Gut microbes from lean people helped prevent mice from becoming obese—but only if the animals ate a healthy diet. This research could point the way to new treatments for obesity. The human gut harbors a complex community of microbes that affect many aspects of our health. Evidence, mostly from studies of rodents, suggests that the gut microbiota may play a role in the development of obesity. In earlier research, a team led by Dr. Jeffrey Gordon at the Washington University School of Medici...

The sticky residue left behind by tobacco smoke can do worse damage than stinking up furniture and discoloring walls. Exposure to thirdhand smoke leads to biological effects on weight and cell development that could be damaging to one’s health, according to new research led by scientists at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). Researchers Pin Wang (left) and Antoine Snijders investigate blood cells collected from mice exposed to thirdhand smoke....

University of Tokyo research group and their collaborators have shed light on one of the mechanisms responsible for the onset of sporadic ALS—a non-genetic form of the neurodegenerative disorder also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease—by demonstrating in an experiment with mice that damage caused by the protein-cutting enzyme calpain to the critical pathway shuttling essential molecules between the cell’s nucleus and cytoplasm leads to the death of nerve cells. The current outcome holds promise of ad...

Cocoa solids are a mixture of many substances remaining after cocoa butter is extracted from cacao beans. When sold as an end product, it may also be called cocoa powder or cocoa. In contrast, the fatty component of chocolate is cocoa butter. Cocoa butter is 50% to 57% of the weight of cocoa beans and gives chocolate its characteristic melting properties. Cocoa liquor or cocoa mass is a paste of roasted cocoa beans with cocoa butter and solids in their natural proportions. Chocolate requires the...

Researchers and clinicians in UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Population Sciences and Health Disparities Program are dedicated to understanding why Cancer affects different people differently,  and are working in different ways to eliminate disparities and improve outcomes for everyone. At UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center, researchers are working to understand the biological mechanisms that may be at work in certain cancers that disproportionately affect different populations. They...

For the first time in history, researchers have isolated the parts of the human genome that could explain the differences in how humans experience happiness. These are the findings of a large-scale international study in over 298,000 people, conducted by VU Amsterdam professors Meike Bartels (Genetics and Wellbeing) and Philipp Koellinger (Genoeconomics). The researchers found three genetic variants for happiness, two variants that can account for differences in symptoms of depression, and eleve...