In a new pre-clinical study, UNC Lineberger researchers show that they can exploit cancer’s reliance on a particular protein to help fight triple negative breast cancer. They believe the protein could be a potential new drug target.
Researchers at the University of North Carolina and NC State have created the first “smart insulin patch” that can detect increases in blood sugar levels and secrete doses of insulin into the bloodstream whenever needed.
A study by The Cancer Genome Atlas network of researchers refined and revealed molecular sub-groups of patients with cutaneous melanoma who could potentially benefit from targeted treatments based on their tumor genetics, and helped clarify the immune system’s role in the disease.
Scientists from the UNC School of Medicine provide the first direct experimental evidence for how primordial proteins developed the ability to accelerate the central chemical reaction necessary to synthesize proteins and thus allow life to arise not long after Earth was created.
New research shows that the close linkage between the physical properties of amino acids, the genetic code, and protein folding was likely the key factor in the evolution from building blocks to organisms when Earth’s first life was emerging from the primordial soup.
A University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill analysis published in the journal Tobacco Control synthesized the results of 37 different experiments comparing picture-based and text warnings, finding that picture-based warnings were more effective than text warnings on 20 of 25 different outcome measures.
A new University of North Carolina School of Medicine study shows that using the most common form of electric brain stimulation had a statistically significant detrimental effect on IQ scores.
When common chemotherapy drugs damage DNA in cancer cells, the cells can’t replicate. But the cells have ways to repair the DNA. The cancer drugs aren’t effective enough. UNC researchers developed a way to find where this DNA repair happens. Their goal is to increase the potency of cancer drugs.
A new treatment for melanoma could be on the horizon, thanks to a finding by a UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center-led team. In the study, which was published in the journal Clinical Cancer Research, the authors report that they found high levels of an enzyme in melanoma samples that they believe is a potential drug target.
Researchers have perfected a noninvasive “chemogenetic” technique that allows them to switch off a specific behavior in mice – such as voracious eating – and then switch it back on. The method works by targeting two different cell surface receptors. It’s the first fruit of the NIH BRAIN Initiative.
New research led by Brigham and Women’s Hospital in collaboration with the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center finds that breast-conserving therapy – or the removal of less breast tissue via a lumpectomy – was successful in more than 90 percent of the women who became eligible for this procedure after treatment with chemotherapy. Despite these findings, more than 30 percent who were eligible for breast conserving therapy chose to have the entire breast removed via mastectomy.
A new study by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill researchers has found dramatic improvements in the care of patients with cirrhosis and liver failure and recommends improved treatment strategies for patients with cirrhosis and concurrent bacterial infections.
In February, UNC neurologist Hae Won Shin, MD, and neurosurgeon Eldad Hadar, MD, were the first in the state to implant the NeuroPace RNS System following the medical device’s recent FDA approval. In clinical trials, the NeuroPace system greatly reduced the number of seizures experienced by patients with severe epilepsy.
UNC researchers have published the first direct evidence that a low dose of electric current can enhance the brain’s natural alpha oscillations to boost creativity by an average of 7.4 percent. Next up: using the method to treat depression.
Resistance to therapy is a major problem in the cancer field. Using human cell lines of the HER2-positive breast cancer subtype, researchers detailed the surprising ways in which resistance to the drug lapatinib manifests and how to defeat resistance before it happens.
A UNC Lineberger-led study found that people with higher-risk melanoma containing either BRAF or NRAS gene mutations had lower survival rates.
A new study of newborns with prenatal drug exposure finds cocaine-specific disruptions in a part of the brain circuitry thought to play an important role in arousal regulation.
A UNC Lineberger-led pre-clinical study evaluated the impact of a drug treatment strategy on survival for BRCA1-mutated triple negative breast cancer models with brain metastases, and compared those findings to the outcomes for models lacking the mutation. The findings were published online Monday in Molecular Cancer Therapeutics.
Two faculty members have joined the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center to help launch a clinical research program in T-cell immunotherapy. The program will be the first of its kind for UNC Lineberger.
Researchers figure out a way to isolate and grow thousands elusive intestinal stem cells at one time, a high throughput technological advance that could give scientists the ability to study stem cell biology gastrointestinal disorders like never before.
New Research from San Raffaele Telethon Institute for Gene Therapy and the University of North Carolina showed that a reprogrammed retrovirus could successfully transfer new clotting genes into animals with hemophilia B to safely and dramatically decrease spontaneous bleeding.
Purposefully and repeatedly exposing children to secondhand smoke — a known human carcinogen — is child abuse, according to an opinion piece written by Adam Goldstein, MD, MPH, a professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine.
A new study identifies both where in the brain and how a protein in the brain, called Neuropeptide Y or NPY, can act to suppress binge alcohol drinking. These findings suggest that restoring NPY may be useful for treating alcohol use disorders and may also protect some individuals from becoming alcohol dependent.
Management of the alliance, which was created by the Arthritis Foundation and the CDC in 2011, has been transferred to the UNC Thurston Arthritis Research Center.
A novel research study from the UNC School of Medicine shows that although mammals inherit equal amounts of genetic mutations from their parents – the mutations that make them unique and not some other person – they actually “use” more of the DNA that they inherited from their dads.
