Search for: "mutations" - 250 articles found

News • Research

CRISPR tool targets cancer and virus-infected cells precisely

A CRISPR-based tool called Cas12a2 can selectively eliminate cancer and virus-infected cells based on their RNA signature – with high precision and no off-target effects.

News • mRNA-based strategy

Cystic fibrosis: new study identifies gene therapy

Now, a new study identified a gene therapy for individuals with cystic fibrosis (CF) caused by a specific mutation and for whom there was no treatment available until now.

News • Focal cortical dysplasia

Lab-grown mini-brains shed light on childhood epilepsy

Why does the same genetic mutation cause FCDII in some patients but not in others? Researchers developed organoids to model a brain malformation responsible for drug-resistant epilepsy in children.

Article • Experts explore often-overlooked patient group in oncology

A rising tide: cancer in young adults

For a young adult, a cancer diagnosis hits different: a more aggressive disease course, greater disruptive potential, longer survivorship. Yet most healthcare institutions seem poorly prepared for this growing patient group. A plenary session at the NCCN 2026 Annual Conference examined a striking shift in modern oncology: the rising incidence of cancer in adolescents and young adults (AYA).

News • Single-cell spatial atlas

Breast cancer: map explores role of aging tissue

As women age, their breast tissue goes through major changes, with the most dramatic changes at menopause, but also during pregnancy and childbirth. A map reveals the impact on breast cancer.

News • Treatment approach

How to improve cancer cure rates? “Kick it while it’s down”

Although tumours may at first shrink under therapy, they often regrow or even become resistant. A new study suggests switching to a second treatment while the tumour is still responding to the first.

News • Common comorbidity

Researchers find genetic link between type 2 diabetes and hypertension

Type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure share a genetic link, new research from the UK and France shows. People with one condition are more likely to develop the other.

News • CTNNB1 in focus

Mutation strength may hold key to personalized cancer treatment

Not all cancer mutations are equal: new research shows that a single mutation hotspot can generate a rich diversity of tumour behaviours. This could lead to more personalised cancer treatments.

News • Exploring metastatic potential

AI predicts risk of cancer metastases

Why do some tumours spread while others remain localised? Using colon cancer cells, scientists pinpointed the criteria that influence metastasis risk, and identified a way to assess its probability.

News • Neurosciences

New insights on the onset of Huntington's disease

Why does Huntington’s disease begin at very different ages? Using advanced AI techniques, neuroscientists from the University of Barcelona found a way to better answer this question.

News • Exploring the mutational landscape

Colorectal cancer: DNA testing unlocks hereditary clues

DNA analysis of colorectal polyps provides important additional information on the development of these polyps and colorectal cancer, research finds. This leads to better diagnostics and treatment.

Article • Personalised medicine

Gene-editing technologies: from lab to patient

Gene-editing technologies show great promise for medical treatments and research, with the potential to cure thousands of genetic diseases. At the 2025 World Medical Innovation Forum in Boston, leading experts explored the possibilities and challenges of these rapidly advancing tools. The case of Baby KJ Muldoon – an infant treated with a personalised CRISPR therapy developed in just seven…

News • Tissue sample analysis

Demographic bias creeps into pathology AI, study finds

A sample of inequality: A new study shows that AI models can infer demographic information from pathology slides, leading to bias in cancer diagnosis among different populations.

News • When good bacteria fight back

Klebsiella strain to protect against IBD gut infections

New research shows that a harmless strain of Klebsiella – discovered by chance in laboratory experiments – can eliminate infections and reduce gut inflammation in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

News • ‘Reverse genetics’ system

New approach to norovirus vaccine and drug development

Researchers from Osaka have developed a simple and efficient system for understanding the functions of specific norovirus genes, providing new avenues for developing antivirals and vaccines.

News • Insights on IDH mutated gliomas

Brain cancer: why early treatment is not always the best course

IDH mutated gliomas are slow-growing brain tumors with a relatively good prognosis. A new study shows that many patients reveal measurable cognitive impairment in the first year after treatment.

News • Appeal for earlier screening approaches

Alarming number of invasive breast cancers in younger women

Breast cancer – including aggressive variants – are surprisingly common in younger women, a new study shows. The findings strengthen the case for earlier, risk-tailored screening, the authors say.

News • New targetable driver of growth found

Thyroid gland: unexpected key to prostate cancer treatment

An international research team has discovered a promising new therapeutic approach for aggressive prostate cancer – in the thyroid gland.

News • Synthetic peptide hydrogels

Bioengineered bone marrow model advances leukaemia research

Using a bioengineered bone marrow model, researchers were able to provide key new information on the efficacy and safety of CAR T-cell therapy for acute myeloid leukaemia (AML), the most common leukaemia in adults.

Article • Reshaping GI cancer care

Pathologists at the heart of precision oncology

Biomarker testing is ushering in a novel era of therapy personalisation for gastroesophageal and colorectal cancers, according to experts presenting at the 37th European Congress of Pathology in Vienna this September. During a session on state-of-the-art in gastrointestinal biomarkers, speakers outlined how targeted therapies and immunotherapies are transforming treatment options – but…

News • Study explores clinical potential of WGS

Whole genome sequencing could help 15,000 breast cancer patients per year, study finds

Breast cancer claims around 670.000 lives each year. Now, researchers propose that whole genome sequencing (WGS) could help many patients find better treatments or match them with clinical trials.

Article • Personalizing stroke care

Advancing genomic medicine from promise to practice with digital technology

Stroke patients in four NHS hospitals are now receiving genetic tests that determine whether a commonly prescribed drug will work for them – a breakthrough that could transform treatment for millions. Digital approaches are spearheading a drive to help make genomic medicine part of everyday care. The role of digital tools was a central theme at the HETT (Healthcare Excellence Through…

News • Peripheral immune tolerance

Immune system researchers receive Nobel Prize 2025 in Medicine

The 2025 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded to three researchers for their insights into peripheral immune tolerance - how our immune system is kept from attacking our own body.

News • Public health

What is ‘herd immunity’ and how can it help eliminate infectious diseases?

When the many protect the few: An expert explains the premise of herd immunity, and how vaccinations apply the priciple in preventing communicable diseases, notably in the complete eradication of smallpox.

News • EGFR-mutated non-small cell lung cancer

NSCLC: Surgical combination therapy may prolong disease control

In metastatic EGFR-mutated non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), targeting residual disease through surgery can extend the benefits of EGFR TKI therapy beyond standard monotherapy, a new study finds.

News • Microsatellite instability

Predicting tumor MSI status for precision cancer treatments

Microsatellite instability-high (MSI-H) tumors are associated with better clinical outcomes. A novel AI model for accurate MSI prediction could help battle gastric and colorectal cancers.

News • Predictive phenotypes

Ovarian cancer: new insights into immune landscapes

Defining four different immunologic subtypes of recurrent ovarian cancers, researchers pave the way for more personalized treatment.

News • Tracking current and emerging threats

Combined wastewater and individual testing for better virus detection

When someone is infected with a virus, traces of it are shed in their bodily waste and end up in the sewage system. Thus, combined wastewater and individual testing can benefit public health response.

News • MRD assessment

Liquid biopsy to detect breast cancer relapse up to 5 years in advance

Newly developed technology can detect breast cancer relapses up to five years in advance. This advance could represent a turning point in post-treatment follow-up, the researchers hope.

News • NHS rollout

Liquid biopsy: new ‘blood test-first’ approach for lung cancer

A new ‘liquid biopsy’ test can help fast-track lung cancer patients to receive targeted therapy up to two weeks earlier, while helping avoid further tests and treatments including chemotherapy.

News • Machine learning analysis

Cancer genomics: new ML tool weeds out false positives

A major challenge in cancer genomics is separating meaningful mutations from false positives. A new tool uses machine learning to significantly reduce these errors.

News • Promising protein analysis tool

New blood test to enable rapid diagnosis of rare genetic diseases

An Australian research team has developed a blood-based method of analysing thousands of proteins in a single, untargeted test. This potentially enables rapid diagnosis of many rare genetic diseases.

News • Appeal for tailored care approaches

Breast cancer: Study reveals ethnic differences in development and outcomes

When it comes to breast cancer, ethnic differences matter, putting some women at a significantly higher risk, a new study finds. Genetic ancestry should therefore be considered as a risk factor.

News • Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

New insights on ALS onset opens paths to earlier treatment

New research shows that dysfunction in the mitochondria linked to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) occurs before the cells show other signs of disease, which was not previously known.

