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Researchers re-purpose cancer-fighting artificial antibodies for COVID-19

Researcher Paula Bates, John Trent, and Don Miller developed a therapeutic drug that could potentially block the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. Their research was initially aimed at helping patients suffering from multiple types of cancer.

27 Apr 2020

New study may offer a breakthrough in treating telomere diseases

Capping decades of research, a new study may offer a breakthrough in treating dyskeratosis congenita and other so-called telomere diseases, in which cells age prematurely.

21 Apr 2020

Study: Early changes in microbiome development can impact health and disease later in life

A team of researchers at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) has characterized how the gut microbiome develops in the first hours of infancy, providing a critical baseline for how changes in this environment can impact health and disease later in life.

17 Apr 2020

UofL researchers use computers in schools across Kentucky to identify drugs for COVID-19

The novel coronavirus may have K-12 students in Kentucky's school districts learning at home, but researchers at the University of Louisville are using the computing power of thousands of computers in classrooms across the state to identify drugs to treat COVID-19.

10 Apr 2020

Inhibiting the iron transport could halt tuberculosis

The bacteria that cause tuberculosis need iron to survive. Researchers at the University of Zurich have now solved the first detailed structure of the transport protein responsible for the iron supply.

1 Apr 2020

'Living drug factories' could be used to achieve long-term treatment of chronic diseases

One promising way to treat diabetes is with transplanted islet cells that produce insulin when blood sugar levels get too low.

30 Mar 2020

New drug shows promise to reverse treatment resistance in advanced multiple myeloma

Researchers at the VU University Medical Center in the Netherlands have tested a new drug in patient samples and mice with multiple myeloma and discovered that it was effective even in advanced disease - a point when many patients currently run out of options.

27 Mar 2020

Lung cancer medication may have benefits for patients with metastatic brain cancers

A medication commonly used to treat non-small cell lung cancer that has spread, or metastasized, may have benefits for patients with metastatic brain cancers, suggests a new review and analysis led by researchers at St. Michael's Hospital of Unity Health Toronto and Harvard Medical School.

25 Mar 2020

Crumpled grapheme can be more sensitive in detecting DNA cancer markers

Graphene-based biosensors could usher in an era of liquid biopsy, detecting DNA cancer markers circulating in a patient's blood or serum. But current designs need a lot of DNA.

24 Mar 2020

Virtual reality becomes a drug design tool

A new study published in March 2020 in the journal PLOS ONE shows the use of virtual reality (VR) as a powerful tool to create next-generation therapeutics. The focus is on the ability of VR to simulate the way commonly used drugs act on the cells at the molecular level, which enables innovation to improve the mechanism of action or to use alternate mechanisms.

11 Mar 2020

Combination of anti-cancer nanodrugs with Intralipid enhances therapeutic efficacy

Pairing chemotherapy nanodrugs with a nutritional supplement can lessen devastating side-effects while reducing the amount of the expensive drugs needed to treat cancer according to a study from Carnegie Mellon University and Taiwan's National Health Research Institutes.

10 Mar 2020

Nearly $4 million to fund drug discovery research for Alzheimer's, other dementia

The Alzheimer's Association and the Rainwater Charitable Foundation have joined forces again to fund drug discovery research towards finding therapies for Alzheimer's disease, frontotemporal degeneration, and other tauopathies.

4 Mar 2020

Chemists develop promising molecular tool to target cell immortality's underlying gears

One of the hallmarks of cancer is cell immortality. A Northwestern University organic chemist and his team now have developed a promising molecular tool that targets and inhibits one of cell immortality's underlying gears: the enzyme telomerase.

3 Mar 2020

Prebiotics could help improve sleep and boost stress resilience

Think dietary fiber is just for digestive health? Think again.

3 Mar 2020

New inhalation therapy could relieve lung fibrosis in mice and rats

A new study published in the journal Nature Communications in February 2020 shows that secretions from stem cells in the lung can be utilized to nebulize injured lungs due to several types of lung fibrosis in rats and mice. This could well result in the development of less invasive and more effective therapies for lung fibrosis.

1 Mar 2020

UC Santa Cruz leads collaborative project to develop novel technology for improving wound healing

UC Santa Cruz will lead a collaborative project to develop innovative technology for improving the healing of serious wounds, funded by a contract worth up to $16 million from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

27 Feb 2020

Scientists reveal ability to reverse Huntington's disease-causing DNA repeat mutations in the lab

Neurodegenerative diseases, like Huntington's disease and myotonic dystrophy, are often referred to as DNA repeat diseases, named because of long repeated sequences in the DNA of patients. Increasing repeat expansion length in the affected tissues contribute to earlier age of disease onset and worsen the progression and severity of the disease over time.