(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — The UC Davis Department of Ophthalmology has received a five-year, $3.6 million grant from the National Eye Institute to explore a new way to treat vision loss using gene therapy. The research could lead to safer and more effective treatments for people with serious eye diseases like macular degeneration and inherited blindness. It could also lead to treatments that don’t require surgery and can be done more widely in clinics. “We’re excited ...

As the climate becomes warmer on average, it makes intuitive sense that we will see more hot days and we've had predictions of this for some time. However, the duration of heatwaves — how many days in a row exceed a temperature that is unusually hot for a given region — can be very important for impacts on humans, livestock and ecosystems. Predicting how these durations will change under a long-term warming trend is more challenging because day-to-day temperatures are correlated — tomorrow's temperatures have a dependence on today's temperature. This study takes ...

GLP-1 receptor agonists, a class of drug used to treat type 2 diabetes, likely trump the widely prescribed metformin for curbing dementia risk in people with the condition, finds the largest study of its kind, published in the open access journal BMJ Open Diabetes Research & Care. The findings suggest that future clinical guidelines for the treatment of type 2 diabetes would do well to consider prioritising drugs with both blood glucose and neuroprotective effects, say the researchers.  Published research suggests that both GLP-1 receptor agonists and metformin, which are widely used to treat type 2 diabetes, protect the brains of people with the disease. But as ...

The annual UK cost of the mental health disorder PTSD is likely to top £40 billion, but the figures are based on 2020-1 prevalence rates—the most recently available—and don’t include many indirect costs, such as family support services, finds a cost analysis published in the open access journal BMJ Open. The societal and financial impacts of this increasingly common condition have been “gravely” undervalued, conclude the researchers.  Post-traumatic stress disorder, more commonly referred to ...

MIAMI, FLORIDA (July 22, 2025) – LaShae Rolle, 27, is a competitive powerlifer who could squat 441 pounds, bench 292 pounds and deadlift 497 pounds. She is also a breast cancer survivor and researcher and the lead author on a first-of-its kind study documenting elite-level strength training during active breast cancer treatment. The study challenges the long-held belief that cancer patients should stick to low- or moderate-intensity exercise and suggests that with individualized and symptom-informed exercise planning, even ...

The Sustainability Accelerator at the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability has selected 41 projects spanning biology, agriculture, electricity, industry, and water. The teams involve 67 faculty from 27 departments across five of the university’s seven schools. The projects are as diverse as the problems they are trying to solve, ranging from developing plant-based meat alternatives to optimizing low-carbon steel production to helping coastal communities adapt to threats of saltwater ...

Most parents can think back to the first ultrasound image they saw of their unborn child, and may even be able to remember what impression that image had on them. Would their child be an active toddler, a tad bit ornery or stubborn, sweet and cuddly, fiercely independent, or shy and cooperative? New research suggests these initial perceptions may have been formed, at least in part, in response to how the health care provider described the baby during the exam. These prenatal care experiences play a large role in shaping how parents ...

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Almost 200 million people, including children, around the world have endometriosis, a chronic disease in which the lining of the uterus grows outside of the uterus. More severe symptoms, such as extreme pain and potentially infertility, can often be mitigated with early identification and treatment, but no single point-of-care diagnostic test for the disease exists despite the ease of access to the tissue directly implicated. While Penn State Professor Dipanjan Pan said that the blood and tissue shed from the uterus each month is often overlooked — and even stigmatized by some — as medical waste, menstrual effluent could enable earlier, ...

The University of Texas at Arlington has launched a $2.1 million  supercomputing hub, expanding its capacity to support data-intensive research, including work powered by artificial intelligence and other advanced technologies. The project was spearheaded by a multidisciplinary team of researchers and leaders from UT Arlington’s College of Engineering and the Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation, who recognized the growing demand for high-performance computing across campus. The new hub will allow ...

At a time marked by debate about identity, migration and national cohesion, a new study brings a surprising message: Most Americans want a more ethnically and religiously diverse society than the one they live in today. The study, published in the journal Ethos, is based on a representative questionnaire survey of 986 American citizens. Participants were asked to assess both the actual and ideal composition of ethnic and religious groups in the United States. ‘We wanted to investigate whether the idea of a multicultural United States still has popular ...

Utica, NY - A groundbreaking new study led by researchers at the Masonic Medical Research Institute (MMRI) has identified a promising molecular target to protect the heart against damage caused by high-fat diet and obesity. The study, published this week in the leading journal Science Signaling, highlights the protein tyrosine phosphatase PTP1B, a nodal enzyme involved in insulin signaling, as a key driver in maladaptive cardiac metabolism and dysfunction under dietary stress. In obesity and high-fat diet conditions, the heart undergoes a metabolic switch, moving from ...

