Category Biology/Biotechnology

U.S. county distributions.
a: Proportion of Medicare Sample with Diagnosed CKD by County, b: Average PM2.5 (μg/m3) by County, Non-shaded counties had missing information and were not used in the analysis.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0200612.g002

There is good evidence that polluted air increases the risk of respiratory problems such as asthma – as well as organ inflammation, worsening of diabetes and other life-threatening conditions. But new research suggests air pollution can also fuel something else: chronic kidney disease, or CKD, which occurs when a person’s kidneys become damaged or cannot filter blood properly.

Recently published in PLOS ONE, a University of Michigan study highlights the lesser-known connection...

Weight scale (stock image).
Credit: © Win Nondakowit / Fotolia

In a new study, researchers at Uppsala University now demonstrate that one night of sleep loss has a tissue-specific impact on the regulation of gene expression and metabolism in humans. This may explain how shift work and chronic sleep loss impairs our metabolism and adversely affects our body composition.

Epidemiological studies have shown that the risk for obesity and type 2 diabetes is elevated in those who suffer from chronic sleep loss or who carry out shift work...

The snail-shell-shaped part of the inner ear that houses hair cells. Credit: Holt lab/Harvard Medical School

Scientists at Harvard Medical School say they have ended a 40-year-quest for the elusive identity of the sensor protein responsible for hearing and balance. The results of their research, reported Aug. 22 in Neuron, reveal that TMC1, a protein discovered in 2002, forms a sound- and motion-activated pore that allows the conversion of sound and head movement into nerve signals that travel to the brain – a signaling cascade that enables hearing and balance.

Scientists have long known that when the delicate cells in our inner ear detect sound and movement, they convert them into signals. Where and how this conversion occurs has been the subject of intense scientific debate...

Drivers of brain aging. Credit: Daniel G. Amen

Schizophrenia, cannabis use, and alcohol abuse are just several disorders that are related to accelerated brain aging. In the largest known brain imaging study, scientists from Amen Clinics (Costa Mesa, CA), Google, John’s Hopkins University, University of California, Los Angeles and the University of California, San Francisco evaluated 62,454 brain SPECT (single photon emission computed tomography) scans of more than 30,000 individuals from 9 months old to 105 years of age to investigate factors that accelerate brain aging. SPECT tomography) evaluates regional cerebral blood flow in the brain that is reduced in various disorders.

Lead author, psychiatrist Daniel G...