In the Qinghai-Tibet plateau, one of the region’s highest risk areas for human plague, Himalayan marmots are the primary carriers of the infectious bacterium Y. pestis. Y. pestis infection can be transmitted to humans and other animals by the marmots’ parasitic fleas. In a new study recently published with PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, researchers determine […]
Is Evolution of the Human Brain to Blame for Some Mental Disorders?
THURSDAY, Aug. 9, 2018 — Evolutionary changes in the human brain may be responsible for psychiatric illnesses such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, new research suggests. The researchers identified long, noncoding stretches of DNA (called “repeat arrays”) in a gene that governs calcium transport in the brain. Their findings were published Aug. 9 in the […]
Evolutionary changes in the human brain may have led to bipolar disorder and schizophrenia
The same aspects of relatively recent evolutionary changes that make us prone to bad backs and impacted third molars may have generated long, noncoding stretches of DNA that predispose individuals to schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and other neuropsychiatric diseases. A study publishing August 9 in the American Journal of Human Genetics identifies an unusually lengthy array […]
New protocol produces large numbers of mature human podocytes, enabling kidney disease modeling, drug discovery
Human stem cells are of great interest in the fields of regenerative medicine and medical research because they reproduce indefinitely and can differentiate into every other cell type found in the body. While stem cells naturally occur in very few places in the adult body, induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) can be produced directly […]
First human scanned with next-generation 3-D colour medical scanner
The first human has been scanned with a revolutionary new 3D colour medical scanner invented in New Zealand by father and son scientists from the Universities of Canterbury and Otago. The MARS spectral x-ray scanner will revolutionise medical imaging globally – and as a result the diagnosis and treatment of diseases such as cancer and […]