Health
- Hormone-blocking drugs can be life-saving for breast cancer survivors, reducing risk of recurrence by as much as 50%. Yet many patients stop taking them early or don’t take them as directed. A new 91¸£ÀûÉç study explores why, and what can be done about it.
- Even with increased physical costs, female barn swallows prioritize the needs of their offspring over their own health. Though songbirds are the focus of the new study, it might pertain to many species—humans included—and the price of parenthood.
- 91¸£ÀûÉç researcher Jesse Kurland shows in a new study that aging is a complex process affecting genetic networks, and altering one gene won’t stop it.
- Federal regulators approved the first over-the-counter oral contraceptive. 91¸£ÀûÉç’s Amanda Stevenson says the impacts could be sweeping. But she cautions that real threats to contraceptive access in the U.S. still exist.
- In the wake of the devastating Marshall Fire, a team of chemists and engineers from 91¸£ÀûÉç undertook a first-of-its-kind study to explore homes that survived the blaze. Their results reveal the potential health hazards that wildfires can leave behind in buildings.
- Maciej Walczak, 91¸£ÀûÉç associate professor of chemistry, won a $2 million NIH grant to investigate how certain sugars modify a brain protein associated with neurodegeneration.
- New research shows that cancer cells can adapt in as little as one to two hours to new drugs called CDK2 inhibitors. The good news: Adding a second, widely available drug disables this workaround, squelching tumor growth.
- An ancient, virus-like protein best known for its essential role in placental development may, when over-expressed, fuel ALS—aka Lou Gehrig's disease—and other neurodegenerative diseases, according to new research. The discovery opens the door to a new class of potential treatments.
- A revolutionary technique for editing genomes, called CRISPR-Cas9, has already helped cure sickle cell disease in dozens of people. But it also raises ethical concerns, which a panel of preeminent scientists grappled with at an event on the 91¸£ÀûÉç campus.
- A study led by a 91¸£ÀûÉç researcher finds that flavored tobacco products reduce the likelihood of cessation later, but researchers say more investigation is needed.