By Benjamin Boettner  (BOSTON) — Therapeutic cancer vaccines are a form of immunotherapy in the making that could not only destroy cancer cells in patients, but keep a cancer from coming back and spreading. Multiple therapeutic cancer vaccines are being studied in clinical trials, but despite their promise, they are not routinely used yet by clinical oncologists to treat their patients.  The central ingredient of therapeutic cancer vaccines is antigens, which are preferentially produced or newly produced (neoantigens) by tumor cells and enable a patient’s immune system to search and destroy the cancerous ...

A printable organic polymer that assembles into chiral structures when printed has enabled researchers to reliably measure the amount of charge produced in spin-to-charge conversion within a spintronic material at room temperature. The polymer’s tunable qualities and versatility make it desirable not only for less expensive, environmentally friendly, printable electronic applications, but also for use in understanding chirality and spin interactions more generally.  Spintronic devices are electronic devices that harness the spin of an electron, ...

For Immediate Release OAKLAND, Calif., March 15, 2024 — Innovation in trauma-informed health care is the core focus of a special section in today’s issue of The Permanente Journal. The special section features 13 articles that touch on this increasingly prominent approach and reaches into several diverse subdomains such as mental health, physical health, body size diversity and systems-level implementation. Workplace wellness, clinician training and medical school curricula related to trauma are also covered in the issue. Trauma-informed health care has grown ...

The liver is not only the largest internal organ but also vital for human life as a metabolic center. It also possesses remarkable self-healing powers: even when large portions are removed, such as during surgery, they quickly regenerate in healthy individuals. However, in cases of repeated or chronic injury to the liver tissue, as caused by excessive alcohol consumption or viral hepatitis, this regenerative capacity fails. Scarring occurs, known as fibrosis, where liver cells are replaced by fibrous tissue. The liver hardens and becomes increasingly unable to perform its functions - in the worst case, this leads to liver failure. To ...

It is well known that car safety equipment was originally designed with male-representative bodies in mind. This means women sitting in the front row are more likely to suffer severe or fatal injuries in the case of a crash. They are also more likely to be trapped in crashed cars. Interested in the inequalities of car design and the resulting injuries, a team of researchers in the US has used trauma injury data from car crash victims to evaluate differences in injury patterns typical for males and females. “We found that vehicle crash injury patterns and injury severity differ between men and women. We also show that women are arriving ...

Researchers led by Prof. WANG Bin at National Center for Nanoscience and Technology (NCNST) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences recently reported that strain generated at bubbles of 2D materials can benefit the catalytic activity of the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). The study was published in Chem Catalysis.  Green hydrogen produced by electrochemical water splitting offers the potential to achieve carbon-neutral production processes. Catalysts play a crucial role in facilitating HER at the anode, making it a key component in the transition to a sustainable energy future. Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), particularly MoS2, have drawn attention ...

In a study published on January 18, 2024 in the journal Physics of Fluids, researchers from Tohoku University theoretically linked ignition and deflagration in a combustion system, unlocking new configurations for stable, efficient combustion engines due to the possible existence of any number of steady-state solutions. "This research directly tackles the challenge of reducing carbon dioxide emissions by enhancing the efficiency of combustion engines, a significant source of these emissions," said Youhi Morii from the ...

In 1879, Edison invented the incandescent lamp, which brought light to the night. In 1969, the first red light emitting diodes (LEDs) lamp came out. However, as the key to making white light bulbs, high-energy blue light has not been successfully commercialized. Until 1998, the Japan’s Nakamura Shoji made white LEDs, which marked the official entry of LEDs into the lighting era. LEDs have the advantages of high efficiency, environmental protection and energy saving. Metal halide perovskites (MHPs) have become a powerful candidate for new LEDs ...

In our digital networked society, random bit generators (RBGs) are vital for services and state-of-the-art technologies such as cryptographically secured communication, blockchain technologies, and quantum key distribution. An ever-increasing demand to improve the security of digital information has shifted the generation of random bits from sole reliance on pseudorandom algorithms to the use of physical entropy sources. Shannon’s theorem establishes that it is required for the ultimate security to achieve bit rate matching that of the true RBGs with that of the communication systems. For this purpose, optical chaos has been widely studied in the past decades as a means for the ...

Peer-reviewed / Modelling study / People Embargoed access to the paper and contact details for authors are available in Notes to Editors at the end of the release. Most comprehensive study to date finds the burden of nervous system (neurological) conditions is much greater than previously understood, with this diverse group of conditions affecting 43% of the world’s population (3.4 billion individuals) in 2021. Neurological conditions were responsible for 443 million years of healthy life lost due to illness, disability, and premature death (disability-adjusted life years) in 2021, making them the ...

A positive relationship with a teacher at an early age may help children to feel more engaged with school, but not necessarily in the long term, new research shows. The finding comes from a University of Cambridge study of more than 3,600 young people in Australia, using data gathered at several points between the ages of eight and 15. The students’ levels of school engagement – meaning their interest in school and willingness to learn – fluctuated during this period, especially during the ...

Liver disease specialists at the University of Chicago Medicine will soon begin prescribing a first-of-its-kind drug for treating advanced metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) — formerly known as nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Resmetirom (to be sold under the brand name Rezdiffra), received FDA approval on March 14, 2024. It is the first medication approved for treating metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH), a more advanced stage of MASLD characterized by liver inflammation and scarring known as fibrosis. “Until now, liver disease has ...

