Category: Health Fitness
Everyday activities aren’t enough to protect against stroke
Research conducted at the University of Gothenburg shows that the physical activities we do as we go about our lives, at work or in the home, aren’t enough to protect us from having a stroke. However, exercising in our free time and using active modes of transport are associated with a decreased risk of stroke.…
Read More Study reveals link between transthyretin levels and heart disease risk
Physician-scientists from the University of Alabama at Birmingham Marnix E. Heersink School of Medicine have uncovered significant findings regarding the impact of transthyretin, or TTR, protein levels on heart disease risk. The study, recently published in Nature Communications, explores how variations in TTR levels are associated with adverse clinical outcomes, providing new insights into the…
Read More Generative AI pioneers the future of child language learning
Professor Inseok Hwang from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, along with students Jungeun Lee, Suwon Yoon, and Kyoosik Lee from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at POSTECH in collaboration with Professor Dongsun Yim from Ewha Womans University’s Department of Communication Disorders have created an innovative system for generating personalized storybooks. This…
Read More Recent insights and advances in treatment and management show promise in stemming the growing prevalence of diabetes
A new paper surveying advances in diabetes pathogenesis and treatment explores the complex factors contributing to the onset and progression of the disease, suggesting that an understanding of these dynamics is key to developing targeted interventions to reduce the risk of developing diabetes and managing its complications. In a paper published July 25 in a…
Read More Study finds targeting inflammation may not help reduce liver fibrosis in MAFLD
Researchers at UCLA Health uncovered new information about the role inflammation plays in mitigating liver fibrosis, which is associated with metabolic-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD), one of the most common diseases in the world affecting up to 40 percent of U.S. adults. While inflammation in the liver has long been considered a prerequisite to developing…
Read More Have a seat, doctor: Study suggests eye-level connection makes a difference in hospitals
Doctors and others who take care of hospitalized patients may want to sit down for this piece of news. A new study suggests that getting at a patient’s eye level when talking with them about their diagnosis or care can really make a difference. Sitting or crouching at a hospitalized patient’s bedside was associated with…
Read More Building bridges between cells for brain health
The accumulation of pathological proteins is a hallmark of several neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease, frontotemporal dementia and Parkinson’s disease. Proteins such as alpha-synuclein and tau can abnormally aggregate inside neurons, disrupting essential cellular function. “We knew that microglia play a role in clearing these protein aggregates but we only learned recently that they can…
Read More ‘Dancing molecules’ heal cartilage damage
In November 2021, Northwestern University researchers introduced an injectable new therapy, which harnessed fast-moving “dancing molecules,” to repair tissues and reverse paralysis after severe spinal cord injuries. Now, the same research group has applied the therapeutic strategy to damaged human cartilage cells. In the new study, the treatment activated the gene expression necessary to regenerate…
Read More New research in fatty liver disease aims to help with early intervention
A new study brings researchers closer to better understanding the pathology of the fatty liver disease MASH, which stands for metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis. MASH is a consequence of poor diet and obesity and results in severe damage to the liver. In MASH, the liver becomes filled with active and rapidly multiplying T cells, which are…
Read More New drug shows promise in clearing HIV from brain
An experimental drug originally developed to treat cancer may help clear HIV from infected cells in the brain, according to a new Tulane University study. For the first time, researchers at Tulane National Primate Research Center found that a cancer drug significantly reduced levels of SIV, the nonhuman primate equivalent of HIV, in the brain…
Read More Stroke recovery: It’s in the genes
New research led by UCLA Health has found that specific genes may be related to the trajectory of recovery for stroke survivors, providing doctors insights useful for developing targeted therapies. Published in the journal Stroke this month, the findings were part of an exploratory study that sought to find if candidate genes could predict a…
Read More Could wearable devices adversely affect health?
Using a wearable device, such as a smart watch, to track health data and symptoms, is supposed to help people monitor their health and address symptoms as quickly as possible to spur positive health outcomes. But for people with atrial fibrillation, also known as Afib, using a wearable device to monitor the heart rate and…
Read More Tumor suppressor protein Par-4 triggers unique cell death pathway in cancerous cells
A team of researchers at NYU Abu Dhabi, led by Professor Sehamuddin Galadari, has discovered that the tumor suppressor protein Prostate apoptosis response-4 (Par-4) can cause a unique type of cell death called ferroptosis in human glioblastoma — the most common and aggressive type of brain tumor — while sparing healthy cells. This new understanding…
Read More Brain’s support cells contribute to Alzheimer’s disease by producing toxic peptide
Oligodendrocytes are an important source of amyloid beta (Aβ) and play a key role in promoting neuronal dysfunction in Alzheimer’s disease (AD), according to a study published July 23, 2024 in the open-access journal PLOS Biology by Rikesh Rajani and Marc Aurel Busche from the UK Dementia Research Institute at University College London, and colleagues.…
Read More B cell biohack: Immune cells to churn out custom antibodies
USC scientists have discovered a way to turn the body’s B cells into tiny surveillance machines and antibody factories that can pump out specially designed antibodies to destroy cancer cells or HIV, two of medicine’s most formidable foes. The research, published today in Nature Biomedical Engineering, describes a technique for editing the genes of immune…
Read More Breakthrough in skeletal muscle regeneration
Newly published research from the University of Houston College of Pharmacy identifies key mechanisms of skeletal muscle regeneration and growth of muscles following resistance exercise. It’s a finding that opens the door to the development of targeted therapies for various muscle disorders, like Muscular Dystrophy, which affect millions of people worldwide. When it comes to…
Read More These healthcare professionals may be secret weapon against hypertension, study says
When it comes to helping patients with high blood pressure get their hypertension under control, a new Tulane University study finds that pharmacists and community health workers have the best success rates. The study, published in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, analyzed data from 100 hypertension trials around the world and compared blood pressure reductions…
Read More Can consciousness exist in a computer simulation?
