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Bottom Line: A new liquid biopsy test could detect microsatellite instability (MSI) and tumor mutational burden (TMB), indicating that it could help determine which patients are likely to respond to immune checkpoint inhibitors.
Journal in Which the Study was Published: Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.
Authors: Andrew Georgiadis, MS, scientist at Personal Genome Diagnostics in Baltimore, and Dung Le, MD, associate professor of oncology at the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins.
Using your feet like hands can cause organised 'hand-like' maps of the toes in the brain, never before documented in people, finds a new UCL-led study of two professional foot painters.
These findings, published in Cell Reports, demonstrate an extreme example of how the human body map can change in response to experience.
New work from Finland has been able to link mammalian behavior to its underlying neural code. The work examined how mammals' brains interpret signals from the eyes at low light levels.
The new study shines light on a route to solve the two broad goals of neuroscience. The first goal is to read nerve signals and interpret what they mean to our brains, and the second is to work out how our brain takes these signals and decides what to do - predicting how we behave based on what we see.
Secret to interpreting neural code found in pitch-dark maze
Despite having lived about 300,000 years ago, the oldest ancestor of all members of Homo sapiens had a surprisingly modern skull--as suggested by a model created by CNRS researcher Aurélien Mounier of the Histoire Naturelle de l'Homme Préhistorique laboratory (CNRS / Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle) and Cambridge University professor Marta Mirazón Lahr.
A USC scientist and colleagues have identified a new species of giant flying reptile that once soared over what is now North America.
The creature is similar to the largest pterosaurs known, yet key characteristics gleaned from a cache of bones unearthed in Canada show it's actually part of a new genus and species. The scientists call it Cryodrakon boreas, or Frozen Dragon of the North.
Did you know that the DNA in any cell of the human body - or any organism for that matter - contains the genetic information required to develop every possible type of cell within that organism? Yet cell types differ markedly from each other both structurally and functionally. This is manifest through the production of different proteins encoded in the genetic information of the cell.
How is the information in DNA expressed as different proteins in diverse cells, such as those in a human liver, brain, heart or, maybe more pressing to ask, in a cancerous tumour?
Enteroviral infections are common viral infections with usually rather few symptoms and also believed to be linked to the onset of type 1 diabetes. Type 1 diabetes is a disorder in which the pancreatic insulin-producing beta-cells are destroyed, and it is more common in Finland than anywhere else in the world. A new study by the University of Turku and Tampere University in Finland supports the link between enteroviral infections and type 1 diabetes.
No more than 540 million years ago there was a huge boom in the diversity of animals on Earth. The first larger animals evolved in what is today known as the Cambrian explosion. In the time that followed, the animals evolved and grew larger, but concurrently with the evolution of the animals, the oxygen level in the atmosphere dropped and this temporarily slowed the radiation. However, subsequent oxygenation and growth of algae added energy to the food chain and got the explosion of life going.
The sun is the most sustainable energy source available on our planet and could be used to power photochemical reactions. In the journal Angewandte Chemie, scientists present a widely applicable, cost-effective photomicroreactor. It is based on "Luminescent Solar Concentrators", which harvest, convert, and make photons available for chemical reactions. Thus, the researchers were able to synthesize various substances, including two pharmaceuticals.
Researchers have found the earliest direct evidence of milk consumption anywhere in the world in the teeth of prehistoric British farmers.
The research team, led by archaeologists at the University of York, identified a milk protein called beta lactoglobulin (BLG) entombed in the mineralised dental plaque of seven individuals who lived in the Neolithic period around 6,000 years-ago.
Software companies are more likely to base their operations in locations where skilled potential recruits already work - rather than staff moving to new areas for fresh opportunities.
New research from Lancaster University, the University of Illinois and Texas Tech University shows new firms commonly establish headquarters within a mile of existing software businesses. However, while this makes recruitment easier, there is no evidence of increased profitability as a result.
Differences in a key brain circuit may suggest why some individuals are less able than others to resist tempting cues, according to a study in rats published today in eLife.
The findings help explain the results of previous behavioral studies in rats which showed that some are more attracted to cues associated with food. The current work may have important implications for scientists trying to understand why some people have a harder time resisting cravings triggered by sights, sounds or places.
Among our two closest phylogenetic relatives, chimpanzees remain by far the more thoroughly-studied and widely-recognized species, known for their high levels of cooperation especially among males, which includes sharing food, supporting each other in aggressive conflicts and defending their territories against other communities.
Tiny extracts of a precious metal used widely in industry could play a vital role in new cancer therapies.
Researchers have found a way to dispatch minute fragments of palladium - a key component in motor manufacture, electronics and the oil industry - inside cancerous cells.
Scientists have long known that the metal, used in catalytic converters to detoxify exhaust, could be used to aid cancer treatment but, until now, have been unable to deliver it to affected areas.
LAWRENCE -- New findings from University of Kansas experimental nuclear physicists Daniel Tapia Takaki and Aleksandr (Sasha) Bylinkin were just published in the European Physical Journal C. The paper centers on work at the Compact Muon Solenoid, an experiment at the Large Hadron Collider, to better understand the behavior of gluons.