By comparing the genetic code of gallbladder cancer patients with those of healthy volunteers at nearly 700,000 different locations in the genome, researchers say they have found several gene variants which may predispose individuals to develop the disease.
Researchers have developed a new way to identify and sort stem cells that may one day allow clinicians to restore vision to people with damaged corneas using the patient’s own eye tissue.
Mount Sinai researchers have discovered that a rheumatoid arthritis drug can block a metabolic pathway that occurs in tumors with a common cancer-causing gene mutation, offering a new possible therapy for aggressive cancers with few therapeutic options, according to a study to be published in Cancer Discovery.
As people get older so do the hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) that form their blood, creating an increased risk for compromised immunity and certain blood cancers. Now researchers are reporting in the scientific journal EMBO that the bone marrow niche where HSC’s form also ages, contributing to the problem. In a study published March 2, scientists in Germany and the United States propose rejuvenating the bone marrow niche where HSCs are created.
Two separate investigations determine that microorganisms can survive on the surface of Mars, and deep in its subsurface
A chemical found in tumors may help stop tumor growth, according to a new study. Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago report that increasing expression of a chemical cytokine called LIGHT in mice with colon cancer activated the immune system’s T-cells and caused primary tumors and metastatic tumors in the liver to shrink.
Blocking a protein found on the surface of ovarian cancer cells could prevent or reduce the spread of the disease to other organs, according to new research at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
University of Minnesota researchers have discovered a groundbreaking process to successfully rewarm large-scale animal heart valves and blood vessels preserved at very low temperatures. The discovery is a major step forward in establishment of tissue and organ banks.
Working with yeast and human cells, researchers at Johns Hopkins say they have discovered an unexpected route for cells to eliminate protein clumps that may sometimes be the molecular equivalent of throwing too much or the wrong trash into the garbage disposal.
A research team comprised of members from The University of Kansas Cancer Center, Stowers Institute for Medical Research, and Children’s Mercy are looking at ways to target cancer stem cells to ensure that once a cancer patient goes into remission, they are not at risk of their cancer returning.
The National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®), through funding from the NCCN Foundation® and Kidney Cancer Association, has published a German translation of the NCCN Guidelines for Patients®: Kidney Cancer.
A new study has identified a previously undescribed role for a type of unconventional T cell with the potential to be used in the development of new therapies for infection and cancer.
Study to look at role of the cytokine interleukin-10 (IL-10) in suppressing antibody production in certain autoimmune disorders.
TSRI's Katja Lamia and her lab members are on a mission to understand how circadian proteins keep us healthy.
Researchers at the University of Cincinnati (UC) College of Medicine have discovered a new potential strategy to personalize therapy for brain and blood cancers.
Despite its omnipresence, water has many physical properties that are still not completely understood by the scientific community. One of the most puzzling relates to the activity of water molecules after they undergo a process called “supercooling.” Now, new findings from Roma Tre University, in Rome, Italy, on the interactions of water molecules under these exotic conditions appear this week in The Journal of Chemical Physics.
An international team of researchers led by City of Hope’s Bart Roep, Ph.D., the Chan Soon-Shiong Shapiro Distinguished Chair in Diabetes and professor/founding chair of the Department of Diabetes Immunology, has been able to justify an alternative theory about the cause of type 1 diabetes (T1D) through experimental work. The study results were published online today in the journal Nature Medicine.
Choosing among cancer treatments increasingly involves determining whether tumor cells harbor specific, mutated “oncogenes” that drive abnormal growth and that may also be especially vulnerable or resistant to particular drugs. But according to a new study led by UCSF researchers, in the case of the most commonly mutated cancer-driving oncogene, called KRAS (pronounced “kay-rass”), response to treatment can change as tumors evolve, either when a normal copy of the gene from the other member of the matched chromosome pair is lost, or when the cancers cells evolve to produce additional copies of the mutated form of the gene.
Chronic inflammation after a heart attack can promote heart failure and death. University of Alabama at Birmingham researchers have now shown that activated T-cells — part of the immune system’s inflammatory response — are both necessary and sufficient to produce such heart failure.
The regenerative biology team at the Morgridge Institute for Research, led by stem cell pioneer and University of Wisconsin-Madison Professor James Thomson, is studying whether stem cell differentiation rates can be accelerated in the lab and made available to patients faster.
Scientists at The Wistar Institute in collaboration with Roswell Park Cancer Institute found a significant association between a rare genetic variant of the p53 gene present in African American women and their risk of developing breast cancer in premenopausal age.
A study by scientists at Indiana University has found that the master gene that regulates differences between males and females plays a complex role in matching the right physical trait to the right sex. The research, published Feb. 27 in the journal Nature Communications, reveals new details about the behavior of the gene called "doublesex," or dsx.
Scientists at Rutgers and other universities have created a new way to identify the state and fate of stem cells earlier than previously possible. Understanding a stem cell’s fate – the type of cell it will eventually become – and how far along it is in the process of development can help scientists better manipulate cells for stem cell therapy.
A new discovery by researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle makes an important step in identifying which specific T cells within the diverse army of a person’s immune system are best suited to fight cancer. The findings will be published February 24 in Science Immunology.
In a significant advance in improving the safety of donor stem cell transplants, a major clinical trial led by researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute has shown that a novel agent can protect against the most common viral infection that patients face after transplantation.
Understanding how brown rot fungi degrade wood could lead to new tools for more efficient biofuel production.
The American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) recently signed an agreement officially lending its support to the national March for Science rally and teach-in in Washington, DC, scheduled for Earth Day, Saturday, April 22. ASCB was among the first to uphold the event’s mission to “unite the diverse universe of scientists and other community members in a non-partisan manner.”
