More than 27 million people in the United States are living with type 2 diabetes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As the population ages and a growing percentage of people become overweight or obese, that number is expected to increase. In a paper published May 10, 2018, in Cell, researchers from the Salk
As people age, their immune systems age, too. And new research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis suggests that aging immune cells increase the risk for age-related macular degeneration, a major cause of blindness in the United States. Studying mice and cells from patients, the researchers found that as immune cells called
In a recent paper published in Cell Reports, Saint Louis University researchers have uncovered new answers about why cells rapidly age in children with a rare and fatal disease. The data points to cellular replication stress and a mistaken innate immune response as culprits, and the team found success in the laboratory in blocking these processes
Recent research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis demonstrated that mature cells in the stomach sometimes revert back to behaving like rapidly dividing stem cells. Now, the researchers have found that this process may be universal; no matter the organ, when tissue responds to certain types of injury, mature cells seem to
The process by which embryonic stem cells develop into heart cells is a complex process involving the precisely timed activation of several molecular pathways and at least 200 genes. Now, Salk Institute scientists have found a simpler way to go from stem cells to heart cells that involves turning off a single gene. The work,
Researchers probing the complexities of Alzheimer’s disease have detected issues involving cellular energy production, and those problems may be an important contributor to the late-onset form of the illness. A team at Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital tested the cells of late-onset Alzheimer’s patients and found malfunctions in their energy production, including problems with the health of
Retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells derived from human embryonic stem cells can be safely transplanted into the eyes of patients with retinal degeneration, with early signs of vision gain, according to pioneers in the field. Two teams of researchers reported preliminary findings from phase 1 and phase 2 trials at the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO)
The busy world inside a cell is directed by its DNA blueprint. When the blueprints are altered, cells can sicken, die or become cancerous. To keep DNA in working order, cells have ways to detect and mend damaged DNA. Now, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis report that they have found
In a new paper published in Nature Communications, a team led by Saint Louis University researcher Alessandro Vindigni, Ph.D. shares new information about how BRCA-deficient cancer cells operate, interact with chemotherapy drugs and what may be their last-ditch effort to survive. Researchers hope their findings may lead to improved chemotherapy drugs and shed light on why
Using a modified version of the CRISPR genome-editing system, MIT researchers have developed a new way to screen for genes that protect against specific diseases. CRISPR is normally used to edit or delete genes from living cells. However, the MIT team adapted it to randomly turn on or off distinct gene sets across large populations