HOUSTON – (Aug. 15, 2023) – Rice University chemists have discovered that tiny gold “seed” particles, a key ingredient in one of the most common nanoparticle recipes, are one and the same as gold buckyballs, 32-atom spherical molecules that are cousins of the carbon buckyballs discovered at Rice in 1985. Carbon buckyballs are hollow 60-atom molecules that were co-discovered and named by the late Rice chemist Richard Smalley. He dubbed them “buckminsterfullerenes” because their atomic structure reminded him of architect Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic domes, and the “fullerene” family has grown to include dozens of hollow ...

HOUSTON – (Aug. 15, 2023) – Bioengineers can tailor the genomes of cells to create “cellular therapies” that fight disease, but they have found it difficult to design specialized activating proteins called transcription factors that can throw the switch on bioengineered genes without occasionally turning on some of the cell’s naturally occurring genes. In a study published online in Cell, bioengineers from Rice University, Boston University, Harvard Medical School, Dartmouth College and Harvard University’s Wyss Institute showed they could all but eliminate such “off-target” gene ...

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 15, 2023 — “Back-to-school” season means buying pens and paper, figuring out the new bus route, and … earaches. Doctors typically treat these infections with antibiotics, but children don’t always complete the full course, accelerating resistance to these medications. Today, researchers report developing a single-use nanoscale system that’s unlikely to generate resistance. Using a compound similar to bleach in test animals, they show it can kill off one type of bacterium that causes ear infections, and it could someday be easily applied as a gel. The researchers will present their results today at the fall meeting of the American Chemical ...

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 15, 2023 — Aloe barbadensis, commonly known as aloe vera, has been used for thousands of years to treat skin ailments, promote digestive health and heal wounds. But while aloe vera gel is in high demand, the peels are thrown away as agricultural waste. Today, scientists report that these peels, or rinds, can ward off bugs, acting as a natural insecticide. They have identified several bioactive compounds in extracts from the peels that deter insects from feasting on crops. The researchers will present their results at the fall meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS). ACS Fall ...

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 15, 2023 — Young vegetables known as microgreens are reputed to be particularly good for health. Now, researchers are trying to find out if microgreens — which can easily be grown at home — are the superfood they’re claimed to be, and how they compare to mature veggies. Results to date show their nutritional profiles differ, as do their effects on gut bacteria. Yet, tests in mice suggest that both microgreen and mature vegetables can limit weight gain. The researchers will present their results today at the fall meeting ...

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 15, 2023 — To explore why prostate cancer disproportionately sickens and kills Black men, researchers are looking to another disorder, diabetes, which alters metabolism. They used this approach in a preliminary clinical trial and today report the identification of four metabolism-related biomarkers linked to an increased risk of metastatic prostate cancer in men of West African heritage. This discovery could lead to improved testing and treatments for these patients. The researchers will present their results at the fall ...

LOS ANGELES — Scientists at City of Hope, one of the largest cancer research and treatment organizations in the United States and a leading research center for diabetes and other life-threatening illnesses, have identified a cell metabolism process found in men with diabetes and metastatic prostate cancer that could one day lead to improved testing and treatments for Black men with these diseases. The research will be highlighted in the press program for the American Chemical Society (ACS) Fall 2023, a hybrid meeting that ...

Mozzarella is far more than just a pizza topping. A unique Italian cheese, buffalo mozzarella from Campania has been recognized as a delicacy and protected under EU law for nearly 30 years. But what makes this mozzarella so special? The ingredients are simple: water buffalo milk, rennet, and natural whey starter, processed using fresh water and brine. But the natural whey starter contains microbes that are crucial to developing the mozzarella. Scientists from Italy used high-throughput 16S rRNA amplicon ...

A team of researchers led by a Virginia Commonwealth University professor found that teachers, regardless of race, perceived the most conflict with Black boys and the least conflict with white girls in their classrooms. Teachers also perceived their relationships with Black boys as increasing in conflict at higher rates than with white and female children across kindergarten through second grade, according to findings published this summer in the Journal of School Psychology. The study analyzed nationally representative survey data from 9,190 participants – teachers who evaluated relationships ...

Researchers have shown that a novel antibody generated to target an 'essential amino acid sequence’ of both interleukin-17A and F has greater activity and potentially fewer side effects than existing biological therapies for conditions such as as rheumatoid arthritis (RA), psoriasis, and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The antibody, called Ab-IPL-IL-17™, targets a specific section of signalling proteins IL-17A and IL-17F which play a central role in sustaining inflammation during onset and ...

University of Alaska Fairbanks scientists have discovered and documented the largest known single dinosaur track site in Alaska. The site, located in Denali National Park and Preserve, has been dubbed “The Coliseum” by researchers. The Coliseum is the size of one-and-a-half football fields and contains layer upon layer of prints preserved in rock. The site is a record of multiple species of dinosaurs over many generations that thrived in what is now Interior Alaska nearly 70 million years ago. The scientists describe the site in a paper recently published ...

It’s an idea that has finally gained scientific consensus: Dogs can be a faster, more precise, less expensive — not to mention friendlier — method of detecting COVID-19 than even our best current technology. A growing number  of studies over the last two or so years has highlighted the power of dogs in detecting the stealthy virus and its variants, even when they are obscured by other viruses, like those from common colds and flu.  “It went from four papers to 29 peer-reviewed studies — that includes more than 400 scientists from over 30 countries and 31,000 samples,” said UC Santa Barbara Distinguished Professor Emeritus Tommy Dickey, who with ...

