Cave divers collected 78 water samples throughout the complex web of underwater caves Researchers found the cave system’s microbiome is distinct from the nearby sea Microbial communities vary between cave systems forming distinct “neighborhoods” EVANSTON, Ill. — With help from an experienced underwater cave-diving team, Northwestern University researchers have constructed the most complete map to date of the microbial communities living in the submerged labyrinths beneath Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula. Although previous researchers have collected water and microbial samples from the ...

Most of us understand that electrical engineering and mechanical engineering play a key role in running our washing machines or  our computers. But did you know that more than 80 percent of the products we use every day, such as fertilizers, cosmetics, fragrances, rubber and more, require some sort of chemical catalyst while being manufactured? Catalysts are like turbochargers for chemical reactions. Until now, the process of designing a catalyst for chemical reactions has been mostly trial ...

ATLANTA — New research at ACR Convergence 2023, the American College of Rheumatology’s (ACR) annual meeting, found that rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients in sustained remission who stopped TNF inhibitors (TNFi) had significantly more flares and lower Boolean 2.0 remission rates compared with those who continued treatment. Boolean 2.0 is a revised definition for evaluating disease activity in RA that classifies more patients as achieving remission than Boolean 1.0. It is endorsed by the American College of Rheumatology and the European Alliance for Associations in Rheumatology (EULAR) (Abstract #L07). As more RA patients ...

ATLANTA — New research at ACR Convergence 2023, the American College of Rheumatology’s (ACR) annual meeting, shows that patients with refractory juvenile systemic sclerosis improved significantly on nearly all measures for two years following autologous stem cell transplant (Abstract #L06). Juvenile-onset systemic sclerosis (jSSc), also called scleroderma, is a disfiguring autoimmune disorder marked by hardening of the skin and internal organs, including the digestive tract, lungs, musculoskeletal system, kidneys and heart. The psychological and physical effects of the disease persist into adulthood, and many patients have a shortened lifespan. Effective ...

Using data from over 900 participants in a large, diverse, and national sample of Canadian adolescents and young adults from the Canadian Study of Adolescent Health Behaviors, a new study published in the journal Sexual Health researchers found significant associations between sex work and muscle dysmorphia.  Sex work, in its various forms, is highly stigmatized in Canadian society, and sex workers are often victims of harmful stereotypes. It is estimated that roughly 4% of Canadian adolescents engage in selling sex, and research has shown that those involved in sex work are more at risk to experience substance use ...

Neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s can be associated to depression and anxiety. Dr. Sabine Krabbe, a neuroscientist at DZNE’s Bonn site, is receiving 1.2 million US dollars from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative to understand the mechanisms involved in the onset of these syndromes. To this end, she aims to examine the function of the brain’s “emotion center” using new methodologies to examine the function of single cells in experimental mouse models. The study will run for four ...

About The Study: Black women who reported experiences of interpersonal racism in situations involving employment, housing, and interactions with police appeared to have an increased risk of stroke, even after accounting for demographic and vascular risk factors, according to the results of this study including 48,000 Black women. These findings suggest that the high burden of racism experienced by Black U.S. women may contribute to racial disparities in stroke incidence.  Authors: Shanshan Sheehy, Sc.D., of Boston University, is the corresponding author.  To ...

About The Study: Maternal mRNA vaccination was associated with a lower risk of Omicron SARS-CoV-2 infection among infants up to six months of age only if the vaccine was given during the antenatal period in this study of 7,292 infants in Singapore. These findings suggest that mRNA vaccination during pregnancy may be needed for lower risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection among newborns.  Authors: Orlanda Goh, M.B., B.S., M.P.H., of Singapore General Hospital in Singapore, and Chee Fu Yung, M.B.Ch.B., of KK Women’s and Children’s ...

