INDIANAPOLIS – A new, healthy liver offers the best survival for patients with early-stage liver cancer. But a new study, led by Katie Ross-Driscoll, PhD, MPH, of Regenstrief Institute and Indiana University School of Medicine Department of Surgery, has identified disparities in liver transplant referral and evaluation, which must precede waitlisting, for these potentially lifesaving procedures. While other studies have demonstrated disparities in placement on organ waitlists, the new study is one of the first to examine the transplant ...

By Alistair Jones SMU Office of Research – Global condemnation of Russia over its invasion of Ukraine has prompted the imposition of trade sanctions. Such measures are a form of economic coercion, commonly used for reasons of foreign policy.  Trade sanctions can be put in place in an attempt to alter objectionable behaviour – in Russia's case, waging a war – or to punish an offending state through the disruption of economic exchange.  "Sanctions can be in many forms and raising ...

PITTSBURGH – If national guidelines are revised to incorporate a new risk equation, about 40% fewer people could meet criteria for cholesterol-lowering statins to prevent heart disease, according to a study by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and University of Michigan. Published today in JAMA Internal Medicine, the study examines the potential impact of widespread adoption of the PREVENT equations, which were released by the American Heart Association ...

General anesthesia makes it possible for millions of patients each year to undergo lifesaving surgeries while unconscious and free of pain. But the 176-year-old medical staple uses powerful drugs that have stoked fears of adverse effects on the brain — particularly if used in high doses. New findings published June 10 in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), however, support an earlier study that indicates that anesthesia is no more hazardous for the brain at higher doses than at lower doses, ...

About The Study: In this model-based cohort analysis of incident invasive cancer in the general population, decreases in lung and cervical cancers in Generation X may be offset by gains at other sites. Generation X may be experiencing larger per-capita increases in the incidence of leading cancers than any prior generation born in 1908 through 1964. On current trajectories, cancer incidence could remain high for decades. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Philip S. Rosenberg, Ph.D., email rosenbep@mail.nih.gov. To access the embargoed study: Visit ...

About The Study: This study’s findings indicated 1 of 5 children or adolescents experienced excess weight and that rates of excess weight varied by regional income and Human Development Index. Excess weight among children and adolescents was associated with a mix of inherent, behavioral, environmental, and sociocultural influences that need the attention and committed intervention of primary care professionals, clinicians, health authorities, and the general public. Corresponding Author: To ...

About The Study: The results of this study suggest that children and adolescents with acute SARS-CoV-2 or multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) and severe neurological manifestations may be at high risk for long-term impairment and may benefit from screening and early intervention to assist recovery.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Ericka L. Fink, M.D., M.S., email finkel@ccm.upmc.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.14122) Editor’s ...

Colorado State University scientists have called elephants by their names, and the elephants called back.   Wild African elephants address each other with name-like calls, a rare ability among nonhuman animals, according to a new study published in Nature Ecology and Evolution.  Researchers from CSU, Save the Elephants and ElephantVoices used machine learning to confirm that elephant calls contained a name-like component identifying the intended recipient, a behavior they suspected based on observation. When the researchers played back recorded calls, elephants responded affirmatively ...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — An international team of planetary scientists has detected patches of water frost sitting atop the Tharsis volcanoes on Mars, which are not only the tallest volcanic mountains on the Red Planet but in the entire solar system. The discovery marks the first time frost has been spotted near the planet’s equator, challenging existing perceptions of the planet’s climate dynamics, according to the team’s new study in Nature Geoscience. “We thought it was improbable for frost to form around Mars’ equator, as the mix ...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE By super cooling a molecule on the surface of brain cells down to about minus 180 degrees Celsius — nearly twice as cold as the coldest places in Antarctica — scientists at Johns Hopkins Medicine say they have determined how a widely-used epilepsy drug works to dampen the excitability of brain cells and help to control, although not cure, seizures. The research, published June 4 in Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, identifies critical connections between activity of the epilepsy drug ...

The platitude that failure leads to success may be both inaccurate and damaging to society, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.  Researchers conducted 11 experiments with more than 1,800 participants across many domains and compared national statistics to the participants’ responses. In one experiment, participants vastly overestimated the percentage of prospective nurses, lawyers and teachers who pass licensing exams after previously failing them.  “People expect success to follow failure much more often than it actually does,” said lead researcher Lauren Eskreis-Winkler, PhD, an assistant ...

Don’t miss your chance to be among the first to hear breaking news in food and nutrition science at NUTRITION 2024. The annual flagship meeting of the American Society for Nutrition will be held June 29–July 2 at McCormick Place in Chicago.   Reporters and bloggers are invited to explore the meeting schedule and register for a complimentary press pass to attend.   The meeting will feature stimulating discussions, exciting research announcements and updates from groups shaping the nutrition and health policies that affect us all. Highlights include:   Diet and exercise performance – As the ...

New York, NY [June 10, 2024]—Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have been awarded a $21 million grant from the National Institute on Aging (NIA) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to further advance understanding of an aging-related hormone known as follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), including its potential role in obesity, osteoporosis, and Alzheimer’s disease. The work could lead to the development of new treatments for these and other conditions involving aging. This is a collaborative ...

