GUELPH, Ontario, Canada, 4 March 2025 – In an exclusive Genomic Press Interview, Dr. Melissa Perreault reveals how her research is reshaping neuroscience by merging cutting-edge science with Indigenous knowledge. As a professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Guelph and a member of the Royal Society of Canada, Dr. Perreault’s work spans neurobiology, ethical research practices, and the therapeutic potential of psychedelics—all while championing Indigenous representation in STEM. Raised in a low-income, single-parent household, she was the first in her family to attend university. As she navigated academia, she encountered ...

Researchers at the University of Gothenburg have discovered that what was previously thought to be a unique seaweed species of bladderwrack for the Baltic Sea is in fact a giant clone of common bladderwrack, perhaps the world's largest clone overall.  The discovery has implications for predicting the future of seaweed in a changing ocean. In the brakish waters of the Baltic Sea, bladderwrack is the dominant seaweed species as it is one of the few seaweed species that can tolerate low salinity. The ...

Mycoplasmas, including bacteria that cause pneumonia in humans, are generally nonmotile, but Mycoplasma mobile, as the species name suggests, has been found in the gills of fish and seems to move by gliding along surfaces. The molecular structure that allows it to do so has for the first time been uncovered by a collaborative research group led by Osaka Metropolitan University Professor Makoto Miyata of the Graduate School of Science. The OMU-led research team has been working since 1997 to clarify M. mobile’s motility mechanisms. ...

One-third of Canadian adults aged 55 or older are nutritionally at risk, potentially leading to increased hospital stays, more emergency visits and physician consultations for possible infections, a new study found. The University of Waterloo researchers assessed data from more than 22,000 community-dwelling adults aged 55 and over from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging. After an initial evaluation, they followed up with participants up to three years later to track their health-service use over the previous year.  Researchers used the SCREEN-8 tool (Seniors ...

Reliable and accurate monitoring of CO2 emissions is a cornerstone of effective climate change mitigation strategies. While traditional methods largely depend on ground-based measurements and bottom-up inventories, these approaches are often resource-intensive and prone to errors. Satellite Technology has emerged as a promising alternative, but the challenge remains in distinguishing anthropogenic emissions from natural processes. The long atmospheric lifetime of CO2 makes it difficult to pinpoint localized sources of emissions and track changes over time. Additionally, natural emissions and background concentrations ...

The teaching and research section is the fundamental organizational unit for teaching and research in a university, and the virtual teaching and research section (VTRS) is a crucial exploration for the digital transformation of new basic teaching organization construction in the information age. However, this new type of organization transcends university and spatial boundaries, and motivating participants and sustaining their engagement is a key challenge in VTRS operation. The VTRS for database courses (VTRS-DB) proposes an open community-based operating model, founded on the core concepts of "openness, dedication, competition, and orderliness." ...

Six out of every ten people globally lack access to safe medical oxygen, resulting in hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths each year and reducing quality of life for millions more, an international report co-authored by the University of Auckland has found. Associate Professor Stephen Howie from the University’s Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences (FMHS) was an adviser to the Lancet Global Health Commission on Medical Oxygen Security and co-author of its report Reducing global inequities in medical oxygen access released 18 February. A key finding shows global access to medical oxygen is highly inequitable. Five billion ...

In a crowning achievement, the University of Auckland Business School is one of the best in the world, successfully gaining triple crown accreditation - a mark of excellence held by only one percent of business schools globally.   The Business School was the first in Australasia to attain triple crown status in 2004, a recognition it has maintained for two decades. Triple crown status is achieved if a business school can meet the strict requirements of three international accreditation bodies – the Association to Advance ...

Common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) is a leguminous plant that can form a symbiotic relationship with rhizobia in the soil. Rhizobia convert nitrogen in the atmosphere into ammonia, providing nitrogen nutrition for leguminous plants. However, due to the low effectiveness of rhizobia in the soil, common bean has one of the lowest nitrogen fixation efficiencies among food legumes. Some studies have shown that pre-inoculating common bean seeds with elite rhizobial strains can enhance nitrogen fixation, thereby promoting the plant growth of common bean and increasing the grain yield. As one of the most important food legumes in Ethiopia, the grain yield of common bean is quite low, because of the lack ...

In recent years, with the increasing openness and internationalization of research, the risks of inappropriate exploiting openness of research have become more apparent. With the growing importance of research security, the issue of how to safely promote cutting-edge research and international collaboration while respecting research freedom is becoming more important in many countries. The Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) organizes the symposium aiming to create an opportunity to deepen discussion on efforts necessary to protect research freedom. The symposium will consist of ...

Rutgers Health researchers have made discoveries about brown fat that may open a new path to helping people stay physically fit as they age. A team from Rutgers New Jersey Medical School found that mice lacking a specific gene developed an unusually potent form of brown fat tissue that expanded lifespan and increased exercise capacity by roughly 30%. The team is working on a drug that could mimic these effects in humans. “Exercise capacity diminishes as you get older, and to have a technique ...

Aqueous organic flow batteries (AOFBs) hold promise for renewable energy integration and electricity grid storage due to their inherent safety, as well as the availability of naturally abundant and synthetically tunable organic redox-active molecules (ORAMs). However, challenges such as low energy density, poor stability at high concentrations, and high synthesis costs hinder their commercial viability.  Developing ORAMs that offer both high energy density and ultra-stable cycling performance is essential for advancing stationary energy storage ...

