Science
press releases.

Science20 Sep 2023

Ya-Chieh Hsu, Ph.D. (Harvard) and Xuebing Wu, Ph.D. (Columbia) receive inaugural Glenn Foundation Discovery Awards

Santa Barbara, CA and New York, NY -- The Glenn Foundation for Medical Research (GFMR) and the American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR) are pleased to announce the inaugural recipients of the 2023 Glenn Foundation Discovery Awards: Ya-Chieh Hsu, PhD, Professor of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology at Harvard University, and a Principal Faculty Member at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute. Xuebing Wu, PhD, Assistant Professor of Medical Sciences (in Medicine and in Systems Biology), Columbia University. The Glenn Foundation Discovery Award was created to support research projects with strong potential to develop pioneering discoveries ...

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Science20 Sep 2023

Multimillion-dollar scientific grant program releases third cycle of funding to increase foundational understanding of sarcoidosis

WASHINGTON (September 20, 2023)—The Ann Theodore Foundation Breakthrough Sarcoidosis Initiative (ATF-BSI), in partnership with the Milken Institute, launched its latest round of funding today. Up to $3.4 million in total funding will be made available to researchers from around the world whose work aims to increase scientific understanding of sarcoidosis. The program is accepting applications for two-year research projects and intends to award four to six research grants from doctorate-level investigators at qualifying research-based institutions worldwide. Awardees may be eligible for a third year of funding. Sarcoidosis is an inflammatory ...

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Science20 Sep 2023

Zhijian ‘James’ Chen and Glen Barber awarded Horwitz prize for discovering the cGAS-STING pathway

NEW YORK, NY (September 20, 2023)—Columbia will award the 2023 Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize to Zhijian ‘James’ Chen and Glen Barber for discovering the cGAS-STING pathway, a key component of one of the body’s first line of defenses, the innate immune system. When pathogens infiltrate our cells, they leave behind traces of their DNA. These molecular fingerprints are detected by our cGAS-STING pathway, which sounds the alarm and mobilizes the immune system to eliminate invading threats. Research on the cGAS-STING pathway has revealed the ...

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Science20 Sep 2023

Citizen Science receives a significant boost

There is a growing interest in incorporating assistance from private citizens into scientific projects globally. Nonetheless, it seems that Anders P. Tøttrup, an Associate Professor at the Natural History Museum of Denmark, might become the world's first professor in Citizen Science. Anders P. Tøttrup is a trained biologist and leads the section for Citizen Science projects at the Natural History Museum of Denmark. These projects involve scientific endeavours in which citizens are invited to assist in collecting and analyzing data. Now, the Museum is taking a step further as Anders P. Tøttrup enters a 'professor track.' The goal is ...

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Science20 Sep 2023

A hot summer led to more malaria deaths the following year

As climate change accelerates, it is becoming increasingly important to study the impact of climate change on human health. A new thesis from the University of Gothenburg examines church records and historical weather data in the Nordic countries to show that the risk of dying from malaria was higher if the previous summer was a hot one. The growing impact of climate change on human health is an acute global threat in the 21st century. The rise in certain types of extreme weather events is not only affecting individuals, but also putting ecosystems that are closely linked to our health under pressure. “As the climate grows warmer, there is a risk of insect-borne ...

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Science20 Sep 2023

Shading the Great Barrier Reef from the sun might slow bleaching-induced coral decline

Over the past two decades, coral reefs have declined at unprecedented rates. This is in part because of extreme weather events, which cause wide-spread coral bleaching, a process during which corals lose their color because of stressors, including changes in water temperature, light, or nutrient availability. One of the worst mass bleaching events occurred in 2016 and 2017 on the Great Barrier Reef, causing bleaching on 91% of the system’s reefs. As frequency and severity of mass bleaching events are expected to increase in the future, researchers are looking for ways to protect corals from excessive radiation and temperatures. As part of the Cooling and Shading ...

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Science20 Sep 2023

New method makes microcombs ten times more efficient

Microcombs can help us discover planets outside our solar system and track new diseases in our bodies. But current microcombs are inefficient and unable to reach their full potential. Now, researchers at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden have scored a world first with their solution to make microcombs ten times more efficient. Their breakthrough opens the way to new discoveries in space and healthcare and paves the way for high-performance lasers in a range of other technologies. Laser frequency ...

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Science20 Sep 2023

How good is Google Bard’s visual understanding? An empirical study on open challenges

Bard, Google’s AI chatbot, based on LaMDA and later PaLM models, was launched with moderate success in March 2023 before expanding globally in May. It’s a generative AI that accepts prompts and performs text-based tasks like providing answers, and summaries, and creating various forms of text content. On 13 July 2023, Google Bard announced a major update which allowed providing images as inputs together with textual prompts. It was claimed that Bard can analyze visual content and provide a description (e.g., image captions) or answer questions using visual ...

