The Bmal1 gene, found throughout the human body, is believed to be a critical part of the body’s main molecular timekeeper, but after deleting it in animal models, researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania found that tissues continued to follow a 24-hour rhythm. The team also found these tissues could follow that circadian rhythm—the 24-hour molecular clock that influences a variety of daily functions from sleep to metabolism—even in the absence of outside stimulus that can influence the cycle, like light or temperature changes. These results indicate that, while the Bmal1 gene may heavily influence some circadian rhythm, the process is controlled by a more complex system, and that other drivers of the biological clock exist. The research published this month in the journal Science.
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One in every five Americans now lives in a state with legal access to a medically assisted death. In theory, assisted dying laws allow patients with a terminal prognosis to hasten the end of their life, once their suffering has overcome any desire to live. While these laws may make the process of dying less painful for some, they don’t make it easier. Of the countries that have aid-in-dying laws, the U.S. has the most restrictive. Intended to reduce unnecessary suffering, the laws can sometimes have the opposite effect.
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When a disease spreads from one species to another it is known as a “spillover event.” Although not yet confirmed, preliminary evidence suggests that the virus that causes COVID-19, the 2019 coronavirus disease, may have originated in horseshoe bats in China. It may have spread to another species which in turn infected humans at a Wuhan live animal market, or “wet market.”
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Surgeons at King’s College Hospital in London removed a brain tumor from a woman who played the violin during the procedure.
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A respected Japanese virologist on Wednesday said if the Tokyo Olympics were tomorrow, the games probably couldn’t be held because of the fast-spreading virus from Wuhan, China.
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The financial burden on health systems would drastically increase if new European expert guidelines for cholesterol-lowering treatment were implemented, according to a new simulation study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, published in the European Heart Journal. The findings highlight an urgent need for cost-effectiveness analysis given the current cost of the proposed treatment for very high-risk patients, the researchers say.
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In 1900, German physician Paul Ehrlich came up with the notion of a “magic bullet.” The basic idea is to inject a patient with smart particles capable of finding, recognizing, and treating a disease. Medicine has pursued the magic bullet ever since.
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Century-old theories that having girls or boys ‘runs in families’ have been upended by a University of Queensland study, proving parents’ genes do not determine their child’s gender.
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Using “BPA-free” plastic products could be as harmful to human health — including a developing brain — as those products that contain the controversial chemical, suggest scientists in a new study led by the University of Missouri and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
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A Ludwig Cancer Research study has identified a mechanism by which regulatory T cells, which suppress immune responses, adapt their metabolism to thrive in the harsh microenvironment of the tumor. This mechanism, the study finds, is exclusively engaged by regulatory T cells (Tregs) that reside in tumors and could be disrupted to selectively target such Tregs and boost the effects of cancer immunotherapy.
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