Researchers in Japan have developed a predictive model that could improve treatment decisions for advanced pancreatic cancer patients. By combining tumor marker readings with patients' genetic information, their model predicts patient survival outcomes with greater accuracy and better identifies candidates who would benefit from surgery. The researchers found that specific genetic variations have a greater impact on tumor marker levels than the severity of the cancer.  It is expected that the new model will be used as an indicator to determine if surgery is a good option for patients receiving chemotherapy or radiation ...

A highly sensitive bone marrow test could double survival rates for some groups of younger adults with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML) by helping doctors identify if they might relapse up to three months earlier. The patient-specific molecular test can detect low levels of leukaemia cells in the body, known as minimal residual disease (MRD), which when left untreated causes the disease to relapse. The trial, published today in The Lancet Haematology and led by King’s College London, showed for patients with mutations in the NPM1 and FLT3 genes – which are among the most common that cause AML in younger adults – that repeated ...

New Curtin University research has revealed that a massive meteorite struck northwestern Scotland about 200 million years later than previously thought, in a discovery that not only rewrites Scotland’s geological history but alters our understanding of the evolution of non-marine life on Earth.   Previously believed to have occurred 1.2 billion years ago, the impact created the Stac Fada Member, a layer of rock that holds vital clues to Earth’s ancient past, including how meteorite strikes may have influenced the planet’s environment and life.   Lead author Professor Chris Kirkland, from Curtin’s Frontier Institute for Geoscience Solutions within ...

Persistently high blood sugar and insulin resistance significantly increased the risk of worsening functional and structural heart damage during growth from adolescence to young adulthood, a new study shows. The study was conducted in collaboration between the Baylor College of Medicine in the US, the University of Bern in Switzerland, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute in Australia, the Universities of Bristol and Exeter in the UK, and the University of Eastern Finland. The results were published in the highly ...

By Shawn Ballard It’s easy to solve a 3x3 Rubik’s cube, says Shantanu Chakrabartty, the Clifford W. Murphy Professor and vice dean for research and graduate education in the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis. Just learn and memorize the steps then execute them to arrive at the solution. Computers are already good at this kind of procedural problem solving. Now, Chakrabartty and his collaborators have developed a tool that can go beyond procedure to discover new solutions to complex optimization problems in logistics to drug ...

By Beth Miller When a person sustains an injury to the spinal cord, the normal communication between the brain and the spinal circuits below the injury are interrupted, resulting in paralysis. Because the brain is functioning normally, as is the spinal cord below the injury, researchers have been working to re-establish the communication to allow for rehabilitation and potentially restore movement. Ismael Seáñez, assistant professor of biomedical engineering in the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis and of neurosurgery at WashU Medicine, and members of his ...

 UCLA Health has received a $25 million commitment from Shirley and Walter Wang to establish a center that will offer comprehensive care, support and guidance for patients and families living with gastrointestinal disorders. The UCLA Walter and Shirley Wang Center for Integrative Digestive Health, named in recognition of the longtime donors, will be one of the few holistic programs of its kind in the nation, providing whole-person care for patients to help them live healthier.  “I am grateful to Shirley and Walter Wang for their profound generosity and vision,” said Johnese Spisso, president of UCLA Health ...

Embargoed for release until 5:00 p.m. ET on Monday 28 April 2025    Follow @Annalsofim on X, Facebook, Instagram, threads, and Linkedin         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 their own ...

AUSTIN, Texas — Patients suffering from depression, anxiety and trauma-related disorders experienced significant relief from their symptoms after a new treatment that uses sound waves to modulate deep brain activity, according to new research from Dell Medical School at The University of Texas at Austin. The study, published this month in Molecular Psychiatry, demonstrates that low-intensity focused ultrasound technology can safely and effectively target the amygdala — a brain region known to be hyperactive in ...

About The Article: This Viewpoint proposes an analogous taxonomy for digital media use that identifies patterns of use, irrespective of content, that could be problematic but, at a minimum, should be flagged as warranting further evaluation and potential remediation. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Dimitri A. Christakis, MD, MPH, email dimitri.christakis@seattlechildrens.org. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jama.2025.6113) Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, ...

New USC research offers an unseen insight into how the brain shifts gears. The researchers discovered that our innate ability to make quick changes in motor function are the result of a unique brain mechanism. In the high-stakes world of the NBA, we watch in awe as our favorite player seamlessly switches moves in the blink of an eye. A perfect layup is suddenly defended. The shooter changes course mid-air, passing to an open teammate for a corner three. Humans have a remarkable ability to rapidly switch between different motor actions when life throws us a curveball. You reach to pull open a door but suddenly see you must push to exit. In traffic, you must ...

Dangers come but dangers also go and when they do, the brain has an “all-clear” signal that teaches it to extinguish its fear. A new study in mice by MIT neuroscientists shows that the signal is the release of dopamine along a specific interregional brain circuit. The research therefore pinpoints a potentially critical mechanism of mental health, restoring calm when it works, but prolonging anxiety or even post-traumatic stress disorder when it doesn’t. “Dopamine is essential to initiate fear extinction,” said Michele Pignatelli di Spinazzola, co-author ...

Images available via the link in the notes section Scientists from China, the UK and the USA have collaborated to analyse the inner workings of Bolivia’s “zombie” volcano, Uturuncu. By combining seismology, physics models and analysis of rock composition, researchers identify the causes of Uturuncu’s unrest, alleviating fears of an imminent eruption. The findings have been published today (28 April) in the journal PNAS. Deep in the Central Andes lies Uturuncu, Bolivia’s “zombie” ...

