News • Bacteria
Revolutionary antibiotics will save the world
An international team of including the Lomonosov Moscow State University researchers discovered which enzyme enables Escherichia coli bacterium (E. coli) to breathe.
Research
News • Heart Muscle Cells
Molecular strut controlls mechanics of a heartbeat
On top of the meaning and mystery that humans heap on the heart, it is first and foremost, a muscle. And one that beats about once a second for a person’s entire life, with no rest. Given its vital importance, it’s ironic researchers have only recently made direct observations of its subcellular parts in motion.
Article • Datasets
Benefits from The Cancer Genome Atlas
Last year, scientists at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) revealed that by measuring the proportion of both immune and cancerous cells in tumours, or ‘tumour purity,’ clinicians could more precisely predict the success of certain precision therapies. A key aspect of the discovery was access to over 10,000 samples constituting 21 different cancers.
News • Cancers
Computer program uncovers hidden genomic alterations
Cancer is rarely the result of a single mutation in a single gene. Rather, tumors arise from the complex interplay between any number of mutually exclusive abnormal changes in the genome, the combinations of which can be unique to each individual patient. To better characterize the functional context of genomic variations in cancer, researchers at University of California San Diego School of…
Article • Resistance
Last resort antibiotic under treat
Data presented at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases diseases has highlighted how a recently-discovered mechanism could mean one of the last-resort antibiotics is under threat. Evidence put before ECCMID suggested the genetic mechanism allowing bacteria to develop and transfer resistance to colistin has been present in several countries around the world –…
‘Mini-Brains’: Evidence of Zika’s toll on fetal cortex
Studying a new type of pinhead-size, lab-grown brain made with technology first suggested by three high school students, Johns Hopkins researchers have confirmed a key way in which Zika virus causes microcephaly and other damage in fetal brains: by infecting specialized stem cells that build its outer layer, the cortex.
News • Proteomics
The future of precision medicine
As medical professionals search for new ways to personalize diagnosis and treatment of disease, RPB-supported researchers at the University of Iowa have already put into practice what may be the next big step in precision medicine: personalized proteomics.
News • Breakthrough
Gut bacteria drive growth of stem cells in colon cancer
Colon cancer is one of the most common forms of cancer in Germany. Prof. Dr. med. Sebastian Zeißig, group leader at the DFG Research Center for Regenerative Therapies Dresden (CRTD) - Cluster of Excellence at the TU Dresden and physician at the Department of Medicine I, University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus Dresden, has now shown a decisive role of gut bacteria in the regulation of intestinal…
News • E. coli
Using harmless bacteria to fight cancer
Several bacterial species have pledged promise in fighting tumors. However, most of them are pathogens. In order to use them as a weapon against cancer and other diseases in humans, researchers must find a balance between their therapeutic aggressiveness and safety for the patient. To overcome this problem, researchers at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) have shifted their focus…
News • Key factor identified
Why is the immune system unable to combat HIV?
An international research group with essential participation of the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut, has identified NLRX1, a cellular factor of the human cell that is indispensable to the replication of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV-1). This factor plays a key role in attenuating the innate immune system towards HIV-1. Until now, the significance of NLRX1 for the replication of HIV-1 and the…
News • Immune system
How can two types of immune cells arise from one?
The fates of immune cells can be decided at the initial division of a cell. Researchers at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital have discovered that the production of daughter cells with different roles in the immune system is driven by the lopsided distribution of the signaling protein c-Myc. Nudging c-Myc in one direction or the other could make vaccines more effective or advance…
News • PIK3CA
Cancer drug could treat blood vessel deformities
A drug currently being trialled in cancer patients could also be used to treat an often incurable condition that can cause painful blood vessel overgrowths inside the skin, finds new research in mice led by UCL, Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) Cancer Center in New York and the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL) in Barcelona.
