Melanin News and Research

RSS

In humans, melanin is the primary determinant of skin color. It is also found in hair, the pigmented tissue underlying the iris of the eye, and the stria vascularis of the inner ear. In the brain, tissues with melanin include the medulla and zona reticularis of the adrenal gland, and pigment-bearing neurons within areas of the brainstem, such as the locus coeruleus and the substantia nigr

Nutrient Nanomedicine Shows Promise Against Skin Cancer

An international research team has discovered a new way to effectively treat cancer, by using nutrients to reactivate suppressed metabolic pathways in cancer cells.

18 Jun 2024

SpaceX Returns Vital Life Science Research Sponsored by the ISS National Lab

Dozens of science and technology development payloads returned to Earth from the International Space Station (ISS) on December 22 as SpaceX’s 29th Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) mission, contracted by NASA, successfully concluded.

27 Dec 2023

Novel Technique for High-Resolution Spectral Analysis of the Eye Fundus

Many ocular diseases involve changes in the structure and function of different regions of the back of the eye, also known as the "eye fundus."

18 Dec 2023

Unleashing the Power of Melanin in Space for Next-Gen Biomaterials

Exploring the mysteries of the natural pigment melanin in the unique microgravity environment of the International Space Station (ISS) could lead to groundbreaking advances in biomaterial production on Earth and beyond.

9 Nov 2023

Ancient Frogs Provide First Molecular Evidence of Ginger Coloration

Paleontologists at University College Cork (UCC) have achieved a significant breakthrough by discovering the first molecular evidence of phaeomelanin, the pigment responsible for producing ginger coloration, within the fossil record.

9 Oct 2023

UChicago scientists shed light on the longstanding puzzle of RNA methylation

University of Chicago scientists have discovered a new wrinkle in our understanding of how our genes work.

14 Feb 2023

Small fluorescent protein helps researchers to capture deeper, more precise biomedical images

Biomedical and genetic engineers at Duke University and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine have designed a small fluorescent protein that emits and absorbs light that penetrates deep into biological tissue.

7 Dec 2022

Researchers uncover the genetic variant link to fatal esophageal disease in dogs

Researchers from Clemson University have found a genetic variation linked to a potentially fatal esophageal disease common in German shepherd dogs.

14 Mar 2022

New 'disease-in-a-dish' system developed to study oculocutaneous albinism

Researchers at the National Eye Institute have developed the first patient-derived stem cell model for studying eye conditions related to oculocutaneous albinism (OCA).

12 Jan 2022

Scientists discover new genetic link to non-alcoholic inflammatory liver disease

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the accumulation of fat in the liver unrelated to alcohol abuse or other liver diseases.

11 Nov 2021

Researchers develop new approach to selectively turn on gene therapies in target cells

Researchers at MIT and Harvard University have designed a way to selectively turn on gene therapies in target cells, including human cells. Their technology can detect specific messenger RNA sequences in cells, and that detection then triggers production of a specific protein from a transgene, or artificial gene.

From Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) 29 Oct 2021

Researchers from Himachal Report a Novel Bacterial Biopigment with Diverse Applications

Researchers have discovered a psychrophilic bacterial strain, called Rhodonellum psychrophilum GL8, at the high altitude Pangong Tso Lake in the Himalayas.

9 Jul 2021

Study: Turning off molecular switch could help treat melanoma

Melanoma accounts for only about 1% of skin cancers but leads to most of the skin cancer-related deaths.

20 May 2021

Study finds an amyloid link between melanoma and Parkinson’s disease

Parkinson’s disease is a neurodegenerative disorder and melanoma is a type of skin cancer but on the surface, these disorders do not seem to have much in common.

8 Apr 2021

Scientists detect genomic DNA changes even in sun-protected skin

Researchers have quantified the diverse types of genomic DNA variations that take place in skin cells and found that mutations from UV light is common.

15 Jan 2021

Plant amyloids could improve nutritional value of plant seeds, reduce allergenicity of legume seeds

Thanks to this work, as the journal Trends in Plant Science recently noted, it is now known that functional amyloids serve biological functions in representatives of almost all large groups of living organisms: bacteria, archaea, animals, fungi, and plants.

3 Dec 2020

Risk for melanoma could be estimated by DNA mutation count

Risk for melanoma, the most deadly skin cancer, can be estimated long before detection of any suspicious moles, according to a UC San Francisco scientist who led a new study to detect DNA mutations in individual skin cells.

8 Oct 2020

Scientists Double Understanding Of Genetic Risk Of Melanoma

A global collaboration of scientists has more than doubled the known number of regions on the human genome that influence the risk of developing melanoma.

28 Apr 2020