Recently discovered ripples of spacetime called gravitational waves could contain evidence to prove the theory that life survived the Big Bang because of a phase transition that allowed neutrino particles to reshuffle matter and anti-matter, explains a new study by an international team of researchers.
A new study from Harvard University and the Field Museum of Natural History sheds light on how and when changes in the spine happened in mammal evolution. The research reveals how a combination of developmental changes and adaptive pressures in the spines of synapsids, the extinct forerunners of mammals, laid the groundwork for the diversity of backbones seen in mammals today.
Immunotherapy, unlike chemotherapy and radiotherapy, arms the body's immune system to attack cancer cells. In recent years, it has proven to be remarkably successful at treating leukemia, lymphoma and other liquid cancers, or cancers present in body fluids.
IDIBELL researchers discover that a molecule of blood is effective against autoimmune kidney disease
Lupus is a chronic autoimmune disease that can damage any part of the body. When it causes inflammation in the kidneys (called lupus nephritis), they cannot properly remove waste from the blood or control body fluids. Without treatment, nephritis can lead to scarring and permanent damage of the kidneys, and possible final renal failure. In this case, patients need to undergo dialysis and possibly a kidney transplant. Currently, lupus nephritis patients are treated with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and immunosuppressors, which are unsatisfactory and have side effects.
Sixty-six million years ago, in the emerged lands of Laurasia -now the northern hemisphere- a primitive land tortoise, measuring about 60 cm, managed to survive the event that killed the dinosaurs. It was the only one to do so in this area of the world, according to a Spanish palaeontologist who has analysed its peculiar fossils, found in France.
A multidisciplinary team of researchers at Japan's Tohoku University has found that a gene regulator, called BACH1, facilitates the spread of pancreatic cancer to other parts of the body. The scientists, who published their findings in the journal Cancer Research, say drugs that control BACH1 could improve disease prognosis.
Researchers from Tokyo Medical and Dental University develop a novel gas imaging system to simultaneously visualize and measure gases that are released through the skin in real-time
Tokyo, Japan - Gases emitted from the human body have been used since ancient Greek times to diagnose the sick; the same principle with a modern, technological makeover could now become a simple tool to identify metabolic disorders, genetic diseases and cancer.
Researchers at Helmholtz Zentrum München, Technical University of Munich (TUM) and the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF) have developed a novel therapeutic approach to cure chronic hepatitis B. The scientists found that the large amount of hepatitis B virus proteins expressed in the liver prevents the body's immune system to defeat the virus, consequently preventing an effective therapy. The researchers were able to show that knocking down the expression of the virus' proteins enables successful vaccination with TherVacB, a novel therapeutic vaccine.
Scientists from the University of Bristol and Université Paris-Saclay have discovered a new class of material - non-sticky gels.
Until now gels have been made of particles that stick to one another to form a network.
The research team, whose findings are published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, have now shown that networks and from and persist without the particles sticking to one another if the particles behave as liquid crystals.
Proteins often form assemblies and thereby perform sophisticated functions in cells as best exemplified by proteasomes, which are huge enzyme complexes functioning as proteolytic machines. In eukaryotes, this proteasome formation is not a spontaneous process but is assisted by several other proteins, termed proteasome-assembling chaperones. Paradoxically, archaeal genomes encode proteasome-assembling chaperone homologs, denoting a shared ancestry between genes, although archaeal proteasome formation is a spontaneous process not requiring these chaperones.