CLINICAL TRIALS
Could cell death discovery hold the key to slower ageing on Earth and beyond?
Experts are exploring the emerging role of necrosis in ageing— and its potential to reshape how we treat age-linked conditions.
Necrosis is a form of cell death historically viewed as an unregulated and terminal event.
But now a top team of...
Chewing gum releases 1/4 MILLION microplastics into the HUMAN body
Chewing gum can release over 250,000 microplastics and detectable levels of nanoplastics into saliva within the first hour of chewing, researchers say.
Despite its everyday presence, with the UK consuming four billion pieces of plastic gum annually, most consumers remain...
British scientists unveil world-leading technology to speed up drug discovery
A new 3D bio-printer that produces human-like tissue holds the potential to revolutionise the discovery of new drugs for cancer, heart disease and arthritis.
Scientists from Newcastle University, with funding from Versus Arthritis, have developed a unique approach to bioprinting...
Rapid blood cancer growth driven by single genetic ‘hit’
A unique study shows how blood and bone marrow cancer starts and why it grows so rapidly.
A unique study shows how blood and bone marrow cancer starts and why it grows so rapidly.
Researchers have discovered that explosive growth rates...
New target treatment could reverse Parkinson’S
Blocking a key enzyme driving Parkinson’s restores normal function in animal and cell models – offering a promising new drug target for the condition.
In Parkinson’s, a protein known as alpha-synuclein builds up in clumps called Lewy bodies in nerve...
Light beam ‘grasps and holds’ single proteins linked to Alzheimer’s
High concentrations of light will be used to study the fast structural changes in single proteins linked to Alzheimer’s through the different disease stages in a first of its kind study.
It is hoped the research, led by Nottingham Trent...
Improving patient recruitment in clinical trials
An insight by John Clarke, Associate Director in Patient Recruitment at Indero.
Recruiting patients for clinical trials can be extremely challenging, with many pharmaceutical companies struggling to enrol participants, particularly when existing treatments are already well established.
At the same time,...
Data ‘overload’ adds months to trials AND reduces ROI
 Patients increasingly burdened by overcomplicated trials, new data reveals.
New analysis shows that a significant number of phase III clinical trials are over-collecting data because of overcomplicated protocol designs, leading to avoidable delays in drug development times and increased patient...
Could brain parasites treat cognitive disorders?
Scientists have invented a new way to deliver treatment into the brain using a parasite.
The study – led by the University of Glasgow in collaboration with Tel Aviv University and an international team of researchers – has also made...
1 in 4 patients in vegetative state can perform cognitive taskS
Around one in four patients with severe brain injury who cannot move or speak – because they are in a prolonged coma, vegetative or minimally conscious state – is still able to perform complex mental tasks, a major study...
New blood test could be early warning for child diabetes, liver AND heart disease
A new type of blood test using lipids could make it easier to identify children at risk of complications around obesity including type two diabetes, liver and heart disease, say scientists.
A new study from King’s College London published in...
Getting to the guts of immunity
Antioxidants and metabolism play an essential role in gut immunity, opening up new therapeutic strategies for gastrointestinal disorders. Researchers at the Luxembourg Institute of Health (LIH), led by Prof Dirk Brenner, explain the significance of their unprecedented findings.
The human...
Why some people don’t get Covid
Scientists have discovered novel immune responses that help explain how some individuals avoid getting COVID-19.
Using single-cell sequencing, researchers from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, University College London (UCL), Imperial College London, the Netherlands Cancer Institute and their collaborators, studied immune...
Vibrating glove helps stroke patients control spasms
After a stroke, survivors often experience uncontrollable spasms that can twist their arms and hands into perpetual fists. The only treatments are expensive, frequently painful injections of botulinum toxin or oral medications so strong they may put patients to...
When do brains grow up?
Research shows mouse and primate brains mature at the same pace, writes Kristen Mally Dean.
A study from Argonne National Laboratory reveals that short-lived mice and longer-living primates develop brain synapses on the exact same timeline, challenging assumptions about disease...