Would it be desirable for artificial intelligence to develop consciousness? Not really, for a variety of reasons, according to Dr. Wanja Wiese from the Institute of Philosophy II at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany. In an essay, he examines the conditions that must be met for consciousness to exist and compares brains with computers. He has…
Read More Scientists pinpoint new drug target for RSV
Irish scientists led by a group from Trinity College Dublin have discovered how the dangerous Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) defuses our immune response and, in doing so, they have pinpointed an exciting new target for drug developers. RSV causes a significant disease burden in the global population, with an estimated 33.1 million cases each year,…
Read More Shining light on amyloid architecture
Amyloid-beta (A-beta) aggregates are tangles of proteins most notably associated with neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s. Despite its constant stint in the limelight, however, researchers have been unable to get a good understanding of how A-beta comes together and breaks apart. “The way A-beta behaves in a variety of environments, including the human brain, is elusive,”…
Read More Impact of incarceration on youth health
Researcher Samantha Boch has studied the impact of incarceration on child and family health for more than a decade. Her latest research examines the health records and health care use of youth, individuals under age 21, who likely have been involved or whose families have been involved in the justice system. The challenge was identifying…
Read More Researchers clarify how soft materials fail under stress
Understanding how soft materials fail under stress is critical for solving engineering challenges as disparate as pharmaceutical technology and landslide prevention. A new study linking a spectrum of soft material behaviors — previously thought to be unrelated — led researchers to identify a new parameter they call the brittility factor, which allows them to simplify…
Read More Good timing: Study unravels how our brains track time
Ever hear the old adage that time flies when you’re having fun? A new study by a team of UNLV researchers suggests that there’s a lot of truth to the trope. Many people think of their brains as being intrinsically synced to the human-made clocks on their electronic devices, counting time in very specific, minute-by-minute…
Read More Genetic study highlights importance of diversity in understanding health disparities
The majority of genetic studies focus on people of European descent, which limits the understanding of how genes influence health in other populations. Researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and the Corporal Michael J. Crescenz VA Medical Center, have partnered with a team of researchers at the Department of…
Read More New technique could help treat aggressive brain tumors
Tackling brain cancer is complicated, but groundbreaking new research could help add another tool to the cancer-fighting arsenal. A team from Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech published a paper in APL Bioengineering in May that explores a new option that could one day be used to target glioblastoma, a deadly and fast-growing brain tumor. Supported…
Read More Mental health training for line managers linked to better business performance in England
In a study of several thousand companies in England, mental health training for line managers was associated with organizational-level benefits, including lower levels of long-term mental health-related sickness absence and better business performance, customer service, and staff recruitment and retention. The project was led by Professor Holly Blake of the University of Nottingham and Dr.…
Read More Research shows protein isoform inhibitors may hold the key to making opioids safer
Researchers at the University of Arizona Health Sciences identified a new way to make opioids safer, increasing the pain-relieving properties of opioids while decreasing unwanted side effects through the spinal inhibition of a Heat shock protein 90 isoform. Opioids are the gold standard of chronic pain treatment, but they come with a host of negative…
Read More Transporting precious cargo using the body’s own delivery system
Each cell in the body has its own unique delivery system that scientists are working on harnessing to move revolutionary biological drugs — molecules like proteins, RNA and combinations of the two — to specific diseased parts of the body. A new study from Northwestern University hijacked the transit system and sent tiny, virus-sized containers…
Read More American diets got briefly healthier, more diverse during COVID-19 pandemic, study finds
American diets may have gotten healthier and more diverse in the months following the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new study led by Penn State researchers. The study — published in PLOS ONE — found that as states responded to the pandemic with school closures and other lockdown measures, citizens’ diet quality…
Read More New research demonstrates potential for increasing effectiveness of popular diabetes, weight-loss drugs
A network of proteins found in the central nervous system could be harnessed to increase the effectiveness and reduce the side effects of popular diabetes and weight-loss drugs, according to new research from the University of Michigan. The study, appearing today in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, focused on two proteins called melanocortin 3 and…
Read More Artificial intelligence outperforms clinical tests at predicting progress of Alzheimer’s disease
Cambridge scientists have developed an artificially-intelligent tool capable of predicting in four cases out of five whether people with early signs of dementia will remain stable or develop Alzheimer’s disease. The team say this new approach could reduce the need for invasive and costly diagnostic tests while improving treatment outcomes early when interventions such as…
Read More A better way to make RNA drugs
While the COVID-19 vaccines introduced many people to RNA-based medicines, RNA oligonucleotides have already been on the market for years to treat diseases like Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy and amyloidosis. RNA therapies offer many advantages over traditional small molecule drugs, including their ability to address almost any genetic component within cells and to guide gene editing…
Read More Brain inflammation triggers muscle weakness after infections
Infections and neurodegenerative diseases cause inflammation in the brain. But for unknown reasons, patients with brain inflammation often develop muscle problems that seem to be independent of the central nervous system. Now, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have revealed how brain inflammation releases a specific protein that travels from the…
Read More Researchers discover a new neural biomarker for OCD
A recent study from Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Hospital has identified a specific neural activity pattern as a novel biomarker to accurately predict and monitor the clinical status of individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) who have undergone deep brain stimulation (DBS), a rapidly emerging therapeutic approach for severe psychiatric disorders. The study,…
Read More Groundbreaking study reveals insights into Alzheimer’s disease mechanisms through novel hydrogel matrix
Researchers at the Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation (TIBI) have unveiled a pioneering study shedding light on the intricate mechanisms underlying Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The study, titled “Effects of amyloid-β-mimicking peptide hydrogel matrix on neuronal progenitor cell phenotype,” represents a significant leap forward in understanding the interplay between amyloid-like structures and neuronal cells. Led by…
Read More New ways to study spinal cord malformations in embryos
A group of scientists at UCL have successfully created mechanical force sensors directly in the developing brains and spinal cords of chicken embryos, which they hope will improve understanding and prevention of birth malformations such as spina bifida. The study, published in Nature Materials and in collaboration with the University of Padua and the Veneto…
Read More Researchers uncover brain region’s role in hearing and learning
Have you ever noticed how you can suddenly hear your refrigerator humming in the background when you focus on it? Or how the sound of your name instantly catches your attention even in a noisy crowd? The human brain is remarkably adept at adjusting what we hear based on contexts, like our current environment or…
Read More Uncovering late-onset combined immune deficiency in chromosome 18q deletion syndrome
Chromosome 18q deletion (18q del) syndromeis a rare genetic condition disorder, affecting approximately 1 in 40,000 to 55,000 individuals, caused by the deletion of genetic material on the long arm of chromosome 18. This genetic anomaly disrupts normal growth and development, and critically, can impair the immune system’s functionality. Patients with 18q del syndrome often…
Read More Creativity starts in the cradle, new research shows
Infants less than a year old can combine simple concepts into complex ideas, showing that creativity begins in babyhood. According to new research at the University of Birmingham, in the UK, and Central European University, in Austria and Hungary, babies are not only capable of creative thinking well before starting to speak, but this sort…
Read More Cirrhosis affects twice as many transgender adults as cisgender adults, study finds
Cirrhosis is chronic, progressive end-stage liver disease that occurs when scar tissue prevents the liver from functioning normally. Studies have shown that two of the leading causes of cirrhosis — alcohol use disorder and viral hepatitis — occur more frequently in transgender individuals, but there has been little research examining if these risk factors translate…
Read More Researchers listen to the hearts of bats in flight
Researchers from Konstanz have measured the heart rate of bats over several days in the wild, including complete flights — the first time this has been done for a bat species. To record the heart rate of male common noctule bats during flight, the scientists attached heart rate transmitters weighing less than one gram to…
Read More Stem cell-derived therapy shows promise against treatment-resistant liver cancer
Researchers at University of California San Diego have found that the most common form of liver cancer — one with a high mortality rate — can be better targeted and treated using an innovative new stem cell-derived therapy, according to a recently published study in Cell Stem Cell. The treatment, not yet studied in patients,…
Read More Brain-imaging study reveals curiosity as it emerges
You look up into the clear blue sky and see something you can’t quite identify. Is it a balloon? A plane? A UFO? You’re curious, right? A research team based at Columbia’s Zuckerman Institute has for the first time witnessed what is happening in the human brain when feelings of curiosity like this arise. In…
Read More Brain size riddle solved as humans exceed evolution trend
The largest animals do not have proportionally bigger brains — with humans bucking this trend — a new study published in Nature Ecology and Evolution has revealed. Researchers at the University of Reading and Durham University collected an enormous dataset of brain and body sizes from around 1,500 species to clarify centuries of controversy surrounding…
Read More Experimental drug supercharges medicine that reverses opioid overdose
The ongoing opioid epidemic in the U.S. kills tens of thousands of people every year. Naloxone, sold under the brand name Narcan, has saved countless lives by reversing opioid overdoses. But new and more powerful opioids keep appearing, and first responders are finding it increasingly difficult to revive people who overdose. Now, researchers have found…
Read More Measuring body language | ScienceDaily
Is it possible to decode how we feel from our movements? How can emotions be studied “from the outside” by using empirical methods? To answer these questions, a large international and interdisciplinary research team led by the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics (MPIEA) in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, has developed an integrative scientific methodology.…
