CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – Over the past decade, the gut microbiome has gained significant interest by scientists and non-scientists alike. Recent research has shown that the bacteria and other microbes in our gut play a supporting role in immunity, metabolism, digestion, and the fight against "bad bacteria" that try to invade our bodies. However, new research published in Nature Biotechnology by Angela Wahl, PhD, Balfour Sartor, MD, J. Victor Garcia, PhD, and UNC School of Medicine colleagues others has revealed that the microbiome may not as always be protective against human pathogens. Using a first-of-its-kind ...

New Haven, Conn. — Two distinct neurodevelopmental abnormalities that arise just weeks after the start of brain development have been associated with the emergence of autism spectrum disorder, according to a new Yale-led study in which researchers developed brain organoids from the stem cells of boys diagnosed with the disorder. And, researchers say, the specific abnormalities seem to be dictated by the size of the child’s brain, a finding that could help doctors and researchers to diagnosis and treat autism in the future. The findings were ...

Mountain ranges play a key role in global climate, altering weather and shaping the flora and fauna that inhabit their slopes and the valleys below. As warm air rises windward grades and cools, moisture condenses into rain and snow. On the leeward side, it’s quite the opposite. Deserts prevail, a phenomenon known as rain shadow. Thus, the way mountain ranges form is a matter of intense interest among those who study and model climates of the past. That debate will soon grow more heated with a new paper in the journal Nature Geoscience. A team of researchers ...

Francis Crick Institute press release Under strict embargo: 16:00hrs BST 10 August 2023 Peer reviewed Observational study Cells Researchers at the Francis Crick Institute and UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, working with technology company Faculty AI, have shown that machine learning can accurately predict subtypes of Parkinson’s disease using images of patient-derived stem cells. Their work, published today in Nature Machine Intelligence, has shown that computer models can accurately classify four subtypes of Parkinson’s disease, with one reaching an accuracy of 95%. This could pave the way for personalised medicine and targeted drug discovery. Parkinson’s ...

Random Telegraph Noise (RTN), a type of unwanted electronic noise, has long been a nuisance in electronic systems, causing fluctuations and errors in signal processing. However, a team of researchers from the Center for Integrated Nanostructure Physics within the Institute for Basic Science (IBS), South Korea has made an intriguing breakthrough that can potentially harness these fluctuations in semiconductors. Led by Professor LEE Young Hee, the team reported that magnetic fluctuations and their gigantic RTN signals can be generated in a vdW-layered semiconductor by introducing vanadium in ...

Boston – Researchers from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have found a way to use artificial intelligence (AI) to diagnose muscle wasting, called sarcopenia, in patients with head and neck cancer. AI provides a fast, automated, and accurate assessment that is too time-consuming and error-prone to be made by humans. The tool, published in JAMA Network Open, could be used by doctors to improve treatment and supportive care for patients. “Sarcopenia is an indicator that the patient is not doing well. A real-time tool that tells us when a patient is losing muscle mass would trigger us to intervene and do something supportive ...

About The Study: The findings of this study of 15,000 adults suggest that alcohol consumption and risky drinking behaviors were common among cancer survivors, even among individuals receiving treatment. Given the adverse treatment and oncologic outcomes associated with alcohol consumption, additional research and implementation studies are critical in addressing this emerging concern among cancer survivors.  Authors: Yin Cao, Sc.D., M.P.H., of the Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine, is the corresponding author.  To ...

About The Study: The results of this study of 3.4 million adults suggest that most individuals commencing treatment with prescription opioids had relatively low and time-limited exposure to opioids over a 5-year period. The small proportion of individuals with sustained or increasing use was older with more comorbidities and use of psychotropic and other analgesic drugs, likely reflecting a higher prevalence of pain and treatment needs in these individuals.  Authors: Natasa Gisev, ...

