Tag Archives: Researchers

Discovery by Canadian researchers of how bacteria become resistant to antibiotics could lead to more effective drugs

Ontario researchers say they have discovered how bacteria become resistant to antibiotics, a finding they say could help combat the growing problem. Maikel Rheinstadter, a physics professor with McMaster University in Hamilton, and Andree Khondker, an undergraduate biochemistry student, said they found bacteria fight off antibiotics by stiffening their cell membranes and changing the barrier’s… Read More »

Researchers are first to count growth factors in single cells

Whether healthy or diseased, human cells exhibit behaviors and processes that are largely dictated by growth factor molecules, which bind to receptors on the cells. For example, growth factors tell the cells to divide, move, and when to die — a process known as apoptosis. When growth factor levels are too high or too low,… Read More »

SFU researchers link T cell recognition diversity to HIV control

By Diane Mar-Nicolle The immune system is the body’s best defense in fighting diseases like HIV and cancer. Now, an international team of researchers is harnessing the immune system to provide new clues that may help efforts to produce an HIV vaccine. SFU professor Mark Brockman and co-authors from the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South… Read More »

Researchers able to determine the effects of genes and environment in 560 common conditions

When it comes to disease and health, which is more powerful — ZIP code or genetic code? The degree to which nature and nurture affect disease and health remains one of the eternal — and still unanswerable — questions in medicine. Now a team of investigators from Harvard Medical School (HMS) and the University of… Read More »

Matter: Researchers Explore a Cancer Paradox

Cancer is a disease of mutations. Tumor cells are riddled with genetic mutations not found in healthy cells. Scientists estimate that it takes five to 10 key mutations for a healthy cell to become cancerous. Some of these mutations can be caused by assaults from the environment, such as ultraviolet rays and cigarette smoke. Others… Read More »