammation of sepsis, a full-body infection that kills a quarter-million Americans every year.

26 Feb 2018

Researchers discover new link between gut bacteria and obesity

Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have discovered a new link between gut bacteria and obesity. They found that certain amino acids in our blood can be connected to both obesity and the composition of the gut microbiome.

23 Feb 2018

Scientists decode molecular structure of healthy huntingtin protein

Mutations on a single gene, the huntingtin gene, are the cause of Huntington's disease. They lead to an incorrect form of the correspondent protein.

22 Feb 2018

Traces of caffeine and its byproducts in the blood can be indicative of Parkinson’s disease

Researchers at Juntendo University report in Neurology the potential use of blood levels of caffeine and its byproducts as biomarkers for Parkinson’s disease. The finding is promising for the development of a method enabling early identification of the disease.

16 Feb 2018

Potential new principle for treatment of multiple forms of cancer

A study published in Science Translational Medicine shows that small molecules that specifically inhibit an important selenium-containing enzyme may be useful in combating cancer. When researchers at Karolinska Institutet treated cancer in mice using these molecules, they observed rapid tumoricidal effects.

15 Feb 2018

Using CRISPR To Produce Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells

An interview with Dr. Sheng Ding about using a modified version of the CRISPR-Cas9 system to produce induced pluripotent stem cells.

9 Feb 2018

Study sheds light on Salmonella death at low temperatures

The most economical way to kill bacteria that cause common food-borne illnesses -- mostly caused by Salmonella enterica -- is heat, but, the mechanisms that kill Salmonella at lower temperatures were not fully understood until now, according to a team of researchers.

7 Feb 2018