A Saint Louis University researcher has received a grant to study the effects of treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) on cardiovascular and metabolic health. Jeffrey Scherrer, Ph.D., associate professor in Family and Community Medicine, received $2,348,320 from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
They are the tiny motors present in many of the human body’s most complex systems. Cilia are hair-like structures that oscillate in waves, and are present in the brain, kidneys, lungs and reproductive system. They move liquids such as cerebrospinal fluid and mucus past the cell surface, and throughout the body. Flagella are whip-like structures that steer cells along.
More than 20 years ago, a billboard in China piqued the interest of a chemical biologist. It endorsed an extract from the plant known as the “thunder god vine” as an immunosuppressant. A brief review of published research revealed that the extract’s key ingredient — the small molecule triptolide — had been identified 20 years before that billboard ad, and it could stop cells from multiplying.
A factor found in umbilical cord blood could become the basis for developing new drugs to fight harmful inflammation, University of Utah School of Medicine researchers report. When given to mice, the newly discovered factor countered signs of inflammation and sepsis, such as fever, fluctuations in respiratory rate, and death. The factor circulates in the blood of newborns for about two weeks after birth and is not found in older babies or adults, according to the study published online Sept. 6, 2016, in The Journal of Clinical Investigation.
Johns Hopkins researchers report evidence from mouse studies that a “repurposed” drug that would be expected to improve the immune system response of tuberculosis patients may be increasing resistance to the antibiotic drugs these patients must also take.
Zika virus is able to infect the eye, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The study, in mice, helps explain why some people with Zika virus develop eye disease, and suggests that contact with infected eyes may play a role in spreading the disease.
Researchers at the Institute for the Developing Mind at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles have analyzed current gene-disease findings to understand why people with neurodevelopmental and mental illness often have physical disorders.
A new study of science PhDs who embarked on careers between 2004 and 2014 showed that while nearly two-thirds chose employment outside academic science, their reasons for doing so had little to do with the advice they received from faculty advisors, other scientific mentors, family, or even graduate school peers.
Whitehead Institute researchers have conducted the first genome-wide screen in Apicomplexa, a phylum of single-celled parasites that cause diseases such as malaria and toxoplasmosis. The screen sheds light into the vast, unstudied reaches of parasite genomes, uncovering for instance a protein common to all apicomplexans.
By analyzing medical records gathered over three decades on more than 11,000 Americans participating in a federally funded study, researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine say they have more evidence that driving diastolic blood pressure too low is associated with damage to heart tissue.
The National Cancer Institute (NCI) awarded the University of Minnesota an $8.2 million Physical Sciences in Oncology Center (PS-OC) grant over the next five years to develop a cell migration simulator that will predict how cancer cells spread in the body leading to invasion and metastasis.
Whitehead Institute scientists have developed a method to quickly isolate mitochondria from mammalian cells and systematically measure the concentrations of mitochondrial metabolites. Mitochondrial dysfunction is found in several disorders, including Parkinson’s disease, cardiovascular disease, and mitochondrial diseases. Until now, peering into the inner metabolic workings of these vital organelles has been very challenging.
The National Institutes of Health have awarded Dr. Evgeny Pavlov, assistant professor of basic science and craniofacial biology at the New York University College of Dentistry , a $1.8M, five-year grant to study the phenomenon known as the “Mitochondrial Permeability Transition” to prevent strokes and heart attacks.
As an arm of the innate immune system, white blood cells called neutrophils form the first line of defense against invading pathogens. Neutrophils spend most of their lives racing through the bloodstream, patrolling for bacteria or other foreign particles. Once they arrive at tissues besieged by infectious agents, they halt on a dime and then blast through the vessel wall to reach the inflammatory attack site.
The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies will co-lead a $15.4 million effort to develop new systems for quickly screening libraries of drugs for potential effectiveness against schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, the National Institute of Mental Health has announced.
Research shows the diversity of soil bacteria, fungi and nitrogen-fixing bacteria all are better predicted by variation in environmental temperature rather than pH.
If you really want a drink right now, the source of your craving may be a pea-sized structure deep inside the right side of your brain, according to scientists at the Indiana University School of Medicine.
A new study reveals a counterintuitive cellular strategy that may protect insulin-producing cells from destruction during type 1 diabetes.
A research team at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles has generated functional human and mouse tissue-engineered liver from adult stem and progenitor cells. Tissue-engineered Liver (TELi) was found to contain normal structural components such as hepatocytes, bile ducts and blood vessels.
As the nation’s obesity rate continues to skyrocket, scientists across the country are combing the health records of 1.6 million kids to determine if childhood antibiotic use causes weight gain later in life.
Since the isolation of morphine from opium in the 19th century, scientists have hoped to find a potent opioid analgesic that isn’t addictive and doesn’t cause respiratory arrest with increased doses.
University of Colorado Cancer Center investigators unpack the mechanism of investigational drug, AMPI-109, showing its inactivation of PRL-3 flips an important switch on triple-negative breast cancer.
Kansas State University's James R. Macdonald Laboratory has received a nearly $8 million grant renewal from the U.S. Department of Energy.
Scientists report that a specialized drug screen test using lab-grown human cells has revealed two classes of compounds already in the pharmaceutical arsenal that may work against mosquito-borne Zika virus infections.
People with blood type O get sicker from cholera than people of other blood types. Researchers from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found that cholera toxin activates a key molecule more strongly in people with blood type O than type A, possibly worsening symptoms.
