Key takeaways In the fast-growing marketplace for recreational marijuana and related products, products containing cannabinoids called HHCs are gaining popularity. The neurological and physiological effects of HHCs are not well understood. A new study by UCLA chemists is the first to explain how well HHCs bind to receptors in the human body; the scientists also devised a safer way to produce HHCs than the current standard process. As more of the nation has adopted legal marijuana, a glut of products has emerged in dispensaries that contain the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, ...

Scientific journals and research papers are evaluated by a metric known as their “impact factor,” which is based on how many times a given paper is cited by other papers. However, a new study from MIT and other institutions suggests that this measure does not accurately capture the impact of medical papers on health outcomes for all patients, particularly those in low- or middle-income countries. To more fully capture a paper’s impact on health, metrics should take into account the demographics of the researchers who performed the ...

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Science (SC), announced $112 million in funding for 12 projects that focus on collaborations among fusion scientists, applied mathematicians, and computer scientists to maximize the use of high performance computing, including exascale computers. The Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing (SciDAC) program pairs the Fusion Energy Sciences (FES) program with the Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) program to explore solving complex ...

Equipping cancer-infecting, or oncolytic, viruses with tumor-inhibiting genetic cargo stimulates the immune system and helps immunotherapy to shrink or completely clear aggressive tumors in mice, according to a new study in the Journal of Experimental Medicine led by University of Pittsburgh and UPMC researchers. The results pave the way for clinical trials combining oncolytic viruses with immunotherapy. Oncolytic viruses are genetically modified viruses that target rapidly dividing tumor cells while avoiding normal cells. Oncolytic viruses were originally designed to directly kill cancer cells, but researchers later ...

Reston, VA—In elderly patients with suspected prostate cancer, PSMA PET/CT can diagnose advanced disease and aid in therapy selection without the need for a biopsy. Published in the July issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine, this new research demonstrates how imaging with PSMA PET/CT can potentially reduce the number of prostate biopsies and associated complications in the elderly while providing accurate staging data. 68Ga-PSMA PET/CT has gained acceptance as a highly sensitive and specific imaging modality for evaluating the extent of disease in prostate cancer patients. In general, PSMA PET/CT is indicated when intermediate ...

A new study by UC Berkeley Anthropology Professor Andrew Wooyoung Kim reveals resilient coping mechanisms used by healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in metro Johannesburg, South Africa. Titled “Coping strategies employed by public psychiatric healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in southern Gauteng, South Africa,”(link is external) Kim's paper was published in PLOS ONE in August. It explores the diverse coping strategies employed by public psychiatric healthcare workers during ...

Despite decades of progress, the origin of life remains one of the great unsolved problems in science. “The most basic features of biology, that organisms are made of cells, that they pass genetic information through DNA, that they use protein enzymes to run their metabolism, all emerged through specific processes in very early evolutionary history,” says Aaron Goldman, Associate Professor of Biology at Oberlin College. “Understanding how these most basic biological systems first took shape will not only give us greater insight into how life works at the most fundamental level, but what life actually is in the ...

A deafened adult cannot recover the ability to hear, because the sensory hearing cells of the inner ear don’t regenerate after damage. In two new studies, partially funded by the National Institutes of Health and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences (PNAS), USC Stem Cell scientists explain why this is the case and how we might be able to change it. “In the non-sensory supporting cells of the inner ear, key genes required for conversion to sensory cells are shut off through a process ...

Government legislation to flag and moderate dangerous content on social media can be effective in reducing harm, even on fast-paced platforms such as X (formerly Twitter) new research shows. Social media posts such as those that promote terrorism and hate, dangerous challenges that put teen lives at risk, or those that glamorise suicide, pose a significant threat to society. And this harm spreads exponentially, like an infectious disease.  Dr Marian-Andrei Rizoiu from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) Behavioural Data Science Lab and Philipp J. Schneider from École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne harnessed ...

Older adults who play digital puzzle games have the same memory abilities as people in their 20s, a new study has shown. The study, from the University of York, also found that adults aged 60 and over who play digital puzzle games had a greater ability to ignore irrelevant distractions, but older adults who played strategy games did not show the same improvements in memory or concentration.  It is known that as humans age, their mental abilities tend to decrease, particularly the ability to remember a number of things at a single time - known as working memory.  Working ...

Inoue Receives Funding For Mason CARES Plus  Megumi Inoue, Associate Professor, Social Work, received funding for: "Mason CARES Plus."  Mason CARES Plus is an expansion study to Mason CARES that will focus on conducting in-depth focus groups and online semi-structured interviews to assess which specific aspects of the Stress Busting Program (SBP) and the Music and Memory program (M&M) were most (and least) impactful in reducing care partner stress and identify effective strategies to improve care partner engagement with the M&M program among Mason CARES participants.  Preliminary results from the Mason CARES study show a high ...

Hopping in the shower, we anticipate the warm water to be cleansing and renewing after a long, hard day — but there may be something dangerous lurking in the showerhead.   Showers can expose us to many types of bacteria cells. Most are harmless, but some – called drinking water-associated pathogens of the immunocompromised  (DWPIs) – can pose a serious risk to our health, especially for individuals with weakened immune systems.  Sarah Haig, Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering, received $420,000 from the National Science Foundation ...

Boston, MA - New research led by Boston Medical Center and Boston University School of Public Health found that children who received integrated mental health care showed improvements in both mental health and school performance. These findings, published in the Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics, examined changes over time in outcomes among 6-12-year-old children receiving integrated behavioral health care at three federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) that implemented the TEAM UP Model of care. The study, which included 51 children serviced ...