What can we expect in the worst-case scenario? In regions with a high risk of flooding, this is an important question: what extreme events should the protective measures be designed for? Often this is answered simply by looking at history: The worst flood events of the past decades or centuries are regarded as a realistic upper limit for what can be expected in the future. However, this can be misleading, as so-called "mega-floods" have shown in recent years. Time and again, extreme flood events occur, extraordinary outliers that were not considered possible on the basis of local data. However, a major research project carried out under the leadership ...

“The world isn’t doing terribly well in averting global ecological collapse,” says Dr Florian Rabitz, a researcher at Kaunas University of Technology (KTU), Lithuania, the author of a new monograph Transformative Novel Technologies and Global Environmental Governance recently published by Cambridge University Press. Greenhouse gas emissions, species extinction, ecosystem degradation, chemical pollution, and more are threatening the Earth’s future. Despite decades of international agreements and countless high-level ...

A leading researcher has been awarded a prestigious Royal Society Fellowship worth over £1.4 million to study how dryland landscapes respond to a changing climate. Dr Monika Markowska will join Northumbria University in January 2024 as part of her Royal Society University Research Fellowship. The Royal Society is the world’s oldest independent scientific academy, bringing together many of the world’s most distinguished scientists drawn from all areas of science, engineering, and medicine. Specialising in the variability of the Earth’s past climate, Dr Monika Markowska is an Isotope Geochemist, who is currently based at Max Planck ...

Production of biological substances for medicine using genetically engineered yeast cells shows new promising results in basic research from an international team of researchers. In 2022, the researchers attracted international attention by programming the longest-ever biosynthetic pathway - or 'assembly line' - into a microbial cell factory and designing it to produce biological substances for cancer drugs. In an article published in the scientific journal Nature Chemical Biology, Biosynthesis of natural and halogenated plant monoterpene indole alkaloids in yeast, the researchers now present results with the artificial production ...

CÚRAM researchers at University of Galway, together with colleagues at the Centre for Molecular Nanometrology at University of Strathclyde have published work unveiling the inner workings of cells. Published recently in the German scientific journal  Angewandte Chemie, the work provides a deeper understanding of the way components within cells are interconnected. This research has been on the agenda of scientists worldwide for many years, and has yielded plenty of useful information on how certain diseases behave. Through cellular visualisation using SRS microscopy, ...

Actuators, which convert electrical energy into motion or force, play a pivotal role in daily life, albeit often going unnoticed. Soft material-based actuators, in particular, have gained scientific attention in recent years due to their lightweight, quiet operation, and biodegradability. A straightforward approach to creating soft actuators involves employing multi-material structures, such as "pockets" made of flexible plastic films filled with oils and coated with conductive plastics. When subjected to electrical activation, the film displaces the fluid and contracts the pocket, similar to a biological muscle. This system ...

DUARTE, Calif., Nov. 10, 2023 – In a breakthrough for human milk science, researchers at City of Hope, Los Angeles, have dosed the first patient in a Phase 2a clinical trial evaluating a novel therapy for blood cancer patients undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. The investigational treatment, PBCLN-010 in combination with PBCLN-014, combines human milk sugars with a strain of bacteria found in the gut of nursing infants. “Previous clinical trials of PBCLN-010 + PBCLN-014 have shown that it can safely and predictably control the gut microbiome ...

With an eye toward a decade ahead that promises change, opportunity, and challenge, the University of Virginia on Friday launched its Futures Initiative to help plan for the next 10 years in higher education. Over the next year, a group of thought leaders from across the University, known as the Futures Initiative Group, will examine the current drivers of change in academia, such as artificial intelligence and large language models like ChatGPT, while also looking ahead to the eventual impact of sensor technology, virtual classrooms, the Internet of Things, and myriad other technological changes. The goal of the initiative—which was announced at Datapalooza 2023, an annual event ...

INDIANAPOLIS -- Regenstrief Institute, the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA), the International Academy of Health Sciences Informatics (IAHSI) and the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) are hosting a mini-summit at the AMIA 2023 Annual Symposium to address how informatics can help resolve health issues caused by climate change. The event will bring together national and international experts to form an informatics infrastructure that will highlight and bring exposure to climate change's effects on health. The event Mini-Summit 2023 -- Climate and health: How can informatics help? was planned because of the growing awareness around ...

