News

A study has found that a new device can rapidly and accurately detect changes in vaginal bacteria and corresponding immune responses in pregnant women. These changes are associated with increased risk of preterm birth.

A study has shown that people who ate high-fiber products made from whole grain rye lost more body fat and overall weight than those who ate corresponding products made from refined wheat.

Analysis of fecal samples from the Bronze Age, Iron Age and the Baroque period provide new insights into the diet and gut microbiomes of ancient populations. The study – published in Current Biology – suggests that Iron Age populations enjoyed the consumption of blue cheese and beer.

Natural peptides bind GABA receptors and have anti-anxiety and sleep-enhancing effects. For example, treating a protein in cow’s milk, called casein, with the digestive enzyme trypsin produces the mixture of sleep-enhancing peptides known as CTH. Scientists wanted to know if they could find other, perhaps more powerful sleep-enhancing peptides.

Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have developed a chemical compound that interferes with a key feature of many viruses that allows the viruses to invade human cells.

A study shows that daily exposure to chemicals used in the manufacture of plastic food containers and many cosmetics may lead to roughly 100,000 premature deaths among older Americans each year.

Many variants in the human genome have been linked to type 2 diabetes, but because most do not lie within genes that code for proteins, it’s unclear how they might cause disease. Now an international team, including investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), has developed a resource to help uncover the impact of these genetic variants.

Researchers have announced a major new advance in understanding how our genetic information eventually translates into functional proteins. The research elucidates how chaperones display "selective promiscuity" for the specific proteins they serve.

A growing amount of research suggests that a low pH in the brain may be a primary feature of neuropsychiatric disorders. A research team from Japan have identified that increased lactate in the brain is correlated with increased post-translational modification of proteins, which can alter gene expression.

By comparing the breast milk of mothers from the older order Mennonite community versus urban women, researchers have found that the milk from Mennonite mothers may give babies better protection against allergens.