A Step Towards Understanding the Cellular Basis for Age-Related Vulnerability to Breast Cancer
A new study from the Berkeley Lab takes a step forward in the fight against breast cancer, gaining a better understanding of the cellular basis…
Disease News
New Antibody Drug Boosts the Immune System’s Capacity to Fight Cancer
A new study using the antibody drug BMS-936558 (MDX-1106, anti-PD-1), resulted in tumor shrinkage of at least 30 percent in 18 percent of lung cancer…
Nucleic Acid Nanoparticles to Target Genes that Promote Tumor Growth
Researchers at MIT and Harvard Medical School have created biodegradable nanoparticles made from stands of DNA and RNA that can deliver snippets of RNA directly…
The Tomato Genomics Consortium Sequences the Tomato Genome
The Tomato Genomics Consortium fully sequenced the genome of the tomato, Solanum Lycopersicum. They report in the Journal Nature that tomatoes possess some 35,000 genes…
Intensive Glycemic Control Does Not Definitively Reduce the Risk of Impaired Kidney Function
By searching the available medical literature and evaluating seven randomized trials that involved 28,065 adult patients who were monitored for two to 15 years, researchers…
Viruses Attack Mitochondria to Travel and Spread Within the Nervous System
Observed for the first time in neurons, biologists from Princeton University documented common strains of the herpes virus indirectly taking control of a cell’s mitochondria….
A Simple Cooler May Help Battle Drug-Resistant TB Strains
A Vodaphone Americas Foundation Wireless Innovation Project award winner may now help in the fight against multidrug-resistant strains of tuberculosis. CoolComply, a modified soft-drink cooler,…
Latency Develops Soon After Infection and Slows When Antiretroviral Therapy is Given
While studying 27 patients with acute HIV infection, researchers at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine found that early treatment reduced the production…
Nanoparticles Stop Lymphoma in Mice
Using nanoparticles that deliver a compound that specifically targets miR-155, biologists at Yale University were able to stop lymphoma in mice when injected directly into…
Cancer Cells May Grow More Easily than Thought
Geneticists at Harvard Medical School have discovered how a deletion in one gene from one parent, called a “hemizygous” deletion, can contribute to cancer, suggesting…
Circumpolar Rivers are a Major Source of Mercury in the Arctic Ocean
A new study from environmental scientists suggests that the mercury concentration in the Arctic Ocean is being fueled by both an atmospheric source, which was…
Needleless Device Jet-Injects Drugs at the Speed of Sound
By using a design that incorporates a small, powerful magnet surrounded by a coil of wire that’s attached to a piston inside a drug ampoule,…
Physical Properties of Stem Cells Predict What They Will Become
New research from Brown University shows that the physical properties of adult stem cells derived from fat, such as liposuction waste, can predict whether they…
Scientists Reveal the Structure of Bacterial Injection Needles at Atomic Resolution
Pathogens that cause plague or cholera use miniature syringes to introduce molecular agents into their host cell, disabling the immune defense of the infected cell….
A Potential Therapeutic Target for Treating Pulmonary Fibrosis
By uncovering the signaling pathway that promotes cell migration in certain forms of pulmonary fibrosis and by developing a drug treatment that may block the…
Von Economo Neuron Discovered in the Insula of Macaque Monkeys
A scientist from the Max Planck Institute discovered that von Economo neuron (VEN) is also found in the insula of macaque monkeys. This discovery may…
Tumor-Propagating Cells Don’t Work Alone
While using zebrafish for their research, a newly published study from Massachusetts General Hospital suggests that tumor-propagating cells aren’t always the first colonizing cells that…
Engineered Algae to Produce Potential Candidates for Malaria Vaccine
In an effort to prevent the transmission of malaria, UC San Diego biologists have engineered algae to produce potential candidates for a vaccine that would…