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By itself, beginning medical school is a major milestone. But the entering class of 2024 also experienced several significant firsts upon their arrival earlier this month at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The 105 aspiring physicians are beginning medical school in the midst of a global pandemic. The students’ entrance into medical education also marks the official […]
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Flies that cannot take to the air respond by sleeping more as they learn to adapt to their flightlessness, according to a study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The findings, published May 8 in Science Advances, suggest that sleep may be an evolutionary tool that helps animals adapt to challenging new situations. “We know that sleep […]
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What is the goal of quarantine? The main goal of quarantine is to reduce the spread of infection by limiting the movement of the general public while keeping everyone safe and healthy. It’s important to participate in quarantine because it can also help prevent the healthcare systems from becoming overwhelmed by patients with the illness. How am I supposed to […]
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Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia, affecting more than 5 million people in the U.S., but doctors have limited advice on how to protect against it. The disease develops silently in the brain for two decades or more before people begin showing the characteristic signs of forgetfulness and confusion. Understanding that silent phase could be key to […]
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Endogenous proteins that play a vital part in allergies and parasitic infection can prevent the immune system from wrongly attacking the body and causing inflamed joints, a study from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden published in the scientific journal PNAS reports. The researchers hope that the results will give rise to new drugs for rheumatoid arthritis. In protecting us against infections, […]
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Researchers at the Center for Cognition and Sociality, within the Institute for Basic Science (IBS) in South Korea, have engineered an improved biological tool that controls calcium (Ca2+) levels in the brain via blue light. Published in Nature Communications, this optogenetic construct, called monster-OptoSTIM1 or monSTIM1 for short, causes a change in mice’s fear learning behavior without the need of […]
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Patient enrollment in clinical trials as the first course of treatment after cancer diagnosis is low, despite the fact that enrollment may increase life expectancy, according to researchers at Penn State. They also found that white males with private health insurance and metastatic cancers treated at academic medical centers are more likely than other groups to enroll in clinical trials. […]
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A hitherto unknown antibiotic-resistant bacteria species, in the same family as E. coli and Salmonella spp., has been found and classified in Sweden. The proposed taxonomic name of the species—the first of the new genus—is Scandinavium goeteborgense, after the city of Gothenburg, where the bacterium was isolated and the research was done. Knowing which bacteria cause infections and which antibiotics […]
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Around 26 million people worldwide suffer from heart failure, with more than 50 per cent dying suddenly most likely due to the spontaneous onset of a heart rhythm problem, known as an arrhythmia. The link between the electrical signal that triggers the heart cell to contract (action potential) and consequent ability of the heart to pump blood has been known […]
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Credit: CC0 Public Domain A new coronavirus, a mysterious SARS-like disease, has spread around China and three other Asian countries since first emerging in the central Chinese city of Wuhan. A timeline: Alarm raised The World Health Organization (WHO) is alerted on December 31, 2019, by the Chinese authorities of a string of pneumonia-like cases in Wuhan, a city of […]
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