Los Angeles, California – August 6, 2024 - In a significant leap forward for healthcare equity and accessibility, researchers at the University of Victoria and the Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation (TIBI) have developed a revolutionary system that combines remote health monitoring and drug delivery using 3D-printed hollow microneedles. This innovative approach, detailed in a recent study published in Advanced Healthcare Materials, promises to transform healthcare delivery, particularly for those in underserved or remote regions. The ...

A blood test can help predict which preterm babies will go onto develop chronic lung disease, allowing for earlier diagnosis and more targeted treatments, according to a new study. The research, led by Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) and published in the American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology found that changes in certain blood proteins, alongside gestational age, birth weight and sex, strongly predicated bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) within 72 hours of life. BPD usually occurs when a baby’s lungs are damaged by respiratory support and the long-term ...

New research from a team of genome scientists and DNA damage response experts breaks new ground in understanding the function of a protein currently limited in clinical trials for cancer treatments. Led by Haichao Zhao, PhD, in the Yan Lab at UNC Charlotte, the new research shows how ATM-mediated signaling is induced by DNA single-strand breaks (SSBs) for DNA damage repair – illuminating the distinct mechanisms of SSB-induced ATM kinase and shedding an important light on APE1 function. In the new study, published today in Nature Communications, ...

SOUTHFIELD, MI, Aug. 7, 2024 - New Corewell Health™ research suggests an MRI scan can help predict whether patients with intermediate-risk prostate cancer (cancer confined to the entire prostate) may have more aggressive cancer in five years. Knowing this could potentially help doctors determine if treatment is needed up front vs. using a method called active surveillance where the disease is closely monitored over time. The study, recently published in the Journal of Urology, is the first to evaluate this risk group. Currently, there has been a growing trend to manage low-risk prostate cancer patients with active ...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE A new drug for treatment of a type of brain cancer, called IDH-mutant low-grade glioma, was approved Aug. 6 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The promising new drug stems from a 2008 genetic discovery made at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center.  The drug, called vorasidenib, is a targeted cancer therapy that works by inhibiting the activity of a mutated gene called IDH, slowing the growth of the cancer.  The gene was identified by Bert Vogelstein, M.D., and team at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center’s ...

INDIANAPOLIS -- Regenstrief Institute’s latest LOINC® content update underscores significant strides in health terminology, accomplished through extensive collaboration with the international health community. The semiannual release aims to bolster the electronic exchange of clinical and laboratory data, fostering the use and implementation of LOINC standards across healthcare systems globally.  The Regenstrief Institute Health Data Standards (HDS) unit, which administers LOINC, and partners collaborated to create more than 3,000 updates, including ...

Pesticides and herbicides are critical to ensuring food security worldwide, but these substances can present a safety risk to people who unwittingly ingest them. Protecting human health, therefore, demands sensitive analytical methods to identify even trace levels of potentially harmful substances. Now, researchers reporting in ACS’ Nano Letters have developed a high-tech imaging method to detect pesticide contamination at low levels, and its application on fruits reveals that current food safety practices ...

East Hanover, NJ – August 7, 2024 – Kessler Foundation research scientist John DeLuca, PhD, has published a significant clinical article in Journal of Neurology, shedding light on the elusive nature of fatigue in multiple sclerosis (MS) and its implications for treatment. The study provides a comprehensive review of current challenges in defining, measuring, and treating MS-related fatigue, offering new insights and directions for future research. The open access article, “Fatigue in multiple sclerosis: can we measure it and can we treat it?” (Doi: 10.1007/s00415-024-12524-9), was published on July ...

A National Institutes of Health (NIH)-supported study has found race- and sex-based differences in the increased chances of survival from people who received bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Average survival benefits for cardiac arrest, when the heart suddenly stops beating, could be three times as high for white adults compared to Black adults and twice as high for men compared to women. The findings published in Circulation.   “CPR saves lives — that, we know,” said Paula Einhorn, M.D., a program officer at NIH’s National, Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute ...

Florey researchers have found evidence of higher levels of the plastic chemical bisphenol A (BPA) in pregnant mothers who gave birth to sons with autism.   Research published in Nature Communications, led by Florey scientists Dr Wah Chin Boon and Professor Anne-Louise Ponsonby, supports the hypothesis of a possible link between autism and exposure to plastic chemicals in the womb.  Professor Ponsonby said the researchers analysed two large birth cohorts – the Barwon Infant Study (BIS) in Australia and the Columbia Centre for Children’s Health and Environment in the USA.   “Exposure to plastic chemicals ...

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Our energy future may depend on high-temperature superconducting (HTS) wires. This technology’s ability to carry electricity without resistance at temperatures higher than those required by traditional superconductors could revolutionize the electric grid and even enable commercial nuclear fusion.   Yet these large-scale applications won’t happen until HTS wires can be fabricated at a price-performance metric equal to that of the plain copper wire sold at your ...

The composition of gut bacteria of Thoroughbred racehorses at one-month-old can predict their future athletic performance, according to a new study from the University of Surrey. Foals with lower bacterial diversity at 28 days old also had a significantly increased risk of respiratory disease later in life.  Researchers from Surrey's School of Veterinary Medicine and School of Bioscience, led by Professor Chris Proudman, investigated the composition of gut bacteria in Thoroughbred foals bred for flat ...

Populations of squaretail grouper face an uncertain future as new research shows fishing that targets their spawning sites is causing males to be repeatedly scared away from their territories during their short mating meet-ups. By fleeing for safety, individuals are losing valuable time to catch the eye and court female fish. A study, led by scientists at Lancaster University and published today in Biology Letters, shows that the impacts of fishing that targets squaretail grouper spawning sites goes beyond those fish that are caught, causing widespread behavioural change in those left behind. These changes impact ability to reproduce. With disrupted mating, fewer offspring ...

