New research from the University of Wisconsin-Madison explains why the incurable brain cancer, glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), is highly resistant to current chemotherapies. The study, from the brain-tumor research lab of Dr. John Kuo, assistant professor of neurological surgery and human...
Giant cells called "titan cells" protect the fungus Cryptococcus neoformans during infection, according to two University of Minnesota researchers. Kirsten Nielsen, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the department of microbiology, and recent Ph.D. recipient Laura Okagaki believe their discovery...
Conventional cancer treatments, such as chemotherapy and radiation can cause toxic side-effects. Now, researchers have discovered that a drug called thioridazine can successfully destroy cancer stem cells in humans without these effects. Mick Bhatia, lead researcher of the study and scientific...
A human's self-awareness is controlled by a small region in the brain called the anterior insular cortex (insula). Within the insula lies a unique cell type - the von Economo neuron (VEN) - believed to be unique to humans, elephants, whales and great apes. Now, German researchers have found...
Blocking a protein in the heart that is produced under stressful conditions could be a strategy to prevent cardiac damage that results from chemotherapy, a new study suggests. Previous research has suggested that up to a quarter of patients who receive the common chemotherapy drug doxorubicin...
In a world first, scientists have grown new, healthy heart muscle cells using skin cells from heart failure patients. Writing about their work in a paper published online this week in the European Heart Journal, the Israel-based team explain how the new heart muscle cells are capable of...
Embryonic stem cells - those revered cells that give rise to every cell type in the body - just got another badge of honor. If they suffer damage that makes them a threat to the developing embryo, they swiftly fall on their swords for the greater good, according to a study published online in...
Researchers at The Wistar Institute announce the discovery of small molecules that kill cancer cells caused by infection with human papillomavirus (HPV). Their results, in both cell and mouse models, demonstrate that the small molecule inhibitors protect a tumor-suppressing protein targeted by...
When laboratory mice were modeled with colitis and treated with human umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal cells, the cells homed in on the inflamed colon and effectively ameliorated colitis, reported a study published in a recent issue of Cell Transplantation (20:9), now freely available...
Researchers at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) have identified a molecular pathway that controls the retention and release of the brain's stem cells. The discovery offers new insights into normal and abnormal neurologic development and could eventually lead to regenerative therapies...
New findings in breast cancer research by an international team of scientists contradict the prevailing belief that only basal-like cells with stem cell qualities can form invasive tumors. Research led by Ole William Petersen at the University of Copenhagen (CU) and Mina Bissell of the Lawrence...
Expanding on previous research providing proof-of-principal that human stem cells can be genetically engineered into HIV-fighting cells, a team of UCLA researchers have now demonstrated that these cells can actually attack HIV-infected cells in a living organism. The study, published in the...
For the first time, US scientists have shown that HIV-fighting cells engineered from human stem cells can suppress the virus in living human tissue in mice. The team, from UCLA in Los Angeles, California, had already shown in principle that it was possible to create cells that seek out and...
The Ohio State University uses two different approaches to visualize circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and other unusual circulating cells, with both epithelial and hematopoietic characteristics in metastatic breast cancer (mBC) for their new research. The researchers presented the study results...
By discovering how vital immune cells known as dendritic cells recognize dead and damaged cells, researchers think they may have found a new approach for next generation vaccines that "trick" cells into launching an immune response. Such vaccines would be more effective and result in fewer...
In a finding that may challenge popular notions of body fat and health, researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) have shown how fat cells can protect the body against diabetes. The results may lead to a new therapeutic strategy for preventing and treating type 2 diabetes and...
In the largest study of its kind, researchers have profiled genetic changes in cancer with drug sensitivity in order to develop a personalised approach to cancer treatments. The study is published in Nature on Thursday 29 March 2012. The team uncovered hundreds of associations between mutations...
Researchers have developed multiple techniques and procedures to detect cancer cells during the earliest stages of the disease or after treatment. But one of the major limitations of these technologies is their inability to detect the presence of only a few cancer cells. Now, a research...
Researchers at Brown University have created an implant that appears to deter breast cancer cell regrowth. Made from a common federally approved polymer, the implant is the first to be modified at the nanoscale in a way that causes a reduction in the blood-vessel architecture that breast cancer...
Huntington's disease, the debilitating congenital neurological disorder that progressively robs patients of muscle coordination and cognitive ability, is a condition without effective treatment, a slow death sentence. But if researchers can build on new research reported this week (March 15...