A Phase I clinical trial led by researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine has demonstrated the long-term safety and feasibility of neural stem cell transplantation for treating chronic spinal cord injuries. These devastating injuries often result in partial or full paralysis and are currently incurable. The study, which followed four patients with chronic spinal cord injuries for five years, found that two patients showed durable evidence of neurological improvement after treatment with neural stem cell implantation, including increased ...

The domestication of plants and animals has played a key role in the development of human societies. And microbes, too, have been tamed: a study by UNIL, published in the journal Nature Communications, shows that the bacteria used to produce Gruyère, Emmental and Sbrinz cheese show signs of ancient domestication. The domestication of livestock and plants marked an important stage in the settlement of human populations in the Neolithic period, as they moved from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to a subsistence model based on animal husbandry and agriculture. Because of the microscopic size and virtual absence of fossils ...

A Perspective summarizes the risks of bypassing natural selection when using assisted reproductive technologies (ART) in humans and livestock. The authors call for dialogue between the fields of assisted reproduction and evolutionary biology. Jonathan P. Evans and Francisco Garcia-Gonzalez detail how techniques used in ART, including in vitro fertilization, artificial insemination, and intracytoplasmic sperm injection, can stress and damage gametes and embryos and lead to deleterious epigenetic changes in offspring. Some ART techniques also bypass a system of filters in the female reproductive tract that select healthy sperm and may lead to better genetic matches with ...

Almost three quarters of adolescents in Australia experience clinically significant depression or anxiety symptoms, with most being chronic, according to a new study. And preventive strategies outside our clinics are urgently required to address this considerable public health problem facing the nation. The research, led by Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) and published in The Lancet Psychiatry, found mental health problems were frequently chronic with 64 per cent reporting symptoms three or more times across their adolescent years.   MCRI Dr Ellie Robson said the rate and ...

A primary output of agriculture is food, an energy source for the human body. But agriculture also requires energy inputs. Kajwan Rasul and colleagues calculated the global energy return on investment for agriculture over time from 1995 to 2019. The authors constructed a model using two existing models, one that captures the energy use of agriculture and food processing and another that captures flows of agricultural commodities. The authors find that the return on energy investment for global agriculture has increased from .68 to .91 over ...

Most major large language models (LLMs) can quickly tell when they are being given a personality test and will tweak their responses to provide more socially desirable results—a finding with implications for any study using LLMs as a stand-in for humans. Aadesh Salecha and colleagues gave LLMs from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and Meta the classic Big 5 personality test, which is a survey that measures Extraversion, Openness to Experience, Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism. Researchers have given ...

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy is a type of cancer immunotherapy where patients’ T-cells are collected and genetically modified to produce chimeric antigen receptors that recognize specific targets on cancer cells, allowing these T-cells to locate and destroy the cancer cells. CAR T-cell therapy shows promising results in treating relapsing or refractory B-cell lymphomas. To explore the risks associated with CAR T-cell therapy, researchers from Juntendo University, Japan, including Professor Jun Ando, Professor Miki Ando, and Dr. Erina Hosoya, published a study in Haematologica on October 17, 2024.   Elaborating about this study further, Dr. Hosoya, ...

After taking the first images of black holes, the ground-breaking Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) is poised to reveal how black holes launch powerful jets into space. Now, a research team led by Anne-Kathrin Baczko from Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden has shown that the EHT will be able to make exciting images of a supermassive black hole and its jets in the galaxy NGC 1052. The measurements, made with interconnected radio telescopes, also confirm strong magnetic fields close to the black hole’s edge.  The main research question for the project’s ...

LOS ANGELES — USC Norris Cancer Hospital was named a Top Teaching Hospital by The Leapfrog Group, a leading national patient safety watchdog organization, for the fourth consecutive year.     “The Leapfrog Top Hospital award is one of the most competitive awards a hospital can receive, and we are delighted that USC Norris Cancer Hospital places among the highest-rated hospitals in the nation once again,” said Marty Sargeant, MBA, CEO of Keck Medical Center of USC, which includes USC Norris Cancer Hospital.     To qualify for the distinction, hospitals must rank top among peers ...

