The lens of the eye is an unusual organ. Unlike most of the body's organs, blood vessels don't reach the lens. If they did, they'd obscure our vision and we wouldn't be able to see. The lack of vasculature led scientists ...
May 26, 2020
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157
Multiple sclerosis (MS), characterized by increasing muscle weakness and paralysis, has a number of treatments that help stall progression of the disease when used early on in the disease. But the current treatments can hardly ...
Apr 6, 2020
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1873
Researchers long thought that only one strand of a double-stranded microRNA can silence genes. Though recent evidence has challenged that dogma, it's unclear what the other strand does, and how the two may be involved in ...
Feb 20, 2020
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124
p53 is the most famous cancer gene, not least because it's involved in causing over 50% of all cancers. When a cell loses its p53 gene—when the gene becomes mutated—it unleashes many processes that lead to the uncontrolled ...
Dec 20, 2019
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92
Neurons form circuits in our brain by creating tree-like branches to connect with each other. Newly forming branches rely on the stability of microtubules, a railway-like system important for the transport of materials in ...
Sep 18, 2019
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67
Sometimes cells need to die. The process of cell death is encoded within the genome of all higher organisms to kill off cancerous cells, and as a normal part of development to shape a mass of embryonic cells into the organism ...
Apr 22, 2019
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59
Cellular death is vital for health. Without it, we could develop autoimmune diseases or cancers. But a cell's decision to self-destruct is tightly regulated, so that it only happens to serve the best interests of the body. ...
Feb 11, 2019
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25
Melanoma is the leading cause of death from skin cancer. Many patients develop metastatic disease that spreads to other parts of the body. One commonly used targeted therapy for metastatic melanomas works by attacking melanomas ...
Nov 6, 2018
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76
When patients present with neurologic symptoms such as severe headaches or seizures, the symptoms could suggest anything from infection, cancer, or an autoimmune disease of the brain or spinal cord, leaving physicians scrambling ...
Oct 31, 2018
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53
A surprising offender has been emerging to drive the progression of Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, Huntington's and other neurodegenerative diseases: calcium. Calcium controls the production of fuel in mitochondria, the cell's ...
Oct 25, 2018
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