FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Monday, September 30, 2024 Contact: Jillian McKoy, jpmckoy@bu.edu Michael Saunders, msaunder@bu.edu ## BU Professor Receives $29M NIH Grant to Study Dementia Risk Factors, Prevention, and Treatment The Triangulation of Innovative Methods to End Alzheimer’s Disease project will use large, diverse datasets to examine whether interventions targeting alcohol use, depression, vision or hearing impairments, or social isolation can protect people from Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. This project is a collaboration among Dr. Maria Glymour at Boston University School of Public Health, Dr. Jacqueline ...

In an important step to protect the public from unproven stem cell products, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled in favor of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in U.S. v. California Stem Cell Treatment Center, Inc., reversing the district court. The reversal fortifies FDA’s tiered, risk-based framework for the regulation of cell therapies and is consistent with a similar ruling in the Eleventh Circuit in 2021. The appellees urged the Ninth Circuit to uphold the lower court’s ...

A group of essential signaling molecules known as the Wnt pathway emerged early in the evolution of multicellular life. Scientists have been studying Wnt actions for four decades to comprehend its complex roles in development and disease. In development of the mammalian kidney, USC Stem Cell scientists from Andy McMahon’s lab undertook a pair of complementary studies, published today in the journal Development, that provide new insight into the critical role of Wnt signaling in initiating the development of the mammalian kidney. “Many stem and progenitor cells require Wnt signaling, ...

Flooding, including the devastation caused recently by Hurricane Helene, is responsible for $5 billion in annual damages in the U.S. That’s more than any other type of weather-related extreme event. To address the problem, the federal government instituted a program in 1990 that helps reduce flood insurance costs in communities enacting measures to better handle flooding. If, say, a town preserves open space as a buffer against coastal flooding, or develops better stormwater management, area policy owners get discounts on their ...

WASHINGTON — Researchers have developed a new method that combines video from thermal cameras with AI-based digital processing to enhance weightlifting training. By providing data-driven insights that enable targeted training and recovery strategies, the approach could help to optimize performance and safety in a variety of sport and exercise contexts. Thermal, or infrared, images can provide valuable information for sports and health by tracking muscle activation and detecting areas of strain or fatigue. This information can be used to prevent injuries, monitor thermal responses and quantify physical exercise, ultimately helping athletes boost their skills. However, most ...

Prior research has found that exposure to social diversity in early life, such as through day care, influences how people communicate. Those early social experiences can also moderate tendencies toward stereotyping down the road, according to a new study published in the NPJ Science of Learning. "The more time an individual spent in day care as a child, the more likely they are to overcome their own stereotypical beliefs during social interactions later in life," says senior author Arjen Stolk, an assistant professor in the Department ...

WASHINGTON — Researchers have developed a new type of bifocal lens that offers a simple way to achieve two foci (or spots) with intensities that can be adjusted by applying external voltage. The lenses, which use two layers of liquid crystal structures, could be useful for various applications such as optical interconnections, biological imaging, augmented/virtual reality devices and optical computing. “Most liquid-crystal-based devices are made from single-layer structures, but this limits light field modulation ...

After suicide care was integrated into routine primary care visits, researchers saw a 25% decrease in the rate of suicide attempts in the following 90 days, a new Kaiser Permanente study finds. The study, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, is the first to show that suicide risk screening in primary care, followed by safety planning, improved suicide prevention efforts in a health care setting. The trial took place at Kaiser Permanente clinics in Washington state, using data from January 2015 to July 2018. “Our findings are important because we know many people seek primary care prior to fatal and nonfatal suicide attempts,” ...

LA JOLLA (Sept 30, 2024)—More than one-third of adults in the United States have metabolic syndrome, a cluster of conditions that significantly raise a person’s risk of heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes. These conditions include high blood pressure, elevated blood sugar, excess abdominal fat, and abnormal cholesterol levels. In a new clinical trial, researchers at the Salk Institute and University of California San Diego School of Medicine found that time-restricted eating—also known as intermittent fasting—could offer significant health benefits to adults with metabolic syndrome. Patients ...

Embargoed for release until 5:00 p.m. ET on Monday 30 September 2024   @Annalsofim        Below please find summaries of new articles that will be published in the next issue of Annals of Internal Medicine. The summaries are not intended to substitute for the full articles as a source of information. This information is under strict embargo and by taking it into possession, media representatives are committing to the terms of the embargo not only on their own behalf, but also on behalf of ...

URBANA, Ill. – Hyperspectral imaging is a useful technique for analyzing the chemical composition of food and agricultural products. However, it is a costly and complicated procedure, which limits its practical application. A team of University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers has developed a method to reconstruct hyperspectral images from standard RGB images using deep machine learning. This technique can greatly simplify the analytical process and potentially revolutionize product assessment in the agricultural industry. “Hyperspectral ...

Purdue-led TOMI project receives $3.5M grant to turn a decade of data into new tools and strategies for tomato farmers WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Indiana ranks third in the nation for tomato production. Lori Hoagland, a professor in Purdue University’s Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, recently received ​​a third grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA-NIFA) for the Tomato Organic Management and ...

More than 200 viruses can infect and cause disease in humans; most of us will be infected by several over the course of a lifetime. Does an encounter with one virus influence how your immune system responds to a different one? If so, how? Does it weaken your defenses, boost them, or have some other impact altogether? These are questions Rockefeller University scientists from the Laboratory of Virology and Infectious Disease,headed by Charles M. Rice, and Weill Cornell Medicine’s Laboratory of Epigenetics and Immunity, headed by Steven Z. Josefowicz, teamed up to answer in a new study published in the journal Immunity. ...

