Category Biology/Biotechnology

Brain’s ‘Tug-of-War’: Choosing between Classical and Operant Conditioning

brain
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

A study from Tel Aviv University could reshape our scientific understanding of how humans learn and form memories, particularly through classical and operant conditioning.

The research team found that our brain engages in a fierce competition between these two learning systems, and that only one can prevail at any given time. This means that if we try to learn two conflicting actions for the same situation simultaneously, the result will be confusion, making it difficult to perform either action when encountering the situation again.

In their study, the researchers demonstrate this phenomenon in fruit flies...

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Reprogramming Cells for Heart Repair: New Method Transforms Ordinary Fibroblasts into Mature Cardiomyocytes

Researchers from Korea University explore how ascorbic acid and FGF4 revolutionize regenerative medicine
This diagram illustrates how the combination of fibroblast growth factor 4 and ascorbic acid activates the JAK2–STAT3 signaling pathway, promoting the maturation of induced cardiomyocytes (iCMs). This approach effectively reprograms fibroblasts into cardiomyocytes with improved structure and function, offering exciting possibilities for regenerative medicine. Credit: The author

Cardiovascular disease continues to lead as the primary cause of death across the globe, taking millions of lives every year. Damage caused by these diseases is particularly difficult to repair, since the heart has minimal ability to regenerate itself. But what if we could reprogram the body’s own cells to restore damaged tissue?

This question has been tackled by scientists at Korea University, led by Dr...

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Eating Red Meat may Increase your Risk of Type 2 Diabetes—not a lot of people know that

packaged meat
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Red meat has been a part of diets worldwide since early man. It is an excellent source of protein, vitamins (such as B vitamins) and minerals (such as iron and zinc). However, red meat has long been associated with increasing the risk of heart disease, cancer and early death. What may not be so well known is the link between red meat consumption and type 2 diabetes.

A paper published in The Lancet in September 2024 highlighted this link to type 2 diabetes using data from the Americas, the Mediterranean, Europe, south-east Asia and the Western Pacific (20 countries included).

This recent study, with nearly 2 million participants, found that high consumption of unprocessed red meat, such as beef, lamb and pork, and processed meat, such as bacon, sa...

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Foundational Technology to Make Cancer Cells Revert to Normal Cells?

Schematic diagram of the research results. Professor Kwang-Hyun Cho’s research team developed a source technology to systematically discover key control factors that can induce reversibility of colon cancer cells through a systems biology approach and a digital twin simulation analysis of the differentiation trajectory of normal colon cells, and verified the effects of reversion on actual colon cancer through molecular cell experiments and animal experiments. 

A research team has developed a groundbreaking technology that can treat colon cancer by converting cancer cells into a state resembling normal colon cells without killing them, thus avoiding side effects.

Despite the development of numerous cancer treatment technologies, the common goal of current cancer therapies is to elim...

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