Culture
Cell lines injected with free nucleic acid are widely used for drug discovery and disease modeling. To avoid genetically mixed cell populations, investigators use dilution techniques to select single cells that will then generate identical lines. However, the route of limiting dilutions is tedious and time consuming.
Animal acoustic signals are amazingly diverse. Researchers from the University of Zurich and the University of Saint-Etienne, together with French, American and Dutch collaborators, explored the function and diversification of animal acoustic signals and the mechanisms underlying the evolution of animal communication systems.
In the search for the chemical origins of life, researchers have found a possible alternative path for the emergence of the characteristic DNA pattern: According to the experiments, the characteristic DNA base pairs can form by dry heating, without water or other solvents. The team led by Ivan Halasz from the Rudjer Boskovic Institute and Ernest Mestrovic from the pharmaceutical company Xellia presents its observations from DESY's X-ray source PETRA III in the journal Chemical Communications.
Could a poo transplant one day be the secret of eternal youth?
Faecal transplants could one day be used as a therapy to restore cognitive function in the elderly - according to new research from the University of East Anglia, the University of Florence and the Quadram Institute.
A new study published today shows how faecal transplants from older to younger mice altered their gut microbiome, which in turn impacted their spatial learning and memory.
The study was based on the authors' original hypothesis that a specific novel mechanism responsible for linking distinct symptoms into a single disease may exist in the brain. 'A disease is more complex than a collection of symptoms. For example, while decreased appetite or blues can occur in many people, only together these symptoms form a disease - depression.
We need to know about these psychological and social profiles so we can understand how protective actions against contagious diseases are adopted, and then define the correct preventive approaches. At the very start of the coronavirus crisis - before restrictive measures were taken - a team of health behaviour specialists from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) managed to collect a large amount of data about the adoption of protective measures.
What The Study Did: The U.S. Army Public Health COVID-19 Task Force describes the results of an independent investigation of the shore-based USS Theodore Roosevelt outbreak response and 736 sailors in isolation status.
Authors: Gadiel R. Alvarado, D.O., of the Brooke Army Medical Center in Fort Sam Houston, Texas, is the corresponding author.
To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/
(doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.20981)
DUARTE, Calif. -- A City of Hope-led study revealed little effort has been made to improve older adult representation in clinical trials of new cancer drugs, even when the treatment is aimed at a disease that disproportionately affects this age group.
What The Study Did: This observational study looked at the association between Medicaid expansion under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) and long-term home health care and nursing home use among newly eligible low-income adults and older adults whose eligibility did not change.
Authors: Courtney Harold Van Houtven, Ph.D., of the Durham Veterans Affairs Health Care System in Durham, North Carolina, is the corresponding author.
Benign breast diseases (BBD), which are non-cancerous disorders of the breast, such as lumps, are known to increase the chances of subsequent breast cancer. Now a team of Spanish researchers have found that the way BBD is detected as part of a national screening programme is an indication of which are more likely to become cancerous.
The findings from a team led by Professor Xavier Castells, head of the epidemiology department at the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute, Barcelona, Spain, will be presented at the 12th European Breast Cancer Conference on Saturday.
Four out of five people experiencing the recent loss of smell and/or taste tested positive for COVID-19 antibodies--and of those who tested positive, 40 percent did not have cough or fever, reports a new study in PLOS Medicine by Prof. Rachel Batterham at University College London and colleagues.
The first comprehensive study of DNA changes in healthy and diseased human bladder tissue has revealed that 'cancer-driving' mutations are common in healthy bladder tissue. The study, conducted by scientists at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, the University of Cambridge and their collaborators, provides an unprecedented view of the first steps towards bladder cancer.
The COVID-19 pandemic has created a flood of potentially substandard research amid the rush to publish, with a string of papers retracted or under a cloud and a surge in submissions to pre-print servers where fewer quality checks are made, a leading ethicist has warned in the Journal of Medical Ethics.
This has implications for patients, clinicians, and potentially government policy, says Adjunct Professor Katrina Bramstedt, Bond University, Queensland, Australia and Secretary General at Luxembourg Agency for Research Integrity.
Men predominate in more than 85% of COVID-19 decision-making and key advisory bodies around the globe, with gender parity in just 3.5%, reveals an analysis of the available data, published in the online journal BMJ Global Health.
This has become a "disturbingly accepted pattern of global health governance" that undermines the effectiveness of the pandemic response and ultimately costs lives, warn the authors.
Spinal cord injury often leads to permanent functional impairment. In a new study published in the journal Science researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden show that it is possible to stimulate stem cells in the mouse spinal cord to form large amounts of new oligodendrocytes, cells that are essential to the ability of neurons to transmit signals, and thus to help repair the spinal cord after injury.