Researchers led by Gen Kurosawa at the RIKEN Center for Interdisciplinary Theoretical and Mathematical Sciences (iTHEMS) in Japan have used theoretical physics to discover how our biological clock maintains a consistent 24-hour cycle—even as temperatures change. They found that this stability is achieved through a subtle shift in the “shape” of gene activity rhythms at higher temperatures, a process known as waveform distortion. This process not only helps keep time steady but also influences how well our internal clock synchronizes with the day-night cycle. The study was published in PLOS Computational Biology on July 22.   Have ...

A group of University of Ottawa researchers have already shown how scientists can harness gene therapies to deliver nano-sized treatments for cancer, cardiovascular and other diseases. Unfortunately, the delivery agents in the process do not possess any therapeutic potential and ultimately degrade after acting as the messenger. So, the researchers asked: can we not develop nanoparticle platforms to be more than just mules?  “Since millions of particles are injected to deliver ...

Public health promotion campaigns can be effective, but they do not tend to be efficient. Most are time-consuming, expensive, and reliant on the intuition of creative workers who design messages without a clear sense of what will spark behavioral change. A new study conducted by Dolores Albarracín and Man-pui Sally Chan of the University of Pennsylvania, government and community agencies, and researchers at the University of Illinois and Emory University suggests that artificial intelligence (AI) can facilitate theory- and evidence-based message selection. The research group, led by Albarracín, a social psychologist who is the Amy Gutmann ...

Peking University, July 16, 2025: A research team led by Prof. Yang Yuchao from the School of Electronic and Computer Engineering at Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School has achieved a global breakthrough by developing the first sort-in-memory hardware system tailored for complex, nonlinear sorting tasks. Published in Nature Electronics, the study titled “A fast and reconfigurable sort-in-memory system based on memristors” proposes a comparator-free architecture, overcoming one of the ...

Living near green spaces before and during pregnancy as well as in early childhood is associated with a reduced risk of neurodevelopmental disorders, according to Rutgers Health researchers. Published in Environment International, the study examined how exposure to green spaces during critical periods of early childhood development influences the risk of neurodevelopmental conditions, including attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and other developmental delays. The researchers said the impact of exposure to these ...

First to track teen dating app use through real-time smartphone data versus self-reports Over six months, 23.5% of teens used dating apps, higher than previous estimates Apps may provide valuable social connections, particularly for sexual and gender minorities CHICAGO --- Nearly one in four teenagers are using dating apps — and it may not be hurting their mental health, suggests a new Northwestern Medicine study that monitored adolescents over six months. The findings challenge the popular belief that dating apps are harmful for teenagers. Instead, the study suggests, these apps may ...

Artificial intelligence chatbots are everywhere these days, from smartphone apps and customer service portals to online search engines. But what happens when these handy tools overestimate their own abilities?  Researchers asked both human participants and four large language models (LLMs) how confident they felt in their ability to answer trivia questions, predict the outcomes of NFL games or Academy Award ceremonies, or play a Pictionary-like image identification game. Both the people and the LLMs tended to be overconfident about how they would hypothetically perform. ...

Peking University, July 07, 2025: A research team led by Prof. Pan Feng from the School of Advanced Materials, Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School has uncovered key mechanisms that govern how protons are stored and transported in aqueous batteries. The study provides critical insights that could lead to safer, faster-charging, and higher-capacity alternatives to today’s lithium-ion batteries. Published in Matter, a Cell Press journal, the study titled “Proton storage and transfer in aqueous batteries” reveals how hydrogen-bond network engineering enables efficient proton storage and transport. Background Aqueous batteries, ...

Understanding how ancient species arranged themselves in space is a key puzzle in paleoecology, but direct evidence of how prehistoric organisms used their body structures to regulate spacing has long eluded scientists. Now, researchers in China have uncovered the first direct evidence: Approximately 436-million-year-old brachiopods from the early Silurian period used tiny, bristle-like structures called setae to maintain orderly, "checkerboard" spacing—ensuring they had enough room to thrive on the ancient seafloor. The findings, published in Proceedings ...

Considerable biomass loss 320 million trees are killed by lightning each year Lightning has a greater impact on forests than previously thought. Researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have developed new model calculations that, for the first time, estimate the global influence of lightning on forest ecosystems. According to their findings, an estimated 320 million trees die each year due to lightning strikes. Tree losses caused by direct lightning-ignited wildfires are not included ...

Precancerous cells must adapt to and overcome cellular stress and inflammation in order to progress and form malignant tumors. Now, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine have identified a link between stress and inflammation and pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), one of the most aggressive and lethal types of cancer. The findings could serve as an early warning system for the disease, leading to the detection of PDAC before it becomes life-threatening. Previous studies have shown ...

A new study, led by experts at the University of Nottingham, has found that the Covid-19 pandemic may have accelerated people’s brain health, even if they were never infected with the virus. What does it mean to grow older, not just in years, but in terms of brain health? Can stress, isolation, and global disruption leave their mark on people’s minds? The findings of this new study, which are published in Nature Communications, showed that people who lived through the Covid-19 pandemic showed signs of faster brain ageing over time than ...

New research from the University of Pittsburgh reveals how the immune system defends against intestinal parasitic worms, or helminths, one of the most common infections worