Free genetic testing, offered partially or fully subsidized by industry, may have trade-offs, and health systems in Canada must carefully weigh potential clinical, ethical, and legal considerations to protect patient data, authors argue in a CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) commentary https://www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.231588. “Near- and long-term expansion in no-cost testing and industry partnership in genetics, with patient data as the commodity, is likely,” writes Kirsten ...

Eating a vegan diet for eight weeks is associated with reductions in biological age estimations based on levels of DNA methylation — a type of chemical modification of DNA (known as an epigenetic modification) that alters gene expression but not DNA itself. Previous research has reported that increased DNA methylation levels are associated with ageing. The findings, which are based on a small randomised controlled trial of 21 pairs of adult identical twins, are published in BMC Medicine. Varun Dwaraka, Christopher ...

Researchers in Australia have found that when women are given accurate information about a test that indicates the number of eggs in their ovaries, they have less interest in taking the test compared to women who viewed information available online.   The researchers initiated the study, which is published today (Monday) in Human Reproduction [1], one of the world’s leading reproductive medicine journals, because of the large amount of misleading and incorrect information promoted to women about the anti-Mullerian hormone (AMH) test on websites, including fertility clinic websites, and via social media.   AMH ...

A decarbonised steel industry that includes carbon dioxide removal techniques in its net zero arsenal could use lower-grade iron ore, according to a new study.  Steel accounts for 5-8% of carbon dioxide emissions globally. Its total emissions have risen over the past decade, largely due to increased demand.  The International Energy Agency has stated that, without innovation, the scope to limit emissions is ‘limited’. Therefore, the commercialisation of new zero-emission production processes is critical.  Innovative ...

About The Study: The results of this cohort study suggest that combining plasma p-tau217 and Aβ42/40 levels could be useful for predicting development of Aβ pathology in people with early stages of subthreshold Aβ accumulation. These biomarkers might thus facilitate screening of participants for future primary prevention trials. Corresponding Authors: To contact the corresponding authors, email Oskar Hansson, M.D, Ph.D. (Oskar.Hansson@med.lu.se) and Shorena Janelidze, Ph.D. (shorena.janelidze@med.lu.se). To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamaneurol.2024.2619) Editor’s ...

About The Study: In this cohort study, seed amplification assays (SAA) α-syn+ was consistently associated with nucleus basalis of Meynert (NBM) atrophy already during asymptomatic stages. Further, in memory clinic cognitively impaired populations, SAA α-syn+ was associated with NBM atrophy, which partially mediated α-syn–induced attention/executive impairment.  Corresponding Authors: To contact the corresponding authors, email Laura E.M. Wisse, Ph.D. (laura.wisse@med.lu.se) and Oskar Hansson, M.D., Ph.D. (oskar.hansson@med.lu.se). To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamaneurol.2024.2713) Editor’s ...

About The Study: The amyloid probability score 2 (APS2) blood test and percentage of p-tau217 alone had high diagnostic accuracy for identifying Alzheimer disease among individuals with cognitive symptoms in primary and secondary care using predefined cutoff values. Future studies should evaluate how the use of blood tests for these biomarkers influences clinical care.  Corresponding Authors: To contact the corresponding authors, email Sebastian Palmqvist, M.D., Ph.D. (sebastian.palmqvist@med.lu.se) and Oskar Hansson, M.D., Ph.D. (oskar.hansson@med.lu.se). To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jama.2024.13855) Editor’s ...

About The Study: Plasma biomarkers of Alzheimer disease (AD) neuropathology, neuronal injury, and astrogliosis increase with age and are associated with known dementia risk factors. AD-specific biomarkers’ association with dementia starts in midlife whereas late-life measures of AD, neuronal injury, and astrogliosis biomarkers are all associated with dementia.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Priya Palta, Ph.D., M.H.S., email priya_palta@med.unc.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jama.2024.6619) Editor’s ...

