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NSF CAREER award supports research into biomaterial that promotes osteochondral tissue regeneration

If you're able to walk without pain, give a silent shout-out to your cartilage.

11 Feb 2020

Researchers culture human blood-brain barrier on a chip

A scrupulous gatekeeper stands between the brain and its circulatory system to let in the good and keep out the bad, but this porter, called the blood-brain barrier, also blocks trial drugs to treat diseases like Alzheimer's or cancer from getting into the brain.

10 Feb 2020

Human textiles to replace damaged blood vessels

What if we could replace a patient's damaged blood vessels with brand new ones produced in a laboratory? This is the challenge set by Inserm researcher Nicolas L'Heureux, who is working on the human extracellular matrix - the structural support of human tissues that is found around practically all of the body's cells.

10 Feb 2020

Biological toolkit will help researchers design new functions in mammalian cells

A new synthetic biology toolkit developed at Northwestern University will help researchers design mammalian cells with new functionalities.

9 Feb 2020

Genetic fingerprints could help identify cancer-causing culprits

Causes of cancer are being cataloged through an international study revealing the genetic fingerprints of DNA-damaging processes that drive cancer development.

6 Feb 2020

Smart insulin-delivery patch could monitor and manage glucose levels in people with diabetes

UCLA bioengineers and colleagues at UNC School of Medicine and MIT have further developed a smart insulin-delivery patch that could one day monitor and manage glucose levels in people with diabetes and deliver the necessary insulin dosage.

5 Feb 2020

3D-printed scaffolds engraved with grooves hold promise for healing injuries

Who ever said bioengineers can't get their groove on? The Rice University team led by Antonios Mikos says otherwise with its development of a groovy method to seed sophisticated, 3D-printed tissue-engineering scaffolds with living cells to help heal injuries.

4 Feb 2020

Hendra antibody trial shows promise in a world-first human clinical trial

The Hendra virus is a potent pathogen transmitted to humans from animals that cause a severe and often fatal illness in both infected horses and humans. Originating from fruit bats, the virus caused an outbreak in Australia in 1994.

4 Feb 2020

Researchers develop an emergency stop switch for CAR T-cell therapies

Immunotherapy, unlike chemotherapy and radiotherapy, arms the body's immune system to attack cancer cells. In recent years, it has proven to be remarkably successful at treating leukemia, lymphoma and other liquid cancers, or cancers present in body fluids.

4 Feb 2020

Ludwig Cancer Research study develops a safer CAR-T therapy

A Ludwig Cancer Research study has devised a new type of chimeric antigen-receptor (CAR) T cell - a family of promising immunotherapies for cancer- that can be switched on and off on demand.

3 Feb 2020

Measuring 'stickiness' of cancer cells could improve prognostic evaluation of tumors

A team of researchers led by the University of California San Diego has created a device that measures how "sticky" cancer cells are, which could improve prognostic evaluation of patient tumors. The device is built with a microfluidic chamber that sorts cells by their physical ability to adhere to their environment.

3 Feb 2020

Regenerative biology could be used to restore mucus production, shows study

Mucus is a protective, slimy secretion produced by goblet cells and which lines organs of the respiratory, digestive, and reproductive systems. Slime production is essential to health, and an imbalance can be life-threatening.

31 Jan 2020

ERA4TB to transform the development of new therapies for tuberculosis

With a team of more than thirty public and private organisations and a budget over 200 million euro, ERA4TB aims to radically transform the way in which new therapies are developed for the treatment of tuberculosis.

30 Jan 2020

New insights into globular glial tauopathy could aid in the design of better drugs

Tauopathies are a group of neurodegenerative diseases characterized by the accumulation of phospho-tau, in other words tau associated to phosphate groups.

27 Jan 2020

Stanford scientists complete first global census of cell surface proteins

Stanford scientists have completed the first global census of diverse proteins sprouting tree-like from the outer membrane of a cell. These cell surface proteins govern how cells interact with one another and how they assemble into tissues and organs such as hearts and brains.

24 Jan 2020

3D capillary system offers a new approach to investigate obstruction of microvessels

Engineered human capillaries are providing an astounding view of how red blood cells transit ultra-small blood vessels.

23 Jan 2020

Potential Parkinson's treatment effectively targets a specific group of brain cells

Scientists have discovered that a non-invasive technique which could one day be used to treat Parkinson's disease, can successfully target a highly specific group of brain cells which play a key role in development of the condition.

22 Jan 2020

New synthetic system can guide electron transfer over long distances

Electrons are tough to pin down in biology. Learning how to harness electrons is no fool's errand because, when electrons move, they are the electricity that powers life.

21 Jan 2020

Biomaterial-based vaccine has potential to completely eliminate AML cells

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a deadly blood cancer that originates in the bone marrow and kills most of its victims within five years. Chemotherapy has been the standard AML treatment for over 40 years, and while it often causes the cancer to go into remission, it rarely completely eliminates the cancerous cells, which then lead to disease recurrence in nearly half of treated patients.

14 Jan 2020

Study uncovers how rice blast fungus uses its own cell wall to launch an attack

In response to environmental changes and nutrient starvation, cells are known to undergo extreme alterations. This includes switching from one type to another (“differentiation”) and changes in metabolic pathways (“metabolic switching”).

14 Jan 2020