[Vienna, Feb 26 2024] — Leptospirosis is a globally distributed infectious disease that affects both animals and humans. While the infection is endemic in tropical regions, its incidence seems to increase in temperate regions. The serological diagnostic test used in routine to detect antibodies against the bacteria responsible for the disease performs better when local variants are used. In Austria, however, no locally circulating strain has been available to date. A new study, published in the latest issue of Scientific Reports, has now been able to close this research gap.  "In our study, ...

Bethesda, MD (Feb. 26, 2024) — The AGA Research Foundation has announced a $1.4 million endowment grant from The Bern Schwartz Family Foundation. The AGA Institute will provide matching support, resulting in a $2.8 million endowment dedicated to advancing basic research in pancreatic cancer, the third leading cause of cancer deaths in the U.S.   The endowment will fund a second AGA-Bern Schwartz Family Fund Research Scholar Award in Pancreatic Cancer. The first award, created in 2013, will also continue. Both awards provide selected early career-investigators with $100,000 per year for three years ...

Calls to U.S. poison centers involving psilocybin, or “magic mushrooms,” among adolescents and young adults rose sharply after several U.S. cities and states began decriminalizing the hallucinogen, University of Virginia School of Medicine researchers have found.  Psilocybin-related calls more than tripled among teens ages 13-19 from 152 to 464 and more than doubled among adults ages 20-25 from 125 to 294 between 2018 and 2022, according to anonymized data gathered from the National Poison Data System. Local and state efforts to decriminalize the possession, use and cultivation of psilocybin began in May 2019. Oregon and Colorado have decriminalized psilocybin, as ...

The average researcher thinks they are better than their colleagues at following good research practice. They also think that their own research field is better than other research fields at following good research practice. This is shown in a new study by researchers at Linköping University, Sweden. The results point to a risk of becoming blind to one’s own shortcomings, according to the Linköping researchers. “The starting point for the project is that there’s a bit of a crisis in the research world. Research misconduct or difficulties to replicate research results have been discovered in many studies. Credibility has been called into question,” ...

When you get a tattoo, do you know what you’re putting under your skin? According to new Binghamton University research, the ingredient labels on tattoo ink don’t match the actual substances in the bottle. Produced by the lab of Binghamton Univerity Assistant Professor of Chemistry John Swierk, “What’s in my ink: An analysis of commercial tattoo ink on the U.S. market” was recently published in the journal Analytical Chemistry. Swierk’s lab explores the potential impact of light on tattoos and their chemical breakdown. Early on, doctoral student Kelli Moseman ...

As we get older, we may start to notice it takes us longer to find the right words. This can lead to concerns about cognitive decline and dementia. However, a new study by Baycrest and the University of Toronto suggests that talking speed is a more important indicator of brain health than difficulty finding words, which appears to be a normal part of aging. This is one of the first studies to look at both differences in natural speech and brain health among healthy adults. “Our results indicate that changes in general talking speed may reflect changes in the brain,” says Dr. Jed Meltzer, ...

Deforestation, a critical consequence of human activity, has garnered significant attention due to its impact on environmental sustainability, biodiversity and climate change. However, an equally pressing yet less explored aspect is the relationship between deforestation and human health, especially in impoverished regions. Scientists have increasingly recognized the detrimental effects of deforestation on various aspects of human health, particularly among children. Studies reveal that children residing in areas with high deforestation rates are at an elevated risk of malaria, ...

In 2023, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Minnesota joined a growing list of states that allow undocumented immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses if an applicant can provide certain documentation, such as a foreign birth certificate or passport and evidence of current residency in the state. Altogether, 19 states and the District of Columbia have similar legislation in place. And lawmakers in other states, such as Michigan and Oklahoma, have introduced similar legislation. In many cases, these laws were passed ...

In a study in today’s (Monday Feb. 26) Nature Human Behavior, scientists delve into the world of chemical neuromodulators in the human brain, specifically dopamine and serotonin, to reveal their role in social behavior.  The research, conducted in Parkinson's disease patients undergoing brain surgery while awake, homed in on the brain’s substantia nigra, a crucial area associated with motor control and reward processing.  Led by Virginia Tech computational neuroscientist Read Montague, the international team revealed ...

BOSTON – About eight million people live with Type 1 diabetes (T1D) worldwide, a chronic autoimmune condition in which the body attacks and destroys its own insulin-producing β-cells (pronounced “beta”) in the pancreas, leading to a lack of insulin and inability to regulate blood sugar. It’s not known why the body suddenly perceives its own β-cells as the enemy; some lines of evidence suggest environmental factors such as viral infections may trigger the onset of T1D, others suggest genetics may also play some role.   Groundbreaking ...

She studies the giant explosions of dying stars and dreams of experiencing and extracting data from a supernova close to Earth. Professor Irene Tamborra from the Niels Bohr Institute also tirelessly promotes equity and inclusion in research. Today she receives the prestigious Elite Research Prize and DKK 1.2 million in honor of her research in astrophysics.   "I am fascinated by anything that explodes in the sky," Professor Irene Tamborra says as she begins to describe her research. The professor from the University of Copenhagen’s ...

In an early phase clinical trial, a combination of antibody-based medications targeting the immune system generated promising safety data and anti-tumor activity in individuals with various types of advanced cancer. The findings are published by Wiley online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society. Both medications tested in the trial support immune responses against tumor cells. CS1002 increases the activation and proliferation of T immune cells by binding to a T cell receptor called CTLA-4. CS1003, also called nofazinlimab, ...

