WHAT: A series of experiments with highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza (HPAI H5N1) viruses circulating in infected U.S. dairy cattle found that viruses derived from lactating dairy cattle induced severe disease in mice and ferrets when administered via intranasal inoculation. The virus from the H5N1-infected cows bound to both avian (bird) and human-type cellular receptors, but, importantly, did not transmit efficiently among ferrets exposed via respiratory droplets. The findings, published in Nature, suggest that bovine (cow) ...

Researchers from Trinity College Dublin have taken a leap forward in understanding how we might fight back against the potentially deadly MRSA bacterium. They have shown in an animal model that targeting a key suppressive immune molecule (IL-10) during the delivery of a vaccine improves the ability of the vaccine to protect against infection. The bacterium Staphylococcus aureus is one of the leading causes of community- and hospital-acquired bacterial infection, and is associated with over one million deaths worldwide each year. Unfortunately, antibiotics are becoming increasingly less effective against this bacterium with the antibiotic-resistant ...

Sauer Receives Funding For Project Studying Tunable RF Atomic Magnetometer As An Electrically Small Receiver Karen Sauer, Professor, Physics and Astronomy, College of Science, received funding for the project: “Tunable RF Atomic Magnetometer as an Electrically Small Receiver.” Sauer will complete work for this project in three phases. In Phase 1, she will focus on developing and investigating novel bias-field control based on fully atom-based measurements as well as testing the performance ...

RESEARCH SUMMARY Study highlights the importance of infection prevention after CAR-T cell therapy Study Title: A systematic review and meta-analysis of nonrelapse mortality after CAR T cell therapy  Publication: Nature Medicine Dana-Farber Cancer Institute authors: David M. Cordas dos Santos, MD, Irene M. Ghobrial, MD, Jean-Baptiste Alberge, PhD Summary: Researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, in collaboration with colleagues from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York (Dr. Kai Rejeski) and the LMU Hospital in Munich, Germany (Dr. Tobias Tix), have found ...

A revised version of the Sexual Experiences Survey – Victimization (SES-V), the gold standard measurement of sexual exploitation designed for adults over age 18, has been released in a special issue of the Journal of Sex Research. As the first revision since 2007, the new SES-V is an interdisciplinary collaboration among experts across more than 10 U.S. universities and the Kinsey Institute, led and coordinated by Dr. Mary Koss from the University of Arizona. It adopts more inclusive language and ...

An exoplanet infamous for its deadly weather has been hiding another bizarre feature—it reeks of rotten eggs, according to a new Johns Hopkins University study of data from the James Webb Space Telescope. The atmosphere of HD 189733 b,  a Jupiter-sized gas giant, has trace amounts of hydrogen sulfide, a molecule that not only gives off a stench but also offers scientists new clues about how sulfur, a building block of planets, might influence the insides and atmospheres of gas worlds beyond the solar system. The findings are published today ...

Vaccinating mothers against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) during late pregnancy to protect their newborns is not associated with an increased risk of preterm birth or other poor outcomes, according to a study by Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian investigators. Infants are particularly vulnerable to the virus which can cause a serious lower respiratory illness. The study published in JAMA Network Open on July 8 adds real-world evidence to the existing data from clinical trials about the safety of Pfizer’s Abrysvo vaccine. The researchers found that there ...

KEY TAKEAWAYS After implementing a new hospice transition program, 210 out of 388 patients (54.1 percent) at Brigham and Women’s Hospital transitioned to hospice from the emergency department (ED) within 96 hours, compared to 61 of 270 patients (22.1 percent) in the control period. Across all groups, the presence of a Medical Order for Life-Sustaining Treatment plan (MOLST), was independently associated with hospice transition. These findings suggest that hospice transition programs can help improve use of hospice for patients presenting at the ED near the end ...

About The Study: Although total dietary quality scores among U.S. children improved overall during 2005-2020, the increase remained suboptimal: lower than 5 points, a significant threshold for children in this analysis of changes in diet quality. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Yongjun Zhang, Ph.D., M.D., email zhangyongjun@sjtu.edu.cn. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2024.1880) Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, ...

About The Study: Survey respondents reported substantial acceptability of hospital-at-home care, which did not vary across sociodemographics, health insurance coverage, health status, prior hospitalizations, or telehealth use. Approximately half of respondents agreed that hospital-at-home care was effective, safe, and convenient. Most indicated capacity to perform many caregiver tasks. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Melissa A. Frasco, Ph.D., email mfrasco@usc.edu. To access the embargoed ...

About The Study: In this population of adults with overweight or obesity, use of tirzepatide was associated with significantly greater weight loss than semaglutide. Future study is needed to understand differences in other important outcomes.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Nicholas L. Stucky, M.D., email nicholass@truveta.com. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2024.2525) Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest ...

In 2020, suicide ranked as the third leading cause of death for adults aged 18 to 20 years in the United States.  Firearms were implicated in approximately half of these cases, and by 2017, they had surpassed motor vehicles as the leading cause of death in this age group. While ongoing debates on gun violence and mental health have increased public support for restricted firearm access, not much is known about the impact of gun control policies on young adults.   To fill this knowledge gap, a recent study published in the August issue of the American Journal of Public Health on July 03, ...

Fukuoka, Japan —The climate crisis is hitting home with more frequent extreme weather events. Companies, particularly those in high-emission industries, are major contributors to global carbon emissions, therefore making them key players in the fight against climate change. Recognizing this responsibility, many businesses are now taking proactive measures to reduce their carbon footprint, by reducing carbon emissions and transparently sharing their environmental strategies and data. The Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures ...

