URBANA, Ill. — President Joe Biden announced Monday that the Illinois Fermentation and Agriculture Biomanufacturing Hub (iFAB) is among 31 designated Regional Innovation and Technology Hubs (Tech Hubs) by the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) — recognizing Central Illinois as a globally competitive center for innovation and job creation in biomanufacturing. Led by the Integrated Bioprocessing Research Laboratory (IBRL) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, the iFAB consortium includes 30 partner organizations ...

Dr. Chelsea Polis, Senior Scientist of Epidemiology at the Center for Biomedical Research, has been selected as the Early Career winner of this year’s John Maddox Prize. The John Maddox Prize recognises individuals who stand up for science, despite hostility, to bring evidence to the public. Stories highlighted by the Maddox Prize show the harm done to society when sound scientific evidence and insights are not shared. The prize brings attention to the courage shown by individuals who take responsibility for helping society understand research evidence, and who encourage and inspire others ...

Mosquitoes and other insects can carry human diseases such as dengue and Zika virus, but when those insects are infected with certain strains of the bacteria Wolbachia, this bacteria reduces levels of disease in their hosts. Humans currently take advantage of this to control harmful virus populations across the world. New research led at UC Santa Cruz reveals how the bacteria strain Wolbachia pipientis also enhances the fertility of the insects it infects, an insight that could help scientists increase the populations of mosquitoes that do not carry human disease. “With insect population replacement approaches, they keep all the mosquitos and just add Wolbachia ...

MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL (10/24/2023) — Health professionals have long praised the benefits of insoluble fiber for bowel regularity and overall health. New research from the University of Minnesota suggests even more reasons we should be prioritizing fiber in our regular diets. In a new study published in Nutrients, researchers found that each plant source of insoluble fiber contains unique bioactives — compounds that have been linked to lower incidence of cardiovascular disease, cancer and Type 2 diabetes — offering potential health benefits beyond ...

Since the HMS Beagle arrived in the Galapagos with Charles Darwin to meet a fateful family of finches, ecologists have struggled to understand a particularly perplexing question: Why is there a ridiculous abundance of species some places on earth and a scarcity in others? What factors, exactly, drive animal diversity? With access to a mammoth set of global-scale climate data and a novel strategy, a team from the Department of Watershed Sciences in Quinney College of Natural Resources and the Ecology Center identified several factors to help ...

Charles Parks Richardson, MD, has been elected as a Board Member of the Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health. Dr. Richardson is an American physician who is both an accomplished physician and a medical innovator. He has not only been the inventor of several medical devices and pharmaceutical processes but has translated these into successful business ventures in partnership with such prestigious organizations as the American Heart Association. He is currently the CEO of Critical Medical Infrastructure (CMI), KRS Global Biotechnology, and GeneRx, ...

Innovation Center of NanoMedicine (iCONM; Center Director: Kazunori Kataoka; Location: Kawasaki, Japan) has announced with The University of Tokyo that a group led by Prof. Takanori Ichiki, Research Director of iCONM (Professor, Department of Materials Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo), proposed a new property evaluation method of nanoparticles’ shape anisotropy that solves long-standing issues in nanoparticle evaluation that date back to Einstein's time. The paper, titled " Analysis of Brownian motion trajectories of non-spherical nanoparticles ...

SAN FRANCISCO – A large, modern real-world analysis published today in the Journal of the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography & Interventions (JSCAI), provides vital insights into the safety of novel therapies including ultrasound-assisted catheter-directed thrombolysis (USCDT) and mechanical thrombectomy (MT) that have been developed to address the increased morbidity and mortality of elevated risk pulmonary embolism (PE). Findings were presented today at TCT 2023. Pulmonary embolism is a potentially life-threatening condition where a blood clot embolizes to the lungs, obstructing ...

