Dr. Abhishek Jain, assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Department of Medical Physiology in the College of Medicine, collaborated with researchers from the Departments of Gynecologic Oncology and Cancer Biology at MD Anderson Cancer Center to gain a better understanding of the interaction among ovarian cancer tumors, blood vessels and platelets. […]
Organoids help bridge gap between laboratory study and animal modeling of colorectal cancer
Scientists at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine (WFIRM) have biofabricated human colorectal cancer miniature organs, called organoids, to better understand how a tumor grows in its natural microenvironment and its response to therapies. This new study is the first to replicate observations of native tumor tissue in a laboratory model and validate it […]
Scientists leverage interference between signaling pathways for cancer treatment
In order for cancer to form in the human body, normal cells must acquire multiple mutations before they develop toward the disease. It was previously believed that these mutations acted in concert in the progression of cancer. But a new Nature study led by City of Hope’s Markus Müschen, M.D., Ph.D., chair of the Department […]
Interaction dynamics between designer microrobots and the immune system
Mobile medical microrobots can now be engineered in the lab for broad ranging applications from personalized disease treatment to targeted drug delivery. During their structural design, bioengineers aim to minimize physical interactions with cells of the immune system by optimizing the morphology (shape) of the device and its surface chemistry. It is therefore important to […]
Study finds no relationship between blood type and severity of COVID-19
Blood type is not associated with a severe worsening of symptoms in people who have tested positive for COVID-19, researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have reported, dispelling previous reports that suggested a correlation between certain blood type and COVID-19. A study published in Annals of Hematology did find, however, that symptomatic individuals with blood […]
National Autism Indicators Report: the connection between autism and financial hardship
An autism diagnosis can present a number of challenges for families from learning about the neurodevelopment disorder and accessing support services and resources to financial struggles. A new report from the A.J. Drexel Autism Institute at Drexel University highlighted the financial challenges facing households of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in the United States. […]
Fruit fly study reveals link between the gut and death by sleep deprivation
The first signs of insufficient sleep are universally familiar. There’s tiredness and fatigue, difficulty concentrating, perhaps irritability or even tired giggles. Far fewer people have experienced the effects of prolonged sleep deprivation, including disorientation, paranoia and hallucinations. Total, prolonged sleep deprivation, however, can be fatal. While it has been reported in humans only anecdotally, a […]
As states reopen, tensions flare between the rule followers and rule breakers
Since Republicans, on average, are five times more likely than Democrats to believe it’s safe now to resume normal business activity, reopening the economy has often been framed as a partisan issue. But within households, many families are having their own arguments about how lax or strict they should be about the threat of the […]
AI reveals differences in appearance of cancer tissue between racial populations
Scientists at Case Western Reserve University are using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to reveal apparent cellular distinctions between black and white cancer patients, while also exploring potential racial bias in the rapidly developing field of AI. Their most recent published research asserts that AI analysis of digitized images of cancer tissues reveals critical variations between black […]
Discovery may illuminate a missing link between atherosclerosis and aging
Investigators from Brigham and Women’s Hospital have made a potentially exciting discovery by jumping into the abyss of the dark side of the genome. Once dismissed as “junk DNA,” roughly 75 percent of the human genome do not code for proteins. But these dark regions of the genome are far from junk—instead, they may hold […]