Many drugs used to fight cancer are based on metals. But such organometallic agents are generally thought to have low specificity for potential targets in cells, raising concerns that they may inflict collateral damage on healthy cells. Now scientists have … Continue reading
Journal Club
Highlighting recently published papers selected by Academy members
Category Archives: Medical Sciences
Journal Club: New chip allows for rapid, low-cost disease diagnosis from small DNA, RNA samples
A new point-of-care biochip enables rapid detection of nucleic acids in blood samples, paving the way for quick, cheap tests for HIV, MRSA, and numerous other diseases. Video Credit: Yeh et al. Sci. Adv. 2016;3:e1501645 Ideally, an urgent diagnosis occurs rapidly and at … Continue reading
Categories: Applied Biological Sciences | Biochemistry | Infectious disease | Journal Club | Medical Sciences
Tagged biochip, HIV, lab on a chip, MRSA, point-of-care
1 Comment
Journal Club: A new strategy for producing polio vaccine without live virus
The poliovirus, which once paralyzed children across the globe, is nearly eradicated in nature. There were just 74 cases of polio reported in 2015, according to the World Health Organization, down from an estimated 350,000 in 1988. Two vaccines contributed … Continue reading
Categories: Cell Biology | Immunology | Infectious disease | Journal Club | Medical Sciences | Microbiology
Tagged capsid, polio, poliovirus, vaccines
1 Comment
Journal Club: A new take on why tumors develop drug resistance
Cancer’s notorious resistance to therapy is often explained as the result of natural selection of newly mutating cells. Cancer-killing drugs wipe out nearly all of a tumor’s cells, but random mutations may allow for drug resistance in some cells, and … Continue reading
Categories: Cell Biology | Evolution | Journal Club | Medical Sciences
Tagged cancer, drugs, natural selection, phenotypic plasticity, stem cells, therapy, tumor
Leave a comment
Journal Club: Newly found tiny peptides may have a big role
Tiny proteins known as micropeptides can play key roles in developmental biology. These molecules are encoded by equally little bits of DNA known as short or small open reading frames that often escape detection amidst an extraordinary number of meaningless … Continue reading
Categories: Biochemistry | Cell Biology | Genetics | Journal Club | Medical Sciences
Tagged lncRNA, micropeptide, non-coding RNA
Leave a comment
Diagnosing asthma from a single drop of blood
Asthma affects more than 300 million people worldwide, and over the past 30 years, the prevalence of asthma has risen significantly in many populations. Unfortunately, asthma is notoriously difficult to diagnose. Now scientists have developed a handheld device that could … Continue reading
Categories: Engineering | Medical Sciences
Leave a comment
Short fuse, short telomeres
Men who live a high-stress life—with few social resources, low levels of optimism, and above-average levels of hostility—show signs of the stress in their cells. The ends of their chromosomes, so-called telomeres which wear down naturally as a person ages, … Continue reading
Categories: Medical Sciences | Social Sciences
Leave a comment
Platelets as enzyme factories
The body of an average, healthy adult produces more than two hundred billion new platelets every day. The small cell fragments circulate through the blood stream, helping form blood clots and release growth hormones, for only a matter of days … Continue reading
Categories: Medical Sciences
Leave a comment
Drugs designed to target specific forms of iron might become disease fighters
Abnormal levels of a form of iron rise in the blood upon infection with parasites such as the ones behind malaria. Now scientists reveal they can design drugs that target this iron, report findings detailed in the Proceedings of the … Continue reading
Categories: Medical Sciences
Leave a comment