QIMR Berghofer

A new study is offering insight into how a novel ultrasound technique could help treat Alzheimer’s disease describing how the treatment weakens the blood-brain barrier in brain cells, potentially improving the uptake of drugs to treat the disease.

Cancer has a knack for deceiving the immune system, giving itself time to grow and spread. Now, researchers at QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute have identified one way it does so, and found a method to counter it in mouse tests.

Adding fuel to the endless coffee debates comes the latest large study. This time, researchers looked at data from over 300,000 people for possible links between coffee and cancer, and found it neither gave, nor prevented us from getting cancers. It's just a tasty beverage after all then.

A global study into the genetic origins of anorexia suggests the illness is not just a psychiatric condition but also a metabolic disorder. The research revealed metabolic genetic variants unique to those suffering from this chronic eating disorder, and not seen in other psychiatric conditions.

Scorpions, rattlesnakes and funnel-web spiders have all provided scientists with promising building blocks for next-generation medicines, and a dangerous Australian arachnid has again reared its head with a compound in its venom found to be a potent killer of melanoma cells.