For the first time, a research team at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) has uncovered a way to potentially reduce the amount of toxic cellular waste accumulating in patients with Zellweger Spectrum Disorder (ZSD).  ZSD is a group of rare, neurodegenerative genetic conditions caused by genetic variations that reduce the number of peroxisomes – the parts of cells that are responsible for, among other tasks, breaking down fats. ZSD varies in severity and is characterized by progressive neurodegeneration as well as symptoms that range from visual impairments, such as cataracts, to liver and kidney disfunction.  Like all living ...

A study published today in IOP Publishing’s journal Environmental Research: Infrastructure and Sustainability has found that green ammonia could be used to fulfil the fuel demands of over 60% of global shipping by targeting just the top 10 regional fuel ports. Researchers at the University of Oxford looked at the production costs of ammonia which are similar to very low sulphur fuels, and concluded that the fuel could be a viable option to help decarbonise international shipping by 2050.  Around USD 2 trillion will be needed to transition to a green ammonia fuel supply chain by 2050, primarily to finance ...

New Haven, Conn., Jan. 9, 2024—U.S. patent grants declined 3.4% from 2022, the lowest level since 2019, and Samsung held onto the top spot for the second year in a row according to IFI CLAIMS Patent Services, world leader in tracking patent application and grant data. IFI CLAIMS Patent Services is a Digital Science company that compiles and tracks data from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and other patent-issuing agencies around the globe. IFI translates its world-leading data into an annual U.S. Top 50 and IFI Global 250 patent rankings, providing valuable insights into companies’ R&D activity. Other findings in IFI’s latest rankings include patent powerhouse ...

A combination of only 11 proteins can predict long-term disability outcomes in multiple sclerosis (MS) for different individuals. The identified proteins could be used to tailor treatments to the individual based on the expected severity of the disease. The study, led by researchers at Linköping University in Sweden, has been published in the journal Nature Communications. “A combination of 11 proteins predicted both short and long-term disease activity and disability outcomes. We also concluded that it’s important to measure ...

Children who develop neuroblastomas, a rare form of cancer which develops in nerve cells, may benefit from receiving certain anti-tumour drugs as well as chemotherapy, a new trial has found.   The results of the BEACON trial conducted by the Cancer Research UK Clinical Trials Unit at the University of Birmingham found that combining anti-angiogenic drugs, which block tumours from forming blood vessels, alongside various chemotherapy drugs led to more young people seeing their tumours shrinking, from 18% in the control group to 26% among those on Bevacizumab.   The findings are published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology today. The trial saw 160 young ...

The European Commission has accepted the EBRAINS 2.0 proposal submitted in response to the INFRASERV call, granting €38 million for the further development of services of the EBRAINS research infrastructure. The European Commission has signed a grant agreement to fund EBRAINS with €38 million until 2026. Over the next three years, the infrastructure will continue to develop tools and services to widely serve research communities in neurosciences, brain medicine, and brain-inspired technologies. EBRAINS (European Brain Research Infrastructures) is an EU co-funded collaborative research platform designed to advance neuroscience and brain ...

An international research team has shown that the debilitating impact of tinnitus can be effectively reduced in just weeks by a training course and sound therapy delivered via a smartphone app.  The team from Australian, New Zealand, French and Belgian universities report these findings today in Frontiers in Audiology and Otology.  It offers some hope for millions affected by tinnitus who: have been told that there is nothing they can do about it face long queues waiting for treatment, or can’t afford the costs of specialist support. The initial trial worked with 30 sufferers, of whom almost two thirds experienced a ‘clinically ...

Osaka, Japan – From alleviating your allergy symptoms to optimizing herbicide performance, alkylamines are molecules that have many uses. Unfortunately, common methods of producing alkylamines result in harmful waste byproducts. A method of synthesizing alkylamines in a sustainable yet cost-effective way has thus been highly sought after. Now, in a study recently published in Green Chemistry, a research team led by Osaka University has found a way. The team has developed a method of alkylamine synthesis that works under mild conditions and produces ...

