The leucine-repeat rich kinase 2 (Lrrk2) gets most of its attention in the context of Parkinson's disease (PD). Variants in Lrrk2 are a major cause of familial PD (though familial PD makes up only a small fraction of overall PD cases).
Looking at human tissues has given British researchers a new window into the relationship between adipose tissue and disease cardiovascular disease risk.
Scientists at the University of Freiburg have shown that antibody-based prophylactic treatment after bone marrow transplant (BMT) could prevent infections without reducing the diversity of the gut microbiome. BMT is a cure for a number of blood cancers, but it has a very high complication and death rate itself.
In the world of cancer genomics, mutational hotspots and cancer drivers are used somewhat interchangeably. "It was common knowledge... that if you see a site [mutated] in many cancers, that site is a driver," Gad Getz told BioWorld. But Getz, who is director of the Cancer Genome Computational Analysis Group at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and his team argue that the conventional wisdom is incorrect.
CAR T cells engineered to target fibroblast activating protein (FAP) could reverse cardiac fibrosis and restore cardiac function in mice, researchers have reported in the Sept. 12, 2019, issue of Nature.
By preventing ice formation while cooling human livers below freezing, researchers have managed to extend the viable lifespan of donated livers threefold.
Telomerase's reputation is that it has an important role in maintaining the ability of stem cells to divide through maintaining telomeres, the structures at the tips of chromosomes that shorten with each replication cycle.
Researchers at the University of California at San Diego have used a strategy of "rock-paper-scissors" to engineer more durable synthetic circuits into bacteria.
