Research News

An innovative stem cell-based treatment for Type 1 diabetes can meaningfully regulate blood glucose levels and reduce dependence on daily insulin injections, according to new clinical trial results from the University of British Columbia (UBC) and Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH).

In recent years, cell and gene therapies have shown significant promise for treating cancer, cystic fibrosis, diabetes, heart disease, HIV/AIDS and other difficult-to-treat diseases. But the lack of effective ways to deliver biological treatments into the body has posed a major barrier for bringing these new therapies to the market — and, ultimately, to the patients who need them most.

Hair products often contain ingredients that easily evaporate, so users may inhale some of these chemicals, potentially posing health repercussions. Now, researchers have studied emissions of these volatile organic compounds (VOCs), including siloxanes, which shine and smooth hair. The scientists report in ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology that using these hair care products can change indoor air composition quickly, and common heat styling techniques straightening and curling increase VOC levels even more.

As per the recent study in South Africa, it is concluded that service delivery and sales productivity have been enhanced as a result of technology adoption by salespeople.

Scientists at St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital showed that GRP78 is a promising, but complex, target for CAR T-cell immunotherapy for brain and solid tumors.

In Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, cognitive decline is driven by the overaccumulation of a normal brain protein known as tau. Wherever tau builds up, nearby brain tissue starts to degenerate and die. 

Now, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found in mice that Alzheimer’s-like tau deposits in the brain lead to the accumulation of a form of cholesterol known as cholesteryl esters, and that lowering cholesteryl ester levels helps prevent brain damage and behavioral changes. 

The research environment at UiT The Arctic University of Norway has found a bacteriocin that can help inhibit the growth of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. "An exciting discovery", says researcher Runa Wolden at the Department of Clinical Medicine.

Treating cancer is becoming increasingly complex, but also offers more and more possibilities. After all, the better a tumor’s biology and genetic features are understood, the more treatment approaches there are. To be able to offer patients personalized therapies tailored to their disease, laborious and time-consuming analysis and interpretation of various data is required.

Scientists have developed an ingestible device that can safely monitor vital signs like breathing and heart rate from inside humans. The tool, described November 17 in the journal Device, has the potential to provide accessible and convenient care for people at risk of opioid overdose.

A speech prosthetic developed by a collaborative team of Duke neuroscientists, neurosurgeons, and engineers can translate a person’s brain signals into what they’re trying to say.

Appearing Nov. 6 in the journal Nature Communications, the new technology might one day help people unable to talk due to neurological disorders regain the ability to communicate through a brain-computer interface.