Chemists synthesize an improved building block for medicines

Chemists overcome a major hurdle in synthesizing a more stable form of heterocycle—a common component of most modern pharmaceuticals

08-Jul-2024 - Chemists have overcome a major hurdle in synthesizing a more stable form of heterocycle—a family of organic compounds that are a common component of most modern pharmaceuticals. The research, which could expand the toolkit available to drug developers in improving the safety profiles of ...

Blood tests could predict survival odds for patients with metastatic cancer

By measuring the proportion of DNA in the bloodstream that comes from a tumor, liquid biopsies may be able to guide treatment discussions

06-Dec-2022 - As cancers grow and potentially spread to new parts of the body, they often shed cells and DNA into the blood stream. DNA can be analyzed for both the amount of DNA present and whether any potential mutations exist that may aid providers in deciding on treatments. These tests, known as liquid ...

Mapping the brain stem’s control of eating could lead to better treatments for obesity

An atlas of neuronal circuits could help predict targets for medications to control appetite

29-Aug-2022 - Every meal you sit down to makes an impression, with foods filed away as something delicious to be sought out again, or to be avoided in disgust if we associate the flavor with gut malaise. How this decision is made turns out to be so fundamental to our wellbeing—determining what foods to seek ...

Fighting COVID-19 with milk?

New study tests the properties of cow milk protein against SARS-CoV-2 variants

02-Mar-2022 - As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to claim lives around the world, dairy scientists may have a surprising role to play. In a new report published in the Journal of Dairy Science®, scientists from the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, MI, USA) and Glanbia PLC Research and Development (Twin ...

A novel approach to target enhancer-addicted cancers

A chromatin degrader stops transcription factors from driving cancer, which may serve as a potential treatment approach for over 90% of prostate cancers

03-Jan-2022 - While researchers have identified several genes that drive prostate cancer, a new study published in Nature reveals the puppet master controlling the strings. The strings: Cancer-causing genes, or oncogenes, such as androgen receptor, FOXA1, ERG and MYC. The puppet master: A chromatin remodeling ...

Small changes in diet could help you live healthier, more sustainably

Eating a hot dog could cost you 36 minutes of healthy life, while choosing to eat a serving of nuts instead could help you gain 26 minutes of extra healthy life

24-Aug-2021 - A University of Michigan study, published in the journal Nature Food, evaluated more than 5,800 foods, ranking them by their nutritional disease burden to humans and their impact on the environment. It found that substituting 10% of daily caloric intake from beef and processed meats for a mix of ...

Missing link in coronavirus jump from bats to humans could be pangolins, not snakes

31-Mar-2020 - As scientists scramble to learn more about the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, two recent studies of the virus' genome reached controversial conclusions: namely, that snakes are intermediate hosts of the new virus, and that a key coronavirus protein shares "uncanny similarities" with an HIV-1 protein. ...

The danger behind certain biologics

The surprising role of an immune cell that explains some of the drugs' side effects

16-Dec-2019 - Autoimmune disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, and Crohn's disease plague tens of millions of Americans and are the result of the body's immune system, whose role is to fight against disease-causing pathogens, turning against itself. Thankfully, several new drugs designed to fight ...

Implantable cancer traps could provide earlier diagnosis

04-Nov-2019 - Invasive procedures to biopsy tissue from cancer-tainted organs could be replaced by simply taking samples from a tiny "decoy" implanted just beneath the skin, University of Michigan researchers have demonstrated in mice. These devices have a knack for attracting cancer cells traveling through ...

Blood biopsy: New technique enables detailed genetic analysis of cancer cells

17-May-2019 - A new way to cleanly separate out cancer cells from a blood sample enables comprehensive genetic profiling of the cancer cells, which could help doctors target tumors and monitor treatments more effectively. It is a dramatic improvement over current approaches because it also encompasses the ...