Small molecules called immunomodulators can help create more effective vaccines and stronger immunotherapies to treat cancer. But finding the molecules that instigate the right immune response is difficult —the number of drug-like small molecules has been estimated to be 1060, much higher than the number of stars in the visible universe. In a potential first for the field of vaccine design, machine learning guided the discovery of new immune pathway-enhancing molecules and found one particular small molecule that could outperform the best immunomodulators on the market. The ...

Seven scientists from the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have been named among the world’s most influential researchers on the 2023 Highly Cited Researchers list, produced by Clarivate, a data analytics firm that specializes in scientific and academic research. "These scientists have delivered significant impact for the scientific community and nation," said ORNL Director Stephen Streiffer. "This honor highlights their commitment, hard work and leadership in their respective fields.” The ORNL researchers named to the list are: Miaofang Chi, Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences David A. Cullen, Center for Nanophase Materials ...

A new understanding of lung cancer cells’ “memories” suggests a new strategy for improving treatment, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) researchers have found. Research from the lab of cancer biologist Tuomas Tammela, MD, PhD shows that some lung cancer cells retain a “memory” of the healthy cell where they came from — one that might be exploited to make an emerging type of lung cancer treatment called KRAS inhibition more effective. The study looked specifically at lung adenocarcinoma, a type of non-small ...

When Cyclone Idai swept through Mozambique’s Gorongosa National Park in May 2019, one of nature‘s deadliest forces encountered one of the most technologically sophisticated wildlife parks on the planet. Princeton researchers and colleagues from around the world documented the effects using trail cameras and animal-tracking devices that had been in use before the storm.  Thanks to the extensive network of cameras, GPS collars and other instruments, park staff and ...

DURHAM, N.C. – Nanoplastics interact with a particular protein that is naturally found in the brain, creating changes linked to Parkinson’s disease and some types of dementia. In a Duke-led study appearing Nov. 17 in Science Advances, the researchers report that the findings create a foundation for a new area of investigation, fueled by the timely impact of environmental factors on human biology. “Parkinson’s disease has been called the fastest growing neurological disorder in the world,” said principal investigator, Andrew West, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology at ...

New research published today in leading international journal Science Advances paints an uncharacteristically upbeat picture for the planet. This is because more realistic ecological modelling suggests the world’s plants may be able to take up more atmospheric CO2 from human activities than previously predicted. Despite this headline finding, the environmental scientists behind the research are quick to underline that this should in no way be taken to mean the world’s governments can take their foot off the brake in their obligations to reduce carbon ...

EL PASO, Texas (Nov. 17, 2023) – Could the solution to the decades-long battle against malaria be as simple as soap? In a new study published in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, scientists at The University of Texas at El Paso have made a compelling case for it. The team has found that adding small quantities of liquid soap to some classes of pesticides can boost their potency by more than ten-fold.  The discovery is promising news as malaria-carrying mosquitoes display ...

Using historical records from around Australia, an international team of researchers have put forward the most accurate prediction to date of past Antarctic ice sheet melt, providing a more realistic forecast of future sea level rise.   The Antarctic ice sheet is the largest block of ice on earth, containing over 30 million cubic kilometers of water.   Hence, its melting could have a devasting impact on future sea levels. To find out just how big that impact might be, the research team, including Dr Mark Hoggard from The Australian National University, turned to the past.   “If ...

Policies that encourage landlords to evict tenants who have involvement with the criminal justice system do not appear to reduce crime, while increasing evictions among Black residents and people with lower incomes, according to a new RAND Corporation report.   Studying “crime-free housing policies” adopted by cities in California over a decade-long period, researchers found no meaningful statistical evidence that the policies reduce crime.   The study also found that crime-free housing policies significantly increased ...

This year’s European Antibiotic Awareness Day (EAAD) focuses on the targets outlined in the 2023 Council Recommendation to step up efforts in the European Union (EU) against antimicrobial resistance in a One Health approach. [1] Those recommendations formulate the 2023 goal to reduce total antibiotic consumption (community and hospital sectors combined) by 20%, using consumption data from 2019 as baseline. Consumption of antibiotics in the community accounts for around 90% of the total use. This means, that a substantial and consistent decline in the use of antibiotics in this sector will be key on the way towards reaching ...

New Orleans, LA – The American Psychiatric Association (APA) Foundation has selected Rahn Baily, MD, DLFAPA, ACP, Professor and Chair of Psychiatry at LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine, as the recipient of the 2024 Solomon Carter Fuller Award. According to the APA Foundation, “The Solomon Carter Fuller Award—established in 1969 and named for Dr. Solomon Carter Fuller, recognized as the first Black psychiatrist in America—honors a Black citizen who has pioneered in ...

A team of scientists from the Institut Pasteur has used the database of the National Reference Center for Meningococci to trace the evolution of invasive meningococcal disease cases in France between 2015 and 2022, revealing an unprecedented resurgence in the disease after the easing of control measures imposed during the COVID-19 epidemic. Recently reported cases have mainly been caused by meningococcal serogroups that were less frequent before the pandemic, and there has been a particular uptick in cases among people aged 16 to 24. The results, published in the Journal of Infection and Public Health on October 12, ...

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison have identified a protein key to the development of a type of brain cell believed to play a role in disorders like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases and used the discovery to grow the neurons from stem cells for the first time. The stem-cell-derived norepinephrine neurons of the type found in a part of the human brain called the locus coeruleus may enable research into many psychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases and provide a tool for developing ...

