The human brain has a sweet tooth, burning through nearly one quarter of the body’s sugar energy, or glucose, each day. Now, researchers at Gladstone Institutes and UC San Francisco (UCSF) have shed new light on exactly how neurons — the cells that send electrical signals through the brain — consume and metabolize glucose, as well as how these cells adapt to glucose shortages

By culturing human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived neurons on coatings with ‘dancing molecules,’ researchers created mature neurons. These neurons could be transplanted into patients with spinal cord injuries or neurodegenerative diseases to replace lost or damaged neurons.

Researchers at the National University of Singapore have revisited the forgotten drug PIK-75 and have revealed that the drug could block two crucial cancer-causing pathways of T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (T-All).

Scientists at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital have tested a new cancer vaccine which kills as well as prevents brain cancer. The experts used a new cell therapy approach to eliminate established tumors and train the immune system to prevent cancer from recurring in the future.

A team of engineers and neuroscientists has demonstrated for the first time that human brain organoids implanted in mice have established functional connectivity to the animals’ cortex and responded to external sensory stimuli. The implanted organoids reacted to visual stimuli in the same way as surrounding tissues.

A cell-culturing technique developed by Kaust scientists helps to create biological conditions that more closely mirror physiological environments compared to standard protocols used in most laboratories today.

Researchers at the University of Bristol are part of a team which has grown red blood cells in a laboratory and has also conducted the world’s first clinical trial by transfusing the blood cells into another person.

Tosoh’s 2.5D Cell Culture System is capable of simplifying the culturing of large quantities of uniformly sized cell masses by making use of an adhesion area to which only uniform spherical cells attach. The system proves beneficial for the purpose of drug discovery as well as regenerative medicine.

Treatments that boost the “stickiness” of blood-forming stem cells could help improve the success of bone marrow transplants for patients suffering from leukemia and other blood disorders, a Kaust-led research team found.

Researchers discovered that oxytocin, often referred to as the ‘love hormone’, may one day help heal hearts after a heart attack.