Author: admin

Credit: OGphoto/Getty Images Researchers at Cancer Research UK (CRUK) Cambridge Centre and the University of Cambridge have shown that an existing medication for managing hot flushes that mimics the hormone progesterone can slow tumor growth in estrogen receptor–positive (ER-positive) breast cancer when combined with standard anti-estrogen therapy. The effect was seen in post-menopausal women with early-stage ER-positive, HER2-negative disease, which accounts for around three-quarters of all breast cancers. The findings, published in Nature Cancer, provide added evidence that low doses of the drug megestrol acetate could alter how ER-positive breast cancer is treated in the future. “On the whole, anti-estrogens…

Credit: Juan Gaertner/Science Photo Library/Getty Images A University of Toronto-led study has identified a possible biomarker linked to multiple sclerosis (MS) disease progression. The findings, validated in both mouse and in humans, could help to identify patients most likely to benefit from new drugs. “We think we have uncovered a potential biomarker that signals a patient is experiencing so-called ‘compartmentalized inflammation’ in the central nervous system, a phenomenon which is strongly liked to MS progression,” explained Jen Gommerman, PhD, a professor and chair of immunology at the University of Toronto Temerty Faculty of Medicine. “It’s been really hard to know who is…

Credit: Naeblys/Getty Images A prototype test for Alzheimer’s disease biomarkers using dried blood spots is almost as accurate as a standard blood test for the same factors and accurately predicts Alzheimer’s disease-related changes 86% of the time. “Blood biomarkers have emerged as accurate tools for detecting Alzheimer’s disease pathology, offering a minimally invasive alternative to traditional diagnostic methods such as imaging and cerebrospinal fluid analysis,” write lead author Nicholas Ashton, PhD, a researcher based at Banner Sun Health Research Institute in Arizona and also affiliated with the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, and colleagues in Nature Medicine. “Yet,…

This postdoc uses Life Cycle Assessment to evaluate environmental impacts in agricultural systems.Image credit:©iStock.com, SmileusQ | Write a brief introduction to yourself including the lab you work in and your research background. My name is Rohit Kumar. I am a postdoctoral research fellow in the Shelie Miller Lab at the School for Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan’s School for Environment and Sustainability. My research applies Life Cycle Assessment to evaluate environmental impacts and trade-offs in agricultural systems, focusing on climate-smart practices for crops, livestock, and small, diversified farms.Q | How did you first get interested in science and/or your…

Food reformulation: a growing challenge Walk down any supermarket aisle, and you’ll see foods that look the same on the outside but are worlds apart on the inside. Something as simple as a wrap can contain three ingredients in Brand A: flour, extra virgin olive oil, water, salt, while Brand B includes 15 additives, flour, gums, emulsifiers, stabilisers, preservatives, sugars, saturated fats.  As microbiome science advances, we’ll need more thoughtful approaches to food reformulation. But we must avoid past mistakes. Replacing fat with sugar (and more recently, sugar with non-sugar sweeteners) taught us that quick fixes rarely work. Modern metabolomics…

The ability to produce or understand speech is affected in a third of strokes.Image credit:© iStock.com, BrianAJacksonDamage to the ability to speak or understand speech—a condition called aphasia—is one of the most common aftereffects of a stroke, impacting roughly a third of patients.1 Recovery is possible but usually requires speech and language therapy.While the impact of stroke on speech is well understood, the changes in brain activity that underlie these deficits are still unclear. This knowledge gap encouraged researchers at Stanford University and KU Leuven to explore speech function in healthy volunteers and stroke patients in a new paper.2 The…

Dropping temperature and air pressure exacerbates chronic pain conditions.Image credit:©iStock.com, AsiaVisionShifts in weather patterns can bring about changes in mood, outfits, and activities. For some people, though, a drop in temperature or air pressure—signaling an oncoming rainstorm—comes with increased aches in their joints. Despite the widespread familiarity of this anecdote, the explanation for this phenomenon is hardly as clear as a summer’s day. Some studies have shown associations with temperature and/or humidity in people’s experience of tender or swollen joints.1-3 Researchers also noticed a temperature-dependent effect on cartilage-producing cells in mice.4 However, reviews and meta-analyses reveal conflicting findings on whether…

Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical (NASDAQ: RARE) and Mereo BioPharma Group (NASDAQ: MREO) may be wishing for a happy new year in 2026 after the companies ended 2025 by announcing bad news—namely, the failures of their brittle bone disease candidate setrusumab (UX143) in a pair of late-phase clinical trials. Both companies said that setrusumab missed the primary endpoints of the Phase III portion of the Phase II/III Orbit trial (NCT05125809) in children and young adults ages 5–25, and the Phase III Cosmic trial (NCT05768854) in children ages 2–6, by failing to achieve statistical significant reduction in annualized clinical fracture rate (AFR) compared to…

It was like a horror movie. The invisible polio virus would strike, leaving young children on crutches, in wheelchairs or in a dreaded “iron lung” ventilator. Each summer, the fear was so great that public pools and movie theaters closed. Parents canceled birthday parties, afraid their child might be the next victim. A U.S. president paralyzed by polio called for Americans to send dimes to the White House to support the nonprofit National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his lawyer, Basil O’Connor. Celebrities from Lucille Ball to Elvis were enlisted to promote this “March…

Scientists sequence hundreds of thousands of genomes for crucial large-scale research efforts, such as population genomics initiatives that process more than 10,000 samples per year, to explore genetic diversity, transform precision medicine, and inform public health. Production-scale whole genome sequencing (WGS) is vital to such massive projects, delivering rich and comprehensive large cohort data through high-throughput next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies.The Illumina Genomics Architecture v3 is a streamlined, automated hardware and software framework that supports scientists with coordinated and site-ready results at every step of the production-level WGS pipeline. © istock.com, IIIerlok_Xolms, SkyAceDesignLearn more about DNA-to-data discovery with WGS.