An integrated approach that unifies psychosocial factors with neurobiology sheds light on chronic pain traits and their underlying brain networks, according to a new study. Unraveling the mechanisms of chronic pain remains a major scientific challenge. Psychological and personality factors, socioeconomic status, and brain properties all contribute to chronic pain but have mainly been studied…

In the riddle about the origin of scar tissue, researchers have reached an important next step. Researchers found that scars are made from a tissue beneath the skin: fascia. This new knowledge led to further discoveries about scarring mechanisms and the fascia matrix which are crucial for the research on scarless skin regeneration and the…

The obesity epidemic affects nearly half a billion people worldwide, many of them children. Obesity-related diseases including heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and cancer are a leading cause of preventable death. Researchers have now developed a gene therapy that specifically reduces fat tissue and reverses obesity-related metabolic disease in obese mice. To overcome the…

A new study models future SARS-CoV-2 mutations and forecasts their ability to evade immune defenses developed by vaccines and antibody-based treatments. The study, published Dec. 2 in Science as an accelerated publication for immediate release, was designed to gauge how SARS-CoV-2 might evolve as it continues to adapt to its human hosts and in doing…

Researchers have developed the first non-invasive way of measuring athletes’ push start performance. Skeleton is a winter sport where athletes rapidly accelerate on ice whilst pushing a sled before launching forwards on to it and navigating the corners of the track at speeds of up to 90 mph. Improvements of fractions of a second made…

New research reveals the mechanism that allows breastfeeding babies to absorb large amounts of calcium and build healthy bones — a discovery that could lead to treatment for osteoporosis and other bone diseases later in life. The researchers identified calcium-absorbing channels in the lower two-thirds of the small intestines of breastfed infant mice. «We build…

A neurologic pathway by which non-damaging but high frequency brain impact blunts normal brain function and causes long-term problems with learning and memory has been identified. The finding suggests that tailored drug therapy can be designed and developed to reactivate and normalize cognitive function, say neuroscientists. The investigators, working with collaborators at the National Institutes…

What happens in the brain when our conscious awareness fades during general anesthesia and normal sleep? Scientists studied this question with novel experimental designs and functional brain imaging. They succeeded in separating the specific changes related to consciousness from the more widespread overall effects, and discovered that the effects of anesthesia and sleep on brain…

Hematology researchers have further refined how a treatment currently used on an urgent basis to control bleeding in hemophilia patients holds promise as a preventive treatment as well. A study in animals may set the stage for a new therapy for a subset of patients with hemophilia who now develop antibodies to the standard maintenance…

An enzyme induced by stress to help reduce production of damaging free radicals is also used by liver cancer to regulate two major cell proliferation pathways that enable the cancer to thrive, scientists report. They’ve also found that when they block the enzyme Nqo1, it dramatically reduces the proliferation of liver cancer cells, a hallmark…