Category Biology/Biotechnology

The mouse in the center photo shows aging-associated skin wrinkles and hair loss after two months of mitochondrial DNA depletion. That same mouse, right, shows reversal of wrinkles and hair loss one month later, after mitochondrial DNA replication was resumed. The mouse on the left is a normal control, for comparison. Credit: UAB

A gene mutation causes wrinkled skin and hair loss; turning off that mutation restores the mouse to normal appearance. Researchers have reversed wrinkled skin and hair loss, hallmarks of aging, in a mouse model. When a mutation leading to mitochondrial dysfunction is induced, the mouse develops wrinkled skin and extensive, visible hair loss in a matter of weeks...

Cans of soft drink. Cooling frozen and with water drops

Drinking artificially sweetened beverages is associated with a significantly lower risk of colon cancer recurrence and cancer death, a team of investigators led by a Yale Cancer Center scientist has found. The study was published today in PLOS ONE.

“Artificially sweetened drinks have a checkered reputation in the public because of purported health risks that have never really been documented,” said the study’s senior author, Charles S. Fuchs, M.D., director of Yale Cancer Center. “Our study clearly shows they help avoid cancer recurrence and death in patients who have been treated for advanced colon cancer, and that is an exciting finding.”

Fuchs and his team of researchers found that in the 1,018-patient analysis, those participants ...

Traditional spanish tapas or italian antipasti.. Martin Cloutier, Mallik Greene, Annie Guerin, Maelys Touya, Eric Wu. The economic burden of bipolar I disorder in the United States in 2015. Journal of Affective Disorders, 2018; 226: 45 DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2017.09.011

An analysis of more than 1,000 people with and without psychiatric disorders has shown that nitrates – chemicals used to cure meats such as beef jerky, salami, hot dogs and other processed meat snacks – may contribute to mania, an abnormal mood state. Mania is characterized by hyperactivity, euphoria and insomnia.

The findings of the Johns Hopkins Medicine study, which was not designed to determine cause and effect, were published July 18 in Molecular Psychiatry...

If approved for use in humans, the magnetic wire (depicted in gray) would be inserted into a vein in the arm (in light pink) and attract floating cancer cells labeled with magnetic nanoparticles (light green and gray) that have come from the tumor (neon green). Courtesy of Sam Gambhir

A magnetic wire used to snag scarce and hard-to-capture tumor cells could prove to be a swift and effective tactic for early cancer detection, according to a study by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine. The wire, which is threaded into a vein, attracts special magnetic nanoparticles engineered to glom onto tumor cells that may be roaming the bloodstream if you have a tumor somewhere in your body...