UNC researchers found that the blood platelet protein Rasa3 is critical to the success of the common anti-platelet drug Plavix, which breaks up blood clots during heart attacks and other arterial diseases. The discovery could prove important for creating drugs to alter platelet function.
Mutation of one gene is all it takes to get cystic fibrosis, but disease severity depends on many other genes and proteins. For the first time, UNC researchers identified genetic pathways that play major roles in why one person with CF might have severe symptoms while another person might not.
UNC School of Medicine researchers discovered a gene called R2d2 – Responder to meiotic drive 2 – that breaks Gregor Mendel’s century-old “law of segregation,” which states that you have an equal probability of inheriting each of two copies of every gene from both parents.
Researchers discover that the accepted theory of how Yersinia pestis microbes travel from fleabite to lymph node is off base. Most bacteria get trapped in a bottleneck and never make it to the lymph node, where infection takes root. Finding out why could lead to new ways to stop the pathogen.
UNC scientists have created a new research tool, based on the fruit fly, to help crack the histone code. This research tool can be used to better understand the function of histone proteins, which play critical roles in the regulation of gene expression in animals and plants.
Researchers found that a baby’s diet during the first few months of life has a profound influence on the composition, diversity, and stability of the gut microbiome. These factors influence the baby’s ability to transition from milk to solid foods and may have long-term health effects.
UNC School of Medicine researchers have shown that brain scans can predict which patients with clinical depression are most likely to benefit from a specific kind of talk therapy.
A new study by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill researchers finds that a collection of simple strategies used by parents can lead to significant improvements in one-year-olds at risk for autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
In an analysis of 279 head and neck cancer tumors, researchers with The Cancer Genome Atlas identified subtypes of head and neck cancer based on their genomic characteristics, changes in smoking-related tumors, as well as genomic differences in head and neck cancer tumors linked to HPV, the most common sexually transmitted disease in the United States.
New deep-brain imaging shows activity of individual, genetically similar neurons to particular behaviors of mice. Scientists watched as one neuron was activated when a mouse searched for food while a nearly identical neuron next to it remained inactive until the mouse began eating.
Researchers create first mouse model of ovarian clear cell carcinoma using data from human cancer genome atlas. They show how when the genes ARID1A and PIK2CA are mutated in specific ways, the result is ovarian cancer 100 percent of the time. They show that a known drug can suppress tumor growth.
Researchers found that – when it comes to the ability to regulate emotions – brain activity in autistic people is significantly different than brain activity in people without autism. Researchers showed that symptoms including tantrums, irritability, and anxiety have a biological, mechanistic basis.
Sometimes patients with coclear implants need to have a second or "revision" implantation surgery because of device failure. A new study finds that adults age 65 and older do just as well in speech perception after revision cochlear implantation as those younger than 65.
The findings of study led by a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill researcher may help women and their doctors make decisions about who may get the most benefit out of a breast cancer prevention drug.
Postpartum depression (PPD) may have a diverse clinical presentation and this has critical implications for diagnosis, treatment and understanding the underlying biology of the illness, a new study finds.
University of North Carolina scientists discovered how the chemo drug topotecan affects individual neurons to potentially cause "chemo fog." A similar long-term affect in the developing brain could trigger autism.
A new study by University of North Carolina School of Medicine researchers confirms their surprising earlier finding: Patients who suffer a STEMI heart attack while while in the hospital for something else are more likely to die than patients who have the same type of heart attack outside the hospital.
Researchers have developed a new approach to block the KRAS oncogene, one of the most frequently mutated genes in human cancer. The approach offers another route to attack KRAS, which has proven to be an elusive and frustrating target for drug developers.
A dynamic team of cancer researchers at UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center have been funded by The V Foundation for Cancer Research to focus on finding new treatments for cancers of the head, neck, lung and esophagus while better understanding why these cancers can become resistant to new therapies.
Researchers develop first genetic strain of mice that can be infected with Ebola and display symptoms similar to those that humans experience. This work will significantly improve basic research on Ebola treatments and vaccines.
Funded from a newly established NCI grant program, the award will fund the UNC-Malawi Cancer Consortium, a collaborative effort aimed at expanding current efforts in Malawi to address a growing cancer burden. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is one of only eight institutions in the country to receive this award.
A new study conducted by University of North Carolina School of Medicine researchers provides the first known evidence of how a similar acoustic characteristic in the cry sounds of human infants and rat pups may be used to detect the harmful effects of prenatal cocaine exposure on nervous system development.
UNC researchers discover a subpopulation of melanoma cancer cells in blood vessels of tumors. These cells, which mimic non-cancerous endothelial cells that normally populate blood vessels, could provide researchers with another target for cancer therapies.
UNC researchers discovered that fibroblasts, which normally give rise to scar tissue after a heart attack, can be turned into endothelial cells, which generate blood vessels to supply oxygen and nutrients to the injured regions of the heart, greatly reducing the damage done following heart attack.
The National Institutes of Health recently awarded researchers from the UNC School of Medicine and the UNC Gillings School of Public Health more than $2 million to study the effects of physical activity food labeling on consumer food choices and exercise.
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