Research News

The average American eats roughly 22 teaspoons of added sugar a day — more than three times the recommended amount for women and more than double the recommended amount for men. Although this overconsumption is known to contribute to Type 2 diabetes and other disorders, the exact ways in which eating too much sugar sets the stage for metabolic diseases on a cellular level has been less clear.

Colon cancer is one of the most common types of cancer – both in India and worldwide. According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), it is the third most common cancer in men (6, 63,000 cases in 2014, 10.0% of all cancer cases) and the second most common in women (5, 71,000 cases in 2014, 9.4% of all cancer cases).

Researchers at Wake Forest School of Medicine have shown that a targeted therapy using non-thermal radio waves is safe to use in the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the most common type of liver cancer. The therapy also showed a benefit in overall survival.

Scientists from the USC Stem Cell laboratory of Neil Segil have identified a natural barrier to the regeneration of the inner ear’s sensory cells, which are lost in hearing and balance disorders. Overcoming this barrier may be a first step in returning inner ear cells to a newborn-like state that’s primed for regeneration, as described in a new study published in Developmental Cell.

A protein that helps regulate calcium signaling within heart cells could play a key role in preventing chronic heart failure, according to an international study led by University of Utah Health scientists. The researchers say disruption in the signaling pathway for this protein, VDAC2, causes severe impairment of heart cell contraction, making it harder for the heart to deliver blood to the body. The finding suggests that drugs and other therapeutic treatments targeting VDAC2 could eventually help alleviate heart failure.

New research conducted in monkeys reveals that T cells are not critical for the recovery of primates from acute COVID-19 infections. T cell depletion does not induce severe disease, and T cells do not account for the natural resistance of rhesus macaques to severe COVID-19. Furthermore, strongly T cell-depleted macaques still develop potent memory responses to a second infection. 

The research could help doctors optimise the choice, timing, dose and sequence of antibiotics used to treat common infections, helping to halt the growing threat of antibiotic resistance to modern medicine.

A national research study has just launched to investigate the effectiveness and safety of COVID-19 vaccines in transplant recipients. The Government of Canada, through its COVID-19 Immunity Task Force (CITF) and Vaccine Surveillance Reference Group (VSRG), is investing over $2.84 million in this research study, based at University Health Network and called PREVenT COVID, short for Prospective Evaluation of COVID-19 Vaccine in Transplant Recipients : A National Strategy.

Human brain is one of the most powerful and intelligent natural computer known to mankind. Neuromorphic computing refers to the field of technology where engineers try to build intelligent machines inspired from the working of mammal brains. Neurons and synapses are believed to be the most important building blocks giving rise to intelligence inside brains.