An SFU-led collaboration has designed the first synthetic protein-based motor which harnesses biological reactions to fuel and propel itself. “Imagine if a Roomba could be powered only by the dirt it picks up,” says SFU Physics professor Nancy Forde, one of the authors of the study. The team’s paper, led by SFU Physics PhD graduate Chapin Korosec and published today in Nature Communications, describes a protein-based molecular motor called “The Lawnmower,” which has been designed to cut a lawn of peptide “grass.” ...

Glitter is used in a wide array of colors and shapes in apparel, footwear, cosmetics, makeup, handbags, festive decorations, arts and crafts, and jewelry, among many other applications. During the Carnival holidays, hundreds of thousands of Brazilians cover parts of their bodies with it while dancing in the streets. Its brilliance is dazzling but it is considered an emerging pollutant by many scientists: like other microplastics (small plastic pieces less than 5 mm long), it is not filtered by wastewater treatment plants and ends up in rivers and the sea, interfering with aquatic life in various ways. A study conducted at the Federal University of ...

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) — Up to only a few inches in length, with a lemon-hued belly, the foothill yellow-legged frog may seem unassuming. But its range once stretched from central Oregon to Baja California. In 2023, it was listed under the federal Endangered Species Act. Its rapidly decreasing range is due in part to a fungal pathogen called Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, or Bd, that has devastated amphibians around the world. A team of researchers, including UC Santa Barbara’s Andrea Adams, has conducted the most comprehensive study to date ...

As the years add up, it's common to notice slight changes in our ability to remember and think. Older people who have more marked changes than their peers can be diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Currently, we can’t easily predict which of these patients will develop Alzheimer’s disease and which will not. “It's hard to predict which patients will have a more rapid progression and receive a diagnosis of dementia,” said Maria Vittoria Spampinato, M.D., division director of Neuroradiology at the Medical University of South Carolina. “It’s important ...

For years, niobium was considered an underperformer when it came to superconducting qubits. Now scientists supported by Q-NEXT have found a way to engineer a high-performing niobium-based qubit and so take advantage of niobium’s superior qualities. When it comes to quantum technology, niobium is making a comeback. For the past 15 years, niobium has been sitting on the bench after experiencing a few mediocre at-bats as a core qubit material. Qubits are the fundamental components of quantum devices. One qubit type relies on superconductivity to process information. Touted for its superior qualities as a superconductor, niobium was always a promising ...

A long-term analysis conducted by leading microbiologists at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai reveals that antibody responses induced by COVID-19 vaccines are long-lasting. The study results, published online in the journal Immunity on February 22, challenge the idea that mRNA-based vaccine immunity wanes quickly. The emergence of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, in late 2019 sparked the global pandemic that is now in its fifth year. Vaccines that were developed at record speed have saved millions of lives. However, the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants and waning immunity have decreased ...

The 7th World Conference on Targeting Phage Therapy 2024, two-day event dedicated to advancing the field of phage research and therapy will be hosted at Corinthia Palace Malta on June 20-21. Robert T. Schooley, M.D., Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Diego, Co-Director of the Center for Innovative Phage Applications and Therapeutics, and member of the Executive Committee for the University of California Disaster Resilience Network, will introduce the messages and strategies behind phages therapy 2024. His talk titled “Phage Therapeutics 2024: Essential Translational Research Components for ...

“The present studies were performed to extend our knowledge of GZ17-6.02 biology from that known in solid tumor cell types such as prostate cancer cells to liquid tumor cell types, for example, mycosis fungoides.” BUFFALO, NY- February 26, 2024 – A new research paper was published in Oncotarget's Volume 15 on February 8, 2024, entitled, “GZ17-6.02 interacts with bexarotene to kill mycosis fungoides cells.” In this new study, researchers Michael R. Booth, Laurence Booth, Jane L. Roberts, Cameron West, and Paul Dent from Virginia Commonwealth University and Genzada Pharmaceuticals investigated the therapeutic agent GZ17-6.02, composed of curcumin, ...

