Category Biology/Biotechnology

Hard-to-detect colorectal pre-cancerous lesions known as serrated polyps, and the aggressive tumors that develop from them, depend heavily on the ramped-up production of cholesterol, according to a preclinical study from researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine. The finding points to the possibility of using cholesterol-lowering drugs to prevent or treat such tumors.

In the study, published Oct...

Researchers from Charité and McGill University quantify association between Helicobacter pylori and Alzheimer’s disease. Infection with the stomach bacterium Helicobacter pylori could increase the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease: In people over the age of 50, the risk following a symptomatic infection can be an average of 11 percent higher, and even more about ten years after the infection, at 24 percent greater risk. These are the findings of a study by Charité — Universitätsmedizin Berlin and McGill University (Canada), now published in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association.* The researchers analyzed three decades’ worth of patient data.

As today’s populations age, dementia is set to become more common, tripling in prevalence in ...

McGill University researchers have made a breakthrough in diagnostic technology, inventing a ‘lab on a chip’ that can be 3D-printed in just 30 minutes. The chip has the potential to make on-the-spot testing widely accessible.

As part of a recent study, the results of which were published in the journal Advanced Materials, the McGill team developed capillaric chips that act as miniature laboratories.

Unlike other computer microprocessors, these chips are single-use and require no external power source — a simple paper strip suffices.

They function through capillary action — the very phenomena by which a spilled liquid on the kitchen table spontaneously wicks into the paper towel used to wipe it up.

“Traditional diagnostics require peripherals, while ours can circumvent them...