Basic Science News at Duke School of Medicine

Mapping the structure of an enzyme crucial for fungal survival also sheds light on how climate change is affecting the fungal world.

New research reveals shape-shifting proteins may help some organisms, like plants, adapt to rising temperatures. But this same ability could also lead to the emergence of dangerous fungal pathogens

When breast cancer spreads to the lining of the brain, survival time for patients is less than six months. Duke University School of Medicine researchers have discovered clues as to how they might stop this dangerous spread.

Two tiny sensors of touch, Piezo1 and Piezo2, signal the lightest pressures and can be found monitoring the circulatory system, telling the body where its limbs are in space, and even sounding the alarm for bladder pressure. But a new study from Duke University shows that Piezo1 works differently than everyone thought.

Duke Science and Technology Scholar Amy Gladfelter, PhD’01, a professor in the Department of Cell Biology, studies extremely large cells, such as that of the human placenta, whose outer layer is one huge cell with billions of nuclei. The insights she’s gaining into these cells’ organization and function sheds important light on cell biology, diseases of pregnancy, and cancer.

Clare Smith, PhD, has been named a Pew Scholar in the Biomedical Sciences. This award provides four years of funding to young investigators to explore some of the most pressing questions in human health and medicine.

The National Science Foundation awards $12.5 million grant to Duke researchers and their colleagues to lead pioneering study of polyploidy.

An HIV vaccine candidate developed at the Duke Human Vaccine Institute triggered low levels of an elusive type of broadly neutralizing HIV antibodies among a small group of people enrolled in a 2019 clinical trial.

A team of Duke researchers describe a synthetic molecule that mimics the effects of compounds in the saliva of blood-sucking critters that can also be swiftly reversed, enabling clotting to resume when needed after treatment.

Discovery paves the way for more effective cancer treatments that benefit a larger group of patients.