Memphis, Tenn. (February 26, 2024) – Shelley White-Means, PhD, a professor of Health Economics in the Department of Interprofessional Education and the director of the Consortium for Health Education, Economic Empowerment and Research (CHEER) at UT Health Science Center, recently received a $1.5 million, four-year grant from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities to explore the root causes of the disparity in breast cancer survival of Black women compared to white women.   Dr. White-Means and a team will look beyond the social determinants of health to explore what she terms “the intersectionality of race, ...

Stanford researchers are getting closer to building a tiny electron accelerator based on “accelerator-on-a-chip” technology with broad potential applications in studying physics as well as medical and industrial uses. The researchers have demonstrated that a silicon dielectric laser accelerator, or DLA, can now both speed up and confine electrons, creating a focused beam of high-energy electrons. “If the electrons were microscopic cars, it’s as if, for the first time, we’re steering and we have our foot on the gas,” said Payton Broaddus, PhD ’23 in electrical engineering and the lead author on a paper published on ...

FINDINGS Scientists at City of Hope, one of the largest cancer research and treatment organizations in the United States, have devised an innovative approach to target and destroy hard-to-kill leukemia stem cells. The journal Blood published the preclinical findings today. By overcoming challenges, such as drug resistance and treatment relapse common to patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), the therapy method could provide a less toxic and more effective approach for older and sicker patients who don’t quality for stem cell transplants — currently the only cure for AML available. Type II interferon (IFNy), a substance produced by immune cells, disrupts ...

NEWPORT NEWS, VA – Scientists are getting a more detailed look than ever before at the electrons they use in precision experiments. Nuclear physicists with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility have shattered a nearly 30-year-old record for the measurement of parallel spin within an electron beam – or electron beam polarimetry, for short. The achievement sets the stage for high-profile experiments at Jefferson Lab that could open the door to new physics discoveries. In a peer-reviewed ...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, February 26, 2024 Contact: Gina DiGravio, 617-358-7838, ginad@bu.edu BU Researchers Identify Potential New Subtype of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy One in six cases have a distinct distribution of disease, clinical profile (Boston)—Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a neurodegenerative disease defined by abnormal tau protein accumulating in a particular pattern in specific regions of the brain.   Studies to-date suggest CTE begins in the outermost layer of the frontal lobe, the neocortex, where it then spreads to connected brain regions. Later, in high-stage disease, ...

EMBARGOED by Cell until 11 am ET Feb. 26, 2024 Contact: Gina DiGravio, 617-358-7838, ginad@bu.edu   BU Researchers Describe New Technological Platform to   Accelerate Drug Development   (Boston)— Drug development is currently an extremely long, expensive and inefficient process. Findings generated in a lab are often very hard to replicate once translated into animal models or in humans.   A family of pharmacological targets, on which approximately 35% of FDA-approved drugs work, consists of receptors at the surface ...

One of the most striking examples of gut plasticity can be observed in animals that are exposed to prolonged periods of fasting, such as hibernating animals or phyton snakes that goes for months without eating, where the gut shrinks with as much as 50%, but recovers in size following a few days of re-feeding. Importantly, the capacity of the gut to undergo resizing is broadly conserved. Hence, in humans, an increase in gut size is observed during pregnancy, which facilitates the uptake of nutrients to support the growth of the fetus. The Colombani Andersen ...

What if it were possible to use a scientific model to predict hate crimes, protests, or conflict? Researchers at McGill University and University of Toronto have begun the groundwork to develop a formal predictive model of prejudice, similar to meteorological weather predictions. The model can be explained by the equation: Prejudice = Threat – Contact + Identification, “with some numbers involved,” says lead author Eric Hehman, Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology and lead author of a new study published in Psychological ...

