Researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus have found a promising drug candidate that could help restore vision in individuals with multiple sclerosis (MS) and other neurological conditions that damage neurons.  The study was published this week in the journal Nature Communications. The drug, LL-341070, enhances the brain's ability to repair damaged myelin— the protective sheath around nerve fibers. Damage to myelin is a hallmark of diseases like MS, as well as a natural consequence of aging, often resulting in vision loss, loss of motor skills, ...

Complex organisms, thousands of times smaller than a grain of sand, can shape massive ecosystems and influence the fate of Earth's climate, according to a new study. Researchers from Arizona State University, along with their colleagues from the National University of the Peruvian Amazon, have identified an unknown family of microbes uniquely adapted to the waterlogged, low-oxygen conditions of tropical peatlands in Peru’s northwestern Amazonian rainforest. The new research shows these microbes have a dual role in the carbon cycle and the potential to either ...

CLEVELAND – University Hospitals is now offering endoscopic spine surgery for patients needing treatment for back pain due to herniated discs in their spine. Xiaofei (Sophie) Zhou, MD, completed Arthrex's Endoscopic Spine Training course to bring this advanced procedure to the health system and recently completed the first endoscopic discectomy utilizing Arthrex technology at UH. The health system is the only one in the greater Cleveland area offering this type of ultra-minimally invasive surgery.  Arthrex's technology allows surgeons to remove the ...

Reston, VA (January 24, 2025)—The Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI) and the European Association of Nuclear Medicine (EANM) have issued a new procedure standard/practice guideline for the use of fibroblast activation protein (FAP) PET. Published in the January issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine, the procedure standard/practice guideline was developed to assist providers in recommending and performing FAP PET, as well as interpreting and reporting results of the imaging studies. FAP is a transmembrane protein expressed on both cancer-associated fibroblasts and on normal activated fibroblasts involved in wound healing and ...

The National Science Foundation Convergence Accelerator Program has granted $5 million dollars to Phase 2 of the project “Securing critical material supply chains by enabling phOtovoltaic circuLARity (SOLAR).”  SOLAR’s goal is to proactively ensure circularity of solar panels by providing solutions to barriers throughout the end-to-end supply chain. The intent is to make solar panels recyclable and find a solution to remanufacturing them at a competitive cost. Achieving this will help promote a clean and resilient energy system in the United States. The three-year project is led by Battelle Memorial Institute ...

NEW YORK, NY, January 24, 2025 — A team of scientists has developed a groundbreaking approach using specially designed peptides to improve drug formulations. This innovative method significantly enhances anti-tumor efficacy, as demonstrated in leukemia models. The study, published in the journal Chem, was led by researchers at the Advanced Science Research Center at the CUNY Graduate Center (CUNY ASRC) and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Drug delivery systems often face two critical challenges: poor solubility and inefficient delivery within the body. Many drugs do not dissolve well, making it difficult for them to reach ...

ST. LOUIS, MO, January 24, 2025 - A new collaborative research team of leading plant scientists are developing sorghums with nitrogen-saving traits by utilizing the genetic diversity of wild relatives to improve resilience and productivity for grain sorghum producers.  The project is part of a $38 million investment in nine projects by the U.S. Department of Energy, DOE, Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, ARPA-E, to develop advanced technologies for plants to increase nitrogen-use efficiency and reduce nitrogen pollution from U.S. bioenergy feedstocks. Veena Veena, PhD, MBA, principal investigator and director of the Plant Transformation ...

Researchers from Mass General Brigham and collaborating institutions have developed a non-invasive approach to manipulate cardiac tissue activity by using light to stimulate an innovative ink incorporated into bioprinted tissue. Their goal is to develop a technique that can be used to repair the heart. Their findings in preclinical models, published in Science Advances, show the transformative potential of non-invasive therapeutic methods to control electrically active tissues. “We showed for the first time that with this optoelectronically active ink, we can print scaffolds that allow remote control of engineered heart tissues,” said co-corresponding ...

Boston – Dana-Farber Cancer Institute researchers have identified factors that determine whether donor lymphocyte infusion (DLI), a standard therapy for patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) who have relapsed after allogenic hematopoietic stem cell transplant, will successfully move the patient into remission. The team identified that a key cell type in the DLI product and features of the tumor microenvironment in patients both play a role. The findings were published in Science Immunology. “Relapse of AML after stem cell transplant is a major challenge,” says first author Katie ...

LOS ANGELES—January 24, 2025—In patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), a novel analysis evaluating surgeon preference for multi- versus single-arterial grafting may help explain the differing results between prior retrospective analyses and randomized controlled trials regarding long-term survival. A study presented this week at The Society of Thoracic Surgeons’ 61st Annual Meeting explores findings in more than a million U.S. Medicare beneficiaries who underwent CABG from 2001 to 2019. The researchers found that patients who received multi-arterial grafting (MAG) had improved survival over those who ...

Call it a mystery solved. North Carolina State University researchers firmly point the finger at the South American Andes Mountains as the place where the Irish potato famine pathogen, Phtytophthora infestans, originated.  In a wide-ranging study of the genetic material found in P. infestans and other members of the Phytophthora species, the NC State researchers provide more evidence that P. infestans spread from South America to North America before wreaking havoc in Ireland in the 1840s. The pathogen still causes late-blight disease on potato and tomato plants around the world. Much ...

The vestibular system is a network of organs in the inner ears that detects the motions and position of the head. The brain uses this information, along with inputs from the eyes and joints, to maintain the body’s balance. Visual information has long been proven to affect balance—for example, strobe lights and swirling images can cause instability—but a new study published in PLOS ONE shows that sounds can also be a disruptive factor for those who have vestibular hypofunction, a vestibular system disorder resulting in impaired balance. “People with vestibular hypofunction have ...

