A new material developed by researchers from University of Toronto Engineering could offer a safer alternative to the nonstick chemicals commonly used in cookware and other applications. The new substance repels both water and grease about as well as standard nonstick coatings—but it contains much lower amounts of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), a [...]
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) - which you may know as the disease that affected Stephen Hawking - is a fatal neurodegenerative disease that causes progressive muscle weakness. A research team at Tohoku University and Keio University has uncovered a unifying mechanism in ALS revolving around the expression of UNC13A (a gene crucial for neuronal [...]
Scientists have developed a DNA nanoflower that delivers chemotherapy and gene therapy directly to breast cancer cells, boosting effectiveness while reducing side effects in early tests. Breast cancer continues to be one of the most prevalent cancers worldwide. Although drugs like Doxorubicin (DOX) are commonly used, their effectiveness is often limited by toxicity, poor targeting, [...]
Mosquitoes kill more people each year than any other animal. In 2023, the blood-sucking insects infected a reported 263 million people with malaria, leading to nearly 600,000 deaths, 80% of which were children. Recent efforts to block the transmission of malaria have been stalled because mosquitoes have adapted resistance to insecticides and the parasites [...]
The Covid pandemic 'significantly' accelerated brain ageing – even among those who were never infected, a study suggests. Scientists say the strain on people's lives, from isolation for weeks on end to the uncertainty surrounding the crisis, was 'detrimental' to the nation's health. The findings emerged from a brain ageing model created using data from [...]
Scientists have developed a simple sonication method to create nanoplastics that closely mimic environmental particles, promising more realistic studies of their ecological impact. Plastics like polyethylene, PET, and polystyrene are used worldwide. Through wear and tear, recycling and chemical disintegration, they eventually break down in nature into tiny fragments. Less than 100 nanometers in [...]
A new Turkish study has raised concerns that Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine may have subtle but serious side effects on the cornea. The research examined changes in the corneas of at least 64 patients before and after receiving both doses of the vaccine. According to the scientists involved in the study published in the journal [...]
As millions of people know firsthand, the most common side effect of mRNA vaccines like the COVID-19 shot is inflammation: soreness, redness and a day or two of malaise. But what if mRNA vaccines could be redesigned to sidestep that response altogether? In a new paper in Nature Biomedical Engineering, researchers at the University of [...]
An experimental mRNA vaccine boosted the tumor-fighting effects of immunotherapy in a mouse-model study, bringing researchers one step closer to their goal of developing a universal vaccine to "wake up" the immune system against cancer. Published today in Nature Biomedical Engineering, the University of Florida study showed that like a one-two punch, pairing the [...]
Elias Quijano, PhD; Diana Martinez-Saucedo, PhD; Zaira Ianniello, PhD; and Natasha Pinto-Medici, PhD, there are 25 other contributors, most from Yale's Department of Therapeutic Radiology and from the departments of genetics, molecular biophysics and biochemistry, biomedical engineering, pathology, and medical oncology and three from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Specifically, animal models of three [...]
