Biosingularity

AN ANCIENT CELLULAR PROGRAM to protect cells when oxygen is low seems crucial for the production of new brain cells. For more than two billion years on this planet, O2 has been the go-to gas for generating efficient cellular energy. But life on Earth never takes oxygen for granted. “When it runs low, cells swiftly [...]

Researchers create carbon nanotubes that mimic natural tissue and can regenerate heart cells in a dish. A conductive patch of carbon nanotubes can regenerate heart tissue growing in a dish, according to preliminary research from Brown University. The patch, made of tiny chains of carbon atoms that fold in on themselves, forming a tube, conducts [...]

An inexpensive dietary supplement appears to help prevent the serious pregnancy complication preeclampsia in high-risk women, according to a new study. But researchers say the effect in lower-risk pregnancies remains to be determined. In the study from Mexico, women who ate daily food bars containing the amino acid L-arginine and antioxidant vitamins during pregnancy had [...]

The human brain has yet to explain the origin of one its defining features — the deep fissures and convolutions that increase its surface area and allow for rational and abstract thoughts. An international collaboration of scientists from the Yale School of Medicine and Turkey may have discovered humanity’s beneficiary — a tiny variation within [...]

Cells that have been reprogrammed to grow into different types of tissue might be rejected by the body — even when they are transplanted into the individual from whom they are made, researchers report in a study published today in Nature1.The study was led by Yang Xu, a molecular biologist at the University of California, [...]

Neural stem cells can do a lot, but not everything. For example, brain and spinal cord cells are not usually generated by neural stem cells of the peripheral nervous system, and it is not possible to produce cells of the peripheral nervous system from the stem cells of the brain. However, researchers from the Max [...]

Talk between the brain’s decision-making center, or frontal cortex, and other brain regions might distinguish aware individuals from those stripped of conscious thought. Identifying such signaling malfunctions could speed the diagnosis of vegetative states and give scientists insight into such devastating disorders, an international team of researchers reports May 12 in Science. Today, diagnosing a [...]

Eva-Marie Fredric thought her then-14-year-old son, Dylan, could handle the task of packing for their trip to the mountains. But when the two arrived at the campsite, she found the tent — but no tent poles. “We slept outside on an inflated air mattress, freezing our bums off, with the dog huddled between us,” recalls [...]

At first glance, a diagram of the complex network of genes that regulate cellular metabolism might seem hopelessly complex, and efforts to control such a system futile.However, an MIT researcher has come up with a new computational model that can analyze any type of complex network — biological, social or electronic — and reveal the [...]

The first online 3-D interactive search tool of the human body was released today.  It allows a user to view and navigate the human anatomy, male or female, down to the finest detail—from the muscles and deep muscles to the nerves, arteries, vessels, and bones. This new tool, called BodyMaps, was developed by Healthline Networks, [...]

A new study from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden shows that the brain has built-in mechanisms that trigger an automatic reaction to someone who refuses to share. The reaction derives from the amygdala, an older part of the brain. The subjects’ sense of justice was challenged in a two-player money-based fairness game, while their brain activity [...]

Recording people belting out an old Motown tune and then asking them to listen to their own singing without the accompanying music seems like an unusually cruel form of punishment. But for a team of scientists at the University of California, San Francisco and University of California, Berkeley, this exact Karaoke experiment has revealed what [...]

Researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, in collaboration with researchers at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine, have made a critical discovery that may lead scientists to abandon the use of broad conventional ethnic labels—African-American, Hispanic, and Caucasian—to estimate a patient’s genetic risk for disease. This first-of-its kind study conducted with diverse patients [...]

German researchers have identified an unexpected molecular marker that predicts how sensitive hard-to-treat triple-negative breast cancers are to chemotherapy. Triple-negative breast cancers –which do not express the genes for estrogen receptor, or progesterone receptor and do not have Her2/neu overexpression or amplification– are more aggressive than other forms of the disease and cannot be treated [...]

Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have taken a machine already in use for the measurement of impurities in semiconductors and used it to analyze immune cells in far more detail than has been possible before. The new technology lets scientists take simultaneous measurements of dozens of features located on and in cells, whereas the [...]

A blend of fruit juices, including grape, cranberry and blackcurrant, may have benefits for the heart, research suggests. French scientists tested the blend on pig arteries in the lab, and found it caused artery walls to relax. It remains to be seen whether fruit juices can improve vascular health, they report in a scientific journal. [...]

New findings from University of Utah School of Medicine researchers show that the retrovirus called XMRV is not present in the blood of patients who have chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). These findings contradict a widely reported 2009 Science study that linked CFS to XMRV. The study, performed by a team of U of U researchers led by [...]

Exercise both reduces the risk of a heart attack and protects the heart from injury if a heart attack does occur. For years, doctors have been trying to dissect how this second benefit of exercise works, with the aim of finding ways to protect the heart after a heart attack. Researchers at Emory University School [...]

More than half of people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) also have trouble regulating their emotions, and that difficulty may be passed through families, a new study shows. Researchers are calling this cluster of symptoms deficient emotional self-regulation (DESR). It involves quick bursts of outsized anger, frustration, impatience, or excitability in response to everyday [...]

A new study from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) offers an explanation for why our brains produce fewer and fewer neurons with age, a phenomenon thought to underlie age-related cognitive decline. The study, published as the cover story in the May 6 issue of Cell Stem Cell, suggests that this drop in production is due to [...]

