The new biotech venture PHIOGEN is a spin-off company from Baylor College of Medicine’s TAILOR Labs, one of the United States only academic phage therapy cores with a decade’s worth of revolutionary research related to bacteriophages, viruses that infect and destroy bacteria. The company made its debut at the 6th World Conference on Targeting Phage Therapy in Paris, June 1-2, 2023. PHIOGEN’s R&D efforts are led by phage researcher Dr. Anthony ...

Washington, DC—As the world heats up due to climate change, how much can we continue to depend on plants and soils to help alleviate some of our self-inflicted damage by removing carbon pollution from the atmosphere? New work led by Carnegie’s Wu Sun and Anna Michalak tackles this key question by deploying a bold new approach for inferring the temperature sensitivity of ecosystem respiration—which represents one side of the equation balancing carbon dioxide uptake and carbon dioxide output in terrestrial environments. Their findings are published in Nature Ecology & Evolution. “Right now, plants in the terrestrial ...

Giving schools the right resources and training to teach pupils about mental health really can have a positive impact on young people’s wellbeing. New research by Welsh academics has just been published demonstrating the benefits of improving pupils’ mental health literacy and reducing the stigma around mental health issues at a crucial stage in a young person’s life. Most mental health problems start in the teenage years with a recent survey identifying that two in five young people report mental health symptoms. However, due to poor knowledge ...

Healthy cells work hard to maintain the integrity of our DNA, but occasionally, a chromosome can get separated from the others and break apart during cell division. The tiny fragments of DNA then get reassembled in random order in the new cell, sometimes producing cancerous gene mutations.  This chromosomal shattering and rearranging is called “chromothripsis” and occurs in the majority of human cancers, especially cancers of the bones, brain and fatty tissue. Chromothripsis was first ...

It’s not easy to distinguish between the dozens of subtypes of limb girdle muscular dystrophy — a rare, genetic muscle disease characterized by weakness in the hips and shoulders that causes difficulty walking and lifting the arms. Until now, determining the subtype has not been critical in caring for patients, because no specific treatments have been available. But gene therapies are on the horizon, and such therapies are targeted to specific genetic variants, so pinpointing the genetic roots of each patient’s disease has taken on a new importance. In new research, a team at Washington University ...

About The Study: In this retrospective cohort study, large proportions of disparities in time to first tooth decay associated with race and ethnicity were explained by insurance type and dental procedure types among children and adolescents. These findings can be applied to develop targeted strategies to reduce oral health disparities.  Authors: Sung Eun Choi, S.M., Ph.D., of the Harvard School of Dental Medicine in Boston, is the corresponding author.  To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/  (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.18425) Editor’s ...

About The Study: In 2021, it is estimated that 9.6 million people in the U.S. (26% of those with diabetes) had diabetic retinopathy and 1.84 million people (5% of those with diabetes) had vision-threatening diabetic retinopathy. There was marked variation in prevalence across states and the number of people living with diabetes-related eye disease grew substantially since prevalence was last estimated in 2004 and may grow in the coming decades due to the increasing burden of diabetes among youth and adults. Authors: Elizabeth A. Lundeen, Ph.D., of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, is the corresponding author. To access ...

About The Study: In this systematic review and meta-analysis of 15 studies and 1,900 participants, interventions that used wearable activity trackers with patients who are hospitalized were associated with higher physical activity levels, less sedentary behavior, and better physical functioning compared with usual care.   Authors: Carol Maher, Ph.D., of the University of South Australia in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia, is the corresponding author.  To access the embargoed study: ...

As the world faces more climate variability and extremes in the face of global warming, sudden environmental changes add an extra layer of stress to food production in the United States and around the world. It is critical, then, to figure out how the areas in which crops are planted and harvested respond to these stressors, which can bring on ‘shocks’ in production – or, put differently, sudden and statistically significant crop declines.  These production shocks are a big concern in terms of food stability and many crops in the United States—such as corn, cotton, soybeans, and wheat — are all experiencing more frequent production reductions ...

