Tag: research

Emerging research may help doctors devise better ways to prevent some of the tens of thousands of amputations unrelated to traumatic injury that occur in the U.S. each year. Diabetes is the leading cause of nontraumatic lower limb amputations, including of the toe and foot. That’s partly because diabetes increases risk of peripheral artery disease,

TUESDAY, Feb. 18, 2020 — Women remain underrepresented in heart disease research, even though it’s the leading cause of death among women worldwide, researchers say. Women accounted for less than 40% of all people enrolled in cardiovascular clinical trials from 2010 through 2017, according to a study published Feb. 17 in the journal Circulation. “One

A team of researchers from the University of California, the University of Zürich, Vanderbilt University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has found that environmental conditions during childhood can impact the way genes are transcribed, resulting in health issues during adulthood. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of

Just 14 percent of people in the world population have access to palliative care services that allow people to die with dignity and alleviate their suffering, according to new research led by the University of Glasgow. And more than half of the world’s population – mainly in low and middle-income countries – have very poor

Every cell contains a vast number of proteins, each of which has a specific function, for example, as a receptor for another molecule or an enzyme that catalyzes chemical reactions. Disorders of such mechanisms can seriously affect a cell and cause diseases such as cancer, in which the sick cell functions fundamentally differently from a

As technology advances in the things we use every day, it’s generally accepted they also become safer. But according to one UBC engineer, that may not be true for a large portion of the population. New research from UBC’s Okanagan campus has developed a innovative model to map the impact of trauma on a pregnant

When insulin is secreted from beta cells in the pancreas to control glucose levels in the blood stream, GABA is also released from the cells to calm them so that the cells can prepare for the next pulse of insulin secretion. Having a stable insulin level is key to the functioning of a healthy pancreas.

The neurological disorder FXTAS (pronounced “fax-tas”) stems from a genetic premutation seen in one of every 151 women and one of every 468 men, called the FMR1 premutation. Just 15 years ago, Fragile X-associated tremor/ataxia syndrome (FXTAS) was discovered by Randi Hagerman, a doctor who saw many of her Fragile X syndrome patients had grandfathers

USC researchers have successfully grown human, testosterone-producing cells in the lab, paving the way to someday treat low testosterone with personalized replacement cells. In today’s Proceedings from the National Academy of Sciences, scientists describe how they transformed stem cells into functioning Leydig cells—the cells in the testes that produce the male sex hormone. “Our study

People do not expect to die from a simple infection. But that might change: the world is running out of effective antibiotics. For decades, diseases like bacterial gastroenteritis and colitis have not been a serious health threat, thanks to antibiotics. These small molecules are able to kill bacteria or stop them from reproducing and spreading

In a paper published today in the Journal of Medical Screening, researchers from King’s College London and Queen Mary University of London have found that despite free cancer screening programmes, only 35% take part in all offered programmes. In England, women are invited for screening for three types of cancer concurrently in their sixties; for

A research group led by Professor Tomoyuki Furuyashiki and Associate Professor Shiho Kitaoka (Graduate School of Medicine) in collaboration with researcher Yasuhisa Ano of Kirin Holdings have made discoveries regarding the effect of the dipeptide leucine-histidine (LH) in suppressing microglial activation and depression-associated emotional disturbances. LH dipeptide is found in fermented foods such as blue

About one in 8,000 people have facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy, according to a 2014 study, which is relatively common in the world of genetic diseases. New University of Minnesota Medical School research identifies an inhibitor that protects cells from toxic effects associated with this disease in cells and mice. Facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD) is a genetic

The number of Americans under the age of 50 being diagnosed with colorectal cancer is increasing at an alarming rate, according to a new study. Colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in the U.S. for men and women combined, according to research from the journal Cancer, published by the American Cancer

The world’s most widely used artificial sweetener has not been adequately proven to be safe for human consumption, argues a newly published paper from University of Sussex researchers. Professor Erik Millstone and Dr. Elisabeth Dawson have forensically detailed serious flaws in the reassurance provided in 2013 by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) about the

Infectious proteins called prions cause a group of related, fatal and incurable neurodegenerative disorders, including bovine spongiform encephalopathy or Mad Cow disease and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, both of which affect humans. Chronic wasting disease or CWD, also caused by prions, has reached the point of a global epidemic among deer, elk and members of the deer

Scientists at Harvard University and the Broad Institute’s Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research have made a major advance in the development of human brain ‘organoids’: miniature, 3-D tissue cultures that model a patient’s own brain cells in a dish. Their new method, published in Nature, consistently grows the same types of cells, in the same

An international team of researchers from Western Sydney University, Harvard University, Kings College, Oxford University and University of Manchester have found the Internet can produce both acute and sustained alterations in specific areas of cognition, which may reflect changes in the brain, affecting our attentional capacities, memory processes, and social interactions. In a first of

The advent of the #MeToo movement showed how quickly we can challenge the sort of discrimination that was become so normal we barely batted an eyelid. Perhaps it is same sort of social uprising needed to address the health gap of gender; a gap that sees women and the LGBQI community worse off, but also

A team of researchers led by Harvard University scientists has improved the laboratory process of converting stem cells into insulin-producing beta cells, using biological and physical separation methods to enrich the proportion of beta cells in a sample. Their findings, published in the journal Nature, may be used to improve beta cell transplants for patients