The leadership of the GP-write project – Jef Boeke from NYU Langone Medical Centre (NY), George Church from Harvard Medical School (MA), Andrew Hessel from Autodesk Inc (CA) and Nancy J Kelley from New York Genome Center (NY, all USA) – have announced their project’s latest developments. Updating the goals of their seminal GP-write paper, published...
Category: <span>Research Updates</span>
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Parkinson’s gene affects more people than previously thought
New research finds that a gene previously thought to affect only a small percentage of Parkinson’s disease cases actually affects many more. The findings mean that treatments that are being developed for a small number of people may, in fact, benefit many more. Almost 1 million people in the United States and nearly 10 million people across the world...
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Increased levels of human herpesvirus ID’d in Alzheimer’s
(HealthDay)—Subjects with Alzheimer’s disease have increased levels of two strains of human herpesvirus, according to a study published online July 11 in Neuron. Ben Readhead, M.B.B.S., from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, and colleagues constructed multiscale networks of the late-onset Alzheimer’s disease-associated virome, integrating genomic, transcriptomic, proteomic, and histopathological...
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Gene therapy restores sense of smell in mice
Re-expressing a protein critical for the detection and perception of odors restores the function of the olfactory system in a genetic mouse model of lost hair-like cellular structures known as cilia, according to research published in JNeurosci. This may represent a promising therapeutic strategy for a group of human diseases that can cause loss of smell. Credit: Green...
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1 in 8 children in India has neurodevelopmental disability, report estimates
(CNN)Nearly one in eight Indian children ages 2 through 9 might have a neurodevelopmental disorder, a new report by the INCLEN Trust International estimates. The Delhi-based medical research organization highlighted the number as a significant health burden. Experts say the study is the first to provide insight into the prevalence of neurodevelopmental disorders, including hearing impairment, epilepsy and learning...
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Turning off protein could boost immunotherapy effectiveness on cancer tumors
Researchers at the Bloomberg~Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy in the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center discovered inhibiting a previously known protein could reduce tumor burdens and enhance the effectiveness of immunotherapy treatments. In order to investigate the role of the Yes-associated protein, or YAP, in T-cells in the cancer setting, scientists used mice genetically engineered to lack YAP in several...
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Distrust of power influences choice of medical procedures
Complementary and alternative medicine benefit from the credence given to conspiracy theories and the associated skepticism towards existing power structures JOHANNES GUTENBERG UNIVERSITAET MAINZ IMAGE: INDIVIDUALS WITH A PRONOUNCED CONSPIRACY MENTALITY SEE NON-ESTABLISHED MEDICAL CONCEPTS, SUCH AS HOMEOPATHY, IN A MUCH MORE POSITIVE LIGHT AND TEND TO USE THESE MORE FREQUENTLY. First World countries have well-developed...
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Red-blood-cell ‘hitchhikers’ offer new way to transport drugs to specific targets
New drug delivery technology aims to decrease side effects and improve efficacy UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA SCHOOL OF MEDICINE PHILADELPHIA – A new drug-delivery technology which uses red blood cells (RBCs) to shuttle nano-scale drug carriers, called RBC-hitchhiking (RH), has been found in animal models to dramatically increase the concentration of drugs ferried precisely to selected...
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Research reveals defence against malaria parasites
A study involving researchers from The Australian National University (ANU) has found that platelets can attack and kill malaria parasites—reducing the number of parasites circulating in the blood. Credit: CC0 Public Domain The study, which has just been published in the prestigious journal Blood, was led by Associate Professor Brendan McMorran at ANU and Professor Nick Anstey at...
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New finding could ‘pause and rewind’ lung cancer
A team of Institute researchers has discovered how to stop and reverse the growth of lung cancer with a potent combination of three molecules. Lung CA seen on CXR. Credit: James Heilman, MD/Wikipedia The study found that two BH3-mimetics and one FGFR inhibitor were able to block lung cancer cell survival so successfully in pre-clinical models that tumors not...