With the national opioid epidemic disproportionately affecting American Indians and Alaska Natives, a tribal confederation in Oregon decided to take matters into their own hands. The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde not only opened Oregon’s first tribally owned opioid treatment program in Salem in 2021, but a year later, the tribe also began what is believed to be the nation’s first tribally operated mobile medication unit. The mobile bus runs a daily circuit from the tribal reservation in Grand Ronde to McMinnville to Salem, seeing patients and dispensing medications directly to tribal members struggling with an opioid use disorder. The program appears ...

The emergence of successive SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern during 2020-22 created a need to understand the drivers of such growth; this study uses a Bayesian model to reveal how a set of key covariates (the infecting variant, symptom status, age and number of prior exposures) affect viral kinetics at both individual and population levels   ##### In your coverage, please use this URL to provide access to the freely available paper in PLOS Biology:   http://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3002463 Article Title: Combined analyses of ...

Mutations in the Cu-Zn superoxide dismutase 1 gene SOD1 can cause familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (fALS) in a process that involves dissociation of the SOD1 dimer; this study shows that a novel cyclic thiosulfinate cross-linker has favorable drug-like properties and can stabilize the SOD1 dimer in vivo, with therapeutic implications for fALS ##### In your coverage, please use this URL to provide access to the freely available paper in PLOS Biology: http://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3002462 Author ...

Dr. Jeannine Gerhardt, an assistant professor of stem cell biology in obstetrics and gynecology and in reproductive medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine, has received a five-year, $2.1 million grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), part of the National Institutes of Health, for the study of repetitive DNA and RNA sequences and the mechanisms by which they cause cell dysfunction and diseases. The NIGMS Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award is intended to support recipients’ research more broadly and flexibly than standard project grants, which must specify proposed research thoroughly in advance. “This award is particularly nice because ...

More than half of the world’s population—4.4 billion people—lives in cities, and that proportion will grow to two-thirds by the year 2050, according to the United Nations. As the world’s population expands, and becomes increasingly urbanized, many have raised concerns about the impact of waste—from house trash to wastewater to greenhouse gas emissions—on the planet. “We as a society tend to ignore the unpleasant side of our production,” says Mingzhen Lu, an assistant professor at New York University’s ...

Scientists at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) developed a green antibiotic alternative to treat the deadly pathogen Streptococcus iniae in hybrid striped bass, the fourth most farmed finfish in the United States, according to a recent study.  S. iniae is the causative agent of streptococcosis, a disease prevalent in aquaculture and causes a worldwide economic loss of $150 million annually. Disease outbreaks can bankrupt fish farms and ...

Peer-reviewed - Survey Rebuilding trust in fisheries governance will be vital to create a sustainable industry post-Brexit England, according to new research.  Strong trust between managers and fishers is essential for achieving sustainable fisheries, but new research from the University of East Anglia has found worryingly low levels of trust in fisheries following the UK’s departure from the European Union.  The survey pioneered a methodology assessing different elements influencing trust. It revealed perceived incompetence, indifference to fishers' livelihoods, and inadequate consultation as major drivers of fishers' distrust towards fishery regulators.  Lead ...

PHOENIX — High-grade gliomas are cancerous tumors that spread quickly in the brain or spinal cord. In a new study led by Mayo Clinic, researchers found invasive brain tumor margins of high-grade glioma (HGG) contain biologically distinct genetic and molecular alterations that point to aggressive behavior and disease recurrence. The findings suggest insights into potential treatments that could modify the course of the disease. The study published in Nature Communications, profiled 313 tumor biopsies from 68 HGG patients using genomics (study of genes), ...

Depending on their location, cancer cells within a three-dimensional (3D) tumor structure can have different microenvironments. Cells in the core of the tumor receive less oxygen (hypoxia) and nutrients than those in the periphery. These varying conditions can drive differences in cell growth rates and drug sensitivities, highlighting the need to study 3D tumor models in lab settings. Until recently, conventional methods used to create such tumor spheroids were time-consuming, produced inconsistent results and involved high setup costs. Investigators at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding ...

Ann Arbor, January 30, 2024 – Experiencing a pregnancy from sexual violence is common in the United States, according to research conducted by investigators at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, published by Elsevier. Nearly six million women in the United States who were raped, sexually coerced (defined as non-physically forced unwanted penetration), or both became pregnant as a result. This equates to about one in twenty American ...

Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) recently inaugurated its new Institute for Quantitative and Computational Biosciences (IQCB) in the presence of Clemens Hoch, the Minister of Science of Rhineland-Palatinate, and Professor Stefan Müller-Stach, JGU's Vice President for Research and Early Career Academics. The IQCB is an interdisciplinary research institute at the interface between the life sciences and neighboring disciplines including mathematics, computer science, physics, chemistry, and engineering, thus generating new opportunities for research by way of, for example, computer-aided analysis of large amounts of data, computer-based ...

LAWRENCE — Researchers at the University of Kansas hope to better understand intricate mechanisms behind the evolution of galaxies, which travel through a “cosmic web” of different environments during their lifespans. Gregory Rudnick, professor of physics & astronomy at KU, is leading a team that recently earned a $375,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to study “gas content and star-formation properties of galaxies” that are altered depending on where they are moving through the cosmos. “The primary objective of this project is to comprehend the impact of environmental factors on the transformation of galaxies,” Rudnick ...

