Category Health/Medical

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have discovered a new sensory organ that is able to detect painful mechanical damage, such as pricks and impacts. The discovery is being published in the journal ‘Science’.

Pain causes suffering and results in substantial costs for society. Almost one person in every five experiences constant pain and there is a considerable need to find new painkilling drugs. However, sensitivity to pain is also required for survival and it has a protective function...

Researchers have discovered how our choice of diet can weaken our gut immune system and lead to the development of diabetes. A growing body of research supports that during obesity, our immune system is often responding to components of bacteria that “leak” through the intestinal tissue and results in inflammation. In turn, inflammation can drive insulin resistance, which predisposes people to diabetes.

In new research published in Nature Communications this week, Dr...

The discovery of the previously unknown mutation could lead to routine testing of individuals with a strong family history of pancreatic cancer to determine if they carry the mutation, occurring in the gene known as RABL3. Scientists studying a highly cancer-prone family have identified a rare, inherited gene mutation that dramatically raises the lifetime risk of pancreatic and other cancers.

The discovery of the previously unknown mutation, reported in Nature Genetics by investigators from Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center, could lead to routine testing of individuals with a strong family history of pancreatic cancer to determine if they carry the mutation, occurring in the gene known as RABL3...

Test could help avoid unnecessary surgeries; enable physicians to continuously monitor cancer. A new type of blood test for breast cancer could help avoid thousands of unnecessary surgeries and otherwise precisely monitor disease progression, according to a study led by the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) and Mayo Clinic in Arizona.

TGen is an affiliate of City of Hope, which along with The Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute at Cambridge University and the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University (ASU) also contributed to this study.

Published today in the premier journal Science Translational Medicine, the study suggests that the te...