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Novel method to extract valuable psychiatric symptom information from doctors' notes

Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School have developed a new method to extract valuable symptom information from doctors' notes, allowing them to capture the complexity of psychiatric disorders that is missed by traditional sources of clinical data.

26 Feb 2018

Repurposing leukemia drugs may be effective approach for treating metastatic melanoma patients

Data from a new study led by University of Kentucky Markey Cancer Center researchers shows that repurposing drugs used to treat leukemia has promise for preventing melanoma metastasis.

26 Feb 2018

New NIH study aims to identify biomarkers of AMD progression

A new clinical study led by the National Eye Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health, will follow 500 people over five years to learn more about the natural history of early age-related macular degeneration.

26 Feb 2018

New discovery could help understand and treat glaucoma

Researchers have discovered two distinct groups of short molecules that regulate gene expression in the eyes of people with two different forms of glaucoma.

26 Feb 2018

Research provides new directions in understanding and fighting glaucoma

Two distinctive handfuls of short molecules that regulate gene expression have been found in the eye fluid of patients with two distinct types of vision degenerating glaucoma.

26 Feb 2018

Scientists reveal new insights into mechanism of gene regulation by 'magic spot'

Using an innovative crystallization technique for studying three-dimensional structures of gene transcription machinery, an international team of researchers, led by scientists at Penn State, has revealed new insights into the long debated action of the "magic spot"--a molecule that controls gene expression in Eschericahia coli and many other bacteria when the bacteria are stressed.

24 Feb 2018

Genetic variants make Asians and Europeans more prone to severe dengue

As globalization and climate change spread tropical infectious diseases around the globe, not all populations have the same degree of susceptibility.

23 Feb 2018

Child’s snacking patterns could be linked to genetics, study finds

Whether your child asks for crackers, cookies or veggies to snack on could be linked to genetics, according to new findings from the Guelph Family Health Study at the University of Guelph.

23 Feb 2018

Asthmatics have lower degree of DNA methylation in certain immune cells

Children with asthma have epigenetic DNA changes in certain cells of their immune system, a major international study involving researchers at Karolinska Institutet shows. The finding, which is presented in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine, can one day lead to improved diagnostics and treatment.

23 Feb 2018

New study identifies mechanisms to lengthen egg viability in worms

Women have been told for years that if they don't have children before their mid-30s, they may not be able to. But a new study from Princeton University's Coleen Murphy has identified a drug that extends egg viability in worms, even when taken midway through the fertile window, which could theoretically extend women's fertility by three to six years.

23 Feb 2018

Researchers describe important step toward gene therapy for patients with Sandhoff disease

Babies with the rare, deadly genetic disorder Sandhoff disease begin to miss developmental milestones just months after birth. Lacking muscle tone, they never learn to sit up, develop heads too large to lift and eventually suffer uncontrollable seizures. There is no cure.

22 Feb 2018

Calorie restriction improves intestinal-tissue regeneration after injury

Dramatic calorie restriction, diets reduced by 40 percent of a normal calorie total, have long been known to extend health span, the duration of disease-free aging, in animal studies, and even to extend life span in most animal species examined.

22 Feb 2018

C-sections and gut bacteria linked to childhood obesity risk

New CHILD Study research has found that overweight and obese women are more like to have children who are overweight or obese by three years of age--and that bacteria in the gut may be partially to blame.

22 Feb 2018

UCLA researchers use fluorescent colored proteins to trace origin of heart cells

UCLA researchers used fluorescent colored proteins to trace how cardiomyocytes -- cells in heart muscle that enable it to pump blood -- are produced in mouse embryos. The findings could eventually lead to methods for regenerating heart tissue in human adults.

22 Feb 2018

Epigenetic changes due to normal aging process linked to cancer risk

Some scientists have hypothesized that tumor-promoting changes in cells during cancer development--particularly an epigenetic change involving DNA methylation--arise from rogue cells escaping a natural cell deterioration process called senescence.

22 Feb 2018

Researchers discover new regulator of the immune system

Academy Professor Riitta Lahesmaa's research group from Turku Centre for Biotechnology of the University of Turku and Åbo Akademi University, Finland, has discovered a new regulator of the immune system, a key factor that controls development of regulatory T cells.

22 Feb 2018

Researchers discover new interaction mechanism of unstructured proteins

Proteins are among the most important biomolecules and are the key mediators of molecular communication between and within cells. For two proteins to be able to bind, specific regions of their three-dimensional structure have to exactly match one another - like a key that fits into a lock.

22 Feb 2018

Comparing low-fat and low-carb diets finds little difference

Researchers have studied the effects of a low fat versus and low carbohydrate diet over one year in overweight and obese individuals and come up with some insights into their genetic makeup as well as responses to these diets.

22 Feb 2018

Penn study sheds new light on immune cell identity

Almost all cells in the human body have identical DNA sequences, yet there are 200-plus cell types with different sizes, shapes, and chemical compositions. Determining what parts of the genome are read to make protein and which are silenced is orchestrated by proteins called transcription factors.

21 Feb 2018

Researchers discover five new genetic changes that may increase pancreatic cancer risk

In what is believed to be the largest pancreatic cancer genome-wide association study to date, researchers at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center and the National Cancer Institute, and collaborators from over 80 other institutions worldwide discovered changes to five new regions in the human genome that may increase the risk of pancreatic cancer.

21 Feb 2018