Antarctica’s unique ecosystems could be threatened by the arrival of non-native marine species and marine pollution from Southern Hemisphere landmasses, new oceanographic modelling shows.  In a study published today in Global Change Biology, scientists from UNSW Sydney, ANU, University of Otago and the University of South Florida suggest that floating objects can reach Antarctic waters from more sources than previously thought. “An increasing abundance of plastics and other human made debris in the oceans means there are potentially more opportunities ...

A recent study has explored the legal and ethical challenges expected to arise in human brain organoid research. Human brain organoids are three-dimensional neural tissues derived from stem cells that can mimic some aspects of the human brain. Their use holds incredible promise for medical advancements, but this also raises complex ethical and legal questions that need careful consideration. Seeking to examine the various legal challenges that might arise in the context of human brain organoid research and its applications, the team of researchers, which included a legal scholar, identified and ...

University of Queensland researchers have discovered a mechanism in DNA that regulates how disease-causing mutations are inherited.   Dr Anne Hahn and Associate Professor Steven Zuryn from UQ’s Queensland Brain Institute said the findings could provide a promising therapeutic avenue to stop the onset of heritable and age-related diseases.  “Mitochondrial DNA is essential for cell function,” Dr Hahn said.   “But as we age it mutates, contributing to diseases ...

LA JOLLA, CA—In a struggle that probably sounds familiar to dieters everywhere, the less a Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) worm eats, the more slowly it loses fat. Now, scientists at Scripps Research have discovered why: a small molecule produced by the worms’ intestines during fasting travels to the brain to block a fat-burning signal during this time. Although the exact molecule they identified in the worms has not yet been studied in humans, the new work helps scientists better ...

Modelling study using data on 854 European cities is the first to estimate current and future deaths from hot and cold temperatures at this level of regional detail for the entire continent.  Study suggests existing regional disparities in death risk from hot and cold temperatures among adults will widen in the future due to climate change and ageing populations.  A slight decline in cold-related deaths is projected by 2100, while deaths from heat will increase in all parts of Europe, most significantly in southern regions. Areas worst affected will include Spain, Italy, Greece and parts of France.   Currently, around eight times ...

Suicide rates among doctors have declined over time, but are still significantly higher for female doctors compared with the general population, finds an analysis of evidence from 20 countries published by The BMJ today. The researchers acknowledge that physician suicide risk varies across different countries and regions, but say the results highlight the ongoing need for continued research and prevention efforts, particularly among female physicians. According to some estimates, one doctor dies by suicide every day in the US, and ...

High doses of psilocybin - the active ingredient in magic mushrooms - appears to have a similar effect on depressive symptoms as the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) drug escitalopram, suggests a systematic review and meta-analysis published in The BMJ today. The findings show that patients treated with high dose psilocybin showed better responses than those treated with placebo in antidepressant trials, although the effect size was small. The researchers point out that flaws in study designs may have overestimated the effectiveness ...

Cold water swimming is growing in popularity amongst women, but more support is needed to make many wild swimming sites in the UK safer and more accessible, finds a new study led by UCL researchers. The research, published in Women’s Health, explored the habits of women who enjoy cold water swimming and was carried out in collaboration with researchers from the University of Portsmouth, University of Sussex, University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust, University of Plymouth and Bournemouth University. The team surveyed 1,114 women in the UK aged 16 to 80 years ...

The animal tranquilizer xylazine is increasingly found in the illicit opioid supply nationwide, leading to severe wounds among people who use drugs. New research led by a University of Pittsburgh physician-scientist and published in Drug and Alcohol Dependence seeks to understand wound care experiences of this population.  A cross-sectional survey of people who use drugs identified through three syringe service providers in Massachusetts found the vast majority had experienced xylazine wounds in the prior year. As the need for comprehensive, low barrier wound care grows, access to such care continues to lag behind the demand. As a result, these wounds often lead to serious ...

MADISON — While the COVID-19 pandemic quickly reversed decades of progress in closing the gap between life expectancies for Black and white people in the United States, the disease’s toll may have obscured the impact of another significant public health concern — a sharp increase in homicide rates — on the life expectancy of Black men, according to researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. In 2019, Black men in the U.S. were expected to live an average of 71.4 years, ...

HOUSTON ― The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center today was awarded nine grants totaling over $21.4 million from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) in support of two new core facilities, faculty recruitment and groundbreaking cancer research across all areas of the institution. “We are enormously appreciative of CPRIT’s support of impactful cancer research initiatives at MD Anderson,” said Peter WT Pisters, M.D., president of MD Anderson. “These new core facilities will help advance important areas of research in spatial biology and decision ...

The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded $26 million to establish a new Gen-4 Engineering Research Center (ERC) named Environmentally Applied Refrigerant Technology Hub (EARTH) to create a sustainable and circular refrigerant economy. The University of Kansas is the lead institution, joined by partners at Lehigh University, University of Notre Dame, University of Maryland, University of Hawai'i and University of South Dakota. David Vicic, the Howard S. Bunn Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, will lead Lehigh’s team. Mark Shiflett, University of Kansas Foundation Distinguished Professor in the Department of Chemical & Petroleum Engineering, will be the ERC EARTH ...

Brooke Flammang, a biologist at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), has been awarded nearly $680,000 from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) as part of a growing nationwide effort to save the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis). NOAA Fisheries recently unveiled a more than $9 million initiative funded by the Inflation Reduction Act to support a coalition of universities, nonprofits and scientific organizations engaged in the recovery of the species, which has seen its numbers dwindle to roughly 360 individuals ...

