More than 10 million people are sickened by tuberculosis (TB) globally each year, resulting in 1.5 million deaths. Yet, as many as two billion people are infected with Mycobaterium tuberculosis, the bacterium that causes tuberculosis, and are otherwise healthy and asymptomatic. Scientists who study TB look at those individuals who can tolerate and contain the infection in hopes of developing better treatments and vaccines. The key feature of tuberculosis infection in humans is the formation of granulomas, or clusters of immune cells in the lungs that contain the infection. These granulomas contain B cells, all-purpose immune cells that perform a variety of functions, from producing ...

Earth's magnetic field does more than keep everyone's compass needles pointed in the same direction. It also helps preserve Earth’s sliver of life-sustaining atmosphere by deflecting high energy particles and plasma regularly blasted out of the sun. Researchers have now identified a prospective Earth-sized planet in another solar system as a prime candidate for also having a magnetic field — YZ Ceti b, a rocky planet orbiting a star about 12 light-years away from Earth. Researchers Sebastian Pineda and Jackie Villadsen observed a repeating radio signal emanating from the star YZ Ceti using the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array, a radio telescope ...

Pregnant women whose household tap water had higher levels of lithium had a moderately higher risk of their offspring being diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, according to a new study led by a UCLA Health researcher. The study, published April 3 in JAMA Pediatrics, is believed to be the first to identify naturally occurring lithium in drinking water as a possible environmental risk factor for autism. “Any drinking water contaminants that may affect the developing human brain deserve intense scrutiny,” said lead study author Beate Ritz, MD, PhD, professor of neurology in the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA ...

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers have been working on mucosal vaccines that can be administered through the nose. Now, scientists in Berlin have developed a live attenuated vaccine for the nose. In “Nature Microbiology”, they describe the special immune protection it induces. Joint press release by Freie Universität Berlin, Max Delbrück Center and Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin Coronaviruses spread primarily through the air. When infected people speak, cough, sneeze or laugh, they expel droplets of saliva containing the virus. Other people then breathe ...

The research, published today in Nature Geoscience and led by the University of Bristol and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), puts the rise in part down to the chemicals, known as chlorofluorocarbons or CFCs, being used to make other ozone-friendly alternatives to CFCs. This is an exception allowed under the Montreal Protocol, but contrary to its wider goals. Lead author Dr Luke Western, a Research Fellow at the University of Bristol and researcher at the NOAA’s Global Monitoring Laboratory (GML), said: “We’re paying attention to these emissions now because of the success of the Montreal Protocol. CFC ...

BOSTON — Women are more likely than men to develop Alzheimer’s disease (AD), with women making up two-thirds of the population living with AD. A new study, led by Mass General Brigham researchers, sheds light on the relationship between the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and age of menopause and use of hormone therapy (HT). The results, published in JAMA Neurology, indicate that early age at menopause may be a risk factor for AD dementia, but that women who were prescribed HT around the age of menopause onset did not show increased risk. “HT is the most reliable way to ameliorate severe menopause symptoms, ...

About The Study: In this study of 460,000 privately insured postpartum women, patients who gave birth to a single, live newborn after March 2020 were more likely to fill more potent and more frequent opioid prescriptions than patients who gave birth prior to March 2020. Increases were larger for patients delivering via cesarean birth than those delivering vaginally. Increases in opioid prescriptions may be associated with increased risk of opioid misuse, opioid use disorder, and opioid-related overdose among postpartum women.  Authors: Shelby R. Steuart, M.P.A., of ...

New knowledge of the genetic factors behind premature delivery and gestational duration has now emerged. Findings presented by a major international study under the aegis of the University of Gothenburg include the ways in which, before birth, the woman’s and the unborn child’s genes have mutually antagonistic effects. These results, now published in the journal Nature Genetics, enhance the potential for long-term development of drugs to induce parturition (birth) and — even more importantly — achieve the goal of preventing preterm births. Globally, preterm (or premature) birth is the most frequent immediate cause of death among newborns and children ...

The number of prostate cancer patients in the U.S. choosing active surveillance over surgery or radiation has rapidly increased since 2010, rising from 16% to 60% for low-risk patients and from 8% to 22% for patients with favorable intermediate-risk cancers, according to a study published today in JAMA Internal Medicine.    Active surveillance includes actively monitoring prostate cancer for progression, with the intention to intervene with surgery or radiation therapy if the cancer progresses.    It is the preferred treatment option for men with low-risk ...

Imperial physicists have recreated the famous double-slit experiment, which showed light behaving as particles and a wave, in time rather than space. The experiment relies on materials that can change their optical properties in fractions of a second, which could be used in new technologies or to explore fundamental questions in physics. The original double-slit experiment, performed in 1801 by Thomas Young at the Royal Institution, showed that light acts as a wave. Further experiments, however, showed that light actually ...

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 ...