Supported by a $2 million R01 grant from the National Institutes of Health, the Auerbach Lab at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology will examine how different genes associated with autism spectrum disorders may similarly impact our brain’s neurons, resulting in heightened sensitivity to sounds. Autism spectrum disorders are genetically complex, and hundreds of genes are implicated in their development. As a result, some may conclude that autism is a collection of disconnected disorders with comparable symptoms. However, much like how roads converge as they approach a destination, at some level of brain function ...

Medical University of South Carolina neuroscientist Bashar Badran, Ph.D., was one of only 10 investigators nationwide recognized for their research at the fifth annual scientific meeting of the National Institutes of Health – Helping to End Addiction Long-Term (NIH HEAL) Initiative in Bethesda, Maryland. Badran received an honorable mention for the NIH HEAL Initiative Trailblazer Award. The NIH HEAL Initiative provides funding to encourage scientific research into opioid use and pain management to fast-track progress in the face of the country’s current opioid epidemic. Its Trailblazer ...

A basic premise of how plants grow is that shoots grow up and roots grow down. A new study, published in Plant Physiology, a leading international society journal published by the American Society of Plant Biologists, reveals the answer to a fascinating question: why do weeping tree varieties defy this natural growth pattern? Researchers identified a protein called WEEP that is missing from the Weeping Peach Tree. Their results show how a DNA deletion in just one gene completely changes the localization of the hormone auxin, which ...

A new review has concluded that hospitals that are privatised typically deliver worse quality care after converting from public ownership. The study, led by University of Oxford researchers, has been published today in The Lancet Public Health (video summary available in the notes section).. Lead author Dr Benjamin Goodair, postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Social Policy and Intervention at the University of Oxford, said: ‘This review challenges the justifications for healthcare privatisation and concludes that the scientific support for healthcare privatisation ...

Consistent evidence shows that higher exposure to ultra-processed foods is associated with an increased risk of 32 damaging health outcomes including cancer, major heart and lung conditions, mental health disorders, and early death. The findings, published by The BMJ today, show that diets high in ultra-processed food may be harmful to many body systems and underscore the need for urgent measures that target and aim to reduce dietary exposure to these products and better understand the mechanisms linking ...

Many cancer drugs approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) between 1995 and 2020 lack proof of added benefit, particularly those approved through expedited (“fast track”) pathways, finds a study published by The BMJ today. And despite pharmaceutical industry claims that high drug prices are needed to offset research and development (R&D) costs, the results show that more than half of these drugs, including those with minimal or no added benefit, recover R&D expenses within three years. As such, the researchers call for better alignment between regulatory and reimbursement processes, particularly for drugs approved through expedited pathways, to promote development ...

Peer-reviewed / Modelling study / People The Lancet Public Health: Menu calorie labelling may reduce deaths from cardiovascular disease in England, modelling study suggests  The first estimates of the impact of the current calorie labelling legislation in England, which applies only to large out-of-home food businesses, suggests the policy could prevent or postpone about 730 deaths from cardiovascular diseases between 2022 to 2041.  Larger health benefits are estimated if the policy were to be implemented in all English out-of-home food businesses, with about 9,200 deaths from cardiovascular diseases potentially prevented over ...

A new study conducted by researchers from Utrecht University sheds light on the dynamics of added benefit and revenues of oncology drugs approved by the EMA between 1995 and 2020. The findings, published today, reveal significant insights. The research team consisted of Francine Brinkhuis, Wim Goettsch, Aukje Mantel-Teeuwisse, and Lourens Bloem, affiliated with the Pharmacoepidemiology and Clinical Pharmacology division at Utrecht University. The study aimed to evaluate the added benefit and financial outcomes ...

An increasing number of seismologists are using fiber optic cables to detect seismic waves on Earth—but how would this technology fare on the Moon, and what would it tell us about the deep layers of our nearest neighbor in space? In Seismological Research Letters, Wenbo Wu of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute and colleagues explore the idea of deploying a fiber seismic network on the Moon, discussing some of the challenges to overcome. They also test this hypothetical network using artificial seismograms created from data collected by seismometers placed on the Moon’s surface ...

A major research programme led by the University of East Anglia (UEA) has quantified how climate change risks to human and natural systems increase at a national scale as the level of global warming increases.  A collection of eight studies – all focusing on Brazil, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana and India - shows that the risks of drought, flooding, declines in crop yields, and loss of biodiversity and natural capital greatly increase for each additional degree of global warming.  The overarching picture for the accrual of climate risk across these ...

*Please mention the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID 2024, Barcelona, 27-30 April) if using this material* A new research review to be given at a pre-congress day for this year’s European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID 2024, Barcelona, 27-30 April) will look at improving preventive measures to stop surgical infections. It will also ask why we are doing what we are doing, especially when some interventions lack quality evidence or in fact in some cases any evidence to back them. The presentation will be given by Professor Hilary Humphreys, RCSI University ...

*Please mention the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID 2024, Barcelona, 27-30 April) if using this material* A new research review to be given at a pre-congress day for this year’s European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID 2024, Barcelona, 27-30 April) will focus on a future of more personalised care for diseases such as influenza, so that patients and doctors can work more closely together and be able to more accurately determine when the infectious part of the illness has passed and it is safe for someone to return to work or send their ...

Sensory cues from the opposite sex can influence how animals age, a University of Otago-led study has found.   Lead author Associate Professor Mike Garratt, of the Department of Anatomy, says research has previously shown interactions with the opposite sex can speed up ageing. This study has built on that by showing sensory cues alone can drive those effects.   “This provides an example of how information detected by our sensory systems – what we see, hear and smell – can have long term effects on our ...