HOUSTON ― Howard Meyers, of Dallas, Texas, a member of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center Board of Visitors (BOV), has committed $25 million to The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center to establish the Meyers Institute for Oncology Nursing. The first of its kind, the Meyers Institute for Oncology Nursing will support and develop nurses throughout their careers by providing educational, professional and wellness-based resources tailored to cancer care nurses and nurse scientists. This ...

Some individuals with anti-Ro/SSA antibodies (anti–Sjögren's-syndrome–related antigen A autoantibodies, also called anti-Ro antibodies) have autoimmune diseases such as lupus or Sjögren's syndrome, but many have no symptoms. A clinical trial published in Arthritis & Rheumatology found that high levels of these antibodies in pregnant women are associated with fetal atrioventricular block (AVB), which occurs when inflammation and subsequent scarring prevent electric signals from the heart’s atria from reaching the ventricles. The disease ...

In a post hoc analysis of the phase 2 NOBILITY trial, researchers found that treatment with obinutuzumab—an antibody that targets a protein expressed on certain immune cells—was superior to placebo for preserving kidney function and preventing flares in patients with lupus nephritis, a kidney condition associated with the autoimmune disease lupus. In the analysis, which is published in Arthritis & Rheumatology, compared with standard-of-care treatment alone, the addition of obinutuzumab to lupus nephritis treatment reduced the risk of developing a composite outcome of death, fall in kidney function, or treatment failure by 60%. Adding obinutuzumab ...

Statement Highlights: The new American Heart Association PREVENTTM risk calculator estimates the 10- and 30-year risk of total cardiovascular disease for people aged 30 years and older. The calculator estimates the risk of heart attack, stroke and — for the first time — heart failure. The equations are sex-specific and race-free, acknowledging that race is not a biological factor, and can include an index of social determinants of health. This is the first risk calculator that combines measures of cardiovascular, kidney ...

Physical fitness since childhood is associated with cerebellar grey matter volume in adolescents. According to a recent study conducted at the University of Jyväskylä and the University of Eastern Finland, those who were stronger, faster and more agile, in other words, had better neuromuscular fitness since childhood, had larger Crus I grey matter volume in adolescence. Despite the importance of the developing cerebellum on cognition and learning, the associations between physical fitness and cerebellar volume in adolescents have remained unclear. This study examined the associations ...

When scientists examined pellets from recycled plastic collected in 13 countries they found hundreds of toxic chemicals, including pesticides and pharmaceuticals. The results are published in a study led by scientists at the University of Gothenburg. Because of this, the scientists judge recycled plastics unfit for most purposes and a hinder in the attempts to create a circular economy. Delegates, scientists and health and environmental advocates from around the world are traveling to Nairobi, Kenya for next week’s meeting of the third session of the Plastics Treaty Intergovernmental Negotiating ...

A significant breakthrough in developing a passive radiative cooling (PRC) material has been announced by researchers at City University of Hong Kong (CityU). The findings have just been published in the prestigious scientific journal Science titled “Hierarchically structured passive radiative cooling ceramic with high solar reflectivity.”  The material, known as cooling ceramic, has achieved high-performance optical properties for energy-free and refrigerant-free cooling generation. Its cost-effectiveness, durability and versatility make it highly suitable for commercialisation in numerous applications, particularly in ...

In a study published in the journal Circulation Research, researchers at the Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares (CNIC)  led by Dr. José Luis de la Pompa reveal the essential role of the protein neuregulin-1 (Nrg1) in the intricate transformation of the heart from its delicate primordial structure into a powerful pumping organ. The findings not only highlight the pathways through which the human heart forms, but also suggest important directions for future medical advances. Commenting on the study, Dr. de la Pompa, head of the ...