CDKL5, one of the five members of the CDKL family of genes, is important for proper neurodevelopment and associated with seizures. However, the role the other four members of this family play in health and disease is unknown. A team led by researchers at Baylor College of Medicine and the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute (Duncan NRI) at Texas Children’s Hospital has deepened our understanding of two other members of the CDKL family, CDKL2 and CDKL1. The labs of Drs. Oguz Kanca and Hugo Bellen show that ...

A review article published in Engineering delves into the crucial field of organ preservation, exploring its history, current techniques, and future prospects. The shortage of donor organs remains a significant global challenge, with only about 10% of the global demand for organ transplantation being met, as stated by the World Health Organization. This shortage is further exacerbated by the limitations of current organ preservation methods. Currently, the main clinical methods for organ preservation are static cold storage (SCS) and machine perfusion (MP). SCS, which involves storing organs in a preservation solution at low temperatures (usually 4 °C), is simple and ...

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have identified a novel trigger of a deadly form of ovarian cancer: a subset of progenitor cells that reside in fallopian tube supportive tissue, or stroma. The discovery of these high-risk cells, described in a new study published today in Cancer Discovery, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, could pave the way for better approaches to prevent and detect high-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC), the most common form of ovarian cancer, which kills more than 12,000 women in the U.S. each year. “Ovarian cancer is the leading cause of death from gynecologic cancer in the Western world, but we currently ...

WHAT: Researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have determined that dermatitis resulting from topical steroid withdrawal (TSW) is distinct from eczema and is caused by an excess of an essential chemical compound in the body. Scientists from NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) identified treatments that could be studied in clinical trials for the condition based on their potential to lower levels of the chemical compound—called nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+), a form of ...

SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19, infects cells by binding its spike protein to angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptors. Blocking this interaction with inhibitors could prevent infection. Since these inhibitors act directly on the virus without affecting human cells, they may be safer than some existing treatments. However, mutations in the spike protein can alter its structure, reducing the effectiveness of these inhibitors. In a significant breakthrough, a research team led by Professor Yoshinori Fujiyoshi ...

Magnetic materials have become indispensable to various technologies that support our modern society, such as data storage devices, electric motors, and magnetic sensors. High-magnetization ferromagnets are especially important for the development of next-generation spintronics, sensors, and high-density data storage technologies. Among these materials, the iron-cobalt (Fe-Co) alloy is widely used due to its strong magnetic properties. However, there is a limit to how much their performance can be improved, necessitating a new approach. Some of the earlier studies have shown that epitaxially grown films made up of Fe-Co alloys doped with heavier elements exhibit remarkably high ...

(Boston)—Digital voice recordings contain valuable information that can indicate an individual’s cognitive health, offering a non-invasive and efficient method for assessment. Research has demonstrated that digital voice measures can detect early signs of cognitive decline by analyzing features such as speech rate, articulation, pitch variation and pauses, which may signal cognitive impairment when deviating from normative patterns.   However, voice data introduces privacy challenges due to the personally identifiable information embedded in recordings, ...

Researchers at the University of Birmingham have developed a new method for the rapid scalable preparation of uniform nanostructures directly from block polymers.   This novel approach, led by the Dove and O'Reilly groups, significantly reduces processing time from a week to just minutes, enabling high-throughput production of precision polymer nanomaterials.  Publishing their findings today (14 Mar) in Nature Chemistry, the teams outline a rapid seed preparation technique that supersaturates polymer solutions in a flow system.  The process facilitates uniform seed micelle formation and allows ...

Photosynthesis is a marvellous process: plants use it to produce sugar molecules and oxygen from the simple starting materials carbon dioxide and water. They draw the energy they need for this complex process from sunlight. If humans could imitate photosynthesis, it would have many advantages. The free energy from the sun could be used to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and use it to build carbohydrates and other useful substances. It would also be possible to produce hydrogen, as photosynthesis splits water into its components oxygen and hydrogen. Photosynthesis: a Complex Process ...

People with favourable socioeconomic conditions, such as high incomes or education levels, face a reduced risk of age-related diseases and show fewer signs of biological ageing than peers of the same age, finds a new study led by University College London (UCL) researchers. Social inequalities appear to have a direct impact on the biological ageing process, according to the authors of the Nature Medicine paper. The scientists found that people with more social advantages had fewer proteins in their blood that are linked to the ...

The Nano Materials Research Division at the Korea Institute of Materials Science (KIMS), led by Dr. Tae-Hoon Kim and Dr. Jung-Goo Lee, has successfully developed a groundbreaking grain boundary diffusion process that enables the fabrication of high-performance permanent magnets without the use of expensive heavy rare earth elements. This pioneering technology, marks the world’s first achievement in this field. Permanent magnets are key components in various high-value-added products, including electric vehicle (EV) motors and robots. However, conventional permanent magnet manufacturing processes have been heavily dependent on ...

23% of people infected with SARS-CoV-2 between 2021 and 2023 developed long-COVID, and in more than half of them the symptoms persisted for two years. These are the main conclusions of a study conducted by ISGlobal, a centre supported by the ”la Caixa” Foundation, and in collaboration with the Germans Trias i Pujol Research Institute (IGTP), as part of the European END-VOC project. The risk of developing long-COVID depends on several factors, according to the results published in BMC Medicine. After overcoming an initial ...

Violence is trapping women across Northern Ireland in cycles of trauma and homelessness, with some facing further abuse in temporary accommodation, despite moving there to find a place of safety. The research from Heriot-Watt University and University of Edinburgh was commissioned by the Community Foundation for Northern Ireland and funded by the Oak Foundation. It is based on in-depth interviews with women with lived experience of violence over five areas of Northern Ireland. The areas include Belfast and Derry, one smaller urban area in County Down, and two more rural areas of County Antrim and County Fermanagh. The report also covers findings from focus groups with frontline workers ...

