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DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, is the hereditary material in humans and almost all other organisms. Nearly every cell in a person’s body has the same DNA. Most DNA is located in the cell nucleus (where it is called nuclear DNA), but a small amount of DNA can also be found in the mitochondria (where it is called mitochondrial DNA or mtDNA).

Quitting smoking reverses lung cell damage even for decade-long smokers

It’s never too late to quit smoking, as a new study shows the lung’s ability to heal and regrow damaged cells caused by cigarette smoking, even if they smoked for decades.

30 Jan 2020

Death receptor pathway drives resistance to CAR T cell therapy

Some cancer cells refuse to die, even in the face of powerful cellular immunotherapies like CAR T cell therapy, and new research from the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania is shedding light on why.

30 Jan 2020

Ex-smokers’ lungs can almost “magically” replenish themselves

Researchers have identified a type of lung cell that can almost “magically” replenish the lining of airways in people who have given up smoking.

30 Jan 2020

Study may help develop ibrutinib-based combination therapies for blood cancer

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is the most common form of blood cancer (leukemia) in the Western world, affecting approximately 1.2% of all cancer patients.

30 Jan 2020

Study: 25% of pathogenic bacteria can spread antibiotic resistance directly to peers

Biomedical engineers at Duke University have demonstrated that at least 25 percent of antibiotic-resistant pathogenic bacteria found in clinical settings are capable of spreading their resistance directly to other bacteria.

29 Jan 2020

Interleukin-1-beta-induced chronic inflammation promotes lung cancer metastasis

The study reveals a detailed epigenetic mechanism for how interleukin-1-beta, a common cytokine that helps fight infections during inflammation, plays a critical role in cancer metastasis.

29 Jan 2020

Study shows protective cells reduce lung cancer risk in ex-smokers

A new study could explain how lung cancer risk is reduced by quitting smoking. Published in the journal Nature in January 2020, the study shows that ex-smokers have a greater number of lung cells that have healthy genes compared to current smokers. Healthy genes are less likely to transform into cancerous cells.

29 Jan 2020

Japanese researchers identify genetic variations related to specific dietary habits

Researchers at the RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences in Japan and colleagues at Osaka University have found genetic variations in humans related to specific dietary habits.

29 Jan 2020

New insecticide compounds from plant used for traditional Chinese medicine

For hundreds of years, practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine have used an herb called Stemona sessilifolia as a remedy for parasitic infections, such as those caused by pinworms and lice.

29 Jan 2020

Research uncovers disease-aggravating mutation in mouse model of GRACILE syndrome

The new mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) variant drastically speeds up the disease progression in a mouse model of GRACILE syndrome. This discovery provides a new tool for studies of mitochondrial diseases.

29 Jan 2020

Researchers create new brain cancer model using genetically engineered pluripotent stem cells

Using genetically engineered human pluripotent stem cells, University of California San Diego School of Medicine researchers created a new type of cancer model to study in vivo how glioblastoma, the most common and aggressive form of brain cancer, develops and changes over time.

29 Jan 2020

Coronavirus death toll in China now 131 with 4,630 cases

Chinese meat markets sell the usual poultry, beef and pork and other forms of meat including rodents, yaks, snakes, tortoises, porcupines etc. With the rising number of people being infected with the novel Corona virus, fingers are pointing towards these small time sellers of unregulated meat that could be carrying the virus.

28 Jan 2020

Study on axolotl's ability to regenerate might help find ways to restore damaged tissue in humans

The type of salamander called axolotl, with its frilly gills and widely spaced eyes, looks like an alien and has other-worldly powers of regeneration. Lose a limb, part of the heart or even a large portion of its brain? No problem: They grow back.

28 Jan 2020

Novel palladium compound acts against ovarian tumor cells

A group led by a researcher affiliated with the University of São Paulo's São Carlos Chemistry Institute (IQSC-USP) in Brazil has developed a novel palladium compound that acts against ovarian tumor cells without affecting healthy tissues. Palladium is a silvery white metal belonging to the same group as platinum.

28 Jan 2020

SU2C announces international team for fighting gastric cancer

Stand Up To Cancer announced today that an international team of experts will take a new approach to fighting the world's third-leading cause of cancer death -- stomach (or gastric) cancer.

28 Jan 2020

Book review: Nano comes to life by Sonia Contera

NuNano’s marketing lead, Rebecca Megson-Smith, is our resident bookworm.

From Nu Nano Ltd 28 Jan 2020

Conceived through ‘fertility fraud,’ she now needs fertility treatment

When Heather Woock was in her late 20s, she started researching her family history. As part of the project, she spit into a tube and sent it to Ancestry, a consumer DNA testing service. Then, in 2017, she started getting messages about the results from people who said they could be half siblings.

28 Jan 2020

Study finds unexpected response to estrogen at the single cell level

A team led by researchers at Baylor College of Medicine found that not only do individual mammalian cells in a population fail to respond synchronously to estrogen stimulation, neither do individual gene copies, known as alleles.

28 Jan 2020

An old plant virus inspires the design of novel second-generation malaria vaccine

Scientists from the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research have demonstrated that a novel, second-generation malaria vaccine candidate based on the tobacco mosaic virus may offer protection against Plasmodium falciparum malaria in the upcoming issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

27 Jan 2020

New micro-scale technology holds promise for improved tumor diagnosis

Using a single-needle biopsy and new technology for tumor diagnosis developed by Baylor College of Medicine and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, researchers have been able to provide a more detailed and wider window into cancer biology, tumor type and the mechanisms of response and resistance to therapy than with conventional approaches.

27 Jan 2020