Scientists from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and ShanghaiTech University have developed an innovative method for growing brain tumors of individual patients in the laboratory that mimic the original structure and the molecular property of the parental tumor as closely as possible. Drug tests in this model were found to correlate very well with actual patient responses, making it a valuable method for investigating therapies. Tumor organoids, i.e. mini-tumors grown from surgical material in the culture dish, ...

Laser diodes are semiconductors that generate light and amplify it using repeated reflection or ‘optical feedback’. Once the light has achieved desirable optical gain, laser diodes release it as powerful laser beams. Photonic crystal surface-emitting lasers (PCSELs) are advanced laser diodes where the optical gain is typically distributed laterally to the propagating light within a photonic crystal (PC) structure. They differ from traditional lasers by separating gain, feedback, and emission functions, offering scalable single-mode power and innovative ...

There are reports of IT sabotage, cyber espionage, and other acts of hybrid warfare almost every day. Communication networks based on quantum physics could help eliminate threats of this kind. Researchers throughout Germany have already been working on developing those networks based on quantum repeaters for several years. In January 2025, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) started funding a new research project, entitled Quantenrepeater.Net (QR.N), which aims to demonstrate the viability of quantum repeaters over test networks outside the protected lab environment. The BMBF will be providing a total of EUR 20 million over three years. ...

The PhRMA Foundation announced the appointment to its Board of Directors of Dr. John C. Reed, MD, PhD, Executive Vice President of Innovative Medicine R&D at Johnson & Johnson (J&J), and Dr. Donatello Crocetta, MD, MBA, Chief Medical Officer and Head of Medical Communities at UCB. The PhRMA Foundation is a 60-year-old nonprofit that fosters biopharmaceutical innovation and value-driven health care by investing in the frontiers of research. The Foundation catalyzes the careers of promising researchers through competitive, ...

A special liquid diet, known as exclusive enteral nutrition, is an essential therapy for Crohn's disease. Patients consume only this formula for six to eight weeks, completely avoiding solid foods. However, the exact reasons why this is helpful were previously unclear. Researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and the LMU University Hospital Munich have now been able to decipher the mechanism behind this dietary therapy. Based on these results, they are launching a clinical study combining dietary therapy with faecal microbiome transfer to further enhance ...

Researchers in Korea have developed a technology that automatically identifies the necessary precursor materials to synthesize specific target materials. A joint research team led by Senior Researcher Gyoung S. Na from the Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology (KRICT) and Professor Chanyoung Park from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) has developed an AI-based retrosynthesis methodology that predicts the required precursor materials solely based on the chemical formula of the target material without expensive material descriptors ...

2024 was an exceptionally calm year for shark bites. Worldwide, there were only 47 unprovoked attacks, down 22 from the previous year and well below the 10-year average of 70. Four of last year’s attacks resulted in fatalities, also a significant reduction from recent years. The International Shark Attack File, maintained by the Florida Museum of Natural History, provides data on what are considered unprovoked bites, defined as incidents in which a person does not initiate contact with a shark. Instances in which a person intentionally or unintentionally initiates contact, including spearfishing and releasing sharks ...

CHICAGO – The anesthetic ketamine is being hailed as a breakthrough therapy for people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), treatment-resistant depression and other mood disorders. But the drug does have side effects – some potentially life-threatening – and should only be prescribed and administered by trained health care professionals to ensure the patient’s safety, according to new guidance released by the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA). Long valued for its role in sedation and anesthesia during medical procedures, ...

Shark depredation is a hot-button issue in recreational fishing, as anglers face off against these stealthy ocean bandits. These underwater thieves snatch fish straight off the line, often leaving nothing but scraps – or a broken leader – as evidence of their heist. The Southeast, a major hub for saltwater fishing, is a depredation “hot spot” due to high fishing activity. While fisheries managers in the United States monitor shark depredation in commercial fisheries, efforts to evaluate these interactions in recreational fishing have been limited. With Florida’s recreational ...

After the launch of ChatGPT male researchers’ productivity rate increased, pointing to a gender difference in how scientists use AI. Previous work has shown that men are more likely to use generative AI in their work than women. Shaobo Li and colleagues analyzed preprints uploaded to the Social Science Research Network (SSRN), one of the largest open-access repositories in the world, from May 2022 to June 2023. ChatGPT was released in late November 2022. After the release of ChatGPT, the productivity of male researchers significantly increased relative to that of female researchers, with the probability ...

A study shows that there are almost twice as many risky days for large human-caused fires in the American West as there are for lightning-caused fires, due to differences in the level of heat and aridity under which each type of fire is likely to occur. The discrepancy is not accounted for in most fire early warning systems. In addition, risky days for human-caused fires are growing faster than risky days for lighting-caused fires as the climate warms.  Fa Li and colleagues focused on Vapor Pressure Deficit (VPD), which captures both dryness ...

PULLMAN, Wash. — Foods that evoke a sense of nostalgia and comfort and have good texture variety are important considerations in prepared meals aimed at older adults, according to new Washington State University research. “We want to help the prepared food industry produce appetizing, healthy meals for older adults,” said Carolyn Ross, professor in WSU’s School of Food Science. “Malnutrition is quite prevalent in people over 60 because food may be available, but they won’t eat it if they don’t like it. We want to walk a line where food is tasty, convenient, and full of nutrients.” In a paper recently published ...

In recent years, some public figures have argued that undocumented residents in the United States should not be included in census data used for congressional apportionment because their inclusion unfairly benefits Democratic-leaning states. John Robert Warren and Robert E. Warren analyzed data from every census from 1980 through 2020 and used high quality state-level estimates of the size of the undocumented resident population at each time point. The authors then calculated how many House seats and how many Electoral College votes would have changed had undocumented residents been excluded from the data after each census. Previous efforts to ...