Read More Pasteurization inactivates highly infectious avian flu in milk, study suggests
In March 2024, dairy cows in Texas were found to be infected with highly pathogenic avian flu, or H5N1 bird flu, in the first known case of the virus spreading to cattle. Since then, H5N1 has been found in about 200 animals — and 3 people — across 12 states, according to the Centers for…
Read More Chemists synthesize an improved building block for medicines
Chemists have overcome a major hurdle in synthesizing a more stable form of heterocycle — a family of organic compounds that are a common component of most modern pharmaceuticals. The research, which could expand the toolkit available to drug developers in improving the safety profiles of medications and reducing side effects, was published in Science…
Read More Clever pupils don’t need to attend academically selective schools to thrive, study finds
Findings published in a new peer-reviewed paper in the British Journal of Educational Studies challenges the idea that academically selective schools are necessary for clever pupils to achieve good outcomes. Selective schools are government-funded schools that enrol only the highest performing students. Pupils take a standardized entrance exam, from which the best-scoring are enrolled. Some…
Read More Engineers find a way to protect microbes from extreme conditions
Microbes that are used for health, agricultural, or other applications need to be able to withstand extreme conditions, and ideally the manufacturing processes used to make tablets for long-term storage. MIT researchers have now developed a new way to make microbes hardy enough to withstand these extreme conditions. Their method involves mixing bacteria with food…
Read More Scientists map how deadly bacteria evolved to become epidemic
Pseudomonas aeruginosa — an environmental bacteria that can cause devastating multidrug-resistant infections, particularly in people with underlying lung conditions — evolved rapidly and then spread globally over the last 200 years, probably driven by changes in human behaviour, a new study has found. P. aeruginosa is responsible for over 500,000 deaths per year around the…
Read More Scientists discover new T cells and genes related to immune disorders
Researchers led by Yasuhiro Murakawa at the RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences (IMS) and Kyoto University in Japan and IFOM ETS in Italy have discovered several rare types of helper T cells that are associated with immune disorders such as multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, and even asthma. Published July 4 in Science, the discoveries were…
Read More New study on children and food: Fruit chunks in yogurt are a turn off for one age group in particular
If you feel like your six-year-old has suddenly gotten extra fussy about the texture of their dinner, don’t worry. It will pass. A new study from the University of Copenhagen’s Department of Food Science demonstrates that at the age of six, children prefer to avoid crunch in their peanut butter, berries in jam and pieces…
Read More Poor health, stress in 20s takes toll in 40s with lower cognition
Higher inflammation in young adulthood linked to lower performance in skills testing in midlife. Young adults who have higher levels of inflammation, which is associated with obesity, physical inactivity, chronic illness, stress and smoking, may experience reduced cognitive function in midlife, a new study out of UC San Francisco has found. Researchers previously linked higher…
Read More High ceilings linked to poorer exam results for university students
Ever wondered why you performed worse than expected in that final university exam that you sat in a cavernous gymnasium or massive hall, despite countless hours, days and weeks of study? Now you have a genuine reason — high ceilings. New research from the University of South Australia and Deakin University has revealed a link…
Read More Study explores what motivates people to watch footage of disasters and extreme weather
Extreme weather events such as hurricanes and storms have increased in both frequency and severity in recent years. With that has come heightened public interest, resulting in often dramatic footage being live-streamed on platforms such as YouTube, TikTok and Discord. Now, a new study conducted at the University of Plymouth has for the first time…
Read More Light targets cells for death and triggers immune response with laser precision
A new method of precisely targeting troublesome cells for death using light could unlock new understanding of and treatments for cancer and inflammatory diseases, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers report. Inflammatory cell death, knows as necroptosis, is an important regulatory tool in the body’s arsenal against disease. However, in some diseases, the process can go…
Read More Finding the sweet spot in brain development
Short-lived neural connections in the mouse brain help prime sensory circuits, forever affecting the mouse’s sense of touch. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory neuroscientists have discovered that a receptor protein named mGluR1 helps regulate the timing of these temporary connections. Their findings may help reveal the origins of various neurodevelopmental disorders and new ways of treating…
Read More Study reveals why AI models that analyze medical images can be biased
Artificial intelligence models often play a role in medical diagnoses, especially when it comes to analyzing images such as X-rays. However, studies have found that these models don’t always perform well across all demographic groups, usually faring worse on women and people of color. These models have also been shown to develop some surprising abilities.…
Read More Study reveals significant differences in RNA editing between postmortem and living human brain
Researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have shed valuable light on the nuanced functions and intricate regulatory methods of RNA editing, a critical mechanism underlying brain development and disease. In a study published June 26 in Nature Communications, the team reported finding major differences between postmortem and living prefrontal cortex brain…
Read More New model could help provide expectant mothers a clearer path to safe fish consumption
Fish consumption during pregnancy is a complex scientific topic. On one hand, fish are rich in nutrients essential to brain development, including polyunsaturated fatty acids, selenium, iodine, and vitamin D. On the other, fish contain methyl mercury, a known neurotoxicant. This has led the US Food and Drug Administration to recommend that expectant mothers limit…
Read More Creating supranormal hearing in mice
A study from Michigan Medicine’s Kresge Hearing Research Institute was able to produce supranormal hearing in mice, while also supporting a hypothesis on the cause of hidden hearing loss in humans. The researchers had previously used similar methods — increasing the amount of the neurotrophic factor neurotrophin-3 in the inner ear — to promote the…
Read More A dog’s puppyhood can cause ‘puppy blues’ reminiscent of baby blues
Bringing a puppy home is usually a happy event, but sometimes the life change that comes with it can provoke significant negative emotions. Researchers found that almost half of dog owners experience anxiety, weariness or frustration during their dog’s puppyhood stage. According to a study at the University of Helsinki, some dog owners experience feelings…
Read More Air pollution exposure during childhood linked directly to adult bronchitis symptoms
A new study brings fresh revelations about the connection between early-life exposure to air pollution and lung health later in life. A research team led by the Keck School of Medicine of USC has shown that exposure to air pollution during childhood is directly associated with bronchitis symptoms as an adult. To date, many investigations…
Read More A heart of stone: Study defines the process of and defenses against cardiac valve calcification
The human body has sophisticated defenses against the deposition of calcium minerals that stiffen heart tissues, researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and collaborators at UCLA Health and the University of Texas at Austin found in a new study that provides the first detailed, step-by-step documentation of how calcification progresses. “Heart disease is the…
Read More Analysis suggests 2021 Texas abortion ban resulted in increase in infant deaths in state in year after law went into effect
A study led by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health researchers estimates that infant deaths in Texas increased more than expected in the year following the state’s 2021 ban on abortion in early pregnancy, especially among infants with congenital anomalies. The Texas law prohibiting abortions after a fetal heartbeat could be detected — as…
Read More Dancers are less neurotic | ScienceDaily
A study led by researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, has shown that both amateur and professional dancers are less neurotic than people who do not dance. They are also more agreeable, more open, and more extraverted. But genre of dance matters. “Tell me if you dance…
Read More How do our memories last a lifetime? New study offers a biological explanation
Whether it’s a first-time visit to a zoo or when we learned to ride a bicycle, we have memories from our childhoods kept well into adult years. But what explains how these memories last nearly an entire lifetime? A new study in the journal Science Advances, conducted by a team of international researchers, has uncovered…
Read More Your future medications could be personalized for you on a 3D printer
Chocolate-flavored pills for children who hate taking medicine. Several drugs combined into one daily pill for seniors who have trouble remembering to take their medications. Drugs printed at your local pharmacy at personalized dosages that best suit your health needs. These are just a few potential advantages of 3D drug printing, a new system for…
Read More Circulating microRNAs likely as effective as A1C for predicting type 2 diabetes in youth
Type 2 diabetes in young people ages 10 to19 has more than doubled in the past 20 years, yet it remains difficult for physicians to predict who will be diagnosed and who will improve with treatment. A newly published study from the University of Oklahoma shows that measuring the circulating abundance of microRNAs — which…
Read More New study confirms forever chemicals are absorbed through human skin
A study of 17 commonly used synthetic ‘forever chemicals’ has shown that these toxic substances can readily be absorbed through human skin. New research, published today in Environment International proves for the first time that a wide range of PFAS (perfluoroalkyl substances) — chemicals which do not break down in nature — can permeate the…
Read More Facial recognition linked to close social bonds, not social butterflies
Do you have trouble recognising faces, or do you never forget a face? The better you are at facial recognition, the more supportive relationships you are likely to have, regardless of your personality type. In a world-first study published last weekend in the journal Cognition, a team of international researchers has reported some surprising findings…
Read More Study identifies first drug therapy for sleep apnea
Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine and international collaborators have led a worldwide, advanced study demonstrating the potential of tirzepatide, known to manage type 2 diabetes, as the first effective drug therapy for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), a sleep-related disorder characterized by repeated episodes of irregular breathing due to complete or…
Read More Lab-grown muscles reveal mysteries of rare muscle diseases
Biomedical engineers at Duke University have developed a new technique to better understand and test treatments for a group of extremely rare muscle disorders called dysferlinopathy or limb girdle muscular dystrophies 2B (LGMD2B). The approach grows complex, functional 3D muscle tissue from stem cells in the laboratory, creating a platform that replicates patient symptoms and…
Read More Resiliency shaped by activity in the gut microbiome and brain