Migraine is more than just a headache. Often the pain is accompanied by nausea, vomiting, light sensitivity, and sound sensitivity. Chronic migraine can be disabling and may prevent many, especially women, from contributing to working life. Still, it often takes a long time for migraine patients to find a treatment that works well for them. Researchers at the Norwegian Center for Headache Research (NorHead) have used data from the Norwegian Prescription Register to look at which medicines best prevent migraine in people in Norway: “There has now been done a lot of research on this subject ...

University of B.C. researchers have uncovered startling connections between micronutrient deficiencies and the composition of gut microbiomes in early life that could help explain why resistance to antibiotics has been rising across the globe. The team investigated how deficiencies in crucial micronutrients such as vitamin A, B12, folate, iron, and zinc affected the community of bacteria, viruses, fungi and other microbes that live in the digestive system. They discovered that these deficiencies led to significant shifts in the gut ...

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and KU Leuven have discovered a suite of genes that influence head shape in humans. These findings, published this week in Nature Communications, help explain the diversity of human head shapes and may also offer important clues about the genetic basis of conditions that affect the skull, such as craniosynostosis. By analyzing measurements of the cranial vault — the part of the skull that forms the rounded top of the head and protects the brain — the team identified 30 regions of the genome associated with different aspects of head shape, 29 of which have not been reported previously. “Anthropologists ...

The first glucose self-monitoring system created in 1970 weighed three pounds, was initially designed only for physicians’ offices and needed a large drop of blood for a reading. Over 50 years later, researchers at Texas A&M University are working to create a fully injectable continuous glucose monitor (CGM) so small it rivals a grain of rice and can be used with an external optical reader to measure sugar levels at any given time. While CGMs have advanced over the last 25 years, current models can still be a nuisance to the user and the required upkeep may discourage use. To address this issue, two faculty members from the Department of Biomedical Engineering ...

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory funding as part of the Reaching a New Energy Sciences Workforce (RENEW) initiative, aimed at fostering diversity in STEM and advancing innovative research opportunities. DOE announced $70 million to support internships, training programs and mentorship opportunities at 65 different institutions, including 40 higher-learning institutions that serve minority populations. By supporting these partnerships, DOE aims to create a more diverse STEM talent pool capable of addressing ...

What Question Were You Investigating? Despite elevated risk for substance use disorder and overdose death in the homeless population, benzodiazepine prescribing for this population has not been examined. Our team therefore set out to answer the questions: What is the rate of benzodiazepine prescribing to homeless vs. non-homeless veterans with mental illness in the VA system? Are homeless veterans more likely to receive risky and potentially inappropriate prescriptions?   What Methods Did You Use? We used logistic regression to compare likelihood of benzodiazepine prescribing and t tests to compare ...

Scientists have developed an ingestible device that can safely monitor vital signs like breathing and heart rate from inside humans. The tool, described November 17 in the journal Device, has the potential to provide accessible and convenient care for people at risk of opioid overdose. “The ability to facilitate diagnosis and monitor many conditions without having to go into a hospital can provide patients with easier access to healthcare and support treatment,” says Giovanni Traverso, the first author of the paper, associate professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and gastroenterologist at Brigham ...

What if, instead of going into a sleep lab or being connected to monitoring devices, a patient could have their risk of obstructive sleep apnea measured by swallowing a pill? A new collaborative study from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Celero Systems and West Virginia University, evaluated a wireless ingestible device that can accurately report vital signs like heart and respiratory rate. The team tested the device, known as the Vitals Monitoring Pill (VM Pill), in a pilot ...

Bio-based plastics such as polylactic acid (PLA) were invented to help solve the plastic waste crisis, but they often end up making waste management more challenging. Because these materials look and feel so similar to conventional, petroleum-based plastics, many products end up not in composters, where they break down as designed, but instead get added to the recycling stream by well-intentioned consumers. There, the products get shredded and melted down with the recyclable plastics, bringing down the quality of the mixture and making it harder to manufacture functional products out of recycled plastic resin. The only solution, currently, is to try to separate the different ...

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Diagnosing sleep disorders such as sleep apnea usually requires a patient to spend the night in a sleep lab, hooked up to a variety of sensors and monitors. Researchers from MIT, Celero Systems, and West Virginia University hope to make that process less intrusive, using an ingestible capsule they developed that can monitor vital signs from within the patient’s GI tract. The capsule, which is about the size of a multivitamin, uses an accelerometer to measure the patient’s breathing rate and heart rate. In addition to diagnosing sleep apnea, the device could also be useful for detecting ...

About The Study: Among outpatient adults with mild to moderate COVID-19, treatment with fluvoxamine 100 mg twice daily for 13 days, compared with placebo, did not improve time to sustained recovery in this randomized clinical trial of 1,175 participants.  Authors: Susanna Naggie, M.D., M.H.S., of the Duke University School of Medicine in Durham, North Carolina, 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/jama.2023.23363) Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, ...

About The Study: In this study of 155,000 births, using a causal inference framework based on target trial emulation, birth at 39 weeks’ gestation was not associated with adverse numeracy and literacy outcomes at school age compared with birth at 40 to 42 weeks.  Authors: Roxanne Hastie, Ph.D., of the University of Melbourne, 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.2023.43721) Editor’s Note: Please see the article for ...