By Caroline Burke Getty Images Buckle up for a surprisingly exciting crash course on serotonin. The results of a new study on long Covid are out, and they’re more than promising — they might even be groundbreaking. Conducted by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, the study suggests there may be a strong connection between serotonin...
by Boston University School of Medicine Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is an autoimmune disease in which the pancreas makes little or no insulin. The details on the events that occur during autoimmune destruction of the pancreatic beta-cells have been studied extensively yet the mystery of what causes autoimmunity is unknown. In a...
By Amy Maxmen, Smriti Mallapaty, Nature magazine on June 10, 2021 A security member keeps watching outside the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Credit: Thomas Peter Alamy The debate over the idea that the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus emerged from a laboratory has escalated over the past few weeks, coinciding with the annual World Health Assembly, at which...
BY CAROLINE DELBERT DEC 29, 2020 COKADAGETTY IMAGES In 2020, ribonucleic acid (RNA) has been in the news because of a special kind that has enabled the first two COVID-19 vaccines. But in new research, scientists suggest RNA’s origins and role in the formation of life could have been very different than previously believed—and sharing the spotlight with deoxyribonucleic...
By Rich Haridy August 19, 2020 A new study is questioning whether potential Alzheimer’s treatments previously found to be ineffective in human trials should be re-examined, after the discovery of a specific gene that can inhibit a therapy’s efficacy is only present in 75 percent of people. The long-standing cholinergic hypothesis for Alzheimer’s disease suggests...
Antibiotics use early in life increases risk of inflammatory bowel disease later in life MARTIN BLASER, DIRECTOR OF THE RUTGERS CENTER FOR ADVANCED BIOTECHNOLOGY AND MEDICINE view more CREDIT: RUTGERS UNIVERSITY Even short, single antibiotic courses given to young animals can predispose them to inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) when they are older, according to Rutgers...
UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH FRANK DIXON CHAIR IN CANCER IMMUNOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH SCHOOL OF MEDICINE, AND CO-LEADER, CANCER IMMUNOLOGY AND IMMUNOTHERAPY PROGRAM, UPMC HILLMAN CANCER CENTER. view more CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH PITTSBURGH, July 15, 2020 – Blocking a newly identified “immune memory checkpoint” in immune cells could improve immunotherapy and help prevent cancers from...
How does the brain detect smells? To find out, you could rely on biological sciences, using high tech imaging methods, or studying anatomical diagrams. You could even get philosophical and ask, “What is the smell, anyway?” Or, you could turn to the engineer. That’s what ShiNung Ching, an associate professor in the McKelvey School of...
by Brandie Jefferson, Washington University in St. Louis How does the brain detect smells? To find out, you could rely on biological sciences, using high tech imaging methods, or studying anatomical diagrams. You could even get philosophical and ask, “What is smell, anyway?” Or, you could turn to engineering. That’s what ShiNung Ching, an associate...
Senolytic drugs that destroy senescent cells, and later on, other senotherapies that either prevent senescence or block the senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP), are going to be very important in the treatment of aging. Senescent cells accumulate with age and are highly damaging to tissues. Via the SASP, even comparatively small numbers of lingering senescent cells...
