A set of structurally similar proteins can activate a receptor for nicotine on immune cells, resulting in a dialing down of inflammation.
Stanford's Karl Deisseroth has won the 2018 Kyoto Prize in applied technology for his invention and application of optogenetics.
In each of our abdomens sit trillions of microbes, but a bout of diarrhea can induce a lasting round of gut-bug disruption, new research indicates.
Antiretroviral therapy, a breakthrough treatment for HIV infection, suppresses the levels of circulating HIV viral particles in the blood. When it works, cancer rates drop, according to a new study. Still, even when the therapy is successful, HIV-positive individuals retain elevated rates of cancer.
A hitherto unheralded set of telltale enzymes may prove to be perfect targets for shooting down a gang of nasty bacterial pathogens collectively called S. aureus.
The discovery, in mice, of a pair of nerve clusters regulating fearful versus bold responses to a visual threat could help people with excessive anxiety, phobias or post-traumatic stress disorder lead more normal lives.
What makes breathing possible is a thin coating of a soaplike film, or surfactant, that lowers the tension of the lung’s inner surface. Premature babies and adults with lung injuries are short on surfactant, and replacing it has been prohibitively pricey. That may be about to change.
In a JAMA opinion piece, Gary Peltz and Tom Sudhof argue for policymakers and health leaders to combat opioid addictions early.
Older people are more susceptible to infection, cancer, and autoimmunity than younger people. This may be the result of our immune cells' receiving increasingly random marching orders as we age.
In an interview in the journal Neuron, Stanford's Rob Malenka holds forth on a wide range of subjects stretching from reflections on his own career trajectory to his approach to boosting those of his trainees to the future of neuroscience itself.
Stanford scientists have figured out a way to convert common brewer’s yeast into an efficient factory for making a non-narcotic cough medicine that occurs naturally only in opium poppies.
Rheumatoid arthritis and coronary artery disease share a common culprit: an important type of immune cell, called a macrophage, that has gone haywire. Stanford investigators have zeroed in on a molecular defect in macrophages' metabolic process that drives both disorders.
The human brain, and how it works, is one of the great mysteries of science. If only you could grow a brain in a bottle, you could learn a lot about what can go wrong – or for that matter, what goes right – in early brain development. So that's why Sergiu Pasca did.
Researchers have identified an immune cell type with an apparently critical role in multiple sclerosis, and a way to block its entry into the brain.
A promising anti-cancer therapy works great at first, but then loses its punch. A clever workaround may provide high-octane efficacy, without side effects.
Many infectious diseases are marked by cyclical ups and downs. Stanford's David Schneider takes a creative approach to making sense of them.
