(Toronto, February 16, 2024) JMIR Publications is pleased to announce that JMIR Bioinformatics and Biotechnology has passed the Scientific Quality Review by the US National Library of Medicine (NLM) for PubMed Central (PMC). This decision reflects the scientific and editorial quality of the journal. All articles published from 2022 onward will be found on PMC and PubMed after their technical evaluation.  Launched in 2020, JMIR Bioinformatics and Biotechnology is a sister journal of Journal of Medical Internet Research ...

Standard chemotherapy regimens, which are mostly based on testing in relatively young and healthy patients, may do more harm to older adults with cancer who often struggle with other health issues. New research, published yesterday in JAMA Network Open, shows that lowering the dose and adjusting the schedule of how chemotherapy is given to older adults with advanced cancer can make life better for patients, without compromising their treatment goals. The study, which was led by researchers from the University of Rochester Medical Center’s Wilmot Cancer Institute, focuses on how well older people tolerate chemotherapy. More than 30 percent of patients benefitted from treatment regimen ...

HOUSTON – (Feb. 16, 2024) – Rice University computer science researchers have found bias in widely used machine learning tools used for immunotherapy research. Ph.D. students Anja Conev, Romanos Fasoulis and Sarah Hall-Swan, working with computer science faculty members Rodrigo Ferreira and Lydia Kavraki, reviewed publicly available peptide-HLA (pHLA) binding prediction data and found it to be skewed toward higher-income communities. Their paper examines the way that biased data input affects the algorithmic recommendations being ...

A study co-led by Professor Kelly Metcalfe of the Lawrence Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing, and researchers at the Familial Breast Cancer Research Unit at Women’s College Hospital, finds risk-reducing mastectomies (RRM) in women with a BRCA1 or BRCA2 genetic variant, significantly reduces the risk of being diagnosed with breast cancer and lowers the probability of death. The study, published in the British Journal of Cancer, examined how RRM affects the rate of death of women with a pathogenic variant but no cancer diagnosis. To date, there has been only one other study published by researchers in the Netherlands that examines the impact ...

The Hope Foundation for Cancer Research, the public charity supporting SWOG Cancer Research Network, has recently established the Frank and Linda Meyskens Annual Endowed Lectureship on Advances in Cancer Prevention. Since the early 1980’s, Dr. Meyskens has been a leader in the recognition, development, and clinical usage of Prevention in the management of cancer. Frank and Linda have directed the development of this lectureship to advance the explosion of knowledge that is expanding opportunities to engage Prevention in personalized medicine, including early detection and genetically ...

A female White-eared opossum (Didelphis albiventris) found dead in 2021 in Bosque dos Jequitibás Park in the center of Campinas, one of the largest cities in São Paulo state, Brazil, died from rabies meningoencephalitis, according to a group of researchers at the University of São Paulo (USP) and Adolfo Lutz Institute (IAL), the regional reference laboratory, working with health professionals affiliated with public institutions in São Paulo city and Campinas.  Reported in an article published in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, the finding serves as an alert to the presence of the virus, which is deadly to humans, ...

Researchers led by Northwestern University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison have introduced a pioneering approach aimed at combating neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). In a new study, researchers discovered a new way to enhance the body’s antioxidant response, which is crucial for cellular protection against the oxidative stress implicated in many neurodegenerative diseases. The study published today (Feb. 16) in the journal Advanced Materials.  Nathan Gianneschi, the Jacob & Rosaline Cohn Professor of Chemistry at Northwestern’s Weinberg ...

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) — Anoxic marine basins may be among the most viable places to conduct large-scale carbon sequestration in the deep ocean, while minimizing negative impacts to marine life. So say UC Santa Barbara researchers in a paper published in the journal AGU Advances. As we explore ways to actively draw down the levels of carbon in the atmosphere, sending plant biomass to these barren, oxygen-free zones on the seafloor becomes an option worth considering. “The big picture here is that all the best models that we have say that we have to do some form of net negative CO2 removal in order to hit climate goals,” said geochemist, geobiologist ...

Today’s Food and Drug Administration approval of a supplemental biologics license for the monoclonal antibody omalizumab (Xolair) highlights the vital role of the National Institutes of Health-supported research that underpins the FDA decision.    FDA has approved omalizumab for the reduction of allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis, that may occur with an accidental exposure to one or more foods in adults and children aged 1 year and older with food allergy. People taking omalizumab still need to avoid exposure to foods to which they are allergic. Omalizumab previously received FDA approval ...

TAMPA, Fla. — Penile squamous cell carcinoma is a rare malignancy with limited treatment options and poor prognosis, especially in advanced stages. Because of its rarity, few studies focus on better understanding and managing this disease. In a new article published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Moffitt Cancer Center researchers share data on the efficacy and safety of neoadjuvant chemotherapy for locally advanced penile squamous cell carcinoma, addressing a critical gap in evidence regarding treatment options for this rare and aggressive cancer. The Moffitt team, in collaboration with institutions across ...

A new paper led by Harvard researchers has zeroed in on biomarkers of aging using omic data from population-based studies. The team, which included aging and longevity expert Alex Zhavoronkov, PhD, founder and CEO of AI-driven drug discovery company Insilico Medicine, provided a framework for standardizing the development and validation of biomarkers of aging to better predict longevity and quality of life. The findings appeared in Nature Medicine.  Biomarkers are biological characteristics that can be measured and used to evaluate various biological processes, ...

Although primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) is the leading cause of blindness in people over the age of 55, there remains no cure for the disease and its biological mechanisms are not well understood. Elevated intraocular pressure (IOP) is a major risk factor for the disease, but many patients with glaucoma have normal eye pressure and still lose vision. In a new study published this past month in Nature Communications, researchers from Mass Eye and Ear, led by Ayellet Segrè, PhD, conducted a comprehensive study that combined genetic discoveries from a large cross-ancestry genome-wide association study meta-analysis of POAG, led by Janey Wiggs, MD, PhD, ...

