CAMBRIDGE, MA -- When diagnosing skin diseases based solely on images of a patient’s skin, doctors do not perform as well when the patient has darker skin, according to a new study from MIT researchers. The study, which included more than 1,000 dermatologists and general practitioners, found that dermatologists accurately characterized about 38 percent of the images they saw, but only 34 percent of those that showed darker skin. General practitioners, who were less accurate overall, showed a similar decrease in accuracy ...

The Vilcek Foundation announces the recipients of the 2024 Vilcek Foundation Prizes in Biomedical Science. Awarded annually since 2006, the prizes recognize outstanding immigrant scientists at the forefront of their fields, and celebrate the importance of immigrant contributions to scientific research and discovery in the United States. In 2024, the foundation awards $250,000 in prizes to Luciano Marraffini (b. Argentina), Gerta Hoxhaj (b. Albania), Tomasz Nowakowski (b. Poland) and Takanori Takebe (b. Japan). “With the 2024 Vilcek Foundation Prizes in Biomedical Science, we honor scientists who have ...

No increased risks for babies, and for some serious neonatal complications lower risks. This is the result of the largest study to date on the safety of newborn babies whose mothers were vaccinated against COVID-19 during pregnancy. The study is a collaboration between Swedish and Norwegian researchers and is published in the journal JAMA. COVID-19 vaccination in pregnancy was not associated with any increased risks in newborn infants. On the contrary, the study of nearly 200,000 newborns in Sweden and Norway showed that babies born by women who chose to be vaccinated ...

About The Study: In this population-based study from Sweden and Norway that included 94,000 infants exposed to COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy and 102,000 control infants born between June 2021 and January 2023, vaccination of pregnant individuals with mRNA COVID-19 vaccines was not associated with increased risks of neonatal adverse events in their infants.  Authors: Mikael Norman, M.D., Ph.D., of the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, 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.2023.26945) Editor’s Note: Please ...

About The Study: The bivalent COVID-19 vaccines protected children and adolescents against SARS-CoV-2 infection and symptomatic COVID-19 in this study including 2,959 participants ages 5 to 17 years. These data demonstrate the benefit of COVID-19 vaccine in children and adolescents. All eligible children and adolescents should remain up to date with recommended COVID-19 vaccinations.  Authors: Leora R. Feldstein, Ph.D., of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website ...

Italian scientists from Università Cattolica at Rome discovered an important genetic mechanism that pancreatic cancer cells employ to evade therapies, paving the way to new drugs for a killer disease. The tumor evades treatments by implementing a 'favorable genetic reshuffling,' strategically playing its best cards to thwart cures. This finding is the result of a study published today in the journal Cell Reports Medicine, coordinated by Claudio Sette, Professor of Human Anatomy at the Catholic University, and Director of the "Organoids Facility" at the Policlinico Universitario A. Gemelli ...

About The Study: Gun violence exposure among Black adults in the U.S. was significantly associated with lifetime suicidal ideation and behavior in this study that included 3,015 Black adults. Public health efforts to substantially reduce interpersonal gun violence may yield additional benefits by decreasing suicide among Black individuals in the U.S. Authors: Daniel C. Semenza, Ph.D., of Rutgers University in Camden, New Jersey, 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/jamanetworkopen.2023.54953) Editor’s ...

About The Study: Sustained smoking cessation was associated with a significantly reduced risk of cancer after 10 years since quitting in this study of 2.9 million Korean adults. Quitting at any age helped reduce the cancer risk, and especially for lung cancer, early cessation before middle age exhibited a substantial risk reduction. Authors: Jin-Kyoung Oh, Ph.D., of the National Cancer Center Graduate School of Cancer Science and Policy in Goyang, Republic of Korea, is the corresponding author.  To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at ...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 6, 2024 – Earth’s moon achieved its Swiss cheese appearance from celestial objects crashing into its surface, forming impact craters. But craters weren’t all that was left behind; the intense pressure and temperature of such a collision also impacts the rocks and dust covering the lunar surface, known as regolith, altering its mineral composition and structure. Analyzing the resulting minerals provides modern researchers clues to the moon’s past. China’s Chang’e-5, the first lunar sample ...