Butterfly populations in Catalonia in northern Spain are better than their UK counterparts at regulating their body temperature by basking in the sunshine, but rising global temperatures due to climate change may put Spanish butterflies at greater risk of extinction. An international study, led by the University of Cambridge and the Institut de Biologia Evolutiva (IBE) in Barcelona, found that butterflies use different methods to regulate their body temperature. In Catalonia, butterflies tend to angle ...

This study is led by Dr. Xing Li and Dr. Yilin Zhao (Department of Anesthesiology, Hubei Key Laboratory of Geriatric Anesthesia and Perioperative Brain Health, and Wuhan Clinical Research Center for Geriatric Anesthesia, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology). The team's previous research found that the increase in SIRT5 in microglia induced by ischemic stroke causes annexin-A1 (ANXA1) desuccinylation, which decreases ANXA1 membrane recruitment and secretion but promotes ANXA1 nuclear translocation, resulting in the production of proinflammatory ...

Sensors are essential tools for detecting and analyzing trace molecules in a variety of fields, including environmental monitoring, food safety, and public health. However, developing sensors with high enough sensitivity to detect these tiny amounts of molecules remains a challenge. One promising approach is surface-enhanced infrared absorption (SEIRA), which uses plasmonic nanostructures to amplify the infrared signals of molecules adsorbed on their surface. Graphene is a particularly promising material for SEIRA because of its high ...

Ishikawa, Japan -- Amino acids, such as tyrosine and tryptophan, are the fundamental building blocks that make up proteins. These biomolecules have different chemical groups on each end and side chain, and so, have the natural ability to form a chain through the formation of an amide (peptide) bond. However, such linkages are weak and easily degraded under physiological conditions. This is where the Fmoc-protected amino acids come into the picture. In a new study now, a research team led by Dr. Eijiro Miyako, Associate ...

This article first identifies the current definition of urban heritage that includes both “old” and “young” monuments. Their protection has also shifted from solely preserving “old” values into a more holistic process to retain “old” values and manage the change in their adaptive reuse to gain “new” values, towards a more people-centered and landscape-based approach. Furthermore, a concept of ecosystem for urban planning and development is introduced, ...

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is an age-related neurodegenerative disorder. β-amyloid (Aβ) deposition in the brain is a crucial contributor to the pathogenesis of AD, mitigating excessive cerebral Aβ burden has been considered as a possible therapeutic strategy for AD. Meningeal lymphatic vessels (MLVs) are recently discovered structures responsible for exchanging soluble components between the cerebrospinal fluid and interstitial fluid, and have been proved to be a potential pathway of Aβ drainage. Researchers at Huazhong University ...

Love is blind, the saying goes, and thanks to a world-first Australian study, we are now a step closer to understanding why. It is well known that romantic love changes the brain, releasing the so-called love hormone oxytocin, responsible for the euphoria we feel when falling in love. Now, researchers from the ANU, University of Canberra and University of South Australia have measured how a part of the brain is responsible for putting our loved one on a pedestal in that first flush of romance. In the world’s first study investigating the link between the human brain’s behavioural activation ...

Ammonia is a necessary feedstock to produce nitrogen-based fertilizers, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and polymers. To date, about 80% of global ammonia is used to produce nitrogen-based fertilizers which relates to 50% of global food production. The global production of ammonia is about 180 million metric tons per year through the carbon-intensive and highly energy-consuming Haber-Bosch process. The high energy consumption, high carbon intensity, and high capital investment of the Haber-Bosch process make the development of environmentally sustainable and affordable routes for ammonia synthesis under ambient conditions more urgent. The electrochemical ammonia ...

