Self-assembling molecules into organized structures is highly valuable for developing new materials. One notable class of these materials is lyotropic chromonic liquid crystals (LCLCs), which are molecular assemblies of amphiphilic π-electronic molecules, with water-absorbing and water-repelling parts. The term “lyotropic” refers to liquid crystal phases that depend on the concentration of the molecules in a solvent, while “chromonic” indicates that these molecules are stacked into columnar assemblies. In a solvent, these structures are stabilized by π–π interactions and hydrophobic effects. Examples of ...

CLEVELAND—Researchers at the Case Western Reserve School of Medicine have found that, when compared to seven other anti-diabetic drugs, semaglutide, a popular diabetes and weight-loss drug, may lower the risk of Alzheimer’s disease in people with type 2 diabetes (T2D). Alzheimer’s disease is a brain disorder that slowly destroys memory and thinking skills. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, nearly 7 million Americans 65 and older are living with the disease, and there are more deaths from Alzheimer’s than breast and prostate cancer combined. The study, published ...

A UNC Greensboro (UNCG) study following 299 women and their infants from pregnancy to toddlerhood examined mul ple psychological, biological, and social factors in the context of infants’ rapid weight gain. They found infant feeding practices associated with obesity, known as obesogenic practices, are strongly correlated with rapid infant weight gain.   Examples of obesogenic practices described in their recent Pediatric Obesity paper include watching television while feeding a baby, formula feeding, and supplementing a bottle with additional foods.   “The key take ...

Scientists from Cleveland Clinic and Cornell University have designed a publicly-available software and web database to break down barriers to identifying key protein-protein interactions to treat with medication. The computational tool is called PIONEER (Protein-protein InteractiOn iNtErfacE pRediction). Researchers demonstrated PIONEER’s utility by identifying potential drug targets for dozens of cancers and other complex diseases in a recently published Nature Biotechnology article. Genomic research is key in drug discovery, but it is not always enough on its own, says Feixiong Cheng, PhD, study co-lead author and director of Cleveland Clinic’s Genome Center. When ...

BUFFALO, N.Y. — The key to recovering from traumatic nerve injuries, like those sustained in motor vehicle accidents or gunshot wounds, may be a gene named for the land of everlasting youth in Irish folklore. In a study published today (Oct. 24) in Nature Communications, a University at Buffalo-led research team describes how the gene, called NANOG, can improve the regrowth of damaged nerves and re-establish innervation (the process of nerves growing and connecting with organs or tissues) after traumatic severing of peripheral nerves. The gene’s name is derived from Tír na nÓg, which is a mythical ...

If a phone or other electronic device was made of soft materials, how would that change its use? Would it be more durable? If hospital health monitoring equipment was made of less rigid components, would it make it easier for patients to wear? While electronics of that type may still be far in the future, Virginia Tech researchers have developed an innovative method for constructing the soft electronic components that make them up. The focus of a project from the team of Michael Bartlett, principal investigator and associate professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, ...

A study published today in IOP Publishing’s journal Environmental Research Letters, has revealed a staggering $79 billion in annual climate-related costs from the production of common materials in the United States. These costs, which stem from greenhouse gas emissions, are not reflected in current market prices, effectively creating a massive subsidy for carbon-intensive industries.  “High price point is a common reason why low emission alternative materials are not adopted voluntarily by industries. Accounting for the externalized cost of emissions could provide an economic basis for driving innovation and implementation of alternative material production ...

Houston, Texas – In a comprehensive review published in the October 2024 issue of Genomic Psychiatry, researchers have unveiled crucial insights into how two types of hormone receptors collaborate to maintain brain health and potentially prevent neurodegenerative diseases. The study, led by Professor Jan-Åke Gustafsson and colleagues at the University of Houston and Karolinska Institutet, demonstrates that liver X receptors (LXRs) and thyroid hormone receptors (TRs) work together in a previously unrecognized manner to regulate critical brain functions and protect ...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — OCTOBER 24, 2024 — Roughly four in five Americans say they either strongly (48%) or somewhat (31%) support a federal law that requires insurance companies to cover mental health at the same level they do medical or surgical care, including 95% of Democrats, 79% of independents and 67% of Republicans. Despite the widespread support, half of Americans (50%) have little to no trust that health insurers will comply with the law, according to a new West Health-Gallup survey released today. In 2020, less than half of all adults with mental illness received treatment, according to the White House, leading the Biden ...

PHILADELPHIA – Cancer prevalence rates varied widely across vertebrate species and generally increased with higher adult mass and decreased with longer gestation time, according to results published in Cancer Discovery, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR). In 1977, Sir Richard Peto, FRS, FAACR, hypothesized that cancer prevalence in animals should correlate linearly with body size and lifespan, as larger animals have more cells in which to accumulate damage, and long-lived animals have more time to acquire mutations. He observed, however, that this did not seem to be the case based on ...

A team of international scientists, including two researchers from The Australian National University (ANU), will soon sail to the Japan Trench to discover more about what causes tsunamis. The researchers will be on board the world’s most advanced drilling-equipped science vessel, Chikyu. It will drill directly into the Tōhoku-oki earthquake fault zone, where one of the most powerful earthquakes ever recorded in Japan occurred in 2011. The stress accumulated at this junction over hundreds of years was suddenly released, causing the tectonic plate on which Japan sits to skip upwards and eastwards by up to 50 metres. This shallow slip displaced a vast area ...

What keeps some immune systems youthful and effective in warding off age-related diseases? In a new paper published in Cellular & Molecular Immunology, USC Stem Cell scientist Rong Lu and her collaborators point the finger at a small subset of blood stem cells, which make an outsized contribution to maintaining either a youthful balance or an age-related imbalance of the two main types of immune cells: innate and adaptive. Innate immune cells serve as the body’s first line of defense, mobilizing a quick and general attack against invading germs. For germs that evade the body’s innate immune defenses, the second line of attack consists of adaptive immune ...

Suicide risk is highest on Mondays and increased on New Year’s Day, whereas suicide risk on weekends and Christmas varies by country and region, finds an analysis of data from 26 countries published by The BMJ today. The researchers say their results can help to better understand the short term variations in suicide risks and define suicide prevention action plans and awareness campaigns. According to the World Health Organization, more than 700,000 people died due to suicide in 2019, accounting for approximately 1.3% of deaths, which was higher than the number of deaths by malaria, HIV/AIDS, and breast cancer. Previous studies have shown that suicide ...

Using a gene signature technique to tailor chemotherapy for patients with early triple negative breast cancer shows promise as a way to improve disease-free survival, finds a clinical trial published by The BMJ today. Triple negative breast cancer is an aggressive type of breast cancer that carries a higher risk of recurrence and death after standard treatment. As such, there is an urgent need for more effective chemotherapy strategies. Multigene signatures are tests that analyse genes in a tumour sample to predict how well ...

Pharmaceutical companies have paid an estimated £156 million to NHS trusts in England between 2015 and 2022 without the public being told what the payments are for, reveals an investigation by The BMJ today. The findings raise important questions about unrecognised conflicts of interest and have led to calls for a shake-up of current transparency rules.  The BMJ tracked all disclosed non-research payments to NHS trusts in England from 2015 to 2022 reported in Disclosure UK, a database run by the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI), which requires participating companies to disclose cash payments and other benefits in ...

Maternal antibodies passed across the placenta can interfere with the response to the malaria vaccine, which would explain its lower efficacy in infants under five months of age, according to research led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), in collaboration with seven African centers (CISM-Mozambique, IHI-Tanzania, CRUN-Burkina Faso, KHRC-Ghana, NNIMR-Ghana, CERMEL-Gabon, KEMRI-Kenya). The findings, published in Lancet Infectious Diseases, suggest that children younger than currently recommended by the WHO may benefit from the RTS,S and R21 malaria vaccines if they live in areas with low malaria transmission, ...