A new study of a 7–8-million-year-old extinct fossil ape from China called Lufengpithecus offers new insights into the evolution of human bipedalism. The study, published in The Innovation, was conducted by a team from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Yunnan Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology (YICRA), and New York University (NYU). Humans and our closest relatives, the living apes, display a remarkable diversity of locomotor abilities, from walking upright on two legs to climbing and clambering in trees to walking using all four limbs. Scientists have long been fascinated ...

Artificial intelligence is growing into a pivotal tool in chemical research, offering novel methods to tackle complex challenges that traditional approaches struggle with. One subtype of artificial intelligence that has seen increasing use in chemistry is machine learning, which uses algorithms and statistical models to make decisions based on data and perform tasks that it has not been explicitly programmed for. However, to make reliable predictions, machine learning also demands large amounts of data, which isn’t always available in chemical research. Small chemical datasets simply do not provide enough information for these algorithms to train on, which limits their effectiveness. In ...

In recent years, carbon-based catalysts — especially nitrogen-doped nanocarbons — have emerged as sustainable, reliable alternatives to the metal catalysts that have traditionally been used to support chemical reactions. Researchers from the Key Laboratory of Advanced Carbon-Based Functional Materials (Fujian Province University) at Fuzhou University synthesized nanocarbons from guanine molecules to better understand the precise role nitrogen plays in the carbon-based materials and explore the reaction mechanisms of these catalytic systems.   In a recently published study, the research team clarified how different types of nitrogen can modulate oxidative dehydrogenation ...

Mucormycosis is a relatively rare but serious fungal infection increasingly recognised for its poor prognosis and high mortality. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the incidence of mucormycosis reached high levels during 2021–2022 in India.   This study led by Dr. Rizwan Suliankatchi Abdulkader (Indian Council of Medical Research) established a multicentric ambispective cohort of patients hospitalised with mucormycosis across India and reported their baseline profile, clinical characteristics, and outcomes at discharge.   Mucormycosis was diagnosed based on mycological confirmation on direct microscopy (KOH/Calcofluor white stain), ...

Research introduces new DNA methylation-based method for accurately assessing cell composition in the human pancreas, addressing a critical gap in diabetes research. By overcoming limitations of traditional protein marker-based approaches, the study provides a more precise means to identify specific cell types. The findings offer insights into beta-cell dysfunction across diabetes types and have direct clinical implications, enhancing our understanding of diabetes development and potentially guiding more tailored treatment ...

Tsukuba, Japan—Meteora sporadica is a small, unicellular eukaryote (protist) that was discovered in deep Mediterranean sea sediments in 2002. It differs from known protists by the presence of two lateral arms that swing back and forth. However, the ultrastructure and phylogenetic position of M. sporadica remain unknown. In this study, researchers successfully cultured and analyzed two strains of M. sporadica from marine sediments in detail. Ultratructural observations revealed ...

Tsukuba, Japan—Leguminous plants have a mechanism (rhizobial symbiosis) to efficiently acquire nitrogen, which is an essential macronutrient for growth, through the nitrogen-fixing bacteria rhizobia. Root nodules are organs on plant roots that facilitate the symbiotic relationship. Rhizobia coloniza these nodules and fix nitrogen by converting nitrogen from air into ammonia. Iron is needed for the enzymes that catalyze nitrogen fixation; however, where and how iron is transported to the nodule and used for nitrogen fixation is largely unknown. In this study, using the legume model plant Lotus japonicus, a transcriptome ...

PHOENIX, Feb. 6, 2024 – Eleven scientists leading the way in stroke research will be recognized during the American Stroke Association’s International Stroke Conference 2024 for their exceptional professional achievements. The meeting will be held in Phoenix, Feb. 7-9, and is a world premier meeting for researchers and clinicians dedicated to the science of stroke and brain health. The illustrious group of awardees includes four groundbreaking scientists who have devoted their careers to stroke research and six scientists will be recognized for their notable new research. The awards include the Ralph L. Sacco Outstanding Stroke Research ...

