HOUSTON ― The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center’s Research Highlights showcases the latest breakthroughs in cancer care, research and prevention. These advances are made possible through seamless collaboration between MD Anderson’s world-leading clinicians and scientists, bringing discoveries from the lab to the clinic and back. Study identifies biomarkers for predicting treatment response in metastatic breast cancer Standard treatment for patients with hormone receptor (HR)-positive, HER2-negative (HR+/HER2-) ...

About The Study: In this cross-sectional study of social media posts about 5 popular medical tests, most posts were misleading or failed to mention important harms, including overdiagnosis or overuse. These data demonstrate a need for stronger regulation of misleading medical information on social media. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Brooke Nickel, PhD, email brooke.nickel@sydney.edu.au. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.61940) Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other ...

About The Study: In this study, confidence in organizations to use health data responsibly was largely unchanged from 2020 to 2022, but polarization increased between politically liberal and conservative respondents. Compared with 2020, in 2022 liberal respondents reported increased confidence in the federal government to use digital health data responsibly, while conservative respondents reported decreased confidence in the federal government and agencies. Changes in confidence may be related to the prominence of these agencies (CDC, NIH) during the COVID-19 pandemic, a 2020 national election with a change in the governing ...

Influencers are promoting “overwhelmingly” misleading information about medical tests on Instagram and TikTok, according to a global University of Sydney-led study published today in JAMA Network Open.  Researchers analysed almost 1000 posts about five controversial medical screening tests that had been promoted by social media influencers to almost 200 million followers. They found most posts had no reference to scientific evidence, were promotional, had explicit financial interests and failed to mention potential harms.  The ...

Two papers published today in the journal Nature describe a significant advance in understanding the complex functions of the metabolic network. The research is from the lab of Marian Walhout, PhD, the Maroun Semaan Chair in Biomedical Research and chair and professor of systems biology, which has been engaged with fundamental questions of metabolism for more than a decade.   According to Dr. Walhout, organisms constantly monitor their nutrient intake and adjust their metabolism to generate biomass and energy; their ...

Laying the groundwork for quantum communication systems of the future, engineers at Caltech have demonstrated the successful operation of a quantum network of two nodes, each containing multiple quantum bits, or qubits—the fundamental information-storing building blocks of quantum computers. To achieve this, the researchers developed a new protocol for distributing quantum information in a parallel manner, effectively creating multiple channels for sending data, or multiplexing. The work was accomplished by embedding ytterbium atoms ...

Immune cells that eat bacteria in the body don’t stash them in specialized compartments as once thought, but turn them into critical nutrients that build proteins, create energy and keep the cells alive, according to a new study from scientists at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. “We are what we eat,” said the study’s co-senior author Angelo D’Alessandro, Ph.D., professor of biochemistry and molecular genetics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine at CU Anschutz. “What we eat changes the composition of us and when immune cells eat bacteria the same thing happens to them.” The ...

The brain creates internal 'maps' to help us navigate and learn from our surroundings, but how these maps form remains a challenge to understand. Now, a study led by Liset M. de la Prida at the Cajal Neurosciences Center (CNC-CSIC) in Madrid, in collaboration with Imperial College London, offers a fresh perspective on how spatial and experiential information is encoded in the hippocampus, a key brain region for navigation and memory. The study published today in Neuron, reveals that two types of hippocampal ...

The data sets are very large: with more than 75 permanent forest dynamics plots in 29 countries worldwide, the Forest Global Earth Observatory network (ForestGEO) of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) provides excellent forest inventories for investigating the dynamics of forest ecosystems and better understanding the processes that drive the structure and function of forests. On these 20-to-50-hectare plots, every single tree with a diameter not much larger than a pencil has been identified, measured and mapped every five years, often totalling more than 200 000 trees. The two UFZ researchers, Dr. Thorsten Wiegand ...

This roundup highlights a common drug that can help treat multiple myeloma, a paper analyzing the benefit of a colorectal surgery follow-up test, recommendations for implementing remote patient monitoring for care received before, during and after surgery, details on how often women with an elevated breast cancer risk are receiving enhanced screenings, and clinical trial results for a new chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy targeting B cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. To learn more about research at City of Hope, one of the largest and most advanced cancer research and treatment organizations in the U.S. with its ...

SINGAPORE – NalaGenetics, a spin-off from A*STAR Genome Institute of Singapore (A*STAR GIS), will be transforming leprosy treatments in Indonesia with a nationwide genetic screening programme with their PGx1301 diagnostic kit. Set to launch in the fourth quarter of 2025, this initiative builds on a successful five-year pilot test in East Indonesia, which demonstrated the effectiveness of precision medicine in preventing life-threatening adverse drug reactions (ADRs). As part of this programme, up ...

For nearly a century, scientists have known that different parts of the human brain’s cortex control different body movements. This fundamental discovery dates to the 1930s, when neurosurgeons used electrical stimulation to map how different cortical regions correspond to different body parts. But can these regions be further broken down into even smaller functional components? Researchers have long suspected that cortical units for specific body movements are more complex than simple patches in the cortex. Studies have identified various types of neurons stacked in multiple layers across the neocortex, but without a clear picture of how these ...

A research team co-led by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), Columbia University, and Universidad Autónoma de Madrid has developed a new optical computing material from photon avalanching nanoparticles. The breakthrough – which the team published recently in the journal Nature Photonics – paves the way for fabricating optical memory and transistors on a nanometer size scale comparable to current microelectronics. This approach offers a path toward realizing smaller, faster components for next-generation ...