Article • San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS)

Young women and breast cancer: research in focus

At the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS), three experts presented new approaches and study results for the treatment of breast cancer in young women.

News • Focus on mutation frequency decline

A new strategy to combat antibiotic resistance

Finding ways to target antibiotic-resistant bacteria is a scientific and medical priority. A consortium of researchers identified a compound capable of blocking a key protein for virulence, thus “disarming” the pathogenic bacteria.

News • Exploring the role of colibactin

Research links bacterial toxin to colorectal cancer

The incidence of colorectal cancer in young adults has doubled over the last 20 years, with no known reason. Now, a new study links this mysterious trend to childhood exposure to a bacterial toxin.

News • Fibroblasts promote tumor growth and spread

Study explores reasons behind high aggressiveness of pancreatic cancer

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most aggressive cancers, partly due to its tumor microenvironment, known as the stroma. Now, a study has identified a new key factor contributing to this feature.

Anastasia Khvorova, PhD

Pioneering work in the field of RNA-based therapies for Huntington's disease

RNA researcher Anastasia Khvorova, PhD, professor of RNA therapeutics at UMass Chan Medical School, will receive this year's Else Kröner Fresenius Prize for Medical Research on May 15, 2025. The award ceremony will be a part of the festive event together with the Fresenius SE & Co. KGaA celebrating the 100th birthday of Else Kröner, at the Städel Museum in Frankfurt am Main.

News • Targeting early versions

A 'head start' in the race against pancreatic cancer

Fighting pancreatic cancer can feel like a race against time. A new discovery could give clinicians a head start - by targeting precancerous lesions before they become much more aggressive.

News • Duchenne muscular dystrophy

Impact of DMD on the brain may be reversible, study finds

New research has revealed how Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) also profoundly affects the brain, leading to cognitive and behavioural challenges that are very diverse and some could be reversible.

News • Systemic cell rewiring

How midkine helps tumours evade immunotherapy

Researchers discovered a key mechanism by which melanomas and other aggressive tumours prevent the immune system from detecting and attacking them – one of the greatest challenges in oncology today.

News • Aldosterone-producing adenomas

The surprising complexity of adrenal gland tumors

New research uncovers the hidden diversity of adrenal gland tumors, shedding light on how they cause unusual medical symptoms and paving the way for new drug treatments.

News • Cell-free tumor DNA analysis

Liquid biopsy to unlock breast cancer treatments

New research highlights the potential of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) analysis as a non-invasive method to identify actionable biomarkers for breast cancer, enabling individualized therapies.

News • Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis research

AML: sleep problems identified as early warning sign

Promising insights into amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS): New research links characteristic symptoms of the disease, such as motor impairment and respiratory issues, to sleep disorders.

News • Potentiator of AMR emergence and expansion

Diabetes as a driver of antibiotic resistance

Microbiologists have just shown that people with diabetes are more likely to develop antibiotic-resistant strains of Staphylococcus aureus, a leading cause of AMR-associated infections and deaths.

News • Research on RAD51 biomarker

Next-generation sequencing for personalizing prostate cancer treatment

Certain gene alterations can serve as a prognostic and predictive biomarker for prostate cancer. Now, researchers confirm the feasibility of using NGS on this marker for precise patient stratification and treatment selection.

News • Concerning discovery

New antibiotics can develop resistance before even hitting the market

Two recent studies find that resistance can develop against new antibiotics even before they are widely used, compromising their effectiveness from the start.

News • Immuno-monitoring study

New ways for childhood cancer immunotherapies

The immune system of children reacts differently to cancer than that of adults. New insights into these differences have the potential to lead to new tailored treatments for children with cancer.

News • Osteosarcoma research

Driver behind aggressive bone cancer identified

By analysing the largest collection of whole-genome data from osteosarcoma patients, researchers identified a driving mechanism behind the aggressive development of these bone cancer tumours.

News • Surprising insights

Research explains how tumor cells die after radiotherapy

Why does radiation therapy kill cancer cells from the same tumour in different ways? This has long remained poorly understood. Now, new findings open up opportunities to improve treatment.

News • Checkpoint inhibitor immunotherapy efficacy

AI tool uses routine blood tests to predict cancer immunotherapy response

Researchers have developed an AI-based model to better predict whether cancer patients will benefit from immunotherapy — using only routine blood tests and clinical data.

Article • Keynote on integrated diagnostics

Predicting – and shaping – the future of modern pathology

Complex diseases could require complex biomarkers for accurate diagnosis in the years ahead, according to a leading pathologist. In a keynote address to the 36th European Congress of Pathology in Florence, Italy, Professor Manuel Salto-Tellez highlighted this as one of the major future challenges for the discipline. However, he also believes pathologists will sit at the core of modern medicine.

News • Inhibition of Sars-CoV-2 proliferation

New 'hairpin' tool stops coronavirus in its tracks

A new way to inhibit the proliferation of Sars-CoV-2 opens up new perspectives in the fight against this coronavirus and other viral diseases that still have no medical treatment.

Article • Artificial intelligence meets internal medicine

Medical AI: Enter ‘dea ex machina’

In the world of theatre, the ‘deus ex machina’, the god from the machine, is a dramaturgical trick to resolve seemingly unsolvable conflicts. Can artificial intelligence (AI) also be such a universal problem solver for internal medicine? At the Annual Congress of the German Society of Internal Medicine (DGIM), Dr Isabella Wiest explored the potential – and limitations – of AI helpers.

News • Drug adsorption

Nanoplastics can impair the effect of antibiotics, study finds

Nanoplastics are not only bad for the environment: A new study has shown that minuscule particles of plastic which enter the body also can impair the effect of antibiotic treatment.

News • Insights into ribosome variants

What keeps antibiotic-resistant bacteria from taking over?

It would seem that developing antibiotic resistance would give bacteria an immense advantage over their non-resistant counterparts. So, why do they not become dominant? New research may provide an answer.

Article • Between good practice and financial pitfalls

Delivering molecular pathology at lower costs

Molecular pathology should become centralised in fewer labs to improve efficiencies and affordability, according to leading European experts.

Article • Molecular meets digital

Single-cell multiplex imaging: a powerful tool for digital pathology

Multiplex imaging can play a critical role in unravelling the tumour microenvironment. The potential and benefits of the emerging approach – a way to extract information from human tissue samples by visualising many more biomarkers than traditional microscopy – was highlighted in presentations during the 36th European Congress of Pathology in Florence, Italy. Speakers also discussed novel…

News • Hard to treat cancers

KRAS “degrader” could lead to treatment for millions of cancer patients

A newfound molecule, called ACBI3, could potentially lead to new therapies against hard-to-treat cancers, improving outcomes for all patients with cancers caused by KRAS mutations.

News • Checkpoint inhibitor research

Five key factors predict response to cancer immunotherapy

Only 20-40% of patients respond positively to immunotherapy, and these rates vary across different types of cancer. Researchers now identified five key factors that determine response and survival.

News • Research on BRCA recurrence

Breastfeeding after breast cancer treatment is safe, studies find

Two international studies presented at the ESMO Congress 2024 show no increase in recurrence or new breast cancers in women who breastfeed after being treated for breast cancer.

News • MCMV based approach

Covid-19: vector vaccine offers long-term protection

Protection from established Covid-19 vaccines wanes relatively quickly. A new vector vaccine elicits prolonged immune response in animal models, and maintains its efficacy over extended time.

News • Neurometabolism

Huntington: New insights into disease progression

Researchers discovered a gene that might be a key factor in the progression of Huntington’s disease in organoids. The gene may contribute to brain abnormalities much earlier than previously thought.

News • Genome and transcriptome analysis

Colorectal cancer prognosis derived from genetic signatures

Can a look at a patient's DNA predict progress of their colorectal cancer? Findings from a new study could lead to improved possibilities for individualised therapies.

News • Promising study results

Cancer of Unknown Primary: on the way to targeted therapies

Metastases, but no sign of the original tumor: A large international study shows how this phantom cancer can nevertheless be treated.

News • Focus on Toxoplasma gondii

Could brain parasites help treat cognitive disorders?

Toxoplasma gondii is a parasite with the ability to infect the brain, causing life-threatening diseases. Researchers now want to harness its properties to advance treatment of cognitive disorders.

News • Immunology

“One and done”: promise for a universal influenza vaccine

New research reveals a promising approach to developing a universal influenza vaccine that confers lifetime immunity against an evolving virus considered most likely to trigger the next pandemic.

News • Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma (DLBCL)

Personalised simulations predict outcomes for blood cancer treatment

Using genomic sequencing data, researchers have created personalised simulations of individual patients that can quantify the impact of genetic mutations on cancer cell behaviour.

News • Focus on microproteins

Researchers find potential target for liver cancer vaccine

Microproteins hold great promise, according to new research: Since they are only expressed by liver tumor cells, the proteins could serve as a potential target for cancer vaccine development.

News • Circulating tumor extracellular vesicles

Metastatic prostate cancer: better monitoring with new liquid biopsy method

A new study shows that extracellular vesicles shed by prostate cancer cells contain tumor-derived material that can be used as biomarkers of therapy response and resistance in metastatic disease.

News • Adaptive mutability

How bowel cancer flips the switch to avoid immune detection

Why does the immune system sometimes fail to control the development of bowel cancer? UK and Dutch researchers discovered how cancer cells use a genetic "switch" to evade detection.

News • Biomarkers enhance early detection

Parkinson's: blood test predicts disease up to seven years before symptoms

A novel blood test shows promise to predict Parkinson's disease in risk patients up to seven years before the typical motor symptoms appear.

News • Foetal development research

Tracing back the origins of AML childhood leukaemia

Acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) is a common type of blood cancer in childhood and can be diagnosed within a few months of life. New research shows that its origins can be traced back to before birth.

News • Leukemia MRD after chemo

AML: Residual cancer testing as an important safeguard

Blood cancer cells can remain in the blood of AML patients, even after chemotherapy seemed successful. Testing for these residuals before blood cell donation is a vital precaution, a new study finds.

News • Opportunity for new treatment approaches

Atherosclerosis and cancer share surprising similarities, study finds

In cancer, cell deterioration can drive progression. A similar process happens in artherosclerosis, new research reveals. This finding could lead to new ways of combatting disease-causing plaque.

News • Ciliopathy reseach

Rare lung disease: genetics reveals cause of PCD

Primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) is a rare inherited multi-organ condition, which can lead to inflammation of the airways and infections. Now, scientists have found what causes PCD.

News • Research on large foundation models

Reducing bias in pathology AI

A study highlights performance differences in computational pathology systems, depending on demographic profiles associated with histology images. The researchers also propose a way to fix this bias.

News • Atypical teratoid/rhabdoid tumours

Understanding the development of AT/RT brain cancer in children

Unlike most tumours, atypical teratoid/rhabdoid (AT/RT) tumours develop very quickly. Now, researchers explored the mechanisms of these aggressive brain tumours that mainly affect young children.

News • BRCA1 and BRCA2 malfunctions

Targeting 'exhausted' immune cells to prevent breast cancer

A study found immune cells in breast tissue of healthy women carrying BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutations show signs of ‘exhaustion’. This opens new possibilities for cancer prevention.

Article • Interdisciplinary diagnostics

Crossing the radiology-pathology boundary

In diagnostics, there used to be a hard divide between radiology and pathology, where methods were largely considered incompatible with one another. However, to pave the way for next-generation diagnosis, Professor Regina Beets-Tan urged both sides to come out from their trenches and appreciate the synergies the fields have to offer. In her presentation at the European Congress of Radiology (ECR)…

News • Noninvasive stratification

Multiplex PET helps doctors 'see' bowel cancer

Multiplex PET imaging technology could provide a ground-breaking new approach for diagnosing and treating bowel cancer patients, according to scientists in Glasgow.

News • Neurodegeneration

New insights on cause of brain calcification

Much like joints or blood vessels, the brain can be affected by calcifications. This can lead to neurodegenerative disease, but is not well studied. Now, researchers from Norway identified a gene that provides new insights.

News • Women's health imaging

Breast cancer: MRI surveillance reduces mortality in BRCA1 high-risk women

An international study has revealed that MRI monitoring in women with mutations in the BRCA1 genes significantly reduces breast cancer mortality without the need for preventive mastectomy.

News • Revealed by AI

Prostate cancer: more than just one disease

Artificial Intelligence has helped scientists reveal a new form of aggressive prostate cancer which could revolutionise how the disease is diagnosed and treated in the future.

Article • Imaging in characterisation and classification of tumour types

Taking a closer look at breast cancer

Breast cancer has no “one size fits all” therapy approach: subtypes differ significantly in malignancy, progression, and treatment response. Therefore, the more is known about the type of carcinoma in a patient, the better the outcome. At the annual scientific EUSOBI meeting in Valencia, Dr Ramona Woitek pointed out the potential of novel imaging techniques and computational image analysis…

News • New antibodies discovered

Researchers snake toward a universal antivenom

Scientists have developed an antibody that can block the effects of lethal toxins in the venoms of a wide variety of snakes found throughout Africa, Asia and Australia.

Article • Imaging controversial

MRI breast cancer screening of high-risk women: benefits outweigh drawbacks

Breast MRI is increasingly being used as a primary breast cancer screening exam for young women. It brings benefits in women with dense breasts, who are at an elevated risk of developing breast cancer. The technique is also being ordered as a supplemental screening exam following mammography or breast ultrasound for women of all ages at high risk. But use of breast MRI as a screening tool is…

News • Histological transformation

How lung cancer can transform into another type

Under certain circumstances, lung tumours can transform into another, more aggressive cancer type. Now, researchers have found a way to illuminate this process, known as histological transformation.

News • Updated diagnostic criteria

Parkinson's: New three-type classification

Three disease subtypes, based on causes rather than symptoms: A new classification model for Parkinson's disease aims to pave the way for better diagnostics and therapies.

News • Mammacarcinoma research

Study pinpoints breast cancer ‘cells-of-origin’ in high-risk women

Scientists have pinpointed likely ‘cells-of-origin’, the source cells that can grow into breast cancer, in women carrying a faulty BRCA2 gene who are at high risk of developing the disease.

News • "Gene scissors" vs. sickle cell disease

FDA approves first CRISPR/Cas therapy

It's an important milestone for gene editing technology: a novel treatment for sickle cell disease utilizing CRISPR-Cas9, has now received FDA approval – a first for this type of therapy.

News • Tissue oxygenation

Photoacoustic imaging for better diagnoses of ovarian cancer

Researchers and clinicians at Washington University in St. Louis found a way to improve diagnostic accuracy of potentially cancerous lesions in the ovaries and adnexal regions, or the fallopian tubes.

News • Lab model to find treatments for stroke, dementia

Finding (and fixing) vascular leaks in the brain

Using small blood vessels grown in the lab, researchers discover how vascular leaks leading to dementia and stroke emerge – and how this damage might be fixed.

News • PDAC subtype classification

Attacking the roots of pancreatic cancer

Pancreatic cancer is not just one disease, but that’s the way it is currently treated. New work from Columbia University could help pave the way for a change.

News • Using AI nanopores

New rapid testing method for Covid-19

Researchers from Osaka University present a novel technique to detect different coronavirus variants quickly, including fast-spreading strains present in human saliva.

News • Common liver cancer in children

Potential targets to treat hepatoblastoma identified

A collaborative study, led by Cima Universidad de Navarra, has identified key epigenetic targets for the treatment of hepatoblastoma, the most frequent liver cancer in childhood.

News • DMD research

Duchenne muscular dystrophy: artificial muscle to gain new insights

Researchers in Spain have developed a system using patient cells which represents the first 3D muscle model capable of replicating the damage caused by Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD).

News • BRCA mutation vs family history

Breast cancer: Genetic test may make women misjudge their risk

A genetic test for BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutations may drive women to undergo breast cancer surgery, even though their risk might not even be drastically affected by this, a new study finds.

News • Achromobacter research

Cystic fibrosis: new bacteria discovery could lead to better treatments

A new research breakthrough could lead to the development of new treatments for people with compromised immune systems, such as those with cystic fibrosis.

News • Lifetime changes unraveled

Researchers track the process of breast cancer formation

Where are the beginnings of breast cancer? A team of researchers at Kyoto University has revealed the mechanism by which breast cancer is formed in the cells of mammalian epithelium.

News • Tool for myeloid neoplasms

New test to identify risk of AML and related cancers

Using data from more than 400,000 individuals, researchers have created a platform for predicting the risk of developing blood cancers such as acute myeloid leukaemia over a 10-15-year period.

