Rebels of health care use technology to connect with clinicians, information, and each other Cambridge, MA – February 25, 2025 – The future of health care is being forged in the crucible of rare disease. A new survey led by Susannah Fox, author of Rebel Health: A Field Guide to the Patient-Led Revolution in Medical Care (The MIT Press),  finds that 15% of U.S. households are affected by rare disease or an undiagnosed illness. Their lives are characterized by extreme stress, often matched by their resourcefulness. “People living with rare diseases push the edges of what is possible by using technology ...

The Beatles said it best: Love is all you need. And according to new research from The Australian National University (ANU), the same is true in the animal kingdom. Well, at least for mosquitofish – a matchstick-sized fish endemic to Central America and now found globally.  According to the ANU scientists, male mosquitofish possess impressive problem-solving skills and can successfully navigate mazes and other tests. Males that perform better have a higher chance of mating.  Lead author Dr Ivan Vinogradov said male mosquitofish ...

Mars is easily identifiable in the night sky by its prominent red hue. Thanks to the fleet of spacecraft that have studied the planet over the last decades, we know that this red colour is due to rusted iron minerals in the dust. That is, iron bound up in Mars’s rocks has at some point reacted with liquid water, or water and oxygen in the air, similar to how rust forms on Earth. Over billions of years this rusty material – iron oxide – has been broken down into dust and spread all around the planet by winds, a process that continues today. But iron ...

Statement Highlights: It is essential for health care professionals to routinely screen pregnant and postpartum women for depression and anxiety, address modifiable risk factors and consider behavioral and pharmacological interventions to improve long-term maternal health outcomes.  Multidisciplinary care teams, including psychologists and other behavioral health professionals, are important to monitor and provide appropriate mental health support during pregnancy and after birth. The new ...

New research from Emory University indicates that childhood trauma physically alters the hearts of Black women.  The study, which examined the relationship between childhood exposure to trauma and vascular dysfunction among more than 400 Black adults in Atlanta ages 30 to 70, found that women who experienced childhood trauma had a worse vascular function, a preclinical marker of heart disease, while men had none. In addition, the findings show women may be more vulnerable to a larger cumulative stress burden, eliciting varying physiological ...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Mars has captivated scientists and the public alike for centuries. One of the biggest reasons is the planet’s reddish hue, earning the third rock from the sun one its most popular nicknames — the “Red Planet.” But what exactly gives the planet its iconic color? Scientists have wondered this for as long as they’ve studied the planet. Today, they may finally have a concrete answer, one that ties into Mar’s watery past.  Results from a new study published in the journal Nature Communications and led by researchers from Brown University and the University of Bern suggest that the water-rich iron mineral ...

Despite what was previously thought, new research has shown that genetic changes alone cannot explain why and where tumours grow in those with genetic condition neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF-1). Understanding more about the factors involved could, in the future, facilitate early cancer detection in NF-1 patients and even point towards new treatments. Researchers from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, Great Ormond Street Hospital, Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and their collaborators, focused on NF-1, a genetic condition that causes ...

One particular challenge in the treatment of cancer is therapy resistance. An international research team has now discovered a mechanism that opens up new treatment strategies for tumours in which conventional chemotherapeutic agents have reached their limits. "Cytotoxic agents from nature lead to an increased incorporation of polyunsaturated fatty acids into the membrane of cancer cells. This makes them more susceptible to ferroptosis, a type of cell death, at a very early stage," reports Andreas Koeberle, a pharmacist at the University of Graz and lead author of the study, which has just been published in the scientific journal Nature ...

New York, NY—Feb. 25, 2025— By watching their own motions with a camera, robots can teach themselves about the structure of their own bodies and how they move, a new study from researchers at Columbia Engineering now reveals. Equipped with this knowledge, the robots could not only plan their own actions, but also overcome damage to their bodies. "Like humans learning to dance by watching their mirror reflection, robots now use raw video to build kinematic self-awareness," says study lead author Yuhang Hu, a doctoral student at the Creative Machines Lab at Columbia University, directed by Hod Lipson, James and Sally Scapa Professor of Innovation and chair of the Department ...