Bacteria draw from an arsenal of weapons to combat the drugs intended to kill them. Among the most prevalent of these weapons are ribosome-modifying enzymes. These enzymes are growing increasingly common, appearing worldwide in clinical samples in a range of drug-resistant bacteria. Now scientists have captured the first images of one important class of these enzymes in action. The images show how the enzymes latch onto a particular site on the bacterial ribosome and squeeze it like a pair of tweezers to extract an RNA nucleotide and alter it. The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) published the findings, led by scientists at Emory University. The advanced technique ...

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 known as ‘epigenetic silencing.’ By studying how the genes are shut off, we begin to understand how we might turn ...

A collaboration led by UCLA and the Seattle Children’s Research Institute has yielded new knowledge about the genes responsible for the production and release of immunoglobulin G, the most common type of antibody in the human body. The finding has the potential to advance manufacturing of antibody-based therapies for diseases such as cancer and arthritis, as well as the development of medical treatments that rely on the production of antibodies. Antibodies are a group of proteins that are crucial to the immune system. Immunoglobulin G, or IgG, ...

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Follicular helper T cells, or Tfh cells, have a crucial role in immune defense. Without Tfh cells, B cells cannot form germinal center, or GC, responses during which high-affinity antibodies are generated. When naïve CD4-positive CD4+ T cells receive news of an infection elsewhere in the body, they become activated with additional cell-surface markers, and they differentiate in two directions, becoming either PD-1+CXCR5­– or PD-1+CXCR5+ T cells. PD-1 and CXCR5 are ...

AUSTIN ― Today The University of Texas System Board of Regents Chairman Kevin P. Eltife announced plans to launch a monumental healthcare initiative to accelerate and expand UT Austin’s burgeoning medical district into a world-class academic medical center for education, research and patient care. The University of Texas at Austin Medical Center will start with two new hospital towers -- The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and a UT Austin hospital. MD Anderson, the nation’s #1 cancer hospital, ...

Scientists have completed a deep analysis of the proteins driving cancer across multiple tumor types, information that can’t be assessed by genome sequencing alone. Understanding how proteins operate in cancer cells raises the prospect of new therapies that block key proteins that drive cancer growth, or therapies that trigger immune responses to abnormal proteins created by cancer cells. Led by Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Brigham Young University and other institutions around the world, the Clinical Proteomic Tumor Analysis Consortium investigates key proteins driving cancer and how ...

Embargoed for release until 5:00 p.m. ET on Monday 14 August 2023 Annals of Internal Medicine Tip Sheet @Annalsofim Below please find summaries of new articles that will be published in the next issue of Annals of Internal Medicine. The summaries are not intended to substitute for the full articles as a source of information. This information is under strict embargo and by taking it into possession, media representatives are committing to the terms of the embargo not only on their own behalf, but also on behalf ...

Black Americans are 54% more likely to die of cardiovascular disease than White Americans, despite a substantial overall reduction in cardiovascular disease mortality nationwide. Now, a new study from Tulane University published in Annals of Internal Medicine has found that this racial disparity can be attributed to social factors such as unemployment, low income, and lack of a partner rather than known factors such as hypertension and obesity.  “For so many years we have focused on smoking, diet, physical ...

In 2020, 771 million people worldwide still lacked access to clean drinking water, according to UNICEF and the World Health Organization. For this reason, many nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) prioritize building new water projects, including handpumps and small piped systems, to bring clean water to rural areas of developing countries. Alfonso Pedraza-Martinez New research from Alfonso Pedraza-Martinez, the Greg and Patty Fox Collegiate Professor of IT, Analytics and Operations in the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business, examines the critical problem of drinking ...

A federally funded study, led by University of Cincinnati researcher Nalinikanth Kotagiri, looks to develop a new imaging method that can identify certain types of lung infections — in real time — in order to speed up treatment for critically ill patients.  Kotagiri, an associate professor of pharmaceutical sciences at the UC James L. Winkle College of Pharmacy, has been awarded a five-year $3 million, R01 grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) to develop and study the effectiveness of different kinds of injectable probes (metallic contrast agents) that would collect at the site of the infection and immediately light up under a nuclear ...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The whaling industry helped drive industrialization in the 19th century, with whale oil used to light lamps and lubricate machinery. Even after petroleum replaced whale oil as an energy source in the U.S., whaling continued to be part of our cultural imagination and helped develop the idea of an energy industry, said University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign English professor Jamie L. Jones. Her new book, “Rendered Obsolete: The Afterlife of U.S. Whaling in the Petroleum Age,” examines the influence of a dying industry during the massive energy transition from the organic fuel sources of the 19th century, including whale oil and wood, to the extraction of fossil ...

Only about 10 percent of patients survive as long as five years after a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer.  “Pancreatic cancer is very hard to treat,” said Irving Coy Allen, professor of inflammatory diseases in the Department of Biomedical Sciences and Pathology at the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine. “It's one of the top five deadliest cancers in the U.S. And it's deadly because by the time you find out that you have a tumor, it's usually metastasized. You can usually treat the local tumor, but how do you treat the metastatic lesions?” The National Institutes of Health has awarded $2.6 million to a Virginia Tech team ...

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, ...