A glowing marker dye that sticks to prostate cancer cells could help surgeons to remove them in real-time, according to a study funded by Cancer Research UK.   Cancer Research UK-funded scientists, based at the Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences and the Department of Oncology, University of Oxford, Oxford University Hospitals and Oxford NIHR Biomedical Research Centre used a fluorescent dye attached to a special marker molecule to give medics a “second pair of eyes” during surgery for prostate cancer. Twenty-three men with prostate cancer were injected with the marker dye before undergoing prostate removal surgery. The marker dye found areas of cancerous tissue ...

ALS patients received better care if they were treated by a neurologist, a new study published in PLOS One has found. But researchers found that Black, older and socially disadvantaged ALS patients were less likely to see a neurologist, raising concerns about equity in treating the deadly disease. Patients who were treated by neurologists were more likely to receive interventions endorsed by the American Academy of Neurology. “This study highlights the importance of neurologist care for ALS patients and the need to overcome barriers and provide care that is more equitable for ALS patients,” ...

College Park, Md. – Most people use Google Street View to find their way. Dr. Quynh Nguyen, an epidemiologist and statistician at the University of Maryland School of Public Health, uses it to locate spots where your journey might abruptly end. In a study published June 6 in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) of Injury Prevention, Nguyen identifies uses AI tools to identify key environmental elements impacting car-related collisions as well as cyclist-related and pedestrian-related accidents. “Car crashes are the leading cause of death for young people ...

Researchers at the University of Michigan are finding that many patients may be encountering significant barriers to cancer care, even from their first phone call to a clinic.  Patients attempting to access cancer care must go through several different levels of communication, both before their initial appointment with a physician and throughout their treatment.  Making those first calls to learn more about available cancer care services or to schedule an appointment at a clinic is an important step toward beginning their treatment journey.   “Racial and ethnic disparities have been observed in the outpatient visit rates for ...

As the electric vehicle market booms, the demand for lithium — the mineral required for lithium-ion batteries — has also soared. Global lithium production has more than tripled in the last decade. But current methods of extracting lithium from rock ores or brines are slow and come with high energy demands and environmental costs. They also require sources of lithium which are incredibly concentrated to begin with and are only found in a few countries. Now, researchers at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (PME) have optimized a new method for extracting lithium from more dilute — and widespread — sources of the mineral, including seawater, ...

On Feb. 22, a lunar lander named Odysseus touched down near the Moon’s South Pole and popped out four antennas to record radio waves around the surface—a moment University of Colorado Boulder astrophysicist Jack Burns hails as the “dawn of radio astronomy from the Moon.” It was a major achievement for the tenacious lander, which was built by the Houston-based company Intuitive Machines and had to overcome a series of technical difficulties to make it to the lunar surface. Burns is co-investigator on the radio experiment that flew aboard Odysseus called Radio wave Observations at the Lunar Surface ...

“[...] the identification of ubiquitin-conjugating enzymes like UBE2J1 and the innovative deployment of PROTAC-type androgen receptor degraders are crucial in combating prostate cancer and overcoming therapeutic resistance.” BUFFALO, NY- June 7, 2024 – A new editorial paper was published in Oncoscience (Volume 11) on May 6, 2024, entitled, “Restoring our ubiquitination machinery to overcome resistance in cancer therapy.” In this new editorial, researchers Xiaoling Li and Ping Mu from ...

The United States has enough biomass potential to produce 35 billion gallons per year of aviation biofuel by 2050, a new report confirms. Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s John Field provided biomass feedstock production expertise to the report focused on the role of the bioeconomy in U.S. decarbonization strategies, which was produced by the Department of Energy’s DECARB program. The report examined the role of biomass in reducing greenhouse gas emissions across the economy, including opportunities to reach negative emissions. It includes data ...

