Personalised “cocktails” of antibiotics, probiotics and prebiotics hold great promise in the treatment of a common form of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), the ESCMID Global Congress (formerly ECCMID) in Barcelona, Spain (27-30 April) will hear. Post-infection IBS (PI-IBS) is a form of irritable bowel syndrome that occurs after gastroenteritis or food poisoning.  Lead researcher Professor Maurizio Sanguinetti, of the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Rome, Italy, says: “Estimates vary, but research ...

Some immune-enhancing therapies already exist, and their use could be investigated while other immunomodulatory drugs specific to different sub-groups of TB disease are being developed Experts are working on novel immune-enhancing therapies called host-directed therapies to use the body’s own immune system to target tuberculosis, with hopes that they could tackle even the drug-resistant forms of the disease. In a presentation at this year’s ESCMID Global Congress (formerly ECCMID) in Barcelona (27-30 April), Associate Professor Susanna Brighenti, Center for Infectious Medicine (CIM), ANA Futura at the Karolinska ...

Individuals requiring blood transfusion are a vulnerable population, often with debilitating conditions like cancer, and transfusion-transmitted malaria is often fatal. Current serological tests used to identify “at risk” donors are not sensitive enough to completely eliminate malaria transfusion risk. The current challenges are to optimise the testing strategy to minimise the loss of blood products (especially those rare blood phenotypes) and to enhance screening sensitivity for infectious immuno-tolerant donors who are difficult to identify. **ECCMID has now changed its name to ESCMID Global, please credit ...

**ECCMID has now changed its name to ESCMID Global, please credit ESCMID Global Congress (formerly ECCMID, Barcelona, Spain, 27-30 April) in all future stories** Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is continuing to increase globally, with rates of AMR in most pathogens increasing and threatening a future in which every day medical procedures may no longer be possible and infections thought long dealt with could kill regularly again. As such, new tools to battle AMR are vitally needed. In a new research review at this year’s ESCMID Global Congress (formerly ECCMID – Barcelona 27-30 April) shows ...

In the second new research review on this subject, Assistant Prof. Ibrahim Bitar, Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital in Plzen, Charles University in Prague, Plzen, Czech Republic, will give an overview of the molecular biology of CRISPR technology in explaining how it can used to tackle antimicrobial resistance. Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPRs) and CRISPR associated genes (cas) are widespread in the genome of many bacteria and are a defence mechanism against foreign ...

For sports fans, places like Fenway Park, Wembley Stadium or Wimbledon's Centre Court are practically hallowed ground. Archaeologists at the University of Cincinnati found evidence of similar reverence at ballcourts built by the ancient Maya in Mexico. Using environmental DNA analysis, researchers were able to identify a collection of plants used in ceremonial rituals in the ancient Maya city of Yaxnohcah. The plants, known for their religious associations and medicinal properties, were discovered beneath a plaza floor upon which a ballcourt was built. Researchers said the ancient Maya likely made a ceremonial offering ...

Scott Curran, group leader for Fuel Science and Engine Technologies Research at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has been named a Fellow of SAE International and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, or ASME.  Curran is one of only 24 fellows selected from the more than 128,000 SAE members and one of only 3,336 fellows selected out of the 69,247 ASME members. SAE recognized Curran for his distinguished contributions to transportation science, including advancing real-world advanced combustion strategies, alternative fuels utilization, and next-generation vehicle technologies for a more sustainable mobility future. ...

Researchers have found two novel types of attacks that target the conditional branch predictor found in high-end Intel processors, which could be exploited to compromise billions of processors currently in use.  The multi-university and industry research team led by computer scientists at University of California San Diego will present their work at the 2024 ACM ASPLOS Conference that begins tomorrow. The paper, "Pathfinder: High-Resolution Control-Flow Attacks Exploiting the Conditional Branch Predictor," is based on findings from scientists from UC San ...

The American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS) and the Southeastern Universities Research Association (SURA) are pleased to announce that Kristine Zikmanis has been selected for the 2024 Inclusive, Diverse, Equitable, Accepting, and Accessible (IDEA2) Public Policy Fellowship. This new professional development opportunity provides young scientists with valuable first-hand experience in science policy. Kristine Zikmanis is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Biological Sciences at Florida International University. As an ecologist, Zikmanis studies animal behavior and has a strong interest in research at the intersection of ecology and ...

SCN2A related-disorders, although rare in the general population, are one of the more common single-gene neurodevelopmental conditions characterized by infantile seizures, autism spectrum disorder and intellectual disabilities Severity of these disorders varies widely from person to person Findings should help better identify patients who are most appropriate for clinical trials of new precision medicines and gene therapies CHICAGO --- A genetic change or variant in a gene called SCN2A is a known cause of infantile seizures, autism spectrum disorder and intellectual disability, as well as a wide range of other moderate-to-profound impairments in mobility, ...

The number of health care professionals able to write a prescription for a key medication to treat addiction quadrupled at community health clinics from 2016 to 2021, according to a new study by researchers at Oregon Health & Science University. The findings, published online today in the journal JAMA Health Forum, provides a glimmer of hope amid a national overdose epidemic that has claimed more than 100,000 lives in the United States in each of the past few years. The study examined community health centers serving low-income people primarily in West Coast states. Researchers ...