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second most commonly diagnosed cancer in China and a leading cause of cancer-related mortality. Despite improvements in treatment, the survival rate remains lower than in Western and other Asian countries due to late-stage diagnosis. Given that CRC typically develops over a prolonged period from precursor lesions, early detection and timely intervention are crucial for improving patient outcomes. However, CRC screening in China faces several challenges, including regional disparities, economic constraints, and limited public awareness. Recent advancements in non-invasive diagnostic tests, innovative imaging techniques, and ...

Aerospace engineering senior Philip Wilson attended an American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) conference. Rohit Raut, a senior physics major, presented his work at a nuclear research symposium, and senior biology major Jaden Rankin had the opportunity to feature her research at an entomology conference. These and other University of Texas at Arlington students were able to showcase their original research at major symposiums thanks to UTA’s expansion of its popular undergraduate research program that provides funding for select students to present at academic conferences. “At the conference, I presented my work on rotating ...

Oral cancer remains a serious global health concern due to its high morbidity and mortality rates, primarily caused by late-stage diagnosis. The presence of oral potentially malignant disorders (OPMDs) provides an opportunity for early intervention, as these lesions precede the development of oral squamous cell carcinoma. However, the accurate detection and classification of OPMDs remain challenging due to their diverse clinical presentations. Conventional diagnostic methods, including visual examination and histopathological ...

To develop a practical fusion power system, scientists need to fully understand how the plasma fuel interacts with its surroundings. The plasma is superheated, which means some of the atoms involved can strike the wall of the fusion vessel and become embedded. To keep the system working efficiently, it’s important to know how much fuel might be trapped. “The less fuel is trapped in the wall, the less radioactive material builds up,” said Shota Abe, a staff research physicist at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL).  Abe is the lead researcher on a new study published in Nuclear ...

The electrochemical reduction of CO2 has been recognized as a promising strategy to convert ambient atmospheric CO2 into valuable products. Bismuth-based catalysts have garnered the widespread attention of researchers due to their cost-effectiveness, low toxicity, and high natural abundance. Significant progress has been made toward enhancing the reactivity of catalyst structures through innovative synthesis techniques and engineering. Advances include the use of flow cells and membrane electrode assembly (MEA) cells to attain high cathodic current densities of over 200 mA cm-2 with superior ...

Researchers in South Korea have developed an advanced liquid metal catalyst incorporating selenium (Se) to enhance the efficiency of turquoise hydrogen production. Turquoise hydrogen is generated via methane (CH₄) pyrolysis, producing hydrogen while yielding solid carbon as a byproduct, without emitting carbon dioxide (CO₂). A research team led by Dr. Seung Ju Han at the Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology (KRICT) has introduced selenium-doped molten metal catalysts (NiBi, CuBi) to significantly enhance methane pyrolysis efficiency. The technology demonstrates ...

A century of fire suppression, combined with global warming and drought, has led to increasingly destructive wildfires in the Western United States. Forest managers use tools like prescribed burns, thinning, mastication, and piling and burning to reduce fuel – live and dead trees, needles and leaves, and downed branches – that can feed intense wildfires. These methods aim to lower fuel levels, reduce crown density, and protect fire-resistant trees, fostering healthier, more resilient forests. However, prescribed burning efforts haven’t kept up with the rapid buildup of surface fuel, creating a “fire deficit” – the gap between the amount of fuel that has ...

CLEVELAND—Researchers at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) and University Hospitals (UH) will use state-of-the-art medical technologies they invented—and licensed to Lucid Diagnostics Inc.—to detect esophageal precancer, specifically Barrett’s Esophagus (BE). BE is a change in the cellular structure of the esophageal lining typically caused by gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), also known as heartburn. The goal is to reduce the incidence of esophageal cancer (EAC). EAC is a rare type of cancer with a high-morality rate—the cause of 2.6% of all cancer ...

Insilico Medicine ("Insilico"), a clinical stage generative artificial intelligence (AI)-driven biotechnology company, today announced the publication of a novel series of orally available covalent CDK12/13 dual inhibitors, as a potential option against refractory and treatment-resistant cancers. Published in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry (IF=7.2), the study showcases the discovery of compound 12b, a potent, selective, and safe therapy targeting CDK12/13, empowered by Insilico’s proprietary generative AI platforms including PandaOmics and ...

For decades researchers have been exploring how to store data in glass because of its potential to hold information for a long time — eons — without applying power. A special type of glass that changes color in different wavelengths of light, called photochromic glass, holds promise for stable, reusable data storage. Now, researchers have developed a doped photochromic glass that has the potential to store rewritable data indefinitely, according to research published in ACS Energy Letters. Certain types of ...

Inspired by the humble deep-sea sponge, RMIT University engineers have developed a new material with remarkable compressive strength and stiffness that could improve architectural and product designs. The double lattice design was inspired by the intricate skeleton of a deep-sea sponge known as Venus' flower basket, which lives in the Pacific Ocean. Lead author of the latest RMIT study into the structure, Dr Jiaming Ma, said extensive testing and optimisation revealed the pattern's impressive combination of stiffness and strength, mixed with an ability to contract when compressed. It’s this last aspect – known as auxetic behaviour – ...

While we are remarkably capable of generating our own goals, beginning with child’s play and continuing into adulthood, we don’t yet have computer models for understanding this human ability.  However, a team of New York University scientists has now created a computer model that can represent and generate human-like goals by learning from how people create games. The work, reported in the journal Nature Machine Intelligence, could lead to AI systems that better understand human intentions and more faithfully model ...