Researchers at the Children’s Medical Center Research Institute at UT Southwestern (CRI) have identified genetic mutations that accumulate in the adult liver that can promote regeneration in the context of chronic liver damage.
An international team of scientists led by researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine employed an array of next-generation sequencing and gene-editing tools, such as CRISPR, to map the molecular dependencies – and thus vulnerabilities – of pancreatic cancer stem cells.
Researchers from the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University have identified a gene involved in the cancer stem cell (CSC) population of triple-negative breast cancer, a deadly form of disease. By blocking this gene’s action, tumor response to chemotherapy is improved.
Probiotics – which are living bacteria taken to promote digestive health – evolve once inside the body and have the potential to become less effective and sometimes even harmful, according to a new study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The findings suggest that developers of probiotic-based therapeutics must consider how the probiotics might change after administration.
A frontline chemotherapy drug given to patients with pancreatic cancer is made less effective because similar compounds released by tumor-associated immune cells block the drug’s action, research led by the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center found.
When the Human Genome Project was completed, in 2003, it opened the door to a radical new idea of health - that of personalized medicine, in which disease risk and appropriate treatment would be gleaned from one's genetic makeup. As more people had their genomes sequenced
Researchers at Joslin Diabetes Center have uncovered a new mechanism of lifespan extension that links caloric restriction with immune system regulation.
UNC School of Medicine scientists uncovered a possible reason why some breast cancers are so aggressive and difficult to treat: an enzyme called USP21 promotes proliferation of basal-like breast cancer and is upregulated in a significant percentage of patient tumors. It could become a drug target.
Antibiotics survival mechanism: UC San Diego researchers have discovered an unexpected mechanism that allows bacteria to defend themselves against antibiotics, a surprise finding that could lead to retooled drugs to treat infectious diseases.
A team of researchers led by Bradley Bernstein at the Ludwig Center at Harvard has used single-cell technologies and machine learning to create a detailed “atlas of cell states” for acute myeloid leukemia (AML) that could help improve treatment of the aggressive cancer.
There are two cannabinoid receptors (CB1 and CB2) in the human body that can be targeted to alleviate certain pathological conditions, including chronic pain. While the CB1 receptors are mostly found in the nervous system and are responsible for psychoactive effects, the CB2 receptors are predominantly present in the immune system. Studies indicate that CB2 is a promising target for immunotherapy, as well as treating inflammatory and neuropathic pain, and neurodegenerative diseases. It has also been shown that molecules blocking CB2 can reduce tumor growth.
Researchers discovered that a critical missing step in the production of proteasomes — tiny structures in a cell that dispose of protein waste — and found that carefully targeted manipulation of this step could prove an effective recourse for the treatment of cancer
Bacteria in the gut do far more than help digest food in the stomachs of their hosts, they can also tell the genes in their mammalian hosts what to do. A study published today in Cell describes a form of “interspecies communication” in which bacteria secrete a specific molecule—nitric oxide—that allows them to communicate with and control their hosts’ DNA, and suggests that the conversation between the two may broadly influence human health.
New research finds that some yeast picked up a whole suite of genes from bacteria that gave them the new ability to scavenge iron from their environment. It’s one of the clearest examples yet of the transfer of genes from one branch on the tree of life to another.
UCLA neuroscientists found that patients born without a gene called CCR5 recover better from mild stroke. Published in Cell, the discovery could lead to the first pill to reverse the physical and mental aftermath of the disease.
Healthy white blood cells, called “T-cells,” play a crucial role in how the body fights follicular lymphoma. That's according to the results of a study led by Mayo Clinic hematologists Zhi Zhang Yang, M.D., and Stephen Ansell, M.D., Ph.D., that was published in Cell Reports. T-cells are a key part of the immune system and protect the body by fighting infections and cancer.
Researchers at the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center have cataloged circular RNA in multiple cancers and conducted initial research that suggests these stable structures could serve as cancer biomarkers in blood or urine.
Using a leading-edge technique, UC San Diego School of Medicine researchers defined the cell types in both newborn and adult human testes and identified biomarkers for spermatogonial stem cells, opening a path for new strategies to treat male infertility.
Research in animal models suggest that liver cancers with a mutation in the β-catenin gene could respond to treatment with rapamycin, a commonly used immunosupressant.
Using induced pluripotent stem cell-derived neurons from Alzheimer’s patients, UC San Diego researchers say cholesteryl esters — the storage product for excess cholesterol within cells — act as regulators of the protein tau, providing a new druggable target for the disease.
Weizmann Institute scientists have found that, like sophisticated equipment prone to breaking down, our highly advanced brains are more likely to have problems, including depression, autism, and ADHD.
Researchers identified the brain circuits that form memories associating environmental cues with cocaine use and used optogenetics to specifically target those memories and reduce relapse-like behavior.
A study by UCLA researchers is the first to demonstrate a technique for coaxing pluripotent stem cells — which can give rise to every cell type in the body and which can be grown indefinitely in the lab — into becoming mature T cells capable of killing tumor cells.
