News • Blood brain barrier
A new approach to conquer the 'fortress of the brain'
Scientists have helped provide a way to better understand how to enable drugs to enter the brain and how cancer cells make it past the blood brain barrier.
Research
News • Synthetic biology
Apps, downloads, virtual machines: 'Programming' cells to fight disease
Cells can be programmed like a computer to fight cancer, influenza, and other serious conditions – thanks to a breakthrough in synthetic biology by the University of Warwick.
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.
News • Therapy study
Vaccine and medication might stop Alzheimer’s years before it begins
Researchers at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC) are tackling Alzheimer’s disease with a new study that intervenes decades before the disease develops.
News • Neurodegeneration
Scientists discover genetic timetable of brain's aging process
Brain scientists from Edinburgh have identified a genetic programme that controls the way our brain changes throughout life. The programme controls how and when brain genes are expressed at different times in a person’s life to perform a range of functions, the study found.
News • Radiopharmaceutical tracers
Diagnosing and treating tumors with radioactive metal complexes
A team under the direction of chemist Prof. Dr Peter Comba is investigating radioactive metal complexes for use in the diagnosis and treatment of tumors.
News • Bone thinning
Largest ever genetic study marks likely osteoporosis treatment target
Scientists are honing in on a potential treatment for osteoporosis, after performing the largest ever genetic study of the common age-related bone-thinning disease.
News • Nutrition
Fermenting fish to reduce cholesterol
Compounds in a fermented fish paste used as a condiment in Indonesia efficiently inhibit an enzyme involved in cholesterol synthesis, reports a study published in the Pertanika journal Tropical Agricultural Science.
News • Transmission prevention
One-two punch against malaria
Combining a new compound with old drugs could provide an effective remedy against malaria and drug-resistant parasites.
News • New diagnostic system
Painting for Parkinson's
Researchers have developed an automated and affordable system to diagnose early-stage Parkinson’s disease through a simple drawing task.
News • Circulation
Can height increase risk for blood clots in veins?
The taller you are, the more likely you may be to develop blood clots in the veins, according to new research in the American Heart Association journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Genetics.
News • Cell biology
Improved stem cell transplantation may be on the horizon
Researchers in Germany have demonstrated that hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) transplants can be improved by treatments that temporarily prevent the stem cells from dying.
News • Oncology
A tiny device offers insights to how cancer spreads
As cancer grows, it evolves. Individual cells become more aggressive and break away to flow through the body and spread to distant areas. What if there were a way to find those early aggressors? How are they different from the rest of the cells? And more importantly: Is there a way to stop them before they spread?
News • Perception research
Why do we see colors the way we do?
Dr. Wolf M. Harmening from University Eye Hospital Bonn, together with American colleagues, studied color vision by probing individual sensory cells – photoreceptors – in the human eye. The results reveal that proximity effects play a key role in how we perceive colors.
News • Research subjects
Mice and men - not as equal as medicine would like to think
The mouse is the most widely used model organism to understand human genetics, biology, and diseases in the research setting. But new research findings have revealed important divergences between the species which scientists will need to understand better through further investigation.
News • Study
Zika virus could be used to treat brain cancer
Recent outbreaks of Zika virus have revealed that the virus causes brain defects in unborn children. But researchers from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the University of California, San Diego report that the virus could eventually be used to target and kill cancer cells in the brain.
Article • Digital Pathology
Europe’s most advanced histopathology unit
Among the earliest centres to embrace the concept of digital pathology, the Leeds Digital Pathology Project began in 2003 thanks to a Department of Health grant. Today the centre is Europe’s largest.
News • Neurology
Biologists find new source for brain’s development
A team of biologists has found an unexpected source for the brain’s development, a finding that offers new insights into the building of the nervous system.
News • Cardiology
Is your walking pace a predictor of heart-related deaths?
A new study suggests that middle-aged people who report that they are slow walkers could be at higher risk of heart disease compared to the general population.
News • Recovery
Stroke patient improvement with a brain-computer interface
University of Adelaide researchers have shown that it is possible for stroke patients to improve motor function using special training involving connecting brain signals with a computer.
Article • Electrospinning
Renewing the promise of bioabsorbable implants
Electrospun materials bring a spark of hope to a cardiovascular landscape darkened by setbacks for reabsorbable stents. It was famously said that implanting a device in a person to cure a disease is to implant a new disease. Simply put, the human body will continually fight against foreign materials, leading to chronic inflammations or repeated interventions.
News • Combination approach
Radiation treatment extends life expectancy for patients with inoperable lung cancer
Patients with unresectable, or inoperable, lung cancer are often given a dismal prognosis, with low rates of survival beyond a few years. Researchers exploring combination therapies have recently discovered improved survival rates by up to one year when patients treated with a newly formulated chemotherapy regimen are also given radiation therapy.
News • Neuron activation
Memories “Lost” to Alzheimer’s May Be Retrievable
Columbia University Medical Center researchers have found that it may be possible to access memories “lost” to Alzheimer’s disease, if their discoveries about memory loss in mice also apply to people with the disease.
News • Dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP4)
Obesity, fatty liver, insulin resistance: Liver enzyme might be to blame
German researches have linked the increased production of a certain enzyme in the liver to fatty liver and insulin resistance.
News • Joint disease
Treating arthritis with algae
Could a new weapon in the fight against arthritis be found somewhere beyond the sea? New research from Switzerland encourages this idea.