News • Infection in vaccinated patients

How coronavirus variant Omicron BA.1 remodels immune memory

Researchers in France identified changes to the immune memory after infection with the Omicron BA.1 variant in thrice-vaccinated patients. The remodeling actually works to the patients' benefit.

News • Brain cancer reseach

Researchers reveal mechanisms that make tumours malignant

Brain tumour progression to a malignant state is believed to be the result of an intricate interplay between cancer cells and the tumour microenvironment. Greek researchers shed new light on the mechanisms.

News • Advanced biosensor

Researchers engineer tumor-detecting bacteria

Scientists from the University of California San Diego and their colleagues in Australia have engineered bacteria that can detect the presence of tumor DNA in a live organism.

News • Promising application of "gene scissors"

Using CRISPR-Cas9 to treat anaemia

ETH Zurich molecular biologist Mandy Boontanrart is researching gene therapies that could be used to cure two of the most common types of inherited anaemia: beta thalassaemia and sickle cell anaemia.

News • Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy imaging

Combining cDTI and CMR to detect deadly heart condition

Combining two types of heart scan techniques could help doctors to detect deadly hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) before symptoms and signs on conventional tests appear.

News • Genotype-specific strategy

‘Digital twins’ of patients’ hearts give insights into cardiac health

Scientists have developed a tool to create a digital replica of an individual's heart, which could inform the diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular diseases.

News • Real-time tumor profiling

AI tool decodes brain cancer’s genome during surgery

Scientists have designed an AI tool that can rapidly decode a brain tumor’s DNA to determine its molecular identity during surgery — critical information that can guide treatment decisions.

Article • Progress, limitations, and opportunities

Precision oncology: incredible potential, but not a miracle cure

Unanswered questions are hampering clinicians in their efforts to get the best out of a precision medicine approach for their patients. Speaking at the Genomics and Precision Medicine Expo in London at the end of May, cancer educator Dr Elaine Vickers said the benefits of being matched to an investigational drug remain questionable for most people with advanced cancer.

News • Chronic myeloid leukaemia

CML therapy response predicted by AI "crystal ball"

AI could find critical biomarkers that predict non-response to conventional treatment in patients with chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) more quickly, researchers in Singapore find.

News • Targeted therapy

Biliary duct cancer: the future of precision oncology

Gene alterations in biliary tract cancer offer potential targets for current or future precision therapies. This is demonstrated by a new study from Vienna.

News • HSNCC treatment stratification

Head and neck cancer: using organoids for personalized therapy

Researchers from the Organoid group (Hubrecht Institute) and UMC Utrecht have developed a biobank with organoids derived from patients with head and neck cancer (HNC).

News • Research on mini organs

Organoids bring new insights into liver cancer

Dutch scientists have revealed new scientific insights into the features of fibrolamellar carcinoma (FLC), a rare type of childhood liver cancer.

News • Oncology & Immunology

Study shows mechanism of PTEN-deficient breast cancer

A group of researchers has illustrated the mechanistic pathway for PTEN-deficient breast cancer and successfully tested a method of countering the downstream effects of immune system evasion by tumors.

News • Neuroscience & Alzheimer's disease

Researchers identifiy subset of neurons that are most susceptible to Alzheimer's disease

Neurodegeneration, or the gradual loss of neuron function, is one of the key features of Alzheimer's disease. However, it doesn't affect all parts of the brain equally.

News • Genetics & Neuroscience

Research investigates the convergence of schizophrenia risk genes in brain coexpression networks

Johns Hopkins researchers, along with colleagues in Italy, have published a study that looks into the genetic mechanisms behind the development of schizophrenia.

News • Oncology & health informatics

Colon cancer: AI tool predicts survival, treatment response

A new artificial intelligence model could bring much-needed clarity to doctors delivering prognoses and deciding on treatments for patients with colorectal cancer.

News • Genetic diseases

Study sheds light on causes of rare genetic diseases in 5,500 people

Around 5,500 people with severe developmental disorders now know the genetic cause of their condition, thanks to a major nationwide study in the U.K..

News • Prevention of blood cancer

Research identifies new target that may prevent blood cancer

An international coalition of biomedical researchers has determined a new way to measure the growth rate of precancerous clones of blood stem cells that one day could help doctors lower their patients' risk of blood cancer.

News • Up to 12 year in advance

Urine gene test can predict bladder cancer years before diagnosis

Testing for genetic mutations in urine can detect bladder cancer years before the disease shows clinical symptoms, new research has shown - reaching more than a decade for the most common cancer type.

News • New treatment insights

Successful cure of HIV infection after stem cell transplantation

A new study confirms that haematopoietic stem cell transplantation can be used to cure patients with HIV infections. This third successful case gives new insights into the underlying processes.

News • Model organisms evolved too far

How lab bacteria became 'estranged' from their real-life counterparts

A model organism used in laboratories for the past 100 years has evolved so extensively that it may no longer be fit for purpose, according to a new study on bacterial strain Escherichia coli K-12.

News • Reduced postoperative complications

Colorectal cancer surgery: gut microbiota helps healing

In a promising study, Canadian researchers have shown for the first time in mice that modifying intestinal flora before surgery could reduce postoperative complications in colorectal cancer patients.

News • Researchers improve DNA cut-and-paste technique

Increasing safety for "gene scissors" CRISPR-Cas9

A new approach on the genetic tool CRISPR-Cas9 could reduce the risk of unwanted mutation, making it safer for use in humans, Dutch researchers have found.

News • Strand-seq

AI analysis of cancer mutations: a promising step towards new therapies

Combining single-cell data with a self-learning algorithm reveals how structural changes in chromosomes can trigger cancer. This could pave the way for personalized cancer treatments.

News • Metastasis research

Some cancer cells can lose their ability to migrate

In a new study, researchers from Kanazawa University show how some intestinal cancer cells lose their ability to spread as they divide and can be eliminated as the cancer grows.

News • Hereditary non-polyposis colorectal cancer

Lynch syndrome: AI improves colorectal cancer screening

Researchers have now found that artificial intelligence (AI) can improve the effectiveness of colonoscopy in the presence of Lynch syndrome.

News • Potential treatments for relapsing breast cancer patients

New technique for tracking resistant breast cancer cells

Scientists managed to identify and kill breast cancer cells that evade standard treatments in a study in mice. The is a step towards the development of new treatments to prevent relapse in patients.

Article • Cancer screening

The need for breast imaging for transgender patients

The need for breast cancer screening of transgender individuals has been a topic of uncertainty until recently, due to lack of reliable patient data, consensus by radiologists, published research, and recommended guidelines. A 2021 survey of Society of Breast Imaging (SBI) members revealed that ‘breast radiologists differ in their practice and knowledge regarding screening of transgender…

News • Precision medicine

Localising BRCA gene mutations to better treat ovarian cancer

An international team highlights the importance of localising BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutations for the treatment of ovarian cancer.

Article • AI-based personalized medical care

I³lung: EU launches lung cancer initiative

This summer, The European Commission launched I3lung, a new research initiative as a part of Horizon Europe, the EU’s research and innovation program. This research initiative aims to create a cutting-edge, decision-making tool to help clinicians and patients select the best lung cancer treatment based on each patient’s specific needs and circumstances.

News • Tumor location as important growth factor

New molecular microscopy uncovers breast cancer spread

Researchers have created a tool that maps how breast cancer grows in previously unseen detail, and highlights how the cells around the tumour may be the key to controlling the spread of disease.

News • CLL types with distinct biological and clinical features

Whole genome profiling reveals new leukaemia subgroups

A collaborative study has defined five new subgroups of the most common type of blood cancer, chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL), and associated these with clinical outcomes.

Article • Brain imaging

White matter hyperintensities: a valuable biomarker to assess mortality risk

White matter hyperintensities (WMH) on the brain seen on MRI represent a biomarker associated with a 50/50 risk of death within five years after a first incident acute ischemic stroke (AIS) or transient ischemic attack (TIA).

News • 'Synthetic origin' theory of SARS-CoV-2 debunked

Was the coronavirus engineered in a lab? Experts cast doubt on new analysis

Research presented in a new preprint suggests that SARS-CoV-2 might have been artificially created in a laboratory. Experts from Würzburg have reviewed the paper – and remain unconvinced.

Article • Mammography supplement

Breast MRI screening for women with high-risk lesions – is it necessary?

