HOUSTON ― The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center’s Research Highlights showcases the latest breakthroughs in cancer care, research and prevention. These advances are made possible through seamless collaboration between MD Anderson’s world-leading clinicians and scientists, bringing discoveries from the lab to the clinic and back. Novel allogeneic NK cell therapy from induced pluripotent stem cells shows encouraging efficacy in relapsed or refractory B-cell lymphoma patients Patients ...

CHICAGO, IL (January 22, 2025) — Scholastica, a leading software solutions provider for academic journals, has released a new integration with Crossmark by Crossref, the industry standard mechanism for reporting updates to published research. The Crossmark integration is now available to journals subscribed to the Scholastica Open Access Publishing Platform that are published by a Crossref member organization participating in the Crossmark service. “Clearly communicating article updates and retractions is critical to maintaining the integrity of the scholarly record, and with this ...

Women are born with two X chromosomes and inherit one from each parent. But in every cell of their body, just one X chromosome is needed – so the other is randomly inactivated. Some cells use only a maternal X chromosome; others rely only on the paternal X.   Now, UC San Francisco researchers have found that when the brain cells of female mice express only a maternal X chromosome, their memory and cognitive skills deteriorate faster than female mice that express both maternal and paternal X chromosomes.   The discovery, which appears Jan. 22 in Nature, could explain the variation in brain aging between the sexes, since males inherit only a maternal X, as ...

Deeply hidden in Earth’s mantle there are two huge ‘islands’ with the size of a continent. New research from Utrecht University shows that these regions are not only hotter than the surrounding graveyard of cold sunken tectonic plates, but also that they must be ancient: at least half a billion years old, perhaps even older. These observations contradict the idea of a well-mixed and fast flowing Earth’s mantle, a theory that is becoming more and more questioned. “There is less flow in Earth’s ...

Complete recombination map of the human genome,  a major step in genetics Scientists at deCODE genetics/Amgen have constructed a complete map of how human DNA is mixed as it is passed down during reproduction. The map marks a major step in the understanding of genetic diversity and its impact on health and fertility. It continues 25 years of research at deCODE genetics into how new diversity is generated in the human genome, and its relationship to health and disease. The new map, appearing today in the online edition of Nature, is the first to incorporate shorter-scale shuffling, ...

Like humans, mice will compete over territory and mates, and show increased confidence in their fighting skills the more they win. At first, a brain chemical called dopamine is essential for young males to master this behavior. But as they gain experience, the chemical grows less important in promoting aggression, a new study shows. Dopamine has been linked to male aggression for decades. How past experiences might influence this relationship, however, had until now been unclear. In experiments in rodents, a team led by researchers at NYU Langone Health boosted activity in dopamine-releasing cells in a part of the brain called the ventral tegmental area. The findings revealed that in ...

About The Study: Following landmark clinical trials and changes in guideline recommendations, self-reported primary prevention aspirin use decreased among older adults and adults with low atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) risk for whom aspirin was not recommended, but also decreased among adults with higher ASCVD risk for whom aspirin may still be recommended. Despite these reductions, many patients with limited likelihood to benefit reported continuing to take aspirin.  Corresponding Author: To contact the ...

About The Study: This study found that female sex was associated with an increased risk of long COVID compared with male sex, and this association was age, pregnancy, and menopausal status dependent. These findings highlight the need to identify biological mechanisms contributing to sex specificity to facilitate risk stratification, targeted drug development, and improved management of long COVID. Corresponding author: To contact the corresponding author, Dimpy P. Shah, M.D., Ph.D., email ShahDP@uthscsa.edu. To ...

About The Study: The results of this study showed that adults ages 18 to 49 reporting medical-only or medical-nonmedical cannabis use vs nonmedical-only use had higher prevalence of cannabis use disorder at all severity levels and reported more frequent cannabis use. These findings suggest that medically recommended cannabis is not associated with reduced addiction risk compared with nonmedical use. Corresponding author: To contact the corresponding author, Nora D. Volkow, M.D., email nvolkow@nida.nih.gov. To access the embargoed study: ...

A study led by David Sancho at the Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares (CNIC) in Madrid reveals how an increase in intestinal permeability allows the natural gut bacteria to cross the intestinal barrier and reach the bone marrow, where they induce epigenetic changes—modifications that alter gene activity without affecting DNA sequence—in the stem cells that give rise to immune cells. The epigenetic changes induced by the translocated gut bacteria generate “trained” immune cells primed to respond more efficiently to future infections. However, this same ability to amplify the immune response can also aggravate the inflammatory conditions such as ...

In the world of modern optics, frequency combs are invaluable tools. These devices act as rulers for measuring light, enabling breakthroughs in telecommunications, environmental monitoring, and even astrophysics. But building compact and efficient frequency combs has been a challenge—until now. Electro-optic frequency combs, introduced in 1993, showed promise in generating optical combs through cascaded phase modulation but progress slowed down because of their high power demands and limited bandwidth. This led to the field being dominated by femtosecond lasers and Kerr soliton microcombs, which, while effective, require complex tuning and ...

Seattle, WASH.—January 22, 2025—The human immune system is like an army of specialized soldiers (immune cells) each with a unique role to play in fighting disease. In a new study published in Nature, led by scientists at the Allen Institute, La Jolla Institute for Immunology, and UC San Diego, researchers reveal how cells known as tissue-resident memory CD8 T cells, play unique and specialized roles based on where they are located within the small intestine. Tissue-resident memory cells provide a local first ...

