Philadelphia, April 3, 2023—In a significant step for the treatment of neuroblastoma, an international group of researchers led by Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University and the New Approaches to Neuroblastoma Therapy (NANT) Consortium has shown that the targeted therapy lorlatinib is safe and effective in treating high-risk neuroblastoma. The findings, published today in Nature Medicine, have led to a major amendment in a phase 3 Children’s Oncology Group (COG) clinical trial, which has incorporated lorlatinib for newly diagnosed ALK-driven high-risk neuroblastoma, ...

A new study reveals that the mass loss of lake-terminating glaciers in the greater Himalaya has been significantly underestimated, due to the inability of satellites to see glacier changes occurring underwater, with critical implications for the region's future projections of glacier disappearance and water resources. Published in Nature Geoscience on April 3, the study was conducted by an international team including researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Graz University of Technology (Austria), the University of St. Andrews (UK), and Carnegie Mellon ...

Professors Stefan Seelecke and Paul Motzki at Saarland University are developing intelligent materials that are opening up new avenues in sound reproduction technology: lightweight loudspeakers that use far less energy than their conventional counterparts, novel shapes for sound and signal generators and applications involving noise cancelling textiles. The basis for these smart materials are ultrathin silicone films that can act as artificial muscles with their own built-in sensors. The research team will be showcasing their new technology at this year’s Hannover Messe from 17 to 21 April (Hall 2, Stand B34). Ultrathin films may well replace the heavy and power-thirsty ...

            New Orleans, LA -- LSU Health New Orleans Louisiana Tumor Registry (LTR) has published the sixth report of statewide cancer incidence rates by census tract. The publication, which reports 2010-2019 combined cancer incidence data, found that 81% of the census tracts in Louisiana met publication criteria for all cancers combined. For specific cancer types, fewer census tracts met the criteria. For the Louisiana census tracts meeting the criteria, the incidence rates for all cancers combined and for specific cancer types were compared with the corresponding rates for the entire state. The ...

Anticancer drugs are pivotal to cancer treatment, but their toxicity may not always be limited to cancer cells, resulting in harmful side-effects. To develop anticancer therapies that have fewer adverse effects on patients, scientists are now focusing on molecules that are less toxic to cells. One such group of drugs is the "kinesin inhibitors." These inhibitors prevent cancer progression by explicitly targeting kinesin motor proteins, which are required for the division of cancer cells. Centromere-associated protein E (CENP-E), a member of the kinesin motor protein, is a promising target for inhibitor therapy, as it is essential for tumor cell replication. However, determining the ...

Organic materials with room-temperature phosphorescence (RTP) emission have attracted extensive attention due to extraordinary properties including long lifetime, large Stokes shift, stimuli-responsiveness, and so on, and show bright prospects in broad fields. However, the energy of the excited state of organic phosphors is easily consumed through thermal radiation and collision deactivation. Therefore, numerous design strategies such as creating a rigid environment through crystallization and supramolecular assembly are employed to improve the luminescent characteristics of RTP materials by restricting nonradiative transition, enhancing intersystem crossing, and so forth. A team ...

ROCKVILLE, Md. (April 3, 2023)— Today the American Kidney Fund (AKF) announced the recipients of this year’s Clinical Scientist in Nephrology (CSN) fellowship program, in which promising researchers work to improve the quality of care for people living with kidney disease and promote clinical research in nephrology. Dr. Alexandra Bicki, a pediatric nephrology fellow at the University of California, San Francisco, will be working on identifying facilitators and barriers to home dialysis and living kidney donor transplantation among adolescents and young adults, while Dr. Nivetha Subramanian, a nephrology fellow at ...

SAN ANTONIO – April 3, 2023 — Southwest Research Institute has installed a large-capacity liquid hydrogen tank to expand its advanced hydrogen energy research initiatives. Leveraging the tank’s capabilities alongside a multidisciplinary research approach, SwRI endeavors to explore technology opportunities and address obstacles related to hydrogen energy research and development. The SwRI liquid hydrogen storage tank has a capacity of 17,000 gallons and will provide the Institute with a cost-effective, reliable supply of hydrogen ...