**Note: the release below is a special early release from the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID 2024, Barcelona, Spain, 27-30 April). Please credit the congress if you use this story** Long COVID appears to manifest as a post-viral syndrome indistinguishable from seasonal influenza and other respiratory illnesses, with no evidence of increased moderate-to-severe functional limitations a year after infection, according to new research being presented at this year’s European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID 2024) in ...

Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) can be a life-saving therapy for patients with acute heart or lung failure. During ECMO therapy, a patient’s blood flows out of their veins through tubes and into a machine that does both the actions of the heart and lungs. The oxygenated blood is then returned to the body allowing the heart and lungs to rest. While ECMO can stabilize a critically ill patient in an intensive care unit, the procedure carries significant risks, including brain injury. Often these patients are comatose, and current neuromonitoring techniques are too risky and invasive to perform routinely. Now, researchers at the University ...

Kurdish uprisings have become a way for people to assert their identity and challenge their historical and structural erasure in modern Iran, a new study shows. Protests following the death of Jina (Mahsa) Amini in police custody in Iran led to “remarkable” acts of resistance built on decades of activism, according to the research. The study, published in the International Journal of Middle East Studies, outlines how the growing resistance that up to “Jîna's uprising” had been largely unnoticed by many Iranians. Dr ...

Inhaling nontuberculous mycobacteria is common for most people. The bacteria are found in water systems, soil and dust worldwide and, for many, cause no harm. For those with underlying conditions, nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) can infect the lungs, causing symptoms similar to tuberculosis. Inflammation can cause a chronic and sometimes bloody cough as well as scarring, which can make respiratory infections like bronchitis and pneumonia more common. Due to the slow growth of the bacteria, proper diagnosis and treatment can take months. In a new study, Tulane University researchers have developed a CRISPR-based platform for diagnosing NTM infections where blood testing ...

Electrical engineers at Duke University have determined the theoretical fundamental limit for how much electromagnetic energy a transparent material with a given thickness can absorb. The finding will help engineers optimize devices designed to block certain frequencies of radiation while allowing others to pass through, for applications such as stealth or wireless communications. “Much of the physics of the known universe already have fundamental solutions or are too complex to get an exact answer,” said Willie Padilla, professor of electrical and computer engineering at Duke. “In any field, finding a truly novel, fundamental, exact ...

AMHERST, Mass. – A team of researchers including University of Massachusetts Amherst engineers have proven that their analog computing device, called a memristor, can complete complex, scientific computing tasks while bypassing the limitations of digital computing.   Many of today’s important scientific questions—from nanoscale material modeling to large-scale climate science—can be explored using complex equations. However, today’s digital computing systems are reaching their limit for performing these computations in terms of speed, energy consumption and infrastructure.   Qiangfei Xia, ...

Restored salmon habitat should resemble financial portfolios, offering fish diverse options for feeding and survival so that they can weather various conditions as the climate changes, a new study shows. The researchers looked at threatened spring-run Chinook salmon in tributaries of the Sacramento River. It found that restored sites that produce lots of fish may be especially vulnerable to changes such as drought. Such sites should be coupled with other varying sites that support the salmon population in diverse ways. “The fish need all the different ...

AURORA, Colo. (March 14, 2024) – Managing circadian rhythms through intense light and chronologically timed therapy can help prevent or treat a variety of circulatory system conditions including heart disease, according to a new study from researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. The study was published today in Circulation Research, an official journal of the American Heart Association. “The impact of circadian rhythms on cardiovascular function and disease development is well established,” ...

Even in tech-heavy Washington state, the numbers of students with access to computer science classes aren’t higher than national averages: In the 2022-2023 school year, 48% of public high schools offered foundational CS classes and 5% of middle school and high school students took such classes. Those numbers have inched up, but historically marginalized populations are still less likely to attend schools teaching computer science, and certain groups — such as Latinx students and young women — are less likely than their peers to be enrolled in the classes even if the school offers them. To reach a greater diversity of grade-school ...

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) — The Association for Psychological Science (APS), the leading organization serving psychological researchers, practitioners, teachers, and students from around the world, has announced a new partnership that will expand the training and career development resources available to its members.   APS has partnered with Instats, a virtual learning platform offering live and on-demand research training seminars, courses, and workshops. Instats provides its PhD-level programming through its global network of ...

A recent study from the lab of Dr. Hugo J. Bellen, distinguished service professor at Baylor College of Medicine and investigator at the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute (Duncan NRI) links the FRYL gene to a new neurodevelopmental disorder in humans. They used fruit flies to establish that the loss of a functional copy of the FRY-like transcription coactivator (FRYL) gene is the underlying cause of this new disorder in fourteen individuals. The study was published in the American Journal of Human Genetics. FRYL ...

A person’s age, sex and location are correlated with the chance that they have a bloodstream infection that is resistant to antibiotics, according to a new study published March 14th in PLOS Medicine by Gwenan Knight of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK, and colleagues. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR), in which infections cannot be treated with antibiotics, is a major global public health threat. Little has been known about how the prevalence of resistance varies with age and sex even though antibiotic usage, changes in immune function, and exposure to high-risk settings are all linked to age and sex. In the new study, researchers analyzed ...

Coronavirus envelope protein is a drug target for new platform for the identification and optimization of peptides against SARS-CoV-2   ##### In your coverage, please use this URL to provide access to the freely available paper in PLOS Biology:   http://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3002522 Article Title: Developing inhibitory peptides against SARS-CoV-2 envelope protein Author Countries: United States Funding: This work was supported by Columbia University Dean’s ...