Many specialized cells, such as in the skin, gut or blood, have a lifespan of only a few days. Therefore, steady replenishment of these cells is indispensable. They arise from so-called "adult" stem cells that divide continuously. In addition, there is a group of very special stem cells in the bone marrow that were first discovered in 2008 by a research team led by Andreas Trumpp, who is a division head at the DKFZ and director of HI-STEM.

Men and women differ in obvious and less obvious ways - for example, in the prevalence of certain diseases or reactions to drugs. How are these connected to one's sex? Weizmann Institute of Science researchers recently uncovered thousands of human genes that are expressed - copied out to make proteins - differently in the two sexes.

A study published in the journal Scientific Reports suggests that doxycycline, an antibiotic used for over half a century against bacterial infections, can be prescribed at lower doses for the treatment of Parkinson's disease. According to the authors, the substance reduces the toxicity of α-synuclein, a protein that, under certain conditions, forms abnormal accumulations of aggregates in central nervous system cells, which are damaged as a result.

Pancreatic beta cells help maintain normal blood glucose levels by producing the hormone insulin - the master regulator of energy (glucose). Impairment and the loss of beta cells interrupts insulin production, leading to type 1 and 2 diabetes. Using single-cell RNA sequencing, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine have, for the first time, mapped out pathways that regulate beta cell growth that could be exploited to trick them to regenerate.

Analysis of the drugs that were approved for use by the NHS Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF) in England has shown that the fund was not good value for patients and society and may have resulted in patients suffering unnecessarily from toxic side effects of the drugs. In a study published in the leading cancer journal Annals of Oncology, researchers led by Dr Ajay Aggarwal, academic clinical oncologist at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (UK), and Professor Richard Sullivan, director of the Institute of Cancer Policy, King's College London (UK), looked at 29 drugs that had been approved for use through the CDF in January 2015 for 47 specific cancer conditions (or indications).

Add another typical component of the Italian way of life to the long list of foods characterizing one of the most healthy populations in the world. This time it's coffee, prepared the Italian way. A research by the Department of Epidemiology and Prevention - I.R.C.C.S. Neuromed, Italy, in collaboration with the Italian National Institute of Health and the I.R.C.C.S. Istituto Dermopatico dell'Immacolata of Rome, shows that three or more cups a day can lower prostate cancer risk.

A new study has made a major new discovery towards finding the cause of multiple sclerosis (MS), potentially paving the way for research to investigate new treatments. Ahead of MS Awareness Week, which starts today, an international team involving the University of Exeter Medical School and the University of Alberta has discovered a new cellular mechanism - an underlying defect in brain cells - that may cause the disease, and a potential hallmark that may be a target for future treatment of the autoimmune disorder.