SAN ANTONIO, March 7, 2024 – The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UT Health San Antonio) has secured approximately $16.4 million in funding from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas the past six months, attracting three top cancer researchers and advancing child and adolescent cancer research. A primary driver of San Antonio’s leading $44.1 billion health care and biosciences sector, UT Health San Antonio is the largest academic research institution in South Texas with an annual research portfolio of $413 million, and accounts for more than 70% of National Institutes of Health research funding to all institutions locally. Simon ...

About The Study: This scoping review determined that although artificial intelligence (AI) dermatology mobile apps hold promise for improving access to care and patient outcomes, in their current state, they may pose harm due to potential risks, lack of consistent validation, and misleading user communication. Addressing challenges in efficacy, safety, and transparency through effective regulation, validation, and standardized evaluation criteria is essential to harness the benefits of these apps while minimizing risks. Authors: Veronica Rotemberg, M.D., Ph.D., of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, and Associate Editor, JAMA Dermatology, is the corresponding ...

An egg-laying species of worm-like amphibian feeds a lipid-rich milk-like substance to its hatchlings, according to a new study. The findings report a previously unobserved behavior and offer new insight into the species’ parental care and communication. Among vertebrates, the embryonic yolk is often the only nutritional investment mothers offer to feed offspring. However, some species have developed parental care behaviors involving the production and provisioning of specialized foods, such as the production of lipid-rich milk in mammals. Feeding offspring with nutrient-rich milk was long seen as a trait unique to mammals. However, several non-mammalian ...

The international liver oil and meat trade is driving rapid depletion of deepwater sharks and rays – an outcome that is potentially irreversible due to these animals’ extremely slow life histories. The findings highlight the need for immediate trade and fishing regulations . The deep ocean – the largest and one of the most complex ecosystems on Earth – is considered the last natural biodiversity refuge from the reach of human activities. It also remains one of the Earth’s least-studied environments. As such, there have been no comprehensive evaluations of the state of deepwater biodiversity. Despite international commitments ...

Atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) drawdown from the chemical weathering of rocks peaks across a narrow range of moderate erosion rates, according to a new study. The findings provide new insights into the constraints of weathering-mediated CO2 drawdown and help to resolve conflicting data on the impact of uplift and erosion on the carbon cycle. The chemical weathering of rocks on Earth’s surface, in part, mediates the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere and, thereby, the planet’s climate. Understanding the constraints of this process is critical to modeling Earth’s evolution over geologic time scales and ...

A new device tested in pigs enables monitoring and early detection of pH changes in deep tissues due to post-operative leaks following gastrointestinal surgery. Such leaks – which occur at high rates 3-7 days following surgery – can be fatal if overlooked, and as such, require constant monitoring. Yet, early detection of these leaks remains a challenge. To address this need, Jaiqi Liu and colleagues developed a novel class of pH-responsive materials for real-time ultrasound measurement of pH changes indicative of leaks from healing ...

For many hundreds of millions of years, the average temperature at the surface of the Earth has varied by not much more than 20° Celsius, facilitating life on our planet. To maintain such stable temperatures, Earth must have a ‘thermostat’ that regulates the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide over geological timescales, influencing global temperatures. The erosion and weathering of rocks are important parts of this ‘thermostat.’ A team led by LMU geologist Aaron Bufe and Niels Hovius from the German Research Centre for Geosciences has now modeled the influence of these processes on carbon in the atmosphere. Their surprising result: CO2 capture through weathering ...

A protein that appears in postsynaptic protein agglomerations has been found to be crucial to their formation. The Kobe University discovery identifies a new key player for synaptic function and sheds first light on its hitherto uncharacterized cellular role and evolution. What happens at the synapse, the connection between two neurons, is a key factor in brain function. The transmission of the signal from the presynaptic to the postsynaptic neuron is mediated by proteins and their imbalance can lead to neuropsychiatric ...

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — A widespread bacteria called Wolbachia and a virus that it carries can cause sterility in male insects by hijacking their sperm, preventing them from fertilizing eggs of females that do not have the same combination of bacteria and virus. A new study led by microbiome researchers at Penn State has uncovered how this microbial combination manipulates sperm, which could lead to refined techniques to control populations of agricultural pests and insects that carry diseases like Zika and dengue to humans. The study is published in the March 8 issue of the journal Science. “Wolbachia is the most widespread bacteria in ...

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- MIT researchers have discovered a brain circuit that drives vocalization and ensures that you talk only when you breathe out, and stop talking when you breathe in. The newly discovered circuit controls two actions that are required for vocalization: narrowing of the larynx and exhaling air from the lungs. The researchers also found that this vocalization circuit is under the command of a brainstem region that regulates the breathing rhythm, which ensures that breathing remains dominant over speech. “When you need to breathe in, you have to stop vocalization. We found that the neurons that control vocalization ...

EVANSTON, Ill. — Researchers led by Northwestern University and Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have developed a new, first-of-its-kind sticker that enables clinicians to monitor the health of patients’ organs and deep tissues with a simple ultrasound device. When attached to an organ, the soft, tiny sticker changes in shape in response to the body’s changing pH levels, which can serve as an early warning sign for post-surgery complications such as anastomotic leaks. Clinicians then ...

By dissecting the genetic diversity of the most deadly human malaria parasite – Plasmodium falciparum – researchers at EMBL’s European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) have identified a mechanism of ‘copy-paste’ genetics that increases the genetic diversity of the parasite at accelerated time scales. This helps solve a long-standing mystery regarding why the parasite displays hotspots of genetic diversity in an otherwise unremarkable genetic landscape.  Malaria is most commonly transmitted through the bites of female Anopheles mosquitoes infected with P. falciparum. The latest world malaria report ...

