A team of computational biologists has developed an algorithm that can ‘align’ multiple sequencing datasets with single-cell resolution. The new method has implications for better understanding how different groups of cells change during disease progression, in response to drug treatment, or across evolution.
Inhibition of the oncogenic kinase AKT, a key protein governing the cell cycle, was found to arrest cancer cell proliferation and triggered their programmed death by apoptosis. The study, published today in Oncogene, represents significant progress in the clinical translation of previous basic scientific discoveries.
Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Huntington’s disease may have more in common than their effects on the functions of the brain and spinal cord. And finding that common thread could lead to a treatment that could work for all three.
Biologists have discovered evidence for a new path of evolution, and with it a deeper understanding of how quickly organisms such as viruses can adapt to their environment. The findings, which address mysteries of how genes acquire new functions and how mutations arise, apply to investigations of viral diseases.
Rachelle Belanger (U of Detroit Mercy), Amit Dhingra (Washington State U), and William Ensign (Kennesaw State U) honored as Mentor Awardees of the Biology Division of the Council on Undergraduate Research
Special report details serious concerns that medical community would be able to do much, if anything, to assist people in event of major nuclear event. Prevention is best option as well as carefully conceived, long-term plan within the public education system to provide lessons on radiation biology
The Barth Syndrome Foundation recently announced awardees from its 2017 grant cycle. Miriam Greenberg, Ph.D., professor of biological sciences in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Wayne State University and a resident of Ann Arbor, Michigan, received a one-year, $50,000 grant for the project, “Cardiolipin activates pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH) – a potential new target for treatment of Barth syndrome.”
UCLA scientists discovered higher levels of a protein called humanin in the placenta tissue of women who give birth to severely underweight infants. The researchers suspect that humanin rises to protect the fetus during placenta failure.
An international research group studying 520,000 people from around the world has identified 22 new genetic risk factors for stroke, tripling the number of gene regions known to affect stroke risk. These results provide new clues on stroke mechanisms and could help scientists identify drug targets for treatment. The work is the largest genetic study on stroke ever.
• Scientists untangle the structure of a recently discovered bacterial wall-building protein, found in nearly all bacteria • The discovery unveils potential weak spots in the protein’s molecular make-up • Findings can pave the way to next-generation broad-spectrum drugs that disrupt the protein’s function and disarm harmful bacteria
The United States Patent Office granted U.S. Patent No. 9,926,590 today to Streck, Inc. The patent is directed generally toward a direct-draw blood collection tube for the stabilization of a patient blood sample and to subsequent downstream isolation of nucleic acids for analysis.
Scientists have found a genetic trigger that may improve the brain’s ability to heal from a range of debilitating conditions, from strokes to concussions and spinal cord injuries.
Cells can avoid “data breaches” when letting signaling proteins into their nuclei thanks to a quirky biophysical mechanism involving a blur of spaghetti-like proteins, researchers from the Rockefeller University and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine have shown. Their study appears in the March 23 issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry.
Wistar researchers have found rationale for repurposing a class of antitumor compounds called HDAC inhibitors as a new therapeutic option for ovarian cancer with mutations in the ARID1A gene.
TAMPA, Fla. – Multiple myeloma is a rare incurable disease that is diagnosed in more than 30,000 people each year in the United States. Only half of patients with multiple myeloma are expected to survive five years after their diagnosis. Moffitt Cancer Center researchers are trying to identify patients who are at a higher risk of developing multiple myeloma early in order to improve patient outcomes.
Working with cells that line the innermost layer of the blood vessels, Johns Hopkins investigators say they have made a leap forward in understanding the underlying biology behind pulmonary hypertension, a dangerous type of high blood pressure in lungs that ultimately leads to right heart failure and death.
New research from Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center and MimiVax LLC, published in Clinical Cancer Research, shows that survivin — one of the most commonly occurring molecules in cancer cells — may be an attractive target for a broad range of immunotherapy approaches, including CAR T.
An organic chemical compound shows effective antiviral activity against Ebola virus and several other viruses, according to a study led by Georgia State University.
University of Wisconsin–Madison researchers Emily Setton and Prashant Sharma show that the common house spider and its arachnid relatives have dispensed with a gene involved in creating segmented heads, instead recycling leg genes to accomplish the task.
Cancer experts debate whether there's a glut of immunotherapy trials.
Optimizing the timing of targeted therapies for melanoma reverses tumor growth, and resistance can be mitigated.
In a news story for the Inside Science News Service this week, staff journalist and editor Jason Socrates Bardi describes a project by California scientists who genetically engineered yeast with basil and mint genes to give beer a hoppy flavor without the need to add the actual flowers. Read the story for free today.
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A team led by LJI researchers reveals that bystander cell accumulation antagonizes rather than abets cell-killing by specific CTLs, curbing inflammation. This is noteworthy because that chief anti-inflammatory role has been traditionally ascribed to what are called regulatory T cells, or "Tregs", which dampen autoimmune responses. T
A new study has revealed that the human brain's tiniest blood vessels can activate genes known to trigger spinal motor neurons, prompting the neurons to grow during early development. The findings could provide insights into how amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and other neurodegenerative disorders may develop.
More than a dozen Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center clinicians and researchers have been invited to present new findings at the 71st annual Cancer Symposium of the Society of Surgical Oncology (SSO).
