New research finds around a quarter of Labrador retriever dogs face a double-whammy of feeling hungry all the time and burning fewer calories due to a genetic mutation. This obesity-driving combination means that dog owners must be particularly strict with feeding and exercising their Labradors to keep them slim. The mutation is in a gene called POMC, which plays a critical role in hunger and energy use. Around 25% of Labradors and 66% of flatcoated retriever dogs have the POMC mutation, which researchers previously showed causes increased interest in food ...

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Many vaccines, including vaccines for hepatitis B and whooping cough, consist of fragments of viral or bacterial proteins. These vaccines often include other molecules called adjuvants, which help to boost the immune system’s response to the protein. Most of these adjuvants consist of aluminum salts or other molecules that provoke a nonspecific immune response. A team of MIT researchers has now shown that a type of nanoparticle called a metal organic framework (MOF) can also provoke a strong immune response, by activating the innate immune system — the body’s first line of defense against ...

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Patients undergoing chemotherapy often experience cognitive effects such as memory impairment and difficulty concentrating — a condition commonly known as “chemo brain.” MIT researchers have now shown that a noninvasive treatment that stimulates gamma frequency brain waves may hold promise for treating chemo brain. In a study of mice, they found that daily exposure to light and sound with a frequency of 40 hertz protected brain cells from chemotherapy-induced damage. The treatment also helped to prevent memory loss and impairment of other ...

A group of Tallinn University researchers has published an innovative study that sheds light on the intricate dynamics of the global film festival circuit, revealing insights into diversity and public value creation within the industry. The research demonstrates that festival programming has become more thematically diverse, and the inclusion of films by women creatives has increased between 2012–2021. The study “Quantifying the global film festival circuit: Networks, diversity, and public value creation,” published open access in the PLOS ONE journal, provides a comprehensive analysis of over 600 film festivals worldwide, spanning a period ...

Researchers in Sweden unveiled a new concept for producing hydrogen energy more efficiently, splitting water into oxygen and hydrogen without the dangerous risk of mixing the two gases. Developed at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, the new method decouples the standard electrolysis process for producing hydrogen gas, which splits water molecules by applying an electric current. In contrast with prevailing systems it produces the resulting oxygen and hydrogen gases separately rather than simultaneously in the same cell, where they need to be separated by membrane barriers That separation eliminates the possibility of the gases mixing with the risk of explosions, says ...

By Simonne Griffith-Jones, Predoctoral Fellow, EMBL Grenoble Researchers from the Bhogaraju Group at EMBL Grenoble have gained new insights into how a cancer-relevant family of proteins bind their targets. The results of the study, published in The EMBO Journal, could potentially help in the development of drugs against certain chemotherapy- and radiotherapy-resistant cancers.   The Melanoma Antigen Gene (MAGE) family consists of more than 40 proteins in humans, most of which are only present in the ...

The University of Texas at Arlington has received a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support educational activities related to the upcoming eclipse. UTA faculty and graduate students are visiting elementary, middle and high schools in the DFW area in March to give talks to about 4,000 students explaining the natural phenomena occurring during the eclipse and the physics behind it. UTA will also provide special eclipse glasses for students to use to avoid eye damage. The $50,000 grant will also provide for about 1,500 students to take field trips to the UTA Planetarium, one of the three largest in Texas, to learn ...

Researchers in Italy have introduced a novel approach for assessing the quality of coffee. In a pioneering new study, they have demonstrated the feasibility of using wearable technology to measure the emotional responses of coffee experts during tastings. Published in SCI’s Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, the study provides an innovative solution for reducing judgement biases that can result from traditional and more subjective methods of coffee quality assessment. Coffee is one of the most popular and widely consumed beverages in the world, ...

A new study finds that prosecutors in North Carolina believe “drug-induced homicide” (DIH) laws are effective at both reducing drug overdoses in a community and curtailing the distribution of illicit drugs. These beliefs are worth noting because there is no evidence to support them, while there is evidence that DIH prosecutions make people in affected communities less likely to call 911 – and may actually increase the number of overdoses in a community. DIH laws, also called “death by distribution” or “delivery resulting in death” laws, ...

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Living in neighborhoods with more white residents and greater lifetime experiences of racial discrimination are linked to increased systemic inflammation during pregnancy among Black women, according to new research led by a team from Penn State. The study, published in the February issue of the journal Brain, Behavior, & Immunity – Health, found that these social-environmental factors were associated with higher levels of a protein that has been connected to chronic stress and an elevated risk of ...

New research published today suggests there is a link between abnormal blood levels of amyloid — a protein associated with Alzheimer’s disease — and subtle changes in brain microstructures on a type of MRI, findings that could lead to a new way to detect Alzheimer’s earlier in people with no clinical signs. Researchers analyzed the results of 128 human participants with and without dementia from the 1Florida Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center who underwent imaging scans using an established diagnostic tool called positron emission tomography, or PET, which can detect amyloid plaques in the brain, a hallmark ...

About The Study: In this randomized clinical trial that involved 500 hospitalized people with HIV, a linkage case management intervention did not reduce 12-month mortality outcomes. These findings may help inform decisions about the potential role of linkage case management among hospitalized people with HIV.  Authors: Robert N. Peck, M.D., Ph.D., of Weill Cornell Medicine in New York, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jama.2024.2177) Editor’s ...

Key Takeaways  Incidence of school shootings increasing dramatically: In the 53 years leading up to May 2022, the number of school shootings annually increased more than 12 times.   Children more likely to be victims. The likelihood of children being school shooting victims has increased more than fourfold, and the rate of death from school shootings has risen more than sixfold.    A total of 2,056 school shooting incidents were analyzed: The incidents involved 3,083 victims, including 2,033 children ages 5-17 years, and 1,050 adults ages 18-74 years.  CHICAGO: The ...

