Tag Archives: cancer

TGen Brain Cancer Study Links Complexity to Treatability

TGen Headquarters. Photo by BenjaMurph.

New findings by the Translational Genomics Research Institute, or TGen, point to a surprising pattern in the brain cancer glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), the most common and deadly type of gliomas.

GBMs are aggressive, invasive and so genetically and structurally complex that advanced, targeted therapies have struggled to find vulnerabilities to attack.

Read/listen to my full story at KJZZ’s Arizona Science Desk:
TGen Brain Cancer Study Finds Surprising Benefit In Tumor Complexity

Drug Targets Offer Hope for Less Painful, More Survivable Pancreatic Cancer

Image courtesy Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Image courtesy Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Scientists have identified drug targets that could one day make pancreatic cancer less painful — and more survivable — by knocking out key molecular signals. The signals form an essential part of the process by which cancer cells invade and spread through nearby nerves, wounding nerve endings.

Read/listen to my full story at KJZZ’s Arizona Science Desk:

New Drug Targets Could Reduce Pancreatic Cancer Pain, Improve Outcomes

Marine Biology Breakthroughs: I Cover the Waterfront

Photo of coral, goldies and and two divers
Photo by Derek Keats.

In honor of World Oceans Day (June 8), here’s my recent article on some of the remarkable discoveries made by marine biologists over the past few years. From clearing up the murky “lost years” of juvenile turtles to further solidifying our understanding of a jellyfish’s final fate, these delvers of the deep have shrunk what Shakespeare called “the vasty deep” to something a bit more fathomable but no less amazing. Find out more as I take a deep dive into …

10 Recent Breakthroughs in Marine Biology

Molecular biologists bring gamers into the ‘fold’

The Foldit computer program
Image courtesy University of Washington

Playing video games isn’t exactly rocket science but, thanks to a crowdsourcing computer game developed by University of Washington researchers, it can be molecular biology – and can offer hope to sufferers of tough-to-crack diseases such as Alzheimer’s, cancer and HIV.

Like John Henry versus the steam hammer or Garry Kasparov versus Deep Blue, Foldit players show that humans still have a thing or two to teach machines; unlike Henry, who died, or Kasparov, who lost in a rematch, protein-folding gamers still have an edge over the brute-force number crunching of supercomputers.

Has a Video Game Cured HIV?