Posts in category: Uncategorized

A new study is the first to compare the sound exposures of fetuses in the last 16 weeks of pregnancy with their age-matched premature peers. The analysis reveals profound differences in their exposures to noise, language and the biological sounds of the mother, with implications for the infants’ development.

An American man developed an Irish accent following treatment for metastatic prostate cancer. The man was in his 50s and had never been to Ireland.

Multiple sclerosis is characterized by an immune system gone haywire. A patient’s immune system starts treating the protective coating of the nerves—called myelin—as dangerous. The subsequent nerve damage can cause a variety of symptoms, including muscle weakness, pain and vision loss. MS currently has no cure, and doctors still don’t completely understand what causes it.

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.

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.

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.