ANN ARBOR—Two University of Michigan faculty members have been elected to the National Academy of Inventors, the highest professional distinction awarded solely to inventors. Robert Bartlett, professor emeritus of surgery at the Medical School, and Zhen Xu, professor of biomedical engineering at the College of Engineering and professor of radiology and neurosurgery at the Medical School, were elected this month to the academy. Bartlett and Xu were nominated for being innovative researchers with extensive work translating discoveries into ...

“Monoclonal antibodies (mAb) have emerged as a promising tool in advancing personalized medicine.” BUFFALO, NY – December 11, 2024 – A news feature on the research paper “Next-generation cell-penetrating antibodies for tumor targeting and RAD51 inhibition” by Rackear et al. was published in Oncotarget’s Volume 15 on November 22, 2024, titled “Advancements in cell-penetrating monoclonal antibody treatment.“ This new publication by Sai Pallavi Pradeep and Raman Bahal from the  Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Connecticut highlights significant advancements in ...

“These initial results suggest that individuals with SCD have a significantly higher cellular senescence burden which may contribute to premature aging, physiological decline, and excess morbidities.”  BUFFALO, NY- December 11, 2024 – A new research paper was published in Aging (listed by MEDLINE/PubMed as “Aging (Albany NY)” and “Aging-US” by Web of Science) Volume 16, Issue 21 on November 14, 2024, entitled, “Adolescents and young adults with sickle cell disease exhibit accelerated aging with elevated T-cell p16INK4a expression.” Researchers Samuel R. Wilson, Natalia Mitin, ...

One of the great ambitions in the scientific world is to use tiny objects—such as molecules, viruses, and nanoparticles—as building blocks to construct essential macromolecules and materials, much like constructing intricate designs with LEGO bricks. However, achieving this requires overcoming significant challenges. Molecules in liquid environments move randomly and at extraordinary speeds—approximately many times faster than Usain Bolt at peak velocity—making precise manipulation extraordinarily challenging. To ...

Advancing the energy transition requires more than just technological innovation – it demands a joint effort between public and private actors. Giovanna Pinilla De La Cruz’s doctoral dissertation at the University of Vaasa, Finland, explores the mechanisms that foster collaboration in the energy sector, highlighting the Vaasa region’s energy cluster as a successful example. The transition to sustainable energy systems is one of the most pressing challenges of our time. Successfully navigating this transition requires coordinated ...

The TIME is a dynamic network composed of cancer cells, immune cells, and stromal components. During the early stages of tumorigenesis, the TIME attempts to eliminate abnormal cells through immune surveillance. However, as tumors evolve, they exploit the TIME to evade immune responses and promote tumor progression. Exosomes play a central role in this transformation by transporting bioactive molecules such as proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids, thereby influencing processes like immune escape, angiogenesis, and metastasis. HCC is particularly adept ...

(Toronto, December 11, 2024) JMIR Publications is proud to announce that JMIR Aging has been accepted for inclusion in the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) and the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI). This accomplishment follows a selective re-evaluation process, where a limited number of  Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI) journals were considered for inclusion. To be eligible, journals needed to rank among the top three in their respective categories based on the latest Journal Citation Reports (JCR) data. JMIR Aging’s acceptance into SCIE and SSCI underscores its exceptional quality and impact, demonstrated by its outstanding performance ...

The majority of children who started smoking tobacco at age 10 years or in their later teens continued to smoke until their mid-twenties. Continuous smoking from childhood significantly increased the risk of premature heart damage, a new study shows. The study was conducted in collaboration between the Universities of Bristol and Exeter in the UK, and the University of Eastern Finland, and the results were published in the prestigious Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC). In the present study, 1,931 children drawn from the University of Bristol’s Children of the 90s cohort were followed up from age 10 until 24 years. ...

Cigarette smoking from childhood into early adulthood is associated with an increased risk of premature cardiac injury, according to a study published today in JACC, the flagship journal of the American College of Cardiology. This early damage to the structure and function of the heart can also significantly increase the chance of future cardiovascular (CVD) mortality in mid-life. “Our goal is to provide data for policymakers, clinicians, and public health practitioners on crucial timing for preventing smoking and its early consequences in youth,” ...

SAN ANTONIO —December 11, 2024 — Southwest Research Institute seeks support from residents or visitors of countries worldwide to assist with an international oil sampling program. Selected participants will be paid to purchase prequalified oil samples from retail stores and ship them to SwRI’s headquarters in San Antonio. Prequalification for the program will occur via an emailed photo exchange. Participants will purchase four 1-quart or 1-liter containers, or one 1-gallon container, of specified brands ...

Statistical and Engineering Approaches to Federated Learning: Comprehensive Benchmarking for Healthcare Applications   A groundbreaking study conducted by Duke-NUS Medical School evaluates federated learning (FL) methods to guide healthcare researchers in choosing privacy-preserving algorithms tailored to their clinical goals. This comprehensive benchmark compared statistical and engineering FL frameworks, offering actionable insights to balance predictive accuracy and interpretability in medical research.   Federated learning (FL) has emerged as a powerful tool in healthcare, enabling collaboration across institutions without compromising patient ...

Drug addiction has been one of America’s growing public health concerns for decades. Despite the development of effective treatments and support resources, few people who are suffering from a substance use disorder seek help. Reluctance to seek help has been attributed to the stigma often attached to the condition. So, in an effort to address this problem, researchers at Drexel University are raising awareness of the stigmatizing language present in online forums and they have created an artificial intelligence tool to help educate users and offer alternative language. Presented at the recent ...

Religious believers are no more generous than atheists – at least as long as they don’t know what the recipient believes in. Finding this out increases generosity significantly, mainly because people give more to those who share their religion. This is the conclusion of a study carried out at Linköping University, Sweden.  Nathalie Hallin is an atheist. Her colleague Hajdi Moche is a Christian. They both have a postdoc position at the Department of Behavioural Sciences and Learning at Linköping. Together they wanted to find out if a religious belief makes a person more generous, which research has so far disagreed on and they themselves have ...

SAN ANTONIO – Patients with high-risk, BRCA-positive breast cancer who received olaparib (Lynparza) after standard treatment continued to have better survival outcomes than those who received placebo after a median follow-up of 6.1 years, according to the latest results from the phase III OlympiA clinical trial presented at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS), held December 10-13, 2024. “The OlympiA trial examines adding one year of the oral PARP inhibitor olaparib after completion of standard treatment ...

SAN ANTONIO – Patients with germline BRCA mutations who were diagnosed with breast cancer at or before age 40 and who underwent a bilateral risk-reducing mastectomy (RRM) and/or a risk-reducing salpingo-oophorectomy (RRSO) had lower rates of recurrence, secondary breast and/or ovarian malignancies, and death than those who did not undergo these surgeries, according to results presented at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS), held December 10-13, 2024. “The benefits of RRM and RRSO have been shown for BRCA-mutation carriers without a prior history of cancer, but their impact for BRCA-mutation carriers with a history of early-onset breast cancer is less clear,” ...

SAN ANTONIO – Imlunestrant, an investigational next-generation selective estrogen receptor degrader (SERD), improved progression-free survival in patients with endocrine therapy-pretreated, ER-positive, HER2-negative advanced breast cancer—as monotherapy in patients with ESR1 mutations and as combination therapy with abemaciclib (Verzenio) in all patients, regardless of ESR1 mutation status—according to results from the phase III EMBER-3 clinical trial presented at the San Antonio ...

