Physiology

Antidepressant response associated with increased resilience to stress in mice

Researchers say their study using a mouse model of chronic social defeat stress could be applied to identify novel drug targets for depression therapies.…

Cell biologist Ohsumi wins Nobel prize for autophagy discoveries

Cell biologist Yoshinori Ohsumi has won the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discoveries relating to the mechanisms for autophagy. …

The eyes have it (disease, trustworthiness and reaction times)

Blue-eyed individuals are more likely to suffer from macular degeneration but less likely to suffer from cataracts than darker-eyed people. Additionally, darker-eyed people tend to have faster reaction times to one-off stimuli, but those with blue eyes are likely to be better at tasks requiring long…

All you need know about supernumerary nipples

Supernumerary nipples (SNs) are relatively common, minor congenital anomalies that are normally benign but are susceptible to hormonal changes and disease processes.…

Why do we hiccup?

I have written recently about the sneeze and the yawn, two physiological phenomena that are not fully fathomed. Another mysterious bodily function is the hiccup.…

Imatinib mimics physiological response to produce antimicrobial effects

The anti-cancer agent imatinib at very low doses mimics a physiological innate response to infection in the bone marrow, research shows.…

Yawning warning: why do we yawn?

Yawning is contagious, even between members of different species. But why is it that we need to yawn?…

Physiology underpins notion that colds are caught more readily in cool weather

The antiviral immune response is diminished at lower temperatures, according to a mouse study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.…

Scientists develop promising in vitro blood-brain barrier model

Researchers have grown rat brain endothelial cells on one side of a chip and then evaluated the barrier formed by the cells under static and flow conditions.…

In search of biomarkers — the science of metabolomics in pharmacy

In our latest science article Kalliopi Dodou and Paul Whiteley take a look at the study of the small molecule metabolites found in biological fluids…