30 March 2023 - EMBO Press has chosen Springer Nature to be their new publishing partner from 1 January 2024. Authors who publish in EMBO Press journals will benefit from the global reach of Springer Nature’s leading journals. In addition, authors will have the option to transfer manuscripts between journals in the EMBO Press and Springer Nature portfolios.  This announcement follows EMBO Press’ recent decision that to advance global discoverability, transparency and availability of published research outcomes all ...

Birmingham researchers developing novel battery recycling techniques have been awarded funding by the Faraday Institution, as part of a £29m package to re-focus and accelerate key battery research projects, which have been reshaped to focus on areas with the greatest potential for success. Four of the six projects funded involve the University of Birmingham, and these include the Reuse and Recycling of Lithium Ion Batteries (ReLIB) project.  Led by Professor Paul Anderson, Co-Director of the Birmingham Centre for Strategic Elements and Critical Materials at Birmingham’s School of Chemistry, ReLIB aims to develop and scale novel recycling technologies that recover valuable ...

A multidisciplinary team made up of doctors and scientists from the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM-Hospital del Mar) and the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) has led a study, recently published in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, which proposes a therapeutic approach for preventing the development of resistance to chemotherapy with oxaliplatin, one of the standard treatments for colon and rectal cancer. The work, which also involved doctors from the Pathological Anatomy and Medical Oncology departments at Hospital del Mar, as well ...

Plans to reintroduce the lynx in Scotland provoke a complex range of opinions, new research shows. Lynx died out in Britain more than 1,000 years ago, but some conservation groups argue the species could help restore natural ecosystems. The new study, by researchers from Vincent Wildlife Trust and the University of Exeter, investigated the views of stakeholders including farmers, land managers and conservationists. “Our results show that views in Scotland about potential future lynx reintroduction are far more diverse, nuanced and complex than might have been assumed,” ...

Poly-3-hydroxybutyrate—a biodegradable plastic—is a strong water-resistant polyester often used in packaging materials, made from 3-hydroxybutyrate as a precursor. In previous studies, a research team led by Professor Yutaka Amao from the Research Center for Artificial Photosynthesis at Osaka Metropolitan University, found that 3-hydroxybutyrate can be synthesized from CO2 and acetone with high efficiency, but only demonstrated this at higher concentrations of CO2 or sodium bicarbonate. This new study aimed to reuse waste acetone from permanent marker ink and low concentrations of CO2—equivalent to exhaust gas from power plants, chemical ...

A novel drug is showing promise for alleviating heart failure, a common condition associated with sleep apnoea and a reduced lifespan. The drug, known as AF-130, was tested in an animal model at Waipapa Taumata Rau, the University of Auckland where researchers found it improved the heart’s ability to pump, but, equally important, prevented sleep apnoea, which itself reduces lifespan (see Nature Communications). “This drug does offer benefit for heart failure, but it’s two for the price of one, in that it’s also relieving the apnoea for which ...

Even for insects, wood is a tough food source as it contains hard substances such as cellulose. To help make wood more palatable, some wood-feeding insects are assisted by symbiotic microorganisms that break down the components of wood into an edible form. A group from Nagoya University in Japan has isolated a symbiotic yeast from adults, larvae, and eggs of the Japanese longicorn beetle and identified specialized organs that store the yeast, allowing the beetles to break down the unpalatable components of wood. Their findings were published in PLOS ONE.  “I have been fascinated with longicorn beetles ...

Urban honeybees could be used to gain insight into the microbiome of the cities in which they forage, which can potentially provide information on both hive and human health, reports a study published in Environmental Microbiome. Cities are built for human habitation but are also spaces that host a wide range of living species, and understanding this diverse landscape is important for urban planning and human health. However, sampling the microbial landscape in a manner to cover wide areas of a city can be labour-intensive. Elizabeth ...

The standard cosmology can answer almost nothing about how the structure of a galaxy is formed. It expects a supermassive black hole at the center and dark matter in the halo to explain the circulation of stars and its velocity. However, why the visible matters are distributed in such a thin plane by the interaction with the black hole while dark matter results in a spherical distribution is a critical open question for a disc galaxy. The formation process of elliptical, ring, and long–barred galaxies also remains unknown. The Energy Circulation ...

A collaboration of Australian and European physicists predict that layered electronic 2D semiconductors can host a curious quantum phase of matter called the supersolid. The supersolid is a very counterintuitive phase indeed. It is made up of particles that simultaneously form a rigid crystal and yet at the same time flow without friction since all the particles belong to the same single quantum state. A solid becomes ‘super’ when its quantum properties match the well-known quantum properties of superconductors. A supersolid simultaneously has two orders, solid and super: solid because of the spatially repeating pattern ...

Throughout her career, Arizona State University Edson College of Nursing and Health Innovation Associate Professor Kelly Davis has worked to translate her research into action. An expert in alcohol-involved sexual assault, Davis’ studies have been cited in U.S. legislation and have earned her a MERIT Award and now the prestigious Fulbright Scholar Award. The program will take her to the United Kingdom beginning in early 2024 to collaborate with colleagues at the University ...

The Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST), in collaboration with Astellas Pharma Inc., has developed a new toolkit that uses small molecules to control the activity of a piece of synthetic RNA, and ultimately regulate gene expression. The technology, which was described in the Journal of the American Chemical Society on March 30, 2023, worked in mammalian cell cultures and in mice. The ability to precisely control whether a gene is turned on or off is expected to lead to more efficient production of compounds that are made using animal cells, and make gene therapy, cell therapy, and regenerative medicine safer. For genes to be expressed, cells make many RNA copies of a section ...

