NEW YORK – November 11, 2024 – The Cardiovascular Research Foundation® (CRF®) proudly announces the appointment of Dr. Jeffrey Popma as Chief Scientific and Strategic Officer. A world-renowned leader in cardiovascular research, Dr. Popma will drive forward pivotal programs and initiatives that will shape CRF’s future and fuel innovation at the CRF® Clinical Trials Center (CTC). His leadership will be instrumental in the development of the recently launched Real-World Data and Outcomes Center, advancing CRF’s commitment to impactful ...

Larry Seiber, an R&D staff member in the Vehicle Power Electronics group at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has been elevated to senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, or IEEE.  Senior member status requires extensive experience that reflects professional accomplishments. Only 10% of IEEE’s more than 450,000 members achieve this level.  Seiber has conducted decades of cutting-edge research in power electronics and electric machinery. He developed the hardware ...

People inherit two copies of each gene — one from each parent — an evolutionary fail-safe to ensure survival even when one of them doesn’t function. For cancer-suppressor genes like BRCA1, researchers have long hypothesized that a single healthy copy could still guard against tumor development. Yet women with one harmful BRCA1 mutation are far more likely to develop breast cancer — a risk traditionally explained by a second mutation that arises later in life, damages the healthy copy of the gene, ...

AMES, Iowa – In their long strings of nucleotides, DNA molecules hold massive troves of genetic data providing instructions for how living organisms should function – the blueprint of life. How the blueprint is stored, however, impacts how it is read and used. As cells divide and replicate, DNA strands coiled around proteins – chromatin – are in tightly bundled chromosomes. After division, the chromosomes loosen and chromatin is less compact. How and where the chromatin fiber folds and ...

Adolescents who meet the recommended guidelines of nine to 11 hours of sleep per day were shown to have a significantly lower risk of hypertension, according to a new study from UTHealth Houston.   Recently published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, the research revealed that adolescents had a 37% lower risk of developing incidents of high blood pressure by meeting healthy sleep patterns, and underscoring the importance of adequate sleep behavior. The research further explored the ...

How would you summarize your study for a lay audience?  T helper (TH) cells are essential immune cells that help other immune cells function effectively. When activated in response to environmental stimuli, these cells can differentiate into either TH1 cells, which fight against viruses and intracellular pathogens, or TH2 cells, which fight against extracellular pathogens like bacteria and parasites. However, scientists haven’t fully understood whether infected tissue itself has any role in directing the optimal T cell differentiation in response ...

Current guidelines recommend that pregnant people receive a vaccine against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV)—which typically causes mild, cold-like symptoms in most adults but can be deadly for infants—during weeks 32–36 of pregnancy. New research led by investigators at Mass General Brigham suggests that vaccination earlier in that timeframe, closer to 32 weeks, could provide the best protection for newborns against RSV. The findings are published in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology. “Receiving ...

Surfers could be protected from future shark attacks following new discoveries about how to trick sharks’ visual systems made by Professor Nathan Hart, head of Macquarie University’s Neurobiology Lab, Dr Laura Ryan and colleagues. Hart, Ryan and their co-authors of a new paper in Current Biology titled Counterillumination reduces bites by Great White Sharks say their work “may form the basis of new non-invasive shark deterrent technology to protect human life”. These researchers previously discovered that great whites place a high reliance ...

Embargoed for release until 5:00 p.m. ET on Monday 11 November 2024     @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 ...

LOS ANGELES — Alcohol use increased during the COVID-19 pandemic and remained elevated even after the pandemic ended, according to a large nationally representative Keck Medicine of USC study published today in the Annals of Internal Medicine.   From pre-pandemic (2018) to the height of the pandemic (2020), heavy alcohol use among Americans rose by 20%, and any alcohol use rose by 4%. In 2022, the increases were sustained.   The rise in drinking was seen across all age groups, genders, race, ethnicities and regions of the country, except for Native Americans and Asian Americans. Adults ...

Mechanical engineering PhD candidate Arman Tekinalp, fellow graduate student Seung Hyun Kim, Professor Prashant Mehta, and Associate Professor Mattia Gazzola, all from the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS). Their interdisciplinary collaboration also included Assistant Professor Noel Naughton (formerly a Beckman fellow) from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Virginia Tech alongside researchers from the Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology at Illinois ...

Microplastics, plastics smaller than 5 millimeters, are littered across the world, contributing to global warming, disrupting food chains, and harming ecosystems with toxic chemicals. This is why Dr. Manish Shetty is working to break down plastics before they can get into the environment.   Creating sustainable chemicals and developing better waste management will contribute to better sustainability. This research is part of figuring out how to make green hydrogen available for waste management using catalysts. Shetty’s research uses solvents in low amounts that also act as hydrogen sources to break down a specific class of plastics called ...

(MEMPHIS, Tenn. – November 11, 2024) There are processes in the human body that can suppress the growth and proliferation of cancer cells. These mechanisms, including those involving the tumor suppressor protein p53, are widely studied due to their critical role in disease. Through studies of proteins that regulate p53, scientists at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital have uncoupled a previously unrecognized tumor suppression mechanism. Usually found at low levels in cells, the p14 Alternative Reading Frame protein (p14ARF) is expressed at higher levels under oncogenic stress and activates ...

