Category Biology/Biotechnology

An enzyme under study to treat certain cancers is also showing promise in reducing the significant vision damage that can result from diabetes and premature birth, scientists report.

Inflammation is considered a hallmark of cancer. It’s pervasive as well in both of these potentially blinding eye conditions, in which inadequate oxygen to the eyes prompts growth of new blood vessels to better deliver oxygen, but which instead often obstruct the vision pathway and become leaky, which causes swelling, further hindering vision.

Scientists at the Medical College of Georgia report in newly published studies in the journals Cell Death and Disease and Cells, increasing evidence that making more of the enzyme arginase 1, or A1, available helps alleviate these...

New research shows that older adults may be better supported as they age when their personalities are considered — for example, are they more like orchids or dandelions?

Researchers from Simon Fraser University’s Circle Innovation examined the potential effects of lifestyle activities on the cognitive health of more than 3,500 adults aged 60...

A compound that both inhibits the MRSA superbug and renders it more vulnerable to antibiotics has been discovered by scientists at the University of Bath in the UK led by Dr Maisem Laabei and Dr Ian Blagbrough.

The novel compound – a polyamine – seems to destroy Staphylococcus aureus, the bacterium that causes (among other things) deadly Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections, by disrupting the pathogen’s cell membrane.

The compound was tested in-vitro against 10 different antibiotic-resistant strains of S. aureus, including some that are known to be resistant to vancomycin – the final drug of choice given to patients fighting an MRSA infection...

Amid much speculation and research about how our genetics affect the way we age, a University of California, Berkeley, study now shows that individual differences in our DNA matter less as we get older and become prone to diseases of aging, such as diabetes and cancer.

In a study of the relative effects of genetics, aging and the environment on how some 20,000 human genes are expressed, the researchers found that aging and environment are far more important than genetic variation in af...