It’s a tough job, but someone’s got to do it. In this case, the “job” is the breakdown of lignin, the structural biopolymer that gives stems, bark and branches their signature woodiness. One of the most abundant terrestrial polymers on Earth, lignin surrounds valuable plant fibers and other molecules that could be converted into biofuels and other commodity chemicals — if we could only get past that rigid plant cell wall. Fortunately, the rather laborious process already occurs in the guts of large herbivores through the actions of anaerobic microbes that cows, goats and sheep rely on to release the nutrients ...

New research from the University of Georgia suggests most people don’t understand the difference between a preprint and a published academic journal article. Preprints are research papers that haven’t undergone peer review, the process by which studies’ findings are validated by experts who weren’t involved with the research themselves. The study found the majority of readers have little to no understanding of what a preprint actually is. That lack of understanding could lead to public distrust in science since findings and how those findings are described can change between the preprint phase and ...

Ontario’s emergency departments are seeing a dramatic rise in visits related to the use of unregulated amphetamines and their street equivalent: crystal meth. In a new paper published in the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, researchers found that individuals accessing the emergency department (ED) for amphetamine- and methamphetamine-related concerns grew from 233 in 2003 to 4,146 individuals annually by 2020. “That’s a nearly 15-fold increase – pretty dramatic. If we consider ED visits as a crude proxy for how prevalent unregulated amphetamine use is, then the observed trend is highly concerning,” said the paper’s lead author, ...

Glenview, Illinois – Published monthly, the journal CHEST® features peer-reviewed, cutting-edge original research in chest medicine: Pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine and related disciplines. Journal topics include asthma, chest infections, COPD, critical care, diffuse lung disease, education and clinical practice, pulmonary vascular disease, sleep, thoracic oncology and the humanities. The March issue of the CHEST journal contains 44 articles, including clinically relevant research, reviews, case series, commentary and more. Each month, the journal also offers complementary ...

Philadelphia, March 9, 2023 – The Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program (GusNIP), funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, includes Nutrition Incentive (NI) and Produce Prescription (PPR) programs. These programs provide financial incentives for healthy eating by increasing individuals’ purchase and consumption of fruits and vegetables and reducing food insecurity in order to prevent and treat nutrition-related diseases. A study in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, published by Elsevier, explores how nutrition educators work with NI and PPR programs ...

RICHLAND, Wash.—Diversification reduces risk. That’s the spirit of one key takeaway from a new study led by scientists at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. The effective path to limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius by the end of this century likely requires a mix of technologies that can pull carbon dioxide from Earth’s atmosphere and oceans.  Overreliance on any one carbon removal method may bring undue risk, the authors caution. And we’ll likely need them all to remove the necessary amount ...

Study Title: Pharmacologic disruption of mSWI/SNF complex activity restricts SARS-CoV-2 infection Publication: Nature Genetics https://www.nature.com/articles/s41588-023-01307-z Dana-Farber Cancer Institute author: Cigall Kadoch, PhD Summary: A new class of oral drugs can inhibit a wide range of SARS-CoV-2 variants, researchers report, potentially identifying new antiviral agents providing broad activity against the constantly emerging new strains of the COVID-19 virus. The researchers discovered that the mammalian SWI/SNF (also called BAF) chromatin remodeling complex, a regulator of gene expression –controls the expression of the ACE2, the ...

EAST LANSING, Mich. – Tibet is known as the “Water Tower of Asia,” providing water to about 2 billion people and supporting critical ecosystems in High Mountain Asia and the Tibetan Plateau, where many of the largest Asian river systems originate. This region is also one of the areas most vulnerable to the compounding effects of climate change and human activities. Michigan State University researchers are identifying policy changes that need to happen now to prepare for the future impacts projected by climate models. The rapid melting of glaciers and snowpack due to regional temperature increases has caused ...

A team of international researchers monitoring the impact of climate change on large rivers in Arctic Canada and Alaska determined that, as the region is sharply warming up, its rivers are not moving as scientists have expected.   Dr. Alessandro Ielpi, an Assistant Professor with UBC Okanagan’s Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science, is a landscape scientist and lead author of a paper published this week in Nature Climate Change. The research, conducted with Dr. Mathieu Lapôtre at Stanford University, along with Dr. Alvise Finotello at the University of Padua in Italy, and Université ...

A team of investigators from Mass General Brigham’s founding members, Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), has identified metabolic strategies used by Clostridioides difficile to rapidly colonize the gut. The findings identify methods to better prevent and treat the most common cause of antibiotic-associated diarrhea and healthcare-acquired infections (HAIs). The team’s approach has implications for understanding broader aspects of microbial metabolism, including responses to antibiotics, and production of important metabolites. Results are published ...

About The Study: The findings of this study of 1,440 children in Canada with SARS-CoV-2 infection suggest that although the characteristics of presenting symptoms have changed as the SARS-CoV-2 virus has evolved, the proportions of infected children experiencing undesirable outcomes has remained stable. Authors: Stephen B. Freedman, M.D.C.M., M.Sc., of the University of Calgary in Calgary, Canada, is the corresponding author.  To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/  (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.2328) Editor’s Note: Please ...

About The Study: The results of this survey study suggest that the prevalence of metabolically healthy obesity (people with obesity who do not have obesity-related cardiometabolic abnormalities) increased among U.S. adults during the past 2 decades, but differences in trends existed across sociodemographic subgroups. Effective strategies are needed to improve metabolic health status and prevent obesity-related complications in adults with obesity.  Authors: An Pan, Ph.D., of the Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, China, and Kun ...

GAO Caixia's group from the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has developed a new method of downregulating gene translation to a predictable and desired level in plants by precisely engineering upstream open reading frames (uORFs). The study was published online in Nature Biotechnology on Mar. 9. The development and application of genome editing in plants has revolutionized molecular design-based crop breeding. Developing methods for fine-tuning ...