Thanks to a new technology called Moscot (“Multi-Omics Single-Cell Optimal Transport”), researchers can now observe millions of cells simultaneously as they develop into a new organ—for example, a pancreas. This groundbreaking method was developed by an international research team led by Helmholtz Munich and has been published in the renowned journal Nature. Until now, biologists had only a limited understanding of how cells develop in their natural environment—for instance, when they form an organ in the ...

January 22, 2025    New Study Finds Social Programs Could Reduce the Spread of HIV by 29%    Although HIV was used as a case study, the UMass Amherst researchers say their assessment tool has applications for other diseases    AMHERST, Mass. — Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have quantified the impacts of a constellation of social factors on the spread of HIV. Their study, published in Health Care Management Science, found that a hypothetical 100% effective intervention addressing barriers to HIV treatment and care from depression, homelessness, ...

New University of Virginia School of Medicine research revealing the fingerprints of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome within blood samples could open the door to simple tests to identify babies at risk. The findings also represent an important step forward in unraveling the causes of SIDS, an unexplained condition that is the No. 1 killer of babies between amonth and a year old.  The UVA researchers analyzed blood serum samples collected from infants who died ...

Ozone (O3) exposure may reduce the availability of oxygen in the body, resulting in arterial stiffening due to the body’s natural response to create more red blood cells and hemoglobin, according to a study published today in JACC, the flagship journal of the American College of Cardiology. “Researchers found that even brief exposure to elevated ozone levels reduced blood oxygen saturation, triggered hypoxia-related biomarkers, and increased arterial stiffness, highlighting the novel connection between ozone exposure and arterial stiffness, demonstrated through comprehensive biomarker analysis in a high-altitude ...

The Chang Lab at Princeton Chemistry continues in its mission to elucidate the role of metal nutrients in human biology: last year, iron; this year, copper. The lab’s first paper of 2025 showcases its development of a revelatory sensing probe for the detection of copper in human cells and then wields it to uncover how copper may be regulating cell growth in lung cancer. Researchers also offer a possible treatment modality in which copper chelation shows promising results in certain lung cancers where cells have two related phenomena: a heightened transcription factor responding to oxidative stress and a diminished level of bioavailable copper. Their collaborative paper, A histochemical ...

Despite significant therapeutic advances, breast cancer remains a leading cause of cancer-related death in women. Treatment typically involves surgery and follow-up hormone therapy, but late effects of these treatments include osteoporosis, sexual dysfunction and blood clots. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Central Science have created a novel treatment that eliminated small breast tumors and significantly shrank large tumors in mice in a single dose, without problematic side effects. Most breast cancers are ...

PULLMAN, Wash. – When it comes to getting people to want to go places, the future is ever more lovely than the past, according to a new Washington State University-led study in the Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Research. Led by Ruiying Cai, an assistant professor in the Carson College of Business, the study found that forestalgia-focused destination ads—those that emphasize an idealized future—are more effective at enticing travelers to click the purchase button for a vacation than ads based on fond recollections. The research also revealed that forestalgia advertising is particularly effective for getting people to book near-term trips, as imagining ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Black immigrants moving into a neighborhood can help shift the overall racial and ethnic character of the area, a new study suggests.   A researcher from The Ohio State University found that when Black immigrants move into a majority native-Black neighborhood, there is an increase in the white population moving in while native Black residents move out.   “Blackness can’t be treated as a monolith within the United States today, where there is a growing Black immigrant population,” said Nima Dahir, author of the study and assistant professor of sociology at Ohio State.   “There is a lot of complexity ...

When we touch something hot or cold, the temperature is consciously sensed. Previous studies have shown that the cortex, the outermost layer of the brain, is responsible for thermal sensations. However, how the cortex determines whether something is hot or cold is not well understood. Thermal sensitivity is often subjective and individualistic; what is a comfortable temperature for someone might be too hot or too cold for someone else. In a new study, Professor Kei Nagashima from the Body Temperature and Fluid Laboratory, Faculty of Human Sciences, ...

Green tea shines as a natural powerhouse of antioxidants, with catechins leading the charge among its polyphenols, which protect cells from oxidative stress. These powerful compounds neutralize harmful free radicals generated during cancer treatment. The anti-inflammatory properties of green tea can alleviate oral mucositis, a painful inflammation of the mouth lining often caused by chemotherapy and radiation. Building on these benefits, researchers at the Tokyo University of Science (TUS), Japan, have explored the potential of tea catechins in developing ...

Trace metals are crucial for the growth of all living organisms. Understanding the role of these trace metals on the metabolism is essential for maintaining a stable state of the organism. Additionally, human beings are also facing constant exposure to various harmful heavy metals due to various types of pollution. Collectively, these aspects have led to research and development in the field of analytical techniques that can help in identifying the level of these trace metals in our cells.   Inductively coupled ...

Large language models (LLMs) have transformed how many of us work, from supporting content creation and coding to improving search engines. However, the lack of transparency, reproducibility, and customisation of LLMs remains a challenge that restricts their widespread use in biomedical research.  For biomedical researchers, optimising LLMs for a specific research question can be daunting, because it requires programming skills and machine learning expertise. Such barriers have reduced the adoption of LLMs for many research tasks, including data extraction and analysis. A new publication in Nature Biotechnology introduces BioChatter to help overcome ...

The findings, published today in Scientific Reports, show, for the first time, how porous ground treatments can mitigate noise and optimise propellor performance. Lead author Dr Hasan Kamliya Jawahar from the University of Bristol’s aeroacoustic group managed by Professor Mahdi Azarpeyvand was able to demonstrate that porous ground treatments, can significantly reduce noise by up to 30 dB in low-mid frequencies and enhance thrust and power coefficients compared to solid ground surfaces. This suggests that treating roofs of building, ...