JUPITER, Fla. — Slumbering among thousands of bacterial strains in a collection of natural specimens at The Herbert Wertheim UF Scripps Institute for Biomedical Innovation & Technology, several fragile vials held something unexpected, and possibly very useful. Writing in the journal Nature Chemical Biology, a team led by chemist Ben Shen, Ph.D., described discovery of two new enzymes, ones with uniquely useful properties that could help in the fight against human diseases including cancer. The discovery, published ...

New York, NY (November 13, 2023)—Researchers at the Mount Sinai Center for Transformative Disease Modeling have released a groundbreaking study identifying 4,749 key gene clusters, termed “prognostic modules,” that significantly influence the progression of 32 different types of cancer. The study, published in Genome Research, serves as a comprehensive resource and lays the foundation for the development of next-generation cancer treatments and diagnostic markers. Despite significant progress in cancer research, understanding the disease's genetic intricacies ...

Ammonia, a main component of many fertilizers, could play a key role in a carbon-free fuel system as a convenient way to transport and store clean hydrogen. The chemical, made of hydrogen and nitrogen (NH3), can also itself be burned as a zero-carbon fuel. However, new research led by Princeton University illustrates that even though it may not be a source of carbon pollution, ammonia’s widespread use in the energy sector could pose a grave risk to the nitrogen cycle and climate without proper engineering precautions. Publishing their findings in PNAS, the interdisciplinary team of 12 researchers found that a well-engineered ammonia economy could help the world achieve ...

November 13, 2023-- There is no longer any question of how to prevent high-intensity, often catastrophic, wildfires that have become increasingly frequent across the Western U.S., according to a new study by researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and Stanford University. The analysis reveals that low-intensity burning, such as controlled or prescribed fires, managed wildfires, and tribal cultural burning, can dramatically reduce the risk of devastating fires for years at a time. The findings are some of the first to rigorously quantify the value of low-intensity fire and be released while Congress is reassessing ...

Astrophysicist Jason Nordhaus is breaking cultural and disciplinary boundaries by helping to grow the number of deaf, hard-of-hearing, and Hispanic researchers. And, in doing so, he is enabling these future scientists to drive discoveries in one of his areas of expertise—neutron star astrophysics.  Nordhaus, an associate professor of physics at Rochester Institute of Technology’s National Technical Institute for the Deaf, has earned a National Science Foundation grant that connects NTID with Texas Tech University, a Hispanic Serving Institution. Through a series of unique summer research exchanges ...

Banding together to sell fishing rights could generate economic benefits for African countries, which receive far less from access to their fisheries on the global market than other countries do from theirs. By joining forces, UC Santa Barbara researchers say in a paper published in the journal Nature Communications, African fisheries would not just secure more competitive access fees, they could also protect their seas’ biodiversity. “If African countries created a ‘fish cartel’ to sell fishing rights to foreign vessels, they could increase their fish biomass by 16% and make 23% more in profits,” ...

In patients with severe artery blockage in the lower leg, an artery-supporting device called a resorbable scaffold is superior to angioplasty, which has been the standard treatment, according to the results of a large international clinical trial co-led by researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian. Angioplasty involves the widening of a narrowed artery with a small, balloon-like mechanism. A resorbable scaffold is a stent-like structure that props the artery open but is biodegradable and dissolves within a few years, avoiding some of the potential complications of a permanent ...

A compound—one of 27 million screened in a library of potential new drugs—reversed four types of chronic pain in animal studies, according to new research led by NYU College of Dentistry’s Pain Research Center and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The small molecule, which binds to an inner region of a calcium channel to indirectly regulate it, outperformed gabapentin without troublesome side effects, providing a promising candidate for treating pain. Calcium channels play a central role in pain signaling, in part through the release of neurotransmitters such as glutamate and GABA— “the ...

An international team of researchers has developed a handheld, non-invasive device that can detect biomarkers for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Diseases. The biosensor can also transmit the results wirelessly to a laptop or smartphone.  The team tested the device on in vitro samples from patients and showed that it is as accurate as the state of the art. Ultimately, researchers plan to test saliva and urine samples with the biosensor. The device could be modified to detect biomarkers for other conditions as well.  Researchers present their findings ...

A research team from the University of Cologne, in collaboration with colleagues from the Leibniz Institute for Food Systems Biology in Freising, has discovered a receptor for bitter taste in twelve different cartilaginous fish (sharks and rays). The receptor belongs to the so-called taste receptors type 2 (T2R), which also make humans perceive bitter and potentially toxic foods. Until now, it was assumed that such receptors only occur in bony vertebrates. The work was published under the title ‘A singular shark bitter taste receptor provides insights into the evolution of bitter taste perception’ ...

To paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of declining phytoplankton in the North Atlantic may have been greatly exaggerated. A prominent 2019 study used ice cores in Antarctica to suggest that marine productivity in the North Atlantic had declined by 10% during the industrial era, with worrying implications that the trend might continue. But new research led by the University of Washington shows that marine phytoplankton — on which larger organisms throughout the marine ecosystem depend — may be more stable than believed in the North Atlantic. The team’s analysis of an ice core going ...

People with arthritis who report more negative feelings about how they are aging tend to get less physical activity and perceive themselves as less healthy, according to a new study by researchers at Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) and Weill Cornell Medicine. However, self-perception of good health explained the effect of negative thinking – providing an opportunity for clinicians to focus on a patient’s outlook on aging as well as their overall health. “Physical activity is essential for older adults with arthritis, as it can help to reduce pain and stiffness, improve ...