A new study identifies the mutation that underlies a rare, inherited accelerated-aging disease and provides key insight into normal human aging. The research, published by Cell Press online May 5 in the American Journal of Human Genetics, highlights the importance of a cellular structure called the “nuclear envelope” in the process of aging. “Aging is [...]

Researchers at The Scripps Research Institute have found a temperature-sensing protein within immune cells that, when tripped, allows calcium to pour in and activate an immune response. This process can occur as temperature rises, such as during a fever, or when it falls—such as when immune cells are “called” from the body’s warm interior to [...]

Researchers at Columbia Engineering have established a new method to patch a damaged heart using a tissue-engineering platform that enables heart tissue to repair itself. This breakthrough, recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences is an important step forward in combating cardiovascular disease, one of the most serious health problems of our day.

Trent Arsenault has eaten the same breakfast, lunch and dinner almost every day for the past four or five years: a fruit smoothie in the morning, a spinach salad at noon and another fruit smoothie after work. Every now and then he’ll add a snack to his day. Maybe a spoonful of almond butter or [...]

In an18-0 vote, an FDA advisory panel recommended approval of the drug boceprevir to treat hepatitis C. Panel members called boceprevir, manufactured by Merck & Co., a weapon in the fight against chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype 1 infection. Chronic HCV genotype 1 infection is the most common form of hepatitis in the U.S. and also [...]

AS HUMANS migrated out of Africa around 50,000 years ago and moved across the planet, evolution may have latched onto a gene linked to risk-taking and adventurousness. The idea, first put forward by Chuansheng Chen at the University of California, Irvine, more than a decade ago, was originally met with scepticism. Now Luke Matthews of [...]

Scientists are reporting an in-depth analysis of how the caffeine in coffee, tea, and other foods seems to protect against conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease and heart disease on the most fundamental levels. The report, which describes the chemistry behind caffeine’s antioxidant effects, appears in ACS’ The Journal of Physical Chemistry B. Annia Galano and Jorge [...]

Research has suggested that very low-calorie diets may increase life expectancy in animals, and now a new study in humans provides some important clues as to why this may occur. In the new study, individuals who had higher metabolic rates — the amount of energy the body uses for normal body functions — were more [...]

Studies have shown that meditating regularly can help relieve symptoms in people who suffer from chronic pain, but the neural mechanisms underlying the relief were unclear. Now, MIT and Harvard researchers have found a possible explanation for this phenomenon. In a study published online April 21 in the journal Brain Research Bulletin, the researchers found [...]

When a group of gamblers gather around a roulette table, individual players are likely to have different reasons for betting on certain numbers. Some may play a “lucky” number that has given them positive results in the past—a strategy called reinforcement learning. Others may check out the recent history of winning colors or numbers to [...]

In the fall of 2006, a new machine arrived at what’s now known as the Genome Institute at Washington University in St. Louis. It was capable of reading DNA a thousand times as quickly as the facility’s earlier machines, and at far less cost. Elaine Mardis, the center’s codirector, immediately began using it to sequence [...]

Children with autism tend to have larger brains than children without autism, a study suggests. The study shows larger brains are the result of accelerated brain growth around the children’s first birthday. Researchers from the University of North Carolina also report that the brain overgrowth in kids who develop autism occurs in the temporal lobe [...]

MIT chemical engineers have designed a new type of drug-delivery nanoparticle that exploits a trait shared by almost all tumors: They are more acidic than healthy tissues. Such particles could target nearly any type of tumor, and can be designed to carry virtually any type of drug, says Paula Hammond, a member of the David [...]

When it comes to healthy snacking and weight management, a new study bolsters the long-held view that not all calories are created equal. According to nutrition researchers at UCLA, choosing to snack on pistachios rather than pretzels as part of a healthy diet not only supports your body mass index (BMI) goals, but can support [...]

Since the 1930s scientists have proposed food restriction as a way to extend life in mice. Though feeding a reduced-calorie diet has indeed lengthened the life spans of mice, rats and many other species, new studies with dozens of different mouse strains indicate that food restriction does not work in all cases. Researchers at the [...]

he FDA has approved the Johnson & Johnson pill Zytiga for use in combination with the steroid prednisone to treat a certain type of late-stage prostate cancer in men who have already been treated with chemotherapy. The medication is to be used to treat patients with metastatic, castration-resistant prostate cancer. In men with prostate cancer, [...]

Melanoma, one of the most common cancers, is usually treated with surgery and aggressive chemotherapy. In a new, preliminary study, Dr. Marcus O. Butler, of Boston’s Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, suggests a kinder, gentler way of treating melanoma, and perhaps other cancers, using the body’s own defense system. In a study published in the April 27 [...]

Biologists at UC San Diego have discovered that electrical oscillations in the brain, long thought to play a role in organizing cognitive functions such as memory, are critically important for the brain to store the information that allows us to navigate through our physical environment. The scientists report in the April 29 issue of the [...]

While the primary job of DNA in cells is to carry genetic information from one generation to the next, some scientists also see the highly stable and programmable molecule as an ideal building material for nanoscale structures that could be used to deliver drugs, act as biosensors, perform artificial photosynthesis and more. Trying to build [...]