Promising first human trial for ‘wonder’ material
A revolutionary nanomaterial with potential to tackle multiple global challenges could be developed further without acute risk to human health, research suggests.
Carefully controlled inhalation of a specific type of graphene – the world’s thinnest, super strong and super flexible...
UK firm plans state-of-the-art precision medicine centre in California
Working with local partners, BIOS Health, of Cambridge, will create a cutting-edge research and clinical trials center for neural digital therapies. The centre will be built around BIOS’s real-time insights into the nervous system, which provides crucial data previously...
Improved radionuclide supply can transform nuclear medicine
Targeted Alpha Therapy (TAT) is a promising cancer treatment in nuclear medicine, but the supply of alpha-emitting radionuclides - which the treatment relies on - is very limited. A lack of alpha-emitting radionuclides in the UK is preventing research...
Growing microtumours in a dish hailed as ‘rapid way to identify tumour genes’
Researchers have identified a new way to screen genes that cause several different types of cancers to grow, identifying particularly promising targets for precision oncology in oral and esophageal squamous cancers.
The study, published in Cell Reports, used 3-dimensional models...
Key gene blocks the ‘spillover’ of avian flu to humans
Understanding the genetic make-up of currently circulating avian flu strains may offer one of the best lines of defence against widespread human transmission.
This is according to new research which has found a key human gene responsible for blocking most...
Depression up, Covid-19 down in disease study list
Depression is now one of the top five most studied disease areas in clinical development, according to new global analysis by Phesi.
The mid-year analysis of all this year’s trials to date reveals that Covid-19 is no longer one of...
New ‘Clinical Trial in a Dish’ for Alzheimer’s Disease
An extensive panel of consented patient samples and iPSC technology will advance AD drug development and patient stratification.Â
Pluripotent stem cell technology provider for drug discovery, Axol Bioscience Ltd (Axol), has signed an exclusive agreement with StrataStem to access and...
1 in 6 children ‘neurodivergent’ as autism numbers quadruple
The number of children diagnosed with Attention-deficit /hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders classifying them as ‘neurodivergent’, has rocketed in both the UK and US.Â
“Now, one in six children in the US are classified as neurodivergent and...
Antibiotic resistance widespread among bacteria
Genes that make bacteria resistant to antibiotics are much more widespread in our environment than previously known.Â
A study, from Chalmers University of Technology and the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, shows that bacteria in almost all environments carry resistance...
Herpes study sheds light on viral reinfections
A new study on herpes infections of the eye helps shed light on the question of viral reinfections by identifying a key protein involved in viral reinfections that could be targeted by antiviral drugs.
University of Illinois Chicago researchers examined...
An old scientific controversy is resolved… plants do make sounds!
For the first time ever, researchers at Tel Aviv University have recorded and analysed distinct sounds from plants.
The click-like sounds, similar to the popping of popcorn, are emitted at a volume similar to human speech, but at high frequencies...
How the brain’s ‘internal compass’ works
New study reveals how the brain makes sense of changing environmental cues.
Scientists have gained new insights into the part of the brain that gives us a sense of direction, by tracking neural activity with the latest advances in brain...
Highly targeted ‘light-activated’ cancer treatment on horizon
Scientists at the University of East Anglia are a step closer to creating a new generation of light-activated cancer treatments.
The futuristic sounding treatment would work by switching on LED lights embedded close to a tumour, which would then activate...
There’s more to collagen than cosmetics…
Big strides are being made in collagen clinical development, particularly in treatment of age-related conditions. Dr Gen Li, president and founder of Phesi, discusses the increase in collagen research, and its clinical and biological applications.
According to the World Health...
Global community will assess environmental impact of clinical trials
The collaborative initiative will publish a publicly available methodology for calculating and comparing the carbon footprint of centralised and decentralised clinical trials.
A global, not-for-profit alliance that advocates for greater collaboration in life sciences R&D, has announced the launch of...
