Category Health/Medical

New research could lead to ways of enhancing cognitive function to counteract the effects of diseases such as Alzheimer’s and schizophrenia, as well as enhancing memory in healthy people. Credit: © Maxim Pavlov / Fotolia

How does heightened attention improve our mental capacity? This is the question tackled by new research published in the journal Cell Reports, which reveals a chemical signal released across the brain in response to attention demanding or arousing situations. The discoveries indicate how current drugs in the treatment of Alzheimer’s, designed to boost this chemical signal, counter symptoms of dementia. The results could also lead to new ways of enhancing cognitive function to counteract Alzheimer’s and schizophrenia, as well as enhancing memory in healthy people.

The team...

Zebrafish embryos expressing a fluorescent gene after ultraviolet light irradiation.

A researcher has successfully developed a method to accurately manipulate gene expression by light illumination and demonstrated its usability by creating double-headed zebrafish. It has been difficult to freely manipulate the timing and duration of gene expression using existing gene manipulation technologies, which depend on organism’s gene regulating mechanism. In recent years, methods using light to regulate gene expression have been developed, but deemed insufficient to manipulate embryonic 3development. This is due to a time lag of several hours that occurs from light irradiation to the start/cessation of protein production...

High expression of PHLDB3 is found in multiple cancers and mutually exclusive to TP53 mutations in some cancers.

Tulane University researchers have discovered that the protein PHLDB3, thought to be a potential tumor suppressor, actually allows cancer cells to thrive in pancreatic, prostate, colon, breast, lung, and other common cancers. The discovery could explain how cancer is able to overcome p53 – a key tumor-suppressing protein. The findings, recently published in Nature Communications, could eventually lead to targeted diagnostic tests and treatments of certain types of cancer.

“Now that we’ve identified the molecule, we could utilize it as an anti-cancer target,” said Dr. Hua Lu, the Reynolds and Ryan Families Chair in Translation Cancer at Tulane...

Bioprinter prototype. Credit: Image courtesy of Universidad Carlos III de Madrid – Oficina de Información Científica

Scientists from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M), CIEMAT Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón, with the firm BioDan Group, have a prototype for a 3D bioprinter that can create functional human skin. This skin is adequate for transplanting to patients or for use in research or the testing of cosmetic, chemical, and pharmaceutical products.

This new human skin is one of the first living human organs created using bioprinting to be introduced to the marketplace...