Earth
Scientists have found a vulnerability in cancer cells that could make them more susceptible to being destroyed by the immune system, according to a new report in eLife.
The discovery could make it possible to circumvent the resistance starting to be seen with a new generation of immunotherapy treatments called checkpoint inhibitors.
A new form of immunotherapy that has so far been tested on mice makes it probable, that oncologists in the future may be able to treat some of the patients who are not responding to existing types of immunotherapy. Instead of attacking the cancer cells directly, the new technique target and remove a subtype of immune cells known as macrophages, after which the immune system itself begins to attack the cancer.
Grow or defend yourself - a decision plants need to make on a daily basis, due to their inability to do both simultaneously. For a long time, it was thought that the reason for the growth-defence trade-off might be a question of energy resources. When a plant is defending itself against pathogens, energy could simply be limited for the plant to be growing at the same time, and vice versa.
Women who experience intimate partner violence, including physical, emotional, and controlling abuse, are more likely to suffer material hardship - the inability to purchase food, housing, utilities, medical care or other needs for a healthy life, according to a Rutgers-led study.
A land-use program piloted in the United States is having a long-term positive impact on populations of white-tailed deer, according to new research by University of Alberta biologists.
The study examined the benefits of the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) in North Dakota. Initiated in 1985, the CRP provides payment to farmers who convert sensitive land from agriculture production to vegetative cover, with the goal of improving water quality, preventing soil erosion, and building wildlife habitat.
DURHAM , N.C. -- Many people turn to the Internet to find a Mr. or Ms. Right. But lemurs don't have to cyberstalk potential love interests to find a good match -- they just give them a sniff.
A study of lemur scents finds that an individual's distinctive body odor reflects genetic differences in their immune system, and that other lemurs can detect these differences by smell.
A little bit of norovirus - the highly infectious microbe that causes about 20 million cases of food poisoning in the United States each year - goes a long way. Just 10 particles of the virus can cause illness in humans. A team of University of Arizona researchers has created a simple, portable and inexpensive method for detecting extremely low levels of norovirus.
Scientists at USC and UC San Diego have discovered a potential novel target for treating glioblastoma, the deadly brain cancer that took the life of Sen. John McCain and kills 15,000 Americans a year.
The target is the circadian "clock" found within the tumor stem cells, which governs how the tumor grows, multiplies and develops resistance to current treatments.
For the past few hundred years, the colorful hair and unique patterns of the so-called "Fancy Mouse" have made them the stars of pet shows in Japan and beyond. Now, scientists have finally revealed the true cause of the genetic mutation responsible for the iconic black pigmentation in the popular East Asian pet.
Their findings were published on August 2, 2019 in Communications Biology.
The discovery of a new quasiparticle is analogous to the discovery of a new molecule, except molecules contain different elements, while quasiparticles are made from fundamental particles and interactions. As each molecule has its own unique properties, so do quasiparticles, and the discovery of a new one brings a range of possible technological applications.
Water is everywhere on Earth, but maybe that just gives it more space to hide its secrets. Its latest surprise, Stanford researchers report Aug. 26 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is that microscopic droplets of water spontaneously produce hydrogen peroxide.
The discovery could pave the way for greener ways to produce the molecule, a common bleaching agent and disinfectant, said Richard Zare, the Marguerite Blake Wilbur Professor in Natural Science and a professor of chemistry in the Stanford School of Humanities and Sciences.
The evolutionary process that occurs when a species colonizes a new environment provides an opportunity to explore the mechanisms underlying genetic adaptation, which is essential knowledge for understanding evolution and the maintenance of biodiversity. An international team of scientists, led by researchers from Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden, reports that a single amino acid change in the light-sensing rhodopsin protein played a critical role when herring adapted to the red-shifted light environment in the Baltic Sea.
PITTSBURGH, Aug. 26, 2019 - Researchers at UPMC Hillman Cancer Center provide the first concrete evidence for the long-held belief that sick mitochondria pollute the cells they're supposed to be supplying with power.
The paper, published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, involves a causal experiment to kick off a mitochondrial chain reaction that wreaks havoc on the cell, all the way down to the genetic level.
PHILADELPHIA -- French organ transplant centers are far more likely to accept "lower-rated" kidneys, like those from older organ donors, than centers in the United States, according to a first-of-its kind analysis published today in JAMA Internal Medicine. French transplant centers would have transplanted more than 60 percent - about 17,500 kidneys - of the nearly 28,000 deceased-donor kidneys discarded in the United States between 2004 and 2014, according to the research team from Penn Medicine and the Paris Transplant Group.
People in England were using balance weights and scales to measure the value of materials as early as the late second and early first millennia BC. This is what Professor Lorenz Rahmstorf, scientist at the University of Göttingen and project manager of the ERC "Weight and Value" project, has discovered. He compared Middle and Late Bronze Age gold objects from the British Isles and Northern France and found that they were based on the same unit of weight.