The standard treatment for patients with multiple myeloma often includes stem cell transplantation in which the patient’s own stem cells are harvested and stored while the patient receives intensive chemotherapy to kill the cancer. Then, the patient’s stem cells are returned to the patient to help with recovery. But for a significant proportion of patients, the number of stem cells that can be harvested is not optimal for transplant and negatively affects patient outcomes. However, an international phase 3 clinical trial led by physicians at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has shown that the investigational ...

Immunotherapy, particularly CAR T-Cell treatment for cancer, is extending the lives of many patients. But sometimes the therapy randomly migrates to places it shouldn’t go, tucking into the lungs or other noncancerous tissue and causing toxic side effects. A University of Rochester/Wilmot Cancer Institute team discovered the molecule responsible for guiding T cells toward tumors, setting the stage for scientists to improve upon the groundbreaking treatment. The next step is to find a drug that can manipulate the ...

Poverty has long been linked to shorter lives. But just how many deaths in the United States are associated with poverty? The number has been elusive – until now. UC Riverside paper published Monday in the Journal of the American Medical Association associated poverty with an estimated 183,000 deaths in the United States in 2019 among people 15 years and older.  This estimate is considered conservative because the data is from the year just prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused spikes in deaths worldwide and continues to take its toll. The analysis found that only heart disease, ...

Self-assembled peptide supramolecular hydrogels have shown great application prospects in various areas, including tissue engineering, drug delivery, and biosensing. Precisely and flexibly controlling the mechanical properties of peptide hydrogels to match the targeted applications is important. The common methods to regulate the mechanical properties of supramolecular hydrogels generally include: changing the formula (different peptide sequences, adding cross-linking agents) or changing the environmental conditions (concentration, temperature, pH and ions), both of which inevitably change the chemical composition of the ...

Bifunctional acid−base catalysts are highly desirable for industrially relevant chemical processes. Owing to their ability to activate electrophiles and nucleophiles simultaneously, they allow the catalysis to proceed synergistically and cooperatively. Solid acid−base catalysts are particularly advantageous since they are reusable and result in no waste products. However, controlling the structure of such catalysts for cooperatively workable active sites is challenging. Simple and effective methods that enable the synthesis of high-performance solid acid−base ...

An international team of researchers from Leibniz University Hannover (Germany), the University of Twente (Netherlands), and the start-up company QuiX Quantum has presented an entangled quantum light source fully integrated for the first time on a chip. “Our breakthrough allowed us to shrink the source size by a factor of more than 1000, allowing reproducibility, stability over a longer time, scaling, and potentially mass-production. All these characteristics are required for real-world applications such as quantum processors,” says Prof. Dr. Michael Kues, head of the Institute ...

Researchers from Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU) find that, when a stroke therapy is linked to a specific kind of lipid and injected into the blood, it is taken up preferentially in the stroke-lesioned brain   Tokyo, Japan – To get therapies into the brain after a stroke, researchers are increasingly making use of the blood–brain barrier, which allows only certain molecules to pass from the blood into the brain. In a study published earlier this year in Molecular Therapy, ...

BEER-SHEVA, Israel, April 17, 2023 – Scientific research must meet clear ethical guidelines to prevent harm to participants. However, research can also indirectly harm individuals and social groups, for example by shaping social perceptions and inspiring policy. Researchers receive little to no training on how to consider and minimize such harm. To that end, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev's Dr. Niv Reggev and his international colleagues have published ten simple rules for socially responsible science. The ...

In parts of California’s iconic mountainous coasts, breathtaking beauty is punctuated by brusque signs warning spectators to stay back from unstable cliffs. The dangers of coastal erosion are an all-too-familiar reality for the modern residents of these communities. Now, with a new tool, researchers are bringing historical perspective to the hotly debated topic of how to manage these disappearing coastlines. Using a model that incorporates measurements of the amount of time coastal cliffs and their remnant deposits were exposed at the Earth’s surface, Stanford researchers found that the rate of cliff erosion in the past 100 years is ...

People living with long Covid who suffer from loss of smell show different patterns of activity in certain regions of the brain, a new study led by UCL researchers has found. The research used MRI scanning to compare the brain activity of people with long Covid who lost their sense of smell, those whose smell had returned to normal after Covid infection, and people who had never tested positive for Covid-19. Published in eClinicalMedicine, the observational study found that the people with long Covid smell loss had reduced brain activity and impaired communication between two parts of the brain which process ...

SAN ANTONIO — April 17, 2023 —Southwest Research Institute staff members have converged upon Detroit this week to share their respective expertise with the mobility industry at the 2023 SAE International WCX™ World Congress Experience. WCX is the “largest technical mobility event developed by the industry, for the industry,” according to SAE. The conference, which takes place April 17-20, invites mechanical, electrical and software engineers working in mobility from around the world to share knowledge and research to overcome the latest challenges facing the industry. As leaders in mobility and automotive research, ...

Through careful crossbreeding and selection, University of Maryland researchers have developed what may just be the perfect apples for American growers trying to adapt to a changing world. The two new apples, a yellow and a red one are heat-tolerant, blight-tolerant, low-maintenance, easy to harvest and not least, delicious-tasting. Both have been approved for patents and are awaiting the final grant from the U.S. Patent Office. They address a growing suite of problems the apple industry has been grappling with. The fruit has always been labor-intensive to bring to market, with trees that need to be trained, pruned, ...

Barcelona, Spain – 17 April 2023:  Thirty day electrocardiogram (ECG) monitoring in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) detects more arrhythmias than the standard 24 to 48 hours, according to late breaking science presented at EHRA 2023, a scientific congress of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC).1   Up to 20% of patients with HCM develop atrial fibrillation during the course of the disease2,3 and are at particularly high risk of stroke. Therefore, guidelines do not recommend the CHA2DS2-VASc score4 to calculate stroke risk but advise starting anticoagulant treatment in all patients with HCM ...

