Environmental toxins impair immune system over multiple generations

New research shows that maternal exposure to a common and ubiquitous form of industrial pollution can harm the immune system of offspring and that this injury is passed along to subsequent generations, weakening the body's defenses against infections such as the influenza virus.

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A new mechanism has been revealed which could lead to premature aging in mother cells

A new mechanism makes it possible to understand premature ageing in cells with asymmetrical cell division, as is the case with mother cells. Understanding this mechanism is useful for studying and, in the future, anticipating the development of ageing-related diseases, such as cancer and neurodegenerative processes.

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New biofabrication method creates one scaffold to guide regeneration of multiple tissues

Scientists have taken a major step to address the challenge of engineer tissues organized like native tissues. They have demonstrated a new method to fabricate scaffolds presenting spatially organized cues to control cell behavior locally within one material.

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Your energy-efficient washing machine could be harboring pathogens

For the first time ever, investigators have identified a washing machine as a reservoir of multidrug-resistant pathogens. The pathogens, a single clone of Klebsiella oxytoca, were transmitted repeatedly to newborns in a neonatal intensive care unit at a children's hospital. The transmission was stopped only when the washing machine was removed from the hospital.

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Researchers uncover molecular changes associated with treating lymphatic filariasis

The Global Program to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis delivers mass drug administration to 500 million people each year, and adverse events are common following treatment. Now, researchers have reported that certain changes in gene expression are associated with these adverse events.

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Human kidney map charts our growing immune defense

The first cell atlas of the human kidney's immune system has been created after scientists mapped nearly 70,000 individual kidney cells from early life and adults. Researchers generated the atlas and used it to map immune cells in the kidney. This shows for the first time how the kidney's immune system develops during early life, and strengthens after birth and as we mature into adults, with implications for tackling kidney disease and transplant rejection.

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