Mom always said, “Choose your friends wisely.” Now a study led by a Rutgers Health professor shows she was onto something: Their traits can rub off on you – especially ones that are in their genes. The genetic makeup of adolescent peers may have long-term consequences for individual risk of drug and alcohol use disorders, depression and anxiety, the groundbreaking study has found. “Peers’ genetic predispositions for psychiatric and substance use disorders are associated with an individual's own risk of developing ...

Cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen 4 (CTLA-4) is a protein receptor on T immune cells that prevents the cells from killing other cells, such as cancer cells. Blocking CTLA-4 with a specific antibody is an effective treatment for some cancers, but it can damage the heart. New research published in The FASEB Journal reveals the mechanisms involved in this side effect—a finding that could be used to help prevent it. Experiments conducted in mice showed that blocking CTLA-4 activates certain T cells called Th17 cells, which increase inflammation. Inhibiting this activation reversed ...

Forests absorb carbon by capturing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, making forest carbon stocks an important resource against climate change. In research published in Ecology and Evolution, investigators examined existing tree regeneration patterns to develop an indicator of potential changes to future carbon stocks across forests in the northeastern and midwestern United States. The scientists’ comparison of carbon stock predictions from tree and seedling composition suggested that 29% of plots were poised ...

Among the 250 individuals who were kidnapped during the Hamas terror attack on Israeli towns in October 2023, 19 children and 7 women were released and admitted to Schneider Children's Medical Center of Israel after approximately 50 days in captivity, during a cease-fire deal. A new study published in Acta Paediatrica reports on the physical and psychological state of these returnees upon their return. The most common clinical findings included significant weight loss, psychological trauma, complications of poor hygiene (such as head lice), and complications of recent shrapnel injuries. Tests revealed that returnees also often had ...

In a survey-based study, UK dietitians exhibited significant weight stigma, both towards themselves and towards others. The study in the Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics involved an online survey completed in 2022 by 402 registered dietitians aged 20–70 years old. Most respondents reported personally experiencing weight stigma prior to (51%) and after becoming (59.7%) registered dieticians, and nearly a quarter (21.1%) felt that their weight influenced their own ability to perform as a dietitian. Weight stigma was experienced across the weight spectrum. Participants reported explicit (or conscious) weight bias attitudes, moderate beliefs that obesity is ...

Soil salt concentrations above the optimal threshold for plant growth can threaten global food security by compromising agricultural productivity and crop quality. An analysis published in Physiologia Plantarum examined the potential of nanomaterials—which have emerged over the past decade as a promising tool to mitigate such “salinity stress”—to address this challenge. Nanomaterials, which are tiny natural or synthetic materials, can modulate a plant’s response to salinity stress ...

Modern commercial aircraft flying at high altitudes create longer-lived planet-warming contrails than older aircraft, a new study has found. The result means that although modern planes emit less carbon than older aircraft, they may be contributing more to climate change through contrails. Led by scientists at Imperial College London, the study highlights the immense challenges the aviation industry faces to reduce its impact on the climate. The new study also found that private jets produce more contrails than previously thought, ...

The world’s seabeds are little explored, and the knowledge we have is patchy. Using remotely operated underwater vehicles to learn about seabeds is expensive, requires certain weather conditions, and is difficult in deep, remote, and offshore habitats. To circumvent these challenges, researchers in Australia have now enlisted endangered Australian sea lions (Neophoca cinerea) to carry cameras. The resulting videos allowed the researchers to identify previously unmapped benthic habitats used by the sea lions on the continental shelf. They published their results in Frontiers in Marine Science. “Using ...

ARLINGTON, Va. (August 7, 2024) — Family members of patients recently discharged from the hospital may have a higher risk of getting an antibiotic-resistant infection, often called a superbug, even if the patient was not diagnosed with the same infection, suggesting hospitals play a role in the community spread of resistant bacteria, according to study in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America. When recently hospitalized patients were diagnosed with the superbug — Methicillin-resistant ...

With rising global temperatures due to global warming, the risk of heat strokes has increased and is expected to grow even further. This is particularly troubling for athletes participating in competitive sports. In tennis, multiple matches are played daily, lasting up to five hours. Playing such matches in sweltering conditions could be highly detrimental. The Tokyo Olympic Games in 2021 faced extremely hot conditions with many players calling for appropriate countermeasures. Consequently, the International Tennis Federation (ITF) formulated and issued the “Extreme Weather Policy” at the Tokyo Olympics to manage matches based ...

Everyone gets sleepy at work from time to time, especially after a big lunch. But for people whose jobs involve driving or working with heavy machinery, drowsiness can be extremely dangerous — if not outright deadly. Drowsy driving contributes to hundreds of fatal vehicle accidents in the U.S. each year, and the National Safety Council has cited drowsiness as a critical hazard in construction and mining. To help protect drivers and machine operators from the dangers of drifting off, engineers at the University of California, Berkeley, have created prototype earbuds that can detect the signs of drowsiness ...

Boston – Vorasidenib has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for patients with Grade 2 gliomas with IDH1 or IDH2 mutations.  Based on evidence from the INDIGO clinical trial, a global phase 3, double-blinded, randomized clinical trial, vorasidenib more than doubled progression-free survival and delayed the need for treatment with radiation and chemotherapy for patients with Grade 2 IDH-mutant glioma after surgery to remove the tumor. INDIGO was the first phase 3 clinical trial of a molecularly targeted therapy for IDH-mutant glioma. “The INDIGO trial ...