LAWRENCE — The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded the University of Kansas $26 million to establish a new Gen-4 Engineering Research Center (ERC) —Environmentally Applied Refrigerant Technology Hub (EARTH) — that will create a sustainable and circular refrigerant economy. NSF’s Engineering Research Centers bring universities and businesses together to strengthen the competitive position of American industry in the global marketplace. “NSF's Engineering Research Centers ask big questions in order to catalyze ...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The Sandia Science & Technology Park is being credited with playing a critical role in New Mexico’s economy over the last 25 years, creating high-paying jobs and bringing state-of-the-art technologies to the marketplace. A study by the Mid-Region Council of Governments shows that over that time, businesses located within the technology park paid out $7.7 billion in wages in the five-county region of Bernalillo, Sandoval, Valencia, Torrance and southern Santa Fe counties. It also shows the park generated ...

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – Two Marshall University innovators, Brad Profitt, DC, DPT, DScPT, and M’Hamed Turki, M.D., have been selected to participate in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded IDeA Regional Entrepreneurship Development (I-RED) Program, facilitated by the XLerator Network.  The NIH’s competitive I-RED program supports the creation of educational products to promote entrepreneurship in academic institutions. XLerator Health, a health care accelerator based in Louisville, Kentucky, assists startup founders like Profitt and Turki in commercializing their businesses and attracting funding.  Profitt is a co-founder ...

New Rochelle, NY, August 21, 2024—Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania, Perelman School of Medicine, Gene Therapy Program, and Moderna, have shown that repeated administration of lipid nanoparticle-encapsulated mRNA therapy significantly extended survival and reduced serum leucine levels in a mouse model of maple syrup urine disease (MSUD). Click here to read the article now. The researchers, led by James Wilson, M.D., Ph.D., from the University of Pennsylvania, Perelman School of Medicine, evaluated a lipid nanoparticle-based treatment approach to address all possible genetic mutations that can cause MSUD. “Repeated intravenous ...

A U.S. Army Medical Materiel Development Activity commercial partner received Emergency Use Authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the Department of Defense to use octaplasLG Powder—a potentially lifesaving treatment option for blood replacement therapies in certain operational circumstances. Notice of the EUA for this product was received by the company, Octapharma USA, on Aug. 8, 2024. USAMMDA’s Warfighter Protection and Acute Care Project Management Office, which has a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement with Octapharma USA, manages research and development efforts for several ...

Pennington Biomedical Research Center’s Dr. Candida Rebello wants to know more about the intersection of blood sugar levels and a diet rich in soy. This intersection is the primary focus of her new study, “Lifestyle Intervention for Improving Metabolic and Motivational Outcomes,” or MOTIVATE, which explores how specific diets can impact blood sugar, and potentially improve mood and energy levels.   When soy seeds are cut, they produce the anti-microbial compound known as glyceollin, which has been shown to improve insulin sensitivity and cognition. The cut soy seeds will be milled into flour and will be included in the diets of some of the participants. The MOTIVATE ...

When UC San Francisco research showed that routinely treating children in Sub-Saharan Africa with a common antibiotic could reduce deaths in children under five, the World Health Organization (WHO) moved quickly to recommend the treatment – but only for infants between 1 and 11 months old.     Now, UCSF researchers have shown that treating babies is not enough. The antibiotic must be given to all children up to 5 years old to realize its full benefit, which is considerable: It lowers child mortality ...

RESEARCH SUMMARY Study Title: Belzutifan Versus Everolimus for Advanced Renal-Cell Carcinoma Publication: New England Journal of Medicine, August 22, 2024 Dana-Farber Cancer Institute authors: Toni K. Choueiri, MD Summary: The LITESPARK-005 phase 3 clinical enrolled 746 patients with metastatic clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) who had progressed after treatment with both an immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) and an anti-angiogenic therapy. Patients were randomized to receive treatment with either belzutifan, a HIF-2α inhibitor, or everolimus. Overabundant HIF-2α is associated with increased cancer-driving activity. At the second interim analysis of this study, ...

When you get infected with a virus, some of the first weapons your body deploys to fight it were passed down to us from our microbial ancestors billions of years ago. According to new research from The University of Texas at Austin, two key elements of our innate immune system came from a group of microbes called Asgard archaea. Specifically, viperins and argonautes, two proteins that are known to play important roles in the immune systems of all complex life — from insects to plants to humans — came from the Asgard archaea. Versions of these defense proteins are also present in bacteria, but the versions in complex life forms are ...

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) — UC Santa Barbara professors Andrew Jayich and Jon Schuller have been selected by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation to be part of the 2024 cohort of Experimental Physics Investigators. They join 17 other mid-career researchers from around the country, each receiving a five-year, $1.25 million grant to pursue research goals. “This initiative is designed to support novel and potentially high-payoff projects that will advance the field of physics but might be hard to fund through traditional funding sources,” said Theodore ...

In the first 24 hours after a python devours its massive prey, its heart grows 25%, its cardiac tissue softens dramatically, and the organ squeezes harder and harder to more than double its pulse. Meanwhile, a vast collection of specialized genes kicks into action to help boost the snake’s metabolism fortyfold. Two weeks later, after its feast has been digested, all systems return to normal—its heart remaining just slightly larger, and even stronger, than before. This extraordinary process, described by CU Boulder researchers this week in the journal PNAS, could ultimately inspire novel treatments for a common human heart condition called cardiac fibrosis, in which ...

EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE UNTIL 4 P.M. ET, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 21, 2024 MINNEAPOLIS – Contrary to previous research, a new study of female participants finds no link between migraine and the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease. The study is published in the August 21, 2024, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. “These results are reassuring for women who have migraine, which itself causes many burdens, that they don’t have to worry about an increased risk ...