A contact lens designed to deliver medication gradually to the eye could improve outcomes for patients with conditions requiring treatment with eye drops, which are often imprecise and difficult to self-administer. In a study published online today in Ophthalmology, a team of researchers have shown that a novel contact lens-based system, which uses a strategically placed drug polymer film to deliver medication gradually to the eye, is at least as effective, and possibly more so, as daily latanoprost eye drops in a pre-clinical model for glaucoma.
A gentle combination of FDA-approved drugs could protect critical cells in the eye, called photoreceptor cells, against damage caused by bright light.
Ellen Beswick, PhD, studies G-CSF, a protein that could be key in attacking cancers of the colon and rectum, and possibly other cancers, too. Beswick was recently awarded a $1.7 M grant to study how G-CSF reduces tumor growth and draws macrophages, T-cells and natural killer cells to the tumor.
The researchers discovered that cells derived from autistic donors grew faster than those from control subjects and activated their genes in distinct patterns.
Research led by SUNY Downstate Medical Center shows that, at the onset of puberty, the emergence of a novel inhibitory brain receptor, α4βδ (alpha four beta delta), reduces seizure-like activity in a mouse model of epilepsy.
Hmong Americans are more likely to understand the importance of colorectal cancer screening and to get screened when they’re provided information by specially trained Hmong lay health educators, new research from UC Davis has found.
A new biomaterial can be used to study how and when stem cells sense the mechanics of their surrounding environment. With further development, this biomaterial could be used to control when immature stem cells differentiate into more specialized cells for regenerative and tissue-engineering-based therapies.
University of Colorado Cancer Center researcher shows that women who contract malaria while pregnant may have children with an increased risk of Burkitt's lymphoma.
Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine has received a five-year renewal program project grant totaling $9.7 million from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases of the National Institute of Health, with the goal of better understanding the origins of Crohn's disease and eventually developing a cure.
Now, researchers from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine have characterized structurally abnormal genes in esophageal adenocarcinoma, the findings of which could pave way for developing new biomarkers in this fatal disease.
Neuroscientists believe they have figured out how rats solve certain navigational problems. If there’s a “reward” at the end of the trip, specialized neurons in the hippocampus of the brain “replay” the route taken to get it, but backward. And the greater the reward, the more often the rats’ brains replay it.
Scientists at the Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute (SBP) have identified a previously unknown way that stress hormones (glucocorticoids) control genes in the liver to help the body adapt to the fasting state. The study, published today in Cell Metabolism, describes an obscure protein, SETDB2, that’s increased during times of fasting and alters the genome to help turn on genes needed to adjust to the absence of food.
Astrophysicists have proposed a clever new way of shedding light on the mystery of dark matter, believed to make up most of the universe. The irony is they want to try to pin down the nature of this unexplained phenomenon by using another, a cosmic emanation known as “fast radio bursts.”
Special RNA molecules called long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are key controllers for maintaining immune health when fighting infection or preventing inflammatory disorders.
Cancer researchers have long observed the value of treating patients with combinations of anti-cancer drugs that work better than single drug treatments. Now, in a new study using laboratory-grown cells and mice, Johns Hopkins scientists report that a method they used to track metabolic pathways heavily favored by cancer cells provides scientific evidence for combining anti-cancer drugs, including one in a nanoparticle format developed at Johns Hopkins, that specifically target those pathways.
While even the best wines eventually peak and turn to vinegar, a new study by researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine suggests a paradoxical trend in the mental health of aging adults: They seem to consistently get better over time.
Texas A&M researchers have shown, for the first time, evidence that standing desks in classrooms can slow the increase in elementary school children’s body mass index (BMI)—a key indicator of obesity—by an average of 5.24 percentile points. The research was published today in the American Journal of Public Health.
A new study, done by pooling data from a wide range of studies that looked for a link between the human microbiome and obesity, throws cold water on the idea that extra pounds may stem from an imbalance of the bacteria inside us.
Beetles with cyclops eyes have given Indiana University scientists insight into how new traits may evolve through the recruitment of existing genes -- even if these genes are already carrying out critical functions.
Enrique del Castillo has been awarded $270,568 by the National Science Foundation to develop statistical methods that will improve the formulation and manufacturing of drugs used to treat some of the world’s deadliest diseases.
A study by Johns Hopkins researchers of more than 13,000 people has found that even after accounting for such risk factors as high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes, so-called morbid obesity appears to stand alone as a standout risk for heart failure, but not for other major types of heart disease.
Researchers at Queen’s University Belfast and ETH Zurich, Switzerland, have created a new theoretical framework which could help physicists and device engineers design better optoelectronics, leading to less heat generation and power consumption in electronic devices which source, detect, and control light.
Physicists have learned which conditions within fusion plasma make the occurrence of chirping modes more likely.
Rheumatoid arthritis patients taking medications that inhibit interleukin-1beta (IL-1beta), a molecule that stimulates the immune system, are 300 times more likely to experience invasive Group A Streptococcal infections than patients not on the drug, according to University of California San Diego School of Medicine researchers. Their study, published August 19 in Science Immunology, also uncovers a critical new role for IL-1beta as the body’s independent early warning system for bacterial infections.
The National Institutes of Health has awarded Dr. Luis Martinez of New York Institute of Technology a $431,700 three-year grant to investigate, in mice, methamphetamine's effects on the underlying biological mechanisms that cause inflammation and impair wound healing. Martinez hopes his findings can form the foundation for new studies on human subjects that might lead to targeted prevention and wound management.
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