Women with high-risk breast lesions (HRLs) and no family history of breast cancer or BRCA mutations are generally considered to be at moderate risk of developing breast cancer. Breast cancer screening guidelines suggest breast MRI be considered as a supplement to mammography. But is this expensive exam necessary?

News • Children’s cancer

Rhabdomyosarcoma: Blood tests could offer smarter treatment

A simple 'liquid biopsy' blood test could help guide the treatment of children with the cancer rhabdomyosarcoma, a new study reports.

News • Answer to SARS-CoV-2 mutations

One step closer to 'variant-proof' Covid-19 vaccine

A vaccine design approach that could protect against new variants of SARS-CoV-2 but also potentially protects against other coronaviruses is one step closer to reality as a result of new research.

Article • Prediction for breast, ovarian, cervical, and endometrial carcinoma

New test detects four women’s cancers from cervical screening samples

What if a test analysing cervical cells from a gynaecological swab could be used to detect four different female cancers at an early stage and also predict cancer risk over a healthy woman's lifetime? Researchers at the EUTOPS Institute in Innsbruck, Austria, are developing tests to do just that for breast, ovarian, cervical, and endometrial cancer detection.

Article • Patient care

Molecular Tumour Board for better decision-making

As more genomic alterations become targets for therapy, health institutions and hospitals are creating specialist Molecular Tumour Boards to support better decision-making for patient care. This evolving team, and its role, was highlighted in a presentation at the 34th European Congress of Pathology in Basel, Switzerland.

News • Alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma

Promising new treatment for deadly pediatric tumor

Alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma is a rare pediatric tumor. For more than 40 years there has not been any new development regarding treatment. Research led by Prof. Dr. Anton Henssen at Charité University Berlin has now identified a new therapeutic option, using a drug that is currently under investigation for other types of cancer.

News • New therapy

Drug turns cancer gene into "eat me" flag for immune system

UC San Francisco researchers have developed a drug marking cancer cells for destruction by the immune system.

News • Deep mutational scanning for SARS-CoV-2

Preparing rapid tests for future coronavirus variants

How can rapid antigen tests be adjusted to reliably detect future variants of SARS-CoV-2? A research team funded by the National Institutes of Health is currently working on finding an answer.

News • Desperate cancer cells

How tumors mutate their way out of a crisis (and become drug-resistant)

Researchers discovered that cancer cells mobilize a SOS response when they are desperate to resist anticancer drugs. The team also came up with an anti-SOS approach that blocked the mechanism in mice.

News • High-glade glioma research

Understanding why deadly brain cancer comes back

A surprising mechanism explains why high-grade gliomas, the deadliest form of brain cancer, returns: The tumours adapt to treatment by recruiting help from nearby healthy tissue.

Video • Clonal somatic mutations

How does cancer grow? Genetic mapping gives new insight

Researchers from the UK and Sweden have found that individual prostate tumours contain a previously unknown range of genetic variation.

News • Genome instability

Gene editing via CRISPR/Cas9 can lead to cell toxicity

Researchers identify critical spots on the genome where gene editing could cause an unwanted response, and they provide recommendations for safer approaches.

News • Hashtag hygiene

Covid-19 disinformation: experts explain "infodemic"

More than 225,000 tweets with the hashtags #scamdemic and #plandemic led to an “infodemic” of misinformation and disinformation on Twitter during the first year of the pandemic, a new study finds.

News • Cardiomyopathy research

Genetic defects can cause heart failure

Cardiomyopathy is not a uniform disease. Rather, individual genetic defects lead to heart failure in different ways, an international consortium reports.

News • Underrated helper

T-cells: key for a new type of Covid-19 vaccine?

Researchers propose a new Covid-19 vaccine that specifically instructs the immune system to produce T-cells rather than antibodies - a promising alternative for people with a weakened immune system.

News • Rare but dangerous infectious disease

New target to combat Melioidosis

Researchers have identified an enzyme that is a promising new therapeutic target to combat the dangerous bacterial disease melioidosis.

News • Cell production changes as an early warning

Blood test could predict future risk of leukaemia

A blood test could predict risk of developing leukaemia in the elderly population years in advance by identifying changes in blood cell production, according to new research.

News • Coronavirus research

How the Omicron variant dodges the immune system

By comparing the neutralisation capacity induced by the different variants of SARS-CoV-2, a team from Geneva reveals the exceptional capacity of Omicron to evade our immunity.

News • Novel disease therapies

"Soft” CRISPR may offer fix for genetic defects

A new approach makes use of natural DNA repair machinery and provides a foundation for novel gene therapy strategies with the potential to cure a large spectrum of genetic diseases.

Article • Multimodal analysis approach

Novel AI model predicts thyroid cancer from routine ultrasound images

An artificial intelligence (AI) model combining four methods of machine learning (ML) to accurately detect thyroid cancer from routine ultrasound image data has been developed by US researchers.

News • AI approach to colorectal tumors

Deep learning identifies molecular patterns of cancer

A new AI platform can analyze genomic data extremely quickly, picking out key patterns to classify different types of colorectal tumors and improve the drug discovery process.

News • Breakthrough with the help of computer-based protein design

Immune diseases: Advancing the development of novel drugs

Latest developments in computational protein design enable the simulation of sequence and structural changes in proteins for creating novel agents in human medicine.

News • Elusive variants

Rare genetic markers of drug-resistant tuberculosis identified

The search for rare mutations in bacterial genome could lead to better diagnostics and treatments – reducing morbidity caused by the deadly disease.

Article • Clinical computational tools

Managing cancer more effectively

Computational approaches are being applied on enormous amounts of data from sequencing technologies to develop tools to help clinicians manage cancer more effectively.

News • Effective prevention

Covid-19 vaccination greatly reduces infectious viral load

By comparing the infectious viral load caused by ancestral SARS-CoV-2 as well as by the Delta and Omicron variants, scientists highlight the benefits of vaccination.

News • Artificial brains

Brain organoids help understand autism

Scientists use miniature brain models to understand how a mutated gene affects brain development.

News • ATLL therapy approach

New gene targets for treating adult blood cancer

Scientists from Hokkaido University have identified new targets for treating Adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATLL), an aggressive form of blood cancer with existing drugs.

News • cfDNA to assess tumours

Recurrent breast cancer: liquid biopsy improves detection, monitoring

Liquid biopsy performed on serum samples taken from breast cancer patients can provide increasingly accurate information on progression and enable earlier detection of recurrence.

News • RYR1-associated disorder

New approach to treating severe congenital myopathy

The diagnosis is rare, but devastating – children with congenital muscle disorders often never learn to walk. Now, researchers from Basel present a possible therapeutic approach for the first time.

News • Deep learning approach

'Curvy' bacteria as telltale sign of drug resistance?

Researchers find that drug-resistant bacteria can be distinguished from non-resistant bacteria based on structural changes evident in electron microscope images with high accuracy using deep learning.

Article • Cancer diagnostics

Bringing liquid profiling to the clinic

Liquid profiling is offering clear benefits in terms of cancer diagnostics and targeted therapy, but challenges remain in bringing it into the clinic.

News • Genetic dystrophy repair

Using mRNA to improve muscle strength

An ECRC research team has introduced CRISPR-Cas9 into human muscle stem cells for the first time using mRNA, thus discovering a method suitable for therapeutic applications.

News • Evolution tactics in E.coli

Antibiotic resistance: (Population) size matters

An international team of scientists have shown that small and large bacterial populations follow qualitatively different evolutionary paths to develop antibiotic resistance.

News • Bone marrow transplant

The impact of chemotherapy on the brain

Pre-transplant chemotherapy facilitates the replacement of the brain's innate immune cells, by other immune cells derived from the transplanted stem cells.

News • Screening performance

MRI reduces breast cancer deaths in women with 3 risk genes

Annual MRI screenings starting at ages 30-35 may reduce breast-cancer mortality by more than 50% among women who carry certain genetic changes in three genes, according to a new modeling analysis.

Revolutionising Molecular Diagnostics With PurePrep TTR

With micro-organisms and viruses constantly developing, mutating, and evolving, diagnostics must adapt just as rapidly. Advanced laboratory technology and instruments are undeniably a prerequisite for best practice in life sciences and biotechnology.

News • Calculating cancer

Virtual patient ‘surrogates’ to personalise cancer treatments

Mathematical models used as patient surrogates could help clinicians select the best cancer treatment before going to the patient’s bedside.

