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.
Using a new x-ray imaging approach, an interdisciplinary research team has detected significant changes in the heart muscle tissue of people who died from Covid-19.
A new technology solution which will provide low-power systems for use in bionic eyes, has been jointly developed by academics from the Harbin Institute of Technology in China and Northumbria University.
A new method involving deuterium can be used to stabilise compounds against degradation. This discovery could result in new drugs that can be taken in lower doses or less frequently.
Researchers have identified a mechanism that impairs the proliferation of cancer cells and induces their death without affecting healthy cells. This could lead to improved cancer treatment.
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.
An invisible protective wall of UV-C light developed by researchers in Munich could reliably curb the spread of viruses and other pathogens in rooms while allowing total freedom of movement.
To counteract the spread of resistant germs, researchers have developed new drug candidates that are able to render one of the most important hospital germs harmless.
Combining knowledge of chemistry, physics, biology, and engineering, scientists from McGill University develop a biomaterial tough enough to repair the heart, muscles, and vocal cords, representing a major advance in regenerative medicine.
A bionic eye being developed by a team of biomedical researchers has shown to be safe and stable for long-term implantation in a three-month study, paving the way towards human trials.
Researchers at the University of Rochester, and Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands recently developed a 3D printing technique to engineer and study biofilms—three-dimensional communities of microorganisms, such as bacteria, that adhere to surfaces. The research provides important information for creating synthetic materials and in developing drugs to fight the negative effects of…
Bitter taste receptors do not only support humans in tasting. They are also found on cancer cells. A team led by Veronika Somoza from the Faculty of Chemistry at the University of Vienna and the German Leibniz Institute for Food Systems Biology at the Technical University of Munich has investigated the role they play there. For this purpose, the scientists compiled and evaluated extensive…
According to scientists at Rice University’s George R. Brown School of Engineering, discarded polystyrene broken down into microplastics provides a cozy home not only for microbes and chemical contaminants but also for the free-floating genetic materials that deliver to bacteria the gift of resistance.
Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction was previously considered largely untreatable. A research team at the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association (MDC) led by Professor Michael Gotthardt has now succeeded for the first time in improving cardiac function with the help of a synthetic nucleic acid, as the researchers report in the journal Science…
Mammograms are a safe, effective way to detect the presence of breast cancer in women. But doctors recommend most females should start getting mammograms after the age of 40 in part because the procedure involves small doses of ionizing radiation. While the risk of getting breast cancer is higher for older people, it can strike at any age. Studies show that 5% to 7% of females with breast cancer…
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…
Artificial intelligence-based technique reveals previously unknown cell components that may provide new clues to human development and disease.
Experts predict that without intervention, the problem of multidrug-resistant bacterial infections could be catastrophic by 2050, killing nearly 10 million people each year.
Researchers have found that regular blood tests can help detect whether prostate cancer patients have resistance to drugs treating the condition. The findings were presented at the National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) virtual Festival.
Treating diseases such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s is a challenge because drugs have to be able to cross the blood–brain barrier. As a result, the doses administered must be high and only a small fraction reaches the brain, which can lead to significant systemic side effects.
There has been a "positive shift" in inclusive gender practices in Covid-19 vaccine research, but there is still room for improvement, experts say. Women have been equally recruited and represented in randomised control trial research about Covid-19 vaccine safety, efficacy and effectiveness, according to a new study by The George Institute for Global Health and The Australian National…
The risk of early breast cancer spreading to another part of the body ranges from 6% to 22%, according to the first results of a large and detailed global study of metastatic breast cancer presented at the Advanced Breast Cancer Sixth International Consensus Conference (ABC 6). The study also shows that certain women face a higher risk than others, including women diagnosed with breast cancer at…
For the first time, researchers have used human data to quantify the speed of different processes that lead to Alzheimer’s disease and found that it develops in a very different way than previously thought. Their results could have important implications for the development of potential treatments.
A study by the Universities of Basel and Saarland shows that there is almost no risk of transmission of the Covid-19 virus on the field. They suggest that blanket quarantine measures for opposing teams are not justified if no close contact has taken place off the playing field. Governments have introduced various measures over the past 18 months in an effort to curb transmission of the Covid-19…
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.