Huntington’s disease, an inherited neurodegenerative disorder that affects roughly 30,000 Americans, is incurable and fatal. But a new discovery about how cells repair their DNA points to a possible way to stop or slow the onset of the disease. The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

"As so often happens, basic research on a fundamental biological process—in this case, enzymes involved in DNA repair—leads to new insights about how diseases arise and new approaches for treating or preventing them," said NIH Director Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D.

Ultra-hard materials are used for everything from drills that bore for oil and build new roads to scratch-resistant coatings for precision instruments and the face of your watch.

UCLA scientists are now reporting a promising new approach to designing super-hard materials, which are very difficult to scratch or crack.

An effective way to fight leukemia might be to knock out a specific protein that protects cancer cells from dying, a new study shows.

The findings suggest that a drug that can block this "survival protein" might on its own be an effective therapy.

Using a new type of drug that targets a specific genetic defect, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, along with colleagues at PTC Therapeutics Inc. and the University of Massachusetts Medical School, have for the first time demonstrated restoration of muscle function in a mouse model of Duchenne's muscular dystrophy (DMD).

Crohn’s disease is a chronic relapsing inflammatory disorder of the intestinal tract that affects an estimated 0.15% of people in the developed world. Common symptoms include abdominal pain and diarrhea, but the disorder is often associated with debilitating clinical complications. Researchers from the University of Liège, Belgium, have now uncovered an important clue to the susceptibility of individuals to this disease.

Scientists have discovered one of the reasons why bladder cancer is so much more prevalent in men than women: A molecular receptor or protein that is much more active in men than women plays a role in the development of the disease. The finding could open the door to new types of treatment with the disease.

In an article in the April 4 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Chawnshang Chang, Ph.D., of the University of Rochester Medical Center and colleagues show that the androgen receptor, which is central to the action of testosterone and other hormones that are much more plentiful in men than women, appears to play a key role in the disease.