Research carried out at Oxford's Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences has led to the development of a new blood-based test to identify the pathology that triggers Parkinson's disease before the main symptoms occur. This could allow clinicians to screen for those individuals at high risk of developing the disease and facilitate the timely introduction [...]
Biochemists at Case Western Reserve are concentrating on the degradation of a key protein that drives cancer; represents a major shift in research. Biochemical researchers at Case Western Reserve University have discovered a a new function of a key protein that leads to cancer–a finding they believe could lead to more effective treatments for a range [...]
A researcher has just finished writing a scientific paper. She knows her work could benefit from another perspective. Did she overlook something? Or perhaps there's an application of her research she hadn't thought of. A second set of eyes would be great, but even the friendliest of collaborators might not be able to spare [...]
What happens in the human brain when we learn from positive and negative experiences? To help answer that question and better understand decision-making and human behavior, scientists are studying dopamine. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter produced in the brain that serves as a chemical messenger, facilitating communication between nerve cells in the brain and the [...]
The ‘anthrobots’ were able to repair a scratch in a layer of neurons in the lab. Scientists have developed tiny robots made of human cells that are able to repair damaged neural tissue1. The ‘anthrobots’ were made using human tracheal cells and might, in future, be used in personalized medicine. Developmental biologist Michael Levin [...]
Key facts Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is one of the top global public health and development threats. It is estimated that bacterial AMR was directly responsible for 1.27 million global deaths in 2019 and contributed to 4.95 million deaths (1). The misuse and overuse of antimicrobials in humans, animals and plants are the main drivers in the development [...]
Pancreatic cancer, a particularly lethal form of cancer and the fourth leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the western world, often remains undiagnosed until its advanced stages due to a lack of early symptoms. Current treatments, like chemotherapies, have significant limitations, notably damaging healthy cells alongside tumor cells. However, recent advancements spearheaded by a [...]
Richard Feynman famously stated, "Everything that living things do can be understood in terms of the jigglings and wigglings of atoms." This week, Nature Nanotechnology features a study that sheds new light on the evolution of the coronavirus and its variants of concern by analyzing the behavior of atoms in the proteins at the interface between the virus [...]
Cambridge scientists have shown that placing physical constraints on an artificially-intelligent system—in much the same way that the human brain has to develop and operate within physical and biological constraints—allows it to develop features of the brains of complex organisms in order to solve tasks. As neural systems such as the brain organize themselves and make connections, [...]
Summary: A new study reveals that people who are blind can recognize faces using auditory patterns processed by the fusiform face area, a brain region crucial for face processing in sighted individuals. The study employed a sensory substitution device to translate images into sound, demonstrating that face recognition in the brain isn’t solely dependent on [...]
