A new artificial intelligence (AI) tool that draws logical inferences about the function of unknown proteins promises to help scientists unravel the inner workings of the cell. Developed by KAUST bioinformatics researcher Maxat Kulmanov and colleagues, the tool outperforms existing analytical methods for forecasting protein functions and is even able to analyze proteins with no clear matches in existing datasets[1].   The model, termed DeepGO-SE, takes advantage of large language models similar to those ...

A research paper published today (14 February 2024) in Nature Cancer details new insights into the role of efferocytosis – the burying of dead cells – in pancreatic cancer that spreads to the liver. Liver metastasis occurs in 40–50% of people with pancreatic ductal adenosarcoma (PDAC), and there are currently no effective therapies to cure pancreatic cancer patients that have liver metastasis. Led by University of Liverpool’s Professor Michael Schmid and colleagues, this study found PDAC metastases to show high levels of immunosuppressive macrophages, a type of white blood ...

Fear and addiction exert significant influence within society. Managing them is often challenging, as they are driven by intricate neuronal circuits in our brains. Understanding the underlying molecular mechanisms is crucial to intervene when these processes malfunction. Pioneered by scientists at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA), the novel “Flash and Freeze-fracture” technique provides a unique glimpse into the respective brain region. The results were recently published in the journal PNAS. While looking for food, a bird encounters a fox. It gets away just in time, but the sight ...

In the dark and cold of the months-long polar night, food resources are limited. Some groups of marine organisms in the polar regions overcome this challenge by going into a metabolic resting state in winter, surviving on reserves accumulated during the short growth season. But others, such as several species of marine zooplankton, have evolved a different strategy: they shift from a specialized to an omnivorous diet during the polar night, profiting from a wide range of potentially less rewarding foods that are available throughout the year. Now, ...

Elche (Spain), January 22, 2024. Usually, show business depicts viruses, bacteria, and other microorganisms as one of the worst menaces to humankind. Entertainment movies influence the way audiences understand and perceive these topics. Yet, few films accurately portray the science of microbiology and its social implications. Movies and TV series often feature outbreaks of deadly diseases and the efforts of scientists and medical professionals to contain them. However, entertainment movies can also educate the public about the importance and the impact ...

The Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) announced that Dr. Maesoon Im of the Brain Science Institute, together with Prof. Seung Ja Oh of Kyung Hee University and Prof. Kangwon Lee of Seoul National University, successfully incorporated anti-inflammatory drugs into a hydrogel to suppress inflammation in the retina and effectively deliver the drugs to the inflamed area. Age-related macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa are incurable eye diseases that cause blindness due to the gradual damage of photoreceptor cells, which convert light into biological signals in the retina, the light-sensitive tissue at the back of the eye. Age-related macular degeneration is a condition ...

For middle-aged women plagued by migraines, or hot flashes and night sweats, another worry may linger in the backs of their minds: whether these experiences have set them up for a heart attack, a stroke or another cardiovascular crisis. After all, past research suggesting such a link during and after menopause has gotten a lot of attention. But a pair of new studies in the journal Menopause suggest that most of them don’t need to worry as much, especially if they don’t have both migraines and long-term hot flashes and night sweats. Instead, they should focus on tackling the ...

CLEVELAND, Ohio (Feb 14, 2024)—Hot flashes and migraine (particularly with aura) have been shown to be individual risk factors for cardiovascular disease because of associated poorer heart disease riskfactor profiles. A new study, however, is the first to examine the joint influences of migraine and hot flashes/night sweats (vasomotor symptoms) independent of traditional heart disease risk factors and estrogen use. Research results are published online today in Menopause, the journal of The Menopause Society.   Specifically, ...

A course of acupuncture may curb the heightened risk of stroke associated with rheumatoid arthritis, finds a comparative study published in the open access journal BMJ Open.   The effects seem to be independent of sex, age, medication use, and co-existing conditions, the findings indicate, prompting the researchers to suggest that the procedure may reduce levels of pro-inflammatory proteins (cytokines) in the body that are linked to cardiovascular disease. The principal cause of death in people with rheumatoid arthritis is cardiovascular disease. And they are more likely to have a stroke than ...

The quality of evidence submitted to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) for informing its decisions to recommend technologies for use in the NHS was poor in more than half of cases, reveals a 20-year analysis, published in the open access journal BMJ Open.   And the data quality submitted for health technology appraisals by manufacturers between 2000 and 2019 was consistently poor, with no improvement during that time, the analysis shows. NICE advises the NHS on the ...

A range of reproductive factors, including age when periods first start and an early menopause, are all linked to a heightened risk of COPD—the umbrella term for progressive lung conditions that cause breathing difficulties—finds research published online in the journal Thorax. Miscarriage, stillbirth, infertility, and having 3 or more children are also associated with a heightened risk of COPD, which includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis, the findings show. Recent evidence indicates substantial gender  differences in susceptibility ...

Psychological distress increased among people with Black Caribbean heritage in the UK, relative to the White population, following the 2014 Immigration Act and the Windrush scandal, finds a new study led by UCL researchers. The researchers say their findings, published in The Lancet Psychiatry, suggest a causal link between government policies and a subsequent decline in mental health. They were investigating the impact of the Immigration Act 2014, requiring landlords, employers, the NHS, banks and the police to check right-to-stay documentation. This was a key part of a set of measures known as the Home Office hostile environment policy, seeking ...

A drug used to treat rheumatoid arthritis could also prevent the disease in individuals deemed to be at risk. Results from a Phase 2b clinical trial, published today in The Lancet by researchers led by King’s College London, provides hope for arthritis sufferers after it was shown that the biologic drug abatacept reduces progression to this agonising chronic inflammatory disease. Rheumatoid arthritis affects half a million people in the UK and develops when the body’s immune system attacks itself, causing joint pain, swelling and significant disability. The disease most commonly begins in middle age, but much younger age groups can be afflicted, and until ...

