Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago and Queensland University of Technology of Australia, have developed a device that can isolate individual cancer cells from patient blood samples. The microfluidic device works by separating the various cell types found in blood by their size. The device may one day enable rapid, cheap liquid biopsies…
Researchers Uncover New Target of Alcohol in the Brain
When alcohol enters the brain, it causes neurons in a specialized region called the ventral tegmental area, or VTA — also known as the “pleasure center” — to release dopamine, a neurotransmitter that produces those feel-good sensations, and tells the brain that whatever it just experienced is worth getting more of. Scientists have long sought…
Discovery Could Lead to Better Treatment for Leukemia
Magnetic Surgical Cement Heals Spinal Fractures, Provides Targeted Drug Delivery
Biochemists Discover Cause of Genome Editing Failures With Hyped CRISPR System
Researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago are the first to describe why CRISPR gene editing sometimes fails to work, and how the process can be made to be much more efficient. CRISPR is a gene-editing tool that allows scientists to cut out unwanted genes or genetic material from DNA, and sometimes add a…
Ketamine Acts Fast to Treat Depression and its Effects Last–But How?
A New Class Of Antibiotics To Combat Drug Resistance
Researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago and Nosopharm, a biotechnology company based in Lyon, France, are part of an international team reporting on the discovery of a new class of antibiotics. The antibiotic, first identified by Nosopharm, is unique and promising on two fronts: its unconventional source and its distinct way of killing…
Drug Delivered During CPR May Improve Heart Attack Survival
Brain Scan Before Antidepressant Therapy May Predict Response
Researchers Discover Way to Inhibit Major Cancer Gene
Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago have identified a new way to block the action of genetic mutations found in nearly 30 percent of all cancers. Mutations in genes for the RAS family of proteins are present in nearly 90 percent of pancreatic cancers and are also highly prevalent in colon cancer, lung…
2 Antibiotics Fight Bacteria Differently Than Thought
Two widely prescribed antibiotics — chloramphenicol and linezolid — may fight bacteria in a different way from what scientists and doctors thought for years, University of Illinois at Chicago researchers have found. Instead of indiscriminately stopping protein synthesis, the drugs put the brakes on the protein synthesis machinery only at specific locations in the gene.…
Why Do Antidepressants Take So Long to Work?
An episode of major depression can be crippling, impairing the ability to sleep, work, or eat. In severe cases, the mood disorder can lead to suicide. But the drugs available to treat depression, which can affect one in six Americans in their lifetime, can take weeks or even months to start working. Researchers at the…