BOZEMAN – Scientists at Montana State University have been studying unique immune systems for decades, and a research team in the Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology took another step forward with work described in a paper published in the highly regarded journal Nature. The Aug. 7 paper, titled “A virally-encoded tRNA neutralizes the PARIS antiviral defense system,” was fast-tracked for publication by the journal due to the importance of the findings. MSU doctoral student ...

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the higher education non-profit VentureWell have selected 11 winners and five honorable mentions in the Design by Biomedical Undergraduate Teams (DEBUT) Challenge, who are set to receive prizes totaling $160,000. The awards will be presented to the winning teams on Oct. 25, 2024, during the annual Biomedical Engineering Society conference in Baltimore. Now in its 13th year, the annual DEBUT Challenge calls on teams of undergraduate students to identify ...

Three distinct problems in data science — trend identification in graphs, the quantitative study of scientific literature and evaluation of single-cell genomics — will all be addressed by new research in large-scale network analytics, jointly led by Distinguished Professor David Bader at New Jersey Institute of Technology. The problems have a common challenge of finding patterns, known as community detection, from inside incredibly large datasets. Work is funded by a $648,000 National Science Foundation grant, Cyber-Infrastructure ...

Researchers from the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA and their colleagues have received a one-year, $1 million grant as part of a new National Science Foundation program aimed at accelerating the development and commercialization of quantum technologies for the benefit of society. The Quantum Sensing and Imaging Lab, or Q-SAIL, which will be led by UCLA quantum physicist David Leibrandt, is one of five pilot projects across the country selected by the NSF to participate in the agency’s new National Quantum Virtual Laboratory, a first-of-its-kind national resource to enable the faster ...

SAN FRANCISCO—Viruses are tricky to keep up with. They evolve quickly and regularly develop new proteins that help them infect their hosts. These rapid shifts mean that researchers are still trying to understand a multitude of viral proteins and precisely how they increase viruses’ infecting abilities—knowledge that could be crucial for developing new or better virus-fighting treatments. Now, a team of scientists at Gladstone Institutes and the Innovative Genomics Institute led by Jennifer Doudna, PhD, have harnessed computational tools to predict the three-dimensional shapes of nearly 70,000 viral ...

A new era at the University of Virginia’s School of Data Science officially kicked off, as the inaugural class of data science undergraduate majors arrived for orientation on the eve of UVA’s first day of classes.  Throughout the day at the new School of Data Science building, students heard from faculty and staff, learned more about their curriculum, took headshots and a group photograph, and began to familiarize themselves with classrooms and other features of the facility that would be their academic home.  The day also served as a call to action, as students learned not only what requirements would be needed to complete their degree but what a data ...

Embargoed for release until 5:00 p.m. ET on 26 August 2024       Annals of Internal Medicine Tip Sheet        @Annalsofim       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 behalf, but also on behalf of the organization they represent.       ----------------------------    1. High ...

If Medicare Part D narrowly defines cardiovascular disease, majority of patients would remain ineligible while new federal spending could still exceed $10 billion Current federal regulation restricts Medicare from covering drugs prescribed solely for weight loss. However, in March 2024, Medicare announced it would extend coverage to semaglutide (Wegovy), a popular glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist (GLP-1RA), for patients with elevated body mass index (BMI) who also had established cardiovascular disease (CVD). This means that the definition of “established CVD,” which has not been ...

With a grand vision of investing $66 million over 10 years in groundbreaking medical innovations, WEHI’s first strategic investment fund, 66ten, is the largest internal pre-seed and seed fund created by an Australian medical research institute. Managed by WEHI Ventures, 66ten serves the sole purpose of bridging the gap between scientific discoveries and commercial viability, ultimately creating both positive outcomes for patients and healthcare systems globally as well as financial returns to investors.  Since its foundation a year ago, 66ten has ...

LA JOLLA, CA—Fighting cancer effectively often involves stopping cancer cells from multiplying, which requires understanding proteins that the cells rely on to survive. Protein profiling plays a critical role in this process by helping researchers identify proteins—and their specific parts—that future drugs should target. But when used on their own, past approaches haven’t been detailed enough to spotlight all potential protein targets, leading to some being missed. Now, by combining two methods of protein analysis, a team of chemists at Scripps Research has mapped more than 300 small molecule-reactive ...

Simulating particles is a relatively simple task when those particles are spherical. In the real world, however, most particles are not perfect spheres but take on irregular and varying shapes and sizes. Simulating these particles becomes a much more challenging and time-consuming task. The ability to simulate particles is critical to understanding how they behave. For example, microplastics are a new form of pollution as plastic waste has increased drastically and uncontrollably decays in the environment ...

New Orleans, LA. – Ochsner Digital Medicine has teamed up with AmeriHealth Caritas Louisiana to offer digital medicine services to the health plan’s members. Utilizing remote patient management (RPM), Ochsner Digital Medicine and AmeriHealth Caritas Louisiana will work together to help members with certain chronic conditions better manage their health and improve their quality of life. AmeriHealth Caritas Louisiana, part of the AmeriHealth Caritas Family of Companies, is a Healthy Louisiana managed Medicaid health plan covering ...

New methods to shape RNA molecules into circles could lead to more effective and long-lasting therapies, shows a study by researchers at the University of California San Diego. The advance holds promise for a range of diseases, offering a more enduring alternative to existing RNA therapies, which often suffer from short-lived effectiveness in the body.    The work was published Aug. 26 in Nature Biomedical Engineering. RNA molecules have emerged as powerful tools in modern medicine. They can silence ...

