PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

National Science Foundation and The Kavli Foundation partner on call for research proposals in neurobiology and changing ecosystems

2024-01-24
(Press-News.org) The Kavli Foundation and the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Directorate for Biological Sciences' Division for Integrative Organismal Systems have joined forces to launch a grant program in neurobiology and changing ecosystems. Research in this emerging field has great potential to reveal novel scientific insights that will accelerate understanding of basic biology in neural adaptation and resilience at the molecular, biophysical, cellular, and circuit levels. 

“NSF’s partnership with The Kavli Foundation will enable the U.S. to advance research in this emerging and understudied field,” remarked Denise Dearing, Division Director of Integrative Organismal Systems in the Directorate for Biological Sciences. “We look forward to enabling novel, interdisciplinary opportunities to advance the world’s understanding of how the neural systems of animals are impacted by a changing environment.”  

Understanding how neural systems are impacted by - or resilient to - changes in natural environments is of vital importance, and why The Kavli Foundation launched its Neurobiology and Changing Ecosystems initiative in August 2023, followed by research grant awards announced in November at the Society for Neuroscience meeting. Now with the NSF partnership, additional opportunities open up for researchers to explore the neurobiological mechanisms that underlie neural, physiological, and behavioral responses to anthropogenic environmental change – a critical area of study with today's rapidly evolving world. 

“Accelerated environmental changes are testing the limits of neural systems at many levels – from insects, to fish, to human. This presents an opportunity for discovery, to gain greater insight into the mechanisms that regulate adaptation,” said Amy Bernard, Director of Life Sciences at The Kavli Foundation. “We are thrilled to partner with NSF to identify and support fundamental research in this overlooked but essential area of neuroscience.” 

Research proposals are invited through application to the National Science Foundation. Preferred projects will emphasize interdisciplinary collaborations and integrate diverse methodologies, such as environmental monitoring, behavioral and physiological measurement, ecological and evolutionary modeling, combined with traditional approaches in neuroscience investigation. Details on submitting proposals can be found on the NSF website through a Dear Colleague Letter. 

END


ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Facial recognition app for dogs developed to help in fight against rabies

Facial recognition app for dogs developed to help in fight against rabies
2024-01-24
A new mobile phone-based facial recognition application for dogs has the potential to significantly improve rabies vaccination efforts in endemic areas like Africa and Asia, according to a study on the research published in the journal Scientific Reports. Led by researchers at Washington State University, a team used the app to test its effectiveness at a rabies vaccination clinic in rural Tanzania where they microchipped, vaccinated and registered dogs. The technology proved remarkably accurate during a subsequent visit to surrounding villages once poor images and improperly recorded ...

New study unveils how plants control the production of reactive oxygen species

New study unveils how plants control the production of reactive oxygen species
2024-01-24
Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are highly reactive molecules containing oxygen. These compounds, which are normal byproducts of biological processes in all living organisms such as aerobic respiration as well as photosynthesis, are highly toxic. In most cases, ROS damage cellular machinery and can trigger a harmful stress response if their levels are not kept in tight check; this is why antioxidants are an important part of our diet.   However, over the past few decades, scientists have discovered that ROS are often intentionally ...

Rice study unlocks breakthrough for breast cancer bone metastases

Rice study unlocks breakthrough for breast cancer bone metastases
2024-01-24
HOUSTON – (Jan. 24, 2023) – Rice University researchers in the lab of chemist Han Xiao have identified a promising new immunological pathway to treat stubborn bone tumors, one of most prevalent forms of metastases in breast cancer patients. “More than 70% of people with metastatic breast cancer will see the cancer cells move to bone, which can lead to skeletal-related events like bone pain, fractures, and hypercalcemia,” said Yixian Wang, a Rice graduate student in the Han lab who is a lead author on a study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. ...

The fountain of youth is … a T cell?

The fountain of youth is … a T cell?
2024-01-24
The fountain of youth has eluded explorers for ages. It turns out the magic anti-aging elixir might have been inside us all along. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) Assistant Professor Corina Amor Vegas and colleagues have discovered that T cells can be reprogrammed to fight aging, so to speak. Given the right set of genetic modifications, these white blood cells can attack another group of cells known as senescent cells. These cells are thought to be responsible for many of the diseases we grapple with later in life. Senescent cells are those that stop replicating. As we age, they build up in our bodies, ...

Infants born to COVID-infected mothers have triple the risk of developing respiratory distress

2024-01-24
New UCLA-led research finds that infants born full term to mothers who were infected with COVID-19 during pregnancy had three times the risk of having respiratory distress compared with unexposed infants, even though they themselves were not infected with the virus. The risk was significantly lower when the mothers infected during pregnancy were previously vaccinated. The researchers found that in-utero exposure to SARS-CoV-2 sparked an “inflammatory cascade” in the infants, increasing the risk of a breathing disorder that most often ...

