Lactating mothers who get the COVID-19 booster pass along the antibodies to their children via their breast milk – and potentially protect babies too young to receive the vaccine, a study from the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) and the UF College of Medicine found. The study is the third in a series that looks at antibody protection being transferred via breast milk from mothers who received their first two COVID-19 vaccinations and, now, the booster shot. The second publication reported the same antibody transfer via breast milk. “We think that breast milk may play an important ...

PORTLAND, Ore. – Researchers who work with tiny drug carriers known as lipid nanoparticles have developed a new type of material capable of reaching the lungs and the eyes, an important step toward genetic therapy for hereditary conditions like cystic fibrosis and inherited vision loss. Findings of the study led by Gaurav Sahay and Yulia Eygeris of the Oregon State University College of Pharmacy and Renee Ryals of Oregon Health & Science University were published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Unlike other types of lipid nanoparticles that tend to accumulate in the liver, the ones in this study, ...

Below please find summaries of new articles that will be published in the next issue of Annals of Internal Medicine. The summaries are not intended to substitute for the full articles as a source of information. This information is under strict embargo and by taking it into possession, media representatives are committing to the terms of the embargo not only on their own behalf, but also on behalf of the organization they represent.    ----------------------------    1. COVID-19 associated with increased risk for autoimmune inflammatory rheumatic diseases up to a year after infection Vaccination showed some protection against AIRDs, depending on severity ...

Irvine, Calif. March 4, 2024 — The National Science Foundation has granted $15 million to the Integrative Movement Sciences Institute at the University of California, Irvine. This six-year funding, part of the NSF’s Biology Integration Institutes program, will support groundbreaking research led by Monica Daley, professor of ecology & evolutionary biology at the UCI School of Biological Sciences. The research funded by this grant aims to understand the intricate mechanics of muscle control during rapid, unsteady movements in complex environments. Muscle ...

Metin Akay, founding chair of the Biomedical Engineering Department at the University of Houston and John S. Dunn Professor, is one of 50 top scientists from 34 elite universities to publish a roadmap for groundbreaking research to transform the landscape of medicine in the coming decade.  Published on behalf of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the world’s largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for humanity and the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (IEEE EMBS), the paper focus ...

March 4, 2024, Mountain View, CA – The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is helping scientists uncover how planets form by advancing understanding of their birthplaces and the circumstellar disks surrounding young stars, in a paper published in the Astronomical Journal, a team of scientists led by Naman Bajaj of the University of Arizona and including Dr. Uma Gorti at the SETI Institute, image for the first time, winds from an old planet-forming disk (still very young relative to the Sun) which is actively dispersing its gas ...

EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE UNTIL 4 P.M. ET, MONDAY, MARCH 4, 2024 MINNEAPOLIS – Certain medications for multiple sclerosis (MS) called monoclonal antibodies, taken while breastfeeding, may not affect the development of a child during the first three years of life, according to a preliminary study released today, March 4, 2024. The study will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 76th Annual Meeting taking place April 13–18, 2024, in person in Denver and online. The study examined four monoclonal antibodies for MS: natalizumab, ocrelizumab, rituximab and ofatumumab. MS is a disease in which the body’s immune system attacks ...

PITTSBURGH, March 4, 2024 — Reinsurance programs, which were created to help lower premiums and increase enrollment in the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance marketplaces, may have had the opposite effects for many potential marketplace enrollees, according to a study by health policy researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health, Duke University and University of Minnesota. The study, published today in Health Affairs, is the first to examine the effects of a post-American Rescue Plan Act ...

In the U.S., sexual and gender minority populations are disproportionately affected by HIV. Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is a key prevention method, but its effectiveness relies on consistent usage. While a significant body of research has addressed PreP initiation and adherence, far less attention has been paid to the reasons for and consequences of PrEP discontinuation. A team of investigators conducted a four-year U.S. national cohort study exploring PrEP discontinuation among sexual and gender minority people who initiated PrEP.  “Our cohort was entirely comprised of individuals ...

Medicare Part D plans significantly increased restrictions on prescription drugs, excluding more compounds from coverage or subjecting more of them to review before patients could access the treatments, according to a new study from USC researchers. Among drugs not in Medicare “protected classes,” the share of drug compounds restricted or excluded by Part D plans surged from an average of 31.9% in 2011 to 44.4% in 2020, according to the study published in the March 2024 issue of Health Affairs. Brand-name-only compounds (those without a generic alternative) were especially limited, with more ...

“[...] these results support the rationale and potential for favorable clinical outcomes of combining SG therapy with platinum-based chemotherapeutics in solid tumors.” BUFFALO, NY- March 4, 2024 – A new research paper was published in Oncotarget's Volume 15 on February 22, 2024, entitled, “Sacituzumab govitecan plus platinum-based chemotherapy mediates significant antitumor effects in triple-negative breast, urinary bladder, and small-cell lung carcinomas.” Sacituzumab govitecan (SG) is an antibody-drug conjugate composed of an anti-Trop-2-directed antibody ...

A major international study led by a Canadian psychologist sheds light on a hidden phenomenon: how problematic use of pornography is affecting people in different parts of the world, across various genders and sexual orientations.   Published in the journal Addiction, the  research stands out because, among the 82,000 people in 42 countries studied, it looks at groups that were often overlooked in the past, including women and individuals who don't fit traditional gender categories.   In their findings, largely based on ...