Bodybuilders and cellular mechanisms agree generating protein is a heavy lift. To complete the task, cells rely on complexes called spliceosomes. These molecular machines snip extra bits out of our genes’ RNA copies and piece together precise instructions for protein-building. When the splicing process goes awry, it can result in diseases like cancer or spinal muscular atrophy. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) Professor Adrian Krainer helped develop the first FDA-approved treatment for this devastating genetic disorder. Now, his team has discovered that two important regulator proteins work together ...

A clinical trial on a two-drug therapy for methamphetamine use disorder reduced use of the highly addictive drug for up to 12 weeks after initiation of treatment, UCLA-led research suggests. Participants in the ADAPT-2 clinical trial who received a combination of injectable naltrexone plus extended-release oral bupropion (NTX+BUPN) had a 27% increase in methamphetamine-negative urine tests, indicating reduced usage. By contrast, the placebo group had an 11% increase in negative tests. The study will be published in the peer-reviewed journal Addiction. “These ...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — When scientists transplanted the gut microbes of aged mice into young “germ-free” mice — raised to have no gut microbes of their own — the recipient mice experienced an increase in inflammation that parallels inflammatory processes associated with aging in humans. Young germ-free mice transplanted with microbes from other young mice had no such increase. The findings suggest that changes to the gut microbiome play a role in the systemwide inflammation that often occurs ...

The European Society for Clinical Investigation (ESCI) is awarding Valentin Fuster, MD, PhD, President of Mount Sinai Heart and Physician-in-Chief of The Mount Sinai Hospital, its ESCI Distinguished Medal for 2024. He received this honor during the ESCI Annual Scientific Meeting in Barcelona, Spain, during a special ceremony on Friday, June 7. The ESCI Medal is awarded yearly for outstanding achievements in clinical investigation and for the teaching of young scientists and medical specialists. This prestigious recognition highlights Dr. Fuster’s significant contributions to the worldwide field of cardiology. Dr. Fuster’s work has been ...

Embargoed for release: Monday, June 10, 7:00 AM ET Key takeaways: People whose diets most closely adhered to the Planetary Health Diet (PHD) had 30% lower risk of premature death compared to those with the lowest adherence. Every major cause of death, including cancer, heart disease, and lung disease, was lower with greater adherence to this dietary pattern. Diets adhering to the PHD pattern had substantially lower environmental impact, including 29% lower greenhouse gas emissions and 51% less land use.  Boston, MA—People who eat a healthy, sustainable diet may ...

Scientists at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard have improved a gene-editing technology that is now capable of inserting or substituting entire genes in the genome in human cells efficiently enough to be potentially useful for therapeutic applications. The advance, from the lab of Broad core institute member David Liu, could one day help researchers develop a single gene therapy for diseases such as cystic fibrosis that are caused by one of hundreds or thousands of different mutations in a gene. Using this new approach, they would insert a healthy copy of the gene at its native location in the genome, rather than having to create a different ...

How do pathogens invade the lungs? Using human lung microtissues, a team at the Biozentrum of the University of Basel has uncovered the strategy used by a dangerous pathogen. The bacterium targets specific lung cells and has developed a sophisticated strategy to break through the lungs’ line of defense. Earlier this year, the WHO published a list of twelve of the world’s most dangerous bacterial pathogens that are resistant to multiple antibiotics and pose a grave threat to human health. This list includes Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a much-feared nosocomial pathogen ...

Around two million years ago, Earth was a very different place, with our early human ancestors living alongside saber-toothed tigers, mastodons, and enormous rodents. And, depending on where they were, they may have been cold: Earth had fallen into a deep freeze, with multiple ice ages coming and going until about 12,000 years ago. Scientists theorize that ice ages occur for a number of reasons, including the planet’s tilt and rotation, shifting plate tectonics, volcanic eruptions, and carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. ...

Lasers have revolutionized the world since the 60’s and are now indispensable in modern applications, from cutting-edge surgery and precise manufacturing to data transmission across optical fibers. But as the need for laser-based applications grows, so do challenges. For example, there is a growing market for fiber lasers, which are currently used in industrial cutting, welding, and marking applications. Fiber lasers use an optical fiber doped with rare-earth elements (erbium, ytterbium, neodymium etc) as their optical gain source (the part that produces the laser’s light). They emit high-quality beams, they have high power output, and they are efficient, ...

ROCKVILLE, Md.— New research reveals that moderate to vigorous physical activity in the evening for sedentary adults with overweight and obesity is most beneficial in lowering daily blood sugar levels, according to a study published in Obesity, The Obesity Society’s (TOS) flagship journal. Experts explain that it has been well established that moderate to vigorous physical activity enhances glucose homeostasis in adults with overweight and obesity who are at higher risk of developing insulin resistance. ...

ROCKVILLE, Md.— Individuals treated with anti-obesity medications generally experience reduced appetite, which typically leads to reduced food intake. As a result, dietary quality becomes more important because nutritional needs must be met within the context of eating less. To improve this process, medical experts have developed a list of evidence-based nutritional recommendations to assist clinicians treating patients with anti-obesity medications, according to a review published in the journal Obesity, The Obesity Society’s (TOS) flagship journal. “Our evidence-based review aims to equip clinicians with knowledge ...

Boys are good at math, girls not so much? A study from the University of Zurich has analyzed the social mechanisms that contribute to the gender gap in math confidence. While peer comparisons seem to play a crucial role for boys, girls’ subjective evaluations are more likely to be based on objective performance. Research has shown that in Western societies, the average secondary school girl has less confidence in her mathematical abilities than the average boy of the same age. At the same time, no significant difference ...