Science and Health News

Researchers in the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston Methodist and Texas Children’s Hospital have found that a single dose of an otherwise harmless drug can safely control the severe and often lethal side effects associated with haploidentical stem cell transplantation.

The new strategy is more sustainable and less risky than the current standard therapies Scientists have discovered a way to regrow bone tissue using the protein signals produced by stem cells. This technology could help treat victims who have experienced major trauma to a limb, like soldiers wounded in combat or casualties of a natural disaster. The new method improves on older therapies by providing a sustainable source for fresh tissue and reducing the risk of tumor formation that can arise with stem cell transplants.

Researchers inject retinal support cells derived from human embryonic stem cells into the eyes of four men with macular degeneration, bolstering evidence of the experimental treatment’s safety.

The effectiveness of cancer vaccines could be dramatically boosted by first loading the cancer antigens into silicon microparticles, report scientists from Houston Methodist and two other institutions in an upcoming Cell Reports (early online).

Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have discovered that a brain protein has a key role in controlling binge drinking in animal models. They found that deleting the gene for this protein in mice ramped up alcohol consumption and prevented the brain from signaling the rewarding properties of alcohol.

Medical exoskeleton ExoAtlet is designed to assist disabled people and it can be used for both physical and social rehabilitation of locomotor patients with musculoskeletal disorders.

An international team of researchers has sequenced the nearly complete genome of two Siberian woolly mammoths—revealing the most complete picture to date—including new information about the species’ evolutionary history and the conditions that led to its mass extinction at the end of the Ice Age.

The human immune system is poised to spring into action at the first sign of a foreign invader, but it often fails to eliminate tumors that arise from the body’s own cells. Cancer biologists hope to harness that untapped power using an approach known as cancer immunotherapy.