NEW YORK, NY (March 3, 2025)--Several studies in the past decade have revealed that up to a quarter of unresponsive patients with recent brain injuries may possess a degree of consciousness that’s normally hidden from their families and physicians. New research from Columbia University and NewYork-Presbyterian may soon help physicians identify unresponsive brain-injury patients with hidden consciousness who are likely to achieve long-term recovery by looking for brain waves that are indicative of normal sleep patterns.  “We’re at an exciting crossroad in neurocritical care where we know that many patients appear to be unconscious, but some are recovering without ...

Two new landmark studies show how a seeming tangle of DNA is actually organized into a structure that coordinates thousands of genes to form a sperm cell. The work, published March 3 as two papers in Nature Structural and Molecular Biology, could improve treatment for fertility problems and developmental disorders.  “We are finding the 3D structure of the genome,” said Satoshi Namekawa, professor of microbiology and molecular genetics at the University of California, Davis and senior author on one of the papers. “This is really showing us how the genomic architecture guides development.” Although DNA is a long, stringy molecule, in living ...

Bottom Line: Colorectal cancer and pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma that harbored the KRAS G12C mutation often carried other genetic alterations that can be associated with resistance to KRAS G12C inhibitors, despite no prior treatment with this therapy, according to recent results from a large multidatabase analysis. Journal in Which the Study was Published: Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Author: Hao Xie, MD, PhD, a medical oncologist at Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center Background: “The KRAS pathway plays a crucial role in cell biology by regulating ...

Melting ice sheets are slowing the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC), the world’s strongest ocean current, researchers have found.  This melting has implications for global climate indicators, including sea level rise, ocean warming and viability of marine ecosystems.  The researchers, from the University of Melbourne and NORCE Norway Research Centre, have shown the current slowing by around 20 per cent by 2050 in a high carbon emissions scenario.  This influx of fresh water into the Southern Ocean is expected to change ...

People seeking emergency care for hallucinogen use were at 2.6-fold higher risk of death within 5 years than the general population, according to a new study published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) https://www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.241191. The use of hallucinogens, such as ketamine, psychedelics, psilocybin, LSD, ayahuasca, and MDMA (Ecstasy), has rapidly increased since the mid-2010s, especially in Canada and the United States. In the US, the percentage of people reporting they used hallucinogens more than doubled from 3.8% in 2016 to 8.9% in 2021. “In Canada, an estimated 5.9% of people used a psychedelic ...

Niigata, Japan - The Department of Neurology at Niigata University and National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry（NCNP） has identified pathogenic thresholds for the CAG repeat units (RU) of the CACNA1A gene that causes SCA6. They investigated the SCA6 causative gene in 2,768 patients. They carefully examined the relationship between RU, age of onset, and family history. First, in cases with 18 or fewer RU, the proportion of family history was low. For 19 or more RU, the proportion of family history ...

Niigata, Japan - Organic molecules that serve as the building blocks of life are believed to form in space, but their exact formation sites and delivery mechanisms to planets remain a major mystery in astronomy and planetary science. One of the key elements in solving this mystery is the presence of ice in interstellar environments. In cold, dense, and shielded regions of the galaxy, atoms and molecules adhere to the surfaces of submicron-sized solid particles (dust), leading to the formation of interstellar ices. This process is similar to how snow forms in Earth’s clouds. Astronomers from Niigata University and ...

A ‘chasm of misunderstanding and miscommunication’ is often experienced between clinicians and patients, leading to autoimmune diseases such as lupus and vasculitis being wrongly diagnosed as psychiatric or psychosomatic conditions, with a profound and lasting impact on patients, researchers have found. A study involving over 3,000 participants – both patients and clinicians – found that these misdiagnoses (sometimes termed “in your head” by patients) were often associated with long term impacts on patients’ physical health and wellbeing and damaged trust in healthcare services. The researchers are calling for greater awareness ...

