Before SARS-CoV-2 and the COVID-19 pandemic, there was the Zika virus epidemic, lasting from 2015 to 2016. The Zika virus can cause serious birth defects and abnormalities. During the epidemic, one of the most striking results of Zika virus in pregnant women was the increase in offspring with microcephaly or a head much smaller than expected, a condition that can result in abnormal brain development. While the Zika virus epidemic has ended, future outbreaks are inevitable as most of the world’s population lives in areas where the Zika virus mosquito thrives. Researchers in the Aagaard Lab at Baylor College of Medicine ...

The cyanobacterium Aetokthonos hydrillicola produces not just one, but two highly potent toxins. In the latest issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), an international team led by Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) and Freie Universität Berlin describes the second toxin, which had remained elusive until now. Even in low concentrations, it can destroy cells and is similar to substances currently used in cancer treatment. Two years ago, the same team established that the first toxin from the cyanobacterium is the cause of a mysterious disease among bald eagles in the USA. Aetokthonos hydrillicola is ...

BUFFALO, N.Y. – Just about everyone knows that cigarette smoke is bad for babies. Should cooking fuels like natural gas, propane and wood be viewed similarly when used indoors? That’s the takeaway from a new study led by University at Buffalo researchers, who looked at indoor air pollution exposure and early childhood development in a sample of more than 4,000 mother-child pairs in the U.S. “Exposure to unclean cooking fuel and passive smoke during pregnancy and in early life are associated with developmental delays in ...

A University of Texas at Arlington researcher is working with a not-for-profit cooperative to develop and test a smart, automated cart that could replace humans who conduct fire hazard safety checks in nuclear power facilities. Chan Kan, a UT Arlington assistant professor in the Department of Industrial, Manufacturing and Systems Engineering (IMSE), will lead the $250,000 project with the cooperative Utilities Service Alliance. “We will develop and build a cart with state-of-the-art equipment that could replace human testing of nuclear facilities,” Kan said. Currently, when the primary fire-sensing system fails or ...

The complex relationship between physical activity and energy balance – food intake versus energy expenditure – is still a challenge for science, especially in light of the rising worldwide prevalence of overweight and obesity. Some of the medications available on the market to combat obesity work analogously to hormones associated with appetite control, and for some time researchers have focused on understanding how processes involving metabolites (products of cell metabolism) affect hunger and satiety. A ...

“Access to LDLT in a transplant program can optimize the timing of transplant for the increasingly older, frail patient population [...]” BUFFALO, NY- September 26, 2023 – A new research paper was published in Aging (listed by MEDLINE/PubMed as "Aging (Albany NY)" and "Aging-US" by Web of Science) Volume 15, Issue 17, entitled, “Availability of living donor optimizes timing of liver transplant in high-risk waitlisted cirrhosis patients.” Liver transplant (LT) candidates have become older and frailer. Growing non-alcoholic steatohepatitis ...

The health care landscape has undergone rapid changes in recent years, requiring clinicians and stakeholders to consider innovative ways to provide care in traditional and non-traditional settings. The American College of Cardiology has released a workbook on home-based cardiac care that provides the cardiovascular care team with tools and resources to incorporate high-quality, patient-centered care in the home setting. Home-based care is defined as any form of medical care that takes place in the home of the patient; this includes the acceleration of virtual ...

Scientists from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and the University Medical Center Mannheim (UMM) successfully tested a new form of cellular immunotherapy against brain tumors in mice for the first time. Glioblastomas are the most aggressive of all brain tumors. They spread diffusely in the brain and are difficult to remove completely by surgery. Chemotherapy or radiation therapy also often have limited effectiveness. To find new, more effective treatment options for those affected, doctors and scientists are testing numerous immunotherapeutic approaches, including so-called "adoptive" T-cell therapies: This involves isolationg ...

  Research shows way forward for making renewable hydrogen from glycerol Crude glycerol from biodiesel production plants cheap and abundant Could benefit the environment and reduce reliance on fuel imports.   26 September 2022 | Birmingham, UK   Aston University research has shown the way forward for making renewable hydrogen and propane fuel gases from glycerol. An organic compound, glycerol is produced mainly from fats and oils and is often used in health and beauty products. With crude glycerol from biodiesel production plants cheap and abundant the researchers have ...

SRI International announced today it is spinning off Synfini, a biosciences platform that accelerates the process by which pharmaceutical and other companies can design, synthesize, and bring to market molecules for drug development. The technology brings together a suite of software and hardware solutions developed at SRI through a significant, multi-year development effort. The suite includes a neuro-symbolic AI molecule designer, a computational synthetic planning tool, a high-throughput automated chemistry system, and a flow chemistry hardware platform that reliably performs multi-step synthesis. “At SRI we are always tremendously excited to ...

When we wash our face with a cleanser, our skin can start to feel tight. With the application of a favorite moisturizer, that feeling often goes away. This perception of our skin might seem subjective, but researchers at Stanford recently revealed the mechanism behind these feelings. Their work, published this week in PNAS Nexus, demonstrates how mechanical changes at the outer surface of our skin translate into sensations and provides a quantitative approach for determining how people will perceive their skin after using a moisturizer or cleanser. “This work provides ...

The Spallation Neutron Source at Oak Ridge National Laboratory — already the world’s most powerful accelerator-based neutron source — will be on a planned hiatus through June 2024 as crews work to upgrade the facility.  Much of the work — part of the facility’s Proton Power Upgrade project — will involve building a connector between the accelerator and the planned Second Target Station at SNS. When complete, the PPU project will bring the accelerator up to 2.8 megawatts from its current record-breaking ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Lava worlds, massive exoplanets home to sparkling skies and roiling volcanic seas called magma oceans, are distinctly unlike the planets in our solar system.   To date, nearly 50% of all rocky exoplanets yet discovered have been found capable of maintaining magma on their surfaces, likely because these planets are so close to their host stars they orbit in fewer than 10 days. Being so close causes the planet to be bombarded by harsh weather and forces surface temperatures to the extreme, making it all but completely inhospitable to life as we know it today.  Now, in a new study, scientists have ...