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet and SciLifeLab in Sweden have combined artificial intelligence (AI) techniques used in satellite imaging and community ecology to interpret large amounts of data from tumour tissue. The method, presented in the journal Nature Communications, could contribute to more personalised treatment of cancer patients. While recent advances in tumour imaging provide a great insight into the microscopic world of tumours, the challenge is to interpret the huge amount of data generated. With hundreds of molecules being measured simultaneously in tens or hundreds of thousands of cells, it has become difficult for researchers to know what molecules and cells ...

  Media kit New research suggests that a realistic estimate of additional global forest carbon-storage potential is approximately 226 gigatonnes of carbon—enough to make a meaningful contribution to slowing climate change.   The study, published today in the journal Nature, highlights the critical importance of forest conservation, restoration and sustainable management in moving toward international climate and biodiversity targets. It involved hundreds of scientists around the world, who stress that this potential can be achieved by incentivizing community-driven efforts to promote biodiversity.   Forest ...

ST. LOUIS, MO, November 13, 2023 — An international research team led by James Umen, PhD, member, Donald Danforth Plant Science Center has made an unexpected discovery of a biased counting mechanism used by the single-celled green alga Chlamydomonas to control cell division. Chlamydomonas cells can grow very large and then divide multiple times in succession. The team found that the number of divisions a mother cell undertakes to restore its daughters to the correct starting size deviates from the mathematical optimum that was assumed to dictate ...

PARIS, NOV. 13—Representatives from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Science and the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) have signed a “Statement of Interest” to launch what both agencies hope will be a significant collaboration on the Electron-Ion Collider (EIC). The EIC, being built in the U.S. at DOE’s Brookhaven National Laboratory in partnership with DOE’s Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (Jefferson Lab), will be a unique facility for exploring the building blocks of matter and the strongest force in nature. The agreement continues a long history of cooperation in scientific ...

SAN DIEGO, CA, NOVEMBER 13, 2023 — Research from Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) reveals a significant psychological impact related to inflammatory arthritis patients’ efforts to maintain employment while coping with the challenges of their illness. The study, titled “The Psychological Experience of Work for People with Inflammatory Arthritis (IA),” was presented at the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) Convergence 2023 on November 13 in San Diego. “A large body of research indicates that people with inflammatory arthritis are at increased risk for work disability, which can profoundly affect their lives. ...

In a recent publication in Nature Communications, a joint research team of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU), the University of Cologne, and the University of Oldenburg has presented their findings on the functioning of an atypical cryptochrome protein (Cry). These proteins are found in a variety of organisms, and they are often involved in light-controlled biological processes. The marine bristle worm Platynereis dumerilii, for example, employs a special Cry protein designated L-Cry to distinguish between sunlight and moonlight as well as between different moon phases. This is essential for the worms ...

Artificial intelligence (AI) is on the rise. Until now, AI applications generally have “black box” character: How AI arrives at its results remains hidden. Prof. Dr. Jürgen Bajorath, a cheminformatics scientist at the University of Bonn, and his team have developed a method that reveals how certain AI applications work in pharmaceutical research. The results are unexpected: the AI programs largely remembered known data and hardly learned specific chemical interactions when predicting drug potency. The results have now been published in Nature Machine Intelligence. Which drug molecule is most effective? Researchers are feverishly ...

BINGHAMTON, N.Y. -- Migrant couples who can effectively balance the culture of their homeland while adapting to the dominant culture of their new home are more likely to have a better relationship, according to newly published research from psychologists at Binghamton University, State University of New York.  “When immigrants venture into a new country, they embark on a journey of blending cultures while keeping their roots alive,“ said Binghamton University PhD candidate Quinn Hendershot. “There has been limited research on how their ability to adjust to a new culture while embracing the cultures of their homeland can affect the relationship.” Hendershot ...

– The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded $1.1 million to a team led by Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) researcher Ulkuhan Guler to develop a first-of-its-kind wearable sensor for premature infants that will address racial bias in healthcare by monitoring oxygen levels two different ways and correcting the measurements to account for variations in skin color. The four-year project will create a convenient, affordable, noninvasive sensor about the size of a bandage that will enable infants at risk of lung disease to leave hospitals sooner and be accurately monitored at home, said Guler, an associate professor in the Department ...

HOUSTON – (Nov.13, 2023) – When it comes to chemical reactions, fluorine has a reputation as a ‘magic bullet atom’ for its ability to increase a drug’s absorption and prolong its lifetime. However, traditional methods of adding it to compounds entail expensive materials and can be difficult to pull off. Rice University scientists developed a reliable and cost-effective process of adding fluorine to molecules for increased pharmaceutical drug efficiency using an iron and ...

Philadelphia, November 13, 2023 – A novel assay that detects a unique molecular marker in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) may revolutionize the way this disease is detected and treated according to a new report in The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics published by Elsevier. This assay may improve detection of AML driven by KMT2A gene fusions and may affect treatment decision-making, assessing response to therapy, and long-term surveillance. AML is a rare, aggressive blood cancer diagnosed in around 120,000 individuals worldwide each year. Detecting residual disease during treatment is essential for determining prognosis and ...

The German Research Foundation (DFG) will be funding a new Research Training Group (RTG) at the University of Göttingen from next year. The RTG "Curiosity" is based at the Faculty of Biology and Psychology. Funding is expected to total around 7.8 million euros over the following five years. In addition, the DFG has extended the funding for the RTG "Fourier Analysis and Spectral Theory" at the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science by five years. The award for this RTG totals around 4.5 million euros over the extended funding period.    Curiosity is broadly defined ...

New findings from the University of Houston Department of Health and Human Performance reveal a significant association between a lower number of positive childhood experiences and a higher prevalence of binge-eating disorder characteristics, as well as lower scores for intuitive eating.  Binge eating, which includes consuming a substantial amount of food within a brief timeframe and experiencing a loss of control, is linked to adverse weight-related health effects and challenges in mental well-being. Intuitive eating, ...