Imagine a world where your smartphone can detect your mood just by the way you type a message or the tone of your voice. Picture a car that adjusts its music playlist based on your stress levels during rush hour traffic. These scenarios are not just futuristic fantasies. They are glimpses into the rapidly evolving field of affective computing. Affective computing is a multidisciplinary field integrating computer science, engineering, psychology, neuroscience and other related disciplines. A new and comprehensive review on affective computing was published Jan. 5 in Intelligent ...

AI decision-making is now common in self-driving cars, patient diagnosis and legal consultation, and it needs to be safe and trustworthy. Researchers have been trying to demystify complex AI models by developing interpretable and transparent models, collectively known as explainable AI methods or XAI methods. A research team offered their insight specifically into audio XAI models in a review article published Jan. 23 in Intelligent Computing, a Science Partner Journal. Although audio tasks are less researched than visual tasks, their expressive power is not less important. Audio signals are easy to understand and communicate, as they typically depend less on expert explanations ...

JMIR Publications is pleased to announce a new theme issue in JMIR Neurotechnology exploring brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) that represent the transformative convergence of neuroscience, engineering, and technology. The peer-reviewed journal aims to bridge the gap between clinical neuroscience and information technology by providing a platform for applied human research in the field of neurology.  JMIR Neurotechnology welcomes submissions from scientists, clinicians, and technologists. PhD students and early career researchers are ...

Your liver plays a vital role in your metabolism, the biological process which converts food into energy. We know that being overweight can negatively affect metabolic activity, but not exactly how. To better understand this, researchers compared the livers of mice which were a typical weight with mice which were obese. They were surprised to find that biological regulation of metabolic activity, after a period of feasting and fasting, was reversed between them. In typical mice, allosteric regulation (the process which controls metabolism) was inhibited during feeding and activated when fasting. However, ...

Striped marlin are some of the fastest animals on the planet and one of the ocean’s top predators. When hunting in groups, individual marlin will take turns attacking schools of prey fish one at a time. Now a new study reported in the journal Current Biology on February 5 helps to explain how they might coordinate this turn-taking style of attack on their prey to avoid injuring each other. The key, according to the new work, is rapid color changes. “We documented for the first time rapid color change in a group-hunting predator, the striped marlin, as groups of marlin hunted schools of sardines,” says Alicia Burns of Humboldt University ...

When a star like our Sun reaches the end of its life, it can ingest the surrounding planets and asteroids that were born with it. Now, using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT) in Chile, researchers have found a unique signature of this process for the first time — a scar imprinted on the surface of a white dwarf star. The results are published today in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. “It is well known that some white dwarfs — slowly cooling embers of stars like our Sun — are ...

About The Study: This survey study found that primary care pediatricians felt less prepared to manage adolescents’ opioid use disorder (OUD) than alcohol, cannabis, or e-cigarette use and were more likely to refer them to offsite care. These results reveal an opportunity for greater workforce training in line with a 2019 survey showing fewer than 1 in 3 pediatric residency programs included education on prescribing OUD medications.  Authors: Scott E. Hadland, M.D., M.P.H., M.S., of Mass General for Children in Boston, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The ...

About The Study: The findings of this study of 8,988 preadolescent children suggest that the increased risk of suicide attempts, consistently reported for adolescents and adults who smoke cigarettes, extends to a range of emerging tobacco products and manifests among elementary school–aged children. Further investigations are imperative to clarify the underlying mechanisms and to implement effective preventive policies for children. Authors: Phil H. Lee, Ph.D., of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, is the corresponding author.  To ...

In the face of increasing temperatures globally, a new Monash-led study of 1.2 million births in Sydney over two decades has shown a strong association between the risk of pre-term birth and exposure to extreme hot temperatures in the third trimester of pregnancy. The data suggested that this association with extreme temperature might be reduced by the level of greenery in a pregnant person’s residential surrounds. The findings suggest health services should consider preparing for an increase in preterm births as our climate warms. The study, published in JAMA Pediatrics, looked at the relationship ...