Measuring airborne grass allergen levels instead of pollen counts will be more beneficial for hay fever sufferers as new research shows grass allergen levels are more consistently associated with hay fever symptoms than grass pollen counts.   The research, published today in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology and led by King’s College London and Imperial College London, shows for the first time that measuring airborne allergen levels will help people with hay fever better control their symptoms. 1 in 4 adults in the UK suffer from hay fever from late-March to September. Symptoms include a runny or blocked ...

Women with autoimmune disease are more likely to suffer from depression during pregnancy and after childbirth; conversely, women with a history of perinatal depression are at higher risk of developing autoimmune disease, a new study from Karolinska Institutet published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry reports. In autoimmune disease, the immune system mistakenly attacks the body’s own healthy tissue. Some of the most common autoimmune diseases are gluten intolerance (coeliac disease), autoimmune thyroiditis, rheumatoid ...

A study of seriously ill patients from academic medical centers across the country has found that nearly a quarter had a delayed or missed diagnosis.  All the patients had either been transferred to the intensive care unit (ICU) after being admitted or died in the hospital. The researchers concluded that three-quarters of these diagnostic errors contributed to temporary or permanent harm, and that diagnostic errors played a role in about one in 15 of the deaths.  The most common errors identified in the study involved delayed rather than missed diagnoses, for example because a specialist was consulted too late or an alternate diagnosis was not considered ...

LA JOLLA, CA— Ethanol—the compound found in alcoholic beverages—interferes with the normal functioning of a long list of biological molecules, but how each of these interactions contributes to the behavioral effects of alcohol is not fully understood. A guiding, but elusive, goal of researchers is to identify the protein (or proteins) to which ethanol binds that makes some people vulnerable to excessive drinking. Solving this question would point the way to effective therapies for alcohol use disorder, ...

As climate change fuels sea level rise, younger people will migrate inland, leaving aging coastal populations — and a host of consequences — in their wake, a study by Florida State University researchers finds. While destination cities will work to sustainably accommodate swelling populations, aging coastal communities will confront stark new challenges, including an outflow of vital human infrastructure such as health care workers, said Associate Professor of Sociology Matt Hauer, lead author of the study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of ...

Following an extensive national search, Diane M. Simeone, MD, has been appointed director of Moores Cancer Center at UC San Diego Health, effective April 1, 2024.   Simeone brings robust institutional, national and international leadership experience to both oncologic patient care and scientific research, with a focus on establishing novel models of interdisciplinary collaboration. She is an internationally recognized surgeon-expert in the biology and multidisciplinary treatment of pancreatic neoplasms, with an active clinical practice in pancreatic surgery.   Simeone currently serves as the Laura and Isaac Perlmutter ...

How do you deploy an environmental sensor to collect climate change readings over a prolonged period on an uninhabited island without failing? How do you power a seismic detector to operate for months in an underwater cave?   In environments that are difficult to reach because of the hazards or hardships for humans, a device behaving like a native plant could be the answer. This is the approach taken by Suyi Li, associate professor in mechanical engineering at Virginia Tech, and Clemson professor and collaborator Ian Walker. Their work is being advanced ...

Almost a quarter of patients who were admitted to the ICU or died in 29 hospitals in the United States experienced a diagnostic error Efforts and initiatives are underway across the country to address and prevent the causes of diagnostic errors A new study from researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, in collaboration with researchers at the University of California San Francisco, has shed light on the rate and impact of diagnostic errors in hospital settings. In an analysis of electronic health records from 29 hospitals across the country of 2,428 patients who ...

In 1998, astrophysicists discovered that the universe is expanding at an accelerating rate, attributed to a mysterious entity called dark energy that makes up about 70% of our universe. While foreshadowed by earlier measurements, the discovery was somewhat of a surprise; at the time, astrophysicists agreed that the universe’s expansion should be slowing down because of gravity. This revolutionary discovery, which astrophysicists achieved with observations of specific kinds of exploding stars, called type Ia (read “type one-A”) ...