Philadelphia, September 26, 2023 – In four articles in the Journal of Nutrition and Dietetics, published by Elsevier, leading nutrition experts describe and evaluate the latest versions of the Healthy Eating Index (HEI), issued to correspond to the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA). For the first time, there are two new HEIs, one for children and adults 2 years and older, and one for young children aged 12 through 23 months. The Call to Action of the ninth edition of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans is “Make Every Bite Count.” These guidelines form the basis of nutrition policy ...

MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL (09/26/2023) — Published in the Journal of Clinical Psychology, University of Minnesota Medical School researchers examined homicide rates of health professionals in the United States to inform prevention interventions and strategies. The research team used the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS) to collect data on the number of homicides among ten types of health professionals, including doctors, psychologists, nurses, social workers and pharmacists.  The study found rates of homicides ...

The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) has awarded $45 million to rapidly develop sense-and-respond implant technology that could slash U.S. cancer-related deaths by more than 50%. The award to a team of researchers from seven states, led by Rice University, will fast-track development and testing of a first-of-its-kind approach to cancer treatment that aims to dramatically improve immunotherapy outcomes for patients with ovarian, pancreatic and other difficult-to-treat cancers. Weiyi Peng, assistant professor ...

MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL (09/26/2023) — The University of Minnesota Medical School received a $16 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Brain Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies® (BRAIN) Initiative to support the groundbreaking project of unraveling the mysteries of the brain's ‘wiring diagram.’ Using cutting-edge techniques, this research aims to discover how the brain's neurons are connected and communicate with each other. The project aims to better understand how complex neural ...

Arctic sea ice likely reached its annual minimum extent on Sept. 19, 2023, making it the sixth-lowest year in the satellite record, according to researchers at NASA and the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). Meanwhile, Antarctic sea ice reached its lowest maximum extent on record on Sept. 10 at a time when the ice cover should have been growing at a much faster pace during the darkest and coldest months.   Scientists track the seasonal and annual fluctuations because sea ice shapes Earth’s polar ecosystems and plays a significant role in global climate. Researchers at NSIDC ...

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (Sept. 26, 2023) — Van Andel Institute has appointed Eric Swindell, Ph.D., as dean and chief academic officer of Van Andel Institute Graduate School, effective Dec. 4, 2023. Swindell joins the Institute after a distinguished 25-year career in scientific research, with the past several years dedicated to leadership positions in biomedical graduate education. He brings a proven track record as a dynamic, energetic and motivational team builder who possesses a deep understanding of science graduate education and a robust commitment to collaboration and inclusiveness. “I am excited to join Van Andel Institute and honored to ...

HERSHEY, Pa. — Non-Hispanic and Hispanic Black bisexual women who live in rural areas have the highest prevalence of experiencing suicidal thoughts and behaviors, according to a Penn State-led study. The researchers said this “first-of-its-kind study,” published in JAMA Psychiatry, revealed how various demographic factors intersect to affect a person’s risk of having suicidal thoughts and behaviors. An estimated 12 million adults in the United States think about suicide every year, with nearly two million ...

A research team at the University of Liverpool has developed a new material that captures coronavirus particles and could transform the efficiency of face masks and other filter equipment to stop the spread of COVID-19 and other viruses. In a paper published in the journal Nature Communications, the team showed that the new material used in a conventional face mask was approximately 93% more efficient at capturing proteins, including coronavirus proteins, with little impact on breathability. The Liverpool scientists behind the new material are Professor Peter Myers, a research leader in chromatography, and Dr Simon Maher, a mass spectrometry expert. They had ...

New Rochelle, NY, September 26, 2023—A special focus issue of the peer-reviewed Journal of Neurotrauma highlights the latest findings of the North American Clinical Trials Network (NACTN), aimed at improving outcomes for individuals with acute spinal cord injury (SCI). Click here to read the issue now. Led by Guest Editor Michael Fehlings, MD, PhD, from Toronto Western Hospital, the focus issue includes an article on the history and accomplishments of the NACTN, which is a consortium of translational clinical research centers with the overarching aim to translate scientific discoveries in the realm of SCI neuroprotection and neuroregeneration while ...

The term model is employed quite widely in science and technology. Researchers in disciplines such as biology, computing, engineering and mathematics each have their own understanding and meaning of what a model is meant to be. In a timely paper published in the journal Cancers, City, University of London Biomedical Imaging academic, Dr Constantino Carlos Reyes Aldasoro, reviews the use of the word model as it relates to cancer research and the specific area of the microenvironment surrounding a cancer tumour. He then groups different definitions ...

How are environmental changes, loss of biodiversity, and the spread of pathogens connected? The answer is a puzzle. Scientists from Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin in cooperation with the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (Leibniz-IZW) have now described one piece of that puzzle in the journal “eLife”, showing that the destruction of tropical rainforests harms the diversity of mosquito species. At the same time, more resilient species of mosquitoes become more prevalent – which also means the viruses they carry are more abundant. If there are many individuals of a given ...

With a variety of flavors and widespread perceptions of safety, e-cigarettes appeal to an array of users and especially to adolescents. E-cigarette use, however, is linked to increased alcohol consumption, as well as the use of other substances and drugs. The health effects of such combinations remain almost entirely unknown. Now, with new funding from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), researchers at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University hope ...