Research News

Harvard Medical School scientists and colleagues at Stanford University have developed an artificial intelligence diagnostic tool that can detect diseases on chest X-rays directly from natural-language descriptions contained in accompanying clinical reports.

Chronic diseases often lead to fibrosis, a condition in which organ tissue suffers from excessive scarring. Researchers at the University of Zurich have now developed an immunotherapy that specifically targets the cause – activated fibroblasts – while leaving normal connective tissue cells unharmed. If this approach is also found to work in humans, it could lead to an effective treatment for fibrosis.

Adults with ADHD are at greater risk of developing a range of cardiovascular diseases than those without the condition, according to a large observational study led by researchers at Karolinska Institutet and Örebro University. The researchers say the findings, published in the journal World Psychiatry, underscore the need to monitor cardiovascular health in people with ADHD.

Pfizer Inc announced that the first participants have been dosed in a pivotal Phase 3 clinical trial to evaluate the efficacy, safety, tolerability and immunogenicity of the company’s quadrivalent modified RNA (modRNA) influenza vaccine candidate in approximately 25,000 healthy U.S. adults.

Tumor cells are notoriously good at evading the human immune system; they put up physical walls, wear disguises and handcuff the immune system with molecular tricks. Now, UC San Francisco researchers have developed a drug that overcomes some of these barriers, marking cancer cells for destruction by the immune system.

A pathogenic fungus undergoes a remarkable transformation once it enters the body, allowing it to infect the brain, according to new research by scientists at University of Utah Health. Studies in mice show that as the fungal intruder travels to different organs, it changes in size and acquires characteristics that help infection to spread, all in a matter of days.

Mount Sinai researchers have made two important discoveries about the mechanism by which bladder cancer cells foil attacks from the immune system. The research, published in Cancer Cell in September, could lead to a new therapeutic option for patients with these types of tumors.

Zika virus has a trick up its sleeve. Once inside the body, the virus likes to make a bee line for dendritic cells, the cells we rely on to launch an effective immune response.

“Dendritic cells are major cells of the innate immune system,” says LJI Professor Sujan Shresta, Ph.D., a member of the LJI Center for Infectious Disease and Vaccine Research. “How is this virus so clever that it’s able to establish infection in cells that would normally fight infections?”

University of Pittsburgh researchers describe for the first time a pathway by which cells repair damaged lysosomes, structures that contribute to longevity by recycling cellular trash. The findings are an important step towards understanding and treating age-related diseases driven by leaky lysosomes.