Researchers have made a breakthrough into how two chronic respiratory diseases in childhood affect the immune system, paving the way for better treatments. The research, led by Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) and published in Mucosal Immunology, has found suppurative lung disease and wheezing have the same inflammatory profiles despite their differing symptoms. MCRI Dr Melanie Neeland said while suppurative lung disease and wheezing were  common in children, due to a poor understanding of the underlying mechanisms, treatment options were limited and disease recurrence ...

Each year more than 500,000 Americans undergo percutaneous coronary intervention, or PCI, a minimally invasive procedure to unclog the arteries that feed the heart.  While PCI, which includes both angioplasty and stenting, is one of the most common operations in the world, it does carry a small (about 1-2%) but significant risk of death. Around 10% of all deaths following percutaneous coronary intervention are potentially preventable, a study led by Michigan Medicine finds.  The results are published in PLOS ONE.  “Deaths in the hospital after PCI are rare and mostly occur in patients ...

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) chemists have created a new collection of molecular compounds and begun testing them as potential leads in the search for new drugs. Among these molecules, they found several that show promise for development as antibiotics and cancer therapies. Sounds like a eureka moment? Well, sort of. But it’s more a case of hard chemistry made simple. The new compounds were synthesized using an efficient new way of linking molecules together, developed in the lab of CSHL Professor John Moses. Moses calls his innovative process Accelerated SuFEx Click Chemistry (ASCC). ...

An extensive CO2 monitoring network set up around the San Francisco Bay Area by an atmospheric chemist from the University of California, Berkeley, has recorded the first evidence that the adoption of electric vehicles is measurably lowering the area's carbon emissions. The network of sensors, most of them in the East Bay, is the brainchild of Ronald Cohen, UC Berkeley professor of chemistry, who envisions inexpensive, publicly funded pollution and carbon dioxide monitors widely distributed around urban areas to pinpoint emission sources and the ...

Toronto, CANADA & Rotterdam NETHERLANDS – March 2024 – The SynGAP Research Fund 501(c)(3) today announced a grant to Dr. Danielle Andrade, Dr. Miles Thompson, Dr. Ryan Yuen, Dr. Rogier Kerssebook, and Dr. Anatoljevna Anna Kattentidt to support research on SynGAP-Related Disorder (SRD) in adults. SRD is a rare neurodevelopmental disorder that causes severe intractable epilepsy, and intellectual disability, and is one of the leading genetic causes of autism (1,2).  Dr. Andrade’s team recently published the only research on SRD in adults ...

A scientific review has found almost no research studying the interconnections across three major threats to planetary health, despite UN assessments suggesting one million species are at risk of extinction, a global pandemic that resulted in over six million excess deaths, and a record-breaking year of global temperatures. “When we began to look into it, we had suspicions the number of studies would be low, but not that low,” says Dr. Jonathan Davies, a researcher with University of ...

The approval of marijuana for medical use has had little effect on the mental health of the general population in the US. But legalization for therapeutic purposes does benefit those for whom it is intended. This is the conclusion of a study by researchers at the University of Basel. In the US, access to marijuana has been facilitated in most states since the mid-1990s – whether through medical clearance or through decriminalization of recreational use. However, liberalization is still controversial, and the effects on the well-being of specific groups and the therapeutic value ...

The ecosystems we live in don’t work the way they used to — and that’s bad for our health. Climate change, pollution, and falling biodiversity are all damaging our immune systems. The lack of positive environmental exposures to build the strength of our immune systems, and the increasing negative exposures which attack those systems, are combining to cause a dramatic rise in immune-mediated diseases like asthma and cancer. Measures to protect against this could have a very powerful return on investment: an estimated $1 spent on climate change mitigation saves $3 on healthcare costs. A global ...

A study led by Medical Research Council (MRC) researchers has identified genetic variants in two genes that have some of the largest impacts on obesity risk discovered to date. The discovery of rare variants in the genes BSN and APBA1 are some of the first obesity-related genes identified for which the increased risk of obesity is not observed until adulthood. The study, published in Nature Genetics, was led by researchers at the MRC Epidemiology Unit and the MRC Metabolic Diseases Unit at the Institute of Metabolic Science, both based at the University ...

Age matters when determining how to protect life in the ocean; every population needs a strong cohort of adults to produce the next generation. But many marine protected areas (MPAs) are falling short of their most basic purpose: to rebuild struggling fish populations. In a new study published April 4 in Global Change Biology, scientists looked at the age breakdown of reef fish in marine protected areas for the first time. They discovered in almost all of them, adult fish populations have either flatlined or declined. “Adult fish are really important,” said ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. — A recent Mayo Clinic study suggests that active workstations incorporating a walking pad, bike, stepper and/or standing desk are successful strategies for reducing sedentary time and improving mental cognition at work without reducing job performance. Extended sedentary behavior, whether at work or home, increases a person's risk of preventable chronic diseases. "Our findings suggest that it is feasible to blend movement with office work that previously would have been done during long periods of sitting. Active workstations may ...

A research group coordinated by the University of Helsinki was able to measure a spike in radiocarbon concentration of trees in Lapland that occurred after the Carrington flare. This discovery helps to prepare for dangerous solar storms. The Carrington Event of 1859 is one of the largest recorded solar storms in the last two centuries. It was seen as white light flares on a giant sunspot group, fires at telegraph stations and disturbances in geomagnetic measurements, as well as aurorae even in tropical regions. In a joint study carried ...

Even in nature, pride can prevail. A study with researchers from the University of Gothenburg shows that sea anemones that react more slowly to change can survive a heatwave better than individuals that change their behaviour quickly. Along the Atlantic coasts of Europe, many species are exposed to abrupt shifts in habitat. Tides, storms and rapid temperature changes are commonplace for the marine species that live there. With climate change, heatwaves are expected to become more frequent, and researchers wanted to find out how coastal marine species cope with extreme water temperatures. They chose to study the sea anemone species Actinia ...