A clinical trial has found that the medication omalizumab, marketed as Xolair, treated multi-food allergy more effectively than oral immunotherapy (OIT) in people with allergic reactions to very small amounts of common food allergens. OIT, the most common approach to treating food allergy in the United States, involves eating gradually increasing doses of a food allergen to reduce the allergic response to it. Thirty-six percent of study participants who received an extended course of omalizumab could tolerate 2 grams or more of peanut protein, or about eight peanuts, and two other ...

EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE UNTIL 4 P.M. ET, SUNDAY, MARCH 2, 2025 Media Contacts: Renee Tessman, rtessman@aan.com, (612) 928-6137 Natalie Conrad, nconrad@aan.com, (612) 928-6164 Sleep apnea linked to increased risk of Parkinson’s, but CPAP may reduce risk Risk reduced if treatment started within two years of diagnosis MINNEAPOLIS – People with obstructive sleep apnea have an increased risk of Parkinson’s disease, but if started early enough, continuous positive airway pressure ...

A recent study published in Engineering delves into the complex mechanisms of drug addiction, highlighting the crucial role of astrocytic G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). This research offers fresh perspectives on understanding and potentially treating substance-use disorders (SUDs). For a long time, neuroscience research on drug addiction mainly focused on neuronal mechanisms. However, emerging evidence shows that astrocytes, the most abundant glial cells in the central nervous system, also play a significant part. Astrocytes ...

A recent study published in the journal Engineering delves into the potential of digital twin (DT) technology in revolutionizing road engineering and its lifecycle applications. As road infrastructure worldwide faces the challenge of digitalization, DT has emerged as a promising solution. The research, conducted by a team of scholars from Tongji University and Harbin Institute of Technology (Shenzhen), systematically reviews DT-enabling technologies, including model creation, condition sensing, data processing, and interaction. The development of DT in road engineering has been ...

A new study published in Engineering explores how next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) and big data are revolutionizing crop breeding, with potential far-reaching implications for global food security. Crop breeding has come a long way, evolving through distinct stages from domestication breeding to the current era of big data intelligent design breeding. The latest stage, “Breeding 4.0,” integrates biotechnology, big data, and AI. This convergence aims to achieve efficient, personalized breeding of new crop varieties, marking a significant shift from traditional “scientific” ...

In a recent publication in Engineering, researchers from Jinan University in China and the University of Illinois Chicago in the US presented an in-depth perspective on the biomimetic synthesis of natural products. This research area, which bridges chemistry, biology, and pharmacy, has seen significant progress in recent years. Natural products are crucial in drug discovery, providing essential scaffolds for developing new medications. However, obtaining sufficient quantities of these compounds for research and production is challenging due to resource limitations. Traditional chemical synthesis and biosynthesis methods also face their own set of ...

Tokyo, Japan – A team led by a member of Tokyo Metropolitan University have made advances in the search for dark matter, observing galaxies using new spectrographic technology and the Magellan Clay Telescope. With a mere 4 hours of observations, precise measurements in the infrared range have set new limits on the lifetime of dark matter. Their findings highlight the crucial utility of their technology and extend the search to less explored parts of the spectrum.   Over the past century, cosmologists have grappled with an apparent inconsistency in what they saw in the universe. Observations of the rotation of galaxies, for example, imply that there is a lot of mass out ...

WASHINGTON– The Society for Cardiovascular Angiography & Interventions (SCAI) today expressed profound disappointment in the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) decision to deny the creation of the American Board of Cardiovascular Medicine (ABCVM). The ABCVM was proposed by SCAI, the American College of Cardiology (ACC), the American Heart Association (AHA), the Heart Failure Society of America (HFSA), and the Heart Rhythm Society (HRS) as a necessary step to establish cardiology as its own distinct medical specialty, separate from internal ...

In the race to meet the growing global demand for lithium — a critical component in batteries for electric vehicles — a team of researchers from Rice University’s Elimelech lab has developed a breakthrough lithium extraction method that could reshape the industry. In their study published in Science Advances, the researchers demonstrated near-perfect lithium selectivity by repurposing solid-state electrolytes (SSEs) as membrane materials for aqueous lithium extraction. While originally designed for the rapid conduction of lithium ions in solid-state batteries — where there are no other ions or liquid solvents — the highly ordered and confined structure ...

