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An international team of researchers has identified a new molecule involved in skin fibrosis, a life-threatening disease characterized by the inflammation and hardening of skin tissue. The new study is the first to investigate the role of this molecule in skin fibrosis and paves the way toward new and improved therapies for the disease.

Marine turtles deposit their eggs in underground nests where they develop unattended and without parental care. Incubation temperature varies with environmental conditions, including rainfall, sun, shade and sand type, and affects developmental rates, hatch and emergence success, and embryonic sex. Although the loggerhead turtle has been around for more than 60 million years, drought, heavy rainfalls and climatic changes are impacting hatchling sex ratios and influencing future reproduction.

Using a sensitive new technology called single-cell RNA-seq on cells from mice, scientists have created the first high-resolution gene expression map of the newborn mouse inner ear. The findings provide new insight into how epithelial cells in the inner ear develop and differentiate into specialized cells that serve critical functions for hearing and maintaining balance. Understanding how these important cells form may provide a foundation for the potential development of cell-based therapies for treating hearing loss and balance disorders.

A research group at Tohoku Medical Megabank Organization (ToMMo) has successfully constructed a Japanese population reference panel (1KJPN), from the genome information of 1,070 individuals who had participated in the cohort studies*1 of the Tohoku Medical Megabank Project.

ToMMo identified through this high-coverage sequencing (32.4 × on average), 21.2 million, including 12 million novel, single-nucleotide variants (SNVs) *2 at an estimated false discovery rate of

A small freshwater plant that has evolved to live in harsh seawater is giving scientists insight into how living things adapt to changes in their environment.

The findings could help scientists better understand how species have been able to adapt to major shifts of circumstances in the past, such as transferring from water to land, or from light to dark environments.

ITHACA, N.Y. - Cornell University researchers have developed a new lightweight and stretchable material with the consistency of memory foam that has potential for use in prosthetic body parts, artificial organs and soft robotics. The foam is unique because it can be formed and has connected pores that allow fluids to be pumped through it.

The polymer foam starts as a liquid that can be poured into a mold to create shapes, and because of the pathways for fluids, when air or liquid is pumped through it, the material moves and can change its length by 300 percent.

October 15, 2015 - Children with the genetic disorder tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) often need epilepsy surgery for severe, uncontrollable seizures. A new study finds that seizure control is improved for patients undergoing more extensive surgery, reports the October issue of Neurosurgery, official journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons, published by Wolters Kluwer.

A threatened tree species in Alaska could serve as a model for integrating ecological and social research methods in efforts to safeguard species that are vulnerable to climate change effects and human activity.

In a new Stanford-led study, published online this week in the journal Biological Conservation, scientists assessed the health of yellow cedar, a culturally and commercially valuable tree that is experiencing climate change-induced dieback and that is found throughout coastal Alaska.

Baltimore, MD, October 15, 2015 -- Almost 40 million Americans suffer from hearing loss. Right now, there is no way to reverse this condition, largely because auditory hair cells, which sense sound and relay that information to the brain, do not regenerate.

A new study led by scientists at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UM SOM) has found a key clue to how these hair cells develop. The current study identified a new role for a particular group of proteins, known as RFX transcription factors, in the development and survival of the hair cells.

PHILADELPHIA - Cancer is a result of normal cellular functions going wildly awry on a genetic level. That fact has been known for some time, but increasing evidence is showing that the human microbiome, the diverse population of microorganisms within every person, may play a key role in either setting the stage for cancer or even directly causing some forms of it. A new study from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, led by Erle S. Robertson, PhD and James C.

CANCER RESEARCH UK-funded scientists have developed a blood test that could help pair cancer patients with the most suitable therapy for their disease and then track the tumour's progress to see if the treatment is working, according to research published today (Thursday) in Clinical Cancer Research*.

A new gene test can identify which patients are likely to suffer more aggressive forms of the childhood cancer rhabdomyosarcoma, new research reports.

Examining the activity of only five genes in a sample of the tumour was enough to identify high-risk children who might benefit from more intensive treatment or from new therapies in clinical trials.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- A nine-month-old boy isn't rolling over, reaching for objects or babbling as he should be. One step his doctor won't likely take right away: have him evaluated by a genetics specialist.

Almost three quarters of doctors surveyed said they would refer a child with these types of developmental delays to a specialist - but rarely a genetics specialist, University of Michigan Health System researchers report in The Journal of Pediatrics.

The very act of tolerating some forms of soil pollution may give trees an advantage in the natural world, says University of Montreal plant biologists. Their findings were published this week in BMC Plant Biology.

Research published in The Lancet Oncology, led by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) on the scale and profile of cancer in indigenous peoples of the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand has revealed high rates of often preventable cancers including lung and cervical cancer, emphasising the need for targeted prevention strategies in these populations.