Baton Rouge, November 4, 2024 – Novel research just published in the American Ornithological Society journal, Ornithological Applications, has revealed noteworthy insights into how Barred Owls (Strix varia) interact with urban environments, with implications for both wildlife conservation and urban planning. This study, conducted by a team of biologists from Louisiana State University and other institutions, highlights the connection between owl habitat selection and an urban landscape, underscoring the ...

Habitat loss and poaching have driven dramatic declines in African elephants, but it is challenging to measure their numbers and monitor changes across the entire continent. A new study has analyzed 53 years of population survey data and found large-scale declines in most populations of both species of African elephants.  From 1964-2016, forest elephant populations decreased on average by 90%, and savanna elephant populations fell on average by 70%. In combination, populations declined by 77% on average. The study compiled survey data from 475 sites in 37 countries, making it the most comprehensive assessment of African elephants to date.  Declines ...

EMBARGOED: Until 3 p.m. ET on Monday, Nov. 11, 2024 Contacts:  Laura Snider, NSF NCAR and UCAR Manager of Science Communications lsnider@ucar.edu  303-827-1502 David Hosansky, NSF NCAR and UCAR Manager of Media Relations hosansky@ucar.edu  720-470-2073 Like the Earth, the Sun likely has swirling polar vortices, according to new research led by the U.S. National Science Foundation National Center for Atmospheric Research (NSF NCAR). But unlike on Earth, the formation and evolution of these vortices ...

RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- In drug discovery, targeted protein degradation is a method that selectively eliminates disease-causing proteins. A University of California, Riverside team of scientists has used a novel approach to identify protein degraders that target Pin1, a protein involved in pancreatic cancer development.  The team reports today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that it has designed agents that not only bind tightly to Pin1 but are designed to cause its destabilization and cellular ...

Prolonged mental fatigue can wear down brain areas crucial for the individual ability to self-control, and cause people to behave more aggressively.  In a new multidisciplinary study published in the PNAS, a group of researchers from neuroscience and economics at the IMT School of Advanced Studies Lucca links the debated concept of "ego depletion", that is to say the diminution of willpower caused by previous exploitation of it, to physical changes in the areas that govern executive functions in the brain. In particular, the ...

Geologists have uncovered strong evidence from Colorado that massive glaciers covered Earth down to the equator hundreds of millions of years ago, transforming the planet into an icicle floating in space.  The study, led by the University of Colorado Boulder, is a coup for proponents of a long-standing theory known as Snowball Earth. It posits that from about 720 to 635 million years ago, and for reasons that are still unclear, a runaway chain of events radically altered the planet’s climate. Temperatures plummeted, and ice sheets that may have been several miles thick crept over every inch of Earth’s surface. “This study presents the first physical evidence ...

Ahead of COP29, Applied Microbiology International (AMI) has partnered with leading global scientific organisations to issue a unified call to action, spotlighting microbial solutions as pivotal in combating climate change. In a strategic publication, released in multiple high-impact scientific journals at once, the joint paper advocates for the establishment of a global science-driven climate task force.  This initiative aims to expedite the deployment of microbiome technologies, providing stakeholders worldwide with access to effective and immediate solutions. Signatories of the paper, ‘Microbial solutions must be deployed against the climate catastrophe’ ...

NEW ORLEANS – The Ochsner Transplant Institute served as one of 26 U.S. transplant centers collaborating in an HIV-to-HIV kidney transplant study published by The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). The article, Safety of Kidney Transplantation from Donors with HIV, details findings supporting HIV-to-HIV kidney transplants as safe and just as effective as those using organs from donors without HIV.  Human immunodeficiency virus, commonly known as HIV, attacks cells in the body that fight infection and there is currently no known cure. In the U.S.,1.2 million people are living with HIV. According to the National ...

Washington, D.C. — Nov. 11, 2024 — Today, leaders from scientific societies, institutions and publishing bodies issued an urgent call for the global community and governments to take immediate and decisive emergency climate action. This appeal is made through an editorial published in mSystems, released on the opening day of the 2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29). Key contributors to this initiative include Virginia Miller, past president of the American Society for Microbiology (ASM); Jack Gilbert, Editor-in-Chief of mSystems; and Jay Lennon, ...

Researchers at Uppsala University and KTH Royal Institute of Technology have developed a new form of precision medicine, an antibody, with the potential to treat several types of cancer. Researchers have managed to combine three different functions in the antibody, which together strongly amplify the effect of T cells on the cancer tumour. The study has been published in Nature Communications. Researchers have developed a unique type of antibody that both targets and delivers a drug package via the antibody itself, while simultaneously activating the immune system (“3-in-1 design”) for personalised immunotherapy treatments. “We ...

Climate change events have, in recent years, placed increasing strain on public electrical grids in the United States. In response to this vulnerability, some consumers are turning to private alternatives to the electric utility, like generators and batteries. A new paper in the Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists studies who adopts these private alternatives and how adoption responds to grid failures. The paper also studies how public electric grid reliability may change due to this proliferation and how these changes will affect the wellbeing of all households. In ...

November 11, 2024 — All aspects of religiosity, spirituality, and meaning-making (R/S/M) relate to suicidality in people with a psychiatric diagnosis or a recent suicide attempt, according to a systematic review and meta-analysis published in Harvard Review of Psychiatry, part of the Lippincott portfolio from Wolters Kluwer. "Protective dimensions seemed to exert relatively stable effects across different religions and life views," Bart van den Brink, MD, PhD, of the Department of ...