Category Health/Medical

When something goes wrong during DNA replication, cells call their own version of 911 to pause the process and fix the problem—a failsafe that is critical to maintaining health and staving off disease.

Now, scientists at Van Andel Institute and The Rockefeller University have for the first time revealed how a key piece of this repair process—appropriately called the 911 DNA checkpoint clamp—is recruited to the site of DNA damage. The findings, published today in Nature Structural and Molecular Biology, illuminate new insights into the way cells ensure genetic instructions are properly passed from one generation of cells to the next. The project was led by the study’s co-corresponding authors Huilin Li, Ph.D., of VAI, and Michael E. O’Donnell, Ph.D...

People who consume sugar and other carbohydrates in excess over a long period of time have an increased risk of developing an autoimmune disease. In affected patients, the immune system attacks the body’s own tissue and the consequences are, for example, chronic inflammatory bowel diseases such as Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, type 1 diabetes and chronic inflammation of the thyroid gland.

New targets for therapy

The underlying molecular mechanisms that promote autoimmune diseases are multilayered and complex...

The SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 has killed 6 million people worldwide since 2019.

Researchers now have discovered a monoclonal antibody that potentially acts as a potent universal coronavirus therapy against the COVID-19 virus and all its variants of concern, including delta and omicron. It also shows effectiveness against the deadly coronaviruses SARS, the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome that emerged in China in 2002, and MERS, the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome that appeared in Saudi Arabia in 2012. It even shows effectiveness against several common cold coronaviruses.

This universal activity results from the monoclonal antibody targeting a region of the viral spike protein that is highly conserved among beta-coronaviruses, yet i...

Researchers show which molecular processes promote secondary diseases in obesity. Obesity and overweight are among the biggest health challenges of the 21st century, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Almost 60 percent of Germans are considered overweight, while 25 percent are obese. Moreover, being overweight often triggers severe secondary diseases such as diabetes, arteriosclerosis, or heart attacks.

Immunological processes determine the course of this disease. As part of a new study, a group of LMU researchers led by Dr...