Posts in category: Uncategorized

It can take years for health research findings to make their way into clinical care. But a new initiative led by a team from the Center for Healthcare Policy and Research (CHPR) aims to narrow that gap.

Since its approval in 2012, HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, has shown promise in reducing HIV infection rates by preventing infection in high-risk HIV-negative people. However, research shows that only around three percent of sexual and gender minority (SGM) adolescents who are eligible for PrEP have used it.

Some areas of the adult brain contain quiescent, or dormant, neural stem cells that can potentially be reactivated to form new neurons. However, the transition from quiescence to proliferation is still poorly understood. A team led by scientists from the Universities of Geneva (UNIGE) and Lausanne (UNIL) has discovered the importance of cell metabolism in this process and identified how to wake up these neural stem cells and reactivate them.

Certain diseases, including Alzheimer’s, are currently considered “undruggable” because traditional small molecule drugs can’t interfere with the proteins responsible for the illnesses. But a new technique that specifically targets and breaks apart certain proteins—rather than just interfering with them—may offer a pathway toward treatment.

A major new study in the journal Nature reveals a ‘traffic light’ mechanism controlling genetic activity within cells—a system which could potentially be targeted by cancer drugs already in development.

HIV is one of the world’s most serious public health challenges, and molecular detection plays a significant role in early diagnosis and antiretroviral therapy for HIV patients. The current “gold standard” of HIV testing requires expensive instruments and highly-trained personnel—leaving an unmet need for a rapid, sensitive, and affordable approach for molecular detection of HIV at the point of care.

An increase in difficulties with gambling is linked to a heightened risk of suicide attempts among young adults, according to new research from the University of Glasgow and City, University of London.

A reprogramming of which genes are active, and which are not, is visible in post-COVID sufferers. This is shown in a study from Linköping University, Sweden, on a small group of individuals. The researchers can see that genes associated with taste and smell, as well as cell metabolism, are affected in individuals with post-COVID syndrome. These findings may ultimately contribute to the development of new diagnostic tools for this and similar diseases.

Genicular nerve radiofrequency ablation is a minimally invasive treatment for knee pain due to osteoarthritis of the knee, and can significantly reduce pain, especially for adults who are 50 and older, according to new research to be presented at the Society of Interventional Radiology Annual Scientific Meeting in Phoenix, March 4–9. This is the first time a study has examined patient demographics, prior surgical history and other clinical characteristics that may predict the level of pain reduction after treatment.

SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, seems to have become a permanent presence in our lives. Research from Whitehead Institute Founding Member Rudolf Jaenisch’s lab reveals that this may be true on multiple levels. Jaenisch, postdoc Liguo Zhang, and colleagues have shown that when the virus infects people, it is capable of integrating parts of its genetic code into the human genome through a process called reverse transcription. This genomic integration is rare, but due to how many hundreds of millions of people have been infected, it has likely occurred many times.