EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE UNTIL 4 P.M. ET, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 23, 2023 MINNEAPOLIS – Millions of Americans were exposed to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, early in the pandemic but could not get diagnosed due to testing limitations. Many of those people developed a post-viral syndrome with symptoms similar to those of long COVID.  In a new study of a small group of those people, their immune response shows that 41% had evidence of SARS-CoV-2 exposure. The study is published in the August 23, 2023, online issue of Neurology® Neuroimmunology & Neuroinflammation, an official journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Long COVID was defined as symptoms persisting ...

An international phase 3 clinical trial, done in participation with Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian, found that a new targeted treatment called zolbetuximab, given in combination with a standard chemotherapy, extended survival for patients with advanced gastric or gastroesophageal junction cancer that overexpressed a specific biomarker. Results from the GLOW study, published July 31 in Nature Medicine, together with results from the parallel SPOTLIGHT study that evaluated zolbetuximab with an alternative standard chemotherapy, prompted the ...

Exposure to night shift work and rotating shift work is associated with an increased risk of cognitive impairment among middle-aged and older adults, according to a new study published this week in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Durdana Khan of York University, Canada, and colleagues. Previous research has established that shift work, which refers to any work schedule that occurs outside the traditional 9am to 5pm working hours, has significant health impacts. In the new work, the researchers analyzed data on 47,811 adults in the Canadian Longitudinal Study. The dataset included ...

Sperm and northern bottlenose whales were frequently observed following a trawler off the coast of Newfoundland to feed on fish escaping from the net as it was hauled in, according to a study published August 23, 2023 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Usua Oyarbide from Plentzia Marine Station–Univ Basque Country, Spain, and colleagues. In this study, the authors looked at how cetaceans interacted with a deep-sea trawler fishing in the western North Atlantic off the coast of Newfoundland in 2007. Oyarbide tracked whale encounters over 50 days between July 20 and September 13, 2007, while onboard the trawler as a North Atlantic Fisheries Organization observer. Sperm whales (Physeter ...

In 2018, researchers from NOAA’s Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary and Nautilus Live observed thousands of octopus nesting on the deep seafloor off the Central California coast. The discovery of the “Octopus Garden” captured the curiosity of millions of people around the world, including MBARI scientists. For three years, MBARI and collaborators used high-tech tools to monitor the Octopus Garden and learn exactly why this site is so attractive for deep-sea octopus. In a new study published today in Science Advances, a team of researchers from MBARI, NOAA's Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, the University ...

A team of researchers led by the Griffith Centre for Social and Cultural Research in collaboration with The Sarawak Museum Department have become the first to date drawings of Gua Sireh Cave in Sarawak, uncovering a sad story of conflict in the process. The limestone cave of Gua Sireh in western Sarawak (Malaysian Borneo) is famous for the hundreds of charcoal drawings lining the walls of its main chambers, attracting hundreds of visitors each year. Approximately 55km southeast of Sarawak’s Capital, Kuching, the site is managed by the Bidayuh (local Indigenous peoples) in collaboration with The Sarawak Museum Department, ...

Researchers from Queen Mary University of London have made a discovery that could change our understanding of the universe. In their study published in Science Advances, they reveal, for the first time, that there is a range in which fundamental constants can vary, allowing for the viscosity needed for life processes to occur within and between living cells. This is an important piece of the puzzle in determining where these constants come from and how they impact life as we know it.  In 2020, the same team found that the viscosity of liquids is determined by fundamental physical constants, setting a limit on how runny a ...

Nerve cells that sense touch grow the appropriate endings for hairy or hairless skin based on cues from the skin itself, rather than through predetermined programming, according to research led by Harvard Medical School scientists and published Aug. 21 in Developmental Cell.  If affirmed in further studies, the findings could eventually help researchers develop therapies to regenerate damaged or diseased nerves, the authors say, or better understand what goes awry in congenital neuropathies, conditions in individuals born with ...

Amsterdam, August 23, 2023 – While myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) and Long COVID are not the same disease, they appear to have features of overlapping biological and symptomatic presentations. Many people with Long COVID meet the diagnostic criteria of ME/CFS. Long COVID scientists and clinicians could expedite research and care protocols by utilizing information and experiences gained from the ME/CFS community. A special section of WORK: A Journal of Prevention, Assessment & Rehabilitation aims to provide a ...

Highly challenging to sequence and long overlooked, the human Y chromosome’s contributions to health and disease remain largely unknown. A new paper that presents, for the first time, the complete sequences of multiple human Y chromosomes from lineages from around the globe provides an essential step forward in understanding the roles of the Y chromosome in human evolution and biology. Even as the field of human genomics forged ahead at an astonishing pace, the Y chromosome— one of the ...

A team of interdisciplinary researchers led by Arindam Banerjee, professor and chair of the Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics Department at Lehigh University, has been awarded nearly $3 million from the National Science Foundation to train a diverse group of future energy-sector leaders across academia, industry, government and policy organizations. The five-year award will allow Lehigh to establish a SEED (Stakeholder Engaged, Equitable, Decarbonized) Energy Futures Training Program to provide graduate students with the skills needed to explore, collaborate and pioneer solutions to the society’s reliance on carbon-based energy sources and energy inequities. ...

Mona Diab understands what is at stake. As a research scientist at two of the largest technology companies on the planet, Diab saw the impact innovations had as they spread across the globe. And with artificial intelligence poised to usher in the greatest technological leap since the internet, Diab wants to train, teach and prepare students, researchers, scientists and communities to think responsibly about these new tools. "We're living in a world of proliferating AI and generative AI. There ...

