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Medicine27 Mar 2025

The Protein Society announces its 2025 Award Recipients

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Raluca Cadar The Protein Society Phone: (844) 377-6834 E-mail: rcadar@proteinsociety.org LOS ANGELES, CA – The Protein Society, the premier international society dedicated to supporting protein research, announces the winners of the 2025 Protein Society Awards, which will be recognized at the 39th Annual Symposium, June 26 – 29, 2025, in San Francisco, USA. Plenary talks from award recipients will take place throughout the 3.5-day event. The winners’ scientific accomplishments, described by their nominators below, demonstrate their profound impact on protein science. The Christian B. Anfinsen ...

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Medicine27 Mar 2025

AI is as good as pathologists at diagnosing celiac disease, study finds

A machine learning algorithm developed by Cambridge scientists was able to correctly identify in 97 cases out of 100 whether or not an individual had coeliac disease based on their biopsy, new research has shown. The AI tool, which has been trained on almost 3,400 scanned biopsies from four NHS hospitals, could speed up diagnosis of the condition and take pressure off stretched healthcare resources, as well as improving diagnosis in developing nations, where shortages of pathologists are severe. Digital ...

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Technology27 Mar 2025

AI could help sonographers identify abnormalities in unborn babies more quickly

Artificial intelligence (AI) could help sonographers identify any abnormalities at the 20-week pregnancy screening scan almost twice as quickly, without reducing the accuracy or reliability of diagnoses, a new study has shown. This will help improve patient care by allowing sonographers to focus on other aspects of the scan, such as communicating with parents or spending more time looking at any areas of concern. The trial is the first of its kind to use AI for the 20-week pregnancy scan on real patients, and is ...

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Medicine27 Mar 2025

First clinical trial of an AI therapy chatbot yields significant mental health benefits

Dartmouth researchers conducted the first clinical trial of a therapy chatbot powered by generative AI and found that the software resulted in significant improvements in participants' symptoms, according to results published March 27 in the New England Journal of Medicine AI. People in the study also reported they could trust and communicate with the system, known as Therabot, to a degree that is comparable to working with a mental-health professional. The trial consisted of 106 people from across the United States diagnosed with major depressive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, or an eating disorder. ...

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Technology27 Mar 2025

AI learns to ‘speak’ genetic ‘dialect’ for future SARS-CoV-2 mutation prediction

It’s been five years since COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic. As SARS-CoV-2 shifts to endemic status, questions about its future evolution remain. New variants of the virus will likely emerge, driven by positive selection for traits such as increased transmissibility, longer infection duration and the ability to evade immune defenses. These changes could allow the virus to spread among previously immunized populations, potentially triggering new waves of infection. Predicting new mutations in viruses is crucial for advancing life science research, particularly when trying to understand how viruses evolve, ...

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Medicine27 Mar 2025

$50 million gift from the Weill Family Foundation establishes the Weill Cancer Hub East

New York, N.Y., and Princeton, N.J. (March 27, 2025)—With a mission to understand how nutrition and metabolism impact the body’s ability to control cancer, four leading research institutions have united under the Weill Cancer Hub East, an innovative, collaborative partnership that aims to transform cancer treatment. The initiative connects world-class experts from Princeton University, The Rockefeller University, Weill Cornell Medicine and the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research to enhance a ...

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Physics27 Mar 2025

Physics meets art: a new twist on interference patterns

Tokyo, Japan – One of the simplest and most beautiful naturally occurring patterns can be observed when light is shined through a pair of slightly misaligned periodic structures. This phenomenon, known as the moiré effect, is not only pretty to look at, but also has important consequences for the properties of materials. In an article published in ACS Nano, a team led by researchers from the Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo, announced the discovery of a previously unseen moiré pattern: a series of periodic one-dimensional bands in tungsten ditelluride bilayers. In nanomaterials, moiré patterns ...

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Medicine27 Mar 2025

Elevating global heart failure care with new certification

DALLAS, March 27, 2025 — More than 56 million people globally live with heart failure (HF), which prevents the body from getting enough of the oxygen-rich blood it needs to work properly.[1] While there is no cure for HF, many people with this condition can live full, enjoyable lives and disease progression can be slowed with the right treatment. Research shows that outcomes for patients with HF improve when health care professionals and hospitals provide guideline-directed medical therapies. A new Heart Failure Center ...

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Science27 Mar 2025

The MIT Press releases 2025 Direct to Open (D2O) Impact Report

The MIT Press is proud to release our 2025 Impact Report for Direct to Open (D2O), our sustainable framework for open access monographs that shifts publishing from a solely market-based purchase model where individuals and libraries buy single eBooks, to a collaborative, library-supported open access model. The continued growth in the reach of open access publishing couldn’t be more timely. In 2025, access to truth and facts are under attack, and democratizing access to trustworthy, peer-reviewed information has never been more important. In the face of so many forces working against the spread of knowledge, Direct to Open continues to be a critical tool. To date, ...