The Geminids meteoroids light up the sky as they race past Earth each winter, producing one of the most intense meteor showers in our night sky. Mysteries surrounding the origin of this meteoroid stream have long fascinated scientists because, while most meteor showers are created when a comet emits a tail of ice and dust, the Geminids stem from an asteroid — a chunk of rock that normally does not produce a tail. Until recently, the Geminids had only been studied from Earth.  Now, Princeton researchers used observations from NASA’s Parker Solar Probe mission to deduce that it was likely a violent, ...

Key Takeaways Banned since 1968, the legacy of redlining persists: There continue to be instances of discrimination affecting people in these historically redlined areas. Redlining was associated with lower odds of hitting screening targets for all three types of cancer: 24% lower odds in breast cancer, 64% lower odds in colorectal, and 79% lower odds in cervical cancer, compared with non-redlined areas. Actionable initiatives to improve cancer screening rates: Questionnaires to determine barriers to cancer screening, mobile cancer screening ...

Glycosaminoglycans (GAGs), including chondroitin sulfate (CS), heparan sulfate (HS), heparin, and hyaluronan are linear and acidic polysaccharides found in the extracellular matrix of all animal tissues. GAGs are widely used as functional ingredients in health products, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics, and are prepared from biological samples such as shark cartilage and porcine intestinal mucosa. Consequently, the demand for new sources of GAGs is ever-present. For example, the supply source of the anticoagulant heparin—generally prepared from porcine intestinal mucosa in China—was threatened by African swine fever in 2018. GAGs derived from marine invertebrates—animals ...

A treatment for a rare cancer-like lung disease found in women of childbearing age may have been discovered by University of Cincinnati researchers. The rare lung disease is called lymphangioleiomyomatosis or LAM, and the cause of it is unknown with no cure established. New UC research, funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, discovered that two existing drugs show signs of being effective in treating LAM and could lead to the development of a cure. The study was published in Science Advances, “The exact number of women with LAM is unknown but it is estimated that for every 1 million women in the world, three to seven ...

Clinical stage generative artificial intelligence (AI)-driven drug discovery company Insilico Medicine (“Insilico”) has announced a new multimodal transformer-based aging clock that is capable of processing diverse data sets and providing insights into biomarkers for aging, mapping them to genes relevant to both aging and disease, and discovering new therapeutic targets designed to slow or reverse both aging and aging-related diseases. The company calls the aging clock Precious1GPT, in a nod to the powerful “One Ring” in Lord of the Rings. The findings were published in the June 13 issue of the journal Aging.  Insilico has been ...

An international group of researchers led by the Department of Pharmacology and Pharmacy, LKS Faculty of Medicine, the University of Hong Kong (HKUMed), and including Douglas P Kiel, MD, MPH, Director Musculoskeletal Research Center, Marcus Institute for Aging Research, Hebrew SeniorLife, and Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, evaluated the secular trends in hip fracture incidence, treatment patterns following a hip fracture, and all-cause mortality in 19 countries and regions from 2005 to 2018. While the age- and sex-standardised hip fracture incidence rates decreased ...

From August 2022 until October 2022, interviews with 25 experts from the selected countries were conducted and then analyzed trough a Ground Theory approach. From this, a model emerged, showing how factors and actors at different societal levels - mega, macro, meso and micro - interact to shape adult learning and education in different contexts. Mega level comparisons show that overarching issues such as war and conflict, historical and systemic discrimination, disease and extreme poverty as well as political authoritarianism act both as an impetus and as barriers to ALE activities. Comparative analysis shows that at the macro level, with ...

Researchers have discovered a mechanism for COVID-19 susceptibility using a newly created tool. The tool, GASPACHO, captures dynamic changes in gene expression along the innate immune response, allowing researchers to identify genes and molecular pathways associated with disease risk that have previously been too complex to detect or interpret.  Using GASPACHO (GAuSsian Processes for Association mapping leveraging Cell HeterOgeneity), researchers at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, the National Center for Child Health and Development in Japan, Tel Aviv University and their collaborators have identified a gene variant that affects COVID-19 susceptibility. ...