The extensive loss of biodiversity represents one of the major crises of our time, threatening not only entire ecosystems but also our current and future livelihoods. As scientists realise the magnitude and scale of ongoing extinctions, it is vital to ascertain the resources available for conservation and whether funds are being effectively distributed to protect species most in need. A team of researchers from the School of Biological Sciences, The University of Hong Kong (HKU), addressed these questions in a recent paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), USA, by compiling information ...

A research team led by Professor Jia Pan and Professor Yifan Evan Peng from the Department of Computer Science and Department of Electrical & Electronic Engineering under the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Hong Kong (HKU), in collaboration with the researcher at Australian National University, has recently developed a groundbreaking neuromorphic exposure control (NEC) system that revolutionizes machine vision under extreme lighting variations. Published in Nature Communications, this biologically inspired system mimics human peripheral vision to achieve unprecedented speed and robustness in dynamic perception environments. Traditional automatic exposure (AE) ...

Inspired by the natural Bouligand structure, researchers have been developing advanced materials for applications in impact-resistant bioplastics, ceramic armor, and biomimetic alloy composites. Most existing materials are still composed of single-scale brittle units despite the progress in improving the plasticity of materials. The lack of hierarchical active interfaces and autonomous response capabilities limits their ductility and overall functionality. Therefore, researchers aim to develop Bouligand-structured materials with multi-level active ...

Proteins in cells are highly flexible and often exist in multiple conformations, each with unique abilities to bind ligands. These conformations are regulated by the organism to control protein function. Currently, most studies on protein structure and activity are conducted using purified proteins in vitro, which cannot fully replicate the complex of the intracellular environment and maybe influenced by the purification process or buffer conditions. In a study published in Journal of the American Chemical Society, a team led by Prof. WANG Fangjun ...

Researchers from the Zhang Liye Laboratory have developed a groundbreaking tool that revolutionizes the way researchers design primers for detecting pathogens. This new pipeline, which scans entire genomes to identify the most effective primer sets, could significantly enhance the speed and accuracy of diagnosing infectious diseases. The findings, published on 15 Feb 2025 in Frontiers of Computer Science, address a critical challenge in quantitative PCR (qPCR) primer design. Unlike existing software that requires manual selection of specific genes or regions, this new tool automatically ...

Research into immunotherapy against cancer typically focuses on better recognition of cancer cells by the body's own immune system. Researchers at Amsterdam UMC and Moffitt Cancer Center have taken a different approach. They investigated how cancer affects the energy management of a patient’s T cells and showed for the first time that contact with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) cells leads to a serious energy crisis in these cells. These findings are published today in Cellular & Molecular Immunology, building on a publication earlier this month in Blood Advances. ...

The sexual abuse of children affects 15 percent of girls and 8 percent of boys worldwide, incurring high public costs and devastating consequences for its survivors. In the United States, at least one in four girls and one in 20 boys experience sexual abuse. A US Preventive Services Task Force report recently concluded there’s not enough evidence that prevention is effective. Now, a new study published in JAMA Pediatrics provides the missing evidence that coordinated, community-wide primary prevention efforts can significantly reduce child sexual abuse rates. The counties in the study that received the educational measures ...

Obesity rates are set to skyrocket, with one in six children and adolescents worldwide forecast to be obese by 2050, according to a new study. But with significant increases predicted within the next five years, the researchers stress urgent action now could turn the tide on the public health crisis. The research, led by Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) and published in The Lancet, found a third of children and adolescents will be overweight (385 million) or obese (360 million) within the next 25 years. The forecast equates ...

The use of tocolytic drugs in cases of threatened premature birth after 30 weeks of pregnancy does not improve the baby’s health. This is shown by the largest study concerning the effectiveness of tocolytic drugs on the health of babies, led by Amsterdam UMC, the results of which were published today in The Lancet.     Worldwide, 1 in 10 pregnancies result in premature birth. Children born prematurely face a higher risk of mortality and serious health problems, both in the short and long term. As a results, tocolytic drugs have been used a standard treatment for many ...

Nearly 1 in 5 college athletes reports some form of abusive supervision—defined as sustained hostile verbal and non-verbal behaviours—by their coaches, reveals an analysis of survey responses, involving National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) athletes, and published online in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.   While there is no evidence of vulnerability according to race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, or gender, athletes with disabilities and those participating in team sports seem to be most at risk, the findings indicate. Athletes view their coaches as role models, which makes their interactions susceptible ...

**Study includes country-level data for 204 countries and territories worldwide. A link to summary tables for rates in selected countries as well as country-level data is included at the end of the press release**  Most comprehensive global analysis to date estimates that overweight and obesity rates in adults (aged 25 or older) and children and adolescents (aged 5-24 years) more than doubled over the past three decades (1990-2021), affecting 2.11 billion adults and 493 million young people worldwide in 2021.   Weight gain varies widely across the globe with more than half ...

AMES, Iowa – The amount of nitrogen fertilizer needed to maximize the profitability of corn production in the Midwest has been increasing by about 1.2% per year for the past three decades, according to new Iowa State University research. The study, published last month in Nature Communications, analyzed data from prior long- and short-term studies by Iowa State and the University of Illinois to calculate the Corn Belt’s steadily rising optimum nitrogen rates, which researchers had thought were static ...

Embargoed for release until 5:00 p.m. ET on Monday 3 March 2025    Follow @Annalsofim on X, Facebook, Instagram, threads, and LinkedIn       Below please find summaries of new articles that will be published in the next issue of Annals of Internal Medicine. The summaries are not intended to substitute for the full articles as a source of information. This information is under strict embargo and by taking it into possession, media representatives are committing to the terms of the embargo not only on their own behalf, but also on behalf of the organization they ...