This is a natural 'anti-failure' mechanism in the DNA copying process, hitherto unknown. The DNA molecule is copied each time a cell divides. If, instead of being copied once, the DNA is copied several times, i.e. tripled or even quadrupled, the likelihood of cancer increases.. The new discovered anti-failure system relies on a protein called RAD51 to prevent DNA that has already been copied from being copied again. Every time a cell divides, its DNA is duplicated so that the two daughter cells have the same genetic material as their parent. This means that millions of times a day ...

Over the past 25 years, the amount of summer Arctic sea ice has diminished by more than 1 million square kilometers. As a result, vast areas of the Arctic Ocean are now, on average, ice free in summer. Scientists are closely monitoring how this impacts sunlight availability and marine ecosystems in the far north. “Many questions arise when such large areas become ice-free and can receive sunlight. A prevailing paradigm suggests that the Arctic Ocean is rapidly becoming more productive as sunlight becomes ...

EMBARGOED UNTIL MARCH 4, 2024 AT 3:00PM U.S EASTERN TIME An increase in pockets of open water in Antarctica’s sea ice (polynyas) may mean coastal plants and animals could one day establish on the continent, University of Otago-led research suggests. The research, published in the prestigious international journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, aimed at understanding where open water might allow coastal species to settle in the future. Led by Research Fellow Dr Grant Duffy from Otago’s Department ...

THIS RELEASE IS EMBARGOED UNTIL MARCH 4, 2024, at 3:00 PM U.S. EASTERN TIME. Research led by scientists from University of Wyoming and Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior shows that migrating animals refine their behavior as they get older, suggesting that experiential learning is an important part of successful migration. While genetics and social behavior are important factors shaping animal migrations, information gained through individual experience also appears to help shape migratory movements, says a research team led by Ellen Aikens. Aikens, ...

LA JOLLA (March 4, 2024)—Charles Darwin described evolution as "descent with modification." Genetic information in the form of DNA sequences is copied and passed down from one generation to the next. But this process must also be somewhat flexible, allowing slight variations of genes to arise over time and introduce new traits into the population. But how did all of this begin? In the origins of life, long before cells and proteins and DNA, could a similar sort of evolution have taken place on a simpler scale? ...

RICHLAND, Wash.—There’s a down side to “smart” devices: They can be hacked.   That makes the electric grid, increasingly chock full of devices that interact with one another and make critical decisions, vulnerable to bad actors who might try to turn off the power, damage the system or worse.   But smart devices are a big part of our future as the world moves more toward renewable energy and the many new devices to manage it. Already, such tools play a big role in keeping the power humming. The portion of the grid owned by ...

Plant genomics has come a long way since Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) helped sequence the first plant genome. But engineering the perfect crop is still, in many ways, a game of chance. Making the same DNA mutation in two different plants doesn’t always give us the crop traits we want. The question is why not? CSHL plant biologists just dug up a reason. CSHL Professor and HHMI Investigator Zachary Lippman and his team discovered that tomato and Arabidopsis thaliana plants can use very different regulatory systems to control the same exact ...

1. Using data science techniques, a NIMS–Tohoku University research team has discovered that different thermal conductivities exhibited by an amorphous material with the same composition are attributable to the sizes of atomic rings in its atomic structure. This is one of the first studies demonstrating that the structural features of amorphous materials can be correlated with their physical properties. 2. It is already feasible to synthesize amorphous materials with the same compositions but different thermal conductivities. However, the structural factors responsible for differences in thermal conductivity had yet to be identified due to a lack of appropriate analytical ...

Male breast cancer has distinct alterations in the tumor genome that may suggest potential treatment targets, according to a study by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators. They have conducted the first whole genome sequencing analysis of male breast cancer, which looked at the complete DNA landscape of tumor samples from 10 patients. This is an important step in viewing breast cancer in men, which represents less than 1 percent of all breast cancer cases each year, as a unique disease. Though most research has focused on women with breast cancer, the incidence in men has increased at a much faster rate than in women over the last 40 years. Also, ...

According to the CDC, the suicide rate among young people ages 10‒24 increased 62% from 2007 through 2021. The CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Summary reports that in 2021, 22% of high school students seriously considered attempting suicide during the year and 18% made a suicide plan. These statistics indicate a mental health crisis facing our youth. How can we identify children in crisis? Who is being missed? The Brain & Behavior Research Foundation (BBRF) is hosting a free webinar, “Detection of Suicide-Related Emergencies Among ...

Madhavi Venkatesan, PhD, Editor-in-Chief of the peer-reviewed journal Sustainability and Climate Change and founder of Sustainable Practices, has been named USA TODAY Woman of the Year for the state of Massachusetts in recognition of her outstanding efforts to eliminate single-use plastic bottles across Cape Cod and the Islands. With economics and sustainability at the forefront, Venkatesan established Sustainable Practices in 2016, aiming to address pressing environmental issues through innovative solutions. Since then, she and her nonprofit team have spearheaded ...

In the predawn hours of Sept. 5, 2021, engineers achieved a major milestone in the labs of MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC), when a new type of magnet, made from high-temperature superconducting material, achieved a world-record magnetic field strength of 20 tesla for a large-scale magnet. That’s the intensity needed to build a fusion power plant that is expected to produce a net output of power and potentially usher in an era of virtually limitless power production. The test was immediately declared ...

A vaccine against Zika virus is safe and effective when administered both before and during pregnancy, according to new research published in npj Vaccines. The purified, inactivated Zika vaccine (ZPIV) candidate, developed by Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR), is being evaluated in animal models at Texas Biomedical Research Institute (Texas Biomed) in collaboration with WRAIR and Trudeau Institute in New York. The vaccine candidate has previously been shown to effectively block prenatal Zika virus transmission when given to nonhuman primates ...