Although unique genetic variations in children with autism are nearly as rare as they are in the general population, comprehensive studies are starting to find patterns in disrupted genes and pathways...
Premature infants have a known higher risk for poor neurological development, often leading to developmental and educational issues. However, these babies, born before 37 weeks, make up a small number of any generation, and new research shows that the 40 percent of babies born any more than a week before a full 40-week term are also at higher risk for having special education needs during childhood...
When the body does not properly manage insulin levels, diabetes and other metabolic disorders are familiar outcomes. That hormonal imbalance, however, has also been linked to a higher risk for psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia...
When your stomach growls and you have the urge to reach for the nearest snack, it is, in a way, your tummy talking. Those signals are in part sparked by the gut-based hunger hormone ghrelin, which blocks certain receptors in the brain, telling your body when it is time to eat...
Ever wondered what it looks like when tumor cells grow inside the body? Drug maker Amgen is hoping to sate this morbid sort of Fantastic Voyage with a new Web site that takes viewers through the various stages of tumor angiogenesis in 3-D...
Using shadows rather than light, researchers developed an experimental system for imaging cells that attaches to a cell phone and sends the data to diagnostic centers. Cynthia Graber reports...
The Orphan Drug Act has stimulated research and produced blockbusters like Botox, but interest may be waning
A screening of hundreds of metabolites in the blood plasma of people at rest and after exercise paints a newly detailed picture of changes within the body--and reinforces links with metabolic and cardiovascular diseases...
New technology like smart pills, a wireless heart monitor and a robotic surgical assistant could radically reshape patient care
Lung cancer affects both smokers and nonsmokers, killing more than half of the people who get it within five years. It has been notoriously hard to treat, frequently resulting in widespread resistance and nasty side effects from high doses of drugs...
The first environment-wide association study borrows from genomics to reveal new leads in major complex diseases
Malaria kills hundreds of thousands of people every year, and the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum is behind a majority of those deaths. Although newer drug combinations (of artemisinins) proved effective after resistance to widely used treatments appeared, hints of resistance to this newer therapy are also beginning to emerge, creating a darkening cloud over a field already beset with challenges...
In addition to reacting to news as it breaks, we work to anticipate what will happen. Here we contemplate 12 possibilities and rate their likelihood of happening by 2050
A new approach to tiny fuel cells implanted in rats enables the devices to generate electricity for months using sugar in the rodents' bodies
A recent paper in the journal Nature finally brings some vindication to fMRI, one of the most popular methods used to study the brain. Christie Nicholson reports
Among the more than a quarter of a million published functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies are assays that have purported to locate our mental experiences of religion, love and even the future in the brain...
May 16 marks the 50th anniversary of the first working laser, invented at Hughes Research Laboratories in 1960. We take a look at the past, present and potential future of this groundbreaking technology...
Recent research has found that mice make humanlike facial expressions when they are in pain. Christie Nicholson reports
Symptoms of sickle-cell anemia often include severe pain and other major medical complications, but a new study shows that the disease might also decrease cognitive abilities in young and middle-aged adults...
