Researchers at Uppsala University have used AI to develop a new method to study brain cancer. The method is based on transplanting tumour cells from patients to fish embryos, followed by observation with AI. The method, which is described in the scientific journal Neuro-Oncology, can partly replace current mouse models for studying tumour growth and treatment.
Several new studies among Syrian refugee families in Turkey and families with infants in Sweden and Bhutan show that children of mothers in poor mental health risk falling behind in their cognitive development. However, very small changes can suffice to break this correlation and enable the children to return to their normal developmental level. The solutions where the same in all three countries
Searching for the protein TGM1 among patients with autoimmune skin diseases, researchers have identified a separate disease that can be linked to autoimmunity against TGM1. This backward method demonstrates a new way of identifying autoantigens as markers for serious diseases. By letting autoantigens point to the disease, diagnosis and treatment can be facilitated, shows study published in PNAS.
A comprehensive study from Uppsala University shows that several disease-associated protein biomarkers protect healthy individuals from developing inflammatory diseases. The protective effects are attributed to the proteins’ function in preventing tissue damage, a function that might be very different from the effect in a tissue subjected to chronic or acute inflammation.
Researchers from Uppsala University have been able to document and visualise hearing loss-associated genes in the human inner ear, in a unique collaboration study between otosurgeons and geneticists. The findings illustrate that discrete subcellular structures in the human organ of hearing, the cochlea, are involved in the variation of risk of age-related hearing loss in the population.
Researchers have developed and used a new method to map interactions on a large scale between human proteins and coronavirus proteins, which has provided valuable new information. In collaborations with others, they show that blocking one of these interactions inhibited infection of human cells by SARS-CoV-2. They also confirmed the interaction between the viral protein and the human protein.
For the first time through experiments and theory, Uppsala researchers, together with international collaborators, have been able to measure spin mixing in a ferromagnetic material. Through the experimental measurements, they discovered that a common factor in spin equations, in common use since the 1950s, has been significantly underestimated.
In addition to the well known electric charge,
Levels of dopamine and placebo effect can determine whether social anxieties improve when treated with SSRIs. The effect was four times higher for patients with high expectations compared with low expectations, even though the groups received the same medical treatment. Although SSRIs influence levels of serotonin in the brain, the effects on dopamine had the greatest impact for improvement.
Carotenoids are the underlying pigment for much of the enormous variety in color found across birds and form the basis for the colors red, yellow, and orange. In a study published in Current Biology, researchers from Uppsala University and Princeton University have uncovered the genetic basis for the yellow beak of some Darwin’s finch nestlings.
Increasing mental ill health is one of the most urgent public health challenges in the world. The global meeting Uppsala Health Summit, to be held online on 18–21 October, will discuss which preventive measures societies should deploy to better address this troubling trend.
Interaction between the gut microbiota and the immune system is important for host physiology and susceptibility to disease, but also for the efficacy of e.g., cancer immunotherapies. A multidisciplinary research team have now discovered that specific probiotic bacteria shape the intestinal microbiome by affecting B lymphocytes in the Peyer’s patches to induce, produce and release IgA following t
The availability of prey and the ability to adapt to changing environments played key roles in the evolution of sharks. A new study, in which over 3,000 shark teeth were analysed, provides new insight into how modern shark communities were established. The results are published in the journal Current Biology.
