Category: Health

Mouse model validates how ‘good’ and ‘bad’ bacteria affect acne

Tom Patriot

Researchers have long believed that Propionibacterium acnes causes acne. But these bacteria are plentiful on everyone’s skin and yet not everyone gets acne, or experiences it to the same degree. Genetic sequencing recently revealed that not all P. acnes are the same — there are different strains, some of which are abundant in acne lesions and some that are never found there. Still, acne research and therapeutic development have been hampered by the lack of an animal model that replicates the human condition. When administered to mice, for example, P. acnes don’t cause long-term skin lesions…

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How the brain decides what to learn

Tom Patriot

In order to learn about the world, an animal needs to do more than just pay attention to its surroundings. It also needs to learn which sights, sounds and sensations in its environment are the most important and monitor how the importance of those details change over time. Yet how humans and other animals track those details has remained a mystery. Now, Stanford biologists report Oct. 26 in Science, they think they’ve figured out how animals sort through the details. A part of the brain called the paraventricular thalamus, or PVT,…

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Higher fitness level can determine longer lifespan after age 70

Tom Patriot

Researchers have uncovered one more reason to get off the couch and start exercising, especially if you’re approaching your golden years. Among people over age 70, physical fitness was found to be a much better predictor of survival than the number of traditional cardiovascular risk factors in a study being presented at the American College of Cardiology’s 68th Annual Scientific Session. While high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes and smoking are closely linked with a person’s chance of developing heart disease, these factors are so common in older people that…

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Low-cost ‘cancer probe’ could spot deadly melanoma early

Tom Patriot

Melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, is diagnosed in more than 130,000 people globally every year. Now, work is being done on a tool to help in its early detection: a simple, compact laser probe that can distinguish between harmless moles and cancerous ones — in a matter of seconds. “With skin cancer, there’s a saying that if you can spot it you can stop it — and that’s exactly what this probe is designed to do,” said researcher Daniel Louie, a PhD student who constructed the device as…

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Young people at risk of addiction have differences in key brain region

Tom Patriot

Young adults at risk of developing problems with addiction show key differences in an important region of the brain, according to an international team led by researchers at the University of Cambridge. The study adds further evidence to support the idea that an individual’s biological makeup plays a significant role in whether or not they develop an addictive disorder. Adolescence and young adulthood is an important time in a person’s development. It is during this time that individuals begin to demonstrate behaviours that are associated with addiction and which suggest…

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