Approved medications – new role in combating infections?

07-Jun-2019 - Influenza A viruses periodically cause severe influenza epidemics. Due to their genetic variability, new subtypes can emerge that are no longer covered by seasonal influenza vaccines. Looking for an effective treatment of such serious influenza infections, researchers of the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut ...

Breaking down pathological protein aggregates

07-Jun-2019 - ETH researchers have discovered a new mechanism that brain cells use to protect themselves from protein aggregates. Such aggregates play a key role in Parkinson’s and other neurodegenerative diseases. This new finding might provide the basis for new therapeutic approaches. Aggregates of the ...

Killing the Unkillable Cancer Cells

06-Jun-2019 - We all know someone affected by the battle against cancer. And we know that treatments can be quite efficient at shrinking the tumor but too often, they can’t kill all the cells, and so it may come back. With some aggressive types of cancer, the problem is so great that there is very little that ...

Harmless computer gaming or already a health risk?

First psychological test developed to understand excessive gaming behaviour that can lead to 'gaming disorder'

06-Jun-2019 - The World Health Organisation (WHO) has just recognised gaming disorder as a new type of mental illness associated with extreme cases of uncontrolled gaming behaviour. The official inclusion of 'gaming disorder' and its definition in the WHO disease catalogue offers new possibilities to study the ...

Six fingers per hand

A congenital additional finger brings motor advantages

05-Jun-2019 - Polydactyly is the extraordinary condition of someone being born with more than five fingers or toes. In a case study published in Nature Communications, researchers from the University of Freiburg, Imperial College London, the University Hospital of Lausanne, and EPFL have for the first time ...

First-of-its-kind study in endothelial stem cells finds exposure to flavored e-cigarette liquids, e-cigarette use exacerbates cell dysfunction

Endothelial cell dysfunction, inflammation often precursors to heart disease

29-May-2019 - There has been a rapid rise in e-cigarette use, but its health effects have not been well-studied and their effect on vascular health remains unknown. A first of its kind study in endothelial stem cells, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, found acute exposure to ...

Colliding lasers double the energy of proton beams

28-May-2019 - Researchers from Sweden’s Chalmers University of Technology and the University of Gothenburg present a new method which can double the energy of a proton beam produced by laser-based particle accelerators. The breakthrough could lead to more compact, cheaper equipment that could be useful for ...

Proof it's possible to enhance or suppress memories

Boston University neuroscientist shows that stimulating different parts of the brain can dial up or down a specific memory's emotional oomph

27-May-2019 - What if scientists could manipulate your brain so that a traumatic memory lost its emotional power over your psyche? Steve Ramirez, a Boston University neuroscientist fascinated by memory, believes that a small structure in the brain could hold the keys to future therapeutic techniques for ...

Exposure to air pollution before and after birth may affect fundamental cognitive abilities

27-May-2019 - A growing body of research suggests that exposure to air pollution in the earliest stages of life is associated with negative effects on cognitive abilities. A new study led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), a centre supported by "la Caixa", has provided new data: exposure ...

How molecular escorts help prevent cancer

Chaperones keep the tumor suppressor protein p53 in check

23-May-2019 - The anti tumor protein p53 can decide on the life or death of a cell: If it detects damage in the cell's genome, the protein pushes the cell to suicide. New research conducted at Technical University of Munich (TUM) shows that this inborn cancer prevention only works when special proteins, known ...