HOUSTON ― Researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have developed a novel antibody-toxin conjugate (ATC) designed to stimulate immune-mediated eradication of tumors. According to preclinical results published today in Nature Cancer, the new approach combined the benefits of more well-known antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) with those of immunotherapies. ADCs have emerged as a breakthrough in recent years due to their modular design, which enables precise delivery of therapies to tumors by targeting specific proteins expressed on cancer cells. These conjugates ...

Toronto, ON – A new study published this week in Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics Plus found that 10% of South Asian immigrants aged 45 and older in Canada had hypothyroidism. After adjustment for a wide range of sociodemographic characteristics and health behaviors, those who had immigrated from South Asia had 77% higher odds of hypothyroidism than those born in Canada. “To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to identify a significantly higher odds of hypothyroidism among immigrants of South Asian descent,” says senior author Esme Fuller-Thomson, a Professor at Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work (FIFSW) and Director ...

A new paper in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, published by Oxford University Press, finds that almost 20% of patients in middle-stage cancer drug trials receive treatment that eventually prove effective enough to get FDA approval. This may have important implications for drug development and clinical trial recruitment. The development of new medications typically has three stages. In phase 1 trials, researchers assess drugs for safety and dosing (“What is the best tolerated dose for the patient?”). Phase 2 clinical trials determine whether a new drug shows signs of efficacy (“How much does the ...

GUELPH, Ontario, Canada, 25 February 2025 – In a comprehensive peer-reviewed Perspective (review) article, researchers from the University of Guelph have outlined an urgent call for new ethical frameworks to protect Indigenous communities' genetic privacy in the growing field of wastewater surveillance. The study, published today in Genomic Psychiatry (Genomic Press New York), examines how the analysis of community wastewater – while valuable for public health monitoring – raises significant privacy concerns for Indigenous populations. "Wastewater-based ...

OMAHA, Nebraska, USA, 25 February 2025 - In a peer-reviewed Perspective (review) article, researchers at the University of Nebraska Medical Center have uncovered concerning evidence that commonly prescribed medications may interfere with crucial brain development processes by disrupting sterol biosynthesis. Their findings, published today in Brain Medicine (Genomic Press, New York), suggest that this previously overlooked mechanism could have significant implications for medication safety during pregnancy and early development. "What we've discovered is that many prescription medications, while designed for entirely different purposes, can inadvertently interfere with the brain's ...

The first life on Earth formed four billion years ago, as microbes living in pools and seas: what if the same thing happened on Mars? If it did, how would we prove it? Scientists hoping to identify fossil evidence of ancient Martian microbial life have now found a way to test their hypothesis, proving they can detect the fossils of microbes in gypsum samples that are a close analogy to sulfate rocks on Mars.   “Our findings provide a methodological framework for detecting biosignatures in Martian sulfate minerals, potentially guiding ...

　While photo-thermoelectric (PTE) sensors are potentially suitable for testing applications, such as non-destructive material-identification in ultrabroad millimeter-wave (MMW)–infrared (IR) bands, their device designs have primarily employed a single material as the channel. In general, PTE sensors combine photo-induced heating with associated thermoelectric (TE) conversion, and the employment of a single material channel regulates the utilization of devices by missing the opportunity for fully utilizing their fundamental parameters. ...

Psychological factors have a greater impact on the severity of symptoms in esophageal diseases than objective evaluations, such as acid reflux and esophageal motility function. Although there are questionnaires that assess general psychological states in Japan, there were none that were specific to esophageal symptoms. In the United States, meanwhile, the Esophageal Hypervigilance and Anxiety Scale (EHAS) questionnaire that evaluates symptom-specific hypervigilance and anxiety for esophageal symptoms was developed in 2018. In an effort to expand the use of EHAS, Dr. Akinari Sawada’s research group at Osaka Metropolitan ...

