Singapore, 24 May 2024 – Two multi-institution and multidisciplinary Singapore teams of clinician-scientists and researchers have been awarded grants of S$25 million each, by the Singapore Ministry of Health through the NMRC Office, MOH Holdings Pte Ltd, under the NMRC Open Fund-Large Collaborative Grant (OF-LCG) programme. The S$50 million support for cancer research establishes the SYMPHONY 2.0 and Colo-SCRIPT research programmes to drive precision oncology research in Singapore aimed at improving the understanding, diagnosis and treatment of lymphoma and colorectal cancer. Led by the ...

Researchers are exploring a new potential avenue for pancreatitis treatment: autophagy, a cellular recycling process. Autophagy helps maintain healthy pancreatic acinar cells by removing damaged organelles like mitochondria and the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). A new review published in eGastroenterology highlights the link between defective autophagy and pancreatitis. Impaired autophagy contributes to pancreatitis by allowing damaged organelles to accumulate within acinar cells. This accumulation disrupts cellular function and can ultimately lead to cell death. "Autophagy plays a vital role in keeping pancreatic acinar cells healthy," ...

In the early 2010s, LightSquared, a multibillion-dollar startup promising to revolutionize cellular communications, declared bankruptcy. The company couldn’t figure out how to prevent its signals from interfering with those of GPS systems.  Now, Penn Engineers have developed a new tool that could prevent such problems from ever happening again: an adjustable filter that can successfully prevent interference, even in higher-frequency bands of the electromagnetic spectrum. “I ...

TAMPA, Fla. (May 24, 2024) – Through high-tech imaging and virtual reality, a University of South Florida medical engineering professor is creating a detailed map of the brain that can be used to better understand developmental disorders, such as autism, and provide earlier, more effective treatments for brain injuries and diseases. Funded by a $3.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, George Spirou is expanding on his four decades of brain research to focus on the part of the brain that ...

Semaglutide significantly reduces risk of major kidney disease events, cardiovascular outcomes and mortality in patients with type 2 diabetes and chronic kidney disease, groundbreaking study reveals A pioneering study has demonstrated that semaglutide significantly reduces the risk of major kidney disease events, cardiovascular outcomes, and all-cause mortality in patients with type 2 diabetes and chronic kidney disease.1 The landmark trial, presented today at the 61st ERA Congress, will pave the way for new treatment strategies and ...

Enhancing drug development for life-threatening diseases like cancer hinges on a deep understanding of protein kinases, making it a focal point for researchers. These enzymes, encoded by more than 500 human genes, serve as critical players in cellular signaling pathways. However, if these signals are dysregulated, they can disrupt the normal cellular mechanisms, leading to diseases such as cancer. Protein kinase inhibitors have therefore provided a promising avenue in therapeutic intervention to disrupt the aberrant signaling ...

In recent years, global environmental concerns have prompted a shift toward eco-friendly manufacturing in the field of organic synthetic chemistry. In this regard, research into photoredox catalytic reactions, which use light to initiate redox or reduction-oxidation reactions via a photoredox catalyst, has gained significant attention. This approach reduces the reliance on harsh and toxic reagents and uses visible light, a clean energy source. A key research area has been the development of recycling methods for photocatalysts, which offer both economic and environmental benefits. Photocatalysts use light to accelerate a chemical reaction without getting consumed in the process, and photoredox ...

Researchers have developed a method to make adaptive and eco-friendly sensors that can be directly and imperceptibly printed onto a wide range of biological surfaces, whether that’s a finger or a flower petal. The method, developed by researchers from the University of Cambridge, takes its inspiration from spider silk, which can conform and stick to a range of surfaces. These ‘spider silks’ also incorporate bioelectronics, so that different sensing capabilities can be added to the ‘web’. The fibres, at least 50 times smaller than a ...

Splash a few drops of water on a hot pan and if the pan is hot enough, the water will sizzle and the droplets of water seem to roll and float, hovering above the surface. The temperature at which this phenomenon, called the Leidenfrost effect, occurs is predictable, usually happening above 230 degrees Celsius. The team of Jiangtao Cheng, associate professor in the Virginia Tech Department of Mechanical Engineering, has discovered a method to create the aquatic levitation at a much lower temperature, and the results have been published in Nature ...

Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have fabricated a device no wider than a human hair that will help physicists investigate the fundamental nature of matter and light. Their findings, published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, could also support the development of more efficient lasers, which are used in fields ranging from medicine to manufacturing. The device is made of a special kind of material called a photonic topological insulator. A photonic topological insulator can guide photons, the wave-like particles that make up light, ...

The study, a collaboration between researchers at Imperial College London and GNS Science, suggests that reducing plastic pollution by 5% per year would stabilize the level of microplastics – plastics less than 5 mm in length – in the surface oceans. However, the modelling shows that even reducing pollution by 20% per year would not significantly reduce existing microplastics levels, meaning they will persist in our oceans beyond 2100. Microplastics have been found to be circulating in all of the Earth’s oceans and some of the greatest concentrations of them are thousands of miles from land. These tiny particles ...

The DRIVE-RM consortium, led by Professor of Experimental Nephrology Marianne Verhaar from UMC Utrecht, has been awarded €37.5 million under the prestigious NWO SUMMIT program. The SUMMIT grant recognizes world-class collaborations, while further strengthening these partnerships. The DRIVE-RM collaboration involves UMC Utrecht, Utrecht University, Eindhoven University of Technology, Maastricht University, and the Hubrecht Institute, focusing on smart materials that assist the body in healing. Regenerative medicine involves repairing or replacing damaged tissues and organs by leveraging the body's own healing processes. DRIVE-RM ...

