Fukuoka, Japan – In a collaborative study, researchers from Kyushu University and Harvard Medical School have identified proteins that can turn or “reprogram” fibroblasts — the most commonly found cells in skin and connective tissue — into cells with similar properties to limb progenitor cells. Publishing in Developmental Cell, the researchers’ findings have enhanced our understanding of limb development and have set the stage for regenerative therapy in the future. Globally, close to 60 ...

Scientists from the National University of Singapore (NUS) have developed a novel triple-junction perovskite/Si tandem solar cell that can achieve a certified world-record power conversion efficiency of 27.1 per cent across a solar energy absorption area of 1 sq cm, representing the best-performing triple-junction perovskite/Si tandem solar cell thus far. To achieve this, the team engineered a new cyanate-integrated perovskite solar cell that is stable and energy efficient. Solar cells can be fabricated ...

Quantum computing will radically transform the application of the law – challenging long-held notions of copyright, a new study says.   Faster computing will bring exponentially greater possibilities in the tracking and tracing of the legal owners of art, music, culture and books.     This is likely to mean more copyright infringements, but also make it easier for lawyers to clamp down on lawbreaking. However, faster computers will also be able to potentially break and get around certain older enforcement technologies.   The research says quantum computing ...

NEW ORLEANS – Today, Ochsner Health announced that the annual Health and Wellness Day in New Orleans East will be held from 9 a.m.- 1 p.m. on Saturday, March 9 at the Joe W. Brown Rec Center. “At Ochsner Health, our vision is to inspire healthier lives and stronger communities, and neighborhood engagement is a fundamental component of that effort,” said Yvens Laborde, MD, chief community medical officer. “Health and Wellness Day meets New Orleans East families where they live. With our partners, ...

Degenerative arthritis is no longer exclusive to the elderly population. According to the National Health Insurance Service report covering the years from 2012 to 2022, there has been a 22.8% increase in the prevalence of degenerative arthritis among people in their 20s and 30s. This rise is attributed to prolonged periods of desk sitting and the excessive lifting of heavy sports equipment, both of which can lead to significant cartilage damage. While artificial joints are a common treatment, bacterial infections have posed challenges. However, ...

Researchers at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) and Universitätsklinikum Erlangen have examined a man who has received more than 200 vaccinations against Covid-19. They learned of his case via newspaper reports. Until now, it has been unclear what effects hypervaccination such as this would have on the immune system. Some scientists were of the opinion that immune cells would become less effective after becoming used to the antigens. This proved not to be the case in the individual in question: his immune system is fully functional. Certain immune cells and antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 are even ...

New research from Flinders University has revealed that parents are feeling conflicted, confused and concerned when it comes to zero-alcohol beer, wine and spirts  and adolescents. In recent years alcohol-free alternatives have flooded the Australian drinks market, reaching into the millions of dollars and heralding a new - but ever more confusing - era for parents across the country. With such a meteoric rise in choice and popularity, the rules, regulations and wider implications of these drinks for adolescents are still being studied. Non-alcoholic beer, wine, and spirits, sometimes known as ...

USC will spark new startups and innovation under a new collaboration with Techstars, a leading pre-seed investor. The collaboration is also promising for the local economy as ideas generated at USC are converted into products and businesses that will enhance the university’s economic footprint at “Silicon Beach.” The budding tech corridor spans Los Angeles County and portions of Orange County, and it hosts several tech and biotech industry leaders, including the USC Information Sciences Institute in Marina del Rey and the USC Institute for Creative Technologies in Los Angeles. “Our mission is to ...

Secure firearm storage—storing a firearm unloaded, locked and separate from ammunition—can help reduce the risk for suicide, but many military service members store their firearms unsecured. In a new Rutgers Health study, researchers asked firearm-owning service members who they view as the most credible sources to discuss secure firearm storage for suicide prevention. The researchers, whose study appears in the journal Suicide and Life-Threatening Behaviors, examined data from 719 U.S. service members. “There is no single voice that will appeal to all firearm-owning service members, but certain groups are widely seen as credible overall and our results ...

*This is an early press release from the European Congress on Obesity (ECO 2024) Venice 12-15 May. Please mention both the Congress and the journal Diabetologia if using this material* New research being presented at this year’s European Congress on Obesity (ECO) in Venice, Italy (12-15 May), and published in Diabetologia (the journal of th European Association for The Study of Diabetes [EASD]) suggests that having a low birthweight together with being overweight in young adulthood (but not childhood) contributes to the development of type 2 diabetes at an early age (59 years or younger) in men. Notably, the study involving over 34,000 ...

Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a new generation of high-performance DNA aptamers and highly accurate drug sensors for cocaine and other opioids. The sensors are drug specific and can detect trace amounts of fentanyl, heroin, and cocaine – even when these drugs are mixed with other drugs or with cutting agents and adulterants such as caffeine, sugar, or procaine. The sensors could have far-reaching benefits for health care workers and law enforcement agencies. “This work can provide needed updates to currently used tests, both in health care and law enforcement settings,” ...

The City University of New York (CUNY) Institute for Implementation Science in Population Health (ISPH) and the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy (CUNY SPH), in collaboration with Pfizer, are initiating a critical two-year prospective epidemiologic study in the spring of 2024 to track acute respiratory infections across the United States. Project PROTECTS (Prospective Respiratory Outcomes from Tracking and Evaluating Community-based TeSting) builds on the pivotal CHASING COVID Cohort Study, which has monitored SARS-CoV-2 infection rates and associated risk factors through questionnaires and at-home serological testing since March 2020. The cohort's ...

