A new kind of genetic switch can target the activities of just one type of...
Mysterious brain cells called microglia are starting to reveal their secrets thanks to research conducted at the Weizmann Institute of Science.
View ArticleNew hope for Gaucher patients
What causes brain damage and inflammation in severe cases of Gaucher disease? Little is known about the events that lead to brain pathology in some forms of the disease, and there is currently no...
View ArticleWhere have all the mitochondria gone? Researchers shed light on a crucial...
It's common knowledge that all organisms inherit their mitochondria – the cell's "power plants"– from their mothers. But what happens to all the father's mitochondria? Surprisingly, how – and why –...
View ArticleTiny molecule could help diagnose and treat mental disorders
According the World Health Organization, such mood disorders as depression affect some 10% of the world's population and are associated with a heavy burden of disease. That is why numerous scientists...
View ArticleVirus-killing molecules may need all their skills, including inflammation, to...
Using the body's natural virus killers to prevent and treat HIV infection has been problematic until now because of the strong inflammatory response these molecules can arouse as they get rid of the...
View ArticleMutations from Mars: Researchers explain why genetic fertility problems can...
Some 15% of adults suffer from fertility problems, many of these due to genetic factors. This is something of a paradox: We might expect such genes, which reduce an individual's ability to reproduce,...
View ArticleNot only in DNA's hands: Epigenetics has large say in blood formation
Blood stem cells have the potential to turn into any type of blood cell, whether it be the oxygen-carrying red blood cells, or the many types of white blood cells of the immune system that help fight...
View ArticleArtificial sweeteners linked to abnormal glucose metabolism
Artificial sweeteners, promoted as aids to weight loss and diabetes prevention, could actually hasten the development of glucose intolerance and metabolic disease; and they do it in a surprising way:...
View ArticleScientists identify signature of aging in the brain
How the brain ages is still largely an open question – in part because this organ is mostly insulated from direct contact with other systems in the body, including the blood and immune systems. In...
View ArticleTumors might grow faster at night: Hormone that keeps us alert also...
They emerge at night, while we sleep unaware, growing and spreading out as quickly as they can. And they are deadly. In a surprise finding that was recently published in Nature Communications, Weizmann...
View ArticleBehavioral changes seen after sleep learning: Volunteers smoked less after a...
New Weizmann Institute research may bring the idea of sleep learning one step closer to reality. The research, which appeared today in The Journal of Neuroscience, suggests that certain kinds of...
View ArticleNew model shows that filaments in heart muscle cells don't automatically keep...
Two hearts, said Keats, can beat as one; but a study led by Weizmann Institute scientists in collaboration with researchers from the University of Pennsylvania shows that sometimes a single heart...
View ArticleTo stop cancer: Block its messages
The average living cell needs communication skills: It must transmit a constant stream of messages quickly and efficiently from its outer walls to the inner nucleus, where most of the day-to-day...
View ArticleLymphatic cells grown in the lab for the first time
For over one hundred years, scientists have debated the question of the origins of the lymphatic system - a parallel system to the blood vessels that serves as a conduit for everything from immune...
View ArticleTriple treatment keeps cancer from coming back
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death worldwide, responsible for some 1.59 million deaths a year. That figure is due, in part, to the fact that the cancer often returns after what, at first,...
View ArticleColon cancer: Taking a step back to move forward
Recent Weizmann Institute studies are revealing a complex picture of cancer progression in which certain genes that drive tumor growth in the earlier stages get suppressed in later stages - taking a...
View Article300,000-year-old hearth found
Humans, by most estimates, discovered fire over a million years ago. But when did they really begin to control fire and use it for their daily needs? That question – one which is central to the subject...
View ArticleTime is of the essence
New findings in mice suggest that merely changing meal times could have a significant effect on the levels of triglycerides in the liver. The results of this Weizmann Institute of Science study,...
View ArticleNo limits to human effects on clouds
Understanding how clouds affect the climate has been a difficult proposition. What controls the makeup of the low clouds that cool the atmosphere or the high ones that trap heat underneath? How does...
View ArticleThe world's first photonic router
Weizmann Institute scientists have demonstrated for the first time a photonic router – a quantum device based on a single atom that enables routing of single photons by single photons. This...
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