Abnormal scarring is a serious threat resulting in non-healing chronic wounds or fibrosis. Scars form when fibroblasts, a type of cell of connective tissue, reach wounded skin and deposit plugs of extracellular matrix. Until today, the question about the exact anatomical origin of these fibroblasts has not been answered. In order to find potential ways […]
Exploring how lipids and cholesterol relate to Alzheimer’s
Professor Jing Xu and her students study extremely tiny motor proteins, but their work could make a huge contribution to the growing body of knowledge about Alzheimer’s and other diseases that progressively destroy brain tissue. Alzheimer’s disease is, so far, untreatable and incurable and is the sixth most common cause of death in adults in […]
How much sunshine causes melanoma? It’s in your genes
Australian researchers from QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute have shown that 22 different genes help to determine how much sun exposure a person needs to receive before developing melanoma. For people at high genetic risk, sun exposure in childhood is a strong contributing factor while people at low genetic risk develop melanoma only after a […]
New AI System Can Accurately Predict How Long A Patient Will Live
Artificial intelligence has made leaps and bounds in medical science, helping doctors perform the most complex surgeries with greater accuracy than ever before. Now, as startling as it may sound, a new algorithm has been developed by researchers of Stanford University which can assess the correct time of demise of patients who are admitted to […]
Brain scans reveal how the human brain compensates when one hemisphere is removed
Researchers studying six adults who had one of their brain hemispheres removed during childhood to reduce epileptic seizures found that the remaining half of the brain formed unusually strong connections between different functional brain networks, which potentially help the body to function as if the brain were intact. The case study, which investigates brain function […]
Study sheds new light on how epigenetic events might spur disease
Scientists are increasingly tracing a variety of diseases back to the so-called epigenome, a type of indexing system imposed on DNA that dictates how genes should be read by the cells. Now, a new study finds that changes in two epigenetics mechanisms—DNA and histone methylation—may interact to spur disease. The scientists looked at two developmental […]
How to work out (safely) if you're doing intermittent fasting
Jenifer Aniston has just revealed that she follows 16:8 fasting to stay in shape at 50 – and we are all very intrigued. The eating plan means there is an eight-hour window where Jen can fill up on healthy, nutritious food. She then goes 16 hours without eating anything, and she says it makes a […]
Research examines how mistakes can make people ‘tune out’
Failure may not be the great teacher that conventional wisdom says it is. New research from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business finds that, contrary to common belief, people learn less from failure than from success. “Our society celebrates failure as a teachable moment,” write the study’s authors, Prof. Ayelet Fishbach and postdoctoral […]
Animal study shows how stress and mother’s abuse affects infant brain
A new study in rats shows the extent of brain damage in newborn rodents from even short-term abuse by their mother. Past studies in animals and humans have established how a mother’s abuse can lead to brain shrinkage in her infants’ amygdala and hippocampus, parts of the brain that process fear and memory, researchers say. […]
How long does it take to run a half marathon?
Thousands of runners are out on the streets this morning for the Manchester and London Royal Parks respective half marathons, which both kicked off at 9am. Frankly, we’re just proud if we make it out of bed for that time on a Sunday morning… Whether you’re training, participating, or just wondering when the runners will […]