It is a well-known fact in drug trials that individuals can respond just as well to placebos, sugar pills, as to the active drug. On the other hand, it is difficult to explain why only certain people get better from placebos. A team of researchers from Uppsala University and Gothenburg University have now found gene variants that can impact the placebo effect and a mechanism in the brain that characterizes those who respond to placebos.

A genetic malfunction that causes DNA instability in people with the blood disorder Fanconi anemia may put them at high risk for squamous cell carcinomas linked to human papillomavirus (HPV), according to a study posted online ahead of print by Oncogene.

It seems happiness – and misery too – spread through social networks, affecting people through three degrees of separation

Stem cell researchers at UCLA have proven definitively that blood stem cells are made during mid-gestational embryonic development by endothelial cells, the cells that line the inside of blood vessels. While the anatomic location in the embryo where blood stem cells originate has been well documented, the cell type from which they spring was less understood. The UCLA finding, published in the Dec.

The device is the first artificial microswimmer to move without using chemical propulsion or bending itself into different shapes