Medical Science News

RSS

Researchers aim to demystify bladder immunity

We know that the bladder is a poorly understood organ, critical for storing metabolic waste. What we don’t know is how this unique environment impacts bladder immunity to common diseases such as urinary tract infections and bladder cancer.

6 Dec 2018

New EU-funded project provides insight into how the brain develops

The human brain is comprised of billions of different types of cells. These cells are then organized into sophisticated networks, each of which determines a specific function of the brain. But how do the neurons, or nerve cells that form these networks, find the right network? And what happens when they don’t?

6 Dec 2018

Boosting our defenses to fight Klebsiella infections

Although a relatively common infection, some bacteria that causes pneumonia can be particularly deadly. As a case in point, take Klebsiella pneumoniae, which has been included on the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) list of infections that desperately need new treatments.

6 Dec 2018

Study reveals why some children are susceptible to the effects of maltreatment

People who experience childhood maltreatment frequently have perturbations in their brain architecture, regardless of whether they develop psychiatric symptoms, but a study in Biological Psychiatry found additional alterations in people who don't develop symptoms.

6 Dec 2018

UCR postdoctoral researcher wins prestigious NIH fellowship to study neural crest cells

Rebekah Charney, a postdoctoral researcher in the School of Medicine at the University of California, Riverside, has been awarded the prestigious Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award Individual Postdoctoral Fellowship by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research of the National Institutes of Health.

6 Dec 2018

Protecting powerhouse of cells could provide better way to treat acute kidney injury

For the first time, scientists have described the body's natural mechanism for temporarily protecting the powerhouses of kidney cells when injury or disease means they aren't getting enough blood or oxygen.

6 Dec 2018

New immuno-assay can detect small molecules with 50-fold greater sensitivity

As medical science has come to understand that the human body is controlled on the molecular level by various proteins, hormones, drugs, and other substances, technologies have developed to detect levels of these molecules in order to monitor health and diagnose disease.

6 Dec 2018

Mapping brain microglia

Microglia are known to be important to brain function. The immune cells have been found to protect the brain from injury and infection and are critical during brain development, helping circuits wire properly. They also seem to play a role in disease -- showing up, for example, around brain plaques in people with Alzheimer's.

6 Dec 2018

Study reveals how the absence of Dna2 enzyme affects chromosome instability

Cells have in place a number of mechanisms to protect the integrity of the genome, including processes that repair mistakes that may occur during DNA replication.

6 Dec 2018

New method could lead to better understanding of complex interactions between human gut microbes

The gut microbiome -- the world of microbes that inhabit the human intestinal tract -- has captured the interest of scientists and clinicians for its critical role in health.

6 Dec 2018

UAB research may point a path to more effective influenza vaccines

Seasonal influenza vaccines are typically less than 50 percent effective, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention studies. Research at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, published this week in Nature Immunology, may point a path to more effective vaccines.

6 Dec 2018

Individual neurons located within the brain have implications for psychiatric diseases

Everyone makes little everyday mistakes out of habit--a waiter says, "Enjoy your meal," and you respond with, "You, too!" before realizing that the person is not, in fact, going to be enjoying your meal.

6 Dec 2018

Researchers develop biosensors to detect and measure metastatic potential of cancer cells

The spread of invasive cancer cells from a tumor's original site to distant parts of the body is known as metastasis. It is the leading cause of death in people with cancer. In a paper published online in iScience, University of California San Diego School of Medicine researchers reported engineering sensors that can detect and measure the metastatic potential of single cancer cells.

6 Dec 2018

Spinal cord injury disrupts the body's internal clock, study shows

Although paralysis is the most noticeable result of a spinal cord injury, a new study by researchers at The University of Texas at Austin suggests such injuries could throw off the internal clock of the entire body's daily activities, from hormones to sleep-wake schedules.

6 Dec 2018

New therapeutic strategy is emerging for type 2 diabetes

Diabetes is a disease in which blood sugar levels are high over a prolonged period (hyperglycemia). In the case of type 2 diabetes, this phenomenon which is caused by a disruption of the glucose metabolism develops progressively and insidiously.

6 Dec 2018

Xenotransplantation - Pig heart transplants keep baboons alive

A group of researchers have successfully transplanted pig hearts onto baboons and studied then for a long duration to see if the transplant was a success.

5 Dec 2018

Parent's exposure to dirty air may spell heart trouble for offspring, study suggests

A parent's exposure to dirty air before conception might spell heart trouble for the next generation, a new animal study suggests.

5 Dec 2018

Researchers examine why HIV-infected patients have higher rates of cancer

AIDS patients suffer higher rates of cancer because they have fewer T-cells in their bodies to fight disease. But new research examines why HIV-infected patients have higher rates of cancer--among the leading causes of death among that population--than the general population.

5 Dec 2018

Green space linked to reduced risk of heart disease and stroke

Researchers have shown that people who live in neighborhoods with denser greens paces may be at a lower risk of developing heart disease and stroke.

5 Dec 2018

‘Youth factor’ inside bone marrow stem cells can have rejuvenating effect on tissue

For a child, recovering from a broken bone is typically a short-lived, albeit painful, convalescence. But for older adults, it can be a protracted and potentially life-threatening process.

5 Dec 2018