University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) Dean Mark T. Gladwin, MD, announced  today that UMSOM  faculty scientists have been selected as key contractors by the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), for the federal agency’s Radiation Nuclear Animal Model Development program. The $3.5 million award that Erika Davies, PhD, Assistant Professor of Radiation Oncology, received to develop Acute Radiation Syndrome Animal Models, has a $16 million potential total. The Division of Translational Radiation Sciences (DTRS), within the Department of Radiation Oncology, will support this project. Dr. Davies and her colleagues ...

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have shown for the first time that expensive aberration-corrected microscopes are no longer required to achieve record-breaking microscopic resolution. The field of microscopy is in the middle of a great revolution. Since the 1800s and the invention of the compound light microscope, there have only been a few major jumps in resolution to see different length scales: from bacteria and cells, to viruses and proteins, and even down to single atoms. Generally, ...

 @Annalsofim    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 represent.    ----------------------------    1. ACP Recommends Ways to Better Meet the Health Care ...

Figshare, a leading provider of institutional repository infrastructure that supports open research, is pleased to announce that the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) has chosen Figshare to support them in sharing, showcasing and managing their research reports and non-traditional research outputs. UTS – Australia’s leading technology university – will use its Figshare repository and its integration with the Australian Research Data Commons Datacite DOI minting service to drive the discoverability and increase the impact of their research reports and non-traditional research outputs, ...

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Just imagine this, the creation of: An artificially intelligent machine that acts as a human exocortex, a system that will interface with and make an old brain tick normally. Human cells that can sense metastatic cancer or the boundaries of solid tumors and respond with killing of tumor cells, release of inflammatory payloads or bioluminescence to help guide surgical removal. Manufactured vaccines that prevent or impede a cancer, block opioid action or reverse autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis. These are a few of the far-reaching ideas put forward by 50 international biomedical engineering ...

Dr Weliton Menário Costa, a PhD graduate from The Australian National University (ANU), has been announced the overall winner of the 2024 global Dance Your PhD contest after wowing judges with his wickedly creative and quirky dance submission, ‘Kangaroo Time (Club Edit)’. One of the world's leading researchers in kangaroo behaviour, he is the first person from ANU to win the Dance Your PhD competition, and just the fourth person from an Australian institution to do so since its inception in 2008. Better known as ‘WELI’, the singer-songwriter, creator and biologist weaves together a funky beat, original songwriting, drag queens and Brazilian funk dancers ...

Black carbon is the most dangerous air pollutant you’ve never heard of. Its two main sources, diesel exhaust and wood smoke from wildfires and household heating, produce ultrafine air particles that are up to 25 times more of a health hazard per unit compared to other types of particulate matter. Despite its danger, black carbon is understudied due to a lack of monitoring equipment. Regulatory-standard sensors are wildly expensive to deploy and maintain, resulting in sparse coverage in regions infamous for poor air quality, such as the greater Salt Lake City metropolitan area in Utah. A University of Utah-led study found that the AethLabs ...

Irvine, Calif., Feb. 26, 2024 — The University of California, Irvine has received a five-year, $4 million grant from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine to establish a shared resources lab in the Sue & Bill Gross Stem Cell Research Center. The facility will offer essential technologies and training for the development of novel in vitro stem cell-based modeling that will serve researchers across the campus and the state.   “Stem cells possess the potential to transform into particular cell types, offering promising avenues for rejuvenating and restoring tissues harmed by injury or affected ...

Among the vast expanse of Antarctica lies the Thwaites Glacier, the world’s widest glacier measuring about 80 miles on the western edge of the continent. Despite its size, the massive landform is losing about 50 billion tons of ice more than it is receiving in snowfall, which places it in a precarious position in respect to its stability. Accelerating ice loss has been observed since the 1970s, but it is unclear when this significant melting initiated – until now. A new study published in the journal PNAS, led by researchers ...

Researchers have shown that inedible species of butterfly that mimic each others’ colour patterns have also evolved similar flight behaviours to warn predators and avoid being eaten. It is well known that many inedible species of butterfly have evolved near identical colour patterns, which act as warning signals to predators so the butterflies avoid being eaten.  Researchers have now shown that these butterflies have not only evolved similar colour patterns, but that they have also evolved similar ...

Human coexistence depends on cooperation. Individuals have different motivations and reasons to collaborate, resulting in social dilemmas, such as the well-known prisoner's dilemma. Scientists from the Chatterjee group at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) now present a new mathematical principle that helps to understand the cooperation of individuals with different characteristics. The results, published in PNAS, can be applied to economics or behavioral studies. A group of neighbors shares a driveway. Following a heavy snowstorm, the entire driveway is covered in snow, requiring clearance for daily activities. ...

BEAUFORT, N.C. –With fish stocks declining globally, more than 190 countries recently made a commitment to protect about a third of the world’s oceans within “Marine Protected Areas,” or MPAs by the year 2030. But these designated areas of the ocean where fishing is either regulated or outright banned can come at a huge cost to some coastal communities, according to a new analysis. To help prepare for the expansion of MPAs, an international team of researchers from Duke University, Florida State ...

To become carbon neutral by 2060, as mandated by President Xi Jinping, China will have to build eight to 10 times more wind and solar power installations than existed in 2022. Reaching carbon neutrality will also require major construction of transmission lines.  China land use policies will also have to be more coordinated and focused on a nation-wide scale rather than be left to ad hoc decisions by local governments. That’s because 80% of solar power and 55% of wind power will have to be built within 100 miles of major population centers.  These are the conclusions of a new study from ...