Hoboken, N.J., September 30, 2024 – It has been estimated that nearly 300 million people, or about 4% of the global population, are afflicted by some form of depression. But detecting it can be difficult, particularly when those affected don’t (or won't) report negative feelings to friends, family or clinicians. Now Stevens professor Sang Won Bae is working on several AI-powered smartphone applications and systems that could non-invasively warn us, and others, that we may be becoming depressed. “Depression is a major challenge,” says Bae. “We want to help.” "And since most people in the world today use smartphones daily, this could ...

The addition of the cancer immunotherapy drug atezolizumab to the standard of care concurrent chemoradiation (cCRT) did not improve overall survival for patients with limited-stage small cell lung cancer (LS-SCLC) in the second planned interim analysis of the NRG Oncology/Alliance NRG-LU005 clinical trial. These results were recently reported during the Plenary Session of the American Society for Radiation Oncology Annual Meeting in Washington, DC. “While atezolizumab given concurrently with chemoradiation did not improve survival, we have still learned quite a bit from these findings. With the success of the ADRIATIC trial ...

The NRG Oncology NRG-HN005 phase II/III clinical trial did not meet the non-inferiority criteria to proceed to the phase III portion of the study. The phase II portion of the NRG-HN005 evaluated two experimental treatment arms against a control arm for patients with p16-positive (p16+, accepted as a surrogate for HPV+ status), locoregionally advanced oropharyngeal cancer. The interim futility results were recently reported during the Plenary Session of the American Society for Radiation Oncology Annual Meeting in Washington, DC. “This ...

A study carried out at Mount Sinaí Fuster Heart Hospital in New York in collaboration with the Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares (CNIC) in Madrid provides important new information about atherosclerosis, a disease in which lipids (cholesterol) and other substances accumulate in plaques on the arterial wall, causing the vessels to harden and narrow, and increasing the risk of severe cardiovascular conditions.  The study, published in The Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC), was led by Dr. Valentín Fuster, Director of the Cardiovascular ...

The progression of atherosclerosis in people who have no symptoms of it is independently associated with the risk of dying from any cause, according to a new study led by researchers from Mount Sinai Fuster Heart Hospital, published September 30 in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. This research is also the first to show that advanced imaging can detect atherosclerotic disease of the large vessels long before the appearance of symptoms—an approach that could be used worldwide to prevent cardiovascular disease and risk of death. Together, the findings ...

Lily Wang, Professor, Statistics, College of Engineering and Computing (CEC), received funding for the project: “Collaborative Research: Unlocking Complex Heterogeneity in Large Spatial-Temporal Data with Scalable Quantile Learning.” Wang and her collaborator, Huixia Judy Wang, Department Chair and Professor of Statistics at The George Washington University, are developing scalable and efficient quantile learning techniques and theories to address challenges in analyzing large-scale heterogeneous spatial and temporal data. These new analytical techniques will have wide-ranging applications, revolutionizing scientists’ understanding of spatial and temporal ...

Heart transplant patients who live in socioeconomically disadvantaged areas are more likely to experience post-surgical complications and die within five years than patients who live in more advantaged areas, even when those patients were transplanted at topnotch high-volume hospitals, new UCLA research suggests. The findings, to be published September 30 in the peer-reviewed Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation, the official publication of the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation, suggest that a lack of access ...

Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine have identified a new mechanism underlying inflammatory skin diseases, such as psoriasis and seborrheic dermatitis. They found that a protein essential in forming the skin’s protective barrier (ZNF750) also plays a role in controlling inflammation in skin cells, shedding light on why some people are more susceptible to inflammatory skin diseases than others. The study paves the way for more effective and personalized therapies for these debilitating diseases and also offers broader ...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (September 30, 2024) – The University of Missouri-Kansas City Healthcare Institute for Innovations in Quality and Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute today announced a nationwide, four-year observational study of U.S. pregnant people with cardiovascular disease to better understand and combat maternal mortality and morbidity. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health awarded more than $7.9 million to the UMKC Healthcare Institute for Innovations in Quality to fund the study, Heart Outcomes in Pregnancy Expectations (HOPE) ...

WASHINGTON, September 30, 2024 — Spiritual beliefs and a historically-based distrust of clinical research may factor into Black patients’ decisions about whether to participate in cancer trials, according to surveys of patients treated at two Baltimore medical centers. Findings will be presented today at the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) Annual Meeting.  This cross-sectional, descriptive study found lingering distrust in clinical research among Black patients, despite their self-reported trust in their cancer medical teams. The surveys sought to shed light on what might be contributing to the growing underrepresentation of Black people in cancer trials ...

In a retrospective study of Medicare claims data, researchers found dementia was more frequently diagnosed within one year of a fall compared to other types of injuries. KEY TAKEAWAYS In a retrospective cohort study involving more than 2 million older adults who sustained an injury, 10.6% of patients who experienced a fall were subsequently diagnosed with dementia. Compared to other types of injuries, falls were associated with a 21% increased risk for future dementia diagnosis. Findings support implementing cognitive screenings for older adults who have experienced a fall resulting in an emergency room visit or hospital admission. Researchers ...

About The Study: This study found that female physicians were underrepresented among residents entering high-compensation specialties compared with non–high-compensation specialties. However, while high-compensation surgical specialties experienced a steady increase in the proportion of female applicants and matriculants over time, high-compensation nonsurgical specialties experienced an overall decrease in the proportion of female applicants and no significant changes in the proportion of female matriculants. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Karina Pereira-Lima, PhD, ...