As electronic devices continue to get smaller and smaller, physical size limitations are beginning to disrupt the trend of doubling transistor density on silicon-based microchips approximately every two years according to Moore’s law. Molecular electronics—the use of single molecules as the building blocks for electronic components—offers a potential pathway for the continued miniaturization of small-scale electronic devices. Devices that utilize molecular electronics require precise control over the flow of electrical current. However, the dynamic nature of these single molecule components affects device performance and impacts ...

Over 12,000 feet below the surface of the sea, in a region of the Pacific Ocean known as the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ), million-year-old rocks cover the seafloor. These rocks may seem lifeless, but nestled between the nooks and crannies on their surfaces, tiny sea creatures and microbes make their home, many uniquely adapted to life in the dark.  These deep-sea rocks, called polymetallic nodules, don’t only host a surprising number of sea critters. A team of scientists that includes Boston University experts has discovered they ...

At the end of the Paleocene and beginning of the Eocene epochs, between 59 to 51 million years ago, Earth experienced dramatic warming periods, both gradual periods stretching millions of years and sudden warming events known as hyperthermals. Driving this planetary heat up were massive emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases, but other factors like tectonic activity may have also been at play. New research led by University of Utah geoscientists pairs sea surface temperatures with levels ...

Lithium-ion (or Li-ion) batteries are heavy hitters when it comes to the world of rechargeable batteries. As electric vehicles become more common in the world, a high-energy, low-cost battery utilizing the abundance of manganese (Mn) can be a sustainable option to become commercially available and utilized in the automobile industry. Currently, batteries used for powering electric vehicles (EVs) are nickel (Ni) and cobalt (Co)-based, which can be expensive and unsustainable for a society with a growing desire for EVs. By switching the positive electrode ...

The Lundquist Institute for Biomedical Innovation at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center (TLI) announced updates to its Board of Directors today. TLI welcomes one new distinguished member and thanks the two outgoing members for their invaluable contributions. “On behalf of the Board, I am delighted that Dr. Bill Dorfman, a global leader in cosmetic dentistry, has joined the TLI Board. Dr. Dorfman's extensive expertise and commitment to philanthropy make him an invaluable addition to our leadership,” said Mitchel Sayare, PhD, TLI Board ...

Parents who recently experienced intimate partner violence reported more parenting stress and higher potential for child maltreatment, and were less likely to use positive parenting strategies, according to UTHealth Houston research published Aug. 26, 2024, in JAMA Pediatrics. “Our findings demonstrate the collateral damage of domestic violence — that the negative consequences are not limited to the couple and instead have the potential to affect how they parent, and ultimately the health of their children. We must expend every effort to prevent this public health problem,” said Jeff Temple, PhD, ...

How would you summarize your study for a lay audience?  Immune checkpoint inhibitors are cancer fighting drugs that help the immune system do its job of detecting and attacking tumor cells. Programmed Cell Death 1 (PD-1) is a common target for this type of drug—it is a protein that sits on the surface of T cells and helps regulate the immune system’s response to neighboring cells, both normal and cancerous. While most research efforts to date have focused on PD-1’s role in T cells, it is also active in many other kinds of cells—including cancer cells as first demonstrated by the Schatton ...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories and Arizona State University, two research powerhouses, are collaborating to push the boundaries of quantum technology and transform large-scale optical systems into compact integrated microsystems. Nils Otterstrom, a Sandia physicist specializing in integrated photonics, is at the forefront of scaling down optical systems to the size of a chip. This innovation offers performance advantages and scalability for an array of applications from advanced computing to secure communications. “Integrated ...

Nothing in science can be achieved or understood without measurement. Today, thanks to advances in quantum sensing, scientists can measure things that were once impossible to even imagine: vibrations of atoms, properties of individual photons, fluctuations associated with gravitational waves. A quantum mechanical trick called “spin squeezing” is widely recognized to hold promise for supercharging the capabilities of the world’s most precise quantum sensors, but it’s been notoriously difficult to achieve. In new research, Harvard physicists describe how they’ve put spin squeezing ...

Colorado State University is leading a new interdisciplinary research project into the ways predators and prey in sensitive ecosystems may react to climate change based on their physiology, genetics and relationships to each other.  Led by Professor Chris Funk in the Department of Biology, the project is funded by the National Science Foundation’s Organismal Response to Climate Change program and will focus on interactions between cutthroat trout and tailed frogs in Pacific Northwest streams. This approach is one of the first times researchers have tried to test both the effects of evolution and ...

What: The 2024 CBTN Summit hosted by the Children's Brain Tumor Network (CBTN) assembles the brightest minds in Pediatric Brian Tumor research for this annual conference. The event is free but attendees must register in advance. Register at network.cbtn.org/cbtn-summit Where: In person at AWS Headquarters Amazon WAS16 Aurora, 1770 Crystal Dr, Arlington, VA 22202 Virtual attendance available worldwide. When: October 9-11, 2024 Why: This event is an opportunity ...

About The Study: Patients with post–COVID-19 mRNA vaccination myocarditis, contrary to those with post–COVID-19 myocarditis, show a lower frequency of cardiovascular complications than those with conventional myocarditis at 18 months. However, affected patients, mainly healthy young men, may require medical management up to several months after hospital discharge. Corresponding Authors: To contact the corresponding authors, email Laura Semenzato, MSc (laura.semenzato@assurance-maladie.fr) and Mahmoud Zureik, MD, PhD (Mahmoud.ZUREIK@ansm.sante.fr). To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The ...