Riverside, Calif. -- 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 Coachella Valley. From September to December 2020, the team, led by Ann Cheney, an associate professor of social medicine, population, and public health in the School of Medicine, conducted interviews in collaboration with ...

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 of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers from the UChicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering and the Chemistry ...

The social and environmental impact of the Belo Monte dam and hydroelectric power plant in Pará state, Brazil, has been called a “disaster” by researchers, environmentalists and several media outlets. The damage has again been highlighted recently in an inspection report issued by the Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA), an agency of the Ministry for the Environment and Climate Change. The inspectors detected silting and erosion of the Xingu River, obstacles to river navigation, a significant ...

CHICAGO (April 26, 2024) ─ The expanding use of transcatheter technologies has changed the landscape in the treatment of valvular disease in adult cardiac patients, with valve surgery rapidly shifting to more complex interventions frequently involving other concomitant procedures. To inform heart team and patient decision-making on valve surgery, The Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) has launched new risk calculators for isolated tricuspid valve repair and replacement; surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR) after ...

Adding a pre-ketone supplement — a component of a high-fat, low-carb ketogenic diet — to a type of cancer therapy in a laboratory setting was highly effective for treating prostate cancer, researchers from the University of Notre Dame found. Recently published online in the journal Cancer Research, the study from Xin Lu, the John M. and Mary Jo Boler Collegiate Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, and collaborators tackled a problem oncologists have battled: Prostate cancer is resistant to a type of immunotherapy called immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) ...

A recent United Nations report found that the world generated 137 billion pounds of electronic waste in 2022, an 82% increase from 2010. Yet less than a quarter of 2022’s e-waste was recycled. While many things impede a sustainable afterlife for electronics, one is that we don’t have systems at scale to recycle the printed circuit boards (PCBs) found in nearly all electronic devices. PCBs — which house and interconnect chips, transistors and other components — typically consist of layers of thin glass fiber sheets coated ...

DURHAM, N.C. – A blood test successfully predicted knee osteoarthritis at least eight years before tell-tale signs of the disease appeared on x-rays, Duke Health researchers report.   In a study appearing April 26 in the journal Science Advances, the researchers validated the accuracy of the blood test that identifies key biomarkers of osteoarthritis. They showed that it predicted development of the disease, as well as its progression, which was demonstrated in their earlier work.   The research advances the utility of a blood test that would be superior to current ...

The Ecological Society of America (ESA) presents a roundup of four research articles recently published across its six esteemed journals. Widely recognized for fostering innovation and advancing ecological knowledge, ESA’s journals consistently feature illuminating and impactful studies. This compilation of papers explores fire hazards in Mediterranean cork oak woodlands, putting theory to work predicting where cold-blooded organisms will occur under climate change, barriers to going high-tech in rangeland management and more, showcasing the Society’s commitment to promoting cutting-edge research that furthers our understanding of the natural world.   From Ecological ...

Dr James Gill, a Clinical Lecturer at the University of Warwick and a practising GP, will attend a pivotal event hosted at the House of Lords on Monday (April 29) focused on combating the global crisis of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Antimicrobial resistance poses a formidable threat to communities worldwide, with projections indicating that by 2050, over 10 million deaths annually could be attributed to AMR, surpassing even the toll of cancer. In the face of this escalating emergency, effective communication is paramount. Health professionals and organisations play a crucial role in disseminating accurate, accessible information to raise awareness about critical ...

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. The report documents the discovery, the first finding of HPAIV in a cetacean in North America, from the initial response by UF’s Marine Animal Rescue team to a report of a distressed dolphin in Dixie County, Florida, to the subsequent identification of the virus from brain and tissue samples obtained in a postmortem ...

The same geometric quirk that lets visitors murmur messages around the circular dome of the whispering gallery at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London or across St. Louis Union Station’s whispering arch also enables the construction of high-resolution optical sensors. Whispering-gallery-mode (WGM) resonators have been used for decades to detect chemical signatures, DNA strands and even single molecules. In the same way that the architecture of a whispering gallery bends and focuses sound waves, WGM microresonators confine and concentrate light in a tiny circular path. This enables WGM resonators ...

NEWPORT NEWS, VA – On April 18, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility welcomed Under Secretary for Science and Innovation Geraldine (Geri) Richmond for a tour of the lab and briefing on its research mission, innovation and STEM programs. Throughout the day, much of the conversation centered on a common theme of how the lab is working to ensure it is a hub of engagement, partnership, and access for researchers, students, community leaders and others. Ensuring diverse communities have access to the programs, ...

Hundreds of faculty, students and business leaders flocked to The University of Texas at Arlington for its second annual Research and Innovation Expo, an event designed to showcase the University’s research efforts. “This is an event where we can showcase our research achievements and encourage everyone to learn about and engage with other investigators outside their own fields,” said Eileen Clements, interim executive director of the UT Arlington Research Institute and an organizer of the event. Researchers learned how ...

By Leah Shaffer A new imaging technique developed by engineers at Washington University in St. Louis can give scientists a much closer look at fibril assemblies, stacks of peptides like amyloid beta, most notably associated with Alzheimer’s disease. These cross-β fibril assemblies are also useful building blocks within designer biomaterials for medical applications, but their resemblance to their amyloid beta cousins, whose tangles are a symptom of neurodegenerative disease, is concerning. Researchers want ...