A new UCLA Health study has found that resilient people exhibit neural activity in the brain regions associated with improved cognition and regulating of emotions, and were more mindful and better at describing their feelings. The same group also exhibited gut microbiome activity linked to a healthy gut, with reduced inflammation and gut barrier. For…
Read More Hidden DNA mechanisms of rare genetic diseases uncovered
Researchers at the Pacific Northwest Research Institute (PNRI) and collaborating institutions have made a groundbreaking discovery that could significantly advance our understanding of genomic disorders. Their latest study, funded by the National Institutes of Health and published in the journal Cell Genomics, reveals how specific DNA rearrangements called inverted triplications contribute to the development of…
Read More Cooling ‘blood oranges’ could make them even healthier — a bonus for consumers
An orange teeming with antioxidants and other health benefits may be a shot in the arm for consumers and citrus growers, if the fruit is stored at cool temperatures, a new University of Florida study shows. But it’s too soon to know if the so-called “blood oranges” are a viable crop for the Florida citrus…
Read More Membrane protein analogues could accelerate drug discovery
Many drug and antibody discovery pathways focus on intricately folded cell membrane proteins: when molecules of a drug candidate bind to these proteins, like a key going into a lock, they trigger chemical cascades that alter cellular behavior. But because these proteins are embedded in the lipid-containing outer layer of cells, they are tricky to…
Read More Walking brings huge benefits for low back pain
Adults with a history of low back pain went nearly twice as long without a recurrence of their back pain if they walked regularly, a world-first study has found. About 800 million people worldwide have low back pain, and it is a leading cause of disability and reduced quality of life. Repeated episodes of low…
Read More Embryo and organoid models do not threaten the definition of personhood, bioethicist says
Advances in organoids and embryonic models of human development have the potential to prompt social and existential questions — e.g., what defines human individuality? However, bioethicist Insoo Hyun of Harvard Medical School and the Museum of Science in Boston says that these models have the potential to strengthen rather than weaken the concept of human…
Read More Rigorous new study debunks misconceptions about anemia, education
In low- and middle-income countries, anemia reduction efforts are often touted as a way to improve educational outcomes and reduce poverty. A new study, co-authored by a global health economics expert from the University of Notre Dame, evaluates the relationship between anemia and school attendance in India, debunking earlier research that could have misguided policy…
Read More At least one in four US residential yards exceed new EPA lead soil level guideline
Roughly one in four U.S. households have soil exceeding the new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s lead screening levels of 200 parts per million (ppm), halved from the previous level of 400 ppm, a new study found. For households with exposure from multiple sources, the EPA lowered the guidance to 100 ppm; nearly 40% of households…
Read More Cancer survivors are at increased risk of disease throughout life
Swedish researchers have surveyed all people under the age of 25 who have had cancer since 1958. The study, led by researchers at Linköping University and Region Östergötland, shows that cancer survivors are at greater risk for cardiovascular diseases, other cancers and other diagnoses later in life. In addition, the researchers saw that socioeconomic factors…
Read More A new weapon in the battle against antibiotic resistance: Temperature
Scientists from the University of Groningen (the Netherlands), together with colleagues from the University of Montpellier (France) and the University of Oldenburg (Germany), have tested how a fever could affect the development of antimicrobial resistance. In laboratory experiments, they found that a small increase in temperature from 37 to 40 degrees Celsius drastically changed the…
Read More New metric for blood circulation in brain to better understand dementia
Each time the heart beats, it pumps blood through the brain vessels, causing them to expand slightly and then relax, much like the rise and fall of the blood pulsing through your veins when you feel your pulse in your wrist. This pulsation in the brain helps distribute blood evenly across different areas of the…
Read More Scientists solve decades long mystery of NLRC5 sensor function in cell death
The innate immune system is responsible for protecting the human body from threats that could cause disease or infection. The system relies on innate immune sensors to detect and transmit signals about these threats. One of the key innate immune strategies to respond to threats is through cell death. New research from St. Jude Children’s…
Read More Gonadal function in male mice disrupted by prenatal risk factors
Researchers have consistently shown that prenatal exposure to Di (2-ethyhexyl) phthalate harms the reproductive system in male mice and causes fertility defects. In a new study, scientists from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have shown that the combination of DEHP and a high-fat diet in pregnant mice can cause more damage to pups than each…
Read More Low-sodium alternatives can lead to major health gains in Indonesia
Excess sodium intake and a lack of potassium are major contributing factors towards high blood pressure in Indonesia, prompting calls for low-sodium potassium-rich salt substitutes (LSSS) to be readily available to improve health and curb health costs. New Griffith University research has looked at the impact of switching out current table salt (100 per cent…
Read More Can engineered plants help make baby formula as nutritious as breast milk?
Worldwide, a majority of babies — approximately 75% — drink infant formula in their first six months of life, either as a sole source of nutrition or as a supplement to breastfeeding. But while formula provides essential food for growing babies, it currently does not replicate the full nutritional profile of breast milk. That’s in…
Read More Younger workers feel stressed, lonely and undervalued
Younger workers are struggling with feelings of loneliness and a lack of appreciation at work and tend to feel more comfortable working with people their own age, according to a survey by the American Psychological Association. The 2024 Work in America survey, conducted online by The Harris Poll of more than 2,000 working U.S. adults,…
Read More Does having a child with low birth weight increase a person’s risk of dementia?
People who give birth to infants less than 5.5 pounds may be more likely to have memory and thinking problems later in life than people who give birth to infants who do not have a low birth weight, according to a study published in the June 12, 2024, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal…
Read More Female AI ‘teammate’ generates more participation from women
An artificial intelligence-powered virtual teammate with a female voice boosts participation and productivity among women on teams dominated by men, according to new Cornell University research. The findings suggest that the gender of an AI’s voice can positively tweak the dynamics of gender-imbalanced teams and could help inform the design of bots used for human-AI…
Read More Painful truth about knee osteoarthritis: Why inactivity may be more complex than we think
Knee osteoarthritis (OA) is a common cause of pain and joint stiffness. And while physical activity is known to ease symptoms, only one in 10 people regularly exercise. Understanding what contributes to patients’ inactivity is the focus of a world first study from the University of South Australia. Here, researchers have found that people with…
Read More Brain’s structure hangs in ‘a delicate balance’
When a magnet is heated up, it reaches a critical point where it loses magnetization. Called “criticality,” this point of high complexity is reached when a physical object is transitioning smoothly from one phase into the next. Now, a new Northwestern University study has discovered that the brain’s structural features reside in the vicinity of…
Read More Feeling rough after your COVID shot? Congrats, it’s working!
Fewer than 1 in 4 people in the United States have received last year’s updated COVID-19 vaccine, despite a death toll of more than 23,000 Americans this year. One of the most common reasons for bypassing the COVID vaccine is concern about side effects like tiredness, muscle and joint pain, chills, headache, fever, nausea and…
Read More Wildfire smoke reached 99% of U.S. lakes in 2019-2021
Where there’s smoke, there’s not necessarily fire. Wildfire smoke, sometimes drifting from hundreds of miles away, touched nearly every lake in North America for at least one day per year from 2019 to 2021, according to a study from the University of California, Davis. Even more significantly, the study, published in the journal Global Change…
Read More Fat molecule’s inability to bond with shape-shifting protein in cell’s powerhouse linked to an inherited metabolic disease
By studying mutations in yeast and human cells, Johns Hopkins Medicine scientists say they have found that biochemical bonds between fats and proteins in the mitochondrion, the cell’s powerhouse, play a crucial role in how our cells produce energy. The study results, published June 5 in The EMBO Journal, shed new light, researchers say, on…
Read More Simply looking at the natural world in urban areas can reap benefits
New eye-tracking research has shown that simply looking at natural elements during urban walks can offer significant mental health benefits. The study, by Bangor University and Technion- Israel Institute of Technology, published in the scientific journal People and Nature, involved city-dwellers, and showed how paying visual attention to greenery, rather than human-made structures, can alleviate…
Read More Basic income can double global GDP while reducing carbon emissions
Giving a regular cash payment to the entire world population has the potential to increase global gross domestic product (GDP) by 130%, according to a new analysis published June 7 in the journal Cell Reports Sustainability. Researchers suggest that charging carbon emitters with an emission tax could help fund such basic income program while reducing…
Read More Antioxidant gel preserves islet function after pancreas removal
Northwestern University researchers have developed a new antioxidant biomaterial that someday could provide much-needed relief to people living with chronic pancreatitis. The study will be published on June 7 in the journal Science Advances. Before surgeons remove the pancreas from patients with severe, painful chronic pancreatitis, they first harvest insulin-producing tissue clusters, called islets, and…
Read More Online professional education works for complex topics
Online education is effective for teaching complicated topics like quantum information science (QIS) to high school science educators, according to a new paper by University of Texas at Arlington researchers published in The Physics Teacher. “COVID-19 forced educators to adjust their educational best practices to an unfamiliar virtual classroom, and professional development was no different,”…
Read More Silkworms help grow better organ-like tissues in labs
Biomedical engineers at Duke University have developed a silk-based, ultrathin membrane that can be used in organ-on-a-chip models to better mimic the natural environment of cells and tissues within the body. When used in a kidney organ-on-a-chip platform, the membrane helped tissues grow to recreate the functionality of both healthy and diseased kidneys. By allowing…
Read More Nanoparticles: Risk for babies in the womb
Human life begins with a single egg cell that grows into a human being with trillions of cells. To ensure that the highly complex development of tissues and organs is as protected as possible, the placental barrier keeps pathogens and foreign substances out. Tina Bürki and her team from Empa’s Particles-Biology Interactions laboratory in St.…
Read More Could taking certain drugs reduce risk of ruptured brain aneurysm?
