It’s not a good idea to disturb the circadian rhythm on a regular basis. For instance, experimental evidence shows that night-shift workers who periodically change their night and day shifts or people who travel overseas often alter their sleep cycles, and this seems to make them prone to gain weight and develop diabetes and other … Continue reading
During a heart attack, blood stops flowing into the heart; starved for oxygen, part of the heart muscle dies. The heart muscle does not regenerate; instead it replaces dead tissue with scars made of cells called fibroblasts that do not help the heart pump. The heart weakens; most people who had a severe heart attack … Continue reading
The complex process of embryo implantation in the uterus has raised interest among researchers in the field in part because it fails in about half of in vitro fertilization procedures. Looking to improve the success rate of assisted reproductive technologies, researchers at Baylor College of Medicine investigated in more detail the mechanism involved in successful … Continue reading
When it gets cold around you, your body turns up the heat to maintain its normal temperature. The heat is produced by brown adipose tissue, or brown fat, which also plays a role in how the body uses glucose and fat. However, how brown fat carries out its functions both in health and disease is … Continue reading
Among other studies, the lab of Dr. Chonghiu Cheng is pioneering research projects to better undertsand the role alternative splicing plays in cancer. “We have been intrigued by the fact that nearly all human genes are detected to undergo alternative splicing, vastly expanding the human proteomes. Despite these important observations, alternative splicing in cancer has remained … Continue reading
From the Labs 