Researchers propose that governments apply a new method for calculating the benefits that arise from conserving biodiversity and nature for future generations. The method can be used by governments in cost-benefit analyses for public infrastructure projects, in which the loss of animal and plant species and ‘ecosystem services’ – such as filtering air or water, pollinating crops or the recreational value of a space – are converted into a current monetary value. This process is designed to make biodiversity loss and the benefits of nature conservation more visible in political decision-making. However, the international research team ...

Functional eyes are not required for a working circadian clock in zebrafish, as a research team1 including CNRS scientists has now shown. Though it is understood that the eye plays a key role in mammalian adaptation to day-night cycles, the circadian clock is most often studied in nocturnal vertebrates such as mice. The zebrafish, in contrast, is a diurnal vertebrate. Through observation of various zebrafish larvae lacking functional eyes,2 the team of scientists has demonstrated that the latter are not needed to establish circadian rhythms that remain synchronized with light-dark ...

What’s in a name? A lot, actually. For the scientific community, names and labels help organize the world’s organisms so they can be identified, studied, and regulated. But for bacteria, there has never been a reliable method to cohesively organize them into species and strains. It’s a problem, because bacteria are one of the most prevalent life forms, making up roughly 75% of all living species on Earth. An international research team sought to overcome this challenge, which has long plagued scientists who study bacteria. Kostas Konstantinidis, Richard ...

The University of Colorado Denver | Anschutz Medical Campus is listed as one of Forbes America’s Best Large Employers for 2024. The 2024 list of “America’s Best Employers” was conducted by Forbes and market research firm Statista, the world-leading statistics portal and industry ranking provider. “This ranking is meaningful to our organization because the people who work at CU Anschutz drive our success as a leading academic medical campus by providing unparalleled patient care services, being a premier national leader in research and innovation, and fostering a supportive learning ...

As data from the Anti-Defamation League shows antisemitism growing on college campuses in recent years and spiking after the Hamas-Israel conflict, a New Jersey Institute of Technology researcher is doing her part to combat the trend by developing a training model that will help prepare mental health professionals who work with Jewish students. Modern students are hearing people chant slogans without understanding the intentions behind the words, or finding swastikas and other anti-Jewish graffiti on their campuses, but they are not encountering suitably trained counselors and psychologists who understand their ...

Becoming a parent comes with lots of bills. For new mothers, being able to afford the rent may help stave off postpartum depression. “Housing unaffordability has serious implications for mental health,” said Katherine Marcal, an assistant professor at the Rutgers School of Social Work and author of a study published in the journal Psychiatry Research. “For mothers who rent their homes, the ability to make monthly payments appears to have a correlation to well-being.” Housing hardship – missing rent or mortgage payments, moving in with others, being evicted ...

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. Recent developments at MD Anderson offer clinical insights into a novel treatment strategy for patients with relapsed/refractory acute myeloid leukemia (AML), molecular insights into Burkitt lymphoma development, a therapeutic target to overcome ...

AUSTIN, Texas — Managers can do much to help their workers become more resilient to inevitable time disruptions in today’s workplace, says new research from The University of Texas at Austin. With intricate supply chains and operations that sprawl across time zones, workplace time disturbances are only increasing. Such temporal disruptions aren’t just inconvenient, says David Harrison, Texas McCombs professor of management professor: They can carry tangible business costs, such as impaired health, increased mistakes, and reduced ...

In the four years after the border wall height was increased from 17 feet to 30 feet along the US-Mexican border, drowning deaths of migrants in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego increased by 3200%, according to a new study published in JAMA. Co-authors Anna Lussier, M.D, Ph.D. student in the University of California San Diego School of Medicine, and Peter Lindholm, M.D., Ph.D., Gurnee Endowed Chair of Hyperbaric and Diving Medicine Research and professor in residence in the Department of Emergency Medicine at UC San Diego School of Medicine, ...

Over half of the 60 countries holding national elections this year are experiencing a democratic decline, risking the integrity of the electoral process, as reported in the latest Democracy Report from the V-Dem Institute at the University of Gothenburg. The worsening election quality is concerning, given the pivotal role elections play in either reinforcing or mitigating the trend of autocratization. The wave of democratic backsliding, or autocratization, continues to be noticeable, according to the report. 42 countries are autocratizing, and 71 percent of the world’s population now live in autocracies – up from 48 percent ten years ago. There ...

The frequency and scale of mass mortality events — events where large numbers of organisms die in short periods of time — among farmed salmon have increased since 2012, according to a study published in Scientific Reports. Gerald Singh and colleagues analysed salmon mortality data from Norway, Canada, the UK, Chile, Australia, New Zealand — countries that produced over 92% of the world’s farmed salmon in 2021 — between 2012 and 2022. They identified 865 million instances of salmon mortality during ...

The cacao tree (Theobroma cacao), whose beans (cocoa) are used to make products including chocolate, liquor and cocoa butter, may have spread from the Amazon basin to the other regions of South and Central America at least 5,000 years ago via trade routes, suggests a paper published in Scientific Reports. These findings, based on residues in ancient vessels, reveal how different strains of cacao tree were bred and suggest that cacao products were more widely used among ancient South and Central American cultures than previously thought. The modern cacao tree — whose scientific ...

About The Study: The findings of this analysis of nationally representative data suggest that youth experienced a significant and sustained increase in mental health burden for over a decade preceding the COVID-19 pandemic, and treatment and prevention strategies will need to address preexisting psychiatric needs in addition to the direct effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.  Authors: Florence T. Bourgeois, M.D., M.P.H., of Boston Children’s Hospital, is the corresponding author.  To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/  (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.1468) Editor’s ...