A new study suggests that people who take a few common drugs may have a decreased risk of having a bleeding stroke due to a ruptured brain aneurysm. The study is published in the June 5, 2024, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The results do not prove…
Read More Oral insulin drops offer relief for diabetes patients
Diabetes rates continue to rise, with 11.7 million Canadians living with diabetes or pre-diabetes. At UBC, scientists have created a pain-free drug delivery method to help people with diabetes manage the disease and maintain their health more easily. Researchers at the Li Lab have developed oral insulin drops that when placed under the tongue are…
Read More An anti-inflammatory curbs spread of fungi causing serious blood infections
A team of UC Davis Health researchers discovered that a common anti-inflammatory drug, mesalamine, can replace the work of good bacteria in fighting the nasty fungus Candida albicans in the gut. C. albicans, or candida, is known to cause yeast infections. In some cases, it develops into invasive candidiasis, a potentially fatal infection occurring mostly…
Read More Proton therapy demonstrates advantages in Phase III head and neck cancer trial
According to preliminary data from a multi-institution Phase III trial led by researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, intensity modulated proton therapy (IMPT) achieved similar clinical outcomes and offered significant patient benefits when compared to traditional intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) as part of chemoradiation treatment for patients with oropharyngeal (head…
Read More Airplane noise exposure may increase risk of chronic disease
A new study found that people who were exposed to higher levels of noise from aircraft were more likely to have a higher body mass index, an indicator for obesity that can lead to stroke or hypertension. The findings highlight how the environment — and environmental injustices — can shape health outcomes. Research has shown…
Read More Sunshine spurs spending: Investors bet big on sunny days
It’s often said we can’t control the weather. But what if the weather controls how and when we invest our money? More specifically, what if the skies control how much we’re willing to gamble in the stock market? New research by the University of South Australia has found a connection between pleasant weather conditions and…
Read More Tackling the hurdle of tumor formation in stem cell therapies
Pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) are a type of stem cells capable of developing into various cell types. Over the past few decades, scientists have been working towards the development of therapies using PSCs. Thanks to their unique ability to self-renew and differentiate (mature) into virtually any given type of tissue, PSCs could be used to…
Read More Lighting up the brain: What happens when our ‘serotonin center’ is triggered?
Using mice, scientists at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) and their collaborators from Keio University School of Medicine have studied the main source of serotonin in the brain — the dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN). By studying how activating the brain’s ‘serotonin center’ affects awake animals for the first time, they found that…
Read More Researchers discover ‘trojan horse’ virus hiding in human parasite
An international team led by researchers at the University of Toronto has found a new RNA virus that they believe is hitching a ride with a common human parasite. The virus, called Apocryptovirus odysseus, along with 18 others that are closely related to it, was discovered through a computational screen of human neuron data —…
Read More Researchers identify a genetic cause of intellectual disability affecting tens of thousands
Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and others have identified a neurodevelopmental disorder, caused by mutations in a single gene, that affects tens of thousands of people worldwide. The work, published in the May 31 online issue of Nature Medicine, was done in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Bristol,…
Read More Children’s visual experience may hold key to better computer vision training
A novel, human-inspired approach to training artificial intelligence (AI) systems to identify objects and navigate their surroundings could set the stage for the development of more advanced AI systems to explore extreme environments or distant worlds, according to research from an interdisciplinary team at Penn State. In the first two years of life, children experience…
Read More Antibodies may aid effort to fight influenza B
Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center have isolated human monoclonal antibodies against influenza B, a significant public health threat that disproportionately affects children, the elderly and other immunocompromised individuals. Seasonal flu vaccines cover influenza B and the more common influenza A but do not stimulate the broadest possible range of immune responses against both viruses.…
Read More First hints of memory problems associated with changes in the brain
People who report early memory problems and whose partners also suspect they have memory problems have higher levels of tau tangles in the brain, a biomarker associated with Alzheimer’s disease, according to a study published Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Subjective cognitive decline is when a person reports memory and…
Read More Scientists develop visual tool to help people group foods based on their levels of processing
Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC scientists studying ultra-processed foods have created a new tool for assessing the rewarding and reinforcing properties of foods that make up 58 percent of calories consumed in the United States. The foods have been linked to a wide range of negative health outcomes. The research, which was published in…
Read More Chicken feathers to deliver chemotherapy drugs and repair enzymes
A new method of drug delivery using proline, an amino acid found in chicken feathers and skin tissue, could be used to limit the side effects of chemotherapy and repair important enzymes, new research suggests. Published in the journal Chem, researchers have designed a cage (a box made of single molecules) from biologically compatible peptides,…
Read More Grow the skin you’re in: In vivo generation of chimeric skin grafts
Skin grafting is an essential procedure used to treat severe skin wounds. In the case of extensive wounds, however, it can be challenging to harvest enough donor skin, and generating artificial skin substitutes that include hair follicles and sweat glands and can engraft on deep wounds has not been successful. Now, researchers from Japan report…
Read More Intermittent fasting shows promise in improving gut health, weight management
A new study by researchers from Arizona State University and their colleagues highlights a dietary strategy for significant health improvement and weight management. Participants following an intermittent fasting and protein-pacing regimen, which involves evenly spaced protein intake throughout the day, saw better gut health, weight loss and metabolic responses. These benefits were notably greater than…
Read More Prenatal exposure to air pollution associated with increased mental health risks
A baby’s exposure to air pollution while in the womb is associated with the development of certain mental health problems once the infant reaches adolescence, new research has found. The University of Bristol-led study, published in JAMA Network Open today [28 May], examined the long-term mental health impact of early-life exposure to air and noise…
Read More How neurons build a 3-D vascular structure to keep the retina healthy
Scientists have known for years that a lattice of blood vessels nourishes cells in the retina that allow us to see — but it’s been a mystery how the intricate structure is created. Now, researchers at UC San Francisco have found a new type of neuron that guides its formation. The discovery, described in the…
Read More New advances in cancer viral immunotherapy
Vaccinia viruses are therapeutic tools with different biomedical applications depending on the susceptibility characteristics. For example, the strain called MVA (modified vaccinia Ankara), which is unable to replicate in mammalian cells, triggers a potent immune system response and is used to develop vaccines against COVID-19 or AIDS. In contrast, other strains such as Western Reserve…
Read More High H5N1 influenza levels found in mice given raw milk from infected dairy cows
Mice administered raw milk samples from dairy cows infected with H5N1 influenza experienced high virus levels in their respiratory organs and lower virus levels in other vital organs, according to findings published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The results suggest that consumption of raw milk by animals poses a risk for H5N1 infection…
Read More Understanding a broken heart | ScienceDaily
The stress of heart failure is remembered by the body and appears to lead to recurrent failure, along with other related health issues, according to new research. Researchers have found that heart failure leaves a “stress memory” in the form of changes to the DNA modification of hematopoietic stem cells, which are involved in the…
Read More ‘Invisible tweezers’ use robotics and acoustic energy to achieve what human hands cannot
Undergoing surgery is seldom a pleasant experience, and it can sometimes be highly invasive. Surgical procedures have evolved steadily over the centuries, growing with the knowledge of anatomy and biology. Innovative methods have also been bolstered with new tools, and a growth in the use of robotics since the 1980s has moved health care forward…
Read More Tiny target discovered on RNA to short-circuit inflammation
UC Santa Cruz researchers have discovered a peptide in human RNA that regulates inflammation and may provide a new path for treating diseases such as arthritis and lupus. The team used a screening process based on the powerful gene-editing tool CRISPR to shed light on one of the biggest mysteries about our RNA-the molecule responsible…
Read More Genetic cause of rare childhood immune disorders discovered
Scientists have pinpointed genetic changes that can leave children born with little to no immune defence against infection. In a new study of 11 affected individuals, researchers from Newcastle University, the Wellcome Sanger Institute, the Great North Children’s Hospital, and their collaborators were able to link mutations in the NUDCD3 gene to Severe Combined Immunodeficiency…
