Category Biology/Biotechnology

Tad Carper had no idea the technology to detect more than 50 cancers with one test existed. He does now, and the Dallas Cowboys senior vice president of communication wants to help spread the word.

Carper recently underwent surgery for Stage 2 throat cancer. He exhibited no symptoms. The Galleri blood test, developed by GRAIL, allowed him to attack the cancer sooner than he would have been able to otherwise.

The story of Carper and others helps put a face on its impact and increases awareness of this relatively new technology.

“There is nothing that is more motivating and inspiring than hearing these stories,” said Dr. Josh Ofman, president of GRAIL, a California-based biotech company that specializes in early cancer detection.

Single-...

Researchers from Helmholtz Munich and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) have identified a mechanism that may explain the neurological symptoms of long COVID.

The study shows that the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein remains in the brain’s protective layers, the meninges, and the skull’s bone marrow for up to four years after infection. This persistent presence of the spike protein could trigger chronic inflammation in affected individuals and increase the risk of neurodegenerative diseases.

The team, led by Prof. Ali Ertürk, Director at the Institute for Intelligent Biotechnologies at Helmholtz Munich, also found that mRNA COVID-19 vaccines significantly reduce the accumulation of the spike protein in the brain...

Whether cells in the human body survive or die under stress depends, among other things, on their mitochondria. Scientists at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Freiburg have now shown that a sudden stop in energy production in mitochondria prevents normal cell death or so-called apoptosis and instead triggers an inflammatory response. The results of this research were published in the journal Immunity.

“We found that mitochondria provide a kind of decision-making aid: they regulate whether a cell undergoes clean, silent apoptosis or releases pro-inflammatory messenger substances,” explains Prof. Dr...

If you’ve heard of two of the brain’s chemical neurotransmitters, it’s probably dopamine and serotonin. Never mind that glutamate and GABA do most of the work—it’s the thrill of dopamine as the “pleasure chemical” and serotonin as a tender mood-stabilizer that attract all the headlines.

Of course, the headlines mostly get it wrong. Dopamine’s role in shaping behavior goes way beyond simple concepts like “pleasure” or even “reward”...