American Board of Cardiovascular Medicine Chair Jeffrey Kuvin, MD, issued the following statement in response to the American Board of Medical Specialties denial of an independent board for cardiology: “We are deeply disappointed with the American Board of Medical Specialties’ decision not to approve the American Board of Cardiovascular Medicine as a new, independent board for cardiology. The decision ignores the evolution of cardiovascular medicine into its own distinct medical specialty, separate from the field of internal medicine, requiring its own set of knowledge, skills, and competencies to sustain professional excellence and effectively ...

Neuroblastoma is a solid tumor that occurs in children. When high-risk, the disease has a poor prognosis. Decades ago, adding the drug retinoic acid to neuroblastoma treatment increased survival by 10-15%. However, this effect was only evident in post-chemotherapy consolidation after bulky primary tumors had largely been eliminated. Why retinoic acid is effective in this setting but not against primary tumors, has been speculated about for nearly 50 years. St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital scientists resolved the mystery in a new study, showing retinoic acid uses a novel mechanism to kill metastasized neuroblastoma. The drug “hijacks” ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Novel technology intends to redefine the virtual reality experience by expanding to incorporate a new sensory connection: taste.   The interface, dubbed ‘e-Taste’, uses a combination of sensors and wireless chemical dispensers to facilitate the remote perception of taste – what scientists call gustation. These sensors are attuned to recognize molecules like glucose and glutamate — chemicals that represent the five basic tastes of sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami. Once captured via an electrical signal, that data is wirelessly passed to a remote device for replication.  Field ...

URBANA, Ill. – Nanozymes are synthetic materials that have enzyme-like catalytic properties, and they are broadly used for biomedical purposes, such as disease diagnostics. However, inorganic nanozymes are generally toxic, expensive, and complicated to produce, making them unsuitable for the agricultural and food industries. A University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign research team has developed organic-material-based nanozymes that are non-toxic, environmentally friendly, and cost effective. In two new studies, they introduce ...

ITHACA, N.Y. – When people go along with opinions that go against their better judgment, they feel more culpable for the decision if things go wrong than if they hadn’t received another opinion, new research from Cornell University finds. The effect may seem counterintuitive, but going against one’s better judgment increases thoughts about better decisions that could have been made, which amplify feelings of control over the situation.  “If you have another person in the ...

HOUSTON – (Feb. 28, 2025) – A team of researchers at the George R. Brown School of Engineering and Computing at Rice University has developed an innovative artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled, low-cost device that will make flow cytometry ⎯ a technique used to analyze cells or particles in a fluid using a laser beam ⎯ affordable and accessible. The prototype identifies and counts cells from unpurified blood samples with similar accuracy as the more expensive and bulky conventional flow cytometers, provides results within minutes and is significantly cheaper and compact, making it highly attractive for point-of-care clinical ...

In a study published today in Biofunctional Materials, Prof. Dr. Haidar, Founder and CEO of BioMAT’X I+D+I LABs in Santiago, Chile, unveils a groundbreaking advancement in dental care: Copper-incorporated microvesicles (CiMs). This innovative technology combines the healing power of copper with microvesicles to enhance tissue regeneration, promote healing, and combat oral diseases. With potential applications in dentistry, cranio-maxillo-facial surgery and beyond, CiMs; a promising leap forward in biomedical technology. In an exciting breakthrough ...

NEW YORK, NY (February 28, 2025) -- Primary care practices that employ nurse practitioners (NPs) are more likely to serve socioeconomically disadvantaged communities than practices with no NPs on staff, Columbia University School of Nursing researchers report in JAMA Network Open. Assistant Professor Monica O’Reilly-Jacob, PhD, led the study, published online February 28, 2025.   To better understand the distribution of NPs—who are increasingly critical to improving access to primary care—O’Reilly-Jacob and her colleagues looked ...