By Jake Siegel Imagine you’re teaching a dog to play fetch. You throw a ball, and your dog sprints after it, picks it up, and runs back. You then reward your panting pup with a treat. But now comes the real trick for your dog: figuring out which part of that sequence earned the treat. Scientists call this the 'credit assignment problem' in the brain. It's a fundamental question about understanding which actions are responsible for the positive outcomes we experience.   Dopamine, a key chemical ...

LA JOLLA (December 14, 2023)—Salk Institute researchers, as part of a worldwide initiative to revolutionize scientists’ understanding of the brain, analyzed more than 2 million brain cells from mice to assemble the most complete atlas ever of the mouse brain. Their work, published December 14, 2023 in a special issue of Nature, not only details the thousands of cell types present in the brain but also how those cells connect and the genes and regulatory programs that are active in each cell. The efforts were coordinated by the National Institutes of Health’s Brain Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies® Initiative, or the BRAIN Initiative®, ...

By Jake Siegel Six years and 32 million cells later, scientists have created the first full cellular map of a mammalian brain. In a set of 10 papers in Nature today, a network of researchers unveiled an atlas cataloging the location and type of every cell in the adult mouse brain. Using advanced technologies that profile individual cells, the teams identified over 5,300 cell types – far more than known before – and pinpointed their locations within the brain’s intricate geography. ...

SAN FRANCISCO—December 13, 2023—In a study of historic scale, scientists at Gladstone Institutes have created an intricate map of how the immune system functions, examining the detailed molecular structures governing human T cells using the next-generation CRISPR tool known as base editing. Their findings, published in Nature, uncover detailed information that could help overcome the limitations of today’s immunotherapies and identify new drug targets for a wide range of diseases, including autoimmune diseases and cancer. Led by Gladstone Senior Investigator Alex Marson, MD, PhD, the team dove deep into the DNA of T cells, pinpointing ...

Liquid crystal is a state of matter that exhibits properties of both liquid and solid. It can flow like a liquid, while its constituent molecules are aligned as in a solid. The liquid crystal is widely used nowadays, for example, as a core element of LCD devices. The magnetic analog of this kind of material is dubbed the “spin-nematic phase”, where spin moments play the role of the molecules. However, it has not yet been directly observed despite its prediction a half-century ago. The main challenge stems ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Scientists have revealed a never-before-seen phenomenon in a protein: Alone, the enzyme processes DNA and RNA but, when bound to another protein as part of a defense system, interacts with a completely different type of compound to help bacteria commit suicide. The finding came about as the researchers focused on detailing how this defense mechanism works in bacteria that are infected by phages, viruses that invade and make copies of themselves inside bacterial cells. In addition to detailing the proteins’ structures and binding sites, the experiments unearthed ...

Researchers from Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU) develop models based on machine learning that predict long-term visual acuity in patients with high myopia, one of the top three causes of irreversible blindness in many regions of the world  Tokyo, Japan – Machine learning has been found to predict well the outcomes of many health conditions. Now, researchers from Japan have found a way to predict whether people with severe shortsightedness will have good or bad vision in the future. In a study recently published in ...

For the first time ever, an international team of researchers has created a complete cell atlas of a whole mammalian brain. This atlas serves as a map for the mouse brain, describing the type, location, and molecular information of more than 32 million cells and providing information on connectivity between these cells. The mouse is the most commonly used vertebrate experimental model in neuroscience research, and this cellular map paves the way for a greater understanding of the human brain—arguably the most powerful computer in the world. The cell atlas also lays the foundation for the development of a new generation of precision therapeutics for people ...

Hard-to-detect colorectal pre-cancerous lesions known as serrated polyps, and the aggressive tumors that develop from them, depend heavily on the ramped-up production of cholesterol, according to a preclinical study from researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine. The finding points to the possibility of using cholesterol-lowering drugs to prevent or treat such tumors. In the study, published Oct. 13 in Nature Communications, the researchers analyzed mice that develop serrated polyps and tumors, detailing the chain of molecular events in these tissues that leads to increased cholesterol production. They ...

WASHINGTON, DC, 2023 – Recent U.S. wildfire events -- including the 2023 Maui wildfire in Hawaii, the 2022 Hermit’s Peak/Calf Canyon fire in New Mexico, and the 2020 Cameron Peak Fire in Colorado -- are tragic examples of how disadvantaged communities can suffer most during and after a wildfire. While all three fires had a devastating impact on an entire community, they disproportionately affected low-income populations who were left without adequate insurance or the financial means to rebuild their homes.  To study inequities in U.S. wildfire management, ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Parents who drank alcohol while watching the Super Bowl were more likely than those who abstained to use aggressive discipline on their children during the game, a new study shows.   Most of the parents in the study – more than 90% - were mothers, which is significant, said Bridget Freisthler, lead author of the study and professor of social work at The Ohio State University.   “The links between alcohol use, aggression and watching violent sports have been studied almost exclusively among ...

The percentage of adolescents reporting they used any illicit substances in 2023 continued to hold steady below the pre-pandemic levels reported in 2020, with 10.9% of eighth graders, 19.8% of 10th graders, and 31.2% of 12th graders reporting any illicit drug use in the past year, according to the latest results from the Monitoring the Future survey. Reported use for almost all substances decreased dramatically between 2020 and 2021, after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and related changes like school closures and social distancing. In 2022, most reported substance use among adolescents ...

Washington, December 13, 2023—For years, research showed that print reading, whether for leisure or school, improved developing readers’ ability to comprehend text. However, the explosive use of digital reading devices, constant access to these devices, and new types of reading materials have introduced new reading habits. Now, a new comprehensive review of research on digital leisure reading habits finds a virtually nonexistent relationship between digital reading and improvement in reading comprehension among students. The study was published in Review of Educational Research, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Educational ...

