Research News

Scientists have identified the first-ever evidence of a human population uniquely adapted to tolerate the toxic chemical arsenic in the Andes Mountains of Argentina. A Swedish research team led by Karolinska Institutet and Uppsala University professor Karin Broberg, performed a genome wide survey from a group of 124 Andean women screened for the ability to metabolise arsenic (measured by levels in the urine).

Scientists have for the first time found that an abnormal protein whose accumulation in the brain is a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease starts building up inside neurons of people as young as 20. It has long been known that amyloid accumulates and forms clumps of plaque outside neurons in ageing adults and in Alzheimer's but this is the first time amyloid accumulation has been shown in such young human brains, researchers said.

Two of the four known groups of human AIDS viruses originated in western lowland gorillas in Cameroon, according to a new study. An international team of scientists from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Montpellier, the University of Edinburgh, and colleagues conducted a comprehensive survey of simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) infection in African gorillas.

Scientists have successfully developed healthy cartilage from embryonic stem cells, a breakthrough that could help treat arthritis patients.

US researchers have successfully used a dog to sniff out thyroid cancer in people who had not yet been diagnosed. The trained scent dog accurately identified whether patients' urine samples had thyroid cancer or were benign (noncancerous) 88.2 per cent of the time, researchers said.

A young Indian scientist based in Germany has been awarded a grant of 1.5 million euros to investigate the role of gut microbiota in autoimmune diseases of the central nervous system such as Multiple Sclerosis. The Starting Grants of the European Research Council (ERC) seek to give talented scientists at an early stage in their careers the freedom to pursue their most creative ideas.

The appearance of infectious diseases in new places and new hosts, such as West Nile virus and Ebola, is a predictable result of climate change, scientists say. Humans can expect more such illnesses to emerge in the future, as climate change shifts habitats and brings wildlife, crops, livestock, and humans into contact with pathogens to which they are susceptible but to which they have never been exposed before, researchers said.

An experimental drug may help treat patients with hormone-resistant breast cancer, scientists say. Palbociclib, an investigational oral medication that works by blocking molecules responsible for cancer cell growth, is well tolerated and extends progression-free survival (PFS) in newly diagnosed, advanced breast cancer patients, including those whose disease has stopped responding to traditional endocrine treatments, researchers said.