Attitudes about climate change and carbon footprints show strong regional patterning. Farzan Karimi-Malekabadi and colleagues investigated the role of moral values in these geographic patterns. The authors used Moral Foundations Theory, which posits that moral judgements emerge from deeply held intuitions about care, fairness, loyalty, authority, and purity. The authors used opinion surveys, comprising 12,061 respondents, conducted from 2008–2013 that measured beliefs regarding the reality, human causation, and negative impacts of climate change, as well as estimates of household carbon footprint provided by UC Berkeley CoolClimate Network. This data ...

The math that describes the branching pattern of trees in nature also holds for trees depicted in art—and may even underlie our ability to recognize artworks as depictions of trees. Trees are loosely fractal, branching forms that repeat the same patterns at smaller and smaller scales from trunk to branch tip. Jingyi Gao and Mitchell Newberry examine scaling of branch thickness in depictions of trees and derive mathematical rules for proportions among branch diameters and for the approximate number of branches of different diameters. The authors begin with ...

For decades, scientists across the globe have investigated methods to accurately measure drug permeability across the blood-brain barrier, a compact layer of cells that protect the brain from potentially dangerous substances and microbes. They struggled with a number of parameters, such as blood flow and binding to plasma proteins, which were shown to impact permeability in different ways. In research published in the December 2024 issue of Fluids and Barriers of the CNS (“Brain endothelial permeability, transport and flow ...

Mill Valley, CA – February 11, 2025 – The SynGAP Research Fund 501(c)(3) dba Cure SYNGAP1 proudly announces the release of its inaugural Impact Report, a transparent and celebratory reporting of tangible goals achieved and purposeful progress made in 2024 by this growing and dynamic organization led entirely by families and driven by volunteers. With a mission rooted in improving the lives of SYNGAP1 patients, and built upon the promises of Collaboration, Transparency and Urgency, SRF’s 2024 Impact Report provides stakeholders – including families, scientists, and donors ...

Middle molecules with a molecular weight of more than 1,000 are difficult to synthesize due to multiple steps and time-consuming nature, demanding the development of a new approach that can overcome these disadvantages. Click chemistry has become an essential tool in applied chemistry due to its simplicity, efficiency, and versatility. This approach to chemical synthesis allows for quick and reliable joining of small molecules into larger, more complex structures, often with minimal side reactions and byproducts. By definition, click chemistry reactions are highly selective and efficient, making them ...

Digital Science has awarded its latest Catalyst Grants to two innovative teams, supporting their technology ideas aimed at safeguarding research integrity and strengthening trust in science. The winners will use the funding and mentorship from Digital Science to develop their ideas, both of which include enhanced dashboards – visualizations based on available data – to flag retracted or questionable research papers. The winning applications from Digital Science’s 2024 Catalyst Grant round announced today are: PostPub ...

The immune system plays a key role in detecting and destroying cancer cells. Cancer immunotherapy works by programming immune cells to recognize and eliminate cancer cells. However, many cancers can escape immune surveillance through various mechanisms, resulting in resistance to treatment. This highlights the need to better understand the molecular processes that enable immune evasion.  The tumor microenvironment (TME)—the space surrounding a tumor—plays a critical role in interactions between cancer and immune cells. Cancer cells can reshape the TME to ...

Embargoed for release: Tuesday, February 11, 2025, 6:00 AM ET Key points: More than half of employees in the U.S. (58%) report having physical chronic health conditions, such as hypertension, heart disease, diabetes, and asthma, according to a new nationally representative survey. Three-fourths of U.S. employees with chronic conditions (76%) need to manage their conditions during work hours, yet a majority (60%) have not formally disclosed their conditions to their employer.  More than one-third of U.S. employees with chronic conditions (36%) say they have skipped medical appointments or delayed getting care to avoid ...

UNDER STRICT EMBARGO UNTIL TUESDAY 11 FEBRUARY 2025, 11am (UK time)   Disruption of a single amino acid in a cellular protein makes breast cancer cells behave like stem cells   Peer reviewed | Observational | Cells  Changes to the intermediate filament (IF) protein, vimentin, were found to promote tumour growth by increasing cancer stemness in an oestrogen independent manner. Targeting vimentin and/or the long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) ‘XIST’ could be an effective therapeutic strategy ...

Having a job – whether it’s working for someone else or being their own boss – gives older Americans more than just a way to earn money or get health insurance, a new poll finds. More than two-thirds of those who work after age 50 say that working boosts their physical health, mental health, and/or their overall wellbeing, according to a new report from the University of Michigan National Poll on Healthy Aging. Nearly half (46%) of those who work say that having a sense of purpose is a very important ...

Is the Metaverse a new frontier for human-centric manufacturing?  The future of manufacturing is not just about machines and AI; it's about re-empowering humans, according to a new study from the University of Surrey.  The integration of advanced technologies like augmented reality (AR) and digital twins is set to redefine the workforce's role, making humans an essential part of the manufacturing equation once again.  The paper, published in Sustainability, explores the transformative potential of Metaverse technologies ...

Qubits—the fundamental units of quantum information—drive entire tech sectors. Among them, superconducting qubits could be instrumental in building a large-scale quantum computer, but they rely on electrical signals and are difficult to scale. In a breakthrough, a team of physicists at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) has achieved a fully optical readout of superconducting qubits, pushing the technology beyond its current limitations. Their findings were now published in Nature Physics. Following a year-long rally, ...