A tailsitter is a fixed-wing aircraft that takes off and lands vertically (it sits on its tail on the landing pad), and then tilts horizontally for forward flight. Faster and more efficient than quadcopter drones, these versatile aircraft can fly over a large area like an airplane but also hover like a helicopter, making them well-suited for tasks like search-and-rescue or parcel delivery.   MIT researchers have developed new algorithms for trajectory planning and control of a tailsitter that take advantage of the maneuverability and versatility of this type of aircraft. Their algorithms ...

According to the National Institutes of Health, approximately 24% of adults in the United States have nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), an umbrella term for a range of liver conditions affecting people who drink little to no alcohol that can lead to cirrhosis, liver cancer and liver failure.  Currently, there are no medications approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat NAFLD.  A recent $9.57 million grant awarded to researchers with the UC San Diego NAFLD Research Center at University of California San Diego School of Medicine will support a clinical trial to study a new treatment option for patients ...

About The Study: In this study of 48,000 patients, gender-affirming surgery increased significantly in the U.S., nearly tripling from 2016 to 2019. Breast and chest surgery was the most common class of procedures performed overall. The number of genital surgical procedures performed increased with increasing age.   Authors: Jason D. Wright, M.D., of the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York, is the corresponding author.  To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.30348) Editor’s ...

About The Study: The results of this study suggest that the majority of fish oil supplement labels make health claims, usually in the form of structure/function claims, that imply a health benefit across a variety of organ systems despite a lack of trial data showing efficacy. Significant heterogeneity exists in the daily dose of eicosapentaenoic acid + docosahexaenoic acid in available supplements, leading to potential variability in safety and efficacy between supplements. Authors: Ann Marie Navar, M.D., ...

The Pacific Ocean covers 32% of Earth’s surface area, more than all the land combined. Unsurprisingly, its activity affects conditions around the globe. Periodic variations in the ocean’s water temperature and winds, called the El Niño–Southern Oscillation, are a major meteorologic force. Scientists know that human activity is affecting this system, but are still determining the extent. A new study in Nature has revealed that the atmospheric component of this system — ...

Researchers at UC San Francisco and UC Berkeley have developed a brain-computer interface (BCI) that has enabled a woman with severe paralysis from a brainstem stroke to speak through a digital avatar.    It is the first time that either speech or facial expressions have been synthesized from brain signals. The system can also decode these signals into text at nearly 80 words per minute, a vast improvement over commercially available technology.     Edward Chang, MD, chair of neurological surgery at UCSF, who has worked on the technology, known as a brain computer interface, or BCI, for more than a decade, hopes this latest research breakthrough, appearing Aug. 23, 2023, ...

New research has discovered the power of large national parks to not only enhance bird diversity inside their borders but boost mammal diversity in nearby unprotected areas. The University of Queensland’s Dr Matthew Luskin said the study, which involved using more than 2,000 cameras and bird surveys across Southeast Asia, reveals for the first time the benefit of expanding protected land areas around the globe beyond park boundaries. “Protected area expansions are often a difficult and expensive process, but our results show they are absolutely worth it,” Dr Luskin said. “We ...

Researchers from The University of Manchester and the University of Warwick finally solved the long-standing puzzle of why graphene is so much more permeable to protons than expected by theory. A decade ago, scientists at The University of Manchester demonstrated that graphene is permeable to protons, nuclei of hydrogen atoms. The unexpected result started a debate in the community because theory predicted that it would take billions of years for a proton to permeate through graphene’s dense crystalline structure. This had led to suggestions that protons permeate not through the crystal lattice itself, ...

What was once the final frontier of the human genome — the Y chromosome — has just been mapped out in its entirety.    Led by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), a team of researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and many other organizations used advanced sequencing technologies to read out the full DNA sequence of the Y chromosome — a  region of the genome that typically drives male reproductive development. The results of a study ...

A study led by researchers at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) and Weill Cornell Medicine discovered a new relationship between cancer cells and the immune system, and shows how cancer can selfishly hijack a normally helpful immune pathway. Usually, activation of this key immune pathway — called the STING pathway — triggers a strong inflammatory response that protects the body from foreign and unhealthy cells. But prolonged activation of the same pathway leads to a desensitization and ultimately to a “rewiring” of cellular signaling, which aids and abets cancer’s spread, the researchers found. “You might think of ...

Researchers from The University of Warwick and the University of Manchester have finally solved the long-standing puzzle of why graphene is so much more permeable to protons than expected by theory. A decade ago, scientists at The University of Manchester demonstrated that graphene is permeable to protons, nuclei of hydrogen atoms. The unexpected result started a debate in the community because theory predicted that it would take billions of years for a proton to permeate through graphene’s dense crystalline structure. ...

By Benjamin Boettner (Boston) — A growing repertoire of cell and molecule-based immunotherapies is offering patients with indomitable cancers new hope by mobilizing their immune systems against tumor cells. An emerging class of such immunotherapeutics, known as T cell bispecific antibodies (TCBs), are of growing importance with several TCBs that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved for the treatment of leukemias, lymphomas, and myelomas. These antibody drugs label tumor cells with one of their ends, and attract immune cells with another end to coerce them into tumor cell killing. One major challenge in the development of TCBs and other immunotherapy ...

Many plants and crops rely on insects to pollinate them so they can reproduce. A new study has shown that several flowering plants from the group Euonymus are pollinated by fungus gnats, a dipteran insect. Specifically, they pollinate Euonymus plants which have red-petaled flowers with short stamens and yogurt-like scent. Although fungus gnats are known to pollinate hundreds of plant species, this study shows that the particular traits of red Euonymus flowers were likely to have been acquired via pollination syndrome, evolving over a process of natural selection to be pollinated specifically by fungus gnats. This research highlights the important role of Diptera, which are commonly regarded ...