Consumption of fast food linked to liver disease

Risk of liver damage is highest for those with obesity or diabetes

11-Jan-2023 - The new year has begun, and with it, resolutions for change. A study from Keck Medicine of USC published today in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology gives people extra motivation to reduce fast-food consumption. The study found that eating fast food is associated with nonalcoholic fatty ...

How old is your brain, really?

AI-powered analysis accurately reflects risk of cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease based on brain age

11-Jan-2023 - The human brain holds many clues about a person’s long-term health — in fact, research shows that a person’s brain age is a more useful and accurate predictor of health risks and future disease than their birthdate. Now, a new artificial intelligence (AI) model that analyzes magnetic resonance ...

Drugs from Plastic Waste

Fungi convert polyethylene waste into pharmacologically useful metabolic products

30-Nov-2022 - Plastic waste is one of the most significant ecological and economic problems of our time. In the journal Angewandte Chemie, a research team has now introduced a chemical–biological method for upcycling polyethylene waste: catalytic cleavage is used to make carboxylic diacids that are ...

Living longer with the right diet - is that possible?

And is there a point in life when it's too late for healthier habits?

06-May-2022 - (dpa) The search for sources of eternal youth and long life has accompanied mankind for centuries. At least for longevity, scientists believe they have found a very strong factor: the right diet. Unlike genes or certain living conditions, it can be influenced. Increasingly, it's not just a ...

How the brain’s blue spot helps us focus our attention

The neurotransmitter noradrenaline regulates our brain’s sensitivity to relevant information

11-Jan-2022 - How can we shift from a state of inattentiveness to one of highest attention? The locus coeruleus, literally the “blue spot,” is a tiny cluster of cells at the base of the brain. As the main source of the neurotransmitter noradrenaline, it helps us control our attentional focus. Synthesizing ...

How a sugary diet early in life could mean memory trouble later

Direct connection between particular bacteria in the gut and impaired brain function found

13-Apr-2021 - New research shows how drinking sugary beverages early in life may lead to impaired memory in adulthood. The study, published in Translational Psychiatry, also is the first to show how a specific change to the gut microbiome -- the bacteria and other microorganisms growing in the stomach and ...

Using tattoo ink to find cancer

How commonly used coloring agents could help improve cancer detection

04-Sep-2020 - The humble ink in a tattoo artist's needle could be the key to improving the detection of cancer, thanks to new research from the USC Viterbi Department of Biomedical Engineering. WiSE Gabilan assistant professor in the department with a lab at the USC Michelson Center for Convergent Bioscience, ...

New computational method enhances drug target stability

02-Apr-2019 - Scientists from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT), the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech), and the University of Southern California (USC) have developed a new computational method for the design of thermally stable G protein-coupled receptors (GPCR) that ...

This tiny particle might change millions of lives

Nanoparticle targets kidney disease for drug delivery

22-Aug-2018 - Remember the scene in the movie Mission: Impossible when Tom Cruise has to sneak into the vault? He had to do all sorts of moves to avoid detection. That's what it's like to sneak a targeted drug into a kidney and keep it from getting eliminated from the body. Since kidneys are the filtering ...

The world's tiniest first responders

'Walking molecules' haul away damaged DNA to the cell's emergency room

22-Jun-2018 - The cell has its own paramedic team and emergency room to aid and repair damaged DNA, a new USC Dornsife study reveals. The findings are timely, as scientists are delving into the potential of genome editing with the DNA-cutting enzyme, CRISPR-Cas9, to treat diseases or to advance scientific ...