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Science20 Sep 2023

Grant supports research on extreme risk of alcohol abuse among Pacific Islander young adults

RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- In previous research, Andrew Subica and his colleagues found exceptionally high rates of alcohol use disorder (or alcohol abuse) and alcohol-related harms among Pacific Islander young adults. Now Subica, an associate professor in the UC Riverside School of Medicine’s Department of Social Medicine, Population, and Public Health, has received a $3 million grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, or NIAAA, of the National Institutes of Health to conduct research aimed at preventing these disorders and harms in Pacific ...

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Science20 Sep 2023

Researchers issue urgent call to save the world’s largest flower -Rafflesia - from extinction

UNDER EMBARGO UNTIL 00:01 BST WEDNESDAY 20 SEPTEMBER 2023 / 19:01 ET TUESDAY 19 SEPTEMBER 2023 New study finds that most Rafflesia species, which produce the world’s largest flowers, face extinction. Lack of protection at local, national, and international levels means that remaining populations are under critical threat. Researchers propose an urgent action plan to save these remarkable flowers, building on local success stories. An international group of scientists, including botanists at the University of Oxford’s Botanic ...

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Science20 Sep 2023

Identifying sepsis: Only two out of four recommended screening tools are useful

Barcelona, Spain: Two out of the four internationally-recommended screening tools used by emergency medical services are inadequate for recognising sepsis, according to new research presented at the European Emergency Medicine Congress today (Wednesday). Mrs Silke Piedmont, a health scientist at the Department of Emergency Medicine Campus Benjamin Franklin Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin (Germany), and her colleagues from the University of Magdeburg and Jena (Germany), analysed data on 221,429 patients who were seen by emergency medical services (EMS) in Germany in 2016 outside of the hospital setting. They found that only one out of four ...

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Science19 Sep 2023

Study shows life near the golf course isn't easy for alligators

Is it an eagle? A birdie? No, it’s a gator. The Rosenblatt Lab at the University of North Florida has recently published a study finding that living on a golf course dramatically changes alligator feeding habits. The study suggests that land use changes can significantly alter the feeding habits of large predators. Changes in habitat and prey availability caused gators living on golf courses to have different dietary patterns and access to different prey communities compared to those living in natural habitats. As ...

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Science19 Sep 2023

New study by CDI Lab, NIH assesses rise of ‘hypervirulent’ strains of Klebsiella pneumoniae

Klebsiella pneumoniae (popularly known as KPC) is a little-known bacteria that causes a variety of afflictions, including pneumonia and UTIs, and which can be deadly. “Hypervirulent” strains of the bacteria which cause severe infections, and their multidrug-resistant cousins, are beginning to evolve together, which has raised public health concerns. Now a team of Hackensack Meridian Center for Discovery and Innovation (CDI) scientists have partnered with colleagues at ...

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Science19 Sep 2023

MSU drives future of mobility today at Detroit Auto Show

Images EAST LANSING, Mich. – Michigan State University displayed some of its latest innovative research and introduced attendees to the mobility experts of tomorrow at the 2023 North American International Detroit Auto Show. MSU students and faculty — in partnership with the University Research Corridor, or URC, a cluster of three public research institutions in the state also including the University of Michigan and Wayne State University — presented current research related to ...

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Science19 Sep 2023

Anesthesia & Analgesia devotes special issue to diversity, equity, and inclusion

September 19, 2023 — Reflecting the need in anesthesiology to address diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), Anesthesia & Analgesia has devoted its entire October 2023 issue to these topics. This official journal of the International Anesthesia Research Society is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer. "The mission of Anesthesia & Analgesia states that the Journal exists for the benefit of current and future patients under the care of health care professionals engaged in the disciplines broadly related ...

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Science19 Sep 2023

New book examines benefits, harms and ethics of online crowdfunding

Would you help a complete stranger in desperate need of money, based solely on their social media posts? Simon Fraser University professor and bioethicist Jeremy Snyder examines the complex dimensions of this question in his new book, Appealing to the Crowd: The Ethical, Political, and Practical Dimensions of Donation-Based Crowdfunding (Oxford University Press, 2023) which highlights how online crowdfunding – while helping to meet immediate needs – also impacts privacy and dignity, worsens inequalities, doesn’t solve systemic issues and most often, falls short of its goals. In ...

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Science19 Sep 2023

Real-time live tissue sensitivity assay for pancreatic adenocarcinoma

“This approach may allow clinicians to select the most effective therapeutic agents with real time in patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma.” BUFFALO, NY- September 19, 2023 – A new research paper was published in Oncotarget's Volume 14 on September 15, 2023, entitled, “Real time ex vivo chemosensitivity assay for pancreatic adenocarcinoma.” Patient-derived organoids (PDOs) and xenografts (PDXs) have been extensively studied for drug-screening. However, their usage is limited due to lengthy establishment time, high engraftment failure rates and different tumor microenvironment ...