Tokyo, Japan – Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have created a new drug delivering molecule, a zwitterionic polymer complex that can help get plasmid DNA inside cells when injected into skeletal muscle, a crucial step in the expression of therapeutic RNA and proteins. The new compound effectively bound to plasmid DNA without affecting its structure. Injected into mouse muscles, the team observed widespread gene expression, promising applications to treatments of serious muscle diseases.   Drug delivery systems underpin many of the clinical breakthroughs of our age. For example, ...

UC San Diego Health has ended more than nine months of negotiations for a potential partnership with the Tri-City Medical Center (TCMC) Healthcare District.  A final revised offer was presented to the TCMC Healthcare District on July 24 and no agreement was reached. Highlights of the final proposal for TCMC included a financial recovery and growth plan that included:  $100 million infusion of cash within the first two years plus other financial supports, including a line of credit designed to protect the financial stability of TCMC during the first five years.  All assets and liabilities would transfer to UC San Diego Health, including employment ...

NEW YORK CITY, July 26, 2024 — The American Heart Association and Major League Baseball (MLB) brought cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and automated external defibrillator (AED) training to MLB staff at the New York headquarters office located on Avenue of the Americas on Monday, July 22. Nearly 100 employees attended to learn the lifesaving skills building confidence and capabilities to respond in the event of a cardiac emergency. According to American Heart Association data, nine out of every ten people who experience cardiac arrest outside of a hospital die, in part because they do not receive immediate CPR more than half of the time. CPR, especially if performed ...

AMES, Iowa – Strategically planting perennial grass throughout corn and soybean fields helps address the unintended environmental consequences of growing the dominant row crops, including soil erosion, fertilizer runoff and greenhouse gas emissions. But converting portions of farmland back to prairie has to make financial sense for farmers, which is why a research team led by Iowa State University landscape ecologist Lisa Schulte Moore has spent the past six years studying how to efficiently turn harvested ...

MIAMI, FLORIDA (July 25, 2024) – Many people with stage II or III colon cancer receive additional, or adjuvant, chemotherapy following surgery. However, clinical trials have shown that this treatment doesn’t improve the chances of survival for every patient. A study published July 25 in Cell Reports Medicine identifies and validates a 10-gene biomarker that potentially predicts whether a stage II or III colon cancer patient will benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy. A secondary finding from the study could also lead to further research and application. Researchers found that the gene signature could potentially also predict ...

New research to be presented at this year’s Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) (Madrid, 9-13 September) shows that a child is almost twice as likely to develop type 1 diabetes (T1D) if their father has the condition, than if their mother has the condition.  The study, the largest of its kind, suggests that exposure to T1D in the womb confers long-term protection against the condition in children with affected mothers relative to those with affected fathers. Understanding what is responsible for this relative protection could lead to opportunities ...

CORVALLIS, Oregon – Oregon State University researchers have made the first scientific confirmation in Puget Sound of two distinct shark species, one of them critically endangered. The presence of the broadnose sevengill shark and endangered soupfin shark in the sound, the southern portion of the Salish Sea, may indicate changes in what biologists in OSU’s Big Fish Lab describe as an economically, culturally and ecologically valuable inland waterway. The Salish Sea separates northwest Washington from British Columbia’s Vancouver Island. The ...

CAMBRIDGE, MA — It is estimated that about 70 percent of the energy generated worldwide ends up as waste heat. If scientists could better predict how heat moves through semiconductors and insulators, they could design more efficient power generation systems. However, the thermal properties of materials can be exceedingly difficult to model. The trouble comes from phonons, which are subatomic particles that carry heat. Some of a material’s thermal properties depend on a measurement called the phonon ...

CAMBRIDGE, MA – Organizations are increasingly utilizing machine-learning models to allocate scarce resources or opportunities. For instance, such models can help companies screen resumes to choose job interview candidates or aid hospitals in ranking kidney transplant patients based on their likelihood of survival. When deploying a model, users typically strive to ensure its predictions are fair by reducing bias. This often involves techniques like adjusting the features a model uses to make decisions or calibrating the scores it generates. However, researchers from MIT and Northeastern University argue that these fairness ...

