A remarkably detailed study of Maria Branyas, who lived past 117, reveals that extreme longevity may involve both intense aging and powerful biological protection at the same time. Researchers found signs of advanced aging, but also low inflammation, beneficial gut bacteria, protective genetic features, and a biological age younger than her chronological age. Because she avoided major disease, the study offered a rare look at aging itself rather than the illnesses that often accompany it.
New research shows how artificial intelligence, combined with advanced experimental science, can help find “hidden” and unexplored proteins in the human body and reveal what they actually do, according to a new study published in Nature.
The discovery suggests a new way to study how cells communicate, survive stress and possibly contribute to disease.
A new UCLA study has found a connection between how quickly the brain ages and the bacteria and chemical byproducts found in the gut, offering a clue to what drives brain aging long before symptoms appear.
Researchers have long used brain scans to estimate a person’s “brain age,” a measure that can differ from someone’s actual age in years. When a brain looks older than expected on a scan, prior research has linked it to poorer memory, thinking skills and mood. However, most of these studies involved older adults or people with existing brain diseases. Whether this gap between brain age and chronological age means anything in younger, generally healthy people has been unclear.
In a new study published in the journal eBioMedicine, UCLA Health researchers analyzed brain scans from nearly 1,500 adults across three separate groups using a method that measures how different regions of the brain communicate with one another while at rest.
People with autism often come at life from a different angle—seeing details others miss, focusing on patterns rather than faces, experiencing heightened or dimmed physical sensations. Although researchers have tracked some of the many ways the neurodevelopmental disorder alters perception of the world, the precise brain mechanisms involved remain obscure, says Boston University researcher Benjamin Scott. One reason: Research often excludes people with more severe symptoms.
Scott and his colleagues have created a more inclusive approach: a video game that measures how people with autism understand and interpret information—and that can be played by people across the disorder’s spectrum of symptom severity, including those who are nonverbal. The researchers say it could spur fresh insights into how the autistic brain works and help refine the development and testing of new drugs and therapies.
Around 1 in 31 children in the United States have autism, according to the nonprofit Autism Speaks, with symptoms that affect communication and other social skills and include restricted and repetitive behaviors. At the moment, scientists studying these issues often rely on subjective assessments from family members—particularly of people with significant communication issues—rather than input from the patients themselves. The game changes that.
Adelaide University researchers have developed a new way to use mRNA technology to reprogram tumor-supporting immune cells and strengthen the body’s anticancer immune response.
The scientific team, spanning engineering, biomedical, oncology and immunology experts, has developed tiny, targeted particles that could help the immune system fight cancer by reprogramming immune cells within the tumor environment.
The findings have been published in Science Advances today.
Novel laser-fabricated plasmonic chip combines 185 nm Raman resolution and deep learning to identify and sort cancer cells with 96.2% accuracy.
Accurate and efficient isolation and recovery of interest cells allow detailed analyses of cellular function, growth and culture, and gene-expression profiling of cells within heterogeneous populations. Researchers have developed a novel microfluidic surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) chip capable of performing deep-learning-assisted, label-free single-cell identification and sorting. The results could be used to guide future research on the design and development of non-invasive, efficient cell-sorting techniques with potential applications in clinical diagnostics and precision medicine.
Cell sorting is a basic yet vital procedure in precision biomedicine. Cell sorting separates mixed cells into pure subgroups based on their unique features. Biological tissues and blood contain diverse cell types, and mixed samples blur true cell signals in gene or protein tests. By sorting, researchers can get uniform cells to study cell functions, stem cell development, and disease mechanisms clearly. It also supports drug screening and cell product quality control. Without these techniques, accurate single-cell analysis and modern cell-based treatments would be impossible. The analysis of rare cells, such as cancer stem cells and circulating tumor cells, to assess their functional responses is rapidly gaining prominence given its relevance for its potential to address issues in the development of new drugs and clinical diagnostics.
Biology – the study of living things – can admittedly be a little reductive at times.
It’s easy to miss important connections depending on how you look at an organism. Microscopes show us the fine details of a body, dissection has helped us identify different organs, and X-rays can show us the bigger picture of internal systems.
But until now, it’s been tricky to see how living cells communicate across those systems, which traditionally have been studied in isolation, even though our bodies ultimately work as a whole.
Mesenchymal stem/stromal cell (MSC)-based therapy holds promise for reversal of bone loss in osteoporosis. This phase 1 study establishes the safety and feasibility of intravenous administration of glycocalyx-engineered human MSCs and provides evidence that MSCs derived from the bone marrow of older individuals with osteoporosis retain clinically meaningful osteoregenerative capacity.
Early-life exposure to both modifiable and nonmodifiable risk factors may induce chronic low-grade inflammation (CLGI), a silent threat potentially driving the rising incidence of early-onset colorectal cancer (EOCRC). Notably, CLGI could promote EOCRC by altering the proinflammatory and immune microenvironment that supports tumor growth and cancer development. In this review, we examine how risk factors disrupt immune homeostasis and contribute to CLGI in young individuals, thereby promoting the development of EOCRC. Additionally, identifying CLGI-specific biomarkers could aid in early detection and diagnosis, while targeting specific molecular pathways may enable personalized therapeutic interventions for EOCRC by reducing the chronic inflammatory threat.