In the 35 years before the covid-19 pandemic, the US government invested at least $337 million into critical research that led to the mRNA covid-19 vaccines, finds a study published by The BMJ today. The US government also paid $31.6 billion during the pandemic to support vaccine research, production, and to purchase vaccines for all Americans and for global donation. These public investments saved millions of lives - and mRNA vaccine technology also has the potential to address future pandemics and treat other diseases. But the researchers ...

Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech have recently announced plans to increase the price of their respective mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, thrusting them into the spotlight of debates around drug price hikes. A new study, led by investigators from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham health care system, analyzed the role of public funding in the development of mRNA vaccines. In a systematic assessment, the team found that over the last 35 years, three federal agencies—the National Institutes of Health, the Department ...

New research from the Work Foundation at Lancaster University reveals that while two thirds of senior business leaders (66%) agree that employers have a ‘substantial role’ to play in supporting staff through the rising cost of living, only 40% have introduced new support measures since the start of 2022.  At the same time, four in ten business leaders (41%) also report increases in production costs in their organisation. Pressures that are likely to increase, the Work Foundation ...

Tucked away in a small, dark room at UPMC Hillman Cancer Center, Brittani Schnable is on a fishing expedition. Wielding a joystick similar to those used by video gamers, she casts microscopic beads into an ocean of molecules, pushing and pulling the beads apart until they eventually catch a strand of DNA. After a few taps of the keyboard, a lightshow begins. A burst of colors flashes across the black screen like fireworks exploding in the night sky. Although these colors seem random at first, a pattern starts to emerge. Lines of blue and red light streak across the screen: A DNA repair protein has bound to the site of damage. Schnable, a Ph.D. student in Dr. Bennett ...

Loss of muscle strength can be one of the most damaging outcomes when someone is unable to move a part of their body for a long period of time.   But a new Edith Cowan University (ECU) study may have found a way to offset or even protect against this — and it doesn’t even involve the affected body part at all.   Injury or illness may see a part of the body incapacitated for weeks or even months, causing unused muscles to weaken and lose their mass and strength, which can have ...

Regular physical activity can improve adolescents’ mental health and help with behavioural difficulties, research suggests. Engaging in regular moderate to vigorous physical activity at age 11 was associated with better mental health between the ages of 11 and 13, the study found. Physical activity was also associated with reduced hyperactivity and behavioural problems, such as loss of temper, fighting with other children, lying, and stealing, in young people. Researchers from the Universities of Edinburgh, Strathclyde, Bristol, and Georgia in the United States explored data from the Children of the 90s study (also known as the Avon Longitudinal Study of ...

Diabetes mellitus, simply called diabetes, is a metabolic disorder characterized by the presence of abnormally high concentrations of glucose in blood. Existing methods for the diagnosis of diabetes rely on traditional techniques of detecting glucose in blood serum samples—a process that is typically tedious and expensive. Molecular recognition is the science of accurately detecting specific compounds by exploiting their binding properties. Here, a receptor molecule–a kind of sensor–selectively binds to a target molecule. This process triggers some reaction, say, a change ...

A good night’s sleep can solve all sorts of problems – but scientists have now discovered new evidence that sleeping well may make you less vulnerable to infection. Scientists at the University of Bergen recruited medical students working in doctors’ surgeries to hand out short questionnaires to patients, asking about sleep quality and recent infections. They found that patients who reported sleeping too little or too much were more likely also to report a recent infection, and patients ...

Study Suggests EHR-Focused Interventions Can Significantly Reduce Unnecessary Urine Cultures Among Hospital Patients Initiative highlighted in AJIC provides model for resource-limited institutions to decrease overdiagnosis and overtreatment of asymptomatic bacterial infections Arlington, Va., March 2, 2023 – Physicians in the largest safety-net hospital system in the United States used two electronic health record (EHR)-focused interventions to significantly reduce inappropriate urine cultures among hospitalized patients. Findings from their study, published in the ...

Scientists at the University of Sussex have successfully trialed new biodegradable health sensors that could change the way we experience personal healthcare and fitness monitoring technology.   The team at Sussex have developed the new health sensors – such as those worn by runners or patients to monitor heart rate and temperature – using natural elements like rock salt, water and seaweed, combined with graphene. Because they are solely made with ingredients found in nature, the sensors are fully biodegradable, making them more environmentally friendly than commonly used rubber and plastic-based alternatives. Their natural ...

Des Plaines, IL — When compared to cocaine exposure alone, cocaine and ethanol exposure in emergency department (ED) patients with acute drug overdose was significantly associated with higher occurrence of cardiac arrest, higher mean lactate concentrations, and lower occurrence of myocardial injury. This is the conclusion of a study titled, Cocaethylene cardiotoxicity in emergency department patients with acute drug overdose published in the February issue of Academic Emergency Medicine (AEM), the peer-reviewed journal of the Society for Academic Emergency ...

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death among men. One of the standard approaches for the diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer involves transperineal (TP) biopsy. This involves inserting a needle through the perineum wall to collect tissue samples. Current methods for TP biopsy generally include a pre-operation MRI scan and a transrectal ultrasound. These images are then fused together and shown on a monitor to the urologist, who then inserts the needle. The needle insertion can be ...

A team of global experts has discovered new signals of natural selection in humans.  Led by UC Santa Barbara Tsimane Health and Life History Project co-director Michael Gurven, the team studied two populations living in the Bolivian Amazon rainforest — the Tsimane and the Moseten. Previous studies show that these tropical populations are exposed to many parasites and a variety of pathogens; at the same time, the Tsimane rarely suffer from cardiovascular diseases and dementia. This new research suggests that the Tsimane genome has undergone selection ...