It has been a longstanding assumption that birth mode and associated exposure of newborns to their mothers’ vaginal microbiome during delivery greatly affects the development of babies’ gut microbiome. To test the scientific validity of this assumption, a team of Canadian researchers has now published a study in Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology in which they examined the effect of maternal vaginal microbiome composition on the development of infants’ stool microbiome at 10 days and three months after birth. “We show that ...

The Gairdner Foundation is pleased to announce the 2023 Canada Gairdner Award laureates, recognizing some of the world’s most significant biomedical and global health research and discoveries.  “Congratulations to all the 2023 Canada Gairdner Award recipients! The ground-breaking work of this year’s laureates has resulted in innovative, globally accessible tools to fight diseases and improve our well-being. The work of two Canadian researchers – Dr. Christopher Mushquash and Dr. Gelareh Zadeh especially ...

Researchers use tiny diamonds to create intracellular sensors Optically trapped nanodiamonds could be used to measure temperature, magnetic fields and other properties inside living cells VANCOUVER -- Researchers have developed a new way to study the intricate dynamics within living cells by using optically trapped nanodiamond particles as intracellular sensors. Using custom built optical tweezers, the research team trapped the particles within the cell at low power while the cell was alive. The work represents an important advancement in quantum sensing, which takes advantage of quantum mechanics to analyze changes at the atomic level.  The researchers used optical tweezers ...

Arlington, Va., March 30, 2023 – Findings from an analysis of more than 66,000 abdominal hysterectomies performed in New York hospitals reveal key risk factors for surgical site infections (SSIs) following these procedures, including open surgery, obesity, diabetes, gynecological cancer, and age under 45. Published today in the American Journal of Infection Control (AJIC), the data can help inform surgical and clinical decisions to reduce post-operative infections. “Improved understanding of patient-related, clinical, and surgical factors ...

“Children who are in regular contact with mobile phone screens, tablets or computers are more irritable and have worse attention, memory and concentration than those who do not use them.”  Parents should strictly ration or not allow screen time for children aged under six, according to a leading neuropsychologist in a new book.   Dr Álvaro Bilbao, Ph.D., uses current and established research to highlight how the risk of psychological and behavioral issues increases the ...

By Emily Greenhalgh WOODS HOLE, MASS. -- Cape Cod’s salt marshes are as iconic as they are important. These beautiful, low-lying wetlands are some of the most biologically productive ecosystems on Earth. They play an outsized role in nitrogen cycling, act as carbon sinks, protect coastal development from storm surge, and provide critical habitats and nurseries for many fish, shellfish, and coastal birds. And, according to new research from the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL), more than 90 percent of ...

Insilico Medicine (“Insilico”) is featured in the new BBC StoryWorks-produced film series Nature’s Building Blocks made in conjunction with the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO). Through 29 short films, the series showcases science innovations and cutting-edge technological advances that are poised to dramatically improve human life.  Insilico, a generative artificial intelligence (AI)-driven drug discovery company, is featured in a segment focused on democratizing and accelerating ...

Scientists often look to the past for clues about how Earth’s landscapes might shift under a changing climate, and for insight into the migrations of human communities through time. A new study offers both by providing, for the first time, a reconstruction of prehistoric temperatures for some of the first known North American settlements. The study, published in Quaternary Science Reviews, uses new techniques to examine the past climate of Alaska’s Tanana Valley. With a temperature record that reaches back 14,000 years, researchers now have ...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — An ancient biological enzyme known as nickel-iron hydrogenase may play a key role in producing hydrogen for a renewables-based energy economy, researchers said. Careful study of the enzyme has led chemists from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign to design a synthetic molecule that mimics the hydrogen gas-producing chemical reaction performed by the enzyme. The researchers reported their findings in the journal Nature Communications. Currently, industrial hydrogen is usually produced by separating hydrogen gas molecules from oxygen atoms in water using a process called ...

NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA— Ochsner Health, Louisiana’s largest nonprofit, academic, multi-specialty, healthcare delivery system, has received the 2023 Gallup Exceptional Workplace Award (GEWA). This award recognizes the most engaged workplace cultures in the world. After another year of unpredictability in the workplace, Gallup found that Ochsner Health continued to put their employees’ engagement at the center of their business strategy, embedding engagement into their very culture. “Our employees are the reason for the culture of positive engagement at Ochsner Health. From physicians and providers to clinical ...

LA JOLLA, CALIF. Mar 29, 2023 - Sanford Burnham Prebys researchers have identified a group of proteins that could be the secret to cellular reprogramming, an emerging approach in regenerative medicine in which scientists transform cells to repair damaged or injured body tissues. The researchers were able to reprogram damaged heart cells to repair heart injuries in mice following a heart attack. The findings, which appear in the journal Nature Communications, could one day transform the way we treat a variety of diseases, including cardiovascular disease, Parkinson’s ...

EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE UNTIL 4 P.M. ET, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 29, 2023   MINNEAPOLIS – Both cluster headache and migraine have strong links to the circadian system, the internal clock that regulates body processes, according to a meta-analysis published in the March 29, 2023, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The meta-analysis included all available studies on cluster headache and migraine that included circadian features. This included information on the timing of headaches during ...

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is a promising therapy for treatment-resistant obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). A first-of-its-kind collaborative study led by researchers at Texas Children’s Hospital, Baylor College of Medicine, and Brigham & Women’s Hospital has found that mapping neural connections in the brains of OCD patients offers key insights that explain the observed improvements in their clinical outcomes after DBS. The study was published in Biological Psychiatry. Neuropsychiatric disorders such as obsessive-compulsive ...