*Note: this is a joint press release from the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) and The Lancet Infectious Diseases.  Please credit both the congress and the journal in your stories* Since September, 2022, bivalent mRNA vaccines – which contain elements from both the original wild type COVID strain and an updated component from the omicron strain – have replaced older style monovalent boosters in the USA, Israel, and other countries. These vaccines were designed to help improve vaccine-induced immunity against the omicron variant and subsequent subvariants. A new study published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases and ...

Adding fuel to The University of Texas at Austin’s startup engine, alumnus William “Billy” Freed, BBA ’81, and his family have given $1 million to the Herb Kelleher Entrepreneurship Center in the McCombs School of Business. The gift establishes the Freed Family Entrepreneurship Excellence Fund and endows the Freed Family Pitch Competition, previously called DisrupTexas. Freed’s wife Cheryl, BA ’82, JD ’84; sons Tyler, BS ’17, and Russell, BBA ’21; and daughter-in-law Leslie Lugrin Freed, BS ’17, ...

How can Marvel movie character Ant-Man produce such strong energy out of his small body? The secret lies in the “transistors” on his suit that amplify weak signals for processing. Transistors that amplify electrical signals in the conventional way lose heat energy and limit the speed of signal transfer, which degrades performance. What if it were possible to overcome such limitation and make a high-performance suit that is light and small but without loss of heat energy?   A POSTECH team of Professor Kyoung-Duck Park and Yeonjeong Koo from the Department of Physics and a team from ...

PITTSBURGH, April 13, 2023 – In a paper published today in Molecular Psychiatry, a team of scientists from the University of Pittsburgh in collaboration with researchers in Italy described shared patterns of sleep disturbances and irregularities in daily rhythms of rest and activity across patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorder, or SSD. By using wrist monitors that measured activity and rest as proxies of wakefulness and sleep, researchers found that individuals with SSD who resided in psychiatric hospitals and those who manage their condition in outpatient settings had erratic sleep patterns, dysregulated transitions between sleep ...

A stop smoking mobile app that senses where and when you might be triggered to light up could help people quit – according to University of East Anglia research. Quit Sense is the world’s first Artificial Intelligence (AI) stop smoking app which detects when people are entering a location they used to smoke in. It then provides support to help manage people’s specific smoking triggers in that location. Funding for the Quit Sense app has come from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and the Medical Research Council. A study published today shows how the new ...

A University of South Australia nursing lecturer has used her own COVID-19 experience to inform research into a little-known side effect of the virus – sudden deafness. Kim Gibson, a registered nurse with a clinical background in neonatal intensive care, has documented her experience with sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL) five weeks after testing positive to COVID-19. She was fully vaccinated. Her findings and recommendations are published in the latest edition of the British Medical Journal Case Reports. Gibson developed acute hearing loss in one ear, along with ...

SINGAPORE, 14 April 2023 – A preclinical study using stem cells to produce progenitor photoreceptor cells—light-detecting cells found in the eye—and then transplanting these into experimental models of damaged retinas has resulted in significant vision recovery. This finding, by scientists at Duke-NUS Medical School, the Singapore Eye Research Institute and the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, marks a first step towards potentially restoring vision in eye diseases characterised by photoreceptor loss. “Our laboratory has developed a novel method that enables the production of photoreceptor ...

In celebration of World Quantum Day (14th April), IOP Publishing (IOPP) is launching a special collection of its most popular, cutting-edge quantum research published in the last two years.   The IOPP quantum collection is openly available for anyone to read and showcases world-class quantum research published in the academic journals Materials for Quantum Technology, Quantum Science and Technology, New Journal of Physics and Reports on Progress in Physics. The special collection will also include unique perspectives from women in quantum and their contributions to this popular field.    Quantum research and technology is evolving ...

Tokyo – April 13, 2023 – Toppan (TYO: 7911), a global leader in communication, security, packaging, décor materials, and electronics solutions, and Hokkaido University have launched the “Comprehensive Dementia Research Unit,” an industry creation section that will collaborate with the Hokkaido University Collaborative Project Center’s Cognitive Science Research Center, which conducts comprehensive research on diagnosis technologies for dementia. Fusing Toppan’s Digital ICA™1 technology for high-sensitivity ...

 The development of biomaterials for artificial organs and tissues is active due to an increase in accidental injuries and chronic diseases, along with the entry into a super-aged society. 3D bioprinting technology, which uses cells and biomaterials to create three-dimensional artificial tissue structures, has recently gained popularity. However, commonly used hydrogel-based bioinks can cause cytotoxicity due to the chemical crosslinking agent and ultraviolet light that connect the molecular structure of photocuring 3D-printed bioink. Dr. Song Soo-chang's research team at ...

To find a fast, efficient way to clear harmful chemicals along the Gulf of Mexico coastline, researchers are turning to something already familiar with the task – several species of the aquatic grasses and rice that feel very much at home in murky coastal waters. The research team led by University of Houston’s Venkatesh Balan, associate professor of biotechnology in the Cullen College of Engineering’s Division of Technology, studies the abilities of these water-loving flora to uptake concentrations ...

HOUSTON – (April 13, 2023) – Body image can have a significant impact on a person’s life, especially in their youth. For those suffering from rib flaring associated with congenital deformations of the chest wall that cause it to jut out or cave in, a team of Rice University engineering students has come up with a potential solution. Pectus carinatum and pectus excavatum are conditions in which a person is born with their breastbone protruding outward or sunken inward, respectively. There ...