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Medicine27 Mar 2025

New study reveals the curative potential of genome editing approach for genetic deafness

Congenital hearing loss refers to impaired auditory function that occurs due to genetic causes. GJB2 is the gene responsible for approximately half of all cases of hereditary hearing loss. Connexin 26 (CX26), which is encoded by GJB2, helps in the formation of intercellular gap junctions—channels that allow for the movement of ions and chemical messenger molecules between adjacent cells, where it regulates auditory function. GJB2 mutations often lead to fragmentation of gap junctions and gap junction plaques (GJPs) which are composed ...

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Medicine27 Mar 2025

AAAS elects Keck School of Medicine of USC molecular biologist Yali Dou as 2025 fellow

Molecular biologist Yali Dou, PhD, holder of the Marion and Harry Keiper Chair in Cancer Research and professor of medicine and cancer biology at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, has been elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). She is one of seven USC faculty members in the 2025 cohort of new fellows. The AAAS is the world’s oldest and largest general science organization and the publisher of Science, a top peer-reviewed academic journal. Election as a fellow is a lifetime honor — one of the AAAS’s ...

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Science27 Mar 2025

Damaging cluster of UK winter storms driven by swirling polar vortex miles above Earth

University of Leeds news Embargoed until 10:00 GMT, 27 March Damaging cluster of UK winter storms driven by swirling polar vortex miles above Earth Powerful winter storms which led to deaths and power outages in the UK and Ireland were made more likely by an intense swirling vortex of winds miles above the Arctic, say scientists. A team of researchers led by the University of Leeds has pinpointed a new reason for winter storm clusters such as the trio named Dudley, Eunice and Franklin, which hit the nation within the space of a week in February 2022. The findings which are published today in the journal ...

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Environment27 Mar 2025

Losing forest carbon stocks could put climate goals out of reach

In the past, intact forests absorbed 7.8 billion tonnes of CO₂ annually – about a fifth of all human emissions – but their carbon storage is increasingly at risk from climate change and human activities such as deforestation. A new study from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) shows that failing to account for the potentially decreasing ability of forests to absorb CO₂ could make reaching the Paris agreement targets significantly harder, if not impossible, and much more costly. “Delaying action leads to disproportionately higher costs,” explains Michael Windisch, ...

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Medicine27 Mar 2025

From weight to wellness: New database transforms obesity research

A new medical database automatically compiles the medical records of obese patients and those suffering from obesity-related diseases in a uniquely comprehensive and reliable manner. The initiative, led by Kobe University, offers valuable insights for health promotion and drug development. “Obesity is at the root of many diseases,” says OGAWA Wataru, an endocrinologist at Kobe University. Obesity has been linked to the development of diabetes, hypertension, gout, coronary heart disease, stroke and many other diseases. Monitoring, treating and preventing obesity and the diseases it can cause is therefore not only good for ...

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Science27 Mar 2025

Nature’s viny vampire: Discovering what drives parasitic Cuscuta campestris

The parasitic vine Cuscuta campestris grows by latching onto the stems and leaves of plants and inserting organs called haustorium into the host plant tissues to draw nutrients. The haustorium is formed when ion channels in the cell membrane are stimulated during coiling and induce a reaction within the cell. Further, Cuscuta campestris has many types of ion channels, but which ones were linked to the development of haustorium were previously unknown. “For the first time, the genes involved in sensing ...

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Science27 Mar 2025

How calcium may have unlocked the origins of life’s molecular asymmetry

A new study led by researchers at the Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI) at Institute of Science Tokyo has uncovered a surprising role for calcium in shaping life’s earliest molecular structures. Their findings suggest that calcium ions can selectively influence how primitive polymers form, shedding light on a long-standing mystery: how life’s molecules came to prefer a single “handedness” (chirality). Like our left and right hands, many molecules exist in two mirror-image forms. Yet life on Earth has a striking preference: ...

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Medicine27 Mar 2025

Study finds long Covid patients feel pressure to prove their illness is real

People living with Long Covid often feel dismissed, disbelieved and unsupported by their healthcare providers, according to a new study from the University of Surrey. The study, which was published in the Journal of Health Psychology, looked at how patients with Long Covid experience their illness. The study found that many patients feel they have to prove their illness is physical to be taken seriously and, as a result, often reject psychological support, fearing it implies their symptoms are "all in the mind". Professor ...