The formation of blood vessels is a complex process involving the interplay of proteins and mechanic forces. In two studies, a research team at the Biozentrum of the University of Basel, Switzerland, has uncovered new mechanisms in blood vessel formation. The team demonstrated how cells interact during vascular lumen formation and the critical role of dynamic forces in this process. These new insights into blood vessel formation may provide potential approaches in the treatment of vascular diseases. Blood vessels run throughout the entire body, delivering nutrients and oxygen through the circulating blood. During vessel formation, cells first form local ...

Gorgonopsians are an extinct group of synapsids that lived during the Permian, between 270 and 250 million years ago. They belong to the evolutionary lineage that would give rise to the first mammals 50 million years later. They were warm-blooded animals like modern mammals, but, unlike most of them, they laid eggs. They were carnivorous and were the first animals to develop the characteristic saber teeth. They were often the superpredators of the ecosystems in which they lived, and their appearance would be similar to a dog, ...

The first true mammals evolved roughly 200 million years ago, during the early days of the dinosaurs. But mammals are the last surviving members of an older group, called the therapsids. At first glance, many therapsids weren’t obviously mammal-like , but they also had subtle features that we recognize in mammals today, like a hole on the sides of their skull for the jaw muscle to attach and structures on their jaw bones that would eventually evolve into mammals' distinctive middle ear bones. In a new paper in the journal Nature Communications, scientists announce the discovery of a fossil therapsid ...

Researchers have used a chemical compound to light up treatment-resistant cancers on imaging scans, in a breakthrough that could help medical professionals better target and treat cancer. The authors at King’s College London say that using the radiotracer – an injected compound used in PET scans – could help inform doctors that a patients aggressive cancer will not respond to chemotherapy before treatment is given. This would prevent the patients receiving unnecessary treatment and provide them with alternative options that will give them the best chance of beating the disease. The ...

Osaka, Japan – From the very moment an egg is fertilized, life begins with a remarkable process: cells start dividing and replicating to make copies of themselves. Yet this process is not flawless. Errors can occur when genetic material is copied, creating “unfit” cells that don’t work properly. To keep development on track, cells employ a fascinating quality control system called cell competition. However, much about this mechanism remains unclear. Now, in a study recently published in Nature ...

Researchers in Japan have demonstrated the high accuracy of their newly developed typhoon observation device, which is designed to drop from an aircraft into the eye of a typhoon. The results were published in the journal Scientific Online Letters on the Atmosphere (SOLA). Dropped from aircraft, the dropsonde, a small, single-use instrument, measures and transmits atmospheric data, including temperature, humidity, and wind speed, as it falls. The new dropsonde, iMDS-17, weighs only 130 grams and is made mainly of a biodegradable ...

The ICOD (Improving Condition in Down syndrome) project, a pioneering study in addressing the cognitive difficulties associated with Down syndrome, has demonstrated the safety of treatment with the molecule AEF0217, developed by the French biotech Aelis Farma, as well as its effectiveness in improving cognitive function in these people. The study was led by the Research Institute of the Hospital del Mar.  This phase of the trial (phase 1/2 of the project), funded by the European Union under the Horizon 2020 R+D programme and Aelis Farma, has been carried out with 29 people with Down syndrome between 18 and ...

Although demand for mental health treatment remains high, administrative and financial barriers are preventing many psychologists from participating in insurance networks, according to the American Psychological Association’s 2024 Practitioner Pulse Survey. Barriers by many insurance companies can make it more difficult for psychologists to remain in-network and for patients to access the care they need, exacerbating the ongoing mental health crisis. This annual survey, which was conducted among 853 psychologists in September 2024, by APA and its companion organization APA Services ...