Ishikawa, Japan -- Various molecular systems have been developed by researchers for photoinduced (i.e., light-driven) electron transfer, including supramolecules, hybrid materials, and organic polymeric systems. While these systems fulfill the distance criterion required by the electron donor and acceptor for efficient electron transfer, they frequently fall short in accommodating molecular motion, especially in fluid environments. Is there a viable approach to design a system that facilitates electron transfer without succumbing to these limitations? This issue has been specifically addressed in a recent study. ...

WASHINGTON, DC, Dec. 13, 2023 – Wildfires pose an increasing threat to communities at the wildland-urban interface (WUI) – where dry, flammable vegetation borders back yards, often in remote locations. Despite the well-known danger, many communities at highest risk do not have a strong wildfire evacuation plan in place. (One of these was the town of Lahaina on Maui, where wind-driven wildfires killed nearly 100 people in August 2023.)  Researchers from UCLA’s John Garrick Institute for the Risk Sciences have built a new web-based software platform that allows emergency planners to design custom-made evacuation plans for their communities ...

Patients with lupus nephritis (LN), a severe complication of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), often undergo progressive kidney damage, with approximately 20% of these patients advancing to end-stage renal disease. The current therapeutic landscape for LN, dominated by glucocorticoids and immunosuppressants, is limited by suboptimal response rates, the risk of disease flare-ups and adverse effects, accentuating the necessity for safer and more effective treatment modalities. In the latest issue of the Chinese Medical Journal (CMJ) published online on December 15, 2023, a review authored by Dr. Wei Chen from the Department of Nephrology of the First Affiliated ...

San Francisco and New York — Dec. 13, 2023 — The Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy (PICI), the largest concentration of immuno-oncology (IO) expertise in the world, announced it has added Weill Cornell Medicine to its network of preeminent academic and medical research institutions at the forefront of the fight against cancer. Under the agreement, Weill Cornell Medicine, with new PICI Network researchers, will establish a PICI immuno-oncology research center in New York City.     Since its inception, PICI has distributed $260 million to member researchers to support ...

Manatees are endangered species volatile to the environment.  Because of their voracious appetites, they often spend up to eight hours a day grazing for food within shallow waters, making them vulnerable to environmental changes and other risks. Accurately counting manatee aggregations within a region is not only biologically meaningful in observing their habit, but also crucial for designing safety rules for boaters and divers as well as scheduling nursing, intervention, and other plans. Nevertheless, counting manatees ...

DETROIT (December 13, 2023) – Published results of a large, national heart attack study show that patients with a life-threatening complication known as cardiogenic shock survived at a significantly higher rate when treated with a protocol developed by cardiologists at Henry Ford Health, in collaboration with 80 hospitals nationwide. Cardiogenic shock is a critical condition in which the heart is unable to pump enough blood to sustain the body’s needs, depriving vital organs of blood supply. This can cause those organs to eventually stop functioning. The typical survival rate of this deadly complication during a heart ...

Researchers from Northwestern University, University of Pennsylvania, and University of Colorado published a new Journal of Marketing study that proposes abandoning null hypothesis significance testing (NHST) as the default approach to statistical analysis and reporting. The study, forthcoming in the Journal of Marketing, is titled “‘Statistical Significance’ and Statistical Reporting: Moving Beyond Binary” and is authored by Blakeley B. McShane, ...

Oceans cover most of Earth’s surface and support a staggering number of lifeforms, but they’re also home to a dilute population of uranium ions. And — if we can get these particular ions out of the water — they could be a sustainable fuel source to generate nuclear power. Researchers publishing in ACS Central Science have now developed a material to use with electrochemical extraction that attracts hard-to-get uranium ions from seawater more efficiently than existing methods. Nuclear power reactors release ...

The vast majority of older adults – 83% -- think health insurers should cover medications that can help people with obesity manage their weight, a new poll of people age 50 to 80 finds. Nearly as many -- 76% -- believe Medicare should cover these drugs, which it cannot currently do under law, according to the new results from the University of Michigan National Poll on Healthy Aging. A law passed in 2003 prohibits Medicare from covering weight loss medications, though it can cover drugs to help people with Type 2 diabetes manage their weight. Medicaid covers obesity medications ...

With an estimated 1.9 million new cases and more than 600,000 deaths each year, cancer remains the second most common cause of death in the U.S., trailing only heart disease. And while there are more than 200 types of cancer, the abnormal synthesis of a protein known as STAT3 is unique to the majority of tumors. STAT3 is known as a transcriptional regulator, which means it regulates the expression of several genes. In fact, STAT3 is associated with approximately 70% of all human tumors and is responsible for uncontrolled cell growth and disease progression. To investigate new approaches to inhibit STAT3 and develop new cancer treatments, the National Institutes of Health-National ...

Flat-faced dog breeds are popular all over the world. In the USA and in Hungary, the French Bulldog is currently the most common breed. However, their popularity comes at a high cost in terms of health: shortened skulls are associated with deteriorative brain morphology changes, breathing difficulties and sleep problems. According to recent findings by Hungarian researchers, flat-faced dogs sleep more because their breed-specific sleep apnea increases daytime sleepiness, their REM sleep phase is longer than ...

The University of Texas at San Antonio today announced the selection of David Brown as the new executive director of its National Security Collaboration Center (NSCC) and professor of practice. Brown will join UTSA with decades of experience leading collaborative research and development ecosystems supporting U.S. national defense strategies. Brown is a trusted, well-connected leader in civilian and military communities nationwide who has especially strong relationships within U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) organizations, laboratories and commands and has gained national recognition for his transformative leadership in federal research ...