CLEVELAND—There’s only one U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved therapy for an inherited retinal disease, and dozens of retinitis pigmentosa (RP) genes for which no therapy is available. With a new three-year, $1.5 million grant from the Foundation Fighting Blindness, Shigemi Matsuyama, an associate professor of ophthalmology and visual sciences at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, will test a possible breakthrough drug that can be taken by mouth—one that may address many RP disease manifestations, regardless of the underlying genetic mutation. “We believe it can serve as the basis of an oral medicine to prevent blindness in RP ...

Cancer is insidious. Throughout tumor progression, the disease hijacks otherwise healthy biological processes—like the body’s immune response—to grow and spread. When tumors elevate levels of an immune system molecule called Interleukin-6 (IL-6), it can cause severe brain dysfunction. In about 50%-80% of cancer patients, this leads to a lethal wasting disease called cachexia. “It’s a very severe syndrome,” says Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) Professor Bo Li.  “Most people with cancer die of cachexia instead of cancer. And once the patient enters this stage, there’s ...

Pulsed field ablation (PFA) is safe for treating patients with common types of atrial fibrillation (AF), according to the largest study of its kind on this new technology, led by the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.   The “MANIFEST-17K” international study is the first to show important safety outcomes in a large patient population, including no significant risk of esophageal damage, with PFA. PFA is the latest ablation modality approved by the Food and Drug Administration that can be used to restore a regular heartbeat. The findings, published July 8 in Nature Medicine, could lead to more frequent use of PFA instead of conventional therapies to manage AF patients. “MANIEFST-17K ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Why do employees sometimes accept working for an abusive boss?   A new study suggests that when a leader is seen as a high performer, employees are more likely to label abuse as just “tough love.”   Results showed that workers were less likely to show hostility to abusive bosses when the leader’s performance was high, and employees were even likely to think their career could be boosted by a successful – if abusive – boss.   The findings suggest that employees may be reluctant to call a successful boss abusive – ...

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – Angelman syndrome is a rare genetic disorder caused by mutations in the maternally-inherited UBE3A gene and characterized by poor muscle control, limited speech, epilepsy, and intellectual disabilities. Though there isn't a cure for the condition, new research at the UNC School of Medicine is setting the stage for one. Ben Philpot, PhD, the Kenan Distinguished Professor of Cell Biology and Physiology at the UNC School of Medicine and associate director of the UNC Neuroscience Center, and his lab have identified a small molecule that could be safe, non-invasively delivered, and capable of ...

As climate change advances, the ocean’s overturning circulation is predicted to weaken substantially. With such a slowdown, scientists estimate the ocean will pull down less carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. However, a slower circulation should also dredge up less carbon from the deep ocean that would otherwise be released back into the atmosphere. On balance, the ocean should maintain its role in reducing carbon emissions from the atmosphere, if at a slower pace.  However, a new study by an MIT researcher finds that scientists may have to rethink the relationship between the ocean’s circulation and its ...

The largest animals do not have proportionally bigger brains - with humans bucking this trend - a new study published in Nature Ecology and Evolution has revealed. Researchers at the University of Reading and Durham University collected an enormous dataset of brain and body sizes from around 1,500 species to clarify centuries of controversy surrounding brain size evolution. Bigger brains relative to body size are linked to intelligence, sociality, and behavioural complexity – with humans having evolved exceptionally large brains. The new research, published today (Monday, 8 July), reveals the largest animals do not have proportionally bigger brains, ...

A multidisciplinary research team has developed a discovery platform to probe the function of genes involved in metabolism — the sum of all life-sustaining chemical reactions.  The investigators used the new platform, called GeneMAP (Gene-Metabolite Association Prediction), to identify a gene necessary for mitochondrial choline transport. The resource and derived findings were published July 8 in the journal Nature Genetics.  “We sought to gain insight into a fundamental question: ‘How does genetic variation determine our “chemical individuality” — the inherited differences that make us biochemically unique?” said Eric Gamazon, ...

California must implement early retirement for existing heavy-duty vehicles as well as introducing zero-emissions vehicles (ZEVs) to protect Black, Latino and vulnerable communities and hit net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions targets by 2045. This is the outcome of a new study published in Environmental Research: Infrastructure and Sustainability by researchers from Stanford University and Arizona State University.  Stringent policies for mandating both ZEVs and early vehicle retirement could reduce cumulative emissions by two-thirds (64%) and reduce half of pollution-related mortality, particularly among disadvantaged communities.   California is the world’s 5th largest ...

This study presents a significant advancement in fuel cell technology. Researchers from Tokyo Tech identified hexagonal perovskite-related Ba5R2Al2SnO13 oxides (R = rare earth metal) as materials with exceptionally high proton conductivity and thermal stability. Their unique crystal structure and large number of oxygen vacancies enable full hydration and high proton diffusion, making these materials ideal candidates as electrolytes for next-generation protonic ceramic fuel cells that can operate at intermediate temperatures without degradation.   Fuel cells offer a promising solution for clean energy by combining hydrogen and oxygen to generate electricity, ...

Over the past few decades, the world has witnessed tremendous progress in the tools used for genomic analysis. While it’s usually more common to associate these tools with the fields of biology and medicine, they have proven to be very valuable in agriculture as well. Using numerous DNA markers obtained from next-generation sequencing technologies, breeders can make genomic predictions and select promising individuals based on based on their predicted trait values.   Various systems and methodologies aimed at improving the ...

Immobilizing small synthetic molecules inside protein crystals proves to be a promising avenue for studying intermediate compounds formed during chemical reactions, report scientists from Tokyo Tech. By integrating this method with time-resolved serial femtosecond crystallography, they successfully visualized reaction dynamics and rapid structural changes occurring within reaction centers immobilized inside protein crystals. This innovative strategy holds significant potential for the intelligent design of drugs, catalysts, and functional materials. Most complex chemical reactions, whether synthetic or biological, do not involve ...