SAN BERNARDINO, California, USA, 17 December 2024 - In a compelling Genomic Press Interview, Editor-in-Chief Dr. Julio Licinio reveals how a children's book about a lonely color has shaped the innovative vision of scientific publisher Genomic Press. The story of Flicts, penned by renowned Brazilian artist Ziraldo Alves Pinto, has become more than just a brand element – it represents a revolutionary approach to academic publishing. "Sometimes the ideas that don't fit anywhere else are precisely the ones that help us reach the stars," explains Dr. Licinio, highlighting the publisher's mission to support ...

CHARLESTON, South Carolina, USA, 17 December 2024 - In a comprehensive Genomic Press Interview published today in Brain Medicine, renowned neuroscientist Dr. Peter Kalivas reveals crucial insights into how brain circuits drive addictive behaviors and discusses potential new drug targets for treating behavioral disorders. Dr. Kalivas, Distinguished University Professor at the Medical University of South Carolina, has transformed our understanding of addiction neuroscience through his pioneering work on the tetrapartite synapse - a complex cellular structure that includes neurons, astroglia, and the extracellular matrix. His ...

PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania, USA, 17 December 2024 - In a comprehensive Genomic Press Interview, Dr. Munir Gunes Kutlu, Assistant Professor at Temple University's Center for Substance Abuse Research, unveils revolutionary findings about how our brains process fundamental learning calculations and social interactions. "Our research has identified specific neural mechanisms that transform sensory inputs into behavioral outputs," says Dr. Kutlu. "We've discovered that the brain's dopamine system works in more sophisticated ways than previously understood, particularly in how it processes information about environmental cues and rewards." The interview, published ...

ATLANTA, Georgia, USA, 17 December 2024 - In a comprehensive Genomic Press Interview with researchers from Emory University, a new study published today reveals complex attitudes toward psychedelic therapy, with detailed statistics showing both strong support for potential benefits and significant awareness of risks. The research, published in the journal Psychedelics, surveyed 178 attendees at an academic conference focused on psychedelics and spiritual care. Among participants, 32 were active psychedelic ...

Leuven, Belgium, 17 December 2024 – Researchers at Neuro-Electronics Research Flanders (NERF), led by Prof. Vincent Bonin, have published two new studies uncovering how visual information is processed and distributed in the brain. The studies reveal the complexity and flexibility of visual information processing in the brain. The visual cortex, a key region for interpreting and processing visual input, plays a crucial role in shaping what we see. Vincent Bonin, a professor at KU Leuven and group leader at NERF, studies the neural circuits that process sensory information. "We often think of visual processing ...

Nearly a quarter of Portuguese adults have allergies that cause a runny nose. This respiratory disease, formally called allergic rhinitis and frequently associated with asthma, is a common problem around the world, and the upper airway is a key target for research into the underlying disease processes. Now a global team of researchers has discovered that patients with allergy-induced sniffles and asthma have different fungal colonies or mycobiomes in their noses, suggesting potential lines of enquiry for future treatments.   “We showed that allergic rhinitis ...

A new psychological study has shown that when people know they are under surveillance it generates an automatic response of heightened awareness of being watched, with implications for public mental health. In a paper published in the journal Neuroscience of Consciousness psychology researchers from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) worked with 54 participants to examine the effects of surveillance on an essential function of human sensory perception – the ability to detect another person’s gaze. Lead author, Associate Professor of neuroscience and behaviour Kiley Seymour, said previous research has established the effects on conscious behaviour when people know they ...

DECEMBER 2024 TIP SHEET: A behavioral expert offers advice for dealing with loss and holiday grief, a physician-scientist explains using “biological age” as a tool to predict early colorectal cancer risk, a cancer leader receives a prestigious award for mentorship, blood cancer experts share research insights that may eventually lead to a cure for multiple myeloma, a recent study shows genetic mutations accumulate in smokers with MDS, two clinical trials show promise for using an antibody to treat high-risk forms of lymphoma and ongoing research seeks answers for higher breast cancer ...