Basic Science News at Duke School of Medicine

Duke School of Medicine Symposium on Oct. 2-3 celebrates Robert Lefkowitz's 50- year career at Duke and honors his legacy of Nobel Prize-winning insights that transformed modern medicine.

Scientists at Duke University School of Medicine are the first to decode the genetic makeup of Akkermansia, a gut bacterium that could help manage cholesterol levels and be used as a next-generation probiotic.  

Akkermansia thrives in the mucus layer of the intestine and has a knack for breaking down a type of sugary protein called mucin. This unique skill could be important for our health.  

When Akkermansia is present in the right amounts, it’s associated with better metabolic and immune health. That’s why some scientists are exploring it as a probiotic.  

Decades of work by a series of Duke investigators yields new drug, patents and a startup company

In animal studies, the fat molecule encourages stem cells to generate new cells that produce the brain’s white matter.

A process of surgically joining the circulatory systems of a young and old mouse slows the aging process at the cellular level and lengthens the lifespan of the older animal by up to 10%.

Circular DNA, thought to be an accidental byproduct, is borrowing the cell’s DNA repair mechanisms to copy itself.

A research team at Duke Health has found an improved approach to gene editing technology that expands its functionality.

How muscle stem cells determine which ones repair injury and which ones resupply the stem cell population.

What people say they’ve eaten and what they’ve actually eaten are often two very different lists of foods. But a new technique using DNA barcoding to identify the plant matter in human feces may get at the truth, improving clinical trials, nutrition studies and more..

Nobel laureate Robert Lefkowitz M.D., the chancellor’s distinguished professor of medicine, is ranked second in the nation and third in the world for Biology and Biochemistry.