In collaboration with colleagues from international partner institutions, researchers at the University of Cologne have investigated the asexual reproduction of oribatid mites using genome sequencing techniques. They show that the key to evolution without sex in oribatid mites may lie in the independent evolution of their two chromosome copies – a phenomenon known as the ‘Meselson effect’. The research team identified various mechanisms that may contribute to the genetic diversity of the chromosome ...

URBANA, Ill. – Many people struggle to maintain a healthy weight, and choosing the optimal meals for weight loss can be challenging. A research team at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has developed a weight management program that helps individuals plan meals with the assistance of a web application and support from a registered dietitian. In a new study, they discuss the app’s features, development, and implementation. “The overall goal is to develop an online weight loss program that can be used as prevention as well as treatment in a clinical setting,” said co-author Manabu Nakamura, associate professor in the Department of Food Science ...

In a paper recently published in the leading journal "The Lancet Digital Health", a scientific team led by Stanisa Raspopovic from MedUni Vienna looks at the progress and challenges in the research and development of brain implants. New achievements in the field of this technology are seen as a source of hope for many patients with neurological disorders and have been making headlines recently. As neural implants have an effect not only on a physical but also on a psychological level, researchers ...

About The Study: Sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) excise taxes were associated with reduced mean body mass index (BMI) among adults in demographic subgroups, including in young adults who consumed the most SSBs, and in Berkeley, in this cohort study. Future research should examine the mechanisms of these associations to inform how SSB taxes could be more equitable for weight-related outcomes.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Emily F. Liu, MPH, email emily.f.liu@kp.org. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.56170) Editor’s ...

About The Study: In this cross-sectional study, detained immigrants experienced a high prevalence of poor health, mental illness, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), with detention periods of 6 months or more associated with higher rates compared with those detained less than 6 months. Duration of custody is one mechanism by which immigration detention might be a catalyst for worsening health.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Altaf Saadi, MD, MSc, ...

About The Study: Older adults hospitalized with sepsis experienced an approximately 50% reduction in long-term nursing home stay or death over a 5-year period before the pandemic in this cross-sectional study. These results suggest that during the pandemic, all individuals, regardless of race and ethnicity, experienced increased long-term nursing home stay or death compared with before the pandemic.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Laurent G. Glance, MD, email laurent_glance@urmc.rochester.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.56816) Editor’s ...

Ghent, 24 January 2025 – Our livers contain many different types of immune cells. New research by the team of Prof. Charlotte Scott (VIB-UGent Center for Inflammation Research) and colleagues now reveals that a specific activation state of one of these cell types is required for tissue repair following injury. This suggests these cells may be useful as new therapeutic targets for various liver conditions. The work appears in the journal Immunity. Liver immune cells Macrophages are specialized immune cells located in every tissue ...

The significant decline in genetic diversity in the Amazon Basin, following historical events such as European colonisation, deforestation and the extinction of megafauna such as the sloth – the main seed dispersal agents, is of particular concern for the genetic health of Brazil Nut trees (Bertholletia excelsa). As one of the most impacted keystone species in rainforests, Brazil Nut trees are essential for biodiversity and a vital income source for local economies. A crucial study led by researchers from the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology and the Max Planck Institute for Biology Tübingen ...

During the COVID-19 pandemic, when fentanyl overdoses surged, doctors were desperate to find ways of helping their patients.   They knew that buprenorphine could help people stop using opioids, but it was much harder to start the treatment for those who used fentanyl, which lasts longer in the body. Taking buprenorphine while fentanyl is still active can push someone abruptly into withdrawal.   So, they started giving patients small doses of the drug over a series of days to slowly build up the drug in their systems until their bodies could handle a higher dose of buprenorphine.    Now, ...

One in every 10 people worldwide is impacted by a rare genetic disease but about 50% of them remain undiagnosed despite rapid increases in genetic technology and testing. Even when a person does have access to testing, the process of getting a diagnosis can take about five years or more, which is sometimes too late for patients, who are often children, to start the right treatment. This is partly because current clinical testing uses a method called short-read sequencing, which cannot access information in certain regions of the genome and so may miss ...

Today, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and Arizona State University announced a five-year partnership, the AAAS + ASU Collaborative. Together, the institutions will elevate and amplify strategies and practices that advance scientific excellence and enable a boldly inclusive scientific enterprise serving society.  In its first phase, the Collaborative includes a joint prize, an invitation for the ASU STEMM community to join AAAS as Elemental Members, and events in Washington, D.C., addressing policy-relevant science topics.  “Focusing science and scientific advances on the challenges we face is essential to the advancement ...

A new study led by UCLA Health highlights the link between socioeconomic disadvantage, Medicaid insurance, and poorer survival rates after heart transplantation. Researchers found that Medicaid-insured heart transplant patients had a higher likelihood of developing cardiac allograft vasculopathy (CAV), a condition that affects transplanted hearts and can limit long-term survival. It has been reported that CAV contributes to more than 30% of all deaths in the first 5 to 10 years following heart transplantation.  The study, which included heart transplant recipients aged 18 and older, divided ...

NH3 is one of the most important chemicals in today’s world, as it is used in the production of fertilizers to boost agricultural yields and sustain the ever-growing global population. For over 100 years, NH3 production has relied on the Haber–Bosch (HB) process, which combines nitrogen (N2) and hydrogen in the presence of a catalyst. Interestingly, an iron-based catalyst developed a century ago (called ‘Promoted-Fe’) still remains at the forefront of mass NH3 production, despite countless efforts to find more energy-efficient alternatives. In the HB process, where NH3 is produced by a catalyst-filled reactor with a limited volume, ...