With the ability to leech heavy metals from the environment and digest a potent greenhouse gas, methanotrophic bacteria pull double duty when it comes to cleaning up the environment. But before researchers can explore potential conservation applications, they first must better understand the bacteria's basic physiological processes. Amy C. Rosenzweig's laboratory at Northwestern University has identified two never-before-studied proteins, called MbnB and MbnC, as partially responsible for the bacteria's inner workings.
“This study is a good example of a host/pathogen arms race playing out in real-time—this time with the host a likely winner."
A team of biologists has deciphered how neurons used in the perception of motion form in the brain of a fly —a finding that illustrates how complex neuronal circuits are constructed from simple developmental rules.
Different tissues have shockingly variable sensitivities to genes that drive normal and malignant cell proliferation, study shows. Research unmasks hundreds of cancer-driving genes invisible to gene sequencing. Findings could explain why individual cancer drivers appear in some tumors and not others, could inspire tissue-specific strategies for cancer treatment.
-Scientists identify mechanism behind vascular aging, muscle demise in mice. -Treatment with chemical compounds reversed vascular aging, stimulated blood vessel growth and blood flow, boosted exercise capacity in aging animals. -Findings set the stage for therapies in humans to stave off a range of conditions linked to vascular aging.
Researchers at Houston Methodist used computer modeling to find an existing investigational drug compound for leukemia patients to treat triple negative breast cancer once it spreads to the brain.
The most common gene mutation associated with Parkinson’s alters cells circulating outside the brain, not within, offering a new understanding of what causes the disease.
Immune cells called microglia can completely repopulate themselves in the retina after being nearly eliminated, according to a new study in mice from scientists at the National Eye Institute (NEI). The cells also re-establish their normal organization and function.
University of Chicago researchers have begun to unravel the role of RNA epigenetics and chromatin structure in regulation of 5-azacytidine (5-AZA), a well-known DNA hypomethylating agent in MDS and AML. The finding may lead to novel strategies, as well as guidance from clinical biomarkers.
A study conducted at The Wistar Institute in collaboration with The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center has demonstrated the efficacy of targeting aberrantly active telomerase to treat therapy-resistant melanoma.
Alzheimer's disease is characterized by clumps of two proteins – amyloid beta and tau – in the brain, but the link between the two has never been entirely clear. Now, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have shown that people with more amyloid in the brain produce more tau, which could lead to new treatments for the disease based on targeting the production of tau.
This week, a 40-year-old patient was treated at UNC’s Clinical and Translational Research Center (CTRC) with SB-913, an investigational genome editing therapy for individuals with mucopolysaccharidosis type II (MPS II), a rare lysosomal storage disorder also known as Hunter syndrome.
A unique cell surface protein found on triple-negative type breast cancer cells called JAG1 is a promising new therapeutic target for this hard-to-treat and highly metastatic type of breast cancer, according to researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago.Jan Kitajewski, professor and head of physiology and biophysics at UIC, and his colleagues are working on developing a small drug molecule that can block JAG1.
Scientists from two institutes at the Vienna BioCenter (VBC) have developed a method to identify and characterise microRNAs in individual cells of living animals.
Researchers from Queen’s University Belfast have demonstrated for the first time how molecular analysis of clinical trial biopsy samples can be used to help clinicians identify the key changes that occur in an individual patient’s bowel (colorectal) tumour prior to surgery, so clinicians can better understand and treat the disease.
A review article by Prof. Stefan Broer, Ph.D., highlights opportunities and challenges in using amino acid transporters as drug targets. Amino Acid Transporters as Disease Modifiers and Drug Targets provides an overview of methods used to identify new inhibitors for amino acid transporters and outlines cell and organ function where these can be used to modulate, prevent or to treat diseases.
New research from scientists at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology shows how a diet high in fat and cholesterol depletes the ranks of artery-protecting immune cells, turning them into promoters of inflammation, which exacerbate atherosclerotic plaque buildup that occurs in cardiovascular disease. The team has also found that high density lipoproteins (HDL)—more commonly known as “good cholesterol”—counteract this process, helping the protective immune cells maintain their identity and keep arteries clear.
A report that Americans are drinking a lot of coffee might be good news in the battle against colon cancer, scientists with the Simmons Cancer Center at UT Southwestern Medical Center say.
Treating some elderly people with levothyroxine may put them at increased risk of death, new research from Israel reports. The results will be presented on Tuesday, March 20, at ENDO 2018, the 100th annual meeting of the Endocrine Society in Chicago, Ill.
Saint Louis University researchers have uncovered new answers about why cells rapidly age in children with a rare and fatal disease.
Three tumor samples collected over time from a single patient show how cancer evolves in response to treatment.
UT Southwestern Medical Center geneticist Dr. Helen Hobbs is the 2018 recipient of the Harrington Prize for Innovation in Medicine for her discovery of a novel way to reduce cholesterol. Dr. Hobbs, Director of the Eugene McDermott Center for Human Growth and Development, Professor of Internal Medicine and Molecular Genetics, is the fifth recipient of the Harrington Prize and the first woman to be honored.
Researchers have identified a therapeutic target to prevent or delay heart failure from pressure overload of the heart, and a potential biomarker for the same. They say their animal studies carry clinical and translational potential.
The University of Maryland Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center (UMGCCC) is now certified to offer a groundbreaking treatment for non-Hodgkin lymphoma, in which a patient’s own immune cells are genetically engineered to recognize and attack the cancer.
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