On February 3, 2023, a train derailed in the United States near East Palestine, Ohio, leading to the combustion of vinyl chloride. Following that accident, an international team of researchers undertook an in-depth analysis of the environmental consequences of the accident. Their analysis is published in the journal Frontiers of Environmental Science & Engineering on March 15, 2023. In their analysis, the team examined a series of questions related to the environmental risk and management of the chemical accident. “We emphasized that it is unscientific to overestimate or underestimate the environmental ...

Advanced materials are urgently needed for everyday life, be it in high technology, mobility, infrastructure, green energy or medicine. However, traditional ways of discovering and exploring new materials encounter limits due to the complexity of chemical compositions, structures and targeted properties. Moreover, new materials should not only enable novel applications, but also include sustainable ways of producing, using and recycling them. Researchers from the Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung (MPIE) review the status of physics-based modelling ...

New research at the University of Massachusetts Amherst zeroes in on the root cause of adverse health effects from disruption of the body’s circadian rhythms, which typically occurs from jet lag and rotating work shifts. The research, published in the journal eNeuro, also shows that the circadian clock gene Cryptochrome 1 (Cry 1) regulates adult neurogenesis – the ongoing formation of neurons in the brain’s hippocampus. Adult neurogenesis supports learning and memory, and its disruption has been linked to dementia and mental illness. “Circadian disruption impacts a lot of things,” says lead author Michael Seifu Bahiru, a Ph.D. candidate in the ...

Insilico Medicine founder and CEO Alex Zhavoronkov, PhD, a pioneer in generative AI for drug discovery and in uncovering dual pathways for aging and disease, will present at The Fourth Summit: Geroscience for the Next Generation organized by the Geroscience Interest Group of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, happening April 24-26 at the NIH Main Campus in Bethesda, Maryland. Zhavoronkov will speak April 25, 1:40pm ET as part of the session on Mathematical Modeling of Aging and Health for Geroscience on “Selecting and Extracting Features Relevant to ...

It sounds like something from science fiction: Don a specialized, electronic headband and control a robot using your mind. But now, recent research published in ACS Applied Nano Materials has taken a step toward making this a reality. By designing a special, 3D-patterned structure that doesn’t rely on sticky conductive gels, the team has created “dry” sensors that can measure the brain’s electrical activity, even amidst hair and the bumps and curves of the head. Physicians monitor electrical signals ...

Older adults perceive artificial intelligence as more human-like than younger adults do Toronto, April 3, 2023 – Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly present in all of our lives, from newer offerings like ChatGPT to more established voice systems such as automated phone services, self-checkouts, Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa. While these technologies largely benefit us, they can also be used in adverse ways – for instance, in fraudulent or scam calls – making it important for us to be able to identify them. According to a recent Baycrest study, older adults appear to be less able to distinguish ...

SPOKANE, Wash. –  An online “e-health” program helped more people with chronic pain reduce their opioid medications and pain intensity than a control group that had only regular treatment in a recent clinical study. In the study published in the journal Pain, about 400 participants who had been prescribed long-term opioid treatment for their pain were divided into two groups: one received treatment as usual and another received treatment and access to a self-guided, e-health program. Of the e-health group, more than half, 53.6%, were able to reduce their ...

Researchers have succeeded for the first time in adding a highly purified form of curcumin to yogurt in a way that ensures it remains dissolved in the dairy product and preserves it, while tasting good.   Their discovery, which is published today (Monday) in Frontiers in Nutrition, makes it possible to create a probiotic yogurt that contains no artificial preservatives but that still has a long shelf life and properties that may enhance good health.    Curcumin is a naturally-occurring chemical that provides the yellow colour in turmeric. Studies have shown that it has anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative properties, that it can inhibit the growth ...

