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News • Biology of Ageing

Road map to a longer life

In old age a variety of cellular processes decline and the risk to develop age-related diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s or Diabetes increases dramatically. But does ageing affect all organs and tissues in the body in the same way? And should drugs that are developed to improve health in old age have the same effect on every organ? Now scientists from the Max Planck Institute for…

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News • Research network

40% of women with breast cancer live in Asia

The Breast International Group (BIG), an international not-for-profit organisation that represents the largest global network of academic research groups dedicated to finding cures for breast cancer, is welcoming three new members in East Asia: the Breast Disease Professional Committee of CMEA (BDPCC), China; the Korean Cancer Study Group (KCSG), South Korea; and the Thai Society of Clinical…

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Video • Cell signals

Wound healing: more complex than you think

In a sharp and pointy world, wound healing is a critical and marvelous process. Despite a tremendous amount of scientific study, many outstanding mysteries still surround the way in which cells in living tissue respond to and repair physical damage. One prominent mystery is exactly how wound-healing is triggered: A better understanding of this process is essential for developing new and improved…

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News • Psychology

Stress makes it harder for us to sense new dangers

Being under stress diminishes our abilities to predict new dangers that we face, a team of psychology researchers finds. Its work runs counter to the conventional view that stress enhances our ability to detect and adjust to these changing sources of threat. “Stress does not always increase perceptions of danger in the environment, as is often assumed,” explains Candace Raio, a postdoctoral…

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News • Smoking study

Years of life could be saved if smokers switched to e-cigarettes

Up to 6.6 million premature deaths could be prevented in the US if smokers switched to e-cigarettes over a ten year period, suggests a study published in Tobacco Control, and those smokers who switched to vaping would live for a collective total of up to 86.7 additional million years. A research team, led by Dr David Levy at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington DC, modelled the…

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News • Predicting cognitive decline

Odor identification problems may be a warning bell for dementia

A long-term study of nearly 3,000 adults, aged 57 to 85, found that those who could not identify at least four out of five common odors were more than twice as likely as those with a normal sense of smell to develop dementia within five years. Although 78 percent of those tested were normal – correctly identifying at least four out of five scents – about 14 percent could name just three out…

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News • Cardiac injury

Could this be the way to mend a broken heart?

Early research results suggest scientists might be on to a way to preserve heart function after heart attacks or for people with inherited heart defects called congenital cardiomyopathies. Researchers at the Cincinnati Children’s Heart Institute report in Nature Communications that after simulating heart injury in laboratory mouse models, they stopped or slowed cardiac fibrosis, organ…

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News • Phosphatidic acid phosphatase

A fat-regulating enzyme could hold the key to obesity and diseases

It had already been known that the enzyme known as phosphatidic acid phosphatase plays a crucial role in regulating the amount of fat in the human body. Controlling it is therefore of interest in the fight against obesity. But scientists at Rutgers University-New Brunswick have now found that getting rid of the enzyme entirely can increase the risk of cancer, inflammation and other ills.

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News • Handheld mass spectrometer

This pen may be mightier than cancer

A team of scientists and engineers at The University of Texas at Austin has invented a powerful tool that rapidly and accurately identifies cancerous tissue during surgery, delivering results in about 10 seconds—more than 150 times as fast as existing technology.

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