LAWRENCE — No one can do everything. Yet that is exactly what many school leaders feel like they must do. A new book from a pair of school leaders and scholars aims to help those who often feel overwhelmed focus on what they can and should do and how to help teachers and students lead schools to reaching their full potential. “Focused: Understanding, Negotiating, and Maximizing Your Influence as a School Leader,” by Jim Watterston and Yong Zhao, aims to help educational administrators guide schools to success without getting ...

Testing wastewater to assess the spread of the COVID-19 virus became common and well-publicized during the pandemic, but it has been focused mostly on urban areas. The Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) has awarded $400,000 to Virginia Tech, with an additional $50,000 to Virginia Tech from the Virginia Department of Health, for a two-year project to identify and implement improved and new methods to detect pathogens for multiple diseases in the wastewater of rural communities. “My work and research have primarily been focused on rural areas, and prior to the pandemic, most ...

The efficiency of oxygen supply to tissues is a factor in the severity of important diseases such as Covid-19 and heart conditions. Scientists already know that the relationship between the length of a person’s index and ring fingers, known as the 2D:4D ratio is correlated with performance in distance running, age at heart attack and severity of Covid-19. Now Swansea University digit ratio expert Professor John Manning has been working with colleagues to look more closely at the subject. Their findings have just been published by the prestigious American Journal of Human ...

In the past decade, humanity has seen the birth and expansion of a commercial space sector with new, private players, addressing technological challenges - from space launch to communication and satellite imagery of Earth. Last year, the global space industry skyrocketed launching more than 2,660* satellites into orbit, and, into the universe, interplanetary probes, landers, and much more. In the United States, SpaceX was responsible for almost 90% of these launches. In parallel to this progression is the expansion of more than 70 countries** demonstrating space capabilities. It affirms the general consensus and understanding ...

Researchers from the University of Seville have investigated how the flowering of 51 species of shrubs, bushes and trees has changed over the last 35 years in Doñana National Park so as to understand how plant communities are responding to climate change in the south of the Iberian Peninsula. Over this period, the average temperature in the area has increased by 1 °C and the minimum temperature by as much as 2 °C. As a result, the community’s peak flowering time, the time when the greatest number of species are in flower, has been brought forward by 22 days, from 9 May to 17 April.   This earlier flowering is not ...

A team of researchers are encouraging us to swap textbooks for games, as they drive the application of games in learning, engagement and research.   Known as ‘serious games’, these games are designed for more than just entertainment. Ranging from digital applications to physical board games, they are developed for learning, problem solving, raising awareness, research, and stakeholder engagement – with potential in both schools and workplaces. A key application will be for educating people on sustainable development and climate change.   Experts leading in the field at the Universities of Warwick, Cardiff, York, and Sussex, ...

Understanding how the poor deal with the effects of the economic crisis into which Brazil plunged in 2014 was the aim of the research project “The crisis seen from the periphery: struggle for social mobility in the frontiers of (i)legality” conducted by Leonardo de Oliveira Fontes with FAPESP’s support (19/13125-2 and 21/13970-4). An article published in the International Journal of Urban and Regional Research is one of the results of the investigation. Fontes is currently a professor in the Department of Sociology ...

About The Study: The findings of this study of children and adolescents with acute concussion suggest that moderate-to-vigorous-intensity physical activity reduced symptoms up to a certain threshold but appeared to offer no further benefit in symptom reduction beyond that point.  Authors: Andrée-Anne Ledoux, Ph.D., of the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, 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.2023.56458) Editor’s Note: Please ...

About The Study: The rebound in the total size of the U.S. registered nurse (RN) workforce during 2022 and 2023 indicates that the earlier drop in RN employment during the first 2 years of the COVID-19 pandemic was likely transitory. Updated forecasts of the future RN workforce are very close to those made before the pandemic.  Authors: David I. Auerbach, Ph.D., of Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, 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/jamahealthforum.2023.5389) Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, ...

Delays in diagnosing melanoma due to Covid-19 lockdown may have contributed to over 100,000 years of life lost across Europe and over £6bn in costs, mainly indirectly due to loss of productivity, finds a new study led by UCL and University Hospital of Basel researchers. The authors of the new JAMA Network Open paper say their findings show how vital early detection of cancer can be, while also highlighting the importance of considering unintended side effects in any future pandemic planning. Co-lead ...

About The Study: In adults with mild to moderate hypertension, treatment with zilebesiran, an investigational RNA interference therapeutic, across a range of subcutaneous doses at 3-month or 6-month intervals significantly reduced 24-hour mean ambulatory systolic blood pressure at month three in this phase 2, randomized clinical trial.  Authors: George L. Bakris, M.D., of University of Chicago Medicine, 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/jama.2024.0728) Editor’s ...

“Previous research has shown that our power system can be transformed to renewable sources like wind and solar at low cost and low environmental impact. However, the next question is how this renewable electricity can be used to substitute fossil fuel use in the buildings, industry and transport sectors. Our analysis shows that the direct use of electricity, for example, via electric cars and heat pumps, is critical for a broad range of sectors, while the conversion of electricity to hydrogen is important only for few applications,” ...

Researchers have identified a protein that evolved concurrently with the emergence of cellular compartments crucial for the multiplication of the toxoplasmosis pathogen. Toxoplasmosis is an infectious disease found worldwide, caused by the single-celled parasite Toxoplasma gondii. In humans, infection poses a particular risk to pregnant woman, as it can lead to birth defects. Like the closely related malaria pathogen – Plasmodium falciparum – and other related species, T. gondii possesses special organelles, so-called rhoptries ...