A linguistic bias in the English language that leads us to ‘improve’ things by adding to them, rather than taking away, is so common that it is even ingrained in AI chatbots, a new study reveals. Language related to the concept of ‘improvement’ is more closely aligned with addition, rather than subtraction. This can lead us to make decisions which can overcomplicate things we are trying to make better. The study is published today (Monday 3rd April) in Cognitive Science, by an international ...

Government-assisted refugees were less likely to receive adequate prenatal care than privately sponsored refugees, found a new study published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) https://www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.221207. Canada has 2 main pathways to resettle refugees: government assistance and private sponsorship by family members or non-family volunteers. To determine whether refugees receive adequate prenatal care (defined as initiation of prenatal care by 13 weeks' gestation; receipt of a minimum number of prenatal care visits, as recommended by the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada; and receipt of a prenatal fetal anatomy ultrasound ...

The quality and integrity of peer review in Higher Education research has been put firmly in the spotlight by the European Journal of Higher Education (EJHE), published by Taylor & Francis. All articles submitted from April 2023 will, if accepted, have their reviewer reports published at the same time, as part of a one-year pilot. The EJHE peer review process itself will remain the same, with reports on manuscripts under consideration received from two or three referees before an editorial decision is made. ...

The human brain begins to assemble itself shortly after conception as a growing number of brain cells connect to create circuits across the brain. Genes provide the blueprint for construction, but occasionally the blueprint is incomplete, connections aren’t made, and circuits fail — sometimes long before the problem can be recognized, let alone fixed. That’s the case with DiGeorge syndrome, also called 22q11.2 deletion syndrome, a genetic disorder affecting about one in 3,000 babies. It begins with a deletion of one of two copies of a small number of genes on human chromosome 22, whose cascading effects include cardiovascular problems, craniofacial ...

Polyamorists face stigma and discrimination in their day-to-day lives, yet research shows that having a romantic relationship with more than one person at a time may offer emotional and physical benefits to all parties. Monogamy is frequently portrayed as the ideal form of romantic love in many modern societies. From the stories we read as children, to the films and books we consume as adults – we are told that to achieve happiness we need to find our one true soulmate to share the rest of our lives with. At the same time, states and governments offer financial, legal, and social incentives to married couples. Meanwhile men and women who deviate from these monogamous ...

Aston University is one of eight research intensive universities in the Midlands to establish a new investment company to accelerate the commercialisation of university spinouts and early-stage IP rich businesses in the region.  Midlands Mindforge Limited has been co-founded by Aston University, University of Birmingham, Cranfield University, Keele University, University of Leicester, Loughborough University, University of Nottingham and University of Warwick, collectively Midlands Innovation. This ambitious, patient capital ...

**Note: the release below is a special early release from the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID 2023, Copenhagen, 15-18 April). Please credit the conference if you use this story**   Embargo: 2301H UK time Saturday 1 April A large outbreak of typhoid on a ship in the Netherlands has been traced to contaminated water, this year's European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID 2023, Copenhagen, 15-18 April) will hear. Seventy-two cases of typhoid were confirmed in the spring 2022 outbreak on the Liberty Ann, an old cruise ship which was being ...

A study from the National Eye Institute (NEI) identified rare genetic variants that could point to one of the general mechanisms driving age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a common cause of vision loss in older adults. The variants generate malformed proteins that alter the stability of the membrane attack complex (MAC), which may drive a chronic inflammatory response in the retina. The findings, published in the journal iScience, point to MAC as a potential therapeutic target to slow or prevent the development of AMD. NEI is part of the National Institutes of Health. There are many known genetic variants that raise or lower ...

For nearly 50 years, a jawless fish called the lamprey has interested scientists because of its remarkable ability to recover from spinal cord injuries. A new study reveals a possible technique lampreys may use to swim again, despite sparse neural regeneration. Christina Hamlet of Bucknell University and collaborators, including Jennifer R. Morgan of the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL), used a mathematical model to demonstrate how lampreys may use body-sensing feedback to regain swimming abilities after spinal injury. The ...