Laboratory News and Research

RSS

Findings on gut microbiome's interactions could contribute to new therapies for GI diseases

A study from the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences offers new insight on how the gut bacteria of dogs interact with a healthy vs. unhealthy GI tract, which could contribute to the development of new therapies for GI diseases in both dogs and humans.

6 Nov 2019

BfR symposium: Current trends and causes of foodborne disease outbreaks

To make food even safer for humans, experts from scientific institutions, food regulatory authorities and the business community will discuss current developments and strategies at the "Zoonoses and Food Safety" Symposium at the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment) on 4 and 5 November 2019, in Berlin-Marienfelde. Because some micro-organisms in food can cause health problems.

6 Nov 2019

Scientists discover structure of novel RNA-modifying enzyme

RNA, or ribonucleic acid, is present in the cells of all living beings and required to synthesize proteins. A research team at the University of California, Riverside, has discovered the structure of a novel RNA-modifying enzyme, ZCCHC4, and identified the mechanism that controls how this enzyme recognizes its substrate.

6 Nov 2019

As states with legal weed embrace vaping bans, black-market risks linger

Cannabis shops around Washington state are now required to hang signs warning customers of “severe lung injuries” and “deaths” associated with vaping.

6 Nov 2019

Researchers recommend actions to improve ventilation rates in classrooms

Roughly 85% of recently installed HVAC systems in K-12 classrooms investigated in California did not provide adequate ventilation, according to a study from UC Davis and the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab).

6 Nov 2019

New tiny magnesium implants are robust but dissolve without causing tissue damage

When surgeons want to fix bone fragments after a fracture, the critical question is what type of implants to use: screws and plates made of titanium or steel, which are mechanically and chemically very stable in the body, but have to be removed later on by another surgical procedure?

6 Nov 2019

New model based on dynamic neural code can help humans to localize sounds

One of the enduring puzzles of hearing loss is the decline in a person's ability to determine where a sound originates, a key survival faculty that allows animals - from lizards to humans - to pinpoint the location of danger, prey and group members.

6 Nov 2019

Pioneering brain chip to fight opioid addiction: first US clinical test

Opioid addiction is among the biggest medical conditions troubling the U.S. today, and is far from reaching a solution. In 2017, it claimed almost 50 deaths per 100,000 in the state of West Virginia – the highest drug-overdose-related death rate in the US. Today, however, there is a gleam of hope from a new trial of an old technology to help fight this battle – a brain-embedded chip to counter opioid-induced cravings in treatment-refractory patients.

6 Nov 2019

Study shows how the complex neural map of human brain operates

Fans of the blockbuster movie "Iron Man 3" might remember the characters step inside the digital projection of a "big brain" and watch as groups of neurons are "lit up" along the brain's neural "map" in response to physical touch.

6 Nov 2019

IBR receives $1.95 million NIH grant for research on rare diseases

The New York State Office for People With Developmental Disabilities' Institute for Basic Research in Developmental Disabilities has received a $1.95 million grant, for a five-year period, from the National Institute of Health's National Institute of General Medical Sciences to support IBR physician-scientist Gholson Lyon, MD, PhD, in his research on rare diseases.

5 Nov 2019

Penn researchers tag CAR T cells with imaging markers to monitor cancer therapy

With CAR T cell therapy, a patient's own immune cells are genetically modified and inserted back into the body to find and kill cancer. This form of immunotherapy has already revolutionized some cancer treatments, but once the CAR T cells are inside a patient, where do they go? How do doctors know that they have successfully reached their target and that they are continuing to fight disease weeks, months, or even years later?

5 Nov 2019

The Achilles heel of APC-mutated colon tumors identified

In almost all cases of colon cancer, a specific gene is mutated – this offers opportunities to develop broadly effective therapeutic approaches. Research teams in Würzburg have taken this a step further.

5 Nov 2019

Researchers successfully treat pain using nanoparticles to deliver a non-opioid medication

The use of nanoparticles to deliver a drug into specific nerve cells has resulted in significantly improved pain relief.

5 Nov 2019

Researchers find genes from 'fossil' virus in human DNA to be active

Genes from a virus that was stitched into the human genome thousands of years ago are active, producing proteins in the human brain and other tissues, according to researchers at the University of Washington School of Medicine and the Laval University School of Medicine in Quebec, Canada.

5 Nov 2019

FDA keeps brand-name drugs on a fast path to market ― despite manufacturing concerns

After unanimously voting to recommend a miraculous hepatitis C drug for approval in 2013, a panel of experts advising the Food and Drug Administration gushed about what they'd accomplished.

5 Nov 2019

Mother-infant free-play interactions have positive effect on child's obesity risk trajectories

The deleterious effects that obesity has on an individual's health and the difficulty of reversing it in adults are well-known, ranging from diabetes and heart disease to cancer.

5 Nov 2019

Researchers produce synthetic phages that attack broader range of bacterial strains

Bacteriophages ("phages" for short) are viruses that infect bacteria. Phages are highly host-specific and will typically only infect and kill an individual species or even subspecies of bacteria. Compared to conventional antibiotics, phages do not indiscriminately kill bacteria.

4 Nov 2019

Researchers develop new type of transposase protein with improved biochemical properties

The team, comprising researchers from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, the Universitätsklinikum Würzburg and the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut, managed to design a new variant of the Sleeping Beauty transposase with dramatically improved biochemical properties.

4 Nov 2019

Nanoparticle drug delivery enhances and prolongs pain relief in animal models

An international team of researchers has used nanoparticles to deliver a drug- one that previously failed in clinical trials for pain- into specific compartments of nerve cells, dramatically increasing its ability to treat pain in mice and rats.

4 Nov 2019

Sesame allergy is common among children with other food allergies

Investigators at the National Institutes of Health have found that sesame allergy is common among children with other food allergies, occurring in an estimated 17% of this population.

4 Nov 2019