Salk scientists have uncovered an unexpected molecular target of a common treatment for alopecia, a condition in which a person's immune system attacks their own hair follicles, causing hair loss. The findings, published in Nature Immunology on June 23, 2022, describe how immune cells called regulatory T cells interact with skin cells using a hormone as a messenger to generate new hair follicles and hair growth.

A team of scientists led by Professor Karsten Hiller from the Braunschweig Center for Systems Biology BRICS has discovered an endogenous, anti-inflammatory substance: mesaconic acid. This molecule could be a drug candidate that can be further developed to treat shock resulting from blood poisoning and autoimmune diseases such as psoriasis and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)—without the known side effects of anti-inflammatory drugs currently in use.

Colorectal, pancreatic, esophageal and stomach cancers—some of the deadliest kinds of cancer—have high recurrence rates where the cancer comes back even after successful surgery or radiation treatment.

Researchers at the John T. Macdonald Department of Human Genetics and John P. Hussman Institute for Human Genomics at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine have found that inherited mutations in the MINAR2 gene caused deafness in four families. The gene variation mostly affects the inner ear hair cells, which are critical to hearing. The authors believe the progressive nature of this hearing loss, in some affected individuals and in mice, could offer opportunities for treatment. The study titled "Mutations in MINAR2 encoding membrane integral NOTCH2-associated receptor 2 cause deafness in humans and mice" was published online on June 21 in the journal PNAS.

Since the initial highly infectious SARS-CoV-2 omicron variant (officially known as BA.1 or B.1.1.529) of COVID-19 emerged last fall, new subvariants of omicron continue to evolve.