A large Bronze Age debris deposit in Mycenae, Greece provides important data for understanding the history of animal resources at the site, according to a study published March 1, 2023 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Jacqueline Meier of the University of North Florida and colleagues. Animals were an important source of subsistence and symbolism at the Late Bronze Age site of Mycenae in Greece, as evidenced by their depictions in art and architecture, but more research is needed on the animals ...

A survey study of U.S. college students provides new insights into factors associated with the tendency to engage in celebrity stalking behaviors. Maria Wong (Idaho State University, U.S.), Lynn McCutcheon (North American Journal of Psychology, U.S.), Joshua Rodefer (Mercer University, U.S.) and Kenneth Carter (Emory University, U.S.) present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on March 1, 2023. Celebrities around the world deal with the threat of unwanted and threatening or intimidating attention or harassment—commonly known as stalking. A growing body of research is exploring and identifying factors that are associated ...

Most people find sharks threatening. Who doesn’t have an image in their mind of a menacing shark fin racing through the ocean in search of its next meal?  But it is the shark that is threatened.  According to Defenders of Wildlife, a national nonprofit dedicated to protecting imperiled species, 75% of shark species are threatened with extinction and up to 73 million sharks are being killed each year for their fins.  Habitats that were once secure places for sharks to give birth have also been affected. And the fact that sharks have long gestation periods, giving birth ...

**Strictly embargoed until 19:00 (GMT) Wednesday 1 March 2023**    Scientists discover how to prevent death of nerve cells in most common forms of MND and dementia   Researchers from the University of Sheffield’s Institute of Translational Neuroscience have discovered how to prevent the death of nerve cells and protect nerves from neurodegeneration in the most common forms of MND and frontotemporal dementia The researchers used a peptide, a small assembly of amino acids or protein bricks, with a cell-penetrating ...

Black women at high risk of breast cancer face a variety of obstacles that may keep them from care that could prevent cancer and increase the chances they’ll survive if they develop the disease, new research has found. A study from researchers at The Ohio State University provides insights into the factors that contribute to racial disparities in use of preventive measures, including genetic testing, prophylactic mastectomies and medication to thwart breast cancer. In the new study, which appears today (March 1, 2023) in the journal PLOS ONE, the ...

A world-first model of paleoclimate and hydrology in Iran has highlighted favourable routes for Neanderthals and modern human expansions eastwards into Asia.  Published in PLOS ONE, the findings reveal for the first time that multiple humid periods in ancient Iran led to the expansions of human populations, opening dispersal route across the region, and the possible interactions of species such as Neanderthals and our own Homo sapiens.   Professor Michael Petraglia, a key researcher in the study, said historic humid ...

Queen Mary University of London and Francis Crick Institute press release Under strict embargo: 19:00hrs GMT Wednesday March 1, 2023 Peer reviewed  Experimental study  Cells  Vitamin B5 could help improve red blood cell production in people with Myelodysplastic syndromes Scientists from Barts Cancer Institute at Queen Mary University of London and the Francis Crick Institute, have uncovered why patients with a rare type of blood cancer suffer from ineffective red blood cell production, and how vitamin B5 could be combined with existing drugs to improve outcomes. Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) are a type of blood cancer characterised ...

Some areas of the adult brain contain quiescent, or dormant, neural stem cells that can potentially be reactivated to form new neurons. However, the transition from quiescence to proliferation is still poorly understood. A team led by scientists from the Universities of Geneva (UNIGE) and Lausanne (UNIL) has discovered the importance of cell metabolism in this process and identified how to wake up these neural stem cells and reactivate them. Biologists succeeded in increasing the number of new neurons in the brain of adult and ...

Epigenetic changes in the regulation of a key gene in the body’s stress response system were detected in babies and young children with abusive injuries, as opposed to accidental, according to a pilot study published in the journal Pediatric Research. The epigenome influences levels of gene expression in response to the physical, social and emotional environment, without altering the DNA sequence. Multiple studies in adults have found that traumatic and adverse childhood experiences are associated with epigenetic alterations in the FKBP5 gene, an important regulator ...

BOSTON – In people with type 1 diabetes, the body’s immune system attacks and destroys insulin-producing β cells that control blood glucose levels and are part of a group of cells in the pancreas called pancreatic islets. In research published in Cell Reports Medicine, a team led by investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), a founding member of Mass General Brigham, recently developed an efficient way to transplant pancreatic islets and demonstrated that the method can effectively reverse type 1 diabetes in nonhuman primates. Pancreatic islet transplantation is a promising treatment approach for type 1 diabetes; however, current methods, ...

ORLANDO, March 1, 2023 — A University of Central Florida researcher has received funding from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to enhance the current understanding of artificial intelligence (AI) reasoning. The project focuses on developing algorithms to create robust multi-modal explanations for foundation, or large, AI models through the exploration of several novel explainable AI methods. The DOE recently awarded $400,000 to fund the project. The project was one of 22 proposals selected for the DOE’s 2022 Exploratory Research for Extreme-Scale Science (EXPRESS) grant, which promotes the study ...

Since its approval in 2012, HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, has shown promise in reducing HIV infection rates by preventing infection in high-risk HIV-negative people. However, research shows that only around three percent of sexual and gender minority (SGM) adolescents who are eligible for PrEP have used it. In a new study, Christopher Owens, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Health Behavior at the Texas A&M University School of Public Health, explores factors that may be associated with parents’ acceptance of their SGM adolescent using PrEP. The study, published in the journal AIDS ...