LONDON – The alchemy of induced pluripotent cells has broken another barrier, delivering a model of the earliest preimplantation stages of human development, when fertilized eggs form a blastocyst.

A large-scale metabolomics study of blood samples from 11,000 people has identified common biological links among a number of chronic non-communicable diseases, opening up the possibility of countering multiple diseases simultaneously.

In the public mind, fat and unhealthy are more or less synonymous. But reality is more complicated, as reality often is. Even among individuals with a BMI of 30 or higher, somewhere between 15% and 45% have metabolism typical of much lower-weight individuals.

Scientists, despite their best efforts, have not been able to identify a way to inhibit the oncoprotein Myc. Uropathogenic Escherichia coli, though, has apparently figured it out. In the Feb. 11, 2021, online issue of Nature Biotechnology, researchers reported that an UPEC-produced protease depleted cellular Myc and improved survival in mouse models of bladder and colon cancer.

PERTH, Australia – The fight against diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma may finally see some progress, after experiments using 3D models of the tumor in animal studies showed that a combination therapy of the polyamine inhibitor AMXT-1501 (Aminex Therapeutics Inc.) and the ornithine decarboxylase 1 inhibitor difluoromethylornithine could eradicate cancer cells.

KRAS is the most frequently mutated oncogene in solid tumors in general, and in lung tumors in particular. There are more patients whose lung tumors are driven by KRAS mutations than by ALK, Ros, Ret and TRK alterations. Combined. And after 40 years, they look to be getting a targeted therapy, or even two.

KRAS is the most frequently mutated oncogene in solid tumors in general, and in lung tumors in particular. There are more patients whose lung tumors are driven by KRAS mutations than by ALK, Ros, Ret and TRK alterations. Combined.

LONDON – A new national consortium of virologists has been set up to systematically assess how mutations in SARS-CoV-2 affect key outcomes such as effectiveness of vaccines and therapies, transmissibility of the virus and the severity of COVID-19 infections.

It has been a year since Wuhan health authorities first issued a bulletin about a cluster of pneumonia cases of unknown cause, first bringing what would become the COVID-19 pandemic to the attention of the World Health Organization. Now, a mutation that significantly increases SARS-CoV-2’s transmissibility has been detected in the U.S. 

An international study led by Nanyang Technological University in Singapore has designed and synthesized broad-spectrum antimicrobial polymers (AMPs) and demonstrated the safety and efficacy of two such agents against multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacteria in mouse models of sepsis.