AMHERST, Mass. – Recent research led by the University of Massachusetts Amherst evaluates how well machine learning can identify different insect species by their sound, from malaria-carrying mosquitoes and grain-hungry weevils to crop-pollinating bees and sap-sucking cicadas. Listening in on the insect world gives us a way to monitor how populations of insects are shifting, and so can tell us about the overall health of the environment. The study, published in the Journal of Applied Ecology, suggests that machine and deep learning are becoming the gold standards for automated ...

Changing weather patterns induced by climate change are contributing to shifts in the location of terrorist activity, according to new research. An exploratory study led by extremism expert Dr Jared Dmello, from the University of Adelaide’s School of Social Sciences, found some climatological variables affected terrorist activity in India. “Suitability analyses indicate that all the climatological variables tested – temperature, precipitation, and elevation – relate to shifting patterns of terrorist activity,” says Dr Dmello. “Urban centres have increasingly grown in population ...

Forming a long-term recreational exercise habit as a young person has a beneficial impact on physical and mental health later in life, but some groups, such as females and academic high-achievers, miss out on these benefits disproportionately. A University of Adelaide study found females, people with low self-efficacy, reluctant exercisers, higher academic achievers, and those experiencing socioeconomic disadvantage are all most at risk of failing to establish regular exercise patterns during the transition from adolescence to young adulthood. The finding was made by examining data collected as part of the Longitudinal Survey of Australian ...

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) — A spectrum of neurodegenerative diseases, including frontotemporal dementia (FTD), progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) and corticobasal degeneration (CBD) are due to the accumulation of abnormal, misfolded tau proteins in the brain. A team of researchers led by UC Santa Barbara scientists has found potential ways to interrupt this process by targeting “sticky” sites along the long form of mutated tau, preventing the misfolding and spreading of the neurofibrillary tangles. “This is ...

SAN ANTONIO, April 3, 2024 – The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UT Health San Antonio) is establishing the Be Well Institute on Substance Use and Related Disorders, a pioneering initiative dedicated to advancing research, education and evidence-based treatments. The new institute includes the current Be Well Texas initiative of UT Health San Antonio as part of a new overall comprehensive center of excellence with national scope for research, clinical and public health programs, as well as education and community engagement to advance the field addressing addiction and related conditions. The goal of the Be Well Institute is to be a nationally premiere substance ...

Since the conflicts that followed 9/11 in 2001, military veterans deployed to areas in Southwest Asia, Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Horn of Africa have been developing respiratory diseases caused by inhaling particulate matter linked to their deployment locations and job duties. New research published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health shows levels of silica and other silicates are significantly higher in the lungs of those who have had past deployments compared to normal lung tissue. “Using ...

Global life expectancy increased by 6.2 years since 1990 according to a new study published in The Lancet. Over the past three decades, reductions in death from leading killers fueled this progress, including diarrhea and lower respiratory infections, as well as stroke and ischemic heart disease. When the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in 2020, however, it derailed progress in many locations. This is the first study to compare deaths from COVID-19 to deaths from other causes globally.  Despite the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, the researchers found that the super-region of Southeast Asia, East Asia, and Oceania had the largest net ...

After the introduction of the income tax in the United States, there has been a migration of higher income earners toward states with lower or no income tax, a new study reveals. This first-ever systematic analysis of 110 years of state income tax implementation throughout the United States also highlights the consequences of taxpayers fleeing to low or no-tax states. Published in the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, the study is titled “The Introduction of the Income Tax, Fiscal Capacity, and Migration: Evidence from U.S. States” and was coauthored by Ugo Antonio Troiano, economist and associate ...

Mill Valley, CA – April 4, 2024 – SynGAP Research Fund 501(c)(3), the leading patient advocacy group working to improve the lives of SYNGAP1-Related Disorder (SRD) patients, today announced the appointment of Kathryn Helde, PhD, as its Chief Scientific Officer, effective February 1, 2024.   “SRF’s scientific grantmaking, industry partnerships, and repurposing efforts have grown past the point where we need a dedicated CSO,” says Mike Graglia, SRF’s Co-Founder and Managing Director.  “We are fortunate to have a parent in our ranks who is as well trained, talented, and dedicated as Dr. Helde.  As a volunteer for years, ...

Findings from US longitudinal household study add to ongoing US vaccination policy discussions by suggesting that pneumococcal vaccination in older adults is important even in populations where children are vaccinated at high rates. **Note: the release below is a special early release from the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID 2024, Barcelona, Spain, 27-30 April). Please credit the congress if you use this story** New research being presented at this year’s European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID 2024) in Barcelona, Spain (27-30 April) finds that pneumonia-causing ...

Ever want to scream during a particularly bad day, but then manage not to? Thank the human brain and how it regulates emotions, which can be critical for navigating everyday life. As we perceive events unfolding around us, the ability to be flexible and reframe a situation impacts not only how we feel, but also our behavior and decision-making. In fact, some of the problems associated with mental health relate to individuals' inability to be flexible, such as when persistent negative thoughts make it hard to perceive a situation differently. To help address such issues, a new Dartmouth-led ...

“Insights & Implications in Gerontology: The Vital Role of Nutrition in Brain Health,” a new publication from the Gerontological Society of America, explores nutritional choices that have been shown to improve cognition and decrease the risk of cognitive impairment and dementia in older adults. Consumption of a healthful diet is a behavioral strategy that can help to prevent the development of dementia as people age, the publication says. It also reports on the roles of vitamins and minerals in nutrition and brain function and focuses on how to implement person-centered conversations about the impact of diet and nutrition on overall wellness, including brain ...