Edward Chouchani receives a Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science for his work to decipher the molecular mechanisms that drive metabolic disease, with the aim of developing therapeutic interventions.  The Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise is a $50,000 recognition awarded annually by the Vilcek Foundation as part of its prizes program. Awarded annually since 2006, the Vilcek Foundation prizes recognize and celebrate immigrant contributions to scientific research and discovery, and to artistic and cultural advancement in the United States. The Vilcek Foundation prizes support the Vilcek Foundation’s mission to raise public awareness of the value ...

A parabolic dish on the EPFL campus is easily overlooked, resembling a satellite dish or other telecommunications infrastructure. But this dish is special, because it works like an artificial tree. After concentrating solar radiation nearly 1,000 times, a reactor above the dish uses that sunlight to convert water into valuable and renewable hydrogen, oxygen, and heat. “This is the first system-level demonstration of solar hydrogen generation. Unlike typical lab-scale demonstrations, it includes all auxiliary devices and components, so it gives us a better idea of the energy efficiency you can expect ...

Using a new detection method, UC Riverside scientists found a massive amount of methane, a super-potent greenhouse gas, coming from wildfires — a source not currently being accounted for by state air quality managers. Methane warms the planet 86 times more powerfully than carbon dioxide over the course of 20 years, and it will be difficult for the state to reach its required cleaner air and climate goals without accounting for this source, the researchers said.  Wildfires emitting methane ...

McMaster University researchers have developed a rapid and inexpensive test for Salmonella contamination in chicken and other food – one that’s easier to use than a home COVID test. The test, described in a new paper in the journal Angewandte Chemie, could improve food safety, reduce the cost of processing fresh poultry and other foods, and help to limit broad recalls to batches that have specifically been identified as contaminated. The researchers have shown that the test provides accurate results in an hour or less without the need for accessories or a power source, compared ...

PULLMAN, Wash. – Discovery of a gene in multiple mammalian species could pave the way for a highly effective, reversible and non-hormonal male contraceptive for humans and animals. Washington State University researchers identified expression of the gene, Arrdc5, in the testicular tissue of mice, pigs, cattle and humans. When they knocked out the gene in mice, it created infertility only in the males, impacting their sperm count, movement and shape. The researchers detailed their findings in the journal Nature Communications. “The study identifies this gene for the first time as being expressed ...

Embargoed until Monday, April 17th at 11AM (Israel time) On the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day Tel Aviv University in cooperation with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) presents   The Annual Report on Antisemitism Worldwide – 2022: Haredi Jews – The Main Target of Antisemitic Assaults 2002 saw another sharp increase in the number of antisemitic incidents in the United States and other Western countries, alongside a decline in several other countries, including France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. The report found that Haredi Jews are the main victims of antisemitic assaults in the West. Physical attacks, which ...

The SIMPATHIC Consortium, led by the Radboud University Medical Center and Amsterdam UMC, has developed a new approach to expedite the use of existing drugs for groups of patients with rare neurological disorders. The consortium has been awarded an 8.8-million-euro grant from the Horizon Europe program to further develop this innovative method. Traditionally, drugs are developed one disease at a time, which is costly and time-consuming. It often takes a long time before patients can use a new drug. The international ...

Study’s findings suggest that detecting and treating depression are critical to patient health. In a recent study, having depression before or after a breast cancer diagnosis was associated with a lower likelihood of survival. The findings are published by Wiley online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society. For the study, Bin Huang, DrPH, of the University of Kentucky Markey Cancer Center, and his colleagues analyzed data from the Kentucky Cancer Registry to identify adult women diagnosed with primary invasive breast cancer in 2007–2011. Utilizing the health claims–linked cancer registry data, the ...

For many teens, that first formal job as a fast-food cashier, barista or lifeguard is a rite of passage. And while some families tout the positives of job experiences, such as improving their teen’s money management skills and self-esteem, others worry about the potential to negatively impact sleep, schedules and grades, according to the University of Michigan Health C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health. But finding a job that meets logistical considerations – with schedules and transportation topping the list ...

Honolulu, HI | April 17, 2023—Findings from an award-winning Scientific Online Poster presented during the 2023 ARRS Annual Meeting at the Hawaiian Convention Center suggest that correctly occluded left atrial appendages (LAAs) could present maximal reduction in left atrial (LA) flow stasis and thrombogenicity, offering a clinical goal for the procedure in patients with atrial fibrillation. Pointing out the paucity of knowledge in atrial fibrillation (AF) populations regarding the actual flow dynamic changes before and after percutaneous left atrial appendage occlusion (LAAO), “we aimed to evaluate LA flow dynamics for pre-occluded, correctly occluded, and incorrectly ...

Honolulu, HI | April 17, 2023—The Global Partner Society Program of the American Roentgen Ray Society (ARRS) is proud to announce that Jeong Min Lee, President of the Korean Society of Radiology (KSR) and professor of radiology at South Korea’s Seoul National University Hospital, will receive Honorary Membership in ARRS during the opening ceremony of the 2023 ARRS Annual Meeting in Honolulu, HI. As per Section 6 of the ARRS bylaws, honorary members of the ARRS shall be those who have rendered valuable service ...

**Note: the release below is from the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID 2023, Copenhagen, 15-18 April). Please credit the conference if you use this story** COVID-19 vaccination directly saved at least 1,004,927 lives across Europe between December 2020 and March 2023, according to new research being presented at this year’s European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) in Copenhagen, Denmark (15-18 April). The new estimates by WHO/Europe and presented at the conference by Dr Margaux Meslé,  Epidemiologist at WHO/Europe highlight the striking ...