Science and Health News

The first large-scale trial to test the long-term effects of a cocoa flavanol supplement to prevent cardiovascular disease offers promising signals that cocoa flavanols could have protective cardiovascular effects.

Lymphoid follicles formed in a microfluidic Organ Chip replicate human immune functions and vaccine responses in vitro

Accumulation of the biomarker p-syn in the skin distinguishes patients with Parkinson’s disease from patients with symptoms of parkinsonism due to other neurodegenerative disorders, report scientists in a novel study published in the Journal of Parkinson’s Disease

To prevent the extinction of the northern white rhino, the international consortium BioRescue is attempting to create artificial egg cells from stem cells. A team led by MDC’s Sebastian Diecke and Micha Drukker of Leiden University has now revealed in Scientific Reports that they are one step closer to achieving this goal.

Lithuanian researchers from Kaunas University of Technology (KTU) improved an algorithm that detects Alzheimer’s disease from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) images. The new model achieved over 98 per cent accuracy on a test dataset in detecting the neurodegenerative disease by improving a neural network model.

A healthy Nordic diet can prevent a range of diseases. Until now, the health benefits attributed to a Nordic diet by researchers primarily focused on weight loss. But in a new study, University of Copenhagen researchers and their Nordic colleagues found clear evidence that a Nordic diet can lower blood sugar and cholesterol levels even without weight loss. In particular, they point to the composition of dietary fats as a possible explanation for the diet’s positive effects.

Replacing sick or damaged cells with healthy cells: this is a major goal of regenerative medicine. One of the most promising approaches is cellular reprogramming, whereby one cell type in our body converts to another cell type. Research carried out at Helmholtz Munich and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München has discovered new ways to improve the cellular reprogramming efficiency, unlocking potential for cellular repair therapies.

Adding seven new letters to DNA’s molecular alphabet and developing a precise readout method enabled Illinois researchers to transform the double helix into a robust, sustainable data storage platform fit for the Information Age.