Carnegie Mellon University Africa and Challenger Center Collaborate to Deliver STEM Programs Partnership Will Promote STEM Education and Careers to Secondary School Students in Africa Carnegie Mellon University Africa, CMU’s College of Engineering location in Kigali, Rwanda, and Challenger Center, will partner to deliver Challenger Center’s Virtual Missions to hundreds of secondary school students on the continent. This project will help grow the population of African students who are motivated to pursue higher education and careers in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. Challenger Center’s Virtual Missions are space-themed experiences for students ...

Identifying novel therapeutic strategies and making fundamental discoveries related to small cell lung cancer. Creating environmental and sustainable solutions for lithium-ion battery technology. Improving the safety and efficacy of gene editing and understanding the mechanisms of DNA repair to potentially cure diseases. Discovering the most distant and massive galaxies that have reshaped our understanding of early Universe star formation and supermassive black holes. Pioneering geochemical fingerprinting technology to optimize energy production processes. These are the breakthroughs ...

DNA stores the instructions for life and, along with enzymes and other molecules, computes everything from hair color to risk of developing diseases. Harnessing that prowess and immense storage capacity could lead to DNA-based computers that are faster and smaller than today’s silicon-based versions. As a step toward that goal, researchers report in ACS Central Science a fast, sequential DNA computing method that is also rewritable — just like current computers. “DNA computing as a liquid computing paradigm has unique application ...

Street art takes many forms, and the vibrant murals on the Berlin Wall both before and after its fall are expressions of people’s opinions. But there was often secrecy around the processes for creating the paintings, which makes them hard to preserve. Now, researchers reporting in the Journal of the American Chemical Society have uncovered information about this historic site from paint chips by combining a handheld detector and artificial intelligence (AI) data analysis. “The research highlights the powerful impact of the synergy between chemistry and deep learning in quantifying matter, exemplified in this case by pigments that make street ...

HOUSTON ― Lauren Averett Byers, M.D., professor of Thoracic/Head & Neck Medical Oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, has received the 2025 Edith and Peter O’Donnell Award in Medicine from the Texas Academy of Medicine, Engineering, Science and Technology (TAMEST). The award recognizes her fundamental discoveries and contributions to identifying novel therapeutic strategies for small cell lung cancer (SCLC), which have paved the way for personalized treatments, even in the ...

To fill this knowledge gap, a group of researchers led by Professor Kangseok Lee, from the Department of Life Science, Chung-Ang University set out to explore the biogenesis and function of specific tRFs like tRHs. Their study published in Volume 15 of Nature Communications on 28 October 2024, opens exciting avenues for the future of cancer therapies and introduces potential biomarkers for improved clinical outcomes.  This study was inspired by a serendipitous discovery in 2010, when the researchers found high levels of small RNA fragments derived from specific tRNAs, rather than the anticipated ...

The secret of the female orgasm may have been revealed by scientists in a pioneering study. Researchers led by the University of Essex found that women climax more frequently if they have high levels of an inward-looking sense known as interoception. Dr Megan Klabunde, from the Department of Psychology, discovered women who noticed and attend to internal bodily signals– like heartbeats, breathing, and sensual touch sensations - have more frequent orgasms. Dr Klabunde says this is one of the first times healthy female orgasms have been studied and they are important for women’s well-being and boost relationship satisfaction. Improving lives   It is hoped the ...

CLEVELAND—Rechargeable lithium-ion batteries power everything from electric vehicles to wearable devices. But new research from Case Western Reserve University suggests that a more sustainable and cost-effective alternative may lie in zinc-based batteries. In a study published recently in Angewandte Chemie, researchers announced a significant step toward creating high-performance, low-cost zinc-sulfur batteries. “This research marks a major step forward in the development of safer and more ...

Trillions of bacteria work in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries, helping produce everything from beer and facial creams to biodiesel and fertilizer. The pharmaceutical industry, in particular, relies heavily on bacteria for producing substances like insulin and penicillin. Harnessing bacteria's industrial contributions have revolutionized global health, but their work comes at a high energy cost. Additionally, solvents and continuous production of new bacteria are often necessary, as they don't last long in their jobs. Changzhu ...