Current treatments for rheumatoid arthritis relieve the inflammation that leads to joint destruction, but the immunologic defect that triggers the inflammation persists to cause relapses. Now the results of a new study suggest that clinical trials for new rheumatoid arthritis (RA) drugs should shift from their sole focus on relieving inflammation to eliminating the B cells that produce these antibodies.
Genome study shows mixing of European and African H. pylori strains in modern American populations.
Discovery of a dual role played by the enzyme phosphoglycerate kinase 1 (PGK1) may indicate a new therapeutic target for glioblastoma, an often fatal form of brain cancer, according to researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.
Wistar scientists have shown an anti-diabetic drug can inhibit the growth of melanoma in older patients by activating an anti-aging gene that in turn inhibits a protein involved in metastatic progression and resistance to targeted therapies for the disease.
Story about the first patient enrolled in the new national phase I trial studying the side effects and best dose and schedule of pembrolizumab, an immunotherapy drug, when given together with chemotherapy and radiation therapy following surgery for very high risk head and neck cancer. Pembrolizumab is one of the first immunotherapy drugs.
A Mayo Clinic study has shown evidence linking the biology of aging with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a disease that impairs lung function and causes shortness of breath, fatigue, declining quality of life, and, ultimately, death. Researchers believe that these findings, which appear today in Nature Communications, are the next step toward a possible therapy for individuals suffering from idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
University of California San Diego School of Medicine researchers screened 10,000 colonies of bacteria found on the epidermis to determine how many had antimicrobial properties and at what rate these are found on healthy and non-healthy skin. In a paper published in Science Translation Medicine, the team reports isolating and growing good bacteria that produce antimicrobial peptides and successfully transplanting it to treat patients with the most common type of eczema, known as atopic dermatitis.
A new, evidenced-based clinical practice guideline on molecular biomarker testing for patients with colorectal cancer identifies opportunities for improving patient outcomes.
UNC scientists found that as mice learn to associate a particular sound with a rewarding sugary drink, one set of prefrontal neurons becomes more active and promotes reward-seeking behavior while other prefrontal neurons are silenced, and those neurons act like a brake on reward-seeking.
MSK researchers used the genome-editing tool CRISPR to create more potent chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells that don't tire as easily when attacking cancer cells. The unexpected findings were published in the journal Nature on February 22 and underscore the potential of genome editing to advance immunotherapy for cancer.
Sanford Research scientists recently published a review article in an issue of Stem Cells Translational Medicine focused on the study of and utility of adult-derived stem cells.
Researchers in bioengineering will join a consortium of academia, industry and government organizations and the nonprofit sector to develop next-generation manufacturing processes and technologies for cells, tissues and organs.
Scientific research builds its own momentum as one discovery triggers another, building an ongoing wave of unexpected possibilities. In the world of glaucoma, such a surge began when advances in stem cell research opened doors experts had never imagined.
Working with human breast cancer cells and mice, researchers at Johns Hopkins say they have identified a biochemical pathway that triggers the regrowth of breast cancer stem cells after chemotherapy.
University of Pennsylvania and Wistar scientists have studied the physical feedback mechanisms between cancer cells and their environment and described how this interplay allows the migration and invasion of tumor cells.
In 2013, Mass. Eye and Ear researchers restored partial hearing to mice by regenerating hair cells — tiny, sound-sensing cells in the ear, which are lost through noise damage, age, etc., and do not regenerate on their own — by converting stem cells found in the ear into hair cells. However, the success of restoring hearing through this approach was limited by the small number of cells that could be turned into hair cells. In a new study in Cell Reports, a research team from Mass. Eye and Ear, Brigham and Women's Hospital and MIT has shown that they can augment the number of those cells, and then convert that large population into hair cells, lending hope that full hearing can be restored to those with hearing loss due to damaged hair cells.
A Michigan State University breast cancer researcher has shown that effective treatment options can be predicted based on the way certain breast cancer genes act or express themselves.
An international collaboration of life scientists, including experts at Van Andel Research Institute, has described in exquisite detail the critical first steps of DNA replication, which allows cells to divide and most advanced life, including human, to propagate.
With a new $3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute investigators are moving closer to their goal of developing a biological pacemaker that can treat patients afflicted with slow heartbeats. The novel, minimally-invasive gene therapy turns patients’ normal heart cells into pacemaker cells that regulate heart function – potentially replacing electronic pacemakers one day.
How we think and fall in love are controlled by lightning-fast electrochemical signals across synapses, the dynamic spaces between nerve cells. Until now, nobody knew that cancer cells can repurpose tools of neuronal communication to fuel aggressive tumor growth and spread.
One year after the Global Biological Standards Institute (GBSI) issued its Reproducibility2020 challenge and action plan for the biomedical research community, the organization reports encouraging progress toward the goal to significantly improve the quality of preclinical biological research by year 2020. “Reproducibility2020 Report: Progress and Priorities,” posted today on bioRxiv, identifies action and impact that has been achieved by the life science research community and outlines priorities going forward. The report is the first comprehensive review of the steps being taken to improve reproducibility since the issue became more widely known in 2012.
A team has found a way to identify the small population of circulating helper T cells present in the blood after an annual flu vaccine to monitor their contribution to antibody strength. A technique that identifies these helper immune cells could inform future vaccine design, especially for vulnerable populations.
Northwestern University biomedical engineers have developed imaging technology that is the first to see DNA “blink,” or fluoresce. The tool enables researchers to study individual biomolecules (DNA, chromatin, proteins) as well as important global patterns of gene expression, which could yield insights into cancer. Vadim Backman will discuss the technology and its applications -- including the new concept of macrogenomics, a technology aiming to regulate the global patterns of gene expression without gene editing -- at the 2017 AAAS annual meeting.
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