Deep down in the ocean at tectonic plate boundaries, hot fluids rise from so-called hydrothermal vents. The fluids are devoid of oxygen and contain large amounts of metals such as iron, manganese or copper. Some may also transport sulfides, methane and hydrogen. When the hot water mixes with the cold and oxygenated surrounding seawater, so-called hydrothermal plumes develop containing smoke-like particles of metal sulfide. These plumes rise hundreds of meters off the seafloor and disperse thousands of kilometers away from their source. Hydrothermal ...

This type of automated sorting would allow prioritisation of malignant slides so that pathologists can review them first and reduce the time to diagnosis for patients with cancer.  The final model was able to correctly detect 97% of malignant slides and correctly detect 90% of all slides.  The final model is in two stages. Firstly, the very large images are split into smaller patches and a deep learning model is trained to classify each patch as malignant or not.  Next, a second stage model combines the small patches back together and predicts a classification ...

Researchers led by Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU) find that antibody fragments encapsulated in nanomicelles cross the blood–brain barrier and reduce the levels of toxic Aβ species in the brain of an Alzheimer’s disease model mouse Tokyo, Japan — Sometimes the best things in life come by chance, when we happen to be in the right place at the right time. Now, researchers from Japan have found a way to ensure that new medications are delivered to the right place in the body and at the right timepoint in disease progression, so that they have the best effect. In a study published recently in the Journal ...

CHICAGO – Today, the Species Survival Commission (SSC) of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the world’s largest conservation organization, announces that two iconic Chicago institutions - Shedd Aquarium and The Morton Arboretum - have been named as Centers for Species Survival. These new designations elevate the role of the Chicago region as an international leader in biodiversity conservation. What’s more, the two Centers will give the aquarium and the arboretum the opportunity to collaborate on conservation efforts, advancing projects that highlight the importance ...

University of Virginia scientists have identified a promising approach to delay aging by detoxifying the body of glycerol and glyceraldehyde, harmful by-products of fat that naturally accumulate over time. The new findings come from UVA researcher Eyleen Jorgelina O’Rourke, PhD, and her team, who are seeking to identify the mechanisms driving healthy aging and longevity. Their new work suggests a potential way to do so by reducing glycerol and glyceraldehyde’s health-draining effects. “The discovery was unexpected. We went after a very well-supported hypothesis that the secret to longevity was the activation of a cell-rejuvenating ...

WASHINGTON —In many baseball-obsessed countries like Korea, Japan and the United States,  with spring months comes the start of the season and quite a few balls flying through the air. But it’s not just balls that can be thrown. On the tiniest field imaginable, scientists have now shown they can also throw and catch individual atoms using light. This amazing feat was achieved with optical traps, which use a highly focused laser beam to hold and move tiny objects. Although optical traps have been used to move individual atoms before, this is the first time ...

At this year’s American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) Annual Meeting, held March 7 to 11 in Las Vegas, Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) presented new research on a variety of topics in orthopedic surgery, including studies related to minimally invasive surgery, racial disparities, and opioid alternatives for pain management in spine care. What follows are some highlights from the meeting: Intravenous versus Oral Administration of Acetaminophen Perioperative to Instrumented Lumbar Fusion: A Single-Center, Randomized Controlled Trial In patients undergoing ...

Cancer metastasis is a major cause of cancer-related death. A research team at City University of Hong Kong (CityU) recently identified a protein that triggers the migration of liver and pancreatic cancer cells and metastasis, and is correlated with shortening the survival time of patients. The research findings were verified by in vitro and in vivo models, supported with clinical data, and are expected to provide a new potential target for cancer therapy. “Cancer metastasis is a complex process. Stiffness in tumours and the surrounding tissues is known to increase along with the tumour growth, which creates confined spaces or channel-like tracks of pores for tumour ...

A research paper by scientists at the Hebei University of Technology and Shenzhen University developed an on-chip viscoelasticity sensor for biological fluids. The new research paper, published on Jan. 10, 2023 in the journal Cyborg and Bionic Systems, reported a double-layered microfluidic sensor to detect the ultra-weak viscoelasticity in biological fluids. “Most of human body fluids are non-Newtonian liquids, and the influence of viscoelasticity is often ignored for the sake of simplification of analysis. However, we ...

A review paper by scientists at the Beijing Institute of Technology summarized recent efforts and future potentials in the use of in vitro biological neural networks (BNNs) for the realization of biological intelligence, with a focus on those related to robot intelligence. The review paper, published on Jan. 10 in the journal Cyborg and Bionic Systems, provided an overview of 1) the underpinnings of intelligence presented in in vitro BNNs, such as memory and learning; 2) how these BNNs can be embodied with robots through bidirectional ...

The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology today announced its 2023 class of fellows. The honorific program recognizes scientists who have made outstanding contributions to the field through their research, teaching, mentoring or other forms of service. The society will recognize the 20 new fellows at its annual meeting, Discover BMB, later this month in Seattle. The presentation will be part of the society's presidential address and business meeting scheduled for Saturday, March 25. “This group truly represents members who have ...

Harlequin ichthyosis (HI) is a severe genetic skin disorder characterized by thick white, brown, or dark brown patches on the skin covering a newborn's entire body. HI has a low incidence of 1 per 300,000 live births but comes with the highest mortality rate among skin conditions. It is caused by a mutation in the ABCA12 gene, which codes for a protein involved in transporting lipids necessary for the formation of the skin barrier. Such protein shortage leads to a weaker epidermal barrier. A recent study, co-authored by BGI Genomics Dr. Thomas Qiu, published in Frontiers in Pediatrics covers ...