UCLA researchers have developed an “all-in-one,” next-generation statistical simulator capable of assimilating a wide range of information to generate realistic synthetic data and provide a benchmarking tool for medical and biological researchers who use advanced technologies to study diseases and potential therapies. Specifically, the new computer-modeling – or “in silico” – system can help researchers evaluate and validate computational methods. Single-cell RNA sequencing, called single-cell transcriptomics, is the foundation for analyzing genetic makeup (genome-wide gene ...

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Genomic studies of cancer patients have revealed thousands of mutations linked to tumor development. However, for the vast majority of those mutations, researchers are unsure of how they contribute to cancer because there’s no easy way to study them in animal models. In an advance that could help scientists make a dent in that long list of unexplored mutations, MIT researchers have developed a way to easily engineer specific cancer-linked mutations into mouse models. Using this technique, which ...

[HUNTSVILLE, ALABAMA] May 11, 2023 – HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology, along with several regional collaborators, was awarded $1 million from the US National Science Foundation's Regional Innovation Engines, or NSF Engines, program. They are among the more than 40 unique teams to receive one of the first-ever NSF Engines Development Awards, which aim to help partners collaborate and create economic, societal, and technological opportunities for their regions. The funded project, entitled “Advancing carbon-neutral crop technologies to develop sustainable consumer goods (AL, GA, NC, TN)” (“Greening the Southeast” ...

University of Queensland researchers have used artificial intelligence to build a 3D map of key cell components to better understand dementia and infectious diseases including COVID-19. Professor Brett Collins from UQ’s Institute for Molecular Bioscience and Professor Pete Cullen from the University of Bristol led a team that modelled the 16 subunit Commander complex, a bundle of proteins that act as ‘postal workers’ in cells. “Just as the postal system has processes to transport ...

An algorithm developed using artificial intelligence could soon be used by doctors to diagnose heart attacks with better speed and accuracy than ever before, according to new research from the University of Edinburgh, funded by the British Heart Foundation and the National Institute for Health and Care Research, and published today in Nature Medicine [1]. The effectiveness of the algorithm, named CoDE-ACS [2], was tested on 10,286 patients in six countries around the world. Researchers found that, compared to current testing methods, CoDE-ACS was able to rule ...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE SpaceMarkers, a new machine learning software developed by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Convergence Institute and the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, can identify molecular interactions among distinct types of cells in and around a tumor. SpaceMarkers harnesses the information available through spatial transcriptomics — a cutting edge technology advancing the ability to measure gene expression in tissue samples based on their location in cells. Understanding the molecular profile of individual cells and the impact of intercellular interactions in the tumor microenvironment (cells ...

Obstructive sleep apnea associated with increased risks for long COVID Study suggests adults with both the sleep disorder and COVID may benefit from clinical monitoring   Among people who have had COVID-19, adults with obstructive sleep apnea were more likely to experience long-term symptoms suggestive of long COVID than those without the sleep disorder, according to a large study supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). In fact, multiple analyses of electronic health records (EHR) identified adults with sleep apnea may have up to a 75% higher risk ...

The senses represent our gates to receive information from the environment, but not all of them are always available for everyone, as in the case of blind or deaf people. Researchers know today quite well that the brain has the critical ability to adapt to different sensory experiences and, in some ways, to “compensate” for the lack of one sense or the other. In a recent study, a group of researchers from the IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca (Italy), in collaboration with a group from the University of Ulm (Germany), ...

New lens analysis approach could improve treatments for nearsightedness Instrumentation recreates properties of the myopic eye to test lenses that prevent visual decline WASHINGTON — Researchers have developed new instruments for rigorously quantifying and comparing the light focusing properties of specialized eyeglass lenses that are used to slow the progression of myopia, or nearsightedness. The information gained with this new approach could help inform future lens designs that are even more effective at preventing visual decline. Nearsightedness is on the rise around the globe, especially among children. If current trends continue, ...

The freely available compliance checker will use natural language processing to automatically assess scientific manuscripts for the information in the ARRIVE Essential 10, a checklist of the most important details to include in any publication describing animal research. A major factor influencing the reliability and reproducibility of animal experiments is how transparently they are reported. The ARRIVE guidelines help researchers improve the reporting of animal studies by clearly laying out the information that should be included in a manuscript. Reporting animal experiments in line with the ARRIVE guidelines is a requirement ...

The Louisiana Cancer Research Center (LCRC) is stepping up its statewide efforts to reduce the state’s extraordinarily high cancer rates by enlisting the help of the public and communities.  The LCRC’s newly established Office of Community Outreach and Engagement (OCOE) is convening an all-day “Promising Practices Conference” on Friday, June 2 at Louisiana Tech University and online to highlight the resources and assistance that are available to support better health and wellness throughout Louisiana and strategize on ways to overcome challenges.  There is no charge to attend the conference, which is presented by the LCRC in collaboration with ...

In a recent study, researchers determined that derivatives of natural emulsifiers such as phospholipids found in high-fat, high-cholesterol diets can promote atherosclerosis via gut bacteria interactions with the immune system. This study could pave the way for targeted interventions for individuals who are at risk for developing heart disease. Obesity and a high-cholesterol, high-fat diet are both well-established risk factors for atherosclerosis. In fact, obese individuals are two and a half times more likely to develop heart disease. ...

The common ragweed plant (Ambrosia artemisiifolia) has spread rapidly in Europe and has intensified the pollen season for many allergy sufferers. Now the plant has arrived in Norway. Common ragweed can extend Norway's pollen season into November, but fortunately the species is struggling in this country. “Common ragweed can be found in Norway, but for now it has no stable populations,” says Vanessa Carina Bieker, a postdoc at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology's (NTNU) ...

