news 2017

Doctors have many drugs available to treat multiple myeloma, a type of blood cancer. However, there is no way to predict, by genetic markers or other means, how a patient will respond to a particular drug. This can lead to months of treatment with a drug that isn't working. Researchers at MIT have now shown that they can use a new type of measurement to predict how drugs will affect cancer cells taken from multiple-myeloma patients.

Research news Childhood obesity is often attributed to a lack of exercise. So what about sports among elementary school students' A team from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) pursued this question and collected the results of fitness tests for first-year students over a period of one decade. Their study shows that students did not lose their strength.

Researchers at Cardiff University have found a way to boost the cancer-destroying ability of the immune system's T-cells, offering new hope in the fight against a wide range of cancers. Using CRISPR genome editing, the team took the genetic engineering of killer T-cells one step further by removing their non-cancer specific receptors and replacing them with ones that would recognise specific cancer cells and destroy them.

Shown is a structure of the first three subunits of an inflammasome, which consists of the NAIP5 and NLRC4 immune proteins, captured using cryo-electron microscopy. The NAIP5 subunit of the inflammasome is bound to flagellin (shown in light purple), a protein that is part of the flagellum some bacteria use to move around.

Studying the bacteria found in the mouths of dolphins is giving researchers insight into dolphin health and the unique nature of marine mammals in general. National Marine Mammal Foundation Researchers have identified two deep lineages of bacteria that have never been characterized before - and they found them in a dolphin's toothy grin.

Scientists have developed a sensor that fits in the ear, with the aim of monitoring the heart, brain and lungs functions for health and fitness. In previous pilot studies that involved trialling the device with 24 people, the researchers from Imperial College London have demonstrated the prototype's potential for monitoring brain, heart and breathing activity.

Making decisions is not always easy, especially when choosing between two options that have both positive and negative elements, such as deciding between a job with a high salary but long hours, and a lower-paying job that allows for more leisure time. MIT neuroscientists have now discovered that making decisions in this type of situation, known as a cost-benefit conflict, is dramatically affected by chronic stress.

Adolescents whose fathers have depressive symptoms are more likely to experience symptoms of depression themselves, finds a new study led by UCL researchers. While the link between mothers' depression and depression in their children is well-established, the new Lancet Psychiatry study is the first to find an association between depression in fathers and their teenaged children, independent of whether the mother has depression, in a large sample in the general population.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — A genomic study of Puerto Rico's Africanized honey bees - which are more docile than other so-called "killer bees" - reveals that they retain most of the genetic traits of their African honey bee ancestors, but that a few regions of their DNA have become more like those of European honey bees.

Scientists have created mini biological models of human primary liver cancers, known as organoids, in the lab for the first time. In a paper published , the tiny laboratory models of tumours were used to identify a new drug that could potentially treat certain types of liver cancer. Primary liver cancer is the second most lethal cancer worldwide.

Multidrug resistance of microbes poses a serious global threat to human health. Such resistant strains of Klebsiella pneumoniae significantly reduce therapeutic options for the treatment of Klebsiella-induced, potentially fatal pneumonia or sepsis.

Raising so-called 'good' cholesterol by blocking a key protein involved in its metabolism does not protect against heart disease or stroke, according to a large genetic study of 150,000 Chinese adults published in the journal JAMA Cardiology. There are two types of cholesterol in the blood: LDL-C, so-called 'bad' cholesterol, which is carried in low-density lipoproteins (LDL), and HDL-C, so-called 'good' cholesterol which is found in high-density lipoproteins (HDL).

A part of the immune system once thought to prevent organ damage is actually a leading cause of scarring and heart failure, a study has found. Researchers at Imperial College London discovered that a protein called interleukin 11 (IL-11) plays a key role in the scarring process, which in turn causes heart, kidney and liver failure.

The common approach of intensive glucose control to achieve low blood sugar targets in type 2 diabetes can increase the risk of mortality, finds a study by Cardiff University. Looking at routine data from over 300,000 people in the UK, collected between 2004 and 2015, researchers found that lower levels of glycated haemoglobin—typically regarded as being good diabetes control—were associated with increased mortality risk, compared to moderate levels, especially in conjunction with intensive treatments that could cause hypoglycaemia.

Machine learning could improve our ability to determine whether a new drug works in the brain, potentially enabling researchers to detect drug effects that would be missed entirely by conventional statistical tests, finds a new UCL study published today in Brain . "Current statistical models are too simple.

Microbes living in your gut may help protect against the effects of a high-salt diet, according to a new study from MIT. The MIT team, working with researchers in Germany, found that in both mice and humans, a high-salt diet shrinks the population of a certain type of beneficial bacteria. As a result, pro-inflammatory immune cells called Th-17 cells grow in number.

Worldwide survey of antibiotics researchers indicates uncertainty about number of deaths - New survey tool helps gather global expert opinions on existential issues No 316/2017 from Nov 15, 2017 Researchers say that it is difficult to quantify the true extent of the threat of antibiotic resistance for humanity.

Researchers have shown a single blood test could identify which patients reporting to hospital with chest pain were at low risk of imminent heart attacks. The University of Queensland was part of an international collaboration which showed the test could more rapidly rule out acute coronary syndrome, reducing patient anxiety and time spent in hospital.

Combining the innovations of synthetic biology with robotic environmental sampling, a team of University of Bristol researchers are travelling to some of the most 'extreme' environments on Earth, including Atlantic depths of 4.5km, to find new leads which could help in the global fight against antimicrobial resistance.

The Stanford research suggests that any conclusions about stem cell function based on studies of stem cells in lab dishes may now need to be reconsidered in light of the fact that the cells' biology changes during isolation. Stem cells in the body have a significantly different gene-expression profile than do the same cells when they're isolated in a lab dish, according to researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine.