Researchers who lead the world’s first comprehensive sequencing program for newborn infants have published the next chapter in the ongoing study of the BabySeq Project, with new findings on infants and families who have been followed for 3-5 years. In a study published today in the American Journal of Human Genetics, researchers from Mass General Brigham and Boston Children’s Hospital reported that over 10 percent of the first 159 infants to undergo screening through DNA sequencing were discovered ...

DURHAM, N.C. – Tirzepatide, a drug approved for diabetes and on the fast track for approval as a weight loss therapy, works through a unique ability to activate two different mechanisms the body uses to control insulin secretion and energy balance, Duke Health researchers report.   The finding, reported June 5 in the journal Nature Metabolism, is the first study to use cells from human donors to demonstrate how tirzepatide stimulates insulin secretion, an important action utilized by this drug to lower blood glucose in patients with type 2 diabetes.    “Understanding the potential of drugs ...

CHICAGO – Patients with early relapsed or refractory large B-cell lymphoma had significantly improved overall survival when treated with the chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy axicabtagene ciloleucel (axi-cel) when compared to the current standard-of-care chemoimmunotherapy, according to results of the Phase III ZUMA-7 trial reported by researchers from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Data from the study were presented today by Jason Westin, M.D., director of clinical research in the Department of Lymphoma and Myeloma, at the 2023 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting and published concurrently in ...

Women have long searched for remedies for the bothersome hot flashes that often come with menopause.  In a novel investigation, researchers at UC San Francisco tested the benefits of continuously wearing a nitroglycerin patch – an established treatment for chest pain from coronary artery disease – for menopausal women experiencing at least seven hot flashes a day. Unlike most treatments for hot flashes that target brain mechanisms, nitroglycerin works on blood vessels throughout the body.  The results were mixed. While ...

The assembly of the volant bird body plan from the ancestral bulky dinosaurian condition is an enduring topic of evolutionary biology. The body plan of volant birds demonstrates a pronounced decrease in body size and proportionate elongation of the forelimbs. Given the scaling relationship between limb and body size, changes to the former were likely clouded by changes to the entire body size. Since changes to individual limb elements provides the direct basis for natural selection, they are essential to comprehending branch- and lineage-specific evolutionary patterns across the transition from terrestrial to ...

How do today’s indigenous communities of South America trace back to the history of human migration and contact in the continent? An international team has worked to reconstruct the legacy of Chile’s largest indigenous community, the Mapuche, in a quest to strengthen their representation in the history of the continent. It appears the Mapuche long lived in relative isolation but do bear some influences from other populations of the Central Andes and the far south of Chile. South America was the last continent ...

LA JOLLA, CALIF. – June 5, 2023 – Researchers at Sanford Burnham Prebys, collaborating with scientists from Eli Lilly and Company, have revealed the structure and function of a drug called LY3361237, which can reduce the harmful activity of the immune system to help treat autoimmune diseases. Their work laid the foundation for a new treatment that’s currently in a Phase 2 clinical trial for lupus, an autoimmune disease affecting multiple organs in the body. The study is published in Structure, a Cell Press journal. The ...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Johns Hopkins scientists have developed a method involving artificial intelligence to visualize and track changes in the strength of synapses — the connection points through which nerve cells in the brain communicate — in live animals. The technique, described in Nature Methods, should lead, the scientists say, to a better understanding of how such connections in human brains change with learning, aging, injury and disease. “If you want to learn more about how an orchestra plays, you have to watch individual players over time, and this ...

Two new discoveries from the Dudley lab at UVA Cancer Center highlight the different roles of blood vessels in solid tumors  – and the findings could help prevent breast cancer from spreading and enhance the effectiveness of one of the most important new cancer treatments in many years. In one new scientific paper, researcher Andrew C. Dudley, PhD, and his team report that the effectiveness of immunotherapy drugs called immune check blockade is enhanced when blood vessels are targeted in a specific way. (Immunotherapy enhances the power of the immune system to fight cancer and other diseases.) In another paper, published ...

Awash in a rowed sea of its brethren, a corn leaf relegated to the lowest rung of its stem spends much of a June afternoon doused in shade cast by the higher-ups. Then a gust begins pushing, pulling and twisting the waxy wings in concert, cracking a window to the fireball roiling 93 million miles away. It’s a prime, precious opportunity for photosynthesis to transform the sunlight into food. Unfortunately, the photosynthetic equivalent of a surge protector — one evolved to help plants mitigate damage driven by sudden spikes of high-intensity light — is slow to reset after so much time in the shade. The gust dissipates, the moment ...

Moving towards a more inclusive approach to medicine Release of pangenome representing wide diversity of individuals ushers in new understanding of human biology and disease The first human genome, which has served as the reference until now, was released approximately 20 years ago. It was a landmark accomplishment that had a huge impact on biomedical research and changed the way scientists study human biology. But it was based on just a few individuals and did not capture the full genetic diversity of the human population. An important step forward for both biology and biomedical research “Since ...

SAN ANTONIO — June 5, 2023 —Southwest Research Institute is expanding its flow meter research in collaboration with NYSEARCH, a nonprofit research and development organization for the gas industry, to address the impact of introducing hydrogen and natural gas blends into the residential and commercial energy mix. In the second phase of the program, SwRI will expand its research in measuring the energy content of blended gas to determine the accuracy of current flow meter technology for monitoring usage in homes. Natural gas is widely used to power appliances and heat ...

