Early findings from a small clinical trial provide evidence that a new cellular immunotherapy approach may be effective in treating metastatic solid tumors. In the trial, researchers from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) genetically engineered normal white blood cells, known as lymphocytes, from each patient to produce receptors that recognize and attack their specific cancer cells. These initial findings are from people with metastatic colorectal cancer who had already undergone multiple earlier treatments. The personalized immunotherapy shrank tumors in several patients and was able to keep the tumors from regrowing for up to seven months. ...

The COVID-19 pandemic significantly disrupted daily life and has raised concerns about its impact on children’s well-being. A new study from the NIH Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes Program (ECHO) sheds light on how a neighborhood’s physical and social environment influenced a child’s well-being before and during the pandemic. According to an analysis of ECHO Cohort data, the neighborhood environment was less likely to be associated with child well-being during the ...

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) — Birds migrating. Your cat, returning home from a day of roaming. Bees taking pollen to their hives. You, finding yourself back home without actually remembering the drive from work. Animal navigation is a fundamental behavior, so innate that most of the time we don’t notice that we’re doing it. And yet, so many times a day we (and the animals around us) unerringly find our ways to our target locations whether they be old haunts or new venues, from different directions and even in the dark. How do we do it? That’s the question UC Santa Barbara neurobiologist Sung Soo Kim seeks to ...

CLEVELAND AND NAIROBI — July 11, 2024 — Today, the American Journal of Human Genetics published a perspective piece on the need for an equitable and inclusive future for DNA and ancient DNA (aDNA) research in Africa. The paper, coauthored by an international team of 36 scientists from Africa, North America, Asia, Australia, and Europe, was led by Dr. Elizabeth (Ebeth) Sawchuk of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and Dr. Kendra Sirak of Harvard University. DNA from ancient and living African peoples is critical for researchers studying our species’ evolution and population ...

Cooperative hunting, resource sharing, and using the same signals to communicate the same information—these are all examples of cultural sharing that have been observed between distinct animal species. In an opinion piece published June 19 in the journal Trends in Ecology & Evolution, researchers introduce the term “co-culture” to describe cultural sharing between animal species. These relationships are mutual and go beyond one species watching and mimicking another species’ behavior—in co-cultures, both species influence each other in substantial ways. “Co-culture challenges the notion ...

As container ships the size of city blocks cross the oceans to deliver cargo, their huge diesel engines emit large quantities of air pollutants that drive climate change and have human health impacts. It has been estimated that maritime shipping accounts for almost 3 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions and the industry’s negative impacts on air quality cause about 100,000 premature deaths each year. Decarbonizing shipping to reduce these detrimental effects is a goal of the International Maritime Organization, ...

Scientists investigating Alzheimer’s disease have determined the structure of molecules within a human brain for the very first time.   Published today in Nature, the study describes how scientists used cryo-electron tomography, guided by fluorescence microscopy, to explore deep inside an Alzheimer’s disease donor brain.  This gave 3-dimensional maps in which they could observe proteins, the molecular building blocks of life a million-times smaller than a grain of rice, within the brain.  The study zoomed in on two proteins that cause dementia– ‘β-amyloid’, a protein that forms microscopic ...

EL PASO, Texas (July 11, 2024) – Researchers at The University of Texas at El Paso have made significant inroads in understanding how nanoplastics and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) — commonly known as forever chemicals — disrupt biomolecular structure and function. The work shows that the compounds can alter proteins found in human breast milk and infant formulas — potentially causing developmental issues downstream. Nanoplastics and forever chemicals are manmade compounds present throughout the environment; a series of recent studies have linked them to numerous ...

What is the structure of a particular molecule? And how do molecules interact with each other? Researchers interested in those questions frequently use nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy to find answers. In NMR, a powerful external magnetic field is employed to align the spins of atomic nuclei, which are then induced to rotate by an oscillating weak magnetic field generated by coils. A change in voltage as a result can be converted to measurable frequencies. Based on this, researchers can identify the molecular structures while also revealing ...

A new report shows that research projects at The University of Texas at Arlington contributed one quarter of a billion dollars—$226.4 million, to be exact—to the national economy through 797 vendor contracts and subcontracts between 2018 and 2022. Of those contracts, 111 were from small businesses and 87 from minority- or woman-owned businesses. “Research coming from UT Arlington faculty and students not only helps solve some of society’s most vexing problems, but it is also an important economic driver for business development,” said Kate C. Miller, vice president for research and innovation at UTA. “This report makes clear that UTA research ...

The great promise of bacteriophages is that they naturally destroy bacteria, often in situations where antibiotics fail. Until now, though, there has been no way to access them quickly and efficiently, especially in emergency cases of antibiotic resistant infections. Researchers at McMaster University, working with a colleague from Université Laval, have developed a simple new way to store, identify, and share phages, making them more accessible to patients who need them. “Bacteriophages ...

HOUSTON ― The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center’s Research Highlights provides a glimpse into recent basic, translational and clinical cancer research from MD Anderson experts. 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.  Recent developments at MD Anderson offer insights into mechanisms regulating metabolic programming and cellular senescence, ...

Ann Arbor, July 11, 2024 – Investigators analyzing the potential cognitive effects of antidiabetic medications in records of more than 1.5 million patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) found risks of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) were significantly lower in patients treated with metformin and sodium glucose co-transporter-2 inhibitors (SGLT-2i) compared to other antidiabetic drugs. Their results appear in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, published by Elsevier. T2DM has become ...

