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Category: biotech/medical – Page 138

Eating Chicken and Other White Meat Can Shorten Your Lifespan, New Study Says

Should you step away from the chicken wings?

For years, the conventional wisdom has been to swap out red meat for white meats like chicken and poultry to help reduce health risks like increased cholesterol, cancer, and inflammation —not to mention get a more budget-friendly protein source. But a new study links eating chicken and other poultry with a significantly increased risk of dying from gastrointestinal cancer and all other causes.

But before you put down the chicken—or roll your eyes and get back to your chicken Caesar—check out the details of the study, and what a dietitian says you should do if you’re concerned.

New bone marrow imaging technique could pave way for drug development and new therapies

Indiana University School of Medicine scientists have developed a powerful new imaging technique to study bone marrow in mouse models. By overcoming key challenges unique to imaging this complex tissue, this advancement could support future drug development and therapies for conditions involving bone marrow, including cancers, autoimmune diseases and musculoskeletal disorders.

The new method was made possible by the multiplex imaging tool Phenocycler 2.0, which enabled researchers to visualize a record number of cellular markers within intact tissue from mice. The findings are published in Leukemia.

“Bone marrow is difficult to study because it is gelatinous and encased in hard bone,” said Sonali Karnik, Ph.D., assistant research professor of orthopedic surgery at the IU School of Medicine and co-lead author of the study. “Since bone marrow plays an important role in blood and immune cell formation and houses valuable stem cells, our unique imaging approach offers a useful tool for a variety of research applications.”

Brain connectivity study identifies neural mechanisms behind psychosis remission

A study led by Pompeu Fabra University reveals which brain mechanisms allow psychosis to remit. The results of this pioneering research could have important clinical implications for exploring new intervention strategies in patients with psychosis. The study was carried out in collaboration with one of the main psychiatry groups at Lausanne University Hospital (Switzerland).

The study examines differences in the neural connectivity patterns of patients who have recovered from psychosis and subjects who have not. Identifying these differences using computational models has enabled determining which patterns of neural connectivity facilitate the remission of the disease.

The results of the research have recently been published in an article in the journal Nature Mental Health. Its principal author is Ludovica Mana, a doctor and neuroscientist of the Computational Neuroscience group at the UPF Center for Brain and Cognition (CBC). The main co-investigators are Gustavo Deco and Manel-Vila Vidal, director and researcher with the same research group, respectively.

New lease on immunity: Scientists discover key component in thymic size, function

The thymus is a crucial training ground for T-cells, the body’s “white knights,” where they learn to battle the various diseases they may encounter. Thymic function shrinks to nearly nothing as we age, severely limiting our ability to recognize and defend against cellular infiltrators.

Scientists at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UT Health San Antonio) discovered a crucial pathway in the thymus that determines the rate of growth and functional preservation. Surprisingly, this pathway appears to act through both indirect and direct methods. Understanding these functions could help produce treatments that preserve thymic function for longer, boosting the immune system’s power to fight disease.

A UT Health San Antonio-led study, published in Nature Aging in February 2025, highlights the role of the peptide hormone fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) in regulating T-cells and, potentially, preserving thymic size over time.

Finding Success Where Theoretical Science and Practical Uses Meet

Born and brought up in East Germany, Professor Franka Kalman is a much-respected figure in the field of separation sciences. Following undergraduate and postgraduate studies at the Technical University Budapest, Hungary, where she learned about the then emerging technique of high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), she applied that knowledge to complete her PhD looking at the analysis of novel opioid peptides at Martin Luther University Halle, Germany.

Her postdoctoral studies in the lab of the late, great Professor Csaba Horvath at Yale University, a placement that by all accounts provided both a grounding and springboard for her future career, were to be transformative and the techniques she developed there have gone on to be game-changing in the world of pharmaceutical development, analysis and quality control. Work for which she was recognized in 2012, when she was presented with the prestigious CEPharm Award from the Californian Separation Science Society (CASSS) for significant contributions to the practical application of capillary electrophoresis (CE) in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries.

After her time as a postdoc, she spent 13 very successful years in the pharmaceutical industry, working at the interface between science and industrial applications.

Metabolic driver of Parkinson’s disease offers new target for treatment

Researchers have identified a key enzyme driving forms of Parkinson’s disease, and have shown how blocking it restores normal function in animal and cell models, offering a promising new drug target for the condition.

The work is published in the journal Neuron.

In Parkinson’s, a protein known as alpha-synuclein builds up in clumps called Lewy bodies in nerve cells in the brain. These clumps of protein stop these cells from functioning normally, eventually leading the cells to die.

Scientists create rewired brain cells that could cure Alzheimer’s

In a world-first, scientists have figured out how to reprogram cells to fight — and potentially reverse — brain diseases like Alzheimer’s.

Researchers at the University of California, Irvine created lab-grown immune cells that can track down toxic brain buildup and clear it away, restoring memory and brain function in mice.

They did this by turning stem cells — which can become any cell in the body — into brain immune cells called microglia.

Blind Children See for the First Time Thanks to a Revolutionary Gene Therapy

A groundbreaking gene therapy has restored sight in four young children born with severe blindness due to a rare genetic deficiency. Scientists at UCL and Moorfields Eye Hospital successfully injected healthy copies of the defective gene into the retina, leading to life-changing improvements. Gr

Superbug Slayer: New Antimicrobial Paint Kills Flu, MRSA, and COVID-19 on Contact

A new bacteria-killing paint shows powerful promise in eliminating dangerous pathogens like MRSA and COVID-19 from hard surfaces. Infused with chlorhexidine, a trusted dental disinfectant, the coating works on plastics and metals and activates once dry. Collaborating with industrial paint maker I