News • mcr-1 gene
Antibiotic resistance mechanism continues to spread
Researchers presented findings on the prevalence of the mcr-1 gene, a transferable genetic mechanism of antimicrobial-resistance to colistin - the last resort antibiotic in a number of circumstances. At a session dedicated to late-breaking abstracts on colistin resistance, researchers presented evidence on the prevalence of the gene in bacteria (including Enterobacteriaceae such as Escherichia…
News • Alternative therapy
Potent nanodrug combast antibiotic-resistant infections
A research team led by University of Arkansas chemist Jingyi Chen and University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences microbiologist Mark Smeltzer has developed an alternative therapeutic approach to fighting antibiotic-resistant infections.
News • Pathologists and Radiologists
3D imaging of cancer cells could lead to improved ability
Imaging research is one step closer to giving clinicians a way to do high-resolution scans of malignant cells in order to diagnose cancer and help identify useful therapies. If this technology were to prove successful in clinical studies, it might change how anatomic pathologists and radiologists diagnose and treat cancer.
News • Nasopharyngeal cancer
Potential treatment options for rare cancer
Researchers have found that a combination of chemotherapy and modern radiotherapy can benefit patients with advanced nasopharyngeal cancer – a cancer that starts at the back of the nose. These cancers are very rare in the UK and so modern treatments had not been previously studied in patients with advanced disease.
News • Looking inside
A new method of viewing TB bacteria
Although tuberculosis (TB) is commonly thought of as being a disease that mainly affects nineteenth century poets and Victor Hugo characters, it is still the second-most common cause of mortality from an infectious disease in the world, killing nearly three people every minute.
News • Science
Unraveling the mystery of stem cells
How do neurons become neurons? They all begin as stem cells, undifferentiated and with the potential to become any cell in the body. Until now, however, exactly how that happens has been somewhat of a scientific mystery. New research conducted by UC Santa Barbara neuroscientists has deciphered some of the earliest changes that occur before stems cells transform into neurons and other cell types.
News • Neurology
Tracing the scent of fear
The odor of bobcat urine, if you ever get a chance to take a whiff, is unforgettable — like rotten meat combined with sweat, with something indescribably feral underlying it. To humans, it’s just nose-wrinklingly disgusting. But to mice, it smells like one thing: fear.
News • MS
How do immune cells enter the cerebrospinal fluid?
A research team headed by scientists at the Institute of Neuroimmunology and the Institute for Multiple Sclerosis Research (IMSF), University Medical Center Göttingen (UMG), has gained new insights into the immune function of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). They used real-time microscopy to film the lively trafficking of immune cells between the CSF and the nervous tissue. Here the meninges play the…
First injectable nanoparticle generator to fight breast cancer
A team of investigators from Houston Methodist Research Institute may have transformed the treatment of metastatic triple negative breast cancer by creating the first drug to successfully eliminate lung metastases in mice.
News • Research
A pill could improve breast cancer diagnoses
The ongoing debate about breast cancer diagnostics has left many women confused — particularly over what age they should get mammograms and who needs treatment. An issue with current methods is that they often identify lumps but cannot conclusively pinpoint which ones are cancerous. To help resolve this uncertainty, researchers have developed a pill that could improve imaging techniques so that…
News • Mathematical Model
Explain with math the mutation rates in human genome
It turns out that the type, how frequent, and where new mutations occur in the human genome depends on which DNA building blocks are nearby, found researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.
News • heat-shock
HSF1 – in case of emergency
When there is an accident or a house fire, we call the police or the fire services. A control room quickly coordinates emergency operations. The cells in our bodies also have helpers in a crisis; the heat-shock proteins. These are triggered in response to cellular stress, such as high temperature, UV radiation or cancer. Heat-shock proteins help other proteins maintain their functional structure…
News • Protective and human-derived
Successful isolation of a antibody against Ebola
Humabs BioMed SA and the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB) affiliated to the Università della Svizzera italiana announced the identification, isolation and characterization of two Ebola virus neutralizing monoclonal antibodies from the blood of a survivor of an Ebola infection.
