U.S. President Donald Trump’s 105th day in the White House was made memorable as the House voted to overhaul the 2010 Affordable Care Act, more popularly known as Obamacare. In his opening address on Thursday (May 4), House Speaker Paul Ryan, a staunch supporter of the GOP health bill – the American Health Care Act –...
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The Endoplasmic Reticulum: Networking Inside the Cell
Like a successful business networker, a cell’s endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is the structure that reaches out—quite literally—to form connections with many different parts of a cell. In several important ways, the ER enables those other parts, or organelles, to do their jobs. Exciting new images of this key member of the cellular workforce may clarify...
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New defence mechanism against bacteria discovered
Researchers in dermatology at Lund University in Sweden believe they have cracked the mystery of why we are able to quickly prevent an infection from spreading uncontrollably in the body during wounding. They believe this knowledge may be of clinical significance for developing new ways to counteract bacteria. “Perhaps we don’t need to kill them...
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Mitochondria found to run as high as 50 C
Mitochondria. (Phys.org)—A team of researchers with members from France, Korea and Germany has found that temperatures inside human mitochondria can run as high as 50°C. In their paper uploaded to the preprint server bioRxiv, the group describes how they used temperature-sensitive dyes to determine the temperature of the organelles and what their findings might mean...
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Closer to a cure: CRISPR cuts HIV from its cellular hideout
CRISPR-Cas9 has been used to eliminate HIV from mice, in another step towards a possible permanent cure Last year, researchers at Temple University and the University of Pittsburgh unveiled a proof-of-concept study that described how the CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing tool could be used to eliminate HIV from infected cells. Now, in another potential step towards a permanent...
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Fluid flow in the brain unravelled for the first time
The puzzle of how the brain regulates blood flow to prevent it from being flooded and then starved every time the heart beats has been solved with the help of engineering. Anyone who has felt the pulse in their own neck will have a sense of the sudden rush of blood that is pumped to...
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Disfiguring eye symptoms diminish in Graves’ eye disease drug trial
Research led Terry J. Smith, M.D., and Raymond Douglas, M.D., Ph.D., while at the University of Michigan Kellogg Eye Center, shows success of teprotumumab in safely reducing disfiguring eye symptoms of Graves’ eye disease. The disease is characterized by inflammation and a buildup of tissue around the eyes that cause them to bulge painfully...
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Connecting the dots between insulin resistance, unhealthy blood vessels and cancer
Animal studies examine risk factors that may overlap between colorectal cancer and cardiovascular disease Christian Rask-Madsen, M.D., Ph.D., is assistant investigator in the Section on Vascular Biology and Complications at Joslin Diabetes Center, and assistant professor at Harvard Medical School. Over the decades, scientists have repeatedly shown that patients with increased levels of the hormone...
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Can the antioxidant resveratrol reduce artery stiffness in diabetics?
Resveratrol, a natural compound found in red wine, peanuts, berries and the skin of red grapes, may reduce artery stiffness in some people with Type 2 diabetes, according to an abstract presented at the American Heart Association’s Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology Peripheral Vascular Disease 2017 Scientific Sessions. “This adds to emerging evidence that there...
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Skin cells ‘crawl’ together to heal wounds treated with unique hydrogel layer
Research team led by Milica Radisic uses their patented peptide to close non-healing chronic wounds caused by diabetes U of T Engineering researchers Dr. Lewis Reis (at left) and Professor Milica Radisic used their unique peptide-hydrogel biomaterial to close non-healing wounds twice as quickly as commercially available products. Time may not heal all wounds, but...