A team of Swedish scientists have used national registries encompassing more than one million Swedish children to study the association between early life contact with dogs and subsequent development of asthma. The new study found that children who grew up with dogs had about 15 percent lower risk of asthma than children without dogs.
In a world first study researchers from Uppsala University, Sweden and James Cook University in Australia and have found that prey fish captured by predators release chemical cues that acts as a ‘distress call’, dramatically boosting their chances for survival. The findings are published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
Using mathematical modeling and field data, researchers at the mathematics department at Uppsala University have found the basic rules that allow ants to build efficient and low cost transport networks without discarding robustness. The study is now published in the Royal Society journal Interface.
By detecting cancer at an early stage, or even predicting who has an increased risk of being affected, the possibilities to treat the disease can be radically improved. In an international study led from Uppsala University the researchers have discovered that apparently healthy breast cells contain genetic aberrations that can be associated with an increased risk for non-familial breast cancer.
After the genocide in the mid-1990s, Rwanda initiated major social and health reforms to improve the survival of all children. In his dissertation, Aimable Musafili from Uppsala University and the University of Rwanda reports an impressive decline in child mortality in Rwanda and disappearing social divides in child survival.
When did the enamel that covers our teeth evolve? And where in the body did this tissue first appear? In the latest issue of Nature, researchers from Uppsala University in Sweden and the IVPP in Beijing, China arrive at an unexpected answer to this question: enamel originated in the skin and colonized the teeth much later.
A new smart research robot accelerates research on cancer treatments. The new robot system finds optimal treatment combinations. Today Scientific Reports (Nature Publishing Group) is publishing an article about the robot, authored by Dr Mats Gustafsson, Professor of Medical Bioinformatics at Uppsala University.
Children with cancer want honest but hopeful information. But giving appropriate information is difficult and improvements are needed for the sake of the child, the siblings and the parents. In a dissertation from Uppsala University, Li Jalmsell stresses the need for a family perspective and involvement at the end of the child’s life.
For the first time a high-resolution map over the ground below the Greenland ice sheet is available. Researchers at Uppsala University have developed the map that will be of great importance for future possibilities to predict how the Greenland ice sheet melts and moves and that in turn has an impact on rising sea levels as a result of climate change.
A new study shows that variation in genome size may be much more important than previously believed. It is clear that, at least sometimes, a large genome is a good genome. The study is led by Göran Arnqvist, Professor of Animal Ecology at Uppsala University and is published in the scientific journal Proceedings of the Royal Society of London.
An international team led by researchers at Uppsala University reports a surprising discovery from the genomes of eight Iberian Stone-Age farmer remains. The analyses revealed that early Iberian farmers are the closest ancestors to modern-day Basques, in contrast previous hypotheses that linked Basques to earlier pre-farming groups.
New species evolve whenever a lineage splits off into several. Because of this, the kinship between species is often described in terms of a ‘tree of life’, where every branch constitutes a species. Now, researchers at Uppsala University have found that evolution is more complex than this model would have it, and that the tree is actually more akin to a bush.
IgA deficiency is one of the most common genetic immunodeficiency disorders in humans and is associated with an insufficiency or complete absence of the antibody IgA. Researchers from Uppsala University and Karolinska Institutet have now performed the first comparative genetic study of IgA deficiency by using the dog as genetic disease model. The results are published in PLOS ONE.
New research from Uppsala University shows promising progress in the use of anti-inflammatory cytokine for treatment of type 1 diabetes. The study, published in the open access journal Scientific Reports, reveals that administration of interleukin-35 to mice with type 1 diabetes, reverses or cures the disease by maintaining a normal blood glucose level and the immune tolerance.
It is known that sleep facilitates the formation of long-term memory in humans. In a new study, researchers from Uppsala University now show that sleep does not only help form long-term memory but also ensures access to it during times of cognitive stress.
Previous studies have led researchers to believe that individuals with social anxiety disorder/ social phobia have too low levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin. A new study from Uppsala University, however, shows that the situation is exactly the opposite. Individuals with social phobia make too much serotonin. The more serotonin they produce, the more anxious they are in social situations.
New research from Uppsala University shows promising progress in the use of stem cells for treatment of spinal cord injury. The results, which are published in the scientific journal Scientific Reports, show that human stem cells that are transplanted to the injured spinal cord contribute to restoration of some sensory functions.
Researchers from Uppsala University have studied the dynamics of active swarms using computer simulations and experiments on unicellular algae. The team not only found full analogy of the active motion in a field to magnetic hysteresis but also managed to quantify the controllability of the swarm and identify the signatures of collective behavior of the active agents.
In many animal species, the chromosomes differ between the sexes. The male has a Y chromosome. In some animals, however, for example birds, it is the other way round. In birds, the females have their own sex chromosome, the W chromosome. For the first, researchers in Uppsala have mapped the genetic structure and evolution of the W chromosome.
Researchers from Uppsala University have studied the risk of dying over the next five years. They have developed a unique health-risk calculator by using one of the world’s largest study material, UK Biobank, containing data from nearly half a million people. The results are expected to have large areas of application both in the clinical setting, public health policy and in research.