UNDER EMBARGO UNTIL 3PM ET ON MONDAY, APRIL 28 IN PNAS ITHACA, N.Y. – Through intensive breeding, humans have pushed breeds such as pug dogs and Persian cats to evolve with very similar skulls and “smushed” faces, so they’re more similar to each other than they are to most other dogs or cats.   For the first time, scientists at Cornell University and Washington University have uncovered examples of how selection pressures from breeding cats and dogs have led to “convergence” – the tendency of unrelated animals and plants to evolve similar characteristics under similar environmental conditions. In this case, the researchers found ...

UNDER EMBARGO UNTIL 3:00 PM U.S. EDT ON MONDAY, APRIL 28, 2025 In a world where innovation and progress depend on effective teamwork, a new study reveals how sexist behavior within teams sabotages not just individuals, but the very fabric of collaboration. Researchers found that exposure to sexist comments significantly alters how women interact emotionally during teamwork, increasing a key ingredient of successful collaboration: emotional synchrony. Emotional synchrony—shared, temporally aligned facial ...

A small bone found 30 years ago at Dinosaur Cove in south eastern Australia could turn what we know about the evolution of echidnas and platypuses on its head. Up until now, the accepted understanding about these egg-laying monotremes – arguably the most unusual mammals on the planet – was that they were both descended from a land-bound ancestor. And while the platypus ancestors became semiaquatic, the echidnas stayed on the land, or so the story went. But following a UNSW-led analysis of the bone – which was discovered ...

The next great earthquake isn't the only threat to the Pacific Northwest. A powerful earthquake, combined with rising sea levels, could significantly increase flood risks in the Pacific Northwest, impacting thousands of residents and properties in northern California, Oregon, and Washington, according to new Virginia Tech research. A study published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that a major earthquake could cause coastal land to sink up to 6.5 feet, expanding the federally designated 1 percent coastal floodplain, an area ...

Scientists at Northwestern University and University of California, Santa Barbara have created the first synthetic fragment of tau protein that acts like a prion. The “mini prion” folds and stacks into strands (or fibrils) of misfolded tau proteins, which then transmit their abnormally folded shape to other normal tau proteins. Misfolded, prion-like proteins drive the progression of tauopathies, a group of neurodegenerative diseases — including Alzheimer’s disease — characterized by the ...

BNT162b2 vaccine not only targets COVID-19 virus, but may also help reduce and control innate inflammation  New findings suggest the vaccine may reduce the production of pro-inflammatory mediators to bacterial, fungal or viral infections by reprogramming innate immune cells to regulate inflammation Trinity researchers have found that the BNT162b2 COVID-19 vaccine may offer protection beyond its intended, primary target. In a study, recently published in the Clinical Immunology journal, researchers found that the vaccine not only targeted the COVID-19 virus, it also unexpectedly helped to reduce ...

No more rancid hazelnuts: a research team at the URV has developed a method that can identify nuts that have gone bad due to oxidation. The technique uses infrared light to determine the chemical composition of hazelnuts without even removing them from their shells. The new system overcomes the limitations of traditional methods and makes it possible to identify the condition of all the hazelnuts in a packet in a single analysis, without the need to prepare or destroy the sample. The authors argue that the application of this technology would help to improve packaging techniques and distribution ...

New research from The University of Texas at Arlington and the U.S. Department of Agriculture demonstrates how mathematical modeling can predict outbreaks of toxic fungi in Texas corn crops—offering a potential lifeline to farmers facing billions in harvest losses. “Our research focuses on predicting aflatoxin outbreaks in Texas using remote sensing satellites, soil properties and meteorological data,” said coauthor Angela Avila, a postdoctoral fellow in mathematics at UTA. “One of the key challenges is that contamination can be present with no visible signs of fungal infection. This makes ...

April 28, 2025-- Conflicting findings in environmental epidemiology have long stalled consensus on the health effects of toxic chemicals. A new study by Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health published in the American Journal of Epidemiology suggests that one major reason for these inconsistencies may be the limited exposure ranges in individual studies—leading to underpowered results and unclear conclusions. Researchers used simulated data to examine how well individual and pooled studies can identify dose-response relationships between chemical exposure and health ...

Planting wildflowers in apple orchards could save farmers up to £3,000 per hectare a year, according to a new study.   Flower strips create a home for a team of helpful insects – like ladybirds, hoverflies, and lacewings – that eat harmful pests such as aphids. This natural team of pest controllers helps keep apple trees healthy with less need for chemical sprays.   This study, published in Journal of Agricultural Economics, builds on previous research from a University of Reading team that found flower strips can ...

Why are some people more helpful than others? In a new JNeurosci paper, Inbal Bartal, from Tel Aviv University, and colleagues used rats to explore why some individuals may be more receptive to the distress of others and how this information leads to helpful behavior. During a task the researchers previously developed, they observed the behaviors and brain activity of helpful rats compared to less helpful rats. In this task that probes helping behavior, rats are given the option to release a distressed peer trapped in a restrainer. Rats were more ...

URBANA, Ill. -- In February, the USAID-funded Feed the Future Soybean Innovation Lab at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign was told to stop work, bringing an abrupt end to 12 years of progress toward developing a global soybean value chain supporting Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Australia. SIL director Pete Goldsmith cobbled together funding from the university to keep the lab afloat until April 15, which was to be its last day.  At the eleventh hour, Founders ...