About The Study: The results of this randomized clinical trial showed that a 15-day course of nirmatrelvir-ritonavir in a population of patients with postacute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC) was generally safe but did not demonstrate a significant benefit for improving select PASC symptoms in a mostly vaccinated cohort with protracted symptom duration. Further studies are needed to determine the role of antivirals in the treatment of PASC.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding authors, email Linda N. Geng, M.D., Ph.D. (geng@stanford.edu) and Upinder Singh, M.D. (usingh@stanford.edu). To ...

In a clinical trial conducted by Stanford Medicine investigators and their colleagues, a 15-day course of Paxlovid — an antiviral drug combination targeting SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 — proved safe as an extended-duration treatment but didn’t lessen select symptoms of the syndrome known as long COVID: the persistence, or reappearance, of COVID-related symptoms three months or more after an initial COVID-19 infection. The findings are described in a paper to be published ...

Northwestern University researchers have developed a new antioxidant biomaterial that someday could provide much-needed relief to people living with chronic pancreatitis. The study will be published on June 7 in the journal Science Advances. Before surgeons remove the pancreas from patients with severe, painful chronic pancreatitis, they first harvest insulin-producing tissue clusters, called islets, and transplant them into the vasculature of the liver. The goal of the transplant is to preserve a patient’s ability to control their own blood-glucose levels without insulin injections. Unfortunately, the ...

Ancient apes in Germany co-existed by partitioning resources in their environment, according to a study published June 7, 2024 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Madelaine Böhme of Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Germany and David R. Begun, of University of Toronto, Canada and colleagues. The Hammerschmiede fossil site in Bavaria, Germany is best known for exceptional remains of the ancient great ape Danuvius dating to the late Miocene Epoch, 11.6 million years ago. Other experts contest the strength of the evidence to support whether Danuvius is a hominid or whether ...

Off the coasts of southern British Columbia, Washington, Oregon and northern California lies a 600 mile-long strip where the Pacific Ocean floor is slowly diving eastward under North America. This area, called the Cascadia Subduction Zone, hosts a megathrust fault, a place where tectonic plates move against each other in a highly dangerous way. The plates can periodically lock up and build stress over wide areas―eventually to be released when they finally lurch against each other. The result: the world’s greatest earthquakes, shaking both seabed and land, and generating tsunamis 100 feet high or more. Such a fault ...

Scientists at the University of Dundee have uncovered the inner relay of a molecular switch that protects the brain against the development of Parkinson’s disease.   The research provides new potential strategies to develop drugs that may benefit patients with Parkinson’s.   Parkinson’s is the fastest growing brain disorder in the world, however, there are currently no treatments that can slow or arrest the condition.   Previous research conducted at the University had found a gene called PINK1 is central to protecting brain cells against stress. In patients ...

While smell plays a considerable role in the social interactions of humans—for instance, signaling fear or generating closeness—for ants, it is vitally important. Researchers from New York University and the University of Florida found that a key protein named Orco, essential for the function of olfactory cells, is also critical for the cells’ survival in ants.   Their study showed that mutating the orco gene in Harpegnathos saltator jumping ants dramatically decreased the number of olfactory neurons, suggesting that Orco is necessary for the development and life of these cells. The findings, published in Science Advances, offer insights into the cellular ...

ITHACA, N.Y. – Cornell University researchers have provided a simple and comprehensive – if less dramatic – explanation for bright radar reflections initially interpreted as liquid water beneath the ice cap on Mars’ south pole. Their simulations show that small variations in layers of water ice – too subtle for ground-penetrating radar instruments to resolve – can cause constructive interference between radar waves. Such interference can produce reflections whose intensity and variability match observations to date – not only in the area proposed to be liquid water, but across the so-called south ...

Toronto, ON, Canada - A new study conducted by researchers at the University of Toronto has unveiled a significant association between the use of photo filters on social media and increased symptoms of muscle dysmorphia among adolescents and young adults in Canada. This study, which analyzed data from 912 participants from the Canadian Study of Adolescent Health Behaviors, emphasizes the growing concern over the impact of digital image manipulation on body image and mental health. The research reveals that the use of photo filters, commonly found on apps like Snapchat, Instagram, and TikTok, is linked to greater muscle dysmorphia symptomatology, a condition marked ...