New research from the Stowers Institute for Medical Research has identified a backup for an important biological system – the hematopoietic system, whose adult stem cells constantly replenish the body’s blood supply.
Scientists from Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute (SBP) have demonstrated that muscle stem cells may give rise to rhabdomyosarcoma that occurs during DMD—and identified two genes linked to the tumor’s growth. The research, performed using a mouse model of severe DMD, helps scientists better understand how rhabdomyosarcoma develops in DMD—and indicates that ongoing efforts to develop treatments that stimulate muscle stem cells should consider potential cancer risk. The study was published today in Cell Reports.
In a University of California, Irvine-led study, researchers found evidence that fasting affects circadian clocks in the liver and skeletal muscle, causing them to rewire their metabolism, which can ultimately lead to improved health and protection against aging-associated diseases. The study was published recently in Cell Reports.
UCLA researchers led by Dr. Donald Kohn have created a method for modifying blood stem cells to reverse the genetic mutation that causes a life-threatening autoimmune syndrome called IPEX.
Berkeley scientists have turned CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing technology into a synthetic immune response. Their engineered "ProCas9" is safely turned off until a plant or animal virus infects the cell. ProCas9 can be programmed to initiate an immune reaction in response to specific viral threats, like Zika and West Nile.
Our DNA is under constant attack. The delicate molecule that contains our genetic information is extremely vulnerable to everything from environmental agents, such as radiation, to the chemicals in the air we breathe and the food we eat. Genome instability can lead to genetic disorders, chronic diseases and a predisposition to cancer.
• Scientists reveal activated structure of a receptor critical for blood pressure, salt homeostasis
• Receptor is a target for drugs widely used to treat hypertension
ROCHESTER, Minnesota. — Pesquisadores e colaboradores da Mayo Clinic demonstraram em ratos que a obesidade aumenta o nível de células “zumbis” ou senescentes no cérebro e que essas células, por sua vez, estão ligadas à ansiedade. Quando drogas senolíticas são usadas para limpar essas células, os comportamentos ansiosos nos ratos se dissipam. Esses resultados aparecem na revista Cell Metabolism.
Research in mice finds a new molecular mechanism that is essential for maturation of brain function and may be used to restore plasticity in aged brains. This work targets for the first time a specific molecule acting on a single type of neuronal connection to modulate brain function. Findings may advance treatment of human diseases such as autism.
Los científicos de Mayo Clinic y sus colaboradores lograron demostrar en ratones que la obesidad aumenta la cantidad de células “zombi” o células senescentes en el cerebro y que dichas células, a su vez, se vinculan con ansiedad.
A new study published early online in Cell Chemical Biology led by Markus Seeliger, PhD, Associate Professor of Pharmacological Sciences in the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University, takes a fresh approach to grouping kinases as potential drug targets.
Mayo Clinic researchers and collaborators have shown in mice that obesity increases the level of "zombie" or senescent cells in the brain, and that those cells, in turn, are linked to anxiety. When senolytic drugs are used to clear those cells, the anxious behaviors in the mice dissipate. These findings appear in Cell Metabolism.
In a new study by Yale Cancer Center (YCC), scientists suggest that as the number of clinical trials in cancer immunotherapy grows exponentially, some caution should be exercised as we continue to better understand the biology of these new therapeutic targets.
Scientists have found DNA evidence for the southward migration of the people who spread the so-called Clovis culture of North America. But starting about 9,000 years ago, these people were replaced by a distinct population.
The holiday season is a hard one for anyone watching their weight. The sights and smells of food are hard to resist. One factor in this hunger response is a hormone found in the stomach that makes us more vulnerable to tasty food smells, encouraging overeating and obesity.
A team of researchers from France, Sweden, and Denmark have identified a new strain of Yersinia pestis, the bacteria that causes plague, in DNA extracted from 5,000-year-old human remains. Their analyses, publishing December 6 in the journal Cell, suggest that this strain is the closest ever identified to the genetic origin of plague.
Conditions encountered in the womb - when the embryo consists of only about 100 cells - can have life-long impact on health. Scientists previously assumed that this is because embryos respond to adverse conditions by programming their gene expression. Now an international team of researchers at the Leiden University Medical Center, Wageningen University and Research, Lund University, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health in New York propose a radically different alternative. Rather than being programmed by the environment, random differences in gene expression may provide some embryos with a survival advantage, in particular when conditions are harsh. By studying DNA methylation, an important mechanism to control gene activity, the researchers found that a specific part of the DNA methylation pattern was missing among famine-exposed individuals. The findings are published in the journal Cell Reports.
Why do humans have hair on our arms and legs but not on the palms of our hands and the soles of our feet? It’s a fundamental question in human evolution that researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania say they’ve found clues to in a new study.
UT Southwestern researchers have found that an enzyme on the surface of some lung cancer cells helps feed the cancer, making it a tempting treatment target.
New research has identified rogue cells – namely brain and muscle cells – lurking within kidney organoids. The presence of such cells indicates that the “recipes” used to coax stem cells into becoming kidney cells inadvertently are churning out other cell types.