Scripps Research team showed that a variation of an already FDA-approved therapeutic for neurological disease can block COVID-19 infection in animals.

Researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have identified a specific gut bacterium involved in the progression of graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) after antibiotic treatment of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) and discovered that nutritional supplementation can prevent antibiotic-induced GVHD in preclinical models, according to a study published today in Cell.

Researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have developed a new approach to engineering natural killer (NK) cells with a second chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) to act as a logic gate, requiring two signals to eliminate a target cell. In preclinical studies, these next-generation CAR NK cells improved tumor specificity and enhanced anti-tumor activity by overcoming a process that contributes to NK cell dysfunction and tumor relapse.

If you need to lurk at the bottom of a water body waiting for prey, it is wise to stay motionless without resisting against the buoyant forces of water. To do so you need a kind of diving belt that helps to sink. One large amphibian species Metoposaurus krasiejowensis, that lived more than 200 million years ago, compensated for buoyancy with a heavy shoulder girdle. Researchers from the Universities of Bonn and Opole (Poland) examined the bones of the girdle under a microscope. The compactness in the interclavicle shows a striking resemblance to the pectoral bones of modern manatees. The results are now published in the Journal of Anatomy.

The nucleus accumbens, part of the basal ganglia in the brain, is composed of neurons controlled by glutamate and dopamine. Dopamine regulates memory and learning, motor functions, and emotional behavior for motivation and reward. Researchers from Japan have now discovered that dopamine increases neuronal excitability via the phosphorylation of a voltage-gated potassium channel subfamily member (KCNQ2), promoting reward behavior in mice. Thus, KCNQ2 is a potential therapeutic target for the treatment of several psychiatric disorders.

Which organisms will survive and which will succumb when the climate changes? A small larval fish is providing surprising insight into how the brain reacts when the temperature rises.

Researchers from Christoph Merten’s lab at EMBL and EPFL, along with collaborators at Heidelberg University, have come up with a way to simultaneously test the efficacy of hundreds of anticancer drug combinations. The new microfluidics-based method – Combi-seq – can pave the way for better, more personalized cancer therapies.

29 September 2022 – The G20 Coral Research and Development Accelerator Platform (CORDAP), has launched a call for proposals for its Coral Accelerator Program (CAP) 2022.