A bone marrow transplant can be a life-saving treatment for patients with certain cancers and other serious illnesses that have not responded to conventional chemotherapies. The transplant intends to provide patients with a new immune system; however, it takes about a year until it is fully capable of defending the body against diseases. During this … Continue reading
Peroxisomal biogenesis disorder is a condition that has been linked only to lipid metabolism. This line of thought has now changed as new research has revealed that peroxisomes, essential micro-machines inside the cell that are involved in breaking down and producing certain lipids, are also linked to sugar metabolism. “Meeting a patient at Texas Children’s … Continue reading
The scientific community is increasingly aware that an organism’s interactions with the millions of microbes in their bodies – the microbiome – can influence many of its functions, such as cognitive and metabolic activities and aging. Questions have also been raised about the role the genetic composition of the microbiome might be playing in longevity. … Continue reading
The nutrient-activated kinase complex mTORC1, which has been known to be involved in an organism’s adaptation to food availability after starvation and physical exercise, has recently revealed a novel role. “We had been studying components of this pathway for several years,” said senior author Dr. Andrea Ballabio, professor of molecular and human genetics at Baylor … Continue reading
Although both are known to play a role in cardiac function and previous work had hinted that they might interact with each other, it was not clear that the dystrophin glycoprotein complex (DGC) pathway and the Hippo pathway worked together to affect heart cell proliferation. The James Martin lab at Baylor College of Medicine explored … Continue reading
Myotonic dystrophy, type 1 (DM1) is the second most common cause of muscular dystrophy and numerous other muscle disorders that affect tens of thousands of individuals in the U.S.. This autosomal dominant neuromuscular condition involves multiple tissues including muscle, heart and the central nervous system. DM1 is caused by a repeat of three letters in … Continue reading