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Science19 Sep 2023

Recent advances in bread research

Whether light and fluffy or thin and flexible, bread holds an important place in many cultures and cuisines. And despite millennia of baking experience, scientists are still striving to improve this staple food. Below are some recent papers published in ACS journals that report insights into the quality, healthfulness and preparation of bread. Reporters can request free access to these papers by emailing newsroom@acs.org. “Unraveling the Influence of Wheat Bran Chemical Composition, Lipolytic Enzyme Activities, and Phenolic Components on the Bread-Making Properties of Reconstituted Whole Wheat Flours” ACS Food Science & Technology Sept. 13, 2023 Whole-wheat bread contains ...

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Science19 Sep 2023

Expanding the VR immersion comfort zone

Near-eye displays are emerging as the future of portable devices, providing individuals with immersive virtual reality experiences. The primary objectives in developing these displays are to create immersive experiences and ensure visual comfort. While a larger field of view (FOV) enhances immersion in virtual reality, addressing the Vergence-Accommodation-Conflict (VAC) is crucial for comfortable vision. Researchers have explored innovative approaches to tackle these challenges. A significant breakthrough in near-eye displays is the integration of light field technology. However, earlier light field displays in VR were limited by their ...

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Science19 Sep 2023

$7 million in new grants propel Tufts Lyme research to next level

Researchers at the Tufts Lyme Disease Initiative recently received grants totaling more than $7 million to build on an already impressive array of discoveries that Tufts’ teams have made to combat tick-borne diseases. While Lyme disease can often be successfully treated with antibiotics, 10-20% of patients experience persistent fatigue, joint pain, and mental impairments that last months or years. For some, it is never clear whether symptoms signal persistent infection, reinfection, or malfunction by the body’s immune system. Researchers ...

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Science19 Sep 2023

Leading the way in global STI research

Researchers in the University of Delaware College of Health Sciences Department of Medical and Molecular Sciences are playing a pivotal role on the global health stage as they investigate the most common sexually transmitted infection (STI) in the world. Centers for Disease Control statistics show that 79 million Americans have human papillomavirus (HPV). With 14 million new infections each year, 80% of women will get at least one type of HPV at some point in their lifetime, according to the Office on Women’s ...

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Science19 Sep 2023

New evidence indicates vitiligo-associated autoimmunity may contribute to reduced morbidity and mortality risk

Philadelphia, September 19, 2023 – According to a new study comparing patients with and without vitiligo in South Korea, patients with vitiligo were associated with a 25% decreased risk of mortality compared with controls. This suggests that vitiligo-associated autoimmunity may play a role in reducing morbidity and mortality. The results appear in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology, published by Elsevier. Previous studies have documented a reduced risk of cancer in patients with vitiligo, however, there has been limited research on the relationship between vitiligo-associated autoimmunity and the risk of morbidity and mortality ...

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Science19 Sep 2023

Eurosceptics more likely to think of the EU as less democratic than it is, study shows

A significant share of voters see the EU as less democratic than it really is and believe the European Commission can steamroll its member states, a new study shows. The research shows that key channels of legitimation in the EU are not well known by the citizens of large member states. Whether people see themselves only as citizens of their nation, or simultaneously as a European, is linked to what they believe about the EU. A substantial share of EU voters who took part in the study believed that the members of the European Parliament are not directly elected. Many assumed the European Parliament is unimportant for decision ...

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Science19 Sep 2023

Poor water, sanitation, and hygiene in low-income countries may help fuel the emergence of deadly pathogens

A new study suggests that Escherichia coli and other disease-causing microbes are passing easily between humans and animals in Cambodia, a country where clean water, sanitation and hygienic controls are lacking in many regions. The continuous exchange, along with unregulated antibiotic use, leads to the emergence and spread of drug-resistant E. coli, the authors say. Maya Nadimpalli, a scientific collaborator at the Antibiotic Research Action Center at the George Washington University and her international colleagues, conducted the research in Phnom Penh, an urban area where humans and animals are often living in close proximity without clean water or other ...

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Science19 Sep 2023

Argyle study reveals crucial third clue to finding new diamond deposits

Curtin University researchers studying diamond-rich rocks from Western Australia’s Argyle volcano have identified the missing third key ingredient needed to bring valuable pink diamonds to the Earth’s surface where they can be mined, which could greatly help in the global hunt for new deposits. While it is known that for diamonds to form there needs to be carbon deep in the Earth, and for these diamonds to turn pink they must be subjected to forces from colliding tectonic plates, the new study has found the third ingredient needed for the presence of pink diamonds at surface ...

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