A special kind of genetic test that helps determine the best antidepressant for patients with moderate-to-severe depression could generate substantive health system savings and greatly improve patient outcomes, according to new research from the University of British Columbia. The study, published today in CMAJ, shows that in B.C. alone, implementing pharmacogenomic testing could save...

Virtual reality (VR) is not only a technology for games and entertainment, but also has potential in science and medicine. Researchers at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, have now gained new insights into human perception with the help of VR. They used virtual reality scenarios in which subjects touched their own bodies with a virtual object. To the researchers' surprise, this led to a tingling...

Iron storage "spheres" inside the bacterium C. diff -- the leading cause of hospital-acquired infections -- could offer new targets for antibacterial drugs to combat the pathogen. A team of Vanderbilt researchers discovered that C. diff (Clostridioides difficile) produces the spheres, called ferrosomes, and that these structures are important for infection in an animal model. The findings,...

Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest types of cancers in humans. It is the fourth leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the western world. The early stages of the disease often progress without symptoms, so diagnosis is usually very late. Another problem: Advanced tumors -- and their metastases -- cannot be completely removed. Chemotherapies, in turn, attack not only the tumor cells...

Most anyone who's used noise-canceling headphones knows that hearing the right noise at the right time can be vital. Someone might want to erase car horns when working indoors, but not when walking along busy streets. Yet people can't choose what sounds their headphones cancel. Now, a team led by researchers at the University of Washington has developed deep-learning algorithms that let...

When we engage in social interactions, like shaking hands or having a conversation, our observation of other people's actions is crucial. But what exactly happens in our brain during this process: how do the different brain regions talk to each other? Researchers at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience provide an intriguing answer: our perception of what others do depends more on what we...

A team led by scientists at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has 3D-printed hair follicles in human skin tissue cultured in the lab. This marks the first time researchers have used the technology to generate hair follicles, which play an important role in skin healing and function. The finding, published in the journal Science Advances, has potential applications in regenerative...

Preclinical research published in the Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer points to a promising new treatment option for people with pancreatic cancer. Researchers from VCU Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center and the VCU Institute of Molecular Medicine (VIMM) suggest that when used in a form that can be delivered directly into the tumor cell, polyinosine–polycytidylic acid...