There is no doubt that water is significant. Without it, life would never have begun, let alone continue today – not to mention its role in the environment itself, with oceans covering over 70% of Earth.  But despite its ubiquity, liquid water features some electronic intricacies that have long puzzled scientists in chemistry, physics, and technology. For example, the electron affinity, i.e. the energy stabilization undergone by a free electron when captured by water, has remained poorly characterized from an experimental ...

How does listening to live music affect the emotional center of our brain? A study carried out at the University of Zurich has found that live performances trigger a stronger emotional response than listening to music from a device. Concerts connect performers with their audience, which may also have to with evolutionary factors. Music can have a strong effect on our emotions. Studies have shown that listening to recorded music stimulates emotional and imaginative processes in our brain. But what happens when we listen to music in a live setting, for example at a music festival, at the opera or a folk concert? ...

DETROIT – A team of researchers from Wayne State University and the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute has received a five-year, $9.6 million grant from the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health for the study “Genetic Variation in Cancer Risk and Outcomes in African Americans.” This is a Program Project Grant that includes three large studies. The team will work to improve the identification and clinical management of hereditary and multiple primary cancers in African Americans, a population that is currently underrepresented in genetic research. According to Ann Schwartz, Ph.D., principal investigator of the project, professor and ...

RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- Vapers are susceptible to infection by SARS-CoV-2, the virus that spreads COVID-19 and continues to infect people around the world, a University of California, Riverside, study has found. The liquid used in electronic cigarettes, called e-liquid, typically contains nicotine, propylene glycol, vegetable glycerin, and flavor chemicals. The researchers found propylene glycol/vegetable glycerin alone or along with nicotine enhanced COVID-19 infection through different mechanisms.   Study results appear in the American Journal of Physiology. The researchers ...

A recent study from Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Hospital has discovered inhibitory and excitatory neurons play distinct roles in the pathogenesis of STXBP1 encephalopathy, one of the top five causes of pediatric epilepsies and among the most frequent causes of neurodevelopmental disorders. This early-onset disorder is caused by spontaneous mutations in the syntaxin-binding protein 1 (STXBP1) gene. While STXBP1 gene variants impair both excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmission, this study led by Dr. Mingshan Xue, associate professor at Baylor and principal investigator at the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute (Duncan ...

Chestnut Hill, Mass (2/26/2024) – Boston College Assistant Professor of Biology Emrah Altindis has been awarded a five-year, $2.5-million grant from the National Institutes of Health to study viral insulins and mechanisms related to IGF-1 receptor protein inhibition and its potential applications in cancer treatment. Altindis said he and the researchers in his lab will use the grant to learn more about how to use specific viral insulins – particularly insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) – to inhibit IGF-1 receptor action, which is increased in a range ...

ALEXANDRIA, VA —The American Academy of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery Foundation published the Clinical Practice Guideline: Immunotherapy for Inhalant Allergy today in Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery. This clinical practice guideline identifies quality improvement opportunities and provides clinicians trustworthy, evidence-based recommendations on the management of inhalant allergies with immunotherapy, supporting them to provide enhanced care to patients aged 5 years and older who are experiencing symptoms from inhalant allergies. “More ...

An SFU-led collaboration has designed the first synthetic protein-based motor which harnesses biological reactions to fuel and propel itself. “Imagine if a Roomba could be powered only by the dirt it picks up,” says SFU Physics professor Nancy Forde, one of the authors of the study. The team’s paper, led by SFU Physics PhD graduate Chapin Korosec and published today in Nature Communications, describes a protein-based molecular motor called “The Lawnmower,” which has been designed to cut a lawn of peptide “grass.” ...

Glitter is used in a wide array of colors and shapes in apparel, footwear, cosmetics, makeup, handbags, festive decorations, arts and crafts, and jewelry, among many other applications. During the Carnival holidays, hundreds of thousands of Brazilians cover parts of their bodies with it while dancing in the streets. Its brilliance is dazzling but it is considered an emerging pollutant by many scientists: like other microplastics (small plastic pieces less than 5 mm long), it is not filtered by wastewater treatment plants and ends up in rivers and the sea, interfering with aquatic life in various ways. A study conducted at the Federal University of ...

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) — Up to only a few inches in length, with a lemon-hued belly, the foothill yellow-legged frog may seem unassuming. But its range once stretched from central Oregon to Baja California. In 2023, it was listed under the federal Endangered Species Act. Its rapidly decreasing range is due in part to a fungal pathogen called Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, or Bd, that has devastated amphibians around the world. A team of researchers, including UC Santa Barbara’s Andrea Adams, has conducted the most comprehensive study to date ...

As the years add up, it's common to notice slight changes in our ability to remember and think. Older people who have more marked changes than their peers can be diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Currently, we can’t easily predict which of these patients will develop Alzheimer’s disease and which will not. “It's hard to predict which patients will have a more rapid progression and receive a diagnosis of dementia,” said Maria Vittoria Spampinato, M.D., division director of Neuroradiology at the Medical University of South Carolina. “It’s important ...

For years, niobium was considered an underperformer when it came to superconducting qubits. Now scientists supported by Q-NEXT have found a way to engineer a high-performing niobium-based qubit and so take advantage of niobium’s superior qualities. When it comes to quantum technology, niobium is making a comeback. For the past 15 years, niobium has been sitting on the bench after experiencing a few mediocre at-bats as a core qubit material. Qubits are the fundamental components of quantum devices. One qubit type relies on superconductivity to process information. Touted for its superior qualities as a superconductor, niobium was always a promising ...