News • Alternative to injection

Inhaled vaccine delivers broad protection against SARS-CoV-2

Scientists have confirmed that an inhaled form of COVID vaccine can provide broad, long-lasting protection against the original strain of SARS-CoV-2 and variants of concern.

News • New drivers and biomarkers

Cancer: Mapping mutation 'hotspots' reveals key players

Researchers have identified a previously unrecognized key player in cancer evolution: clusters of mutations occurring at certain regions of the genome.

News • Machine learning

Using Raman spectroscopy and AI for SARS-CoV-2 detection

Researchers have developed a noninvasive and reagent-free technique for the efficient detection of COVID-19.

News • BRCA and prostate, pancreatic cancers

Faulty 'breast cancer gene' BRCA also dangerous for men

Faulty versions of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes are well known to increase the risk of breast and ovarian cancer. Now, they have been linked to several other cancers, including those that affect men.

News • Viral subtypes

Coronavirus evolution: 'Even Omicron has three variants'

Professor Richard Neher from the Biozentrum of the University of Basel is using his Nextstrain platform to investigate which variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus are currently circulating worldwide.

News • New insights into antibody response

How the immune system reacts to coronavirus variants

Researchers from Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin and Deutsches Zentrum für Neurodegenerative Erkrankungen (DZNE) present new findings on the immune response against SARS-CoV-2.

News • Cardiology insights

Lab-grown heart cells 'mimic' disease in vitro

Heart cells from a patient with an inherited heart disease called arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy do not contract correctly when grown in the laboratory, researchers from Osaka University have found.

Article • Multi-disciplinary approach

Nurturing integrated diagnostics in oncology

Under the roof of integrated diagnostics, radiology, laboratory medicine and pathology are forming a powerful alliance. Hedvig Hricak, MD, PhD, explains the potential for cancer patients and details the role of radiologists within the construct.

News • Fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva

FOP: Origin of rare disease

A mutation in the gene that causes fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP) doesn’t just cause extra bone growth but is tied to a problem in generating new muscle tissue after injury.

News • Without causing neurological damage

Injections of zika virus destroys brain tumors

In both the mice and organoids, cytokines suppressed tumor growth after treatment, and defense cells migrated to the brain region affected by the tumor, alerting the immune system to its existence.

News • Potential game-changer

Telling Covid-19 apart from influenza

Researchers have developed a diagnostic for Sars-CoV-2 that is capable of differentiating between Covid-19 and the garden-variety bug with fast turnaround.

News • New study

Antibodies can neutralize omicron

An international team of scientists have identified antibodies that neutralize omicron and other SARS-CoV-2 variants.

Article • Precision medicine

Liquid biopsy: the ‘next frontier’ for cancer detection?

Mark Nicholls reports from the National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) virtual Festival, with four expert speakers discussing the role of liquid biopsy in cancer detection.

News • Coronavirus research

Why Omicron may be more evasive, but less severe

The Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 may be significantly better at evading vaccine-induced antibodies – but preliminary evidence suggests it is less likely to cause severe illness in the lungs.

News • Covid-19 protection

Needle-free coronavirus vaccine enters clinical trial

Safety trials are underway for a Cambridge-led vaccine that could be used as a booster targeting Covid-19 virus variants and relatives that threaten future coronavirus pandemics.

News • Relapse research

Multiple myeloma: Tracking down resistant cancer cells

In multiple myeloma, a cancer of the bone marrow, relapse almost always occurs after treatment. Initially, most patients respond well to therapy. However, as the disease progresses, resistant cancer cells spread in the bone marrow, with fatal consequences for the patients. Scientists at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg University Hospital (UKHD) and the National Center for…

Article • NGS solution

Using liquid biopsy to detect recurrent breast cancer earlier

An innovative collaboration has been formed in the UK between academic researchers and industry to develop a rapid integrated liquid biopsy platform for early detection of recurrent breast cancer. Breast cancer specialists Professor Charles Coombes, who is Professor of Medical Oncology at Imperial College London (ICL), and Professor Jacqui Shaw, Head of the Department of Genetics and Genome…

News • Sharper than ever

High-res image of bacterial bumps gives clues to antibiotic resistance

The sharpest images ever of living bacteria have been recorded by researchers at University College London, revealing the complex architecture of the protective layer that surrounds many bacteria and makes them harder to be killed by antibiotics.

Video • Prevention of triple-negative BRCA

Breast cancer vaccine: clinical trial started

Researchers from Cleveland Clinic have opened a novel study for a vaccine aimed at eventually preventing triple-negative breast cancer, the most aggressive and lethal form of the disease. This phase I trial is designed to determine the maximum tolerated dose of the vaccine in patients with early-stage triple-negative breast cancer and to characterize and optimize the body’s immune response. The…

News • NGS-based diagnostics

Collaboration on early detection of recurrent breast cancer

Together with Imperial College London (‘Imperial’), molecular diagnostics company DNAe has been awarded a UK Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) by Innovate UK to support development of its next generation sequencing (NGS)-based diagnostic platform for use in cancer monitoring. The KTP program connects innovative businesses with academic experts who can help them deliver their ideas. This…

News • Resistance mechanism discovered

How staphylococci protect themselves against antibiotics

The skin bacterium Staphylococcus aureus often develops antibiotic resistance. It can then cause infections that are difficult to treat. Researchers at the University of Bonn have uncovered an ingenious way in which a certain strain of Staphylococcus aureus protects itself against the important antibiotic vancomycin. The results have now been published in the journal Microbiology Spectrum.

News • 'CRyPTIC' research

Global tuberculosis study identifies genetic causes of drug resistance

Using cutting-edge genomic sequencing techniques, researchers at the University of Oxford have identified almost all the genomic variation that gives people resistance to 13 of the most common tuberculosis (TB) drug treatments. The Comprehensive Resistance Prediction for Tuberculosis International Consortium (CRyPTIC) research project has collected the largest ever global dataset of clinical M.…

News • Coronavirus inhibition

Highly potent antibody against SARS-CoV-2 discovered

Scientists at Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV) and École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) have discovered a highly potent monoclonal antibody that targets the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and is effective at neutralizing all variants of concern identified to date, including the delta variant. Their findings are published in the journal Cell Reports.

News • Rapid detection

Molecular diagnostic test for Covid-19, Flu, RSV receives CE mark

A new rapid molecular diagnostic test from Cepheid has received the CE mark for distribution in the European market. The test, called Xpert Xpress CoV-2/Flu/RSV plus, is designed for qualitative detection of the viruses causing Covid-19, Flu A, Flu B, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infections from a single patient sample. The new plus version of the test provides a third gene target for…

News • Genomic tracking

Retracing the Covid-19 pandemic in England

The Covid-19 crisis that gripped England between September 2020 and June 2021 can be thought of as a series of overlapping epidemics, rather than a single event, say researchers at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, EMBL's European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) and the German Cancer Research Center.

News • Repurposing bacteria

‘Living medicine’ could treat drug-resistant infections

Researchers at the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) and Pulmobiotics S.L have created the first ‘living medicine’ to treat antibiotic-resistant bacteria growing on the surfaces of medical implants. The researchers created the treatment by removing a common bacteria’s ability to cause disease and repurposing it to attack harmful microbes instead.

News • Promising algorithm

AI tool improves breast cancer imaging accuracy

A computer program trained to see patterns among thousands of breast ultrasound images can aid physicians in accurately diagnosing breast cancer, a new study shows. When tested separately on 44,755 already completed ultrasound exams, the artificial intelligence (AI) tool improved radiologists’ ability to correctly identify the disease by 37 percent and reduced the number of tissue samples, or…

News • HER2-targeted therapy

Promising results for therapy of non-small cell lung cancer

New data highlights a promising new treatment for individuals with HER2-mutant non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

News • Combined with antibiotics

Bacteria-killing viruses to fight antibiotic-resistant bacteria

Researchers have found a way to defeat the multi-resistant bacterium Mycobacterium abscessus, a relative of the causes of tuberculosis and leprosy.

News • Enhancing T cell response

New targets for cancer vaccines identified

Over the past decade, scientists have been exploring vaccination as a way to help fight cancer. These experimental cancer vaccines are designed to stimulate the body’s own immune system to destroy a tumor, by injecting fragments of cancer proteins found on the tumor.

