Science and Health News

University of Oregon biologists have used a model organism to identify molecular mechanisms that produce DNA damage in sperm and contribute to male infertility following exposure to heat.

Results could lead to new treatments for airways and lungs damaged by COVID-19, influenza, asthma and cystic fibrosis.

Multidrug resistance (MDR) –– a process in which tumors become resistant to multiple medicines –– is the main cause of failure of cancer chemotherapy. Tumor cells often acquire MDR by boosting their production of proteins that pump drugs out of the cell, rendering the chemotherapies ineffective. Now, researchers reporting in ACS’ Nano Letters have developed nanoparticles that release bursts of calcium inside tumor cells, inhibiting drug pumps and reversing MDR.

Gene editing for the development of new treatments, and for studying disease as well as normal function in humans and other organisms, may advance more quickly with a new tool for cutting larger pieces of DNA out of a cell’s genome, according to a new study by UC San Francisco scientists.

A rectangular robot as tiny as a few human hairs can travel throughout a colon by doing back flips, Purdue University engineers have demonstrated in live animal models.

Thin tissue grafts and flexible electronics have a host of applications for wound healing, regenerative medicine and biosensing. A new device inspired by an octopus’s sucker rapidly transfers delicate tissue or electronic sheets to the patient, overcoming a key barrier to clinical application, according to researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and collaborators.

A microRNA that can be found in a blood sample may make it easier to detect gastric cancer and could lead to improved treatment for diseases that are resistant to common immunotherapies.

UCLA study could be step toward a treatment for limb girdle muscular dystrophy