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Study provides genomic insights into life history tradeoffs in butterflies

Have you ever wandered through your garden or a meadow on a summer day and wondered why and how butterflies exhibit such beautiful and diverse colors? Scientists have, especially when thinking about butterflies in the genus Colias. In most Colias butterflies, all males and most females are an orange or yellow color, but some females are white.

18 Dec 2019

Traffic-related air pollution increases risk of hypertension in pregnant woman

A new report from the National Toxicology Program (NTP) suggests that traffic-related air pollution increases a pregnant woman's risk for dangerous increases in blood pressure, known as hypertension.

18 Dec 2019

Researchers discover new way to supercharge protein production

Medicines such as insulin for diabetes and clotting factors for hemophilia are hard to synthesize in the lab. Such drugs are based on therapeutic proteins, so scientists have engineered bacteria into tiny protein-making factories.

18 Dec 2019

High lipoprotein(A) levels in people with type 1 diabetes add to elevated risk of cardiovascular disease

High blood levels of the lipid lipoprotein(a) in people with type 1 diabetes add to the already elevated risk of developing cardiovascular disease, researchers from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden report in a paper published in the prestigious journal Diabetes Care.

18 Dec 2019

Harmful alcohol consumption pattern may damage heart tissue

A pattern of harmful alcohol consumption, or heavy drinking, increases level of blood biomarkers indicating heart tissue damage, according to new research published today in the Journal of the American Heart Association, the open access journal of the American Heart Association.

18 Dec 2019

Researchers identify first gene in mice specific to memory retrieval

Can't remember something? Try waiting until later in the day. Researchers identified a gene in mice that seems to influence memory recall at different times of day and tracked how it causes mice to be more forgetful just before they normally wake up.

18 Dec 2019

Radiation-induced brain damage: new study reveals the mechanism

Following radiation therapy to the head for brain tumors, more than 80% of patients who live six months at least after the treatment report a loss of some cognitive functions such as memory, thinking and related tasks. Now a new study published in the journal Scientific Reports shows why this happens, which in turn could pave the way to correct this damage and protect the brain in future patients.

17 Dec 2019

Nature’s own gene therapy

A brand-new technique of gene therapy was reported on December 16, 2019, in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering. The scientists made use of the potential of human cells to produce biological nanoparticles chockful of edited genes, so that they could insert beneficial genes into people suffering from various disease processes.

17 Dec 2019

Researchers identify novel genetic signature with prognostic value for certain breast cancers

Researchers have identified a genetic signature with prognostic value for certain kinds of breast cancer. The discovery also contributes to a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms of pathological angiogenesis, the aberrant proliferation of blood vessels that occurs during cancer and other diseases.

17 Dec 2019

Brazilian researchers create hepatic organoids by 3D bioprinting

Using human blood cells, Brazilian researchers have succeeded in obtaining hepatic organoids ("mini-livers") that perform all of the liver's typical functions, such as producing vital proteins, storing vitamins, and secreting bile, among many others.

17 Dec 2019

Targeting specific nuclear transport systems may lead to possible therapeutic strategies for cancer

Although less often the focus of cancer research, recent studies have hinted at the possible importance of a type of protein known as nuclear transport receptors.

17 Dec 2019

Study finds new drivers of destructive inflammation

Scientists describe in Nature Immunology an entirely new molecular process in mice that triggers T cell-driven inflammation and causes different auto-immune diseases.

17 Dec 2019

Researchers identify protein that is key for successful viral DNA uncoating

Viruses have been part of animals and humans for eons. When viruses invade a cell, they can infiltrate the nucleus with their genome and become part of the genome of the infected organism. Viruses transfer their genes between various organisms, as well as between tissues containing well differentiated cells inside a living creature. But how they uncoat their well-packed genes and release them to cause infection is largely unknown.

17 Dec 2019

Researchers identify molecular machinery that drives rapid polymerization of actin filaments

Many cells in our body constantly change their shape and move within our tissues. For example, wound healing and the immune system depend on migrating cells.

17 Dec 2019

Using bacterial nano-syringes as drug transporters in medicine

Pathogens can use a range of toxins to damage their host organism. Bacteria, such as those responsible for causing the deadly Plague, use a special injection mechanism to deliver their poisonous contents into the host cell.

17 Dec 2019

New fabrication method for silk shows promise for use in biomedical devices

Researchers led by engineers at Tufts University have developed a novel, significantly more efficient fabrication method for silk that allows them to heat and mold the material into solid forms for a wide range of applications, including medical devices.

17 Dec 2019

Study: Blocking IL1α protein decreases severity of inflammation in Crohn's disease

Investigators at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine discovered that blocking interleukin-1α (IL1α), a protein that controls inflammation in the gut, markedly decreases the severity of intestinal inflammation in a mouse model of Crohn's disease (CD).

17 Dec 2019

Houston professor uses stem cells to develop next-generation biologic pacemakers

University of Houston associate professor of pharmacology Bradley McConnell is helping usher in a new age of cardiac pacemakers by using stem cells found in fat, converting them to heart cells, and reprogramming those to act as biologic pacemaker cells.

17 Dec 2019

Study shows nilotinib drug is safe and well tolerated in patients with Parkinson's disease

A clinical trial investigating the repurposed cancer drug nilotinib in people with Parkinson's disease finds that it is reasonably safe and well tolerated.

17 Dec 2019

New gene therapy has potential to reverse disease processes

Scientists have developed a new gene-therapy technique by transforming human cells into mass producers of tiny nano-sized particles full of genetic material that has the potential to reverse disease processes.

17 Dec 2019