Eight new Pacific bee species and new insights into Fijian bird behaviour on Viti Levu Island have been described in new scientific studies led by Flinders University.  The studies, both funded by field work supported by the Australian Government’s New Colombo Mobility Plan Program, highlight the potential for species discovery, ecological and conservation knowledge and cultural engagement from Asia-Pacific research collaborations. In the past 10 years, Australian Government-funded Flinders University field trips have worked closely ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. –  While it’s not surprising to spot teens wearing headphones and earbuds, it’s also becoming a widespread trend among younger children, a national poll suggests. Two in three parents say their child ages 5-12 uses personal audio devices, with half of parents of children ages 5-8 reporting elementary-aged kids use a device. Among parents whose children use headphones and earbuds, half say kids spend at least an hour a day using them while one in six say a typical ...

In 1934, American entomologist Elwood Zimmerman, then an undergraduate student at Berkeley, participated in the ‘Mangarevan expedition’ to Polynesia. Among the samples he collected were three tiny (4 mm long), orange-brown solitary bees found on tahetahe flowers in the Tuamotu Archipelago. The specimens rested undisturbed in the Bernice P Bishop Museum of Honolulu until 1965, when the famous bee specialist Prof Charles Michener examined them. He described them as a species new to science: Hylaeus tuamotuensis, or Tuamotu’s masked bee, in the family ...

Many older adults receiving home care do not receive any palliative home care before death, suggesting we need better methods to identify people who need this support, according to new research in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) https://www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.221513. "Palliative care is an essential component of a holistic, comprehensive and patient-centred approach to care for all people with a life-limiting illness from the time of diagnosis with the disease," said Dr. Amy Hsu, investigator at the Bruyère Research Institute and faculty in the Department of Family Medicine at the ...

Forests have a critical role to play in capturing and storing carbon from the Earth’s atmosphere – but some models exaggerate their carbon removal potential by almost three-fold, according to a leading professor of forest economics. Global Forest Carbon: Policy, Economics and Finance by Runsheng Yin from Michigan State University emphasizes the value of nature-based solutions to the climate crisis but calls for significant changes to the way carbon credits from reforestation, afforestation, and improved forest management are calculated. He has found that current modeling of local ...

Antidepressant dispensing to adolescents and young adults increased sharply after the COVID-19 pandemic began – particularly among females – a new study finds. While a growing number of young people ages 12 to 25 were receiving antidepressants before the pandemic, the antidepressant dispensing rate rose nearly 64% faster after March 2020, according to Michigan Medicine led findings in Pediatrics. “Antidepressant dispensing to adolescents and young adults was already high and rising before ...

Philadelphia, February 26, 2024 – A passionate plea for the re-establishment of Canada's health coalition focused on hypertension prevention and control appears as an editorial in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology, published by Elsevier. "We need a national hypertension control program to prevent death and disability," according to prominent healthcare leaders. Lead author of the editorial Norm R.C. Campbell, MD, Department of Medicine, University of Calgary, explains, "Hypertension is a leading cause of death and disability in Canada; globally it causes about one in five deaths (19.2%). However, ...

A drug can make life safer for children with food allergies by preventing dangerous allergic responses to small quantities of allergy-triggering foods, according to a new study led by scientists at the Stanford School of Medicine. The research will be published Feb. 25 in the New England Journal of Medicine. The findings suggest that regular use of the drug, omalizumab, could protect people from severe allergic responses, such as difficulty breathing, if they accidentally eat a small amount of a food they are allergic to. “I’m excited that we have a promising ...

Scientists at Paderborn University have used a new method to determine the characteristics of optical, i.e. light-based, quantum states. For the first time, they are using certain photon detectors - devices that can detect individual light particles - for so-called homodyne detection. The ability to characterise optical quantum states makes the method an essential tool for quantum information processing. Precise knowledge of the characteristics is important for use in quantum computers, for example. The results have now been published in the specialist journal "Optica Quantum". "Homodyne detection is a method frequently ...

Gene and cell therapies are among the most important innovations in the healthcare sector. And they reflect advances in science and technology. They have the potential to radically reshape the treatment of cancer, autoimmune diseases, neurodegenerative disorders, and many rare genetic conditions. But the path to approval and clinical use of these products is long and often fraught with difficulty. That was the reason the European University Hospital Alliance (EUHA) founded the European Center for Cell and Gene Cancer Therapies (EUCCAT) four years ago. The center’s aim is to facilitate the clinical use of ATMPs developed at higher education institutions and further ...

Tokyo, Japan – Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have engineered a new micro total analysis system that quantifies a target chemical in a microfluidic chip without pumps, tubes, and expensive detectors. The compound reacts with other chemicals to produce a gas, pushing ink in a connected chamber along a channel. Built-in light detectors help measure the flow speed, allowing measurement of the original chemical. The portability of the new device enables bedside, quantitative clinical analysis.   Microfluidics is a revolutionary technology delivering precision chemistry with vastly less chemicals. ...

“Given that the MET inhibitor capmatinib caused a remarkable response in Dr. Blagosklonny, a pertinent question remains as to why he was not treated with ‘preemptive drug combinations’ [...]” BUFFALO, NY- February 23, 2024 – A new editorial paper was published in Oncoscience (Volume 11) on February 9, 2024, entitled, “A very long and winding road: developing novel therapeutics for metastatic tumors.” In this editorial, researcher Paul Dent from the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Virginia Commonwealth University writes that tumors that ...

Physicians and scientists have known for many years that our genetics not only shape our physical features like our smiles but also our risk for developing certain diseases. The problem? Most people don’t know if they have inherited these genetic risk factors for disease. In Our DNA SC, a statewide genomic screening program launched by the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC), aims to change that. The program, the first and only program of its kind in the Southeast, is led by Caitlin G. Allen, Ph.D.,  a ...