A Cleveland Clinic-led team of scientists and physicians have discovered that the immune checkpoint protein VISTA can directly turn off tumor-fighting T-cells during immunotherapy and resist treatment.   The study, published in Science Immunology, explains that VISTA can bind to a protein called LRIG1 in T cells, which was previously only thought to promote bone and fat development. When VISTA binds to LRIG1, the researchers found, LRIG1 sends signals that suppress T cell replication, survival ...

Horses crossed the Baltic Sea in ships during the Late Viking Age and were sacrificed for funeral rituals, according to research from Cardiff University. Published in the journal Science Advances, studies on the remains of horses found at ancient burial sites in Russia and Lithuania show that they were brought overseas from Scandinavia utilising expansive trade networks connecting the Viking world with the Byzantine and Arab Empires. Up to now, researchers had believed sacrificial horses were always locally-sourced stallions. ...

Researchers at the University of Bristol have made an important breakthrough in scaling quantum technology by integrating the world’s tiniest quantum light detector onto a silicon chip. A critical moment in unlocking the information age was when scientists and engineers were first able to miniaturise transistors onto cheap micro-chips in the 1960s. Now, for the first time, University of Bristol academics have demonstrated the integration of a quantum light detector – smaller than a human hair – onto a silicon chip, moving us one step closer to the age of quantum technologies using light. Making high performance electronics ...

Roughly one in five cancer patients benefits from immunotherapy – a treatment that harnesses the immune system to fight cancer. Such an approach to beating cancer has seen significant success in lung cancer and melanoma, among others. Optimistic about its potential, researchers are exploring strategies to improve immunotherapy for cancers that don’t respond well to the treatment, with the hope of benefiting more patients. Now, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found, in ...

The basis of the marine food web in the Arctic, the phytoplankton, responds to heatwaves much differently than to constantly elevated temperatures. This has been found by the first targeted experiments on the topic, which were recently conducted at the Alfred Wegener Institute’s AWIPEV Station. The phytoplankton’s behaviour primarily depends on the cooling phases after or between heatwaves, as shown in a study just released in the journal Science Advances. Heatwaves, which we’ve increasingly seen around the globe in recent years, are also becoming more and ...

Professor LIM Chwee Teck, Director of the Institute for Health Innovation & Technology at the National University of Singapore (NUS iHealthtech) and NUSS Professor, has been elected to the prestigious Fellowship of the Royal Society, in recognition of his invaluable contributions to science. The Royal Society is the world's oldest and most esteemed scientific academy in continuous existence, as well as the United Kingdom’s national academy of sciences. Fellows are elected annually, and candidates are evaluated based on their exceptional achievements in science. This ...

UPTON, N.Y. — Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory have discovered that a protein responsible for the synthesis of a key plant material evolved much earlier than suspected. This new research explored the origin and evolution of the biochemical machinery that builds lignin, a structural component of plant cell walls with significant impacts on the clean energy industry. When the first land plants emerged from aquatic environments, they needed to adapt in order to survive. Chang-Jun Liu, a senior scientist in Brookhaven’s Biology ...

Two-dimensional materials such as graphene promise to form the basis of incredibly small and fast technologies, but this requires a detailed understanding of their electronic properties. New research demonstrates that fast electronic processes can be probed by irradiating the materials with ions first. A collaboration involving researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the University of Duisburg-Essen has shown that when graphene is irradiated with ions, or electrically charged atoms, the electrons that are ejected ...

DURHAM N.C. – An international team of scientists has uncovered toxic metals in mineral phosphate fertilizers worldwide by using a new tool to identify the spread and impact of such contaminants on soil, water resources, and food supply. “While mineral phosphate fertilizers are critical to boost global sustainable agriculture and food security, we found high levels of toxic metals in many fertilizers worldwide,” said Avner Vengosh, chair of the Earth and Climate Sciences division at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment. “Our study developed a new method to identify sources and impacts of these metals on the environment.” Those ...

Innovative Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) positioning technologies harness massive vehicle-generated data to create high-resolution atmospheric delay correction maps, significantly enhancing Global Positioning System (GPS) accuracy across varied spatial scales. This new method exploits real-time, crowd-sourced vehicle GNSS raw data, refining traditional GPS applications and presenting a cost-effective solution for precise positioning. The quest for enhanced Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) accuracy has been hindered ...

Results from new study suggests that long-term exposure to air pollution leads to increased risk in dementia in Denmark.  "We also find association with noise, but this seems to be explained by air pollution primarily. Our study is in line with growing international knowledge on this topic." says Professor at Section of Environmental Health Zorana Jovanovic Andersen. This is an important finding which adds that air pollution, beyond well-known effects on respiratory and cardiovascular system, also has major impacts on our brain, promoting inflammation in the brain, accelerating cognitive decline, and increasing ...

Southfield, Mich., May 17, 2024 – For up to 30% of patients who are allergic to medical contrast dye or have a dye restriction because of other health conditions, they might find that it takes longer to get a diagnosis when it comes to life-threatening lung issues such as pulmonary embolism. That's because imaging methods that detect lung problems but don't use contrast dye aren't as accurate and can be more time-consuming to administer. Now, new imaging software, developed by pulmonologist Girish Nair, M.D., with Corewell Health William Beaumont University Hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan, and biomedical ...