Images   New, nontoxic materials could one day keep solar panels and airplane wings ice-free, or protect first responders from frostbite and more, thanks to a new University of Michigan-led project funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.    The research team will study biological molecules used by other living things to survive freezing temperatures. The project officially begins this week and includes researchers from Raytheon Technologies, North Dakota State University and the University of Minnesota.   Existing materials used to accomplish these feats come with serious downsides. For instance, road salts ...

The two most common obesity surgeries – gastric bypass and gastric sleeve – have few short-term complications and are equivalent in that sense. These are the findings of a study conducted at the University of Gothenburg. Every year, around 5,000 obesity surgeries are performed in Sweden. The person undergoing surgery will normally have a BMI of at least 40, or 35 if they also have other serious medical conditions related to obesity. The most common procedures are gastric bypass, where a large part ...

A new study led by researchers at UCLA may change the way clinicians and scientists understand, diagnose and treat placenta accreta spectrum disorder, a serious condition in which the placenta fails to separate from the uterus at birth, jeopardizing the life and health of both mother and baby. Researchers previously believed that certain overly invasive placental cells, called trophoblasts, were responsible for keeping the connection intact. But this new research, which identifies genetic and cellular changes within single cells where the placenta ...

Although the interior of São Paulo state (Brazil) has higher human development indices (HDIs) and fewer Black people as a percentage of the population, they account for a larger proportion of deaths from cancer in the Barretos region than in São Paulo city, the state capital, according to a study supported by FAPESP. An article on the study is published in the journal Cancer Causes & Control. In the 18 cities of the Barretos regional health district (RHD), the number ...

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Biological systems can behave as siblings in several ways, including by borrowing something and never giving it back. That appears to be what the human immune system did with a protein that now helps bind and regulate the subunits that make up antibodies, according to a multi-institute research collaboration. They found that, before the immune system evolutionarily co-opted it, the protein originally belonged to gene family responsible for directing cells to move to the right location at the right time to address specific functional needs. The researchers, including Kazuhiko Kawasaki, associate research professor of ...

[New York, January 30, 2024] – Sergio E. Baranzini, PhD, a geneticist, neuroimmunologist and data scientist at the University of California, San Francisco, is the winner of this year’s Barancik Prize for Innovation in MS Research. Dr. Baranzini is being recognized for his pioneering efforts to integrate vast pools of information to understand complex mechanisms that cause MS and to develop more precise approaches to stop the disease and end it by prevention. Baranzini is a Distinguished Professor and holds the Heidrich Friends and Family endowed chair in Neurology at the University of California, San Francisco ...

LA JOLLA (January 30, 2024)—Salk Institute Professor Joanne Chory has been selected by the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia to receive a Benjamin Franklin Medal in Life Science for her achievements in plant science. She will receive a 14-karat gold medal and a $10,000 honorarium at the Franklin Institute Awards Ceremony in April 2024. Chory joins other extraordinary scientists and engineers as a Franklin laureate, including Nikola Tesla, Marie and Pierre Curie, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, and Jane Goodall, among others. “Joanne’s contributions to the field of plant biology have impacted and will continue to impact scientists around the world,” ...

The composition of microbiota found in the gut influences how susceptible mice are to respiratory virus infections and the severity of these infections, according to researchers from the Center for Translational Antiviral Research in the Institute for Biomedical Sciences at Georgia State University.  The findings, published in the journal Cell Host & Microbe, report that segmented filamentous bacteria, a bacterial species found in the intestines, protected mice ...

About The Study: This study found that the use of a smartphone-based mall walking program combined with physical shopping mall facilities and lottery-based digital incentive coupons may motivate people to increase their daily number of walking steps. Authors: Masamichi Hanazato, Ph.D., of Chiba University in Chiba-shi, Chiba, Japan, 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.2023.53957) Editor’s ...

About The Study: This randomized clinical trial of 1,735 patients undergoing primary bariatric surgery found that both laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy and laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass were performed with a low perioperative risk without clinically significant differences between groups. Authors: Suzanne Hedberg, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of Gothenburg in Gothenburg, Sweden 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.2023.53141) Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including ...

When it comes to having surgery, older adults don’t just base their decision on how much pain they’ll feel and how quickly they’ll recover, a new study finds. Many also have serious concerns about how much they’ll have to pay out of their own pockets, how much work they’ll miss, and whether they’ll catch COVID-19 in the hospital or surgery center. And a majority of those who called themselves very concerned about these issues ended up not having an operation that they had considered having, the study finds. The percentage who didn’t go through with surgery was much lower among those who said they’d been very concerned about pain or the ...

JMIR Publications is pleased to announce a new theme issue titled “Perioperative Blood Management” in JMIR Perioperative Medicine. The premier, peer-reviewed journal is indexed in PubMed and focuses on how technology and data science can improve care delivery and surgical patient outcomes. The new theme issue aims to explore the latest advancements, challenges, and patient-centered innovative approaches in optimizing blood-related practices before, during, and after surgical procedures. JMIR Perioperative Medicine welcomes contributions from global researchers, clinicians, and experts in ...

A new way of creating color uses the scattering of light of specific wavelengths around tiny, almost perfectly round silicon crystals. This Kobe University development enables non-fading structural colors that do not depend on the viewing angle and can be printed. The material has a low environmental and biological impact and can be applied extremely thinly, promising significant weight improvements over conventional paints. An object has color when light of a specific wavelength is reflected. With traditional pigments, this happens by molecules absorbing other colors from white light, but over time this interaction makes the molecules degrade and the color fades. ...