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Feed costs for producing broiler chickens accounts for 60% to 70% of total production costs, and stump waste from the production of button mushrooms comprises nearly 30% of total mushroom weight. Marrying the two has the potential to reduce both cost and waste, especially in Pennsylvania, which is a national leader in the production of broiler chickens and button mushrooms. To learn whether the two are compatible, a team of Penn State researchers conducted a new study to determine how supplementing the feed of broilers with mushroom stump waste affected the growth and health of the chickens. In findings ...

New eye-tracking research has shown that simply looking at natural elements during urban walks can offer significant mental health benefits.   The study, by Bangor University and Technion- Israel Institute of Technology, published in the scientific journal People and Nature, involved city-dwellers, and showed how paying visual attention to greenery, rather than human-made structures, can alleviate anxiety and enhance restorative feelings.  The 117 urban residents who took part in the study, were guided on a 45-minute urban walk, while wearing eye-tracking ...

By Devon McPhee WOODS HOLE, Mass. -- Scientists have a handful of standard research organisms, including fruit flies and mice, that they use to study the evolutionary development (evo-devo) of animal lineages over time. Yet the more research organisms they can study, the deeper our understanding of life and the more knowledge we have to advance biomedicine and ecological conservation. Researchers at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL), Woods Hole, and the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn (SZS) in Naples, Italy, have added to the evo-devo toolbox by establishing Holothuria tubulosa, ...

In the relentless fight against cancer, a new technology promises to shed light on how we track and understand the spread of this disease within the body. A research team from Northeastern University and Dartmouth College recently developed a remarkable tool called "diffuse in vivo flow cytometry" (DiFC), which allows for the noninvasive detection and counting of rare cancer cells circulating in the bloodstream. Monitoring cancer spread in real time In a recent publication in the Journal of Biomedical Optics (JBO), the research team detailed their innovative two-color DiFC system, capable of simultaneously detecting two distinct populations of cancer ...

East Hanover, NJ – June 7, 2024 –May job numbers showed gains for people with disabilities, who continue to engage with the labor market at historic levels, according to today’s National Trends in Disability Employment – semi-monthly update (nTIDE), issued by Kessler Foundation and the University of New Hampshire’s Institute on Disability (UNH-IOD). Increases in both labor force participation and employment indicate that people with disabilities are not only striving to work but succeeding in finding jobs. ...

ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, has joined with the IEEE Computer Society (IEEE-CS) and the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) to develop “Computer Science Curricula 2023” (CS2023).  CS2023 provides a comprehensive guide outlining the knowledge and competencies students should attain for degrees in computer science and related disciplines at the undergraduate level. Establishing uniform curricular guidelines for computer science disciplines is viewed as being essential to the ongoing vitality of the field and the future success of the students ...

Online education is effective for teaching complicated topics like quantum information science (QIS) to high school science educators, according to a new paper by University of Texas at Arlington researchers published in The Physics Teacher. “COVID-19 forced educators to adjust their educational best practices to an unfamiliar virtual classroom, and professional development was no different,” said Karen Jo Matsler, assistant professor in practice for UTeach at UTA and lead author on the study. Ramon Lopez, professor of physics, was coprincipal investigator ...

In a major advancement for plant biology and agriculture, researchers have developed a novel method for systemic gene silencing in plants using engineered dsRNA-protein nanoparticles. This technique, which rapidly characterizes gene functions, could revolutionize in planta gene editing. The new approach addresses the longstanding challenge of transporting RNA molecules across plant cell membranes, providing a faster, non-transgenic solution for enhancing crop productivity. Gene silencing in plants has faced significant challenges, primarily due to the difficulty of transporting RNA molecules across plant cell membranes and achieving systemic effects. Traditional genetic engineering ...