DALLAS, May 4, 2023 — A recent study revealed that, in the United States, Black and Latinx entrepreneurs receive only 2.6% of venture capital investment. [1]  The American Heart Association®, the world’s leading nonprofit organization focused on longer, healthier lives for all, has opened the application window for submissions to the EmPOWERED to Serve Business Accelerator™. The Accelerator program has been established to support local communities, small businesses, social entrepreneurs and innovators who are working to increase health equity and create groundbreaking social change at the zip code level. Now in its seventh year, the Business ...

In Florida alone, thousands of acres of marine seagrass beds have died. Major seagrass die-offs also are occurring around the world. Stressors such as high temperature, hypersalinity and hypoxia or lack of oxygen affect seagrasses’ ability to resist and recover from these stressor-related mortality events or when disturbances lead to seagrass die-off events. Seagrass die-offs also are linked to exposure to sediment-derived hydrogen sulfide, a well-known phytotoxin that accumulates as seagrass ecosystems become more enriched in nutrients. While hydrogen sulfide intrusion into seagrass tissue is considered a leading cause of recurring mortality ...

In 2019, scientists in the joint School of Engineering and School of Life Sciences Laboratory of Protein Design and Immunoengineering (LPDI) led by Bruno Correia developed MaSIF: a machine learning-driven method for scanning millions of protein surfaces within minutes to analyze their structure and functional properties. The researchers’ ultimate goal was to computationally design protein interactions by finding optimal matches between molecules based on their surface chemical and geometric ‘fingerprints’. Four years later, they have achieved ...

Genome editing is used to modify the genes of living organisms to elicit certain traits, such as climate-resilient crops or treating human disease at the genetic level. It has become increasingly popular in agriculture, medicine and basic science research over the past decade, and will continue to be relevant and utilized well into the future. Given this prevalence, researchers at the University of California San Diego have started an outreach program that introduces genome-editing technologies to high school students. Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Alexis Komor, and Ph.D. candidates Mallory ...

DALLAS, May 4, 2023 — Teams of research scientists from three universities will lead an innovative $15 million project to study the biological mechanisms of chronic stress that can increase cardiovascular disease risk. The Strategically Focused Research Network (SFRN) on Biologic Pathways of Chronic Psychosocial Stressors on Cardiovascular Health of the American Heart Association, the world’s leading voluntary organization dedicated to a world of longer, healthier lives, will focus on learning more about how the body responds to chronic stress, as well as how certain interventions may help reduce health risks. Chronic stress is recognized as an independent ...

The study led by Professor Julie Henry from UQ’s School of Psychology looked at why self-directed ageism is common. Cognitive changes make it difficult for older people to challenge internalised ageist beliefs. Image: Adobe. “Older people are regularly exposed to ageism such as negative assumptions about their worth, capacity or level of understanding, as well as jokes about older age,” Professor Henry said. “At the same time, as we grow older, we rely more strongly on prior knowledge and cues from our environment to guide how we feel, think and ...

Every year 18 million people die from cardiovascular disease. Making it the deadliest disease in the world. Currently studies focus mainly on the heart, leaving the influence of vascular disease on these large numbers of deaths often out of sight. Despite vascular disorders being a trustworthy indicator for death from heart disease.  VASCUL-AID, a large European study led by Amsterdam UMC, will therefore focus on using AI to predict the worsening of vascular disease in people with an aortic aneurysm or peripheral ...

Similar to humans, chimpanzees combine vocalizations into larger communicatively meaningful structures. UZH researchers suggest that this ability might be evolutionarily more ancient than previously thought. A key feature of human language is our ability to combine words into larger compositional phrases i.e. where the meaning of the whole is related to the meaning of the parts. Where this ability came from or how it evolved, however, is less clear. Chimpanzees, our closest-living relative, are known to produce a number of different vocalizations to manage their ...

Research Highlights: Using ultrasound guidance, researchers successfully repaired a potentially deadly vascular malformation, called vein of Galen malformation, deep in the brain of a fetus before birth. The malformation, which has massively high blood flow, often leads to heart failure, severe brain injury or possibly death soon after birth. The first in-utero embolization repair was successfully performed on a fetus at 34 weeks and 2 days gestational age. Fetal ultrasound showed an immediate drop in abnormal blood flow through the ...

In a first, a team from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Boston Children’s Hospital successfully treated an aggressive vascular malformation in an infant’s brain before birth, avoiding potentially fatal symptoms after delivery. Collaborating researchers and clinicians from Boston Children’s Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital have prevented a deadly developmental condition by treating an aggressive vascular malformation in an infant’s brain before birth. The case, which is the first-ever, in-utero cerebrovascular surgery in the United States, ...

A new study, published in IOP Publishing’s journal Environmental Research: Health, reveals that Indigenous people in the Amazon Basin are twice as likely to die prematurely from smoke exposure due to wildfires than the broader South American population. Regions in Peru, Bolivia and Brazil are identified as particular hotspots for smoke exposure, with mortality rates rising to as high as 6 times that of the general population.  The results show that smoke from wildfires in South America account for approximately 12,000 premature deaths every year from 2014 to 2019, with ...

PISCATAWAY, NJ—Getting many adolescents and young adults to stop using e-cigarettes may be as simple as doing away with flavored versions of the product, according to new research in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs. This study suggests that a large majority of current users may discontinue their use if the product became available in the tobacco version only.  “The restriction of the availability for certain e-cigarette e-liquid flavors has been considered by various regulatory ...