Read More AI headphones let wearer listen to a single person in a crowd, by looking at them just once
Noise-canceling headphones have gotten very good at creating an auditory blank slate. But allowing certain sounds from a wearer’s environment through the erasure still challenges researchers. The latest edition of Apple’s AirPods Pro, for instance, automatically adjusts sound levels for wearers — sensing when they’re in conversation, for instance — but the user has little…
Read More Scientists map networks regulating gene function in the human brain
A consortium of researchers has produced the largest and most advanced multidimensional maps of gene regulation networks in the brains of people with and without mental disorders. These maps detail the many regulatory elements that coordinate the brain’s biological pathways and cellular functions. The research, supported the National Institutes of Health (NIH), used postmortem brain…
Read More Study explains why the brain can robustly recognize images, even without color
Even though the human visual system has sophisticated machinery for processing color, the brain has no problem recognizing objects in black-and-white images. A new study from MIT offers a possible explanation for how the brain comes to be so adept at identifying both color and color-degraded images. Using experimental data and computational modeling, the researchers…
Read More Adhesive coatings can prevent scarring around medical implants
When medical devices such as pacemakers are implanted in the body, they usually provoke an immune response that leads to buildup of scar tissue around the implant. This scarring, known as fibrosis, can interfere with the devices’ function and may require them to be removed. In an advance that could prevent that kind of device…
Read More Gentler cell therapies for blood cancer
Researchers have developed an approach to “deleting” a blood system affected by leukemia while simultaneously building up a new, healthy system with donor blood stem cells. Writing in the journal Nature, the team reports on the promising results obtained in animal experiments and with human cells in the laboratory. In aggressive cases of leukemia, the…
Read More New tool may help prioritize high-risk infants for RSV immunization
On the heels of a shortage of nirsevimab for infant respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) lower respiratory tract infection (LRTI) prevention, a new tool may help identify newborns at highest risk for developing serious RSV LRTI, according to research published at the ATS 2024 International Conference. “Timely identification of infants at highest risk of RSV-related morbidity…
Read More Drug-like inhibitor shows promise in preventing flu
Currently available flu medications only target the virus after it has already established an infection, but what if a drug could prevent infection in the first place? Now, scientists at Scripps Research and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine have designed drug-like molecules to do just that, by thwarting the first stage of influenza infection.…
Read More ‘I feel like I’m Alice in Wonderland’: Why nightmares and ‘daymares’ could be early warning signs of autoimmune disease
An increase in nightmares and hallucinations — or ‘daymares’ — could herald the onset of autoimmune diseases such as lupus, say an international team led by researchers at the University of Cambridge and King’s College London. The researchers argue that there needs to be greater recognition that these types of mental health and neurological symptoms…
Read More New mechanisms behind antibiotic resistance
Two newly discovered mechanisms in bacteria have been identified that can contribute to the development of antibiotic resistance. Changing the number of copies of resistance genes in bacteria increases antibiotic resistance, and can do so very quickly. According to a new study from Uppsala University published in Nature Communications, these two mechanisms, along with a…
Read More Seeing not just with the eyes: Degree of arousal affects perception
The brain modulates visual signals according to internal states, as a new study by LMU neuroscientist Laura Busse reveals. What we see is not simply just a neural representation of the pattern of light in the eye, but an interpretation of this image, to which our needs and expectations contribute. These factors are shaped by…
Read More Sweet taste receptor affects how glucose is handled metabolically by humans
The rich research portfolio of the Monell Chemical Senses Center on sweet taste goes way back: Monell scientists were one of four teams in 2001 that found and described the mammalian sweet taste receptor — TAS1R2-TAS1R3. Twenty years later in 2021, a pair of papers published in Mammalian Genome by Monell researchers covered the genetics…
Read More Repeat COVID-19 vaccinations elicit antibodies that neutralize variants, other viruses
The COVID-19 pandemic is over, but the virus that caused it is still here, sending thousands of people to the hospital each week and spinning off new variants with depressing regularity. The virus’s exceptional ability to change and evade immune defenses has led the World Health Organization (WHO) to recommend annual updates to COVID-19 vaccines.…
Read More Clinicians report success with first test of drug in a patient with life-threatening blood clotting disorder
A team led by investigators from Massachusetts General Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, used a new drug to save the life of a patient with immune thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (iTTP), a rare disorder characterized by uncontrolled clotting throughout the small blood vessels. The group describes the first clinical use…
Read More Global life expectancy to increase by nearly 5 years by 2050 despite geopolitical, metabolic, and environmental threats
The latest findings from the Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD) 2021, published today in The Lancet, forecast that global life expectancy will increase by 4.9 years in males and 4.2 years in females between 2022 and 2050. Increases are expected to be largest in countries where life expectancy is lower, contributing to a convergence…
Read More Better medical record-keeping needed to fight antibiotic overuse
A lack of detailed record-keeping in clinics and emergency departments may be getting in the way of reducing the inappropriate use of antibiotics, a pair of new studies by a pair of University of Michigan physicians and their colleagues suggests. In one of the studies, about 10% of children and 35% of adults who got…
Read More Large language models can’t effectively recognize users’ motivation, but can support behavior change for those ready to act
Large language model-based chatbots have the potential to promote healthy changes in behavior. But researchers from the ACTION Lab at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have found that the artificial intelligence tools don’t effectively recognize certain motivational states of users and therefore don’t provide them with appropriate information. Michelle Bak, a doctoral student in information…
Read More Researchers wrestle with accuracy of AI technology used to create new drug candidates
Artificial intelligence (AI) has numerous applications in healthcare, from analyzing medical imaging to optimizing the execution of clinical trials, and even facilitating drug discovery. AlphaFold2, an artificial intelligence system that predicts protein structures, has made it possible for scientists to identify and conjure an almost infinite number of drug candidates for the treatment of neuropsychiatric…
Read More When saying ‘please’ is more strategic than magic
By kindergarten age, most children have been taught that “please” is a magic word. “Please” is an expression of politeness that shows courtesy and respect, turning a potential demand into a request that will — poof! — magically be granted. But a new study on the ways people make requests of one another suggests that…
Read More Scientists want to know how the smells of nature benefit our health
Spending time in nature is good for us. Studies have shown that contact with nature can lift our well-being by affecting emotions, influencing thoughts, reducing stress and improving physical health. Even brief exposure to nature can help. One well-known study found that hospital patients recovered faster if their room included a window view of a…
Read More Global methane emissions automatically detected in satellite imagery using AI
Methane is particularly targeted for curbing greenhouse gas emissions because its significant global-warming potential in the short term exceeds carbon dioxide by over 80-fold. However, monitoring methane emissions and compiling their quantities have been challenging due to limiting trade-offs with existing detection methods. Researchers developed a method to automatically detect methane emissions at a global…
Read More Artificial intelligence tool to improve heart failure care
UVA Health researchers have developed a powerful new risk assessment tool for predicting outcomes in heart failure patients. The researchers have made the tool publicly available for free to clinicians. The new tool improves on existing risk assessment tools for heart failure by harnessing the power of machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) to…
Read More Just believing that an AI is helping boosts your performance
Sometimes it seems like an AI is helping, but the benefit is actually a placebo effect — people performing better simply because they expect to be doing so — according to new research from Aalto University in Finland. The study also shows how difficult it is to shake people’s trust in the capabilities of AI…
Read More Insights into protein evolution | ScienceDaily
Rice University’s Peter Wolynes and his research team have unveiled a breakthrough in understanding how specific genetic sequences, known as pseudogenes, evolve. Their paper was published May 13 by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Led by Wolynes, the D.R. Bullard-Welch Foundation Professor of Science, professor of chemistry, biosciences and physics and astronomy…
Read More Stem cells: A new mechanical transducer
Professor Jiwon Jang and Seungbok Yang, a PhD candidate, from the Department of Life Sciences at Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), and Dr. Mahdi Golkaram from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB) have uncovered a novel regulator governing how cells respond to mechanical cues. Their findings were…
