Life Sciences and Chemistry

Diabetics could face a higher risk of both pancreatic and liver cancer, according to a Université de Montréal researcher who will be presenting her team’s findings at the Frontiers in Cancer Research Prevention Meeting. While the association between diabetes and both pancreatic and liver cancer has been previously documented, the researchers accounted for many factors unavailable in previous studies, making this the most accurate association ever found between diabetes and the incidence of live

Dolphin Quest enlists University of Pittsburgh specialist to develop custom ’scaffold’ for tissue’s repair; ’Liko is one lucky dolphin’

An expert team of marine mammal veterinarians, medical researchers, cosmetic surgeons and dolphin trainers recently joined forces to apply the latest advances in human regenerative medicine in an attempt to restore a bottlenose dolphin’s damaged dorsal fin.

The procedure on Liko, a three-year-old male dolphin

St. Jude/Johns Hopkins discovery suggests that manipulating levels of Lag-3 protein on T regulatory cells might prevent autoimmune diseases or amplify immune system attacks on cancer cells

The discovery that the Lag-3 gene acts as a brake to prevent immune system responses from running out of control solves a mystery that has puzzled researchers since the gene was discovered 14 years ago. A report on this discovery, from investigators at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital a

Researchers have discovered an unexpected role as a tumor promoter for a molecule that was previously thought to function exclusively as a cancer suppressor in neuroblastoma (NB), a highly aggressive and deadly childhood cancer. The study, published in the October issue of Cancer Cell, reveals new evidence about what stimulates progression of neuroblastoma and may provide a likely target for new anti-cancer therapies.

Neurotrophin tyrosine kinase receptor type I (TrkA) responds to nerve

Method may help halt A-T, cancer, other genetic diseases

UCLA scientists have devised a novel way to repair one of the genetic mutations that cause ataxia-telangiectasia, (A-T), a life-shortening disorder that devastates the neurological and immune systems of one in 40,000 young children. Reported Oct. 18 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the findings could hold far-reaching implications for treating A-T, cancer and other genetic diseases.

Often mi

Comprehensive study raises questions about ’demethylation’ agents

Agents believed to selectively “restart” genes that limit cancer’s growth — a potential treatment option already in early clinical studies — instead turn off as many genes as they turn on, a team of researchers from the National Cancer Institute and Johns Hopkins has discovered. “We don’t know what effect all these changes might have, but it’s clear that when scientists are looking onl