NEW YORK, NY— June 18, 2025 —The American Thoracic Society Research Program has announced that four researchers have been awarded early-career grants to support research advancing pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine. The grants, which are generously sponsored by Johnson & Johnson, total $400,000.   These awards support early-career investigators conducting research aimed at understanding the pathways and pathophysiology of pulmonary vascular disease. The following researchers ...

Researchers from Florida Atlantic University’s Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine have received a $1 million grant from the Florida Medical Malpractice Joint Underwriting Association to launch a new initiative: the Geriatric Emergency Department Pharmacologic Harm Prevention Project (GREAT PHARM). This program seeks to reduce falls and other adverse drug events (ADEs) among older adults by using pharmacogenomic-guided prescribing, a personalized approach that tailors medications to an individual’s genetic profile. As America’s population ...

Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), encompassing ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn’s disease (CD), is a chronic inflammatory condition of the gastrointestinal tract with a rising global burden. Traditional diagnostic methods like endoscopy are invasive and costly, underscoring the need for non-invasive biomarkers. Recent research highlights the gut microbiome's pivotal role in IBD pathogenesis, alongside metabolomic and immunological dysregulation. This review synthesizes current knowledge on these biomarkers, proposing an integrative model ...

Astronomers have created a galactic masterpiece: an ultra-detailed image that reveals previously unseen features in the Sculptor Galaxy. Using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT), they observed this nearby galaxy in thousands of colours simultaneously. By capturing vast amounts of data at every single location, they created a galaxy-wide snapshot of the lives of stars within Sculptor. "Galaxies are incredibly complex systems that we are still struggling to understand," says ESO researcher Enrico Congiu, who led a new Astronomy & Astrophysics study on Sculptor. Reaching ...

Most treatments for Parkinson’s disease (PD) only slow disease progression. Early intervention for the neurological disease that worsens over time is therefore critical to optimize care, but that requires early diagnosis. Current tests, like clinical rating scales and neural imaging, can be subjective and costly. Now, researchers in ACS’ Analytical Chemistry report the initial development of a system that inexpensively screens for PD from the odors in a person’s ear wax. Previous research has ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – The personal credit scores of top-level corporate executives can help explain their decision making in the corporate environment, at least when it involves evaluating risk, a new study suggests.   Researchers at The Ohio State University conducted an experiment with a national sample of high-level executives and found that those with subprime credit scores tended to be “yes persons” – even when it was counterproductive.   In contrast, executives with prime ...

Humans have tens of thousands of genes, many of which produce proteins essential to basic bodily functions. The KCNT1 gene, for example, codes for a protein that maintains normal electrical activity in the brain and helps neurons communicate. But genes don’t always function perfectly. For many people, a mutation of the KCNT1 gene causes no symptoms. For others, it can lead to dysfunction of neuronal activity causing learning disabilities, difficulty communicating, and a lifetime of treatment-resistant seizures. Epileptic disorders caused by mutations in KCNT1 affect ...

LA JOLLA (June 18, 2025)—Salk Assistant Professor Deepshika Ramanan has been named a Rita Allen Foundation Scholar, a distinction given to early-career leaders in the biomedical sciences whose research holds exceptional promise for revealing new pathways to advance human health. "Shika’s exceptional talent, determination, collaborative spirit, and mentorship skills make her a very deserving recipient of this award,” says Salk President Gerald Joyce. “Her bold approach to important but underappreciated topics in immunology is likely ...

In a unique collaboration between the University of Groningen and the Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, researchers studied population trends across 3,058 populations of various species throughout the entire Wadden Sea. Twenty-four per cent of the populations showed a significant decline in size, and this trend is occurring simultaneously across various groups. Only fourteen per cent of the populations showed an increase in size. These findings were published in the journal Global Change Biology on June ...

Birmingham-based Fallouh Healthcare has been awarded a grant of £305,050 from Innovate UK as part of the Eureka Eurostar programme to finalise a prototype of PerDeCT™, working alongside their Austrian partner the Medizinische Universität Wien, which aims to be the first device for monitoring cardiac function and early diagnosis of cardiac tamponade, a life-threatening complication after heart surgery.  Although cardiac surgery is safe, cardiac tamponade can come on quickly – usually after the patient has left theatre, and typically late at night when the patient is in intensive care.  It is caused by the accumulation ...

Plant cell wall components such as cellulose are abundant sources of carbohydrates that are widely used in biofuels and bioproducts; however, extraction of these components from plant biomass is relatively difficult due to their complexity. In research in FEBS Open Bio, investigators have found that a combination of fungal enzymes can efficiently degrade plant biomass to allow for extraction. The enzymes are called cellobiose dehydrogenase (CDH) and lytic polysaccharide monooxygenase (LPMO). LPMO and CDH operate together to enhance the degradation ...

More than 4,000 tree species are found only in Mexico and Central America, or Mesoamerica. Research published in Plants, People, Planet reveals that nearly half of these tree species are threatened by extinction. As part of the Global Tree Assessment, an initiative to assess the conservation status of the world's tree species, a group of investigators compiled International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Red List assessments for each species, collating information about species' range, habitat, threats, and conservation actions. They found that 46% of trees ...

In a study published in Weather, researchers estimated the current chances and characteristics of extreme hot episodes in the UK, and how they have changed over the last 6 decades. The team found that temperatures several degrees above those recorded during the UK’s heatwave in July 2022 are plausible in today’s climate, with a simulated maximum of over 45°C (113°F). The likelihood of 40°C (104°F) is now over 20 times more likely than it was in the 1960s. Moreover, the chance of 40°C will likely ...

