Category Health/Medical

Salk researchers have turned the skin cells of people with autism spectrum disorder into neurons. These cells show specific defects compared with those neurons derived from healthy people, including diminished ability to form excitatory connections with other neurons (indicated by red and green dots in the neuron). Credit: Salk Institute

The brains of some people with autism spectrum disorder grow faster than usual early on in life, often before diagnosis. A new study co-led by Salk Institute scientists has employed a cutting-edge stem cell technique to unravel the mechanisms driving the mysterious phenomenon of excess brain growth, which affects as many as 30% of people with autism...

Simvastatin acts as a stopper, plugging the adhesion molecules in the immune system.

Simvastatin, which is one of the most commonly used pharmaceuticals in the world, also has a beneficial effect on the immune defense system with regard to diseases such as type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis. Danish researchers have now explored why this is so, and their findings may result in improved treatment.

In the case of multiple sclerosis, the immune defense system destroys the central nervous system, while the inflammation affects the kidneys, eyes and sense of touch in both type 1 and type 2 diabetes, leading to a variety of complications...

When offspring are in the womb, what their mothers experience environmentally (for example, diet, stress, smoking), influences the attributes of offspring when they are adults. This ‘developmental programming’ is understood to be a large contributor to the obesity epidemic seen today. Credit: © highwaystarz / Fotolia

The process by which a mother’s diet during pregnancy can permanently affect her offspring’s attributes, such as weight, could be strongly influenced by genetic variation in an unexpected part of the genome, according to research led by Queen Mary University of London (QMUL). The discovery could shed light on why many human genetic studies have previously not been able to fully explain how certain diseases, such as type 2 diabetes and obesity, are inherited.

The study shows g...

Cleavage of an RNA-containing D2C by an RCD.

New platform detects traces of everything from bacteria to viruses, cocaine and metals. DNA is best known as a genetic material, but is also a very programmable molecule that lends itself to engineering for synthetic applications. The new method shapes separately programmed pieces of DNA material into pairs of interlocking circles. The first remains inactive until it is released by the second, like a bicycle wheel in a lock. When the second circle, acting as the lock, is exposed to even a trace of the target substance, it opens, freeing the first circle of DNA, which replicates quickly and creates a signal, eg colour change.

“The key is that it’s selectively triggered by whatever we want to detect,” says Brennan, who holds the Canada Research Ch...