More than half of US adults don’t know heart disease is leading cause of death, despite 100-year reign

2024-01-24
Highlights: More than half (51%) of respondents in a 2023 Harris Poll survey conducted on behalf of the American Heart Association did not identify heart disease as the leading cause of death in the U.S. According to the 2024 Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics: A Report of U.S. and Global Data From the American Heart Association, heart disease has been the leading cause of death in the U.S. for 100 years. Heart disease along with stroke, which is the fifth leading cause of death, claimed more lives ...

Ultrafast excitations in correlated systems

Ultrafast excitations in correlated systems
2024-01-24
An international team of researchers from the European XFEL together with colleagues from the Max Born Institute in Berlin, Universities of Berlin and Hamburg, The University of Tokyo, the Japanese National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), the Dutch Radboud University, Imperial College London, and Hamburg Center for Ultrafast Imaging, have presented new ideas for ultrafast multi-dimensional spectroscopy of strongly correlated solids. This work has now been published in Nature Photonics. "Strongly correlated solids are complex and fascinating quantum systems in which new electronic states often ...

Chemotherapy becomes more efficient when senescent cells are eliminated by immunotherapy

Chemotherapy becomes more efficient when senescent cells are eliminated by immunotherapy
2024-01-24
Barcelona, 24 January 2024 – Cancer treatments, including chemotherapy, in addition to killing a large number of tumour cells, also result in the generation of senescent tumour cells (also called “zombi cells”). While senescent cells do not reproduce, they do, unfortunately, generate a favourable environment for the expansion of tumour cells that may have escaped the effects of the chemotherapy and eventually result in tumour regrowth. An international team of researchers led by Dr. Manuel Serrano at IRB Barcelona have described how cancer cells that have become senescent after ...

TRAILS AI Institute announces first round of Seed Funding

TRAILS AI Institute announces first round of Seed Funding
2024-01-24
The Institute for Trustworthy AI in Law & Society (TRAILS) has unveiled an inaugural round of seed grants designed to integrate a greater diversity of stakeholders into the artificial intelligence (AI) development and governance lifecycle, ultimately creating positive feedback loops to improve trustworthiness, accessibility and efficacy in AI-infused systems. The eight grants announced on January 24, 2024—ranging from $100K to $150K apiece and totaling just over $1.5 million—were awarded to interdisciplinary ...

Cognitive behavioral therapy alters brain activity in children with anxiety

2024-01-24
Researchers at the National Institutes of Health have found overactivation in many brain regions, including the frontal and parietal lobes and the amygdala, in unmedicated children with anxiety disorders. They also showed that treatment with cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) led to improvements in clinical symptoms and brain functioning. The findings illuminate the brain mechanisms underlying the acute effects of CBT to treat one of the most common mental disorders. The study, published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, was led by researchers at NIH’s ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Eye for trouble: Automated counting for chromosome issues under the microscope

The vast majority of US rivers lack any protections from human activities, new research finds

Ultrasound-responsive in situ antigen "nanocatchers" open a new paradigm for personalized tumor immunotherapy

Environmental “superbugs” in our rivers and soils: new one health review warns of growing antimicrobial resistance crisis

Triple threat in greenhouse farming: how heavy metals, microplastics, and antibiotic resistance genes unite to challenge sustainable food production

Earthworms turn manure into a powerful tool against antibiotic resistance

AI turns water into an early warning network for hidden biological pollutants

Hidden hotspots on “green” plastics: biodegradable and conventional plastics shape very different antibiotic resistance risks in river microbiomes

Engineered biochar enzyme system clears toxic phenolic acids and restores pepper seed germination in continuous cropping soils

Retail therapy fail? Online shopping linked to stress, says study

How well-meaning allies can increase stress for marginalized people

Commercially viable biomanufacturing: designer yeast turns sugar into lucrative chemical 3-HP

Control valve discovered in gut’s plumbing system

George Mason University leads phase 2 clinical trial for pill to help maintain weight loss after GLP-1s

Hop to it: research from Shedd Aquarium tracks conch movement to set new conservation guidance

Weight loss drugs and bariatric surgery improve the body’s fat ‘balance:’ study

The Age of Fishes began with mass death

TB harnesses part of immune defense system to cause infection

Important new source of oxidation in the atmosphere found

A tug-of-war explains a decades-old question about how bacteria swim

Strengthened immune defense against cancer

Engineering the development of the pancreas

The Journal of Nuclear Medicine ahead-of-print tip sheet: Jan. 9, 2026

Mount Sinai researchers help create largest immune cell atlas of bone marrow in multiple myeloma patients

Why it is so hard to get started on an unpleasant task: Scientists identify a “motivation brake”

Body composition changes after bariatric surgery or treatment with GLP-1 receptor agonists

Targeted regulation of abortion providers laws and pregnancies conceived through fertility treatment

Press registration is now open for the 2026 ACMG Annual Clinical Genetics Meeting

Understanding sex-based differences and the role of bone morphogenetic protein signaling in Alzheimer’s disease

Breakthrough in thin-film electrolytes pushes solid oxide fuel cells forward

[Press-News.org] National Science Foundation and The Kavli Foundation partner on call for research proposals in neurobiology and changing ecosystems