At the University of Electro-Communications, a research team led by Mizuho Asako, Yasuyuki Tahara, Akihiko Ohsuga, and Yuichi Sei has developed a new deep learning model called "HikingTTE" that significantly improves hiking travel time estimation. Hiking is popular worldwide, but accidents still occur when hikers underestimate the time needed to reach their destination.   This model could help reduce mountain accidents and improve hiker safety by providing more accurate travel time predictions. Previous hiking travel time estimation methods often use the relationship between slope (uphill or downhill) and walking speed. However, these ...

Birds worldwide make strategic decisions about how they live based on their environmental conditions. Some live fast, die young, and leave as many chicks as possible. Others live long and prosper by not breeding. A new study of non-migratory birds provides clues about how climate change may affect the long-standing evolutionary strategies of feathered friends. The work is reported in this week’s Ecology Letters and was led by Michigan State University postdoctoral fellows of the MSU Institute for Biodiversity, Ecology, Evolution, and Macrosystems (IBEEM). The ...

Highlight box Key findings • This study investigated the U-shaped nonlinear relationship between admission oxygen saturation (SpO2) and all-cause hospital mortality in patients with acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPD). The results showed that the lowest all-cause hospital mortality was observed at an SpO2 of 89.5%. Additionally, SpO2 was identified as an independent risk factor for predicting all-cause hospital mortality in AECOPD patients, providing valuable guidance for optimizing oxygen therapy in this population. What is known and what is new? • Most studies indicate that maintaining SpO2 levels between 88–92% provides ...

A largescale study has found huge variation between GP practices on whether they are likely to pick up prostate cancer using a blood test. The University of Exeter led a study which aimed to investigate the proportion of patients whose prostate cancer was identified by using a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test when patients had no symptoms. The research published in the British Journal of General Practice and funded by Cancer Research UK, and, has found that one in five patients with prostate cancer in England are diagnosed after PSA testing when they had no symptoms – fewer than previously thought. The PSA  test ...

New research suggests that antidepressants can accelerate cognitive decline in people with dementia. At the same time, some drugs appear to be less harmful than others, which can help doctors make better treatment decisions, according to the study published in BMC Medicine. Antidepressants are often used to relieve symptoms such as anxiety, depression, aggressiveness, and sleep disturbances in dementia sufferers. However, a new observational study based on data from the Swedish Dementia Registry (SveDem) shows that patients with dementia who are treated with antidepressants experience an increased cognitive decline compared to patients who do not ...

Using an approach called DNA origami, scientists at Caltech have developed a technique that could lead to cheaper, reusable biomarker sensors for quickly detecting proteins in bodily fluids, eliminating the need to send samples out to lab centers for testing. "Our work provides a proof-of-concept showing a path to a single-step method that could be used to identify and measure nucleic acids and proteins," says Paul Rothemund (BS '94), a visiting associate at Caltech in computing and mathematical sciences, and computation and neural systems. A paper describing the work recently appeared in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The lead authors of ...

As far as animals go, honeybees are world-class dancers. While not as deep and complex as a Super Bowl half-time show, the bees' moves, known as the “waggle" dance, convey very specific food foraging instructions to their nestmates. The direction the dancer moves explains to other bees which way to go, and the duration of the waggle dance, or the “run,” shows how far to go. Once other bees have been convinced to follow the directions, they are “recruited.” After receiving the instructions, these ...

A UC Riverside computer science team has developed a sensor-based technology that could revolutionize commercial beekeeping by reducing colony losses and lowering labor costs. Called the Electronic Bee-Veterinarian, or EBV, the technology uses low-cost heat sensors and forecasting models to predict when hive temperatures may reach dangerous levels. The system provides remote beekeepers with early warnings, allowing them to take preventive action before their colonies collapse during extreme hot or cold weather or when the bees cannot regulate their hive temperature because of disease, pesticide exposure, food shortages, or other stressors. ...