Science and Health News

Athens, Ga. — Researchers at the University of Georgia and at Ben-Gurion University in Israel have demonstrated for the first time that nanoscale electronic components can be made from single DNA molecules. Their study, published in the journal Nature Chemistry, represents a promising advance in the search for a replacement for the silicon chip.

Heart Failure Patients Treated with Stem Cell Therapy Have Fewer Cardiac Events (Salt Lake City) - End-stage heart failure patients treated with stem cells harvested from their own bone marrow experienced 37 percent fewer cardiac events - including deaths and hospital admissions related to heart failure - than a placebo-controlled group, reports a new study. Results from ixCELL-DCM, the largest cell therapy trial for treating heart failure to date, will be presented at the 2016 American College of Cardiology Scientific Session and published online in The Lancet on April 4

Findings from the early phase of a clinical trial led by Johns Hopkins investigators indicates that a new, minimally invasive weight loss treatment known as bariatric arterial embolization is safe and effective in sustaining weight loss in severely obese people.

Orphan-designated Strimvelis to offer treatment option for patients with ADA-SCID who have no suitable stem cell donor

Studying sequence and function of DNA has been in the focus of life sciences for decades, but now the interest of many researchers has turned to the RNA. Today, many scientists believe that RNA molecules, together with a variety of different proteins, play a regulatory or structural role in virtually all cellular processes. However, the mechanisms underlying these RNA-protein interactions are still largely unknown. A team of scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin has now successfully identified hundreds of proteins that interact with RNA molecules in the nucleus of human cells. The researchers present the first RNA interactome of a human nucleus and describe how they have identified the bulk of RNA-binding proteins in the nucleus of human cells, using their newly developed method of "serial RNA interactome capturing".

Stem cell therapies capable of regenerating any human tissue damaged by injury, disease or ageing could be available within a few years, following breakthrough research led by UNSW researchers.

Northwestern University scientists created a prosthetic ovary using a 3D printer — an implant that allowed mice that had their ovaries surgically removed to bear live young. The results will be presented Saturday, April 2, at the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting, ENDO 2016, in Boston. Researchers hope to use the technology to develop an ovary bioprosthesis that could be implanted in women to restore fertility. One group that could benefit is survivors of childhood cancers, who have an increased risk of infertility as adults. An estimated 1 in 250 adults has survived childhood cancer.

Increasing levels of a protein involved in memory formation may reverse the cognitive deficits caused by tau