The NSF-funded FABRIC project has completed installation of a unique network infrastructure connection, called the TeraCore—a ring spanning the continental U.S.—which boasts data transmission speeds of 1.2 Terabits per second (Tbps), or one trillion bits per second. FABRIC previously established preeminence with its cross-continental infrastructure, but the project has now hit another milestone as the only testbed capable of transmitting data at these speeds—the highest being twelve times faster than what was available ...

Which sustainability goals do people in Germany find more important: Animal welfare? Or environmental protection? Human health is another one of these competing sustainability goals. A team of researchers from the Department of Agricultural and Food Market Research at the University of Bonn have now found that consumers surveyed in their study would rather pay more for salami with an “antibiotic-free” label than for salami with an “open barn” label that indicates that the product promotes animal welfare. The results have now been published in the journal “Q Open.” The animal husbandry sector ...

Following a national search, Paul Anderson, MD, PhD, has been named Chief Academic Officer for Mass General Brigham. Anderson, who has been serving in this role on an interim basis since January 1, oversees Mass General Brigham’s world-class research and teaching enterprise, which includes two academic medical centers — Mass General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital — and three specialty hospitals. Mass General Brigham is the largest hospital system-based research enterprise in the nation, with an annual ...

Researchers have identified buried kimberlite, the rocky home of diamonds, by testing the DNA of microbes in the surface soil. These ‘biological fingerprints’ can reveal what minerals are buried tens of metres below the earth’s surface without having to drill. The researchers believe it is the first use of modern DNA sequencing of microbial communities in the search for buried minerals. The research published this week in Nature Communications Earth and Environment represents a new tool for mineral exploration, where a full toolbox could save prospectors time and a lot of money, says co-author Bianca Iulianella Phillips, a doctoral candidate at ...

Adding crushed volcanic rock to cropland could play a key role in removing carbon from the air. In a field study, scientists at the University of California, Davis, and Cornell University found the technology stored carbon in the soil even during an extreme drought in California. The study was published in the journal Environmental Research Communications. Rain captures carbon dioxide from the air as it falls and reacts with volcanic rock to lock up carbon. The process, called rock weathering, can take millions of years ...

She has explored the brain’s secrets for more than 50 years, delving deep into the genes, proteins and cells that help govern our emotions and moods, and our responses to pleasure and pain. And today, Huda Akil, Ph.D., received the nation’s highest scientific honor – the National Medal of Science -- for those contributions and their impact on humankind’s understanding of depression, anxiety, addiction and more. Akil, a neuroscientist at the University of Michigan Medical School and Michigan Neuroscience Institute, and her fellow awardees were honored at the White House in a ceremony ...

Arizona Health Opportunities Pathways to Excellence, a program of the University of Arizona Health Sciences Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, received a $3.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to help students from disadvantaged backgrounds achieve their dreams of becoming health care professionals. Arizona Health Opportunities Pathways to Excellence, or AZ-HOPE, is a collaboration between academic and community partners to support students’ educational endeavors and help them overcome barriers on the pathway ...

Tuesday, October 24, 2023, Cleveland: Findings from a trial led by Cleveland Clinic show that patients with atrial fibrillation undergoing a transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) at the same time as a left atrial appendage occlusion (LAAO) procedure using the Watchman™ device had similar outcomes when compared to patients getting TAVR in addition to medical therapy or blood thinners.      Results from the “Safety and Efficacy of Left Atrial Appendage Occlusion at the Time of Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement — ...

Like several immunosuppressive biologics, the JAK inhibitor upadacitinib is also approved for the treatment of Crohn's disease. Commissioned by the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA), the Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) has now investigated in an early benefit assessment whether the drug offers an added benefit versus the appropriate comparator therapy to patients with moderate to severe active Crohn's disease who have had an inadequate response, lost response or are intolerant to conventional therapy or a biologic agent. Therefore, an added benefit is not proven due to a lack of suitable study data. The ...

