New research reveals that standard screening misses most people with a common inherited cholesterol disorder. A Mayo Clinic study reports that current genetic screening guidelines overlook most people who have familial hypercholesterolemia, an inherited disorder that can lead to dangerously high cholesterol and early heart disease. This condition can move quietly through families for many years. [...]
Summary: Researchers at Ruhr University Bochum explore why consciousness evolved and why different species developed it in distinct ways. By comparing humans with birds, they show that complex awareness may arise through different neural architectures yet serve similar purposes. New research examines why consciousness evolved by comparing humans with birds. What evolutionary purpose does consciousness serve, [...]
Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and collaborators have reported early success with a novel mRNA-based therapy designed to combat antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The findings, published in Nature Biotechnology, show that in preclinical studies in mice and human lung tissue in the lab, the therapy slowed bacterial growth, strengthened immune cell activity, [...]
A breakthrough zwitterionic polymer slips through the skin’s toughest barriers, carrying insulin deep into tissue and normalizing blood sugar, offering patients a painless alternative to daily injections. A recent study published in the journal Nature examines the use of the skin-permeable molecule poly[2-(N-oxide-N,N-dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate] (OP) as a delivery system for insulin, a key drug in the [...]
Antibiotic resistance is a growing concern - from human health to crop survival. A new study successfully uses nanogels to target and almost entirely inhibit the bacteria P. Aeruginosa. Recently published in Angewandte Chemie, the study demonstrates 99.9 % effective inhibition against P. Aeruginosa, a particularly evasive bacterium. By combining pathogen-specific sugar ligands with a membrane-disrupting antimicrobial peptide, [...]
Biomedical researchers at Texas A&M University may have discovered a way to stop or even reverse the decline of cellular energy production—a finding that could have revolutionary effects across medicine. Dr. Akhilesh K. Gaharwar and Ph.D. student John Soukar, along with their fellow researchers from the Department of Biomedical Engineering, have developed a new [...]
Scientists worldwide have joined forces to build the first-ever roadmap for conserving Earth’s vast invisible majority—microbes. Their new IUCN Specialist Group reframes conservation by elevating microbial life to the same urgency as plants and animals, emphasizing microbes’ foundational role in climate stability, soil fertility, marine ecosystems, and human health. The roadmap charts new metrics, [...]
Scientists have discovered that the brain may have a built-in way to fight Alzheimer’s. By activating a protein called Sox9, researchers were able to switch on star-shaped brain cells known as astrocytes and turn them into powerful cleaners that remove toxic plaques linked to memory loss. Tests in mice that already had Alzheimer’s-like symptoms showed that [...]
Temporarily anesthetizing the retina briefly reverts the activity of the visual system to that observed in early development and enables growth of responses to the amblyopic eye, new research shows. In the common vision disorder amblyopia, impaired vision in one eye during development causes neural connections in the brain's visual system to shift toward supporting [...]
A new ultrasound-guided nanotherapy wipes out liver tumors while training the immune system to keep them from coming back. The study, published in Nano Today, introduces a biodegradable nanoparticle system that combines sonodynamic therapy and cell death induction (ferroptosis) to treat hepatocellular carcinoma, the most common type of liver cancer. The platform uses ultrasound-triggered generation of [...]