Low-income households in the United States are bearing an energy burden that is three times that of the average household, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. In total, more than 46 million U.S. households carry a significant energy burden — meaning they pay more than 6 percent of their gross income for basic energy expenses such as cooling and heating their homes. Passive design elements like natural ventilation can play a pivotal role in reducing energy consumption. By harnessing ambient energy sources like sunlight and wind, they can create a more comfortable environment at little or no ...

Jellyfish can't do much besides swim, sting, eat, and breed. They don't even have brains. Yet, these simple creatures can easily journey to the depths of the oceans in a way that humans, despite all our sophistication, cannot. But what if humans could have jellyfish explore the oceans on our behalf, reporting back what they find? New research conducted at Caltech aims to make that a reality through the creation of what researchers call biohybrid robotic jellyfish. These creatures, which can be thought of as ocean-going cyborgs, augment jellyfish with electronics that enhance their swimming and a prosthetic ...

Atomic force microscopy, or AFM, is a widely used technique that can quantitatively map material surfaces in three dimensions, but its accuracy is limited by the size of the microscope’s probe. A new AI technique overcomes this limitation and allows microscopes to resolve material features smaller than the probe’s tip. The deep learning algorithm developed by researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is trained to remove the effects of the probe’s width from AFM microscope images. As reported in the journal Nano Letters, the algorithm surpasses other methods in giving the first true three-dimensional ...

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Using a novel research methodology, researchers in the U.S. and Tanzania have identified new recommendations for reducing nutrient deficiency in the East African country. Brandon McFadden, professor of agricultural economics and agribusiness and the Tyson Endowed Chair in Food Policy Economics for the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, said that a key recommendation from the study was for policymakers and public health officials in Tanzania to focus on education about zinc deficiency. “Zinc deficiency is a major health problem worldwide, particularly in developing countries, and a major health consequence is stunted growth ...

New research from the University of Washington shows that condom use has been trending downward among younger gay and bisexual men over the last decade, even when they aren’t taking pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP. The study, published Feb. 27 in AIDS and Behavior, measures changes in sex without condoms among HIV-negative gay and bisexual men who are not taking PrEP. Using data from the 2014-19 cycles of the American Men’s Internet Survey — a web-based survey of cisgender men ages 15 and older who have sex with men (MSM) — researchers found ...

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) — Researchers in the United States and China have discovered a curious link between air pollution and suicide rates that prompts us to reconsider how to approach this issue. China’s efforts to reduce air pollution have prevented 46,000 suicide deaths in the country over just five years, the researchers estimate. The team used weather conditions to tease apart confounding factors affecting pollution and suicide rates, arriving at what they consider to be a truly causal connection. The results, published in Nature Sustainability, unearth air quality as a key factor influencing mental health. Issues ...

By Beth Miller With the U.S. government’s goal to reduce emissions from transportation as part of a net-zero climate goal by 2050, efficient and reliable batteries are a necessity. A collaborative team of researchers led by the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis is working toward that goal by developing an energy storage system that would have a much higher energy density than existing systems. With $1.5 million from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), Xianglin Li, associate professor of mechanical engineering & materials science, will lead a multi-institutional ...

There’s enough water frozen in Greenland and Antarctic glaciers that if they melted, global seas would rise by many feet. What will happen to these glaciers over the coming decades is the biggest unknown in the future of rising seas, partly because glacier fracture physics is not yet fully understood. A critical question is how warmer oceans might cause glaciers to break apart more quickly. University of Washington researchers have demonstrated the fastest-known large-scale breakage along an Antarctic ice shelf. The study, recently published in AGU Advances, shows that a 6.5-mile (10.5 kilometer) crack formed in 2012 on Pine Island Glacier — a retreating ice shelf that ...

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Perovskites, a broad class of compounds with a particular kind of crystal structure, have long been seen as a promising alternative or supplement to today’s silicon or cadmium telluride solar panels. They could be far more lightweight and inexpensive, and could be coated onto virtually any substrate, including paper or flexible plastic that could be rolled up for easy transport. In their efficiency at converting sunlight to electricity, perovskites are becoming comparable to silicon, whose manufacture still requires long, complex, and ...

Scientists from Mass Eye and Ear and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard found 18 novel species of a type of bacteria called enterococci, which are gut microbes found in most land animals. Enterococcus type bacteria are among the leading causes of antibiotic-resistant infections worldwide and 60 species had previously been identified. Understanding origins of antibiotic-resistant bacteria could offer insight into mechanisms of how drug-resistant, hospital-associated infections take root. Antibiotic-resistant infection is projected to catch up to cancer as the leading ...

EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE UNTIL 4 P.M. ET, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2024 MINNEAPOLIS –  For people with drug-resistant epilepsy, having a dog companion trained in  detecting seizures and other epilepsy-related tasks may reduce the amount of seizures they have, according to new research published in the February 28, 2024, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. For the study, researchers looked at adults with severe epilepsy who have been unable to find effective treatment to reduce seizures. “Despite the development of numerous anti-seizure medications over the past 15 years, up to 30% of people ...

EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE UNTIL 4 P.M. ET, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2024 MINNEAPOLIS – For children and teens, irregular meals such as skipped breakfasts are linked to an increased risk of frequent headaches, according to a new study published in the February 28, 2024, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The study also found that for those ages 12 to 17, substance use and exposure, specifically electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes), were associated with frequent headaches. For the study, frequent headaches were defined as occurring more than once per week. “It ...