“We discuss existing clinical data on these surrogates of tumor burden and their potential in evaluating efficacy of immunotherapy in HPV-associated malignancies.”  BUFFALO, NY- August 14, 2023 – A new review paper was published in Oncotarget's Volume 14 on August 10, 2023, entitled, “Peripheral surrogates of tumor burden to guide chemotherapeutic and immunotherapeutic strategies for HPV-associated malignancies.” With the rapid adoption of immunotherapy into clinical practice for HPV-associated ...

When it comes to translational medicine, Robert Gourdie is among the 2 percent of “super-producers,” National Institutes of Health-funded scientists at U.S. biomedical institutions who hold 10 or more issued patents. Super-producers were responsible for half of all patents issued according to research published Aug. 11 in Nature Biotechnology. The objective of the research was to create a tool to better quantify bridges and barriers to clinical translation of biomedical discoveries. The research marks a novel area of inquiry for Gourdie, a professor and cell biologist at the Fralin Biomedical ...

In the rush to harness artificial intelligence and machine learning tools to make care more efficient at hospitals nationwide, a new study points to another possible use: identifying patients with non-medical needs that could affect their health and ability to receive care. These social determinants of health – everything from transportation and housing to food supply and availability of family and friends as supports – can play a major role in a patient’s health and use of health care services. The new study ...

A new study from clinicians and researchers at the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center, U-M Department of Pathology and the Michigan Center for Translational Pathology reveals findings from over 800 clinical assays performed for kidney patients with MiTF family gene mutations. This study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Pathology¸ is the largest series of its kind in kidney cancer and carries deep clinical and diagnostics implications. The team, led by Rohit Mehra, M.D., performed over 800 clinical assays on the MiTF family genes TFE3 and TFEB in renal tumors with morphologic and biomarker alterations considered suspicious for MiTF family genetic mutations. The ...

The latest study about of proboscideans (elephants and their ancient relatives) from the University of Helsinki provides proof that some proboscideans started to adapt to locally grass-rich environments in East Africa first by changing their behavior and starting to feed more on grasses. This happened in some lineages of proboscideans, such as choerolophodonts, much earlier than has been thought until now, about 23 to 11 million years ago in parts of East Africa Also, around 7 million years ago in the lake Turkana region, increasingly grass-rich diets of the earliest true ...

CLEVELAND:  A first-in-human trial of deep brain stimulation (DBS) for post-stroke rehabilitation patients by Cleveland Clinic researchers has shown that using DBS to target the dentate nucleus – which regulates fine-control of voluntary movements, cognition, language, and sensory functions in the brain – is safe and feasible. The EDEN trial (Electrical Stimulation of the Dentate Nucleus for Upper Extremity Hemiparesis Due to Ischemic Stroke) also shows that the majority of participants (nine out of 12) demonstrated ...

What drives us to develop new ideas rather than settling for standard methods and processes? What triggers the desire to innovate at the risk of sacrificing time, energy, and reputation for a resounding failure? Creativity is based on complex mechanisms that we are only beginning to understand and in which motivation plays a central role. But pursuing a goal is not enough to explain why we favor some ideas over others and whether that choice benefits the success of our actions. "Creativity can be defined as the ability to produce original ...

Megumi Inoue, Associate Professor, Social Work, received funding for: "Group Digital Gaming: Experiences of Older Adults Living with Dementia in an Activity for Cognitive Impairment."  The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of a group digital gaming intervention on cognitive function, mood, and behaviors in people with early to moderate levels of dementia. A group digital gaming company, called Obie Technology, was developed to facilitate cognitive stimulation, physical exercise, and group interactions simultaneously. ...

James C. Witte, Professor, Sociology, Director, Institute for Immigration Research (IIR), and Michelle S. Dromgold-Sermen, Assistant Director, IIR, received funding for: "Refugee Resettlement and STEM Education." This conference will focus on how STEM-oriented educational opportunities through high schools, registered apprenticeships, community college, and four-year institutions can all play a significant role in addressing urgent humanitarian needs, while also expanding the nation’s STEM workforce.  Participants will learn about the current refugee situation, how the Welcome Corps is a valuable addition to U.S. refugee ...

Most people in Canada now have hybrid immunity against SARS-CoV-2 through a mix of infection and vaccination, new research in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) shows. VIEW EMBARGOED ARTICLE Using pan-Canadian blood sample data from a subset of studies backed by the COVID-19 Immunity Task Force (CITF), researchers from the CITF, in collaboration with those from supported studies, estimated changing levels of seroprevalence — from infection or vaccination, or both — over 3 time periods: prevaccination (March to November 2020), vaccine roll-out (December 2020 to November 2021) and the Omicron waves (December 2021 to March 2023). In the first 2 phases, seroprevalence from ...

NEW YORK, NY (Aug. 14, 2023)--Columbia researchers have identified brain injuries that may underlie hidden consciousness, a puzzling phenomenon in which brain-injured patients are unable to respond to simple commands, making them appear unconscious despite having some level of awareness.  “Our study suggests that patients with hidden consciousness can hear and comprehend verbal commands, but they cannot carry out those commands because of injuries in brain circuits that relay instructions from the brain to the muscles,” says study leader Jan Claassen, MD, associate professor of neurology at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians ...

Publicly fund nonsurgical procedures for transgender, gender diverse people To support transgender and gender-diverse people, governments should consider publicly funding hair removal and other minimally invasive procedures, authors argue in a commentary in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). VIEW EMBARGOED ARTICLE “Minimally invasive procedures such as hair removal and facial injectables may support the process of transition in a timely fashion; evidence supports their therapeutic benefits in the field of gender-affirming care,” write Drs. Katie Ross and Sarah Fraser, Faculty of Medicine, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia. The ...