Research News

Sensory Hair Cells in Your Inner Ear Helps You Keep Your Balance While Jogging. The reason for the difference lies in the vestibular organ (VO) located in the inner ear, which controls balance and posture, researchers have reported. The VO senses ongoing self-motion and ensures that, while running, the jogger unconsciously compensates for the accompanying changes in the orientation of the head. The results were reported in the online journal Nature Communications.

New research will help scientists and medical professionals to better understand the long-term complications caused by an immunosuppressant drug used to treat thousands of kidney transplant patients.

Tyrosine kinase 2 (Tyk2) is an enzyme involved in intracellular signalling and has an important role in activating the immune system. But enzymatically active Tyk2 can also promote excessive immune reactions and growth of certain cancer types.

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A new study shows that pancreatic cancer stem cells (PancSCs) are virtually addicted to oxygen-based metabolism, and could be “suffocated” with a drug already used to treat diabetes.

New research has found that teaching expectant parents to reduce stress, depression and anxiety can result in better birth outcomes. The findings were reported the Maternal and Child Health Journal.

Researchers have discovered new gene variants associated with an often-severe type of the disease that affects children under the age of five. The findings were published online in the journal Gastroenterology.

High salt in soil threatens to reduce the growth and yield of crops. In a breakthrough discovery, researchers have now identified a protein family that may help plants grow under slat stress. The study was published in Cell.

Eating spicy food regularly may reduce your risk of death from cancer, heart diseases and diabetes, a new study of over 485,000 people in China has claimed. An international team led by researchers at the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences examined the association between consumption of spicy foods as part of a daily diet and the total risk and causes of death. They undertook a prospective study of 487,375 participants, aged 30-79 years, from the China Kadoorie Biobank. Participants were enrolled between 2004-2008 and followed up for morbidities and mortality.

A new systematic review of animal studies testing a vaccine for tuberculosis raises questions about whether the studies provided sufficient evidence to move into trials of children.

Premature births are intimately linked with inflammation of the uterine tissue, a biological response which induces contractions and preterm labor. In their search for a mean to prevent this phenomenon and complications related to deliveries occurring before 37 weeks of gestation, researchers at CHU Sainte-Justine and University of Montreal discovered an agent that shows efficacy in inhibiting inflammation and preventing or delaying uterine contractions and premature delivery in murine models – without adversely affecting the fetus or the mother. This discovery is a giant step towards preventing prematurity, which is the world's leading cause of infant death and the origin of potentially severe, long-lasting physical, intellectual or psychological impairment for the 10% of infants born preterm world-wide.