Researchers from Brazilian, Argentine, and Uruguayan institutions analyze the barriers that low- and middle-income countries face in disseminating research on intensive care medicine, particularly in the treatment of critically ill patients. Published this month in The Lancet, the study highlights how historical and economic biases perpetuate inequalities and suggests changes to make the scientific publishing system more inclusive and representative of the global community. Low- and middle-income countries are home to 85% of the world's population and bear a disproportionate burden of critical illnesses. ...

PHILADELPHIA— Prior exposures to specific types of seasonal influenza viruses promote cross-reactive immunity against the H5N1 avian influenza virus, according to new research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Older adults who were exposed to seasonal flu viruses that circulated prior to 1968 were found to be more likely to have antibodies that bind to the H5N1 avian flu virus. The findings, published today in Nature Medicine¸ suggest that younger adults and children would benefit more from H5N1 vaccines, even those not tailored specifically to the current strain circulating in birds and ...

ITHACA, N.Y. – Climate change and flagging investment in research and development has U.S. agriculture facing its first productivity slowdown in decades. A new study estimates the public sector investment needed to reverse course. In the paper, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers model both the dampening effects of climate change on U.S. agriculture and the accelerating effects of publicly funded research and development (R&D) – and use the estimates to quantify the investment in research required to maintain agricultural productivity through 2050. They find that a 5% to 8% per year growth in research investment ...

Key takeaways Curiosity about a mistake that left tiny dots on a germanium wafer with evaporated metal films led to the discovery of beautiful spiral patterns etched on the surface of the semiconductor by a chemical reaction. Further experiments showed that the patterns arise from chemical reactions that are coupled to mechanical forces through the deformation of a catalyzing agent. The new system is the first major advance in experimental methods to study chemical pattern formation since the 1950s. Studying these complex systems will help scientists understand other natural processes, from crack formation in materials to how stress ...

OKLAHOMA CITY – Polycystic kidney disease (PKD), a family of genetic disorders that causes clusters of cysts to form on the kidney, is among the most common genetic disorders, affecting some 500,000 people in the United States. Roughly one in every 1,000 people will develop some form of cystic kidney disease during their lifetime, and nearly 40,000 Oklahomans have a chronic kidney disease, according to the Oklahoma Health Care Authority. For many patients, dialysis – a time-consuming and costly procedure – is one of few treatment options. A 2021 study ...

OKLAHOMA CITY – When mothers eat a diet high in fat and sugars, their unborn babies can develop liver stress that continues into early life. A new study published in the journal Liver International sheds light on changes to the fetus’s bile acid, which affects how liver disease develops and progresses. Bile acids typically help with digestion and absorb dietary fats in the small intestine, but when they reach excessive levels, they become toxic and can damage the liver. While the mother can detoxify the acids, the fetus lacks that ability. Bile acids may re-circulate to the mother for detoxification, but if they don’t, they build ...

More than 3 billion years ago, Mars intermittently had liquid water on its surface. After the planet lost much of its atmosphere, however, surface water could no longer persist. The fate of Mars’ water—whether it was buried as ice, confined in deep aquifers, incorporated into minerals or dissipated into space—remains an area of ongoing research, one of particular interest to LASP Senior Research Scientist Bruce Jakosky, former principal investigator of the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) mission. Last week, in a letter to the editor ...

MADISON — Inside the human eye, the retina is made up of several types of cells, including the light-sensing photoreceptors that initiate the cascade of events that lead to vision. Damage to the photoreceptors, either through degenerative disease or injury, leads to permanent vision impairment or blindness.  David Gamm, director of UW–Madison’s McPherson Eye Research Institute and professor of ophthalmology and visual sciences, says that stem cell replacement therapy using lab-grown photoreceptors ...

High-grade glioma, an aggressive form of pediatric and adult brain cancer, is challenging to treat given the tumor location, incidence of recurrence and difficulty for drugs to cross the blood-brain barrier. Researchers from the University of Michigan, Dana Farber Cancer Institute and the Medical University of Vienna established a collaborative team to uncover a potential new avenue to address this disease. A study, published in Cancer Cell, shows that high-grade glioma tumor cells harboring DNA alterations in the gene PDGFRA responded to the drug avapritinib, which is already approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration to treat gastrointestinal ...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), in partnership with NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), has developed StarBurst, a small satellite (SmallSat) instrument for NASA's StarBurst Multimessenger Pioneer mission, which will detect the emission of short gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), a key electromagnetic (EM) signature that will contribute to the understanding of neutron star (NS) mergers. NRL transferred the instrument to NASA on March 4 for the next phase, environmental ...

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – March 13, 2025 – A study from researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine highlights a new approach in addressing conductive hearing loss. A team of scientists, led by Mohammad J. Moghimi, Ph.D., assistant professor of biomedical engineering, designed a new type of hearing aid that not only improves hearing but also offers a safe, non-invasive alternative to implantable devices and corrective surgeries.  The study recently published in Communications Engineering, a Nature Portfolio journal.  Conductive ...

Envision a world where unmanned aircraft deliver goods to your front door and transport passengers in flying taxis, cargo planes cross continents carrying vital trade goods, and fighter jets patrol battle zones—all without a human pilot at the controls. Those scenarios might seem a bit far-fetched now, but researchers are working diligently to develop these aircraft and ensure they operate safely. That’s why NASA has awarded a $1 million grant through its University Leadership Initiative (ULI) to a team from The University of Texas at Arlington Research ...