(Press-News.org)
A team of researchers at The Keck School of Medicine of USC have received a $3.4 million federal grant to advance research on an innovative approach to slowing age-related cognitive decline.
The award is from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), an agency withing the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that funds transformational research to tackle tough health problems. The grant is part of ARPA-H’s Sprint for Women’s Health initiative to address critical unmet challenges in women’s health, champion transformative innovations, and tackle health conditions that uniquely or disproportionately affect women. USC will receive $3.4 million in funding over two years through the Sprint for Women’s Health spark track for early-stage research efforts.
Young-Kwon Hong, PhD, Chief of the Division of Basic Science Research in the Department of Surgery at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, and his team are working on slowing age-related cognitive decline in women by helping the brain’s lymphatic system clear more waste.
“With their longer lifespans, aging women have a higher susceptibility to dementia and neurodegenerative disorders,” explained Dr. Hong. “Two out of every three patients diagnosed with cognitive decline are women.”
Dr. Hong and his team have already discovered a drug that may delay the onset of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease by improving the performance of the brain’s lymphatic system. They believe that by clearing waste buildup in the brain, they can slow the progress of cognitive decline. Their Sprint for Women’s Health project will test the combination of that drug with focused ultrasound treatment to accelerate the removal of waste.
“Anyone with a loved one in cognitive decline knows how devastating—and terrifying—it can be for the patient and for everyone around them. I believe that combining targeted ultrasound therapy with our drug therapy may offer hope to thousands of people. We may even be able to refine the treatment to a simple at-home process. This has an enormous potential to help people keep their dignity and their connection to loved ones.”
ARPA-H sought solutions within six topics of interest in women’s health, and received an unprecedented response of submissions—more than 1700 from 34 countries, with only 24 applicants receiving funding. ARPA-H launched the Sprint for Women’s Health in February, with First Lady Jill Biden announcing the funding as the first major deliverable from the White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research.
The ARPA-H Sprint for Women’s Health is conducted in collaboration with the Investor Catalyst Hub of ARPANET-H, the agency’s nationwide health innovation network that connects people, innovators, and institutions to accelerate better health outcomes for everyone. USC will work with an ARPA-H Program Manager and the Investor Catalyst Hub over two years to develop their proposed solution, receiving milestone-based payments aligned to research activities and performance objectives.
About The Department of Surgery at the Keck School of Medicine of USC
Under the leadership of Department Chairman Vaughn A. Starnes, MD, The Department of Surgery at the Keck School of Medicine of USC has developed a strong focus on scientific research. The program actively works to promote both clinical research and bench science, offering both financial support and a structure to make sure researchers set up rigorous scientific protocols. In addition, promising surgical residents may do up to two years of pure research and have the opportunity to present their findings at national conferences.
“I am immensely proud of the work Dr. Hong is doing,” said Dr. Starnes. “This started from a personal interest and an educated hunch that he had. When we give our researchers the support they need to pursue those, it benefits our whole community.”
END
Raw milk, hailed by some as a natural and nutritious alternative to pasteurized dairy, may come with hidden dangers, according to a new Stanford University study. The research, published December 12 in Environmental Science & Technology Letters reveals that influenza or flu virus can remain infectious in refrigerated raw milk for up to five days. The findings come at a time when outbreaks of bird flu in dairy cattle have raised concerns about the potential for a new pandemic.
"This work highlights the potential risk of avian influenza ...
Early identification of placental infection could help mothers, babies receive antibiotics
Could help doctors in low-resource areas with no pathology labs, specialists quickly spot issues
In well-resourced hospitals, tool could help doctors determine which placentas need a closer look
CHICAGO --- A newly developed tool that harnesses computer vision and artificial intelligence (AI) may help clinicians rapidly evaluate placentas at birth, potentially improving neonatal and maternal care, according to new research from scientists at Northwestern Medicine and Penn State.
The study, which was published Dec. 13 in ...
PHILADELPHIA – During a shortage of the generic platinum chemotherapy drugs cisplatin and carboplatin that began in early 2023, there was no difference in mortality rates among patients with advanced cancer compared to the previous year, and prescription rates for the two drugs fell less than three percent overall—and 15.1 percent at the peak—according to an analysis published this week in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute by researchers from the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman ...
A new study led by UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center investigators offers new evidence that dietary changes may help reduce cancer cell growth in patients undergoing active surveillance, a treatment approach that involves regular monitoring of the cancer without immediate intervention.
The findings, published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, show that a diet low in omega-6 and high in omega-3 fatty acids, combined with fish oil supplements, significantly reduced the growth rate of prostate cancer cells in men with early-stage disease.
“This ...
Dan G. Duda, DMD, PhD, of the Edwin L. Steele Laboratories for Tumor Biology and Department of Radiation Oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital, is the corresponding author of a paper published in Cancer Immunology Research, “Combination CXCR4 and PD1 Blockade Enhances Intratumoral Dendritic Cell Activation and Immune Responses Against Hepatocellular Carcinoma.”
How would you summarize your study for a lay audience?
Immunotherapy has revolutionized the management of cancer, including liver malignancies. However, the benefits are limited by multiple mechanisms ...
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Dark-humored memes — like “This is fine,” featuring a dog wearing a bowler hat in a room on fire — tend to dominate social media during times when the world appears to be falling apart. But what bothers people most can spur action and change, especially on the local level, according to Lisa Silvestri, associate teaching professor of communication arts and sciences at Penn State.
Silvestri shifted her research focus to peace- and community building after studying ...
Physics lab courses are vital to science education, providing hands-on experience and technical skills that lectures can’t offer. Yet, it’s challenging for those in Physics Education Research (PER) to compare course to course, especially since these courses vary wildly worldwide.
To better understand these differences, JILA Fellow and University of Colorado Boulder physics professor Heather Lewandowski and a group of international collaborators are working towards creating a global taxonomy, a classification system that could create a more equitable way to compare these courses. Their findings were recently ...
Key takeaways
The galaxy M87, located in the Virgo constellation, provided the first-ever photo of a black hole in 2019, when the Event Horizon Telescope captured an image of the supermassive black hole at the galaxy’s center.
An international research team including UCLA has observed a teraelectronvolt gamma-ray flare seven orders of magnitude — tens of millions of times — larger than the event horizon, or surface of the black hole itself.
A flare of this intensity — which has not been observed in over a decade — can offer crucial insights ...
The Alliance of Hispanic-Serving Research Universities (HSRU) will lead a project to increase the number of doctoral graduates in technical fields from its 22 institutions from across the nation. The initiative is supported by a new $9.3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD). UCF’s portion of the funding totals approximately $4.8 million.
The effort, titled Hispanic Serving Research Institutions Research and STEM Education (HSI-RSE) Project, is co-led by UCF and the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP).
The project aims to address the critical need for high-quality ...
Multinational enterprises (MNEs) are not just falling short of global sustainability targets but are actively contributing to the very problems they claim to address, according to a new study from the University of Surrey. This study argues that there is an urgent need for MNEs to reassess their innovation strategies to align with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The research team found that many MNEs are prioritising profit over sustainable practices. The study highlights how MNEs often adopt superficial compliance measures rather than engaging in meaningful, sustainable innovations by analysing case studies from various countries, including both advanced ...