The mammalian brain is a web of densely interconnected neurons, yet one of the mysteries in neuroscience is how tools that capture relatively few components of brain activity have allowed scientists to predict behavior in mice. It is hard to believe that much of the brain’s complexity is irrelevant background noise. “We wondered why such a redundant and metabolically costly scheme would have evolved,” says Rockefeller’s Alipasha Vaziri. Now, a new study in Neuron—which presents an unprecedented simultaneous recording of the activity of one million neurons in mice—offers a surprising answer to this fundamental question: technological limitations ...

TAMPA, Fla. — An international interdisciplinary team of researchers, including Moffitt Cancer Center’s Tiffany Carson, Ph.D., has been selected to receive a Cancer Grand Challenges award. Co-founded by the National Cancer Institute and Cancer Research UK, Cancer Grand Challenges supports a community of diverse, global teams to come together, think differently and take on some of cancer’s toughest challenges. Carson is part of the SAMBAI (Societal, Ancestry, Molecular and Biological Analyses of Inequalities) team led by Melissa Davis, Ph.D., from Morehouse School of Medicine. The team will receive up to $25 million over the next five ...

Cancer Grand Challenges has selected five new global research teams that will address the following challenges in cancer: reducing cancer inequities, understanding the mechanisms of early-onset cancers, developing drugs for solid tumors in children, and broadening our knowledge about how T cells recognize cancer cells. The winning teams were announced at the Cancer Grand Challenges Summit on March 6, 2024, in London. Cancer Grand Challenges is a global funding initiative cofounded in 2020 by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), ...

The team is co-led by Martin Eilers, Chair of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Würzburg (JMU). “Our research project is called KOODAC,” he explains. “That stands for ‘Knocking-Out Oncogenic Drivers and Curing Childhood Cancer’”. Our goal is to develop well-tolerated drugs that can target and eliminate cancer cells in children.” The current standard of care for childhood cancer is chemotherapy and radiation therapy, which, even when successful, are associated with severe side effects. “These ...

ITHACA, N.Y. – Cornell University researchers have developed a semiconductor chip that will enable ever-smaller devices to operate at the higher frequencies needed for future 6G communication technology. The next generation of wireless communication not only requires greater bandwidth at higher frequencies – it also needs a little extra time. The new chip adds a necessary time delay so signals sent across multiple arrays can align at a single point in space-- without disintegrating. The team’s paper, ...

About The Study: The results of this study using twin data support an association between adverse childhood experiences and poor mental health in adulthood, notwithstanding evidence for familial confounding from shared genetic and environmental factors. These findings suggest that targeted interventions may be associated with reduced risks of future psychopathology.  Authors: Hilda Björk Daníelsdóttir, M.Sc., of the University of Iceland in Reykjavík, Iceland, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed ...

About The Study: The findings of this study suggest that pediatric atopic dermatitis (AD) was generally associated with greater odds of reported difficulties in learning and memory. However, this association was primarily limited to children with neurodevelopmental comorbidities, such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder or learning disabilities. These results may improve the risk stratification of children with AD for cognitive impairments and suggest that evaluation for cognitive difficulties should be prioritized among children with AD and neurodevelopmental disorders.  Authors: Joy ...

A research team led by the Paul Scherrer Institute has spectroscopically observed fractionalisation of electronic charge in an iron-based metallic ferromagnet. Experimental observation of the phenomenon is not only of fundamental importance. Since it appears in an alloy of common metals at accessible temperatures, it holds potential for future exploitation in electronic devices. The discovery is published in the journal Nature. Basic quantum mechanics tells us that the fundamental unit of charge is unbreakable: the electron charge is quantised. Yet, we have come to understand that exceptions exist. In some situations, ...

In a groundbreaking discovery, bumblebees have been shown to possess a previously unseen level of cognitive sophistication. A new study, published in Nature, reveals that these fuzzy pollinators can learn complex, multi-step tasks through social interaction, even if they cannot figure them out on their own. This challenges the long-held belief that such advanced social learning is unique to humans, and even hints at the presence of key elements of cumulative culture in these insects.  Led by Dr Alice Bridges and Professor Lars Chittka , the research team designed a two-step puzzle box requiring ...

A research team has examined the link between adverse childhood experiences and the risk of mental health problems later in life, according to a study in JAMA Psychiatry. The researchers from Karolinska Institutet and University of Iceland have found that the risk of suffering from mental illness later in life among those experiencing significant adversity in childhood can be partly explained by factors shared by family members, such as genetics and environment. Several previous studies have shown that people who have experienced ...

Some of our genes can be expressed or silenced depending on whether we inherited them from our mother or our father. The mechanism behind this phenomenon, known as genomic imprinting, is determined by DNA modifications during egg and sperm production. The Burga Lab at the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences uncovered a novel gene regulation process, associated with the silencing of selfish genes, that could represent the first step in the evolution of imprinting. Their discovery, reported in Nature, ...

One of the fundamental goals of basic biology is understanding how diverse cell types work in concert to form tissues, organs, and organ systems. Recent efforts to catalog the different cell types in every tissue in our bodies are a step in the right direction, but only one piece of the puzzle. The great mystery of how those cells communicate with one another remains unsolved. Now, a new paper in Nature describes uLIPSTIC, a tool capable of laying the groundwork for a dynamic map tracking the physical interactions between different cells—the elusive cellular interactome. The authors have been perfecting the technology since 2018 and the latest iteration ...