An international research team has assembled the genome and 3D chromosomal structures of a 52,000-year-old woolly mammoth—the first time such a feat has been achieved for any ancient DNA sample. The fossilized chromosomes, which are around a million times longer than most ancient DNA fragments, provide insight into how the mammoth’s genome was organized within its living cells and which genes were active within the skin tissue from which the DNA was extracted. This unprecedented level of structural detail was retained because ...

An increased amount of thick sea ice flowing south from the Arctic Ocean shortened the ice-free shipping season in several parts of the Northwest Passage between 2007 and 2021, according to an analysis in Communications Earth & Environment. The authors suggest this could mean the Northwest Passage is unlikely to become a viable alternative to traditional shipping routes, despite previous hopes that it may become viable due to global warming. The Northwest Passage (NWP) is a commercial shipping route connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans that runs through the Arctic Circle north of North America. Through the Canadian ...

DURHAM, N.C. – Certain state gun laws are associated with decreased suicide rates for children under age 18, but the laws have little influence on homicide rates, according to a study from Duke Health researchers examining the relationship between gun laws and child deaths.   Since 2020, firearms rank as the leading cause of death among U.S. children ages 1-18, raising the need for research to help guide prevention efforts.   “Our analysis of suicide and homicide mortality data from ...

About The Study: Substance use treatment facilities reported significant gaps in provision of effective treatments for opioid use disorder (OUD). More than one-third of facilities did not offer medications for OUD (MOUD) and less than half offered multiple MOUD types, limiting MOUD treatment options for patients and clinicians.   Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Tae Woo Park, M.D., M.Sc., email parkt4@upmc.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/  (doi:10.1001/jama.2024.11913) Editor’s ...

About The Study: In this cross-sectional study of U.S. children, nicotine absorption was much lower in children who were exposed to secondhand vapor versus secondhand smoke, but higher than in those exposed to neither. These findings suggest that switching from smoking to vaping indoors may substantially reduce, but not eliminate, children’s secondhand exposure to nicotine and other noxious substances.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Harry Tattan-Birch, Ph.D., email h.tattan-birch@ucl.ac.uk. To ...

About The Study: This comparative effectiveness research study demonstrated that self-fit over-the-counter hearing aids can offer comparable long-term benefits to audiologist-fit hearing aids for individuals with mild to moderate hearing loss.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Karina C. De Sousa, Ph.D., email karina.swanepoel@up.ac.za. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamaoto.2024.1825) Editor’s Note: Please ...

Children exposed to vaping indoors absorb less than one seventh the amount of nicotine as children who are exposed to indoor smoking, but more than those exposed to neither, according to a new study led by UCL researchers. The study, published in JAMA Network Open and funded by Cancer Research UK, looked at blood tests and survey data for 1,777 children aged three to 11 in the United States. The researchers said that second-hand exposure to harmful substances in e-cigarettes would likely be much lower still, as e-cigarettes deliver similar levels of nicotine to tobacco but contain only a fraction of the toxicants and ...

– By William Ferguson When it comes to figuring out why electric aircraft batteries lose power over time, one typically wouldn’t think to turn to a decades-old approach biologists use to study the structure and function of components in living organisms. However, it turns out that omics, a field that helped scientists unravel the secrets of the human genome, could also soon play a key role in making carbon-free air travel a reality. In a new study in the journal Joule, a team of researchers led ...

Images A battery component innovation could help keep power delivery high when electric aircraft land with low charge, according to a study led by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory with expertise from the University of Michigan.  The research provides a solution to a problem identified in 2018 in a study led by Venkat Viswanathan, a professor of aerospace engineering at U-M and a coauthor of the new work published in Joule.  "Both takeoff and landing require high power, and landing is more challenging because you’re not fully charged," Viswanathan said. "To get high power you ...

Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU) researchers have discovered that patients with 18q deletion syndrome can experience both cellular and humoral immunodeficiency Tokyo, Japan – Chromosome 18q deletion  (18q del) syndromeis a rare genetic condition disorder, affecting approximately 1 in 40,000 to 55,000 individuals, caused by the deletion of genetic material on the long arm of chromosome 18. This genetic anomaly disrupts normal growth and development, and critically, can impair the immune system's functionality. Patients with 18q del syndrome often exhibit humoral immunodeficiency or a common ...

On June 30, 2024, SciOpen 2.0 was officially launched. Developed by Tsinghua University Press, SciOpen initially made its debut in June 2022 as an international digital publishing platform for STM journals. After two years of global operation and continuous iterative upgrades, SciOpen 2.0 has fully embraced the best practices of mainstream publishing models. SciOpen has completed a comprehensive upgrade of its interactive system design and has integrated advanced large-model AI reading capabilities, marking a significant leap forward in its functionality.   These updates steer SciOpen towards ...

(Toronto, July 11, 2024) JMIR Publications invites submissions to a new theme issue titled “Artificial Intelligence in Oncology” in its premier open access journal JMIR Bioinformatics and Biotechnology indexed in PubMed Central and PubMed, SCOPUS, Sherpa/Romeo, DOAJ and EBSCO/EBSCO Essentials. Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to revolutionize oncology by enhancing diagnostic accuracy, personalizing treatment plans, predicting patient outcomes, and accelerating drug discovery. Researchers, clinicians, and industry experts are invited ...