The study, carried out by scientists from Navarrabiomed, the Institute of Neurosciences CSIC-UMH, and IRB Barcelona, has been published in Nature Metabolism. In 2022, 7,500 new cases of melanoma—the most aggressive type of skin cancer—were diagnosed in Spain. A collaborative study undertaken by the Navarrabiomed Biomedical Research Center (Pamplona, ​​Navarre), the Institute of Neurosciences CSIC-UMH (Sant Joan d’Alacant, Valencian Community) and IRB Barcelona (Barcelona, ​​Catalonia) shows that the administration of ranolazine, a drug currently used to treat heart conditions, improves the ...

Legal restrictions placed on the amount of time young people in China can play video games may be less effective than originally thought, a new study has revealed. To investigate the effectiveness of the policy, a team of researchers led by the University of York, analysed over 7 billion hours of playtime data from tens of thousands of games, with data drawn from over two billion accounts from players in China, where legal restrictions on playtime for young people have been in place since 2019.  The research team, however, did not find evidence of a decrease in heavy play of games after these ...

Researchers from Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU) identify lipids stimulating self-repair mechanisms in the brain after ischemic stroke Tokyo, Japan – Patients often experience functional decline after an ischemic stroke, especially due to the brain’s resistance to regenerate after damage. Yet, there is still potential for recovery as surviving neurons can activate repair mechanisms to limit and even reverse the damage caused by the stroke. How is it triggered though?  In a study published ...

The researchers also identified three proteins that are needed for the virus to carry out the invasion and have in turn synthesized molecules (potential drugs) that can target one of the proteins, potentially leading to new treatments for AIDS. “We have revealed a protein pathway that appears to have a direct impact on diseases, which opens up a new area for potential drug development,” says the study’s senior author Aurelio Lorico, MD PhD, Professor of Pathology and interim Chief Research Officer at Touro University Nevada College of Osteopathic Medicine. HIV infection requires the virus to enter a cell and gain access to the well-guarded nucleus in order ...

New research from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) and the Sloan Kettering Institute — a hub for basic science and translational research within MSK — found a potential target against neuroendocrine transformation in lung and prostate cancers; discovered new clues about why donor T cells attack certain tissues in graft-versus-host disease; shed light on why T cells let go of their prey; and used CRISPR interference and dynamic cell-state transitions to discover enhancers that affect early human development. Targeting exportin 1 may help prevent neuroendocrine transformation in lung and prostate cancers Over time, some lung and prostate ...

A new study of mice and lab-grown human colon “organoids” indicates that an experimental drug developed by Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers can substantially reduce symptoms of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in pre-clinical models. The experimental drug, given orally, inhibits a gut enzyme that is overproduced in people and in animal models of IBD, a disorder estimated by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to afflict more than 3 million adult Americans. A report on the new study was published Aug. 9 in Science Translational Medicine. IBD, a disease category that includes Crohn’s ...

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe executed a short maneuver on Aug. 3, 2023, that kept the spacecraft on track to hit the aim point for the mission’s sixth Venus flyby on Monday, Aug. 21, 2023. ​ Operating on preprogrammed commands from mission control at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, Parker fired its small thrusters for 4.5 seconds, enough to adjust its trajectory by 77 miles and speed up – by 1.4 seconds – its closest approach to Venus. The precise timing and position are critical to that flyby, the sixth of seven approaches in which Parker uses the planet’s gravity to tighten ...

Scientists from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and the Cambridge Stem Cell Institute have developed an AI system that recognizes and characterizes white and red blood cells in microscopic images of blood samples. The algorithm can help physicians diagnose blood disorders and is available as an open source method for research purposes. Blood disorders are often characterized by altered numbers and aberrant shapes of red and white blood cells. To diagnose the diseases, physicians classically examine blood smears on a slide under a microscope. This type of diagnosis is straightforward, but evaluation by experienced experts is difficult because the changes are sometimes ...

