The typical cost of developing new medications may not be as high as generally believed, with a few ultra-costly medications skewing public discussions about the cost of pharmaceutical research and development, according to a new RAND study.  Using a novel method to assess spending on research and development for 38 drugs that were recently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, researchers found that the mean, or average, cost of developing a new drug was much higher than the mid-point (median) cost of development.  Researchers estimated a median direct research and development cost of $150 million compared to a mean of $369 million.  Costs ...

HERSHEY, Pa. — Autoimmune diseases, where the immune system mistakenly attacks the body’s own healthy cells and tissues, often have a preclinical stage before diagnosis that’s characterized by mild symptoms or certain antibodies in the blood. However, in some people, these symptoms may resolve before culminating in the full disease stage. Knowing who may progress along the disease pathway is critical for early diagnosis and intervention, improved treatment and better disease management, according to a team led by researchers from the ...

Love doesn’t come with an instruction manual, but for autistic adults seeking to navigate the complexities of romance, a UCLA Health program offers a roadmap to finding and sustaining meaningful relationships through the launch of a new research study, called PEERS for Dating. Led by the UCLA Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relationship Skills (PEERS) Clinic, the new 20-week program aims to demystify the often complex social rules surrounding dating and help participants gain a deeper understanding of relationship dynamics “Romantic relationships can be transformative, but for many autistic adults, the path to connection can feel uncertain,” ...

How would you summarize your study for a lay audience? Our research focuses on sleep spindles—short bursts of brain activity during sleep that are crucial for stabilizing sleep and supporting memory. Sleep spindles are of great interest because changes in spindle activity have been linked to many neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease and autism. While many factors influence when and how these spindles occur, such as sleep stages or brain rhythms, we discovered that short-term patterns, like a musical rhythm spanning just a few seconds, play the most ...

Researchers from Princeton University and the University of Arizona have created a simulation that maps underground water on a continental scale. The result of three years’ work studying groundwater from coast to coast, the findings plot the unseen path that each raindrop or melted snowflake takes before reemerging in freshwater streams, following water from land surface to depths far below and back up again, emerging up to 100 miles away, after spending from 10 to 100,000 years underground. The simulation, published Jan. 6 in the journal Nature Water, shows that rainfall and snowmelt ...

WASHINGTON, D.C. - A diverse group of 164 undergraduate students and six faculty will participate in unique workforce development programs at 11 of the nation’s national laboratories and a fusion facility during Spring 2025.     This opportunity is part of a continuing effort by the Department of Energy (DOE) to ensure the nation has a strong, sustained workforce trained in the skills needed to address the energy, environment, and national security challenges of today and tomorrow.   “The ...

January 7, 2025, Mountain View, CA -- The SETI Institute announces the 2024 SETI Forward Award recipients: Gabriella Rizzo and Pritvik Sinhadc. This year's recipients worked on research projects to understand extremophiles in deep-sea hydrothermal vents and to analyze gravitational wave signals for potential extraterrestrial technosignatures. Established by Lew Levy, SETI Forward committee founder and member of the SETI Institute’s Council of Advisors, this award is a beacon for promising young scientists. The goal is to connect students with opportunities that foster their ...

The Brain & Behavior Research Foundation (BBRF) has announced the 2024 Leading Research Achievements by BBRF grantees, prizewinners, and scientific council members. It includes important studies of suicide, childhood anxiety, depression, eating disorders, cocaine addiction, and other aspects of brain and behavior illness. The 2024 Leading Research Achievements are: Suicide Risk Fluctuates Across the Menstrual Cycle, Affecting Different Women Differently Tory Anne Eisenlohr-Moul, Ph.D., University of Illinois, Chicago Preliminary Trial of Psychoactive ...

Florida Atlantic University has named Lewis S. Nelson, M.D., as the new dean of the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine. Nelson previously served as professor and inaugural chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine and chief of the Division of Medical Toxicology and Addiction Medicine at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School in Newark, and chief of the Emergency Department at University Hospital of Newark, a public safety net hospital. He assumed his role as dean on Jan. 6.  Nelson has more than 30 years of academic and clinical leadership experience with a proven record of fostering innovation, research, and clinical excellence. During his eight-year tenure ...

Irvine, Calif., Jan. 7, 2025 – A study led by the University of California, Irvine has found cardiovascular conditions such as high blood pressure and diabetes, which are known to contribute to brain blood vessel damage in younger populations, not to be associated with an increased risk of such harm in individuals 90 and older.   The work, published online today in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association, suggests that the relationship among blood pressure, vascular health and brain aging is more complex than previously thought.   “For decades, we’ve known that factors like high blood ...

Concussions and repetitive head trauma in sports like football and boxing, once accepted as an unpleasant consequence of intense athletic competition, are now recognized as serious health threats. Of particular concern is the connection between head injuries and neurodegenerative diseases such as chronic traumatic encephalopathy, Alzheimer’s disease, and Parkinson’s disease, prompting sports governing bodies to adjust protective equipment and rules of play to minimize the risk. Researchers at Tufts University and Oxford University have now uncovered mechanisms that may ...

Crucial research on brain diseases Neural implants are crucial in order to study the brain and develop treatments for patients with diseases like Parkinson's or clinical depression. Neural implants electrically stimulate, block, or record signals from neurons or neural networks in the brain. For study and treatment, and specifically for chronic use, these neural implants must be durable. "Miniaturized neural implants have enormous potential to transform healthcare, but their long-term stability in the body ...

