Research News

Antimicrobial resistance is a major problem for human health and researchers worldwide are looking for new solutions. “We urgently need new antibiotics to combat bacteria that become increasingly resistant to most clinically used antibiotics,” says Dr. Markus Weingarth, a researcher from the Chemistry Department of Utrecht University.

Led by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), a team of researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and many other organizations used advanced sequencing technologies to read out the full DNA sequence of the Y chromosome a  region of the genome that typically drives male reproductive development.

The Food and Drug Administration granted regular approval to pralsetinib (Gavreto, Genentech, Inc.) for adult patients with metastatic rearranged during transfection (RET) fusion-positive non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) as detected by an FDA-approved test.

Merck known as MSD outside of the United States and Canada, announced that the pivotal Phase 3 KEYNOTE-756 trial investigating KEYTRUDA, Merck’s anti-PD-1 therapy, in combination with chemotherapy met one of its dual primary endpoints of pathological complete response (pCR) rate following the neoadjuvant part of the neoadjuvant/adjuvant study regimen in patients with high-risk, early-stage estrogen receptor-positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative (ER+/HER2-) breast cancer.

People who contract COVID-19 but never develop symptoms the so-called super dodgers may have a genetic ace up their sleeve. They’re more than twice as likely as those who become symptomatic to carry a specific gene variation that helps them obliterate the virus, according to a new study led by UC San Francisco researchers. 

Additional heartbeats from cardiac chambers, so-called ventricular extrasystoles, may be associated with severe diseases. Researchers at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) use machine learning for their non-invasive localization. This may facilitate and improve future diagnosis and therapy. The researchers use artificial neural networks trained with synthetic data from a realistic simulation model. They report in Artificial Intelligence in Medicine.

University of Utah Health researchers have discovered that Metformin, a common drug that’s been used in diabetes treatment for more than half a century, has surprising applications on a cellular level. It can target “zombie-like cells,” called senescent cells, which impact muscle function. Senescent cells secrete factors associated with inflammation that may underlie fibrotic tissue, a hardening or scarring of tissues. Metformin also reduces muscle atrophy. Their findings published in Aging Cell.

Scientists have unraveled the step-by-step activation process of a protein with a deep evolutionary history in all domains of life, opening the door to harnessing its functions for use as a biotechnology tool.

The protein belongs to the “superfamily” of Argonaute proteins, which previous research has suggested to be involved in gene silencing, a fundamental process known as RNA interference.

Asprius Lifesciences has announced that it has developed treatment for Diabetic Neuropathy, a condition that results in nerve damage in peripheral areas of the body. The company said it has already filed a patent for the Fixed-Dose Combination that holds promise in treating peripheral neuropathy.