Pharmapedia

Deep within Assam’s vibrant ecosystem, scientists at the Institute of Advanced Study in Science & Technology (IASST), Guwahati, have uncovered a remarkable paradox: some of nature’s most toxic flora may hold potent therapeutic potential. This revelation, emerging from extensive research into poisonous plant species, could herald a paradigm shift in natural product–based medicine.

The very famous quote credited to Paracelsus who expressed the classic toxicology maxim that, "All things are poison, and nothing is without poison; only the dose makes a thing not a poison." The principle relies on the finding that all chemicals, even water and oxygen can be toxic if too much is eaten, drunk, or absorbed. The idea simply describes the phenomenon in which poisonous substances can be medicinal in small doses.

As we age, blood stem cells, the essential source of new blood cells in the body, can accumulate genetic mutations. These mutations can give the cells a growth advantage, laying the foundation for developing serious health conditions. Now, scientists at The Jackson Laboratory (JAX) have not only discovered the mechanism that fuels their unchecked growth but have also found a way to stop it.

Google is excited to release TxGemma, a collection of open models designed to improve the efficiency of therapeutic development by leveraging the power of large language models. Developing a new therapeutic is risky, notoriously slow, and can cost billions of dollars. 90% of drug candidates fail beyond phase 1 trials.

Using video microscopy in the living mouse lung, UC San Francisco scientists have revealed that the lungs play a previously unrecognized role in blood production. As reported online March 22, 2017, in Nature, the researchers found that the lungs produced more than half of the platelets – blood components required for the clotting that stanches bleeding – in the mouse circulation.

Every day, billions of cells in your body divide, helping to replace old and injured cells with new ones. And each time this happens, your entire genetic library your genome, which totals more than 3 billion base pairs of DNA has to be copied, precisely, from the parent cell to the new daughter cell.