DURHAM, N.C. – An HIV vaccine candidate developed at the Duke Human Vaccine Institute triggered low levels of an elusive type of broadly neutralizing HIV antibodies among a small group of people enrolled in a 2019 clinical trial.   The finding, reported May 17 in the journal Cell, not only provides proof that a vaccine can elicit these antibodies to fight diverse strains of HIV, but that it can also initiate the process within weeks, setting in motion an essential immune response.   The vaccine candidate targets an area on the HIV-1 outer envelope called the membrane proximal external region (MPER), which ...

The chemical industry is a cornerstone of global development, driving innovation, and providing essential products that support our modern way of life.   However, its reliance on unsustainable fossil resources has posed significant threats to global ecosystems through climate change and chemical pollution.   A new commentary published in Cell Press’ OneEarth co-authored by Griffith University researchers puts forth a transformative solution: catalysis to leverage sustainable waste resources, ushering the industry from a linear to a circular economy.  “If ...

Rutgers researchers, aided by international collaborators, have tracked the devastation war has made on Ukraine’s hospital system. Hundreds of hospitals in Ukraine have been forced to close or operate at a reduced capacity since Russia’s invasion of the Eastern European country in February 2022. Damage, destruction and supply shortages caused by the war have impaired the nation’s hospital system and taken a serious toll on human health. In a study published in JAMA, Rutgers researchers and collaborators from the United States, Pakistan and Ukraine collected and compared data on hospital services provided both during ...

Recognising and respecting the different ways nature is valued can enable better environmental decision-making, according to new research led by the University of East Anglia (UEA). International agreements such as the Sustainable Development Goals represent wide support for a sustainable future, living within planetary boundaries and ensuring a safer future for current and next generations. However, there remain huge disagreements about how to advance such goals, often resulting in marginalisation, conflict and inaction. The paper, published in the journal One Earth, ...

About The Study: The findings of this study suggest that high ultraprocessed food (UPF) consumption in young children is associated with adiposity and other cardiometabolic risk factors, highlighting the need for public health initiatives to promote the replacement of UPFs with unprocessed or minimally processed foods.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Nancy Babio, Ph.D., email nancy.babio@urv.cat. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/  (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.11852) Editor’s ...

A significant link between the use of electronic cigarettes and earlier age of asthma onset in U.S. adults was reported by UTHealth Houston researchers May 17, 2024 in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Network Open. Led by first author Adriana Pérez, PhD, MS, professor of biostatistics and data science at UTHealth Houston School of Public Health, the research found that adults who were asthma-free at the beginning of the study and reported e-cigarette use in the past 30 days increased their risk of developing earlier age of asthma onset by 252%. “While previous studies have reported that e-cigarette use increases ...

UNC Greensboro researcher Hemali Rathnayake, Ph.D., has been approved for grant funding from NCInnovation to continue her work in developing a cost-effective and efficient lithium refining process for converting lithium into battery-grade lithium carbonate. The grant approval is conditioned on standard next steps, including executed grant agreements and formal notification to government partners. This funding is part of NCInnovation’s larger mission to unlock the innovative potential of North Carolina’s world-class universities. “From ...

Plants have special corrective molecules at their disposal that can make retrospective modifications to copies of genes. However, it would appear that these “Tipp-Ex proteins” do not have permission to work in all areas of the cell, only being used in chloroplasts and mitochondria. A study by the University of Bonn has now explained why this is the case. It suggests that the correction mechanism would otherwise modify copies that have nothing wrong with them, with fatal consequences for the cell. The findings have now been ...

A new AI tool to more quickly and accurately classify brain tumours has been developed by researchers at The Australian National University (ANU).  According to Dr Danh-Tai Hoang, precision in diagnosing and categorising tumours is crucial for effective patient treatment.  “The current gold standard for identifying different kinds of brain tumours is DNA methylation-based profiling,” Dr Hoang said.    “DNA methylation acts like a switch to control gene activity, and ...

Autoimmune diseases occur when the body’s immune system attacks healthy cells instead of protecting them. Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is one such autoimmune condition characterized by faulty circulatory and immune systems, leading to the occurrence of fibrosis (hardening and scarring of healthy tissue) of the skin and internal organs. SSc is known to affect patients throughout their lives, thereby, impairing their quality of life. Although precise mechanisms underlying SSc development and progression are not clearly understood, a complex interplay of immune, hormonal, environmental, and genetic factors is often implicated.   Moreover, ...

Microwave dielectric ceramics are the cornerstone of wireless communication devices, widely utilized in mobile communications, satellite radar, GPS, Bluetooth, and WLAN applications. Components made from these ceramic materials, such as filters, resonators, and dielectric antennas, are extensively used in wireless communication networks. As wireless communication frequencies extend into higher bands, signal delay issues become increasingly prominent. Low dielectric constants (εr) can reduce electromagnetic coupling effects, effectively minimizing signal delays. Consequently, developing new ceramic materials with ...

University of Virginia researchers are developing a flexible online tool for navigating information used in the fight to save children from deadly diarrheal diseases by identifying transmission hotspots and accelerating the deployment of treatments and new vaccines. Diarrhea not only kills hundreds of thousands of children around the world every year, it contributes to malnutrition that can prevent kids from growing and developing to their full potential both physically and mentally, trapping them in poverty. While significant progress has been made against ...

(WASHINGTON, May 17, 2024) – People who use metformin are less likely to develop a myeloproliferative neoplasm (MPN) over time, indicating that the treatment may help prevent the development of certain types of cancers, according to a study published in Blood Advances. Metformin is a therapy used to treat high blood sugar in people with type 2 diabetes that increases the effect of insulin, reduces how much glucose is released from the liver and helps the body absorb glucose. A meta-analysis of previous studies connected the therapy with ...