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — While governments may take the lead in planning and financing climate change adaptation measures, such as incentivizing green infrastructure, individuals currently are most often the ones implementing actions to adapt to climate change, according to new research. The analysis, conducted by an international consortium of researchers from 20 institutions, including Penn State, in 12 countries, published in Nature Climate Change. “The evidence suggests that individuals and households are the primary adaptation actors — the ones actually implementing ways to ...

Philadelphia, October 24, 2023 – Schizophrenia is a severe neuropsychiatric disease that remains poorly understood and treated. Schizophrenia onset is typically in adolescence or early adulthood, but its underlying causes are thought to involve neurodevelopmental abnormalities. Because human prenatal and postnatal brain tissue is exceedingly difficult to procure and therefore study, researchers have had limited opportunities to identify early disease mechanisms, especially during the critical prenatal period. Now, a pair of studies that appear in Biological Psychiatry, ...

DURHAM, N.C. -- Curiosity paradoxically increases people’s patience for an answer, while simultaneously making them more eager to hear it, finds a new study by Duke neuroscientists. The research might help teachers and students alike by describing a side of curiosity that encourages us to stay engaged instead of seeking immediate relief. Die-hard fans of the Hulu show, "The Bear" are left on the edge of their seats each Sunday, wondering what's going to happen in the scrappy Chicago hotdog shop next week. But the new study from Duke helps explain why viewers may choose to avoid spoilers ...

Scientists at the University of California, Davis, in partnership with the Mars Advanced Research Institute, have announced a significant breakthrough in the production of low-calorie sugar substitutes, such as allulose. This discovery could help address one of the primary obstacles to the widespread adoption of these alternatives: production costs. Allulose, also known as D-psicose, is a naturally occurring rare sugar that provides a viable alternative to sucrose (table sugar). It has a similar taste, texture and functionality, making it an attractive option for those seeking to reduce their sugar intake. By activating a natural process in a microorganism, researchers have developed ...

American Geophysical Union  24 October 2023  AGU Release No. 23-39 For Immediate Release  This press release and accompanying multimedia are available online at: https://news.agu.org/press-release/bitcoin-mining-has-very-worrying-impacts-on-land-and-water-not-only-carbon/ AGU press contact: Rebecca Dzombak, news@agu.org (UTC-4 hours) Contact information for the researchers: Kaveh Madani, United Nations University, madani@unu.edu (UTC-4 hours) By the numbers, global bitcoin mining in 2020-2021: Used 173 terawatt ...

Eggs of the mosquito that carries Zika virus can tolerate extended desiccation by altering their metabolism, according to a new study publishing October 24th in the open access journal PLOS Biology by Anjana Prasad, Sunil Laxman, and colleagues at the Institute for Stem Cell Science and Regenerative Medicine in Bengaluru, India and the Indian Institute of Technology in Mandi, India. The finding offers potential new ways to control the spread of this mosquito. Cells are made mostly of water, and desiccation is a potentially fatal event for any organism, since the structures of many proteins and other cellular molecules are dependent ...

A new study reveals biological mechanisms by which a specific strain of bacteria in the Wolbachia genus might enhance the fertility of the insects it infects—with potentially important implications for mosquito-control strategies. Shelbi Russell of the University of California Santa Cruz, US, and colleagues report these findings in the open access journal PLOS Biology on October 24th. Different strains of Wolbachia bacteria naturally infect a number of different animals worldwide, such as mosquitos, butterflies, and fruit flies. Wolbachia can manipulate the fertility of their ...

The research team, led by Durham University, UK, used satellite data and radio-echo sounding techniques to map a 32,000 km2 area of land underneath the vast ice sheet.    They discovered a landscape that appears to have been formed by rivers at least 14 million years ago and possibly even before the initial growth of the East Antarctic ice around 34 million years ago.   This newly discovered landscape consists of ancient valleys and ridges, not dissimilar in size-and-scale to the glacially-modified landscape of North Wales, ...