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New approach may lead to better diagnostic techniques for autoimmune disorders

If we really want to know how our body's cells work - or don't work, in the case of disease - we might need to look beyond their genes and even beyond the proteins they are made of.

23 Oct 2018

NCI grant awarded to Abramson Cancer Center to study CAR T cells In solid tumors

A new program project grant from the National Cancer Institute will fund research by the Translational Center of Excellence for Lung Cancer Immunology at the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania to improve the effectiveness of chimeric antigen receptor T cell therapy at fighting solid tumors.

23 Oct 2018

Plastics now commonly found in human stools

Nearly eight billion metric tons of plastic finds its way into the oceans each year. This huge amount of plastic either washes ashore or breaks down into tiny pieces that are less than 5 millimeters in diameter and are called microplastics.

22 Oct 2018

Researchers identify common genetic connection in lung conditions

An international research team led by members of the University of Colorado School of Medicine faculty has identified a genetic connection between rheumatoid arthritis-associated interstitial lung disease and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

22 Oct 2018

New topical gel can prevent pesticide-induced toxicity and lethality

Farmers are exposed to toxic pesticides, through skin contact and inhalation, during the spraying of pesticides. This is a severe health hazard. In the last year, from the Vidharbha region in Maharashtra alone, spraying is thought to have led to over 40 deaths, 25 cases of lost vision, and over 1000 hospitalizations.

22 Oct 2018

New orthodontic bracket bonding adhesive protects tooth surfaces from decay

Researchers at Queen Mary University of London have produced a new orthodontic bracket bonding adhesive that protects the tooth surfaces around the brackets from decay. This decay is often referred to as white spot lesions which affects, according to a 2015 meta-analysis, nearly 70 percent of people fitted with orthodontic braces.

22 Oct 2018

Breathing through the nose improves memory consolidation

The way we breathe may affect how well our memories are consolidated (i.e. reinforced and stabilized). If we breathe through the nose rather than the mouth after trying to learn a set of smells, we remember them better, researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden report in The Journal of Neuroscience.

22 Oct 2018

Innovative strategy opens up new avenue of treatment for anthrax infections

A team led by Professor Arne Skerra at the Technical University of Munich has developed an innovative strategy for preventing the anthrax bacterium from absorbing iron, which is crucial for its survival.

22 Oct 2018

Researchers develop promising targeted strategy to treat chemo-resistant blood cancer

Researchers from The Ottawa Hospital and the University of Ottawa have developed a promising targeted strategy to treat chemotherapy-resistant acute myeloid leukemia and a diagnostic test to determine which AML patients would most likely benefit from this treatment.

22 Oct 2018

Drug cocktail that increases lifespan discovered

A team of researchers led by Principal Investigator Dr Jan Gruber from Yale-NUS College has discovered a combination of pharmaceutical drugs that not only increases healthy lifespan in the microscopic worm Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans), but also delays the rate of ageing in them, a finding that could someday mean longer, healthier lives for humans.

22 Oct 2018

Researchers produce artificial antibody capable of blocking prions in the laboratory

Prion diseases affect the brain, causing neurodegenerative problems that always lead to death. They attracted attention in the late 1990s due to the "Mad Cow" scare.

22 Oct 2018

New 3D bioprinting technique shows potential for artificial tissue fabrication

University of Colorado Boulder engineers have developed a 3D printing technique that allows for localized control of an object's firmness, opening up new biomedical avenues that could one day include artificial arteries and organ tissue.

22 Oct 2018

Research provides insight into neurobiology of aggression and bullying

Duke-NUS researchers have discovered that a growth factor protein, called brain-derived neurotrophic factor, and its receptor, tropomyosin receptor kinase B affects social dominance in mice. The research has implications for understanding the neurobiology of aggression and bullying.

20 Oct 2018

Neuroscientists identify brain region that appears to be related to food preference decisions

At holiday buffets and potlucks, people make quick calculations about which dishes to try and how much to take of each. Johns Hopkins University neuroscientists have found a brain region that appears to be strongly connected to such food preference decisions.

20 Oct 2018

Study shows correlation between spatial memory and the sense of smell

People who have better spatial memory are also better at identifying odors, according to a study published this week in Nature Communications.

20 Oct 2018

ApoE4 gene linked with chronic inflammation increases risk for Alzheimer's disease

While it is widely shown that possessing the ApoE4 gene is the major genetic risk factor of Alzheimer's disease, not all ApoE4 carriers develop AD.

20 Oct 2018

Dysfunction of single gene leads to miscarriages

A single gene of the mother plays such a crucial role in the development of the placenta that its dysfunction leads to miscarriages.

19 Oct 2018

Human neurons employ highly compartmentalized signaling, study shows

Human neurons are much larger than those of model organisms mice and rats, so it's been unclear whether it's size that makes a difference in our brain's computational power.

19 Oct 2018

Weight loss success associated with brain areas involved in self-control

New research suggests that higher-level brain functions have a major role in losing weight. In a study among 24 participants at a weight-loss clinic, those who achieved greatest success in terms of weight loss demonstrated more activity in the brain regions of the lateral prefrontal cortex associated with self-control.

19 Oct 2018

Prion strain diversity may be greater than previously thought

The first example of prion strains that replicate independently in vitro and in vivo suggests that strain diversity may be greater than previously thought, according to a study published October 18 in the open-access journal PLOS Pathogens by Jason Bartz of Creighton University, and colleagues.

19 Oct 2018