Public and private organizations around the world are developing fusion energy devices that could serve as models for fusion power plants. Scientists are striving to duplicate the fusion power that drives the sun and stars as a source of carbon-free energy to generate electricity without contributing to climate change. While fusion plants could help meet global energy demands without emitting greenhouse gases and producing long-lived radioactive waste, they could also have risks — many of which were discussed at a two-day workshop hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory ...

In search of novel tactics to accommodate a larger student body and fulfill workforce demands, nursing schools are developing new approaches to optimize learning, engage learners, and provide methods to ensure competency in future nursing graduates. A recent study by Bethany Cieslowski, associate professor of Nursing, and colleagues found that immersive virtual reality (VR) training has been shown to be as effective as inpatient training for students learning to provide care for acute care pediatric ...

Irvine, Calif., April 13, 2023 — Scientists from the University of California, Irvine, the University of Michigan and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have made a significant contribution to the field of pancreatic cancer research. Their new study presents several crucial themes in the biology of pancreatic cancer that can serve as hallmarks for pancreatic cancer therapy. These themes include genomic alterations, metabolism, the tumor microenvironment, immunotherapy and innovative clinical trial design. The study appears in the journal Cell. (Link to study: https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(23)00142-3) Pancreatic ...

Scientists at four leading Illinois research institutions, three in the Chicago region, are forming a new collaboration to study the effects of drought on urban trees and develop more effective drought response strategies nationwide through a grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The project is being led by researchers at The Morton Arboretum in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory, the University of Chicago and the Illinois State Water Survey at the Prairie Research ...

Ann Arbor, April 13, 2023 – Reducing caloric intake from added sugars is a Leading Health Indicator in Healthy People 2030, a national public health initiative led by the US Department of Health and Human Services that sets data-driven national objectives to improve health and wellbeing over the next decade. Although many Americans consume too much sugar, investigators found that only a modest reduction in added sugars intake is needed to reach a population mean of 11.5% of calories from added sugars by 2030. Prioritizing reducing added sugars intake among people not meeting recommendations could help those most at risk for chronic disease related to added sugars consumption. They report ...

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The current COVID-19 vaccines are designed to trigger an antibody response to the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, which is vulnerable to mutations that could make the vaccine less effective over time. Focusing on the T-cell instead, Penn State researchers partnered with Evaxion Biotech on a study that was the first to demonstrate the effectiveness of an artificial intelligence-generated vaccine in a live viral challenge model. Such a vaccine may provide long-lasting immunity against future emerging variants and could be used as a model for other seasonal viral diseases ...

HOUSTON – (April 13, 2023) – Need a little spring — or buzz — in your step? A wearable electrical-stimulation and vibration-therapy system designed by Rice University engineering students might be just what the doctor ordered for people experiencing foot pain and balance loss due to diabetic neuropathy. Rice engineering students in the StimuSock team — Abby Dowse, Yannie Guo, Andrei Mitrofan, Sarah Park and Kelly Xu — designed a sock with a smart insole that can deliver both transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) and vibration therapy that block pain signals to the brain and ...

Social media connects people and amplifies different aspects of humanity in good and bad ways. But the effects of social media appear neither universally good nor bad, but rather present an oscillating, dynamic system that can be divisive but also uniting, a new University of California, Davis, study suggests. Department of Communication researchers said their findings both in an observational study and simulation speak to the ongoing debate about social media’s contributions to political polarization, misinformation and echo chambers. To conduct their research, ...

Glenview, Illinois – Published monthly, the journal CHEST® features peer-reviewed, cutting-edge original research in chest medicine: Pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine and related disciplines. Journal topics include asthma, chest infections, COPD, critical care, diffuse lung disease, education and clinical practice, pulmonary vascular disease, sleep, thoracic oncology and the humanities. The April issue of the CHEST journal contains 50 articles, including clinically relevant research, reviews, case series, commentary and more. ...

A new clinical RNA sequencing platform at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) is helping to facilitate research into rare genetic conditions and carve a path for Precision Child Health, a movement at SickKids to deliver individualized care for every patient. RNA sequencing provides a different way of looking at the genes, by looking at how the body interprets the genetic code rather than looking directly at the genetic code itself. While DNA-based tests like genome sequencing take a picture of a person’s genetic code, scientists can better understand how the DNA is being read by also looking at RNA, which carries instructions for making ...

(CHAPEL HILL, N.C., April 13, 2023) New research led by the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health shows that bivalent COVID-19 boosters are still providing effective protection from hospitalization and death, even against the most recent omicron subvariants. Published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), researchers found that the bivalent boosters were 67% effective in preventing hospitalization and death in those who had been previously vaccinated or boosted. Effectiveness waned to 48% after four weeks, 44% after 10 weeks and 38% after 20 weeks. Though ...

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) or heart diseases are still the leading cause of death globally. Fortunately, doctors are now equipped with more advanced and sophisticated tools that help them diagnose CVDs. A prominent example is intravascular ultrasound (IVUS), which enables cardiologists to obtain images of the inside of blood vessels using a thin ultrasound probe. These images can then be used to assess problems such as the thickening of arteries caused by fat or plaque buildup. While IVUS is undoubtedly a powerful ...

Hepatitis C and hepatitis B viruses both attack the liver, eventually causing deadly cirrhosis or cancer. But while antivirals can cure 95 percent of HCV infections, its cousin HBV has long eluded effective therapeutics. As a result, nearly 1 million people die from HBV every year. Now researchers from the lab of Rockefeller’s Charles M. Rice—who shared the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for pioneering novel methods to grow and study HCV—have developed an approach for studying HBV in the lab that ...