FREE Email Newsletter Bioscience Technology Daily
Getting Old Neural Stem Cells to Make Young Neurons Again
February 6, 2024 1:30 pm | by Cynthia Fox | CommentsWhen the neural stem cells in our brains get older, they create far fewer neurons. This plays a role in neurodegenerative diseases from Alzheimer’s to Parkinson’s. It also plays a role in our increasingly deficient ability to simply find those car keys. New research is changing that paradigm.
Alcohol Ages Male Brains Six Years
February 4, 2024 1:51 pm | by Cynthia Fox | CommentsA scientific study found that even moderately heavy drinking impairs cognition in middle-aged men. Middle-aged men imbibing more than 2.5 drinks a day saw faster decline in all cognitive areas of their brains over a decade. Indeed, middle-aged men putting back 2.5-plus daily, accumulated almost six (5.7) years of extra cognitive aging.
Experience, Not Genes, May Form Dyslexics’ Grey Matter
January 29, 2024 2:12 pm | by Cynthia Fox | CommentsMany dyslexics weren’t born with less grey matter, according to a surprising recent study. Dyslexics’ grey matter may have developed less because they read less. The study contributes to the neuroscience community’s understanding of dyslexia—and may lead dyslexics to read more, despite feeling discouraged.
Researchers Decode Decision Circuit of Cancer Metastasis
January 28, 2024 1:22 pm | by Skip Derra | CommentsNew work from Rice University researchers shows promise for zeroing in on cancer’s core decision network that cancer cells use to decide when to metastasize and invade other parts of the body. This could help in waging ‘a cyber war on cancer.’
Nuts Were All Our Big Brains Needed Millions of Years Ago
January 22, 2024 9:35 am | by Cynthia Fox | CommentsNuts are in the news: a recent study has offered evidence for a big reason our bodies are so nuts for nuts. They are apparently almost all our big brains needed to survive— thus almost all we ate— from 1.4 to 2.4 million years ago.
Genetic Technique Dramatically Improves Pregnancy Rates of Older Women
January 21, 2024 9:36 am | by Cynthia Fox | CommentsA large global team of reproduction experts has found a way to even the score for older women seeking pregnancy using a process called preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD).
Coronary Artery Imaging May Be “Tremendously Significant”
January 16, 2024 1:51 pm | by Cynthia Fox | CommentsA major mystery in heart disease—why most people who develop serious heart disease have normal blood pressure and cholesterol—may have been solved in a “tremendously significant” study. Some are already calling the study “important” and “frame-shifting.” The study—Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis—found that coronary artery calcium scans can often more accurately predict heart disease than cholesterol and blood pressure readings.
Training T Cells to Fight Their Own Cancers
January 15, 2024 1:48 pm | by Cynthia Fox | CommentsImmunotherapy—the art and science of training peoples’ immune systems to fight their own cancers—was named Breakthrough of the Year by Science. Prominently mentioned was an approach seeing clinical success: genetically tweaking patients’ own T cells to make them more potent, proliferative, and targeted.
The Massachusetts “Obamacare” Model Works
January 9, 2024 11:21 am | by Cynthia Fox | CommentsThe partial model for Obamacare—Massachusetts’ near-universal health care program, adopted in 2006—resulted in measurably improved health. According to a study conducted by researchers from Harvard University and the University of Michigan—with help from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC)—the health of Massachusetts residents rose more in the first five years of the program than did the health of residents in other New England states.
“Rapid Evolution” Method Found in Eyeless Fish
January 8, 2024 11:09 am | by Cynthia Fox | CommentsThe controversial idea that vertebrate evolution can happen rapidly, in the merest handful of generations, has been given a boost. Harvard University evolutionary geneticist Nicolas Rohner and colleagues recently reported finding the mechanism by which some cavefish are born eyeless after the species moves from surface waters to dark caves.
Nanoparticles, Laser Light Help Fight Breast Cancer
December 19, 2023 9:50 am | by Skip Derra | CommentsThe insidious beauty of cancer is that it disguises itself as normal cells fooling the immune system until it can grow into proportions that are unmanageable or untreatable. Researchers have thought if they could help the immune system identify and fight cancer cells they could improve the patient’s prognosis.
23andMe Plays Nice
December 17, 2023 10:23 am | by Cynthia Fox | Comments23andMe, the consumer genetics company halted by the FDA for ignoring repeated questions, is being conciliatory. The company offered raw gene data, and interpretative reports, to the general public on more than 240 diseases and traits until Dec. 5, when it announced it would cease taking new customers as a result of FDA action. However: “the company is now writing conciliatory letters to regulators,” says an insider.
HRT Aids Cognition After All, Say Two Menopause Studies
December 12, 2023 11:01 am | by Cynthia Fox | CommentsTwo very different recent papers come to a similar conclusion: cyclical, physiologic hormone replacement therapy (HRT) aids memory in postmenopausal women. One paper found native progesterone, as it is in its natural state cycling the body, helps memory early post-menopause. The other paper found cyclic, physiologic, administered estrogen helps memory after induced menopause.
Stem Cells May Boost Cognition after Traumatic Brain Injury
December 3, 2023 11:31 am | by Cynthia Fox | CommentsStem cells that quell inflammation shortly after traumatic brain injury (TBI) may also offer lasting cognitive gains, says the University of Texas Health Science Center. In a recent article, the team of Children’s Program in Regenerative Medicine Director Charles Cox reported they injected, into the blood of two groups of rats with traumatic brain injury (TBI), human multi-potent adult progenitor cells (MAPCs).
Getting the Best out of Western Blotting
November 20, 2023 5:11 pm | by Susanne Grimsby, B.S., Senior Research Engineer, GE Healthcare Life Sciences | CommentsWestern blotting is a technique routinely used by researchers to detect and identify certain proteins of interest in a sample. Although a well-established and explored method, a number of shortcomings need to be addressed to enable Western blotting to deliver standardized and quantitative data, supporting researchers who require reproducible, high-quality results to move their research forward.