Dr. Wencai Liu, an associate professor of mathematics at Texas A&M University, has been selected to receive the 2024 International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) Early Career Scientist Prize in Mathematical Physics in recognition of his exceptional achievements and future potential in mathematical physics. Liu is one of three scientists worldwide honored with the prize, one of 19 celebrating the contributions of early career physicists within the subfields of each commission comprising the IUPAP, which was founded in 1976 to promote research in mathematical physics. Each prize consists of a certificate, medal and a monetary award. Liu ...

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) — There’s an experiment going on in conservation in Africa. With biodiversity imperiled, and nations facing financial and political crises, some governments are transferring the management of protected areas to private, non-governmental organizations (NGOs). This strategy seems to be paying off. NGOs can better manage corruption, making them attractive to large donors like the World Bank and European Union. Their capital can fund personnel, research and technology to more effectively manage protected areas and species. While these management changes appear ...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Media Contact: Elizabeth.Fernandez@ucsf.edu, (415) 502-6397  Subscribe to UCSF News Study Finds Big Disparities in Stroke Services Across the U.S.  Low-income communities are up to 42% less likely to obtain stroke center certification.  Hospitals in poor communities are significantly less likely to obtain certification for stroke services, which makes them unable to provide urgent, lifesaving treatment, UC San Francisco researchers are reporting in a 14-year study of the nation’s hospitals.      By ...

Interest in urban ecology is growing rapidly as cities expand and the need to understand urban ecosystems becomes more pressing. The Ecological Society of America’s upcoming Annual Meeting in Long Beach, Calif., Aug. 4–9, features a diverse array of talks and posters dedicated to this dynamic field. Researchers from around the world will present their latest findings on how urban environments impact biodiversity, ecosystem services and human well-being. In addition to a Symposium devoted to the urban ecology of Greater Los Angeles, dozens of talks and posters will offer valuable insights ...

July 26, 2024 Contact: Kate McAlpine, 734-647-7087, kmca@umich.edu; Nicole Casal Moore, 734-709-1651, ncmoore@umich.edu; Phillip Kisubika, 217-244-7448, pkk18@illinois.edu   Image   ANN ARBOR—He has honed the power of plasma to advance semiconductor processing, high-quality thin films for magnetic hard drives, and fusion energy. For these and other accomplishments, University of Illinois Professor David Neil Ruzic has been chosen to receive the 2024 University of Michigan Prize for Excellence in Plasma Science and Engineering.  Ruzic is the Abel Bliss Professor of Engineering in ...

UPTON, N.Y. — Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory have created the first-ever atomic movies showing how atoms rearrange locally within a quantum material as it transitions from an insulator to a metal. With the help of these movies, the researchers discovered a new material phase that settles a yearslong scientific debate and could facilitate the design of new transitioning materials with commercial applications. This research, recently published in Nature Materials, marks a methodological achievement; the researchers demonstrated that a materials characterization technique called atomic pair distribution ...

An international team of scientists, including two researchers who now work in the Center for Advanced Sensor Technology (CAST) at UMBC, has shown that twisted carbon nanotubes can store three times more energy per unit mass than advanced lithium-ion batteries. The finding may advance carbon nanotubes as a promising solution for storing energy in devices that need to be lightweight, compact, and safe, such as medical implants and sensors. The research was published recently in the journal Nature Nanotechnology. Sanjeev Kumar Ujjain, from CAST, was a lead researcher on the work. He started the project while at Shinshu University, in Nagano, Japan, and continued after arriving ...

Scientist Dr. Aparna Bhaduri, assistant professor of medicine and biological chemistry, and neurosurgeon Dr. Kunal Patel, assistant professor of neurosurgery, both part of the UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, have received the 2024 Neurobiology of Brain Disorders Award from the McKnight Endowment Fund for Neuroscience, which supports innovative research by U.S. scientists who are studying neurological and psychiatric diseases. The award, $300,000 over the next three years, supports their efforts in gaining a deeper understanding of the microenvironment's role in shaping human glioblastoma, an aggressive type of brain cancer that is fast growing and difficult ...