NEWPORT NEWS, VA – The U.S. Department of Energy has selected Craig Ferguson to lead the Thomas Jefferson Site Office (TJSO) at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility in Newport News, Va. As TJSO manager, Ferguson will lead in the oversight and contract management of Jefferson Lab. Additionally, Donté Davis has been confirmed as TJSO deputy manager, a role he first stepped into earlier this year. Ferguson is familiar with Jefferson Lab and its mission, having already served in a leadership role at the lab. In 2005-2008, he was the lab’s associate director for environment, safety, health & quality. “I am excited to return ...

Children who receive high-quality child care as babies, toddlers and preschoolers do better in science, technology, engineering and math through high school, and that link is stronger among children from low-income backgrounds, according to research published by the American Psychological Association. “Our results suggest that caregiving quality in early childhood can build a strong foundation for a trajectory of STEM success,” said study author Andres S. Bustamante, PhD, of the University of California Irvine. “Investing in quality child care and early childhood education could help ...

Washington, June 15, 2023—The top 5 percent of teachers most likely to refer students to the principal’s office for disciplinary action do so at such an outsized rate that they effectively double the racial gaps in such referrals, according to new research released today. These gaps are mainly driven by higher numbers of office discipline referrals (ODRs) issued for Black and Hispanic students, compared to White students. The study, published in Educational Researcher, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Educational Research ...

Spanning about one-third of Florida’s East coast, the Indian River Lagoon has faced frequent harmful algal blooms in recent years. Among them, Pseudo-nitzschia spp., algae that produces the neurotoxin domoic acid. Domoic acid can bioaccumulate within food webs, causing sickness and death in higher trophic level organisms such as marine mammals and birds, and have been documented in sea turtles in Florida coastal waters and in bull sharks within the Indian River Lagoon system. In humans, consumption of shellfish contaminated with domoic acid can cause harmful symptoms. Unlike other harmful algal blooms, Pseudo-nitzschia are not bioluminescent and do not cause water discoloration ...

Chronic diseases (NCDs) are a global health epidemic and almost 80% of them occur in low- and middle-income countries. While the WHO have developed policies to combat chronic diseases, research shows that, in certain regions, they are not having the desired effect, leaving fragile health systems increasingly overwhelmed. In order to combat this, thanks to a Horizon Europe grant, Amsterdam UMC is set to lead a global consortium with the aim of developing interventions that work in practice.  Consortium leader and Professor of Global Migration, Ethnicity and Health at Amsterdam UMC, Charles Agyemang notes that, ...

Perfect noncaloric replacements for sugar and high fructose corn syrup just don’t exist yet. For example, some alternatives have a lingering sweet aftertaste and lack a sugar-like mouthfeel, leaving consumers unsatisfied. Now, researchers in ACS’ Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry propose adding blends of nutritionally important mineral salts to make noncaloric sweeteners seem more like the real thing. Taste-testers indicated that these blends gave zero- and low-calorie drinks a better ...

Keeping up with the journeys of wolves and welfare of wild horses has never been easier. With a GPS wildlife tracker powered by an animal's own movements, University of Copenhagen researchers have solved a problem faced by biologists and wildlife managers seeking to track wild animals year after year: dead batteries. The wolf’s comeback in Europe has preoccupied people all across the continent over the last years. Where is it? What is its range? What does it live on? The only way to get solid answers to these questions is through GPS tracking. In ...

Statement Highlights: Nearly 1 in 3 Black adults may develop peripheral artery disease (PAD), compared to about 1 in 5 Hispanic or white adults. If amputation is necessary for treatment, Black, Hispanic and American Indian adults experience lower survival rates and worse quality of life after amputation compared to white adults. Multiple social, economic and health variables contribute to disparities by sex, race and ethnicity in the development, diagnosis and treatment of PAD. Opportunities to address disparities include greater focus on prevention in health care systems, ...