Chelsea Kross, a University of Arkansas alumna in biological sciences, earned a 2023 BioOne Ambassador award for her submission “Not all frogs can make it in the city: Using the landscape for targeted conservation,” which summarized research done while working toward her Ph.D. The award recognizes early career researchers in biological, ecological and environmental sciences who demonstrate creative approaches to science communication. “Communicating complex research is critically important to fostering public understanding and support for the sciences,” said Lauren Kane, president and CEO of BioOne. “The 2023 BioOne ...

East Hanover, NJ. May 3, 2023 – Results of a pilot study funded by Kessler Foundation showed that remote aerobic walking exercise training is a feasible and highly promising method for improving cognitive processing speed impairment in fully ambulatory persons with multiple sclerosis (MS). The findings of this single-blind randomized control trial support the design of a randomized, controlled trial in large sample of persons with MS The study, titled "Feasibility of Remotely Delivered and Supported Aerobic Walking Exercise Training for Cognitive Processing Speed Impairment in Fully Ambulatory Persons with Multiple Sclerosis," (doi: ...

Genetic testing for hereditary cancers, such as breast, colon, pancreatic, and ovarian cancer, helps at-risk individuals understand their familial risk for these diseases and make informed decisions about next steps in care. But fewer than 20 percent of at-risk patients utilize this testing, and even fewer engage in genetic counseling after referral, often due to clinical workflow challenges or barriers to care. Amid national efforts to increase access to genetic testing, a new study led by a Boston University School of Public Health researcher has identified a streamlined approach in clinical settings that may help advance ...

Physical and sexual abuse in childhood and adolescence could be associated with a greater risk of adult premature death (before age 70), finds research published by The BMJ today. This study extends and refines the existing evidence in this area, and highlights the importance of providing trauma informed care for those who have experienced child abuse, say the researchers. Early life abuse is a global public health issue because it substantially contributes to child death and a range of long term consequences during adulthood. However, the association of childhood or adolescent abuse with total and cause specific premature death during adulthood ...

A Swedish study of nearly 3 million women published by The BMJ today finds no evidence of an increased risk of menstrual changes after covid-19 vaccination. Weak and inconsistent associations were found between covid-19 vaccination and contact with healthcare for postmenopausal bleeding and were even less consistent for menstrual disturbance and premenstrual bleeding. These findings do not provide any substantial support for a causal association between covid-19 vaccination and diagnoses related to ...

The Telehealth Service Implementation Model (TSIM) is set to launch a brand-new online training course for telehealth leaders and teams. TSIM originated at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC), stemming from the successful and groundbreaking work of its successful telehealth team. The MUSC Health Center for Telehealth is one of only two federally designated National Telehealth Centers of Excellence in the country. All-encompassing in nature, TSIM’s structured framework facilitates the development, implementation and optimization of telehealth services. The pioneers of this unique model aimed to share their knowledge and telehealth best practices with other ...

-With pictures- Durham University researchers have been awarded the largest grant ever made by the Wellcome Trust for humanities research. The £9 million award was announced today (4 May 2023) and will fund a new Discovery Research Platform for Medical Humanities (DRP-MH). The Discovery Research Platform for Medical Humanities will bring the stories and perspectives of people with lived experience of complex health conditions to the forefront of health research. The Platform will involve people with lived experience and people from marginalised communities as ...

People with severe mental illness are less likely to attend cancer screening compared to those who do not have such conditions, according to new research from the University of Surrey and the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) at the Department of Health and Social Care.  Funded by OHID and NHS England, with support from Cancer Research UK, the study found disparity in attendance at cancer screening in people with severe mental illness, with the most pronounced disparities being observed for those diagnosed with schizophrenia, followed by those diagnosed with other psychoses and bipolar disorder.    The ...

A deep slumber might help buffer against memory loss for older adults facing a heightened burden of Alzheimer’s disease, new research from the University of California, Berkeley, suggests. Deep sleep, also known as non-REM slow-wave sleep, can act as a “cognitive reserve factor” that may increase resilience against a protein in the brain called beta-amyloid that is linked to memory loss caused by dementia. Disrupted sleep has previously been associated with faster accumulation of beta-amyloid protein in the brain. However, the new ...

Synthetic hydrogels show great promise in tissue repair, drug delivery, medical implants, and many other applications. Hydrogels functionalized with electrically conductive components can be used in bioelectronic devices for cardiac or neural interfaces, for applications such as neural prosthetics, cardiac patches, and electronic skin. A research team led by Dr Lizhi Xu of the Department of Mechanical Engineering in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) has recently developed a new type of electroconductive hydrogels with outstanding mechanical strength and manufacturability, creating ...

ARLINGTON, Va. (May 4, 2023) — Antibiotics administered before and during surgery should be discontinued immediately after a patient’s incision is closed, according to updated recommendations for preventing surgical site infections. Experts found no evidence that continuing antibiotics after a patient’s incision has been closed, even if it has drains, prevents surgical site infections. Continuing antibiotics does increase the patient’s risk of C. difficile infection, which causes severe diarrhea, and ...

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified four important signs and symptoms that signal an elevated risk of early-onset colorectal cancer. These red flags may be key to earlier detection and diagnosis of early-onset colorectal cancer among younger adults. The number of young adults with colorectal cancer has nearly doubled in recent years. Studying de-identified health insurance data on more than 5,000 patients with early-onset colorectal cancer — cancer that occurs before a person turns 50 — the researchers found that in the period between ...

LA JOLLA, CALIF. – May 03, 2023 – When the cells of our immune system are under constant stress due to cancer or other chronic diseases, the T cells of the immune system shut down in a process called T cell exhaustion. Without active T cells, which kill tumor cells, it’s impossible for our bodies to fight back against cancer. One of the biggest goals of immunotherapy is to reverse T cell exhaustion to boost the immune system’s ability to destroy cancerous cells. Researchers at Sanford Burnham Prebys studying melanoma have found a new way to make this ...