Proteins tend to fold wrongly and become defective when exposed to stressors such as heat, oxidation, and pH changes. Accumulation of abnormal proteins contributes to neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s. So, how does the human body deal with such misfolded or defective proteins? It regulates protein networks via a process called ‘proteostasis,’ which prevents protein aggregation and any damage that may result from misfolded protein accumulation inside (intracellular) or outside (extracellular) cells. A set of unique proteins—molecular chaperones—play an essential role in proteostasis: they target and interact with misfolded proteins, maintain their solubility, ...

Short-term therapy sessions with parents and their children in homeless shelters could help improve parenting skills and reduce parental stress and children’s post-traumatic stress symptoms, according to a pilot study published by the American Psychological Association. Researchers from Florida International University partnered with Lotus House in Miami, one of the largest women’s homeless shelters in the U.S. The study included 144 families (mother and one child) with children from 18 months to 5 years of age. The research was published online in the Journal ...

Sleep apnea may significantly increase the risk for long COVID in adults, according to a study led by the National Institutes of Health’s RECOVER Initiative and supported by NYU Langone Health as home to the effort’s Clinical Science Core (CSC). As of April 2023, more than 100 million Americans had been infected with the virus that causes COVID-19. As of April the U.S. Government’s Household Pulse survey estimated that about 6 percent of U.S. adults are experiencing symptoms associated with long COVID, including brain fog, fatigue, depression, and sleep problems. ...

HIGHLIGHTS  Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a pathogenic and drug-resistant gram-negative bacterium  The CDC advised against using some artificial tear eye drops that were contaminated with the microbe  In November 2022, doctors in Cleveland diagnosed a patient with a corneal ulcer with a P. aeruginosa infection  The patient acquired the infection from tainted eye drops months before the CDC’s February 2023 warning  Washington, DC – In February 2023, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned people against using EzriCare eye drops because bottles of the product had ...

WHO: Dennis Selkoe, MD, co-director of the Ann Romney Center for Neurologic Diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and corresponding author of the paper in Neuron. Andrew Stern, MD, PhD, of the Ann Romney Center for Neurologic Diseases at BWH and first author of the paper in Neuron WHAT: In a report published in Neuron, a team led by investigators from Brigham and Women’s Hospital reveals the structure of the therapeutic target of lecanemab, a drug approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in January 2023 for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. While the ...

Much of what is now considered modern medicine originated as folk remedies or traditional, Indigenous practices. These customs are still alive today, and they could help address a variety of conditions. Now reporting in ACS Omega, a team of researchers have identified compounds in the leaves of a particular medicinal Labrador tea plant used throughout the First Nations of Nunavik, Canada, and demonstrated that one of them has activity against the parasite responsible for malaria. “Labrador tea” refers to multiple, closely related plants — all members of the genus Rhododendron. ...

Using ESO’s Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA), astronomers have created a vast infrared atlas of five nearby stellar nurseries by piecing together more than one million images. These large mosaics reveal young stars in the making, embedded in thick clouds of dust. Thanks to these observations, astronomers have a unique tool with which to decipher the complex puzzle of stellar birth. “In these images we can detect even the faintest sources of light, like stars far less massive than the Sun, revealing objects that no one has ever seen before,” says Stefan Meingast, an astronomer at the University of Vienna in Austria and lead author ...

Cross Country Healthcare, Inc. (NASDAQ: CCRN), a market-leading, tech-enabled workforce solutions platform and advisory firm, in collaboration with Florida Atlantic University, today announced the results of its annual survey of nursing professionals and students. The study found that although nurses are passionate about doing meaningful work and earning a good income, only one-third of nurses plan to remain in the profession for the foreseeable future, and about one-fourth plan to leave in just one to two years from now. The survey, conducted in collaboration with FAU’s Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing, found ...

How did catalytic organic polymers emerge on prebiotic Earth? Answering this essential question will unlock key understandings in the origin of life. A team of scientists at Tohoku University have recently found a potential environment for the reaction that produced catalytic organic polymers. To do so, they dried down amino acid solutions containing boric acid and found that boric acid catalyzes polypeptide synthesis under neutral and acidic conditions. The longest peptides formed in the experiments were 39 monomer-long glycine polypeptides under a neutral condition. Previous studies ...

Barcelona, Spain – 11 May 2023:  Postmenopausal women with clogged arteries are at higher risk of heart attacks than men of similar age, according to research presented at EACVI 2023, a scientific congress of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC),1 and published in European Heart Journal - Cardiovascular Imaging.2 The study in nearly 25,000 adults used imaging techniques to examine the arteries and followed patients for heart attacks and death. “The study suggests that a given burden of atherosclerosis ...

Osaka, Japan – Ischemic stroke, caused by a blockage of blood flow to the brain, is a common cause of death and disability. Treatments are urgently needed to improve patient outcomes, because recovery currently depends largely on the timely injection of a blood clot-dissolving drug. Priorities for therapy include limiting inflammation at the ischemic site and rebuilding neuronal connections damaged by the stroke. However, a molecule that can achieve these therapeutic effects has remained elusive. In a study to be published in Stroke, researchers from Osaka University provide new hope for patients. They have identified ...

Astronomers have found that supermassive black holes obscured by dust are more likely to grow and release tremendous amounts of energy when they are inside galaxies that are expected to collide with a neighbouring galaxy. The new work, led by researchers from Newcastle University, is published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Galaxies, including our own Milky Way, contain supermassive black holes at their centres. They have masses equivalent to millions, or even billions, times that of our ...