Multi-genome assemblies called pangenomes can capture genetic diversity in a species, but researchers are still working out how best to build and explore them.
Scientists used an old theory to develop a new technique that involves exposing skin cells to an electric field to make the wounds on the skin heal faster.
Researchers from Chalmers Insitute of Technology (CTH) and the University of Freiburg have proposed an interesting technique that enables chronic wounds to heal faster than ever.
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is how we visualize soft, watery tissue that is hard to image with X-rays. But while an MRI provides good enough resolution to spot a brain tumor, it needs to be a lot sharper to visualize microscopic details within the brain that reveal its organization.
In a decades-long technical tour de force led by Duke’s Center for In Vivo Microscopy with colleagues at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, University of Pennsylvania, University of Pittsburgh and Indiana University, researchers took up the gauntlet and improved the resolution of MRI leading to the sharpest images ever captured of a mouse brain.
Continue reading “Brain images just got 64 million times sharper” »
THE CHALLENGE, FIRST FEATURE FILM SHOT IN SPACE: Thoracic surgeon Evgenia Belyaeva has one month to prepare for a flight to the International Space Station, where she must operate on a crew member. Will she be up for the challenge? Can she overcome her fears and insecurities? Will she be able to perform the complicated surgery in zero gravity, and give the cosmonaut a chance to return to Earth alive?
The Russians have long been at the forefront of scientific and technological innovation. With the historic launch of Yuri Gagarin into space in 1961, they made history by becoming the first country to send a human being into orbit. Decades later, they have once again made headlines by being the first in the world to develop a COVID-19 vaccine, a remarkable achievement in the face of a global pandemic. And now, they have again beaten everyone else by shooting the first-ever movie in space.
Jennifer Doudna:
Nobel Laureate Biochemist: Early in my work on CRISPR, I had a dream one night about a colleague of mine asking me to explain CRISPR to a friend of his. And the friend turned out to be Hitler. And it was Hitler with a pig face and a horrifying look that made me imagine some of the worst aspects of what genome editing could bring about if it were used irresponsibly.
And I woke up from that dream thinking that it was so critical that we as scientists think together about how we use our technologies responsibly.
How can we increase natural killer cell activity naturally? Exercise can do it, unless, apparently, you’re eating a high-fat diet. Those randomized to undergo an exercise training program on a high-fat diet actually suffered a decline in natural killer cell activity, suggesting training on a high-fat diet is detrimental to the immune system. Eating lots of contaminated fatty fish may also adversely affect natural killer cell levels. But put people on a low-fat diet, and you can dramatically increase natural killer cell activity within a matter of months by about 50 percent, suggesting that dietary fat might increase the formation of cancer by depressing the tumor surveillance capacity of the immune system.
The bottom line in terms of fasting is that, at present, long-term fasting in cancer treatment is supported only by some case reports; so, more research is desperately needed. Sadly, there is currently no clinical research evaluating the effects of water-only fasting and a whole food, plant-based diet on follicular lymphoma in humans. Long-term fasting is certainly not without risk. In this case, a guy opted to try a 60-day fast instead of chemotherapy for non-Hodgkin lymphoma, ending up hospitalized in a coma and respiratory failure because of Wernicke encephalopathy, a life-threatening neurological emergency caused by thiamine deficiency. But starting on a healthier diet seems like a win-win no-brainer. Just putting people on a plant-based, whole foods, sugar-oil-salt-free diet, with or without fasting, is sometimes sufficient to induce an intense healing response.
Continue reading “Spontaneous Regression of Cancer with Fasting” »
CAR T cell therapy has been a major advance for treating leukemia, lymphoma and multiple myeloma. Now, it’s showing promise for solid tumors, including lung cancer, kidney cancer and bone cancer.
In a stage two clinical trial, researchers found that adding an mRNA cancer vaccine to standard treatment reduced the chances for melanoma recurrence or death by 44 percent. NBC News’ Kristen Dahlgren spoke to one of the study’s doctors and a patient for more details.
A multi-institution study that included researchers from Stanford University, the University of California at San Diego, the University of Cambridge, the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center and others has looked into the development of extrachromosomal DNA in patients with esophageal adenocarcinoma or Barrett’s esophagus.
In the paper, “Extrachromosomal DNA in the cancerous transformation of Barrett’s oesophagus,” published in Nature, researchers identify previously unknown aspects of extrachromosomal DNA presence and their potential role in Barrett’s esophagus. David H. Wang has published a News & Views piece in the same journal discussing the study.
Barrett’s esophagus is a pre-cancerous tissue abnormality that affects about 1.6% of the U.S. population. The condition is mostly harmless, defined by cells in the esophagus lining that become more intestinal-like and is frequently associated with heartburn and acid regurgitation.
Recently, a team of South Korean scientists led by Director C. Justin Lee of the Center for Cognition and Sociality within the Institute for Basic Science made a discovery that could revolutionize both the diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease. The group demonstrated a mechanism where the astrocytes in the brain uptake elevated levels of acetates, which turns them into hazardous reactive astrocytes. They then went on to further develop a new imaging technique that takes advantage of this mechanism to directly observe the astrocyte-neuron interactions.
Alzheimer’s disease (AD), one of the major causes of dementia, is known to be associated with neuroinflammation in the brain. While traditional neuroscience has long believed that amyloid beta plaques are the cause, treatments that target these plaques have had little success in treating or slowing the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.
On the other hand, Director C. Justin Lee has been a proponent of a novel theory that reactive astrocytes are the real culprit behind Alzheimer’s disease. Reactive astrogliosis, a hallmark of neuroinflammation in AD, often precedes neuronal degeneration or death.