MIAMI, FLORIDA (MAY 23, 2024) – The treatment landscape for multiple myeloma, the second most common blood cancer, is shifting rapidly, with newly diagnosed patients increasingly being treated with a four-part drug combination that includes a new immunotherapy agent. Over the last decade, options have evolved from double, to triple to quadruple combination therapies. What do these new options mean for patients, and how will treatment change in the future? C. Ola Landgren, M.D., Ph.D., will ...

JST has selected winners for the third Marie Sklodowska Curie Award for young female researchers. For the third Marie Sklodowska Curie Award, we accepted applications from October 2 to December 11, 2023. Through document screenings and interviews with external experts, we have selected one Grand Prize winner and two Inspiration Prize winners. JEOL Ltd. will award 1M yen for the Grand Prize and 500K yen for each Inspiration Prize. JST recognizes the importance of initiatives designed to promote the activities of female researchers in science, technology, and innovation, and based on this belief we established the “Marie ...

Life-changing events like the birth of a child, the purchase of a new home, or a lottery win could threaten the survival of a new business venture, research from Edith Cowan University (ECU) has found. A recent study led by ECU’s Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Pi-Shen Seet with Associate Professor Wee-Liang Tan from the Singapore Management University found that positive family events had a comparatively greater influence, albeit negatively, on the survival of a new venture, compared with negative events. “A positive family event, like the birth of a child, often has an emotional spin-on effect for an entrepreneur ...

Robert Wagner, associate laboratory director for the Energy Science and Technology Directorate at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has been selected to receive the George Westinghouse Gold Medal from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, or ASME. The award recognizes his work to advance state-of-the-art clean power generation systems through research on combustion, fuel technologies and controls.  Wagner will be presented the award in October during ASME’s ...

MIAMI, FLORIDA (MAY 23, 2024) – A new treatment approach using an older drug may enable more patients with high-risk blood cancers to receive transplanted stem cells from unrelated, partially matched donors, according to a study conducted by researchers at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and colleagues. Results to be presented at the annual meetings of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and the European Hematology Association suggest the new approach may expand the donor pool, with patients from underrepresented racial and ethnic ...

MIAMI, FLORIDA (May 23, 2024) – Coral Olazagasti expected a relatively smooth transition when she moved to New York to start her residency after graduating from medical school in her native Puerto Rico. But that proved wishful thinking. She not only experienced major culture shock, but also her superiors and colleagues often chastised her for speaking too loudly and joked about her accent. “Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory so when I moved to New York, I thought it wasn’t going to be a big change,” said Olazagasti, ...

The 2024 annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) will take place in Chicago and online May 31-June 4.   Below are highlights of Fred Hutch Cancer Center research to be presented at the conference and experts available to comment on news. You can follow Fred Hutch on social media for additional updates and check out Fred Hutch booth #14018 in the exhibit hall.  For interview requests with Fred Hutch experts, please contact media@fredhutch.org.      Prostate cancer  Prostate cancer is the most common cancer among men in the United States and, according to the National Cancer Institute, ...

Scientists have known for years that a lattice of blood vessels nourishes cells in the retina that allow us to see – but it’s been a mystery how the intricate structure is created. Now, researchers at UC San Francisco have found a new type of neuron that guides its formation. The discovery, described in the May 23, 2024, issue of Cell, could one day lead to new therapies for diseases that are related to impaired blood flow in the eyes and brain. “This is the first time anyone has seen retinal neurons using direct contact with blood vessels as a way of guiding them to form these precise 3-D lattices,” said ...

The American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB) Women in Plant Biology Committee recently named 25 Inspiring Women in Plant Biology to celebrate their achievements and inspire future generations of female plant biologists. This committee, dedicated to addressing particular concerns to women scientists and promoting the inclusion of female plant biologists throughout the Society and profession, created this list with input and nominations from the community.  “This initiative was inspired by two things: First, our desire to improve recognition of inspiring women scientists. We have had ...

Speaking at the World Health Assembly, authors of a new Lancet Series call for urgent global action on antimicrobial resistance (AMR), and ensuring sustainable access to antibiotics through:   Intensifying efforts to promote vaccination, access to safe water and sanitation, and hospital infection control, thereby reducing infections and the use of antibiotics, which protects their long-term effectiveness.  Expanding access to existing and new antibiotics, which could save many lives lost to bacterial infections.  Increasing investment in new antibiotics, vaccines and diagnostics that are designed to be affordable and ...

Inadequate access to simple elective surgery in developing countries is storing up future health problems for patients and may create a spiral of future health complications putting more people’s lives at risk, a new study reveals. Analysing the experience of more than 18,000 patients in 640 hospitals across 83 countries, researchers, experts used hernia repair to represent elective health care, concluding that such treatments are essential to prevent over-reliance on emergency systems. The study reveals ...

The newly released Cass Review on transgender care for young people has been pivotal in the UK, where the prescription of puberty “blocking” drugs outside of research protocols has now ceased. But in the United States, where the treatment-intensive, “gender affirming” model of care is the norm, the impact of Cass’s four-year investigation and final report has been largely ignored, finds journalist Jennifer Block in The BMJ today. The review concluded that the evidence on use of puberty blockers and hormones for children and teens experiencing gender ...

Artificial intelligence software has been developed to rapidly analyze animal behavior so that behaviors can be more precisely linked to the activity of individual brain circuits and neurons, researchers in Seattle report. The program promises not only to speed research into the neurobiology of behavior, but also to enable comparison and reconcile results that disagree due to differences in how individual laboratories observe, analyze and classify behaviors, said Sam Golden, assistant professor of biological structure at the University of Washington School of Medicine.  “The approach allows labs to develop behavioral procedures however they want and makes it possible ...