Read More ERR-gamma ‘trains’ stomach stem cells to become acid-producing cells
Common conditions such as indigestion and heartburn as well as peptic ulcers, autoimmune gastritis and stomach and esophageal cancers have one thing in common – they involve disruptions of the normal activity of parietal cells (PCs) in the stomach, the only cells in the body that produce acid. Despite their medical importance, little is known…
Read More US Navy Growler jet noise over Whidbey Island could impact 74,000 people’s health
Bob Wilbur thought he’d found a retirement home that would be a place of peace. Nestled against Admiralty Bay on the western edge of Whidbey Island, the three-story house is surrounded by trees and shoreline. It offers the kind of quiet that only an island can provide. Except when the Growlers fly. As often as…
Read More Breakthrough in hemostasis and wound healing research
A breakthrough study, published in Science Translational Medicine, features a biomedical engineering innovation with the potential to transform trauma care and surgical practices. Chapman University’s Fowler School of Engineering Founding Dean and Professor, Andrew Lyon, is a member of this multidisciplinary, multi-university scientific research team developing platelet-like particles that integrate into the body’s clotting pathways…
Read More Melanoma in darker skin tones
Melanoma, an aggressive form of skin cancer that accounts for 75% of all skin-cancer-related deaths, is often detected later in people with darker skin complexions — and the consequences can be devastating, a Mayo Clinic study reveals. While melanoma may be found less frequently in people with darker complexions than fair ones, this potentially serious…
Read More Cellular activity hints that recycling is in our DNA
Although you may not appreciate them, or have even heard of them, throughout your body, countless microscopic machines called spliceosomes are hard at work. As you sit and read, they are faithfully and rapidly putting back together the broken information in your genes by removing sequences called “introns” so that your messenger RNAs can make…
Read More Discrimination may accelerate aging | ScienceDaily
Discrimination may speed up the biological processes of aging, according to a new study led by researchers at the NYU School of Global Public Health. The research links interpersonal discrimination to changes at the molecular level, revealing a potential root cause of disparities in aging-related illness and death. “Experiencing discrimination appears to hasten the process…
Read More GPS-like system shows promise as HIV vaccine strategy to elicit critical antibodies
A team led by the Duke Human Vaccine Institute (DHVI) has developed a vaccine approach that works like a GPS, guiding the immune system through the specific steps to make broadly neutralizing antibodies against HIV. Publishing in the journal Cell Host & Microbe, the study describes an approach that provides step-by-step directions for the immune…
Read More New insight into genesis of spina bifida
A group of researchers at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine led an investigation that offers new insight into the causes of spina bifida, the most common structural disorder of the human nervous system. Work of the group, led by Keng Ioi Vong, Ph.D., and Sangmoon Lee, M.D. Ph.D., both from the…
Read More Neuropathy very common, underdiagnosed | ScienceDaily
Neuropathy, the nerve damage that causes pain and numbness in the feet and hands and can eventually lead to falls, infection and even amputation, is very common and underdiagnosed, according to a study published in the May 8, 2024, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. “More than one-third…
Read More Emergency department packed to the gills? Someday, AI may help
UCSF-led study finds artificial intelligence is as good as a physician at prioritizing which patients need to be seen first. Emergency departments nationwide are overcrowded and overtaxed, but a new study suggests artificial intelligence (AI) could one day help prioritize which patients need treatment most urgently. Using anonymized records of 251,000 adult emergency department (ED)…
Read More Could getting enough sleep help prevent osteoporosis?
As part of the University of Colorado Department of Medicine’s annual Research Day, held on April 23, faculty member Christine Swanson, MD, MCR, described her National Institutes of Health-funded clinical research on whether adequate sleep can help prevent osteoporosis. “Osteoporosis can occur for many reasons such as hormonal changes, aging, and lifestyle factors,” said Swanson,…
Read More Past and guides future efforts to reduce cancer disparities
Investigators at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have examined the historical evolution of Community Outreach and Engagement initiatives at both the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and National Cancer Institute-Designated Cancer Centers (NCI-DCCs). The team’s assessment of these activities and recommendations for future efforts were recently published in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians. The toll cancer takes…
Read More DDT pollutants found in deep sea fish off Los Angeles coast
In the 1940s and 1950s, the ocean off the coast of Los Angeles was a dumping ground for the nation’s largest manufacturer of the pesticide DDT — a chemical now known to harm humans and wildlife. Due to the stubborn chemistry of DDT and its toxic breakdown products, this pollution continues to plague L.A.’s coastal…
Read More Birdwatching can help students improve mental health, reduce distress
For college students seeking to improve their mental health, a potential answer may be right outside their window: birdwatching. A new study finds people who have nature-based experiences report better well-being and lower psychological distress than those who do not. Birdwatching in particular yielded promising results, with higher gains in subjective well-being and more reduction…
Read More New study reveals how teens thrive online: factors that shape digital success revealed
A new study co-authored by Sophie Janicke-Bowles, associate professor in Chapman University’s School of Communication, sheds light on the role that new and traditional media play in promoting and affecting character development, emotions, prosocial behavior and well-being (aka happiness) in youth. Her research and teaching focus on positive psychology, media and new communication technologies, and…
Read More Newly discovered mechanism of T-cell control can interfere with cancer immunotherapies
Activated T cells that carry a certain marker protein on their surface are controlled by natural killer (NK) cells, another cell type of the immune system. In this way, the body presumably curbs destructive immune reactions. Researchers from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and the University Medical Center Mannheim (UMM) now discovered that NK…
Read More Physics confirms that the enemy of your enemy is, indeed, your friend
Now, Northwestern University researchers have used statistical physics to confirm the theory that underlies this famous axiom. The study will be published on May 3 in the journal Science Advances. In the 1940s, Austrian psychologist Fritz Heider introduced social balance theory, which explains how humans innately strive to find harmony in their social circles. According…
Read More Quantifying U.S. health impacts from gas stoves
Households with gas or propane stoves regularly breathe unhealthy levels of nitrogen dioxide, a study of air pollution in U.S. homes found. “I didn’t expect to see pollutant concentrations breach health benchmarks in bedrooms within an hour of gas stove use, and stay there for hours after the stove is turned off,” said Stanford Doerr…
Read More Aligned peptide ‘noodles’ could enable lab-grown biological tissues
A team of chemists and bioengineers at Rice University and the University of Houston have achieved a significant milestone in their work to create a biomaterial that can be used to grow biological tissues outside the human body. The development of a novel fabrication process to create aligned nanofiber hydrogels could offer new possibilities for…
Read More New study challenges one-size-fits-all approach to vitamin D supplementation guidelines
A new study from Trinity College Dublin scientists, sheds light on the complexities of achieving optimal vitamin D status across diverse populations. Despite substantial research on the determinants of vitamin D, levels of vitamin D deficiency remain high. The study was recently published in the journal Clinical Nutrition. Dr Margaret M. Brennan, Research Assistant, Department…
Read More Scientists track ‘doubling’ in origin of cancer cells
Working with human breast and lung cells, Johns Hopkins Medicine scientists say they have charted a molecular pathway that can lure cells down a hazardous path of duplicating their genome too many times, a hallmark of cancer cells. The findings, published May 3 in Science, reveal what goes wrong when a group of molecules and…
Read More Therapy to kill hypervirulent bacteria developed
University of Central Florida College of Medicine researcher Renee Fleeman is on a mission to kill drug-resistant bacteria, and her latest study has identified a therapy that can penetrate the slime that such infections use to protect themselves from antibiotics. In a study published recently in Cell Reports Physical Science, Fleeman showed that an antimicrobial…
Read More Scientists identify new brain circuit in mice that controls body’s inflammatory reactions
The brain can direct the immune system to an unexpected degree, capable of detecting, ramping up and tamping down inflammation, shows a new study in mice from researchers at Columbia’s Zuckerman Institute. “The brain is the center of our thoughts, emotions, memories and feelings,” said Hao Jin, PhD, a co-first author of the study published…
Read More Low-intensity grazing is locally better for biodiversity but challenging for land users, a new study shows
The grazing of both domestic and wild animals is shaping landscapes across Europe. It can also contribute to multiple ecosystem services, such as providing habitat for biodiversity. Grazing systems with lower densities of animals and with minimal and only targeted applications of deworming and other medicinal treatments offer benefits for local biodiversity protection and various…