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Medicine27 Mar 2025

Smartwatches may help control diabetes through exercise

Wearable mobile health technology could help people with Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) to stick to exercise regimes that help them to keep the condition under control, a new study reveals. Researchers studied the behaviour of recently-diagnosed T2D patients in Canada and the UK as they followed a home-based physical activity programme – some of whom wore a smartwatch paired with a health app on their smartphone. They discovered that MOTIVATE-T2D participants were more likely to start and maintain purposeful exercise at if they had the support of wearable technology- the study successfully recruited 125 participants with an 82% ...

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Environment27 Mar 2025

Fossils: Ancient parasitic ‘Venus flytrap’ wasp preserved in amber

An extinct lineage of parasitic wasps dating from the mid-Cretaceous period and preserved in amber may have used their Venus flytrap-like abdomen to capture and immobilise their prey. Research, published in BMC Biology, finds that the specimens of Sirenobethylus charybdis — named for the sea monster in Greek mythology which swallowed and disgorged water three times a day — date from almost 99 million years ago and may represent a new family of insects. The morphology of S. charybdis indicates the wasps were ...

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Environment27 Mar 2025

New species revealed after 25 years of study on ‘inside out’ fossil – and named after discoverer’s mum

A new species of fossil from 444 million years ago that has perfectly preserved insides has been affectionately named ‘Sue’ after its discoverer’s mum. The result of 25 years of work by a University of Leicester palaeontologist and published in the journal Palaeontology, the study details a new species of multisegmented fossil and is now officially named as Keurbos susanae. Lead author Professor Sarah Gabbott from the School of Geography, Geology and the Environment said: “‘Sue’ is an inside-out, legless, headless wonder. Remarkably her insides are a mineralised ...

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Medicine27 Mar 2025

THE LANCET HIV: Proposed cuts to foreign aid could result in millions of HIV deaths and soaring rates of global HIV infections, new modelling study estimates

New modelling analysis suggests that proposed funding cuts by major donor countries to foreign aid could undo decades of progress made to end HIV/AIDS as a public health threat and new infections and deaths could surge back to levels not seen since the early 2000s. The study estimates there could be between 4.4 million to 10.8 million additional new HIV infections by 2030 in low-and-middle income countries (LMICs) and between 770,000 to 2.9 million HIV-related deaths in children and adults by 2030. The greatest impact from potential funding ...

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Medicine26 Mar 2025

Study reveals association between dietary sodium consumption and both general and abdominal obesity

New research to be presented at this year’s European Congress on Obesity (ECO 2025, Malaga, Spain, 11-14 May) shows an association between the amount of sodium consumed in the diet and the risk of both general and abdominal obesity. The study is by Annika Santalahti, Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki, Finland, and colleagues. General obesity is a person’s obesity status as measured by their body mass index (BMI), with WHO international guidelines stating a BMI of 30 kg/m2 or more means a person is living with obesity. Abdominal obesity is where fat accumulates around the abdomen and internal organs there, leading ...

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Medicine26 Mar 2025

Study finds knowledge of genetics and genomic medicine crucial for mental health providers to deliver informed, personalized care

San Diego—March 26, 2025– In a manuscript published today in the American Journal of Psychiatry titled Psychiatric Genetics in Clinical Practice: Essential Knowledge for Mental Health Professionals, authors provide updated guidelines on what mental health professionals should know about the latest advances in genetics and how genetics can inform clinical psychiatric practice. Key findings highlight the importance of understanding the genetic architecture of psychiatric disorders, the potential applications of genetic information in risk assessment, diagnosis, treatment selection, and patient education, ...

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Social Science26 Mar 2025

Hypersonic simulation in 3D exposes new disturbances

At hypersonic speeds, complexities occur when the gases interact with the surface of the vehicle such as boundary layers and shock waves. Researchers in the Department of Aerospace Engineering in The Grainger College of Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign were able to observe new disturbances in simulations conducted for the first time in 3D. Fully 3D simulations require a great deal of processing power, making the work expensive to compute. Two things made it possible for Deborah Levin and her Ph.D. student Irmak Taylan Karpuzcu to conduct the research: Time on Frontera, the National Science Foundation-funded leadership-class computer system at the Texas ...

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Medicine26 Mar 2025

Your neighborhood may affect your risk of dementia

EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE UNTIL 4:00 P.M. ET, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 26, 2025 MINNEAPOLIS — People living in more disadvantaged neighborhoods may be more likely to develop dementia than people living in neighborhoods with fewer disadvantages, according to a study published on March 26, 2025, online in Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The study does not prove that neighborhood factors cause dementia; it only shows an association. Neighborhood status was determined by factors such as income, employment, education and disability. “Our findings show that the community in which you live influences your risk of developing dementia,” ...

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