Speeding up diagnostics to detect antibiotic resistance

Infectious disease diagnostics are notoriously slow. The gold standard for laboratory diagnosis of bacterial and fungal infection involves growing the pathogen from a clinical specimen – an overnight event, or even longer. The healthcare focus is on improving the use of antibiotics for better patient outcomes and reducing the environmental pressures that drive antibiotic resistance. To impact…

News • DNA damage causes AML

Cancer chemotherapy side-effects on blood cell development

By analysing secondary acute myeloid leukaemias, researchers at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB) Barcelona have detected mutations caused by platinum-based chemotherapies in cells that were healthy at the time of treatment. Treatment with chemotherapies influences the development of blood cells, favouring clonal hematopoiesis from cells with pre-existing mutations. The study has…

News • Patient response testing

New method predicts which cancer therapies work (and which don't)

A new technology that can study which therapies will work on patients with solid cancerous tumours has been developed by scientists at University College London (UCL). Researchers say the tool, which can rapidly test tumorous tissue against different treatments, such as chemotherapy, immunotherapy or radiotherapy, could be used by clinicians to pinpoint the best therapy for a particular patient.

News • Understanding oncogenesis

How normal cells turn into liver cancer cells

Researchers at the University of Helsinki could show for the first time that normal human fibroblast cells can be converted to specific cancer cells using only factors that are commonly detected in actual human patients. Previous studies have achieved this only by using powerful viral factors that are not common in human cancers. Since many human cancer types still lack specific diagnostic…

Article • Radiology debate

Discussion: the Pros and Cons of contact shielding

Contact shielding is one of the most divisive areas in radiography. Is it still essential in protecting patients from radiation, or has new technology made this precaution obsolete? Two experts debated the issue at the ISRRT congress in Dublin.

News • SARS CoV-2 B.1.621

WHO classifies Coronavirus "Mu" as new 'Variant of Interest'

The World Health Organization (WHO) has taken a closer look at coronavirus variant B.1.621. The strain, first encountered in January 2021 in Colombia, shows traits that could enable the virus to circumvent immune response to vaccination. As a result, the variant, named "Mu", has been classified as "Variant of Interest" (VOI). Despite its prominence in Colombian new infection,…

Article • Precision oncology

Personalized health and genomics: Minimizing collateral damage

A solid diagnosis has always been the first step on any patient’s journey to health. However, diagnostic categories are necessarily oversimplifications. In the last decades, medical professionals and scientists have begun to uncover the true variability in patients’ physiological and biochemical make-up that is the principal cause for individual variations in the way diseases present…

Article • Omics in cancer care

Personalizing laboratory medicine

To avoid adverse reactions, personalised laboratory medicine can help to predict a patient’s drug response. Investigations based on DNA and other omics technologies – e.g. genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics – along with microarray technologies, is making a particularly valuable contribution to cancer care, in which personalised approaches are becoming possible through…

News • Functional diagnostics

New assay could advance personalized cancer treatment

A new study from the University of Helsinki shows that cells that are freshly isolated from lung cancers can be used to create robust drug response data. This approach can identify actionable or non-responsive treatments, illustrated by a case study in which the assay was used to guide the compassionate treatment of a patient.

News • Potential for pan-variant therapies

SARS-CoV-2 might have a 'sugar coated' weak spot

Researchers identify two sugar-binding proteins that impede the viral entry of circulating SARS-CoV-2 variants. The team, spearheaded by researchers at IMBA – Institute of Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences – may have found the “Achilles’ heel” of the virus, with potential for pan-variant therapeutic interventions. The findings are now published in the EMBO…

News • Antisense therapy update

Huntington's disease: setback for study of promising agent

Roche announced the decision to discontinue dosing in the Phase III GENERATION HD1 study of tominersen (previously IONIS-HTTRx and RG6042) in manifest Huntington’s disease (HD). The decision was based on the results of a pre-planned review of the data from the Phase III study conducted by an unblinded Independent Data Monitoring Committee (iDMC). The iDMC made its recommendation based on the…

News • Controlling KRAS

New targeted gene therapy could stop lung cancer progression

A newly targeted therapy could help millions of lung cancer patients worldwide keep their cancers from spreading, says an expert at Cleveland Clinic, on the occasion of World Lung Cancer Day. Dr. Khaled Hassan, of the Hematology and Medical Oncology Department at Cleveland Clinic, explains the concept of KRAS targeted therapy – and why the approach should not be mistaken for a cancer cure.

News • Tool to identify tumour mutations

Machine learning fuels personalised cancer medicine

The Biomedical Genomics laboratory at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB) Barcelona has developed a computational tool that identifies cancer driver mutations for each tumour type. This and other developments produced by the same lab seek to accelerate cancer research and provide tools to help oncologists choose the best treatment for each patient. The study has been published in the…

News • Population bottlenecks

Random effects make it difficult to optimise antibiotic therapy

Antibiotic-resistant pathogens have become one of the greatest threats to public health. The basic mechanisms of resistance evolution have been well studied experimentally and are an important research field at Kiel University. An important factor in this context, but one that has received little attention so far, is the population size of the respective pathogen. Over the course of an infection…

News • MSI tumors

Vaccination against hereditary colorectal cancer shows promise

Scientists from the German Cancer Research Center and Heidelberg University Hospital have for the first time been able to delay the development of hereditary colorectal cancer with a protective vaccination. Mice with a hereditary predisposition to colorectal cancer survived significantly longer after vaccination than unvaccinated animals. Combining the vaccination with an anti-inflammatory drug…

News • Cardiology research

Dynamic heart model gives insight into cardiac disease progression

Efforts to understand cardiac disease progression and develop therapeutic tissues that can repair the human heart are just a few areas of focus for the Feinberg research group at Carnegie Mellon University. The group's latest dynamic model, created in partnership with collaborators in the Netherlands, mimics physiologic loads on engineering heart muscle tissues, yielding an unprecedented view of…

News • Genetic alterations

Same mutation, different cancers: researchers explore connections

Why do alterations of certain genes cause cancer only in specific organs of the human body? Scientists at the German Cancer Consortium (DKTK), the Technical University of Munich (TUM), and the University Medical Center Göttingen have now demonstrated that cells originating from different organs are differentially susceptible to activating mutations in cancer drivers: The same mutation in…

Article • Oncology

Pancreatic cancer - current challenges and future direction

Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest cancers in the world, and one of the most difficult to treat. In 2020, an estimated 495,000 individuals worldwide were diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and an estimated 466,000 died, according to statistics from the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer. Most patients with advanced disease die within a year of…

News • Tumour development research

New bladder cancer model could lead to better treatment

Uppsala University scientists have designed a new mouse model that facilitates study of factors contributing to the progression of human bladder cancer and of immune-system activation when the tumour is growing. Using this model, they have been able to study how proteins change before, while and after a tumour develops in the bladder wall. The study has now been published in the scientific…

News • RAS protein mutation

New treatment approach targets cancer 'Death Star'

A new way to target a mutant protein which can cause the deadliest of cancers in humans has been uncovered by scientists at Leeds. The mutated form of the RAS protein has been referred to as the “Death Star” because of its ability to resist treatments and is found in 96% of pancreatic cancers and 54% of colorectal cancers. RAS is a protein important for health but in its mutated form it can…

News • Coronavirus epidemiology

A cloud-based software for the surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 variants

In-vitro-diagnostics company bioMérieux has launched Episeq SARS-CoV-2, a genomic software solution to support microbiology labs in identification and reporting from raw sequencing data related to SARS-CoV-2 variants. Viral mutation is a naturally occurring phenomenon leading to the emergence of variants that can have different characteristics. Today, a number of SARS-CoV-2 variants are…

News • Preventing long-term damage

How Covid-19 attacks lung tissues

La Trobe University researchers are the first in the world to characterize precisely how Covid-19 attacks lung tissues — an important step in preventing long-term damage.

News • Severe effects

How COVID-19 wreaks havoc on human lungs

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory have published the first detailed atomic-level model of the SARS-CoV-2 "envelope" protein bound to a human protein essential for maintaining the lining of the lungs.

News • Bacteriophage

Trained viruses fight antibiotic resistance

A new project led by University of California San Diego Biological Sciences graduate student Joshua Borin has provided evidence that phages that undergo special evolutionary training increase their capacity to subdue bacteria.

News • Neuroscience

Potential new approach for epilepsy control

Researchers from Case Western Reserve University have identified a potential new approach to better controlling epilepsy. Lin Mei, professor and chair of the Department of Neurosciences at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine, who led the new study in mouse models, said the team found a new chemical reaction that could help control epileptic seizures.

