The blood and tissue shed from the uterus each month is often overlooked — and even stigmatized by some — as medical waste, but Penn State Professor Dipanjan Pan and his team have found that menstrual effluent could enable earlier, more accessible detection of biological markers to help diagnose endometriosis in just 10 minutes. The debilitating uterine disease impacts more than 200 people worldwide yet no commercially available point-of care diagnostic test exists.

A groundbreaking new study led by researchers at the Masonic Medical Research Institute (MMRI) has identified a promising molecular target to protect the heart against damage caused by high-fat diet and obesity. The study highlights the protein tyrosine phosphatase PTP1B, a nodal enzyme involved in insulin signaling, as a key driver in maladaptive cardiac metabolism and dysfunction under dietary stress.

Specific way genetic material is organized in cells determines its ability to adapt to resist treatment. Scientists modulated this organization with an FDA-approved drug on the market. Strategy prevented cancer cells from adapting, making chemotherapy more effective in lab cultures and animal models of human cancer.