Read More Researchers identify over 2,000 genetic signals linked to blood pressure in study of over one million people
Queen Mary-led study reveals the most detailed picture yet of genetic contributors to blood pressure. The findings lead to improved polygenic risk scores, which will better predict blood pressure and risk for hypertension. Researchers led by Queen Mary University of London and supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) have discovered…
Read More Possible alternative to antibiotics produced by bacteria
Many bacteria produce substances to gain an advantage over competitors in their highly competitive natural environment. Researchers at the University Hospital Bonn (UKB), the University of Bonn and the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF) have discovered a new so-called lantibiotic, namely epilancin A37. It is produced by staphylococci that colonize the skin and acts…
Read More Enzymes open new path to universal donor blood
The quest to develop universal donor blood has taken a decisive step forward. Researchers at DTU and Lund University have discovered enzymes that, when mixed with red blood cells, are able to remove specific sugars that make up the A and B antigens in the human ABO blood groups. The results have been published in…
Read More Getting dynamic information from static snapshots
Imagine predicting the exact finishing order of the Kentucky Derby from a still photograph taken 10 seconds into the race. That challenge pales in comparison to what researchers face when using single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) to study how embryos develop, cells differentiate, cancers form, and the immune system reacts. In a paper published today in Proceedings…
Read More How geography acts as a structural determinant of health
In unincorporated communities in the United States-Mexico borderlands, historically and socially marginalized populations become invisible to the healthcare system, showing that geography acts as a structural determinant of health for low-income populations. So concludes a study by a University of California, Riverside, team that focused its attention on the borderland in Southern California, specifically, eastern…
Read More Florida dolphin found with highly pathogenic avian flu
The case of a Florida bottlenose dolphin found with highly pathogenic avian influenza virus, or HPAIV — a discovery made by University of Florida researchers in collaboration with multiple other agencies and one of the first reports of a constantly growing list of mammals affected by this virus — has been published in Communications Biology.…
Read More Breast cancer rates rising among Canadian women in their 20s, 30s and 40s
Rates of breast cancer in women under the age of 50 are rising in Canada according to a study which showed an increase in breast cancer diagnoses among females in their Twenties, Thirties, and Forties. Led by Dr. Jean Seely, this study published in the Canadian Association of Radiologists Journal reviewed breast cancer cases over…
Read More Using stem cell-derived heart muscle cells to advance heart regenerative therapy
Regenerative heart therapies involve transplanting cardiac muscle cells into damaged areas of the heart to recover lost function. However, the risk of arrhythmias following this procedure is reportedly high. In a recent study, researchers from Japan tested a novel approach that involves injecting ‘cardiac spheroids,’ cultured from human stem cells, directly into damaged ventricles. The…
Read More Advance in the treatment of acute heart failure identified
A multicenter study led by Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) and Lipscomb University College of Pharmacy in Nashville has identified a potential new treatment for acute heart failure, a leading cause of hospitalization and death. The drug, dapagliflozin, was initially approved for the treatment of Type 2 diabetes, but it since has been shown to…
Read More Early trauma cuts life short for squirrels, and climate change could make matters worse
Life in the Yukon can be tough for young red squirrels. Frigid winters, food scarcity, intense competition for territories and the threat of becoming prey to large predators like the Canada lynx are just some of the trials they face. Early-life struggles and trauma can literally get under their skin, affecting long-term survival, said Lauren…
Read More Network model unifies recency and central tendency biases
Neuroscientists have revealed that recency bias in working memory naturally leads to central tendency bias, the phenomenon where people’s (and animals’) judgements are biased towards the average of previous observations. Their findings may hint at why the phenomenon is so ubiquitous. Researchers in the Akrami Lab at the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre at UCL and the…
Read More Solving the riddle of the sphingolipids in coronary artery disease
Weill Cornell Medicine investigators have uncovered a way to unleash in blood vessels the protective effects of a type of fat-related molecule known as a sphingolipid, suggesting a promising new strategy for the treatment of coronary artery disease. In the study, published March 8 in Circulation Research, the researchers showed that boosting levels of a…
Read More Tumor cells evade the immune system early on: Newly discovered mechanism could significantly improve cancer immunotherapies
Tumors actively prevent the formation of immune responses by so-called cytotoxic T cells, which are essential in combating cancer. Researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU) Hospital have now uncovered for the first time how this exactly happens. The study in the journal Nature provides rationales for new cancer…
Read More Infected: Understanding the spread of behavior
Human beings are likely to adopt the thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors of those around them. Simple decisions like what local store is best to shop at to more complex ones like vaccinating a child are influenced by these behavior patterns and social discourse. “We choose to be in networks, both offline and online, that are…
Read More Don’t be a stranger — study finds rekindling old friendships as scary as making new ones
Psychologists from Simon Fraser University (SFU) and the University of Sussex have found that people are as hesitant to reach out to an old friend as they are to strike up a conversation with a stranger, even when they had the capacity and desire to do so. The new research is published today in the…
Read More Bella moths use poison to attract mates: Scientists are closer to finding out how
Pyrrolizidine alkaloids are as bitter and toxic as they are hard to pronounce. They’re produced by several different types of plants and are among the leading causes of accidental death in cattle. Plants that contain these alkaloids have made it very clear they don’t want to be consumed, but that hasn’t deterred bella moths (Utetheisa…
Read More Life goals and their changes drive success
As future-thinkers, adolescents spend significant time contemplating these types of questions about their life goals. A new study from the University of Houston shows that as people grow from teenagers to young adults, they tend to change the importance they place on certain life goals, but one thing is certain: The existence of high prestige…
Read More Study opens new avenue for immunotherapy drug development
In a new study published today in Nature Biomedical Engineering, researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have designed a new method for developing immunotherapy drugs using engineered peptides to elicit a natural immune response inside the body. In preclinical models of locally advanced and metastatic breast cancer, this method improved tumor…
Read More Signs of multiple sclerosis show up in blood years before symptoms
In a discovery that could hasten treatment for patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), UC San Francisco scientists have discovered a harbinger in the blood of some people who later went on to develop the disease. In about 1 in 10 cases of MS, the body begins producing a distinctive set of antibodies against its own…
Read More New research defines specific genomic changes associated with the transmissibility of the monkeypox virus
Mount Sinai scientists, in collaboration with researchers from the Carlos III Health Institute (ISCIII) in Madrid, Spain, have located and identified alterations in the monkeypox virus genome that potentially correlate with changes in the virus’s transmissibility observed in the 2022 outbreak. The findings were published April 18 in Nature Communications. Monkeypox virus (MPXV) is a…
Read More Shoe technology reduces risk of diabetic foot ulcers
Researchers have developed a new shoe insole technology that helps reduce the risk of diabetic foot ulcers, a dangerous open sore that can lead to hospitalization and leg, foot or toe amputations. “The goal of this innovative insole technology is to mitigate the risk of diabetic foot ulcers by addressing one of their most significant…
Read More Toxic chemicals from microplastics can be absorbed through skin
Toxic chemicals used to flame-proof plastic materials can be absorbed into the body through skin, via contact with microplastics, new research shows. The study offers the first experimental evidence that chemicals present as additives in microplastics can leach into human sweat, and then be absorbed through the skin, into the bloodstream. Many chemicals used as…
Read More New urine-based test detects high-grade prostate cancer, helping men avoid unnecessary biopsies
Researchers at the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center have developed a new urine-based test that addresses a major problem in prostate cancer: how to separate the slow-growing form of the disease unlikely to cause harm from more aggressive cancer that needs immediate treatment. The test, called MyProstateScore2.0, or MPS2, looks at 18 different genes…
Read More Siblings with unique genetic change help scientists progress drug search for type 1 diabetes
Two siblings who have the only known mutations in a key gene anywhere in the world have helped scientists gain new insights that could help progress the search for new treatments in type 1 diabetes. Type 1 diabetes (also known as autoimmune diabetes) is a devastating and life-long disease, in which the patient’s immune cells…
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