What is the purpose of life? Whatever you may think is the answer, you might, from time to time at least, find your own definition unsatisfactory. After all, how can one say why any living creature is on Earth in just one simple phrase? Searching for meaning. Credit: agsandrew/Shutterstock For me, looking back on 18 years of research into...
Post
Genome-wide study identifies genes linked to diverticular disease
More than half of adults in the Western hemisphere over the age of 40 have small bulging pouches inside their intestine known as diverticula. Caused by a weakening of the outer lining of the intestine, these pouches are typically harmless. Credit: CC0 Public Domain But for some, these pouches can become painfully inflamed or infected,...
Post
A pill for delivering biomedical micromotors
AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY Using tiny micromotors to diagnose and treat disease in the human body could soon be a reality. But keeping these devices intact as they travel through the body remains a hurdle. Now in a study appearing in ACS Nano, scientists report that they have found a way to encapsulate micromotors into pills. The...
Post
Alzheimer’s-associated tau protein disrupts molecular transport within neurons
Abnormal form of tau interacts with structure handling transport between nucleus and cytoplasm MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL A multi-institutional study led by investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Johns Hopkins School of Medicine has found how the abnormal form of tau that accumulates in the neurofibrillary tangles that characterize Alzheimer’s disease can disrupt the normal...
Post
New mechanism activates bone-building cells in Osteoperosis
The number of osteoporosis medications that promote bone formation is few compared to those that suppress bone resorption. A research group led by Kumamoto University scientists has discovered that the gene SIRT7 is important for bone formation, and has discovered a new mechanism to activate gene functions essential for bone formation. The researchers believe that the SIRT7-regulated osteoblastogenesis...
Post
Melanoma Patient Response to Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors Predicted by Expression-Based Score
NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – A team led by researchers at the University of Maryland and the National Cancer Institute has developed a gene expression-based predictor of response to immune checkpoint blockade therapy in metastatic melanoma patients. In a study published yesterday in Nature Medicine, the scientists, led by senior author Eytan Ruppin and first author Noam Auslander,...
Post
Can memories be transferred with an injection?
Scientists believe they have utilized an injection to transplant memories between sea snails. Researchers from the University of California (CA, USA) believe that memories that trigger defensive reflexes are encoded in RNA molecules, as opposed to the widely believed hypothesis that they are instead encoded in connections between brain cells. They claim to have understood...
Post
Nerve pain in the legs? Medical marijuana may alter brain connections, bring relief
When medical marijuana is taken for chronic nerve pain, it may provide pain relief by reducing connections between the areas of the brain that process emotions and sensory signals, according to a study published in the September 5, 2018, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The study looked specifically...
Post
Family tree of blood production reveals hundreds of thousands of stem cells
Adult humans have many more blood-creating stem cells in their bone marrow than previously thought, ranging between 50,000 and 200,000 stem cells. Researchers from the Wellcome Sanger Institute and Wellcome—MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute developed a new approach for studying stem cells, based on methods used in ecology. Credit: CC0 Public Domain The results, published today (5...
Post
First test of in-body gene editing shows promise
Preliminary results suggest that treatment for rare disease is safe, but its effectiveness is unclear. A therapy that edits genes directly in the human body might be safe, suggest early findings from the first trial to test the approach. Researchers from Sangamo Therapeutics in Richmond, California, designed enzymes to correct an error in the genome...