Menlo Park, CA: SRI announced today the relaunch of PARC Forum, an event and program series that brings together some of the world’s leading thinkers for thought-provoking conversations at the intersection of technology and society.  The first PARC Forum event marks the first anniversary of SRI’s acquisition through a donation from Xerox of the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC ). The acquisition brought together two iconic Silicon Valley organizations that have created and delivered technologies, services, and ideas that have had a profound impact on every one of our lives.     SRI’s ...

Beech trees provide food for animals, timber for wood products, and sustenance for beech drop plants, but they are under threat from Beech Leaf Disease (BLD). The disease, first documented in 2012 in the Midwest, is associated with the nematode Litylenchus crenatae mccannii and is spreading rapidly throughout the central and northeast regions of North America. A team of scientists led by Craig Brodersen, professor of plant physiological ecology, and Leila Fletcher, postdoctoral associate, at the Yale School of the Environment has uncovered ...

Medical diagnostics expert, doctor’s assistant, and cartographer are all fair titles for an artificial intelligence model developed by researchers at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology. Their new model accurately identifies tumors and diseases in medical images and is programmed to explain each diagnosis with a visual map. The tool’s unique transparency allows doctors to easily follow its line of reasoning, double-check for accuracy, and explain the results to patients. "The idea is to help catch cancer and disease in its earliest stages — like an X on ...

Lactating mothers who get the COVID-19 booster pass along the antibodies to their children via their breast milk – and potentially protect babies too young to receive the vaccine, a study from the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) and the UF College of Medicine found. The study is the third in a series that looks at antibody protection being transferred via breast milk from mothers who received their first two COVID-19 vaccinations and, now, the booster shot. The second publication reported the same antibody transfer via breast milk. “We think that breast milk may play an important ...

PORTLAND, Ore. – Researchers who work with tiny drug carriers known as lipid nanoparticles have developed a new type of material capable of reaching the lungs and the eyes, an important step toward genetic therapy for hereditary conditions like cystic fibrosis and inherited vision loss. Findings of the study led by Gaurav Sahay and Yulia Eygeris of the Oregon State University College of Pharmacy and Renee Ryals of Oregon Health & Science University were published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Unlike other types of lipid nanoparticles that tend to accumulate in the liver, the ones in this study, ...

Below please find summaries of new articles that will be published in the next issue of Annals of Internal Medicine. The summaries are not intended to substitute for the full articles as a source of information. This information is under strict embargo and by taking it into possession, media representatives are committing to the terms of the embargo not only on their own behalf, but also on behalf of the organization they represent.    ----------------------------    1. COVID-19 associated with increased risk for autoimmune inflammatory rheumatic diseases up to a year after infection Vaccination showed some protection against AIRDs, depending on severity ...

Irvine, Calif. March 4, 2024 — The National Science Foundation has granted $15 million to the Integrative Movement Sciences Institute at the University of California, Irvine. This six-year funding, part of the NSF’s Biology Integration Institutes program, will support groundbreaking research led by Monica Daley, professor of ecology & evolutionary biology at the UCI School of Biological Sciences. The research funded by this grant aims to understand the intricate mechanics of muscle control during rapid, unsteady movements in complex environments. Muscle ...

Metin Akay, founding chair of the Biomedical Engineering Department at the University of Houston and John S. Dunn Professor, is one of 50 top scientists from 34 elite universities to publish a roadmap for groundbreaking research to transform the landscape of medicine in the coming decade.  Published on behalf of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the world’s largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for humanity and the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (IEEE EMBS), the paper focus ...

March 4, 2024, Mountain View, CA – The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is helping scientists uncover how planets form by advancing understanding of their birthplaces and the circumstellar disks surrounding young stars, in a paper published in the Astronomical Journal, a team of scientists led by Naman Bajaj of the University of Arizona and including Dr. Uma Gorti at the SETI Institute, image for the first time, winds from an old planet-forming disk (still very young relative to the Sun) which is actively dispersing its gas ...

EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE UNTIL 4 P.M. ET, MONDAY, MARCH 4, 2024 MINNEAPOLIS – Certain medications for multiple sclerosis (MS) called monoclonal antibodies, taken while breastfeeding, may not affect the development of a child during the first three years of life, according to a preliminary study released today, March 4, 2024. The study will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 76th Annual Meeting taking place April 13–18, 2024, in person in Denver and online. The study examined four monoclonal antibodies for MS: natalizumab, ocrelizumab, rituximab and ofatumumab. MS is a disease in which the body’s immune system attacks ...

PITTSBURGH, March 4, 2024 — Reinsurance programs, which were created to help lower premiums and increase enrollment in the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance marketplaces, may have had the opposite effects for many potential marketplace enrollees, according to a study by health policy researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health, Duke University and University of Minnesota. The study, published today in Health Affairs, is the first to examine the effects of a post-American Rescue Plan Act ...

In the U.S., sexual and gender minority populations are disproportionately affected by HIV. Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is a key prevention method, but its effectiveness relies on consistent usage. While a significant body of research has addressed PreP initiation and adherence, far less attention has been paid to the reasons for and consequences of PrEP discontinuation. A team of investigators conducted a four-year U.S. national cohort study exploring PrEP discontinuation among sexual and gender minority people who initiated PrEP.  “Our cohort was entirely comprised of individuals ...

Medicare Part D plans significantly increased restrictions on prescription drugs, excluding more compounds from coverage or subjecting more of them to review before patients could access the treatments, according to a new study from USC researchers. Among drugs not in Medicare “protected classes,” the share of drug compounds restricted or excluded by Part D plans surged from an average of 31.9% in 2011 to 44.4% in 2020, according to the study published in the March 2024 issue of Health Affairs. Brand-name-only compounds (those without a generic alternative) were especially limited, with more ...