by International Society for Stem Cell Research New therapy screening assay showing functional rescue of lung progenitor cells from a person with Cystic Fibrosis caused by nonsense mutation (W1282X). Credit: Christine Bear, Hospital for Sick Kids and University of Toronto, Canada Stem cell researchers may soon have a new way to identify and develop novel,...
by University of Auckland Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain New research suggests lung infections could trigger the onset of type-1 diabetes, the auto-immune condition that leaves a person unable to produce enough insulin to keep their blood sugar in a normal range. Hunting for patterns in vast databases of genomic data, scientists led by Professor Justin O’Sullivan used...
by University of Cambridge Mini-brain organoids showing cortex-like structures. Credit: Andras Lakatos/University of Cambridge Cambridge researchers have developed ‘mini brains’ that allow them to study a fatal and untreatable neurological disorder causing paralysis and dementia—and for the first time have been able to grow these for almost a year. A common form of motor neurone disease,...
by Barcelona Institute for Global Health Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain A new study led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) provides robust evidence that COVID-19 is a seasonal infection linked to low temperatures and humidity, much like seasonal influenza. The results, published in Nature Computational Science, also support the considerable contribution of airborne SARS-CoV-2 transmission...
by University of Virginia Bradley D. Gelfand, Ph.D., and collaborators have found early evidence that the drug fluoxetine may be effective against atrophic (or “dry”) age-related macular degeneration, a condition that affects nearly 200 million people worldwide. The drug has shown promise in the scientists’ lab tests and animal models, and the researchers bolstered by their...
“The symptoms are virtually synonymous with the common cold—runny nose, congestion, maybe a little cough—but RSV is associated with a much higher risk of progression from an upper respiratory cold to a lower lung infection,” says Patrick Gavigan, pediatric infectious disease physician at Penn State Health Children’s Hospital. “This includes viral pneumonia or bronchiolitis, which involves inflammation...
The opportunity seemed too good to pass up. It was 2020, and the CEO of a blood-test company was addressing fibromyalgia patients through their television screens. His firm, EpicGenetics, wasn’t exactly a household name, but its product could help get you in the door at Massachusetts General Hospital. “With a positive test,” Bruce Gillis, the CEO, said,...
Proteins grease the wheels of nearly all the functions carried out in our cells. They often interact in a cascading fashion – one protein signals another to turn on, which then activates another, and so on. The proteins at the key decision points in these networks, called regulatory proteins, can be thought of as molecular switches,...
A new deep learning algorithm created by researchers from the University of Warwick can pick up the molecular pathways and development of key mutations causing colorectal cancer more accurately than existing methods, meaning patients could benefit from targeted therapies with quicker turnaround times and at a lower cost. Spatial map of a colorectal cancer tissue...
CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY IMAGE: MUTHUKUMARAN PACKIRISAMY CREDIT: CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY Diagnosing and treating cancer can be a race against time. By the time the disease is diagnosed in a patient, all too often it is advanced and able to spread throughout the body, decreasing chances of survival. Early diagnosis is key to stopping it. In a new...