Readouts of the full DNA of children with cancer at diagnosis have been implemented as the standard of care in a European first. By determining a child's type of cancer as precisely as possible, the Princess Máxima Center for pediatric oncology aims to offer each individual child the treatment most likely to work for them.   To determine the precise form of childhood cancer, the DNA in children’s tumor cells is analyzed at diagnosis. Since May, the Princess Máxima Center has started analyzing all children’s complete tumor DNA as standard of care, using a ...

People are generally very good at detecting cause-effect relationships. This ability helps us understand the world, learn, make decisions, and predict the future. In short, it helps us adapt and survive. In fact, we are so good at spotting causal patterns that sometimes we find connections that don't really exist. As a result, we fall into the so-called causal illusion, i.e., we mistakenly believe that one event causes another, when, in fact, both are unrelated. A typical example occurs in the field of health when we assume that a pseudoscientific treatment is effective (therefore, ...

South Korean researchers have developed a technology that improves the lifespan of next-generation anode-free all-solid-state batteries (AFASSBs) by sevenfold using a cost-effective two-dimensional material. A collaborative team led by Dr. Ki-Seok An and Dr. Dong-Bum Seo of the Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology (KRICT), along with Prof. Sangbaek Park’s group at Chungnam National University, successfully enhanced the durability of AFASSBs by applying a molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂) sacrificial layer grown via metal–organic chemical vapor deposition ...

Woods Hole, Mass. (June 17, 2025) — During the last ice age, storms soaked the now-arid Southwestern U.S., while today’s rainy Pacific Northwest remained relatively dry. As global temperatures rose and ice sheets retreated, those storms shifted north—reshaping the climate patterns that define both regions today. New research published in Science Advances reveals that groundwater levels responded differently in the two regions during this dramatic shift. While the Pacific Northwest saw little change in water table depth despite increased rainfall, the Southwest experienced significant groundwater loss. The ...

A newly discovered, raccoon-sized armored monstersaurian from the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Southern Utah, United States, reveals a surprising diversity of large lizards at the pinnacle of the age of dinosaurs. Named for the goblin prince from J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit,” the new species Bolg amondol also illuminates the sometimes-murky path that life traveled between ancient continents. “I opened this jar of bones labeled ‘lizard’ at the Natural History Museum of Utah, and was like, oh wow, there's a fragmentary skeleton here,” said lead author Hank Woolley ...

Besides humans, very few mammals receive care from their fathers. But when species do, it may benefit their children. New research from the University of Notre Dame found that the strength of early-life father-daughter relationships predicts meaningful differences in the survival of female baboons. Published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the study evaluated the impact father baboons may have when they choose to co-reside or interact with their daughters, even though baboon mothers provide all essential care. Until now, the consequences of early-life paternal relationships of offspring were mostly unknown. “Male baboons tend ...

A newly discovered raccoon-sized armored monstersaurian lizard from Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah reveals a surprising diversity of these very big lizards at the pinnacle of the Age of Dinosaurs. Named for the goblin prince from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, the new species Bolg amondol also illuminates the sometimes murky path that life traveled between ancient continents. Published in the open-access journal Royal Society Open Science, the collaborative research led by the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County’s Dinosaur Institute reveals hidden treasures awaiting future paleontologists in the bowels of museum ...

During puberty, all kinds of hormonal changes take place in the body, which lead to the development of external sexual characteristics, such as breast growth, a lower voice or body hair growth. For transgender young people, who do not identify with the gender assigned to them at birth, these are often undesirable changes, which can be very drastic. Puberty blockers can temporarily halt these developments and give young people time to explore their gender identity. Although puberty blockers have been proven to contribute to the mental well-being of transgender young people, little is known about the influence of puberty blockers on sexual satisfaction and sexual problems later ...

For some, the word “histamine” might evoke thoughts of seasonal allergies: runny noses, scratchy throats and itchy eyes. But the molecule also influences exercise performance.   A new study from the University of Oregon underscores its beneficial role in aerobic activity and exercise recovery, showing that blocking histamine at high levels interferes with fitness gains. It remains to be seen if lower-dose, over-the-counter antihistamine drugs have the same effect.  The study was published May 30 in the Journal of Applied Physiology.   Histamine is a small signaling molecule that evolved long ...

A virtual ward bed uses 4 times less carbon than a traditional inpatient bed, so helping the NHS achieve its net zero target by 2045, finds the first study of its kind, published in the open access journal BMJ Innovations. And they are a promising way to care for more patients effectively, with the potential to reduce the need to build more high-carbon impact hospitals, suggest the researchers. A virtual ward, also known as "hospital at home," provides hospital-level care to patients in the comfort of their own homes, leveraging digital technology and remote monitoring.  In recent years, particularly ...

Cannabis use is linked to a doubling in the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease, with significantly heightened risks of having a stroke or acute coronary syndrome—sudden reduced or blocked blood flow to the heart—finds a pooled analysis of real world data, published online in the journal Heart. The authors of a linked editorial call for the drug to be treated like tobacco—not criminalised, but actively discouraged, with protection of bystanders from secondhand vapour inhalation. The use of cannabis and cannabinoids has soared over the past ...

Researchers at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King’s College London have identified a range of weight loss behaviours which are not included in current assessment criteria for eating disorders. These gaps may lead to missed or incorrect eating disorder diagnoses and treatment plans. The study, published in the International Journal of Eating Disorders, is the first large-scale investigation of under-recognised weight loss behaviours in individuals with eating disorders. It identifies a range of behaviours not captured by existing eating ...