Babies playfully tease others as young as eight months of age. Since language is not required for this behavior, similar kinds of playful teasing might be present in non-human animals. Now cognitive biologists and primatologists from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA, US), the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior (MPI-AB, Germany), Indiana University (IU, US), and the University of California San Diego (UCSD, US) have documented playful teasing in four species of great apes. Like joking behavior in humans, ape teasing is provocative, persistent, and includes elements of surprise and play. Because all four great ape species used playful teasing, it is likely that the ...

A therapist-guided digital cognitive behavioural therapy reduced distress in 89 per cent of participants living with long-term physical health conditions, a new King’s College London study finds. Researchers at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King’s College London found that people living with long-term conditions who received the therapist-guided digital programme called COMPASS showed a significant reduction in psychological distress (a combined score of anxiety and depression) 12-weeks after starting the study.  194 patients were recruited via long-term condition charities, including Crohn’s & ...

For the first time, Purdue researchers prove that measuring mechanical motions in living cancer tissues is a viable and promising approach for predicting chemoresistance Chemotherapy can save lives, but often a cancer patient may be resistant to their prescribed chemotherapy, which costs the patient valuable time. Chemoresistance is a topic that researchers need to understand better so that they can match the right type of chemo to the right patient, which is called personalized medicine. An unusual pairing of veterinary scientists and physicists believe ...

CORNELL UNIVERSITY MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE FOR RELEASE: Feb. 13, 2024 Kaitlyn Serrao 607-882-1140 kms465@cornell.edu Trail cameras track ‘critically low’ New York bobcat population ITHACA, N.Y. – With thousands of strategically placed cameras covering more than 27,000 square miles in central and western New York, biologists have evidence that bobcat populations remain critically low in central and western New York state. Despite reports of recent recoveries elsewhere, bobcat populations in New York State displayed low occupancy, ...

Living organisms often create what is needed for life from scratch. For humans, this process means the creation of most essential compounds needed to survive. But not every living thing has this capability, such as the parasite that causes malaria, which affected an estimated 249 million people in 2022. Virginia Tech researchers in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences found that by preventing the malaria parasite from scavenging fatty acids, a type of required nutrient, it could no longer grow. “The key to this breakthrough is that we were able to develop a screening method for the malaria ...

Imagine your healthy child gets sick—so sick that you take them to the emergency department. You are shocked to find out that their liver is failing, and they will need a transplant to survive. Studies show that their chances of survival are higher the faster they can get to a hospital that performs liver transplants. But what factors affect how quickly that happens? Pediatric acute liver failure, also called PALF, is a life-threatening condition that emerges with very little warning in previously healthy children. It is rare, affecting about 5,000 children in the United States a year, and can result from viral ...

This study included larger groups of people from African, Hispanic and Asian ancestries than many other previous studies. A recent study involving scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory has uncovered insights into the prostate cancer risks of people from a variety of genetic ancestries. The project, which was led by the University of Southern California, included large increases in representation among men of African, Hispanic and Asian ancestries, that were contributed in part by an ongoing collaboration between the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and DOE as ...

American Geophysical Union 13 February 2024 AGU Release No. 24-5 For Immediate Release This press release and accompanying multimedia are available online at: https://news.agu.org/press-release/a-century-of-reforestation-helped-keep-the-eastern-us-cool/ A century of reforestation helped keep the eastern US cool Much of the U.S. warmed during the 20th century, but the eastern part of the country remained mysteriously cool. The recovery of forests could explain why AGU press contact: Liza Lester, +1 (202) 777-7494, news@agu.org (UTC-5 hours) Contact information for the researchers: Kim ...

“This study provides novel insights into the pathogenesis of OA and suggests a potential therapeutic target in OA treatment.” BUFFALO, NY- February 13, 2024 – A new research paper was published in Aging (listed by MEDLINE/PubMed as "Aging (Albany NY)" and "Aging-US" by Web of Science) Volume 16, Issue 2, entitled, “IL-17 promotes IL-18 production via the MEK/ERK/miR-4492 axis in osteoarthritis synovial fibroblasts.” The concept of osteoarthritis (OA) as a low-grade inflammatory ...

As data traffic continues to increase, there is a critical need for miniaturized optical transmitters and receivers that operate with high-order multi-level modulation formats and faster data transmission rates. In an important step toward fulfilling this requirement, researchers developed a new compact indium phosphide (InP)-based coherent driver modulator (CDM) and showed that it can achieve a record high baud rate and transmission capacity per wavelength compared to other CDMs. CDMs are optical transmitters used in optical communication systems that can put information on light by modulating the amplitude and phase before it is transmitted through optical fiber. “Services that require ...

New research from UBC Okanagan could make monitoring gut health easier and less painful by tapping into a common—yet often overlooked—source of information: the mucus in our digestive system that eventually becomes part of fecal matter. Correct, what’s in our poop. Researcher Dr. Kirk Bergstrom and post-graduate student Noah Fancy of UBCO's Biology department discovered a non-invasive technique to study MUC2, a critical gut protein, from what we leave behind in the bathroom. “MUC2 is like the silent star in our guts. It’s constantly working ...

Reston, VA—Peptide receptor radionuclide therapy (PRRT) is effective for clinical control of symptomatic metastatic insulinomas, according to new research published in the February issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine. In the largest study to date of metastatic insulinoma patients treated with PRRT, more than 80 percent of patients had long-lasting symptom control, and nearly 60 percent were able to reduce the use of other drugs to treat the disease. Metastatic insulinoma is a rare malignant neuroendocrine tumor characterized ...