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New technology can improve treatment for cystic fibrosis

World-first research led by Monash University could hold the key to better monitoring and treatment of lung disease associated with cystic fibrosis (CF) - a condition thousands of people are diagnosed with each year.

14 Jul 2020

Compound in pickled capers can activate proteins required for bodily processes

A compound commonly found in pickled capers has been shown to activate proteins required for normal human brain and heart activity, and may even lead to future therapies for the treatment of epilepsy and abnormal heart rhythms.

14 Jul 2020

Genomics study in Black Americans could lead to precision prostate cancer therapies

Black men in the United States are known to suffer disproportionately from prostate cancer, but few studies have investigated whether genetic differences in prostate tumors could have anything to do with these health disparities.

13 Jul 2020

USC scientists may have found a path to extend human life

Scientists at USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences may have found the beginnings of a path toward increasing human lifespan.

13 Jul 2020

New drug enables the immune system to attack ovarian cancer, TGen study shows

A drug known as SP-2577 could help enable the body's own immune system to attack ovarian cancer, according to a study led by the Translational Genomics Research Institute, an affiliate of City of Hope.

13 Jul 2020

Study may provide a therapeutically safer strategy for gene editing

The CRISPR gene editing system is a robust tool specifically developed for the targeted editing of genomes. While this tool has considerable therapeutic potential, it is associated with improper editing of “off-target” sites.

13 Jul 2020

Scientists report detailed proteomic analysis of human lung adenocarcinoma

A team of Chinese scientists from the State Key Laboratory of Drug Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the State Key Laboratory of Proteomics, National Center for Protein Sciences (Beijing), National Cancer Center/National Clinical Research Center for Cancer/Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, and Shanghai Jiao Tong University, recently reported a comprehensive proteomic analysis based on 103 Chinese patients with lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD), a leading cause of death among all types of cancer worldwide.

10 Jul 2020

Study shows sex hormones alter the behavior of non-sex organs

In one of the first studies addressing the role of sex hormones' impact on stem cells in the gut, scientists outline new insights showing how a steroidal sex hormone, that is structurally and functionally similar to human steroid hormones, drastically alters the way intestinal stem cells behave, ultimately affecting the overarching structure and function of this critical organ.

10 Jul 2020

Study explains why human mitochondrial genomes mutate frequently

One could say that mitochondria, the energy-producing organelles inside every human cell, dance to their own beat.

10 Jul 2020

Metabolomics can help understand the impact of calorie-restricted diets on aging

Changes in a few small molecules involved in a cell's metabolism seem to indicate whether a restricted "life extension" diet will actually extend, shorten, or have no effect on lifespan, a study of fruit flies has found.

10 Jul 2020

Bioinformaticians reveal previously unknown features of genes involved in brain functioning

In a recent study of genes involved in brain functioning, their previously unknown features have been uncovered by bioinformaticians from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and the Institute of Mathematical Problems of Biology, RAS. The findings are reported in PLOS One.

10 Jul 2020

Preventing immune cell reprogramming could be a new way to stop breast cancer metastasis

Natural killer cells, a type of immune cell, are known to limit metastasis by inducing the death of cancer cells. But metastases still form in patients, so there must be ways for cancer cells to escape.

10 Jul 2020

Study shows an entirely new complexity within enzyme machinery

Proteins are the workers in a cell and, as the "basic element of life", are responsible for the most widely varying metabolic processes.

9 Jul 2020

Supergenes may have a massive role in evolutionary adaption

Massive blocks of genes--inherited together 'plug and play' style--may play a larger role in evolutionary adaption than previously thought, according to new research in Nature.

9 Jul 2020

New type of molecular editor can make precise changes in mitochondrial DNA

The genome in mitochondria -- the cell's energy-producing organelles -- is involved in disease and key biological functions, and the ability to precisely alter this DNA would allow scientists to learn more about the effects of these genes and mutations.

9 Jul 2020

Report highlights role of genomics in perpetuating racism and inequality

Genomics is crowding out ways of reducing inequality, has thwarted medicine from advancing justice, and is creating new forms of social classification and surveillance.

9 Jul 2020

SOAT1 enzyme offers a promising therapeutic target for pancreatic cancer

Researchers from CSHL have discovered that the growth of pancreatic cancer cells can be stopped by disrupting the way cholesterol is stored by the cells.

8 Jul 2020

Rapid COVID-19 diagnostic infection testing

Porvair Sciences reports on the Vyon porous plastic filters it is supplying to University of Cambridge spinout company - Diagnostics for the Real World for their game-changing SAMBA II machine that provides diagnosis of COVID-19 infection in under 90 minutes.

From Porvair Sciences Limited 8 Jul 2020

Integrating metabolomics and genomics to improve patient diagnosis

A patient and family walk into a doctor's office. They hope that the latest tests will reveal what is causing the patient's illness and end the diagnostic odyssey they have been going through for years.

8 Jul 2020

Salk researchers discover genetic 'dial' to fine-tune the immune response

The human immune system is a finely-tuned machine, balancing when to release a cellular army to deal with pathogens, with when to rein in that army, stopping an onslaught from attacking the body itself.

8 Jul 2020