Research News

Melanoma is the deadliest form of skin cancer because of its ability to quickly grow and spread throughout the body. More than half of those with advanced melanoma will see the disease spread to the brain, where it rapidly progresses, often leading to death in only three to four months. Researchers in Moffitt Cancer Center’s Donald A. Adam Melanoma and Skin Cancer Center of Excellence have been working to better understand what drives melanoma brain metastasis.

Each year in the United States there are more than 3 million cases of peripheral neuropathy, wherein nerves outside of the brain and spinal cord are damaged and cause pain and loss of feeling in the affected areas. Peripheral neuropathy can occur from diabetes, injury, genetically inherited disease, infection, and more. Salk scientists have now uncovered in mice a mechanism for repairing damaged nerves during peripheral neuropathy. They discovered that the protein Mitf helps turn on the repair function of specialized nervous system Schwann cells. 

Myelin is an insulating sheath around axons - the processes connecting nerve cells - that is mostly composed of lipids and proteins. It enables rapid conduction of electrical signals and supports neuronal integrity and function. In the central nervous system, myelin is formed by specialized glial cells called oligodendrocytes. Myelinated fiber tracts are particularly vulnerable to various pathogenic processes and myelin diseases are often associated with chronic inflammation of the nervous system.

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.