A controversial new paper by James Cook University scientist claims many useful new treatments are being left on the shelf by medical researchers. JCU's Dr David Kault, a medical doctor and mathematician, has examined the way clinical trials of medical treatments are judged.

A new study finds that a component of aspirin binds to an enzyme called GAPDH, which is believed to play a major role in neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Huntington's diseases. Researchers at the Boyce Thompson Institute and John Hopkins University discovered that salicylic acid, the primary breakdown product of aspirin, binds to GAPDH, thereby stopping it from moving into a cell's nucleus, where it can trigger the cell's death.

A team of researchers led by UNSW Australia scientists has discovered how connections between brain cells are destroyed in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease - work that opens up a new avenue for research on possible treatments for the degenerative brain condition.

Researchers at The Tisch Cancer Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have discovered a key mechanism by which radiation treatment (radiotherapy) fails to completely destroy tumors. And, in the journal Nature Immunology, they offer a novel solution to promote successful radiotherapy for the millions of cancer patients who are treated with it.

University of Notre Dame researchers have discovered a compound that accelerates diabetic wound healing, which may open the door to new treatment strategies. Non-healing chronic wounds are a major complication of diabetes, which result in more than 70,000 lower-limb amputations in the United States alone each year.

In a new study published today in Nature Structural and Molecular Biology, scientists from the University of Surrey have uncovered a collection of important proteins that carry out and regulate critical biological processes. As the malfunctioning of these proteins and processes are linked to diseases such as cancer, their findings could help with the development of more effective therapies for treating incurable and debilitating illnesses.

New research published in The Lancet has shown that a drug, currently used in the treatment of Type II diabetes, can be effective in clearing fatty liver disease from some patients. The researchers from the University of Birmingham believe that the findings present the possibility of new therapies for patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, for which there is no current licensed treatment.