SAN ANTONIO — January 7, 2025 —A NASA postdoctoral researcher at Southwest Research Institute has used advanced models that indicate that the formation of Pluto and Charon may parallel that of the Earth-Moon system. Both systems include a moon that is a large fraction of the size of the main body, unlike other moons in the solar system. The scenario also could support Pluto’s active geology and possible subsurface ocean, despite its location at the frozen edge of the solar system. “We ...

An analysis led by New York University researchers determines which public policies effectively prevent suicide deaths in the United States. But it’s not just policies that limit firearms and expand access to health care—many economic and social policies that are not explicitly focused on mental health can also prevent suicide, according to their article published in the Annual Review of Public Health. “Most of the policies that demonstrate evidence do not mention suicide and were not passed to prevent ...

Korea University College of Medicine and Yale Univeristy Co-Host Forum on Advancing Healthcare through Data and AI Innovations   On October 2nd (Wednesday), Korea University College of Medicine (Dean: Pyun Sung-Bom) hosted a forum titled “Advancing Healthcare through Innovations in Data and AI in Clinical Informatics and Natural Language Processing” in the 6th-floor lecture hall of the First Medical Building.   As part of Korea University’s 120th-anniversary celebration, this annual joint forum with Yale University has been held since 2023. This year’s ...

“A consistent feature of aging across diverse species is the progressive accumulation of lipid droplets (nLDs) within the nuclear compartment, which disrupts nuclear architecture and functionality.” BUFFALO, NY- January 7, 2025 – A new research perspective was published in Aging (listed by MEDLINE/PubMed as “Aging (Albany NY)” and “Aging-US” by Web of Science) Volume 16, Issue 22 on December 9, 2024, entitled “Nuclear lipid droplets: a novel regulator of nuclear homeostasis ...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 7, 2025 – Thanks to the rapid progress of information technology and artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles (AVs) have been taking off. In fact, AV technology is now advanced enough that the vehicles are being used for logistics delivery and low-speed public transportation. While most research has focused on control algorithms to heighten safety, less attention has been directed at improving aerodynamic performance, which is essential for lowering energy consumption and extending driving range. As a result, aerodynamic drag issues have ...

About The Study: This cross-sectional study of pregnant people enrolled in Medicaid found that the rate of opioid use disorder among this group was more than twice as high as previous estimates. Pregnant people with opioid use disorder face a disproportionately high risk of severe maternal morbidity, particularly those who enroll in Medicaid later in pregnancy. Targeted interventions that facilitate early Medicaid enrollment and coverage continuity may be needed to reduce the burden of adverse outcomes in this group.  Corresponding ...

About The Study: In this cross-sectional study, some maternal medications were associated with lower levels of protein and fat in milk, which could impose health risks for breastfed infants. Other factors that could influence macronutrient levels need to be clarified before the clinical implications of these findings can be confirmed.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Essi Whaites Heinonen, MD, PhD, email essi.heinonen@ki.se. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.53332) Editor’s Note: Please ...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 7, 2025 – As the search for sustainability permeates all fields, researchers are turning to a unique organic source for creating antibacterial silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) – the humble goji berry. Goji berries are a ubiquitous superfood known for a multitude of health benefits, including their antibiotic properties. In research published in AIP Advances, by AIP Publishing, researcher Kamran Alam from Sapienza University of Rome along with others from NED University of Engineering and Technology and King Saud University found an effective way to harvest ...

LOS ANGELES — Steam eliminates wrinkles and germs, but can it destroy cancer cells too?   Keck Medicine of USC is participating in a national, multisite clinical trial examining if a water vapor system that uses small, targeted amounts of steam to kill cancer cells is a safe and effective treatment for prostate cancer.  Researchers hope that steam may offer patients a less invasive way of controlling or curing cancer than currently exists.   “The most common therapies for prostate cancer often cause life-altering side effects, and we are investigating if this new treatment may not only treat the cancer, ...

Bologna, Italy, 7 January 2025 – On January 7, 2025, the European Commission established the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory (CTAO) as a European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC), furthering its mission to become the world’s largest and most powerful observatory for gamma-ray astronomy. The creation of the CTAO ERIC will enable the Observatory's construction to advance rapidly and provide a framework for distributing its data worldwide, significantly accelerating its progress toward scientific discovery. “The ERIC will streamline the construction and operation ...

A new guide aimed at helping aspiring science journalists in Albania to cover scientific topics has been published. The guide has information about science journalism efforts in the country, and provides ideas for specific topics and how to approach them from a scientific and journalistic perspective. It also has links to relevant international sources for further study and advice. The guide was written by Altin Raxhimi, an experienced journalist from Albania who has reported for print, digital media and television on topics ranging from war to food ...

The Heat Resilience & Performance Centre (HRPC) at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore (NUS Medicine) has been officially designated as the Global Heat Health Information Network (GHHIN) Southeast Asia Hub, a recognition that underscores its leading role in advancing heat resilience. This designation highlights the Centre's expertise in addressing the growing challenges of heat-related health risks in the region. With this appointment, the Centre is poised to play a pivotal role in working with the region to shape strategies, research, and policies aimed at mitigating ...

Miami (January 7, 2025) – Childhood smoking before age 15 increases a person’s risk of developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), according to a new study. The study is published in the November 2024 issue of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases: Journal of the COPD Foundation, a peer-reviewed, open-access journal. COPD is an inflammatory lung disease, comprising several conditions, including chronic bronchitis and emphysema, and can be caused by genetics and irritants like smoke or pollution. The disease affects more than 30 million Americans and is the ...