Disease mechanisms and treatments

Omega-3 fats linked to healthy aging and improved heart metabolism
Scientists from the University of Iowa find that a diet high in polyunsaturated fatty acids from fish oil increases cardiac triglyceride uptake and improves insulin sensitivity. Read more about this recent JLR study.

RA patient blood reveals joint innerworkings
Researchers in the Netherlands use mass spectrometry to compare the proteome of plasma and synovial fluid in rheumatoid arthritis patients and find a correlation. Read more about this recent paper in Molecular & Cellular Proteomics.

Hope for a cure hangs on research
Amid drastic proposed cuts to biomedical research, rare disease families like Hailey Adkisson’s fight for survival and hope. Without funding, science can’t “catch up” to help the patients who need it most.

Before we’ve lost what we can’t rebuild: Hope for prion disease
Sonia Vallabh and Eric Minikel, a husband-and-wife team racing to cure prion disease, helped develop ION717, an antisense oligonucleotide treatment now in clinical trials. Their mission is personal — and just getting started.

Defeating deletions and duplications
Promising therapeutics for chromosome 15 rare neurodevelopmental disorders, including Angelman syndrome, Dup15q syndrome and Prader–Willi syndrome.

Using 'nature’s mistakes' as a window into Lafora disease
After years of heartbreak, Lafora disease families are fueling glycogen storage research breakthroughs, helping develop therapies that may treat not only Lafora but other related neurological disorders.

Cracking cancer’s code through functional connections
A machine learning–derived protein cofunction network is transforming how scientists understand and uncover relationships between proteins in cancer.

Neurobiology of stress and substance use
MOSAIC scholar and proud Latino, Bryan Cruz of Scripps Research Institute studies the neurochemical origins of PTSD-related alcohol use using a multidisciplinary approach.

Proteomic variation in heart tissues
By tracking protein changes in stem cell–derived heart cells, researchers from Cedars-Sinai uncovered surprising diversity — including a potential new cell type — that could reshape how we study and treat heart disease.