UPTON, NY– Registration is now open for the third Quantum Information Science Career Fair hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science’s National Quantum Information Science (QIS) Research Centers. The virtual event takes place on Wednesday, Sept. 13. The event aims to make undergraduates, graduate students, postdocs and early-career professionals aware of the wide range of QIS careers they can pursue—including technical and scientific roles as well as positions that facilitate research and bring awareness to the field, such as ...

(WASHINGTON, August 10, 2023) – Researchers in Italy have shown for the first time that among children who have undergone a donor stem cell transplant, the presence of diverse species of micro-organisms in the intestinal tract before the transplant resulted in significantly better overall patient survival and fewer complications. The study, published today in the journal Blood, adds to a growing body of research unraveling the role gut health plays in health outcomes. “Our study provides the first evidence of a relationship between pre-transplant microbial diversity in the intestinal tract and post-transplant ...

San Antonio – August 10, 2023 – Southwest Research Institute developed an algorithm to remotely update and repair spacecraft software using less time and data than conventional techniques. The tool not only improves the overall efficiency of satellite software transmissions but also can recover data from failed over-the-air updates and malicious cyberattacks. It works by identifying missing bytes and other errors before deploying a custom “micropatch” to the damaged or missing software. “Instead of updating an entire file or operating system, which is typically required with over-the-air satellite software updates, our ...

New research confirms fracking causes slow, small earthquakes or tremors, whose origin was previously a mystery to scientists. The tremors are produced by the same processes that could create large, damaging earthquakes.  Fracking is the high-pressure injection of fluids underground to extract oil and natural gas. Though it is typically done with wastewater, this study examined data from fracking with liquid carbon dioxide. The process pushes carbon underground and keeps it from trapping heat in Earth’s atmosphere. By some estimates, carbon dioxide fracking could save as much ...

London, United Kingdom, 10 August 2023 – Four major clinical trial networks based in low resource settings are embarking on an exciting partnership with the Good Clinical Trials Collaborative (“GCTC”) to enhance clinical research in low resource settings. By promoting the unique qualities of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and the evidence they produce, the collaboration aims to support regional research ecosystems to prioritize collaborative, informative and efficient research responses to public health challenges. ADVANcing Clinical Evidence in Infectious Diseases (“ADVANCE-ID”), Africa ...

Washington, D.C. –  Following the first stay-at-home orders issued in the U.S. to curb the spread of COVID-19, gastrointestinal viruses such as norovirus, rotavirus and adenovirus all but disappeared from California communities, and remained at very low levels for nearly 2 years. The research is published in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology. Interestingly, these viruses surged back to pre-pandemic levels in late 2022, said Niaz Banaei, M.D., professor of Pathology and Medicine (Infectious Diseases), Stanford University, and Medical Director of Clinical Microbiology Laboratory, Stanford Health Care. “Adenovirus ...

INDIANAPOLIS – As the population of the United States grows older, more and more family members will be called upon to make medical decisions during hospitalizations of those who cannot make decisions for themselves. Good quality, focused, empathetic and timely communication between family members and clinicians is essential for good decision-making. Researcher-clinicians from Regenstrief Institute and Indiana University School of Medicine developed the 30-question Family Inpatient Communication Survey (FICS) to measure the experience of communication with hospital staff from the perspective of family members of seriously ill patients unable ...

Despite the many changes in school culture since the 1960s, a new study reveals that some things never change: life is harder for middle school students who are not attractive and for those who are not athletic.  As children head back to school, the first-of-its-kind longitudinal study by Florida Atlantic University helps to explain why adolescents who lack traits valued by peers are at risk for adjustment difficulties. Results, published in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence, show that low attractive ...

A vast number of microbes colonizes the human body to form an ecological community known as the microbiota. Microbiota are made up of bacteria, viruses, fungi, and archaea. These microbes are closely associated with the physiology and function of the human body. The gut microbiota has received tremendous research attention with the recent advance in metagenomic sequencing.  Under normal conditions, the gut microbiota is maintained in homeostasis, yet it is readily affected by various environmental factors, including diet and use of ...