While wind farms have become a widely popular method of generating energy, researchers are now looking at the impact of these large farms on wind patterns and the surrounding environment. Using large-scale simulations to better understand the way air moves across and within wind farms, researchers from UBC Okanagan and Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) in the Netherlands have developed a modelling framework that will help improve wind energy forecasts and productivity. The researchers also hope to learn how large wind farms can alter natural wind patterns. “Wind farms are getting so large that ...

Be front and center for the hottest research findings in the molecular life sciences at Discover BMB, the annual meeting of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, to be held March 23–26 in San Antonio. Don’t miss this opportunity to hear from the top minds in the field. Reporters are invited to register for a complimentary press pass to attend #DiscoverBMB in San Antonio or access press materials electronically. Please note that only a limited number of complementary on-site press passes will be issued, so advance registration is recommended. Find more information in the #DiscoverBMB newsroom. As part of an exciting program spotlighting the ...

Scientists have found the strongest evidence yet that our brains can compensate for age-related deterioration by recruiting other areas to help with brain function and maintain cognitive performance. As we age, our brain gradually atrophies, losing nerve cells and connections and this can lead to a decline in brain function. It’s not fully understood why some people appear to maintain better brain function than others, and how we can protect ourselves from cognitive decline. A widely accepted notion is that some people’s brains are able to compensate ...

LA JOLLA, CA—La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) is working to guide the development of new tuberculosis vaccines and drug therapies.  Now a team of LJI scientists has uncovered important clues to how human T cells combat Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterium that causes TB. Their findings were published recently in Nature Communications. "This research gives us a better understanding of T cell responses to different stages in tuberculosis infection and helps us figure out is there are additional diagnostic ...

Repeat concussions, also referred to as repetitive mild traumatic brain injury, can lead to chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) and raise the risk of Alzheimer’s disease. However, some people who experience repetitive mild traumatic brain injury never develop major disease. Onder Albayram and colleagues investigated the role of a protein known as p17 in protecting brains from long-term pathologies. In stressed neurons, p17 initiates production of C18-Ceramide, a bioactive sphingolipid that acts as a label of damaged mitochondria in neuronal axons. Labelled mitochondria are then detected and removed by autophagosomes. The authors knocked out p17 in mice.  Some p17-knockout ...

Are cultural evolution rates similar across human societies? The emerging field of Cliodynamics uses mathematical models to study history. Tobias Wand and colleagues used a data-driven approach to estimate the rates of cultural evolution in 23 geographic areas, using data from Seshat: Global History Databank, which records nine “complexity characteristics” for 370 polities over 10,000 years, ending in the nineteenth century. The complexity characteristics are polity population; extent of polity territory; the size of the largest urban center; hierarchical complexity; the ...

Next month, scientists from around the world will convene to share new results from across the physical sciences in nearly 11,000 individual presentations. The American Physical Society’s (APS) March Meeting will be held in person in Minneapolis and online everywhere March 3-8. Discounted hotel rates are available for in-person attendees at select Minneapolis hotels near the Minneapolis Convention Center. Book your hotel by Feb. 9 to receive the discount.  Press Registration News media with valid APS press credentials may register for the meeting at no cost. To request press credentials, visit APS’s online newsroom. Registration ...

The search for habitable exoplanets involves looking for planets with similar conditions to the Earth, such as liquid water, a suitable temperature range and atmospheric conditions. One crucial factor is the planet's position in the habitable zone, the region around a star where liquid water could potentially exist on the planet's surface. NASA's Kepler telescope, launched in 2009, revealed that 20–50% of visible stars may host such habitable Earth-sized rocky planets. However, the presence of liquid water alone does not guarantee a planet’s habitability. On Earth, ...