News • Inner ear reseach

Hearing loss: newfound gene gives insights into the cochlea

A gene called GAS2 plays a key role in normal hearing, and its absence causes severe hearing loss, according to a study led by researchers in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. The researchers, whose findings are published online in Developmental Cell, discovered that the protein encoded by GAS2 is crucial for maintaining the structural stiffness of support cells…

Article • dPCR and HSAFM

Low-cost technique for missed genetic mutations

A new low-cost method targeting genetic mutations often missed by existing diagnostic approaches has been developed. Researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in the United States noted that most rearrangement mutations implicated in cancer and neurological diseases fall between what can be detected by DNA sequence reads and optical microscopy methods. The new technique combines…

News • Understanding myelination

Multiple sclerosis: Mini '3D brains' to speed up research

Tiny 3D models that mimic vital aspects of the human nervous system have been developed in a step that could accelerate drug research for neurological conditions such as multiple sclerosis (MS). The millimetre-wide models – created using stem cells from human skin samples – will be used to study myelin, an insulating substance that helps nerve cells communicate with each other. Researchers…

News • Vision for vision

Reversing blindness: Award for cone optogenetics gene therapy

The Foundation Fighting Blindness has granted 600,000 US$ to help Hendrik Scholl as principal investigator define a novel way of reversing blindness. Hendrik Scholl is Director of the Institute of Molecular and Clinical Ophthalmology Basel (IOB), Professor and Chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology, University of Basel, and Head of the University Hospital’s Eye Clinic in Basel, Switzerland.

News • The coronavirus evolves

COVID-19 variants may offer clues in predicting patient outcomes

Researchers from Cleveland Clinic and Case Western Reserve University collaborate on genetic study of SARS-CoV-2 mutations. Results show how the different COVID-19 clades evolved.

News • Battling bacteria

Stress test finds cracks in the armor of harmful hospital bugs

Research has identified critical factors that enable dangerous bacteria to spread disease by surviving on surfaces in hospitals and kitchens. The study into the mechanisms which enable the opportunistic human pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa to survive on surfaces, could lead to new ways of targeting harmful bacteria. To survive outside their host, pathogenic bacteria must withstand various…

News • Cancer research

'Gene ferry' improves immune therapies

Genetically enhancing a patient's immune cells by adding therapeutic genes to them outside the body is regarded as a promising new treatment approach in oncology. However, the production of these therapeutic cells using viruses is not only expensive but time-consuming. Researchers at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) have developed an innovative non-viral vector that can efficiently…

News • Reverse genetics system

SARS-CoV-2: An easier and quicker way to analyse mutations

SARS-CoV-2 is the virus responsible for the Covid-19 pandemic. We know that mutations in the genome of SARS-CoV-2 have occurred and spread, but what effect do those mutations have? Current methods for studying mutations in the SARS-CoV-2 genome are very complicated and time-consuming because coronaviruses have large genomes, but now a team from Osaka University and Hokkaido University have…

News • Biomarker research

"Jumping" genes might protect against AML and other blood cancers

New research has uncovered a surprising role for so-called “jumping” genes that are a source of genetic mutations responsible for a number of human diseases. In the new study from Children’s Medical Center Research Institute at UT Southwestern (CRI), scientists made the unexpected discovery that these DNA sequences, also known as transposons, can protect against certain blood cancers. These…

News • Mitochondria research

Colorectal cancer: Mutations in overlooked DNA could have huge impact on survival

DNA errors in the cell’s energy ‘factories’ increases the chances of survival for people with bowel cancer, also known as colorectal cancer, according to a new study. Studying how DNA errors (mutations) can drive cancer development, as well as help it adapt and evolve, has been a key focus of cancer research. But much of that focus has been on DNA found in the cell’s nucleus. Experts say…

News • Léopold Griffuel Award

Childhood cancer research: Award for Stefan Pfister

Stefan Pfister, a director of the Hopp Children’s Cancer Center Heidelberg (KiTZ), a department head at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and a pediatric oncologist at University Hospital Heidelberg (UKHD), has received the Léopold Griffuel Award from Fondation ARC, the French cancer research foundation. The prize, worth EUR 150,000 in Basic Research category, is one of the highest…

News • SARS-CoV-2 detection and sequencing

'Nirvana': Fast, portable test diagnoses Covid-19, tracks variants

Clinicians using a new viral screening test can not only diagnose Covid-19 in a matter of minutes with a portable, pocket-sized machine, but can also simultaneously test for other viruses—like influenza—that might be mistaken for the coronavirus. At the same time, they can sequence the virus, providing valuable information on the spread of Covid-19 mutations and variants. The new test, dubbed…

News • Biochemistry

Potential trigger of Crohn’s disease found

Potentially game-changing research led by McMaster University scientists may finally bring relief to millions of people worldwide living with Crohn’s disease. Investigator Brian Coombes said his team identified a strain of adherent-invasive E-coli (AIEC) that is strongly implicated in the condition and is often found in the intestines of people with Crohn’s disease. “If you examine the gut…

News • Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma

A new approach for treating bile duct cancer

Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) develops within the liver. With one to two cases per 100,000 inhabitants in Germany, ICC is one of the rare diseases overall, but it is the second most common liver cancer. The aggressive bile duct tumour remains clinically inconspicuous for a long time, so that it is often only detected late. Because the tumour also only responds to chemotherapy to a limited…

News • Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma

AI to help fight asbestos-related cancer

International genomics research led by the University of Leicester has used artificial intelligence (AI) to study an aggressive form of cancer, which could improve patient outcomes. Mesothelioma is caused by breathing asbestos particles and most commonly occurs in the linings of the lungs or abdomen. Currently, only seven per cent of people survive five years after diagnosis, with a prognosis…

News • Malignant brain tumor

Successful test for mutation-specific vaccine against diffuse gliomas

Tumor vaccines can help the body fight cancer. Mutations in the tumor genome often lead to protein changes that are typical of cancer. A vaccine can alert the patients' immune system to these mutated proteins. For the first time, physicians and cancer researchers from Heidelberg and Mannheim have now carried out a clinical trial to test a mutation-specific vaccine against malignant brain tumors.…

News • A much-needed update

New 'double antibody' delivers dual strike SARS-CoV-2 and its variants

The Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB) in Switzerland developed a second-generation ‘double antibody’ that protects from SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing Covid-19, and all its tested variants. It also prevents the virus from mutating to resist the therapy. Antibody-based immunotherapy was already shown to be effective against Covid-19 but faces two main obstacles: it needs to work…

News • Acidity analysis

Harnessing AI to identify cancer cells

Healthy and cancer cells can look similar under a microscope. One way of differentiating them is by examining the level of acidity, or pH level, inside the cells. Tapping on this distinguishing characteristic, a research team from the National University of Singapore (NUS) has developed a technique that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to determine whether a single cell is healthy or cancerous…

News • BMMF research

Novel pathogens: a driver for colorectal cancer?

Do BMMFs, the novel infectious agents found in dairy products and bovine sera, play a role in the development of colorectal cancer? Scientists led by Harald zur Hausen detected the pathogens in colorectal cancer patients in close proximity to tumors. The researchers show that the BMMFs trigger local chronic inflammation, which can cause mutations via activated oxygen molecules and thus promote…

News • Epidemilogical study shows

Covid variant B.1.1.7.: A lot more dangerous than the original form

The highly infectious variant of Covid-19 discovered in Kent, which swept across the UK last year before spreading worldwide, is between 30 and 100 per cent more deadly than previous strains, new analysis has shown. A pivotal study, by epidemiologists from the Universities of Exeter and Bristol, has shown that the SARS-CoV-2 variant, B.1.1.7, is associated with a significantly higher mortality…

News • Mutations of SARS-CoV-2 & Co.

Tracking virus variants faster with sequencing

A global group of researchers is calling for better integration of viral genetics, bioinformatics, and public health to enable better pandemic response now and better pandemic preparedness in the future. In a comment piece in the journal Nature, an international collaboration of specialists in viral and genetic analysis, led by Swiss scientists Dr. Emma Hodcroft at the University of Bern and…

News • 'Vaccelerate' cooperation

Building a Covid-19 vaccine network across Europe

The European Commission has launched a contingency plan to meet the challenge of the various mutations of the coronavirus. Karolinska Institutet and Karolinska University Hospital are contributing to a new network for the evaluation and testing of new vaccines. The network is called "Vaccelerate" and it will contribute both to the evaluation of ongoing and future vaccinations, as well…