Body

Codiak BioSciences, Inc. announced today the closing of the first portion of a planned $80-plus million Series A and B financing. The company also executed license and sponsored research agreements with The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Leveraging recent advances in the biology of extracellular vesicles and their role in intercellular communication, Codiak aims to become the world's leading company in developing exosomes as a new therapeutic and diagnostic modality for the treatment of a wide array of diseases, including cancer.

If you're a man, how much you eat may have more to do with the gender of your dining companions than your appetite. A new Cornell University study, published in the journal Evolutionary Psychological Science, found that men will eat significantly more food in the company of women than they will with other men.

Dual discoveries at USC propose a promising method to regrow nonliving hard tissue, lessening or even eliminating pain associated with tooth decay, which the National Institutes of Health calls the most prevalent chronic disease.

Janet Moradian-Oldak, a professor at the Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC, has investigated methods to regrow tooth enamel for the past two decades. The process is especially tricky because unlike bone, mature enamel cannot rejuvenate. Tooth enamel is a nonliving tissue.

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Elite endurance athletes who eat very few carbohydrates burned more than twice as much fat as high-carb athletes during maximum exertion and prolonged exercise in a new study - the highest fat-burning rates under these conditions ever seen by researchers.

The study, the first to profile elite athletes habitually eating very low-carbohydrate diets, involved 20 ultra-endurance runners age 21-45 who were top competitors in running events of 50 kilometers (31 miles) or more.

Studying blood serum compounds of different molecular weights has led scientists to a set of biomarkers that may enable development of a highly accurate screening test for early-stage ovarian cancer.

Cubosomes are small biological 'capsules' that can deliver molecules of nutrients or drugs with high efficiency. They have a highly symmetrical interior made of tiny cubes of assembled fat molecules similar to the ones in cell membranes. This also means that cubosomes are safe to use in living organisms. Such features have triggered great interest in the pharmaceutical and food industry, who seek to exploit the structure of cubosomes for the controlled release of molecules, improving the delivery of nutrients and drugs.

A direct and positive link between pupils' breakfast quality and consumption, and their educational attainment, has for the first time been demonstrated in a ground-breaking new study carried out by public health experts at Cardiff University.

The study of 5000 9-11 year-olds from more than 100 primary schools sought to examine the link between breakfast consumption and quality and subsequent attainment in Key Stage 2 Teacher Assessments* 6-18 months later.

The introduction of a more stringent test to assess eligibility for disability benefit in England may have taken a "serious" toll on the nation's mental health, concludes research published online in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health.

Since 2010 the test, known as the Work Capability Assessment (WCA), has been used to assess the eligibility of claimants of the main out of work disability benefit, in a bid to get more people back into the workplace and help curb the government's rising welfare bill.

No child or young athlete should be subjected to genetic testing to spot sporting talent or boost performance, concludes an international panel of experts in a consensus statement published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

The scientific evidence on the effectiveness of these commercial tests is simply far too weak to back their use, says the panel of 22 experts in the fields of genomics, exercise, sports performance, disease, injury, and anti-doping.

LAS VEGAS - Nov. 16, 2015 - A new regenerative medicine can heal the front of the eye in as little as two days after surgery by stimulating faster tissue repair, according to a new study. The drug also appears to relieve eye pain, burning, and light sensitivity following surgery. These findings by researchers in Turkey are being presented today at AAO 2015, the 119th annual meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology. The results suggest that this compound could help millions of patients who undergo corneal transplants and refractive surgery each year heal faster with less discomfort.

Researchers from the University of Birmingham have, for the first time, identified how Salmonella infections that have spread to our blood and organs can lead to life-threatening thrombosis.

These systemic infections trigger the development of inflammation, which in turn leads to thrombosis. Crucially, the maintenance of the sustained threat from thrombosis is independent of the continued presence of infection and instead parallels the regulation of inflammation within the host.

DALLAS, Texas Nov. 16, 2015 -- Drinking a second or third cup of coffee may do more than get you through a long day -- it may also reduce your risk of death from heart disease and other illnesses.

In a study reported in the American Heart Association journal Circulation, people who regularly drank moderate amounts of coffee daily --less than 5 cups per day -- experienced a lower risk of deaths from cardiovascular disease, neurological diseases, Type 2 diabetes and suicide.

Scientists have shown how a parasitic worm infection common in the developing world increases susceptibility to tuberculosis. The study demonstrated that treating the parasite reduces lung damage seen in mice that also are infected with tuberculosis, thereby eliminating the vulnerability to tuberculosis (TB) that the parasite is known to cause.

Cetuximab, marketed as Erbitux®, is one of the key therapies for metastatic colorectal cancer. Yet the cancer still returns in some patients, shortening overall survival.

A study at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center may help explain why the body sometimes becomes resistant to this therapy. The results, published in the Nov. 16 online issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation reveal new insight into how key proteins, known as epidermal growth factor receptors (EGFR), are regulated, leading to resistance.

CINCINNATI--University of Cincinnati (UC) researchers have discovered the negative impact a high fat diet has on red blood cells and how these cells, in turn, promote the development of cardiovascular disease.

This is one of the first studies to demonstrate the effect of red blood cells on the disease and could also affect the way patients with other health conditions, like cancer, who are prone to developing cardiovascular issues, are diagnosed and treated. It will be published in the Nov. 17 edition of the journal Circulation with an accompanying editorial.