Teaching needs to be made more attractive to a wider pool of graduates to tackle shortages in the profession, according to new international research comparing 18 countries. The worldwide comparison led by Durham University, UK, shows that the level of pay relative to other graduate professions, lack of resources and poor student behaviour all play a part in recruitment and retention issues. Popular quick-fix strategies used across the world to attract and retain teachers, such as bursaries, scholarships and ...

Latest research has revealed a “positive association” between the number of properties listed as Airbnb rentals and police-reported robberies and violent crimes in thousands of London neighbourhoods between 2015 and 2018. In fact, the study from University of Cambridge and the University of Pennsylvania suggests that a 10% increase in active Airbnb rentals in the city would correspond to an additional 1,000 robberies per year across London.* Urban sociologists say the rapid pace at which crime rises in conjunction with new rentals suggests that the link is related more to opportunities for crime, rather than loss ...

A new report by researchers from the University of Cambridge and the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) argues the UK government should invest in green infrastructure now or watch productivity lag behind China, the United States and other countries already running away with the benefits. Is reaching net zero a growth and prosperity plan? by former Head of Economic Forecasting at the UK Treasury, Dimitri Zenghelis, says the government’s self-imposed rules on infrastructure investment must be modernised to spur the innovation needed for UK prosperity. The ...

New Curtin-led research has revealed Marri trees are critical to the survival of more than 80 species of native bee in Western Australia’s South West region, which is one of the world’s most biologically rich but threatened biodiversity hotspots.   Lead author Dr Kit Prendergast, Adjunct Research Fellow from the Curtin School of Molecular and Life Sciences, said the study identified the Marri (Corymbia calophylla), which is native to the South West and was named a ‘near threatened’ species in 2019, as a crucial supplier of food for native bees and supporter of the region’s ecosystem.   “The findings that these trees support at ...

Barcelona, Spain: Drugs designed to target HER2-postive breast cancer could also benefit some patients with bile duct cancer, according to results of a patient trial to be presented on Thursday at the 36th EORTC-NCI-AACR [1] Symposium on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics in Barcelona, Spain. Bile duct cancer is rare, treatment options are limited, and the survival rates are low.   The trial also suggests that a wider group of breast cancer patients – those with HER2-mutated breast cancer – could be treated with these ...

Study focused on ‘Goldilocks Gene’ CHD2 that causes autism and epilepsy Deletion of long non-coding RNA CHASERR produces too much CHD2 protein in the cell, leaving patients wheelchair-bound, nonverbal and with intellectual delays Patient’s dad from study: ‘We intuitively understood this was a lot bigger than just Emma’ ‘It is mind-boggling that we only know what 1% of the human genome does’ CHICAGO --- When a gene produces too much protein, it can have devastating consequences on brain development and function. ...

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Millions of Americans use cannabis to treat a plethora of health conditions. They are rarely under a health care provider’s supervision and their access to quality information about the substances they are consuming and their potential risks is limited at best. A paper published today in the American Journal of Public Health, the official journal of the American Public Health Association, by University at Buffalo researchers calls attention to this concerning and potentially dangerous situation, which they say is a result of a policy environment historically driven by politics, not science. The paper explains why there needs to be a shift in cannabis ...

EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE UNTIL 4 P.M. ET, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2024 MINNEAPOLIS – In middle-aged people, having risk factors like blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol that are not well-controlled combined with not following certain healthy habits including exercise, diet and sleep, are linked to a higher risk of stroke, dementia or depression later in life, according to a study published in the October 23, 2024, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. These results do not prove that not having healthy habits increases the risk of these conditions, ...

EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE UNTIL 4 P.M. ET, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2024 MINNEAPOLIS – People in early middle age who have poor sleep quality, including having difficulty falling or staying asleep, have more signs of poor brain health in late middle age, according to a study published in the October 23, 2024, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The study does not prove that poor sleep accelerates brain aging. It only shows an association between poor sleep quality and signs ...