One in 10 people in America is fighting a rare disease, or a disorder that affects fewer than 200,000 Americans. Although there are more than 7,000 rare diseases that collectively affect more than 350 million people worldwide, it is not profitable for the pharmaceutical industry to develop new therapies to treat the small number of people suffering from each rare condition.

Researchers say they can now produce a vast library of unique cyclic compounds, some with the capacity to interrupt specific protein-protein interactions that play a role in disease. The new compounds have cyclic structures that give them stability and enhance their ability to bind to their targets.

The fight against type 2 diabetes may soon improve thanks to a pioneering high-fiber diet study led by a Rutgers University-New Brunswick professor. Promotion of a select group of gut bacteria by a diet high in diverse fibers led to better blood glucose control, greater weight loss and better lipid levels in people with type 2 diabetes, according to research published today in Science.

A surprise finding by medical scientists may lead to the development of a possible treatment for multiple sclerosis (MS). While examining human brain tissues, researchers from the University of Alberta and McGill University unexpectedly found that the tissues from people who had MS contained an extremely high level of a protein named calnexin, compared with those who hadn't had MS.

Approximately one sixth of clinical trials registered on both ClinicalTrials.gov and the EU Clinical Trials Register (EUCTR) have discrepancies in their completion status, according to a study published March 7, 2018 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Jessica Fleminger and Ben Goldacre from the University of Oxford, UK.

Bacteria could be programmed to efficiently produce drugs, thanks to breakthrough research into synthetic biology using engineering principles, from the University of Warwick and the University of Surrey. Led by the Warwick Integrative Synthetic Biology Centre at Warwick's School of Engineering and the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences at the University of Surrey, new research has discovered how to dynamically manage the allocation of essential resources inside engineered cells -

A prospective new method of treating patients with multiple sclerosis has been proposed by researchers of the Mainz University Medical Center working in cooperation with researchers of the University of Montreal. In model trials and experiments employing human endothelial cells, they discovered that the EGFL7 protein hinders the migration of immune cells into the central nervous system by stabilizing the blood-brain barrier.