Researchers from Queen Mary University of London analysed 2.6 million posts on popular social media network Nextdoor and accurately predicted individuals’ income by solely examining the posts they’ve published. Striking differences in the content shared by people who live in wealthier versus poorer neighbourhoods has led researchers to believe that our general online posting activity, beyond Nextdoor, can reveal our socioeconomic status, making user profiling possible. Knowing users’ income could allow social media platforms to recommend income-based content, and advertisers and online shops can target people based on their ...

ABSTRACTS: 3121, 4504, LBA4619 CHICAGO ― Three clinical trials led by researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center demonstrated positive results from the targeted therapy erdafitinib for patients with multiple tumor types harboring FGFR alterations. The data are being presented at the 2023 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting. Erdafitinib is an oral medication that blocks the activity of FGFR signaling proteins, which are important for a variety of normal cellular processes. However, FGFR genetic alterations can drive the development of many ...

Bipolar disorder (BD) is a major psychiatric condition that afflicts about 1% of people. Symptoms of BD include sudden onset of depressive mood with loss of interest which alternates with a manic state of hyperactivity. The suffering of the patients and societal cost of this disorder requires the use of continued therapeutic management. Current medications—although vital for patients with BD—are not perfect solutions, given their potential side-effects and treatment resistance. This necessitates ...

In the race to develop fusion energy, each unique approach requires its own specialized techniques to determine net energy gain, an equation balancing energy in and out that’s known by the letter Q. A new paper, published today in the journal Fusion Science and Technology, establishes the company’s method of measuring and calculating Q in Zap’s sheared-flow-stabilized Z-pinch fusion plasmas. The publication will be an important part of Zap demonstrating energy gain on the way to building a commercial fusion ...

Children who struggle with attention and behavior problems tend to end up earning less money, finish fewer years of school and have poorer mental and physical health as adults, compared with children who don’t show early attention and behavior problems, according to research published by the American Psychological Association. Children who struggle with attention are particularly likely to have lower levels of educational attainment as adults, while those who struggle with impulsivity are more likely to end up in trouble with the law, the research found. “Our study found broad support ...

Genes that make bacteria resistant to antibiotics are much more widespread in our environment than was previously realised. A new study, from Chalmers University of Technology and the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, shows that bacteria in almost all environments carry resistance genes, with a risk of them spreading and aggravating the problem of bacterial infections that are untreatable with antibiotics. “We have identified new resistance genes in places where they have remained undetected until now. These genes can constitute an overlooked threat to human health,” says Erik Kristiansson, a professor in the Department ...

The latest data from the nationwide INSPIRE study assessing the long-term symptoms and outcomes of the COVID-19 virus in nearly 6000 participants identifies four clinically distinct symptom presentations (phenotypes),adding to the growing body evidence that Long COVID is not singular condition but rather a range of conditions that may evolve, and typically improve, over time. Lead author Michael Gottlieb, MD, says this better understanding of the clinically distinct manner that patients experience post-COVID -19 complications ...

People with higher risks of cardiovascular disease are significantly more likely to develop carpal tunnel syndrome, tennis elbow, golfer’s elbow, and rotator cuff tendinitis, according to a new study involving researchers at the University of Utah and the Rocky Mountain Center for Occupational and Environmental Health. The findings of the study, published June 2 in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, have implications for the prevention and treatment of these common musculoskeletal disorders, which affect ...

Artificial intelligence has entered our daily lives. First, it was ChatGPT. Now, it’s AI-generated pizza and beer commercials. While we can’t trust AI to be perfect, it turns out that sometimes we can’t trust ourselves with AI either. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) Assistant Professor Peter Koo has found that scientists using popular computational tools to interpret AI predictions are picking up too much “noise,” or extra information, when analyzing DNA. And he’s found a way to fix this. Now, with just a couple new lines of code, scientists can get ...

In a new study of trastuzumab deruxtecan, a HER2-targeted antibody drug conjugate, researchers observed encouraging responses and long-lasting clinical benefit in several tumor types. These data from an interim analysis of the Phase II DESTINY-PanTumor02 study, led by The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, were presented today at the 2023 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting.  The treatment achieved an objective response rate (ORR) of 61.3% with a median duration of response (DOR) of 22.1 months in patients with the highest levels of HER2 expression. Across ...

Research Highlights: A study of more than 100,000 women, ages 45 and older, taking oral estrogen hormone therapy for menopause, has found that estrogen ingested in pill form may be associated with an increased risk of high blood pressure compared to transdermal and vaginal estrogen. Oral estrogen was associated with a 14% higher risk of high blood pressure compared to transdermal estrogen creams and a 19% greater risk of high blood pressure compared to vaginal estrogen creams or suppositories. Non-oral estradiol (a specific form of estrogen) at the lowest dose and for the shortest period of time was associated with the lowest risk of developing high blood ...

Media Release   Embargoed by The Journals of Gerontology, Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences until Monday, June 5 at 5 a.m. GMT (1 a.m. EDT)   Disadvantaged neighbourhoods and depression symptoms associated with premature aging   Hamilton, ON (June 5, 2023) - Feeling depressed and living in a deprived urban neighbourhood could be making you age faster, according to a new study led by researchers at McMaster University.   The findings, published June 5 in The Journals of Gerontology, Series ...

Marking a milestone in its role as a leading open access (OA) book publisher, Taylor & Francis has announced Technology and Sustainable Development: The Promise and Pitfalls of Techno-Solutionism as its 1,500th OA book. Reflecting the crucial role for open access in making relevant research available to readers outside of academia, Technology and Sustainable Development focuses on many of the practical challenges facing our governments and societies today. The potential of technology to both solve and exacerbate pressing global issues, including ...