Watching tumors burst through a blood vessel
Cancer cells metastasize in several stages—first by invading surrounding tissue, then by infiltrating and spreading via the circulatory system. Some circulating cells work their way out of the vascular...
View ArticleResearchers develop spring-like fibers to help repair damaged heart tissue
The threat from a heart attack doesn't end with the event itself. Blockage of blood flow to the heart can cause irreversible cell death and scarring. With transplants scarce, half the people who live...
View ArticleSurprising study shows that brains process the pain of villains more than the...
Counterintuitive findings from a new USC study show that the part of the brain that is associated with empathizing with the pain of others is activated more strongly by watching the suffering of...
View ArticleResearchers uncover optimal framework for heartbeats
(Medical Xpress)—The heart maintains a careful balancing act; too soft and it won't pump blood, but too hard and it will overtax itself and stop entirely. There is an optimal amount of strain that a...
View ArticleNew discovery on how skin cells form 'bridges' paves the way for advances in...
A team of researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) have discovered that outer skin cells are able to unite to form suspended "bridges" during wound healing. The new findings will...
View ArticleComputer simulation of blood vessel growth (w/ video)
University of Utah bioengineers showed that tiny blood vessels grow better in the laboratory if the tissue surrounding them is less dense. Then the researchers created a computer simulation to predict...
View ArticleThe pivotal role of the stem cell environment in brain development
(Medical Xpress)—Higher mammals, such as humans, have markedly larger brains than other mammals. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden recently...
View ArticleDoes a looser mind lead to faster learning?
You wouldn't think that dissolving part of the brain, particularly one that helps hold the organ together, would help a gerbil rethink a problem. But that's exactly what a team of German scientists has...
View ArticleBioengineered growth factors lead to better wound healing
Scientists at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne have greatly improved the effectiveness of clinical growth factors, paving new strategies for regenerative medicine.
View ArticleBiologists identify extracellular proteins that help aggressive tumors spread...
About 90 percent of cancer deaths are caused by tumors that have spread from their original locations. This process, known as metastasis, requires cancer cells to break loose from their neighbors and...
View ArticleStudy identifies path to safer drugs for heart disease, cancer
Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators may have found a way to solve a problem that has plagued a group of drugs called ligand-mimicking integrin inhibitors, which have the potential to...
View ArticleAn ultrathin collagen matrix biomaterial tool for 3D microtissue engineering
A novel ultrathin collagen matrix assembly allows for the unprecedented maintenance of liver cell morphology and function in a microscale "organ-on-a-chip" device that is one example of 3D microtissue...
View ArticleResearch identifies compounds that control hemorrhagic viruses
People fear diseases such as Ebola, Marburg, Lassa fever, rabies and HIV for good reason; they have high mortality rates and few, if any, possible treatments. As many as 90 percent of people who...
View ArticleStudy unveils new approach to treating brittle bone disease
Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine have identified a new approach to treating brittle bone disease, a congenital disorder that results in fragile bones that break easily.
View ArticleFighting cancer with dietary changes
Calorie restriction, a kind of dieting in which food intake is decreased by a certain percentage, has been touted as way to help people live longer. New research suggests that there may be other...
View ArticleSeemingly invincible cancers stem cells reveal a weakness
Metastatic cancer cells, which can migrate from primary tumors to seed new malignancies, have thus far been resistant to the current arsenal of anticancer drugs. Now, however, researchers at Whitehead...
View ArticleTeam explains how stiffness in breast tissue contributes to invasive carcinoma
A team of researchers led by David J. Mooney, Robert P. Pinkas Family Professor of Bioengineering at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, have identified a possible mechanism by...
View ArticleMolecular basis of age-related memory loss explained
From telephone numbers to foreign vocabulary, our brains hold a seemingly endless supply of information. However, as we are getting older, our ability to learn and remember new things declines. A team...
View ArticleRevealing a novel mode of action for an osteoporosis drug
(Medical Xpress)—Raloxifene is a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved treatment for decreasing fracture risk in osteoporosis. While raloxifene is as effective at reducing fracture risk as...
View ArticleScreening for matrix effect in leukemia subtypes could sharpen chemotherapy...
Location, location, location goes the old real estate proverb but cancer also responds to its neighborhood, particularly in the physical surroundings of bone marrow cells where human myeloid leukemias...
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