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Epigenomic Analysis Reveals Potential Treatment Avenues for ALS

For most patients, it's unknown exactly what causes amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a disease characterized by degeneration of motor neurons that impairs muscle control and eventually leads to death.

3 May 2024

New Study Sheds Light on Genetic Adaptations of Papua New Guinean Populations

Papua New Guinea (PNG) has a wide range of environments, each presenting unique challenges to human survival. Highlanders and lowlanders of PNG are striking examples of populations facing distinct environmental stress.

2 May 2024

Investigating Enhancer Function in Pluripotent Stem Cells

As embryos, all complex organisms are partially made up of pluripotent stem cells, a term for cells that have the capacity to differentiate into any kind of cell: nerve cells, muscle cells, blood cells, skin cells, and the like.

30 Apr 2024

New Organoid Model Offers Opportunities to Study Thymus Function

Researchers from the Organoid group have developed a new organoid model that can be used to study the thymus.

30 Apr 2024

UNC Researchers Create Key Tool for Kaposi Sarcoma Drug Development

Researchers at UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, after decades of research efforts, have developed a mouse model of Kaposi sarcoma that could be key to the development of new drugs to treat the disease.

30 Apr 2024

A New Pathway to Universal Donor Blood

The effort to generate universal donor blood has made a significant step ahead. Researchers at DTU and Lund University identified enzymes that, when combined with red blood cells, could eliminate particular sugars found in the A and B antigens of the human ABO blood types. The findings are reported in the scientific journal Nature Microbiology.

30 Apr 2024

Sphingolipid Mystery Solved: S1P May Protect Against Coronary Artery Disease

Weill Cornell Medicine investigators have uncovered a way to unleash in blood vessels the protective effects of a type of fat-related molecule known as a sphingolipid, suggesting a promising new strategy for the treatment of coronary artery disease.

25 Apr 2024

Hydrogel Therapy: A Novel Defense Against Viral Infections

Vaccines remain the gold standard of protection against dangerous pathogens, but take considerable time and vast resources to develop.

24 Apr 2024

Study Uncovers Cells' Surprising Strategy to Control Signaling Pathways

Healthy cells respond appropriately to changes in their environment. They do this by sensing what's happening outside and relaying a command to the precise biomolecule in the precise domain that can carry out the necessary response.

23 Apr 2024

Enhancing Drug Discovery Through Automated Protein Labeling

Exact protein observation in cells is crucial for many scientific fields, but it has proven to be a difficult technical task, particularly in living cells where each protein needs to have its fluorescent label applied separately.

22 Apr 2024

KIT Researchers Uncover New Cell Type Responsible for Vascular Growth

Cardiovascular diseases, including stroke and myocardial infarction, are the world's leading causes of mortality, accounting for over 18 million deaths a year.

18 Apr 2024

Placenta's Role in Gestational Diabetes Revealed

A recent study led by the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute has discovered that a deficiency in placental expression of the gene insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGFBP1) and low circulating levels of IGFBP1 are linked to insulin resistance during pregnancy, indicating a potential risk factor for the onset of gestational diabetes.

17 Apr 2024

Bacterial "Vampirism" Fuels Deadly Infections

The world's deadliest bacteria actively seek out human blood to feed on, a phenomenon that scientists are referring to as “bacterial vampirism”.

17 Apr 2024

How Glucocorticoids Quell Inflammation

Cortisone and other related glucocorticoids are extremely effective at curbing excessive immune reactions.

13 Apr 2024

Leveraging the Materiobiology Approach to Design Biomaterials for Aged Bone Repair

In the elderly, a multitude of factors contribute to diminished bone regeneration capabilities, including a reduction in the self-renewal and differentiation abilities of mesenchymal stem cells, an excessive accumulation of inflammatory signals, compromised blood vessel regeneration capacity, an imbalance between bone anabolism and catabolism, and inadequate bone innervation.

13 Apr 2024

Different Chromosomes Found to Have Separate End-Specific Telomere-Length Distributions

We depend on our cells being able to divide and multiply, whether it's to replace sunburnt skin or replenish our blood supply and recover from injury.

12 Apr 2024

Unlocking Bacterial Dormancy: Polyphosphates' Role Revealed

Most disease-causing bacteria are known for their speed: In mere minutes, they can double their population, quickly making a person sick.

12 Apr 2024

Precision Combination Therapy Better Controls High-Risk Subtypes of B-ALL in Mouse Models

Despite having an overall survival rate of 94%, B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL), the most common childhood cancer, can prove challenging to treat, with survival among relapsed or resistant cases falling between 30-50%.

9 Apr 2024

New Platform Reveals Individual Sensitivity to Disease-Causing Mutations

In humans, the exact same mutation in a specific gene can produce widely different outcomes. It's a bit like adding the same amount of salt to different recipes-;the effect on the finished dish can be quite different, depending on the mix of other ingredients.

4 Apr 2024

Unveiling Mechanisms to Block Tau Aggregation

The buildup of aberrant, misfolded tau proteins in the brain is the cause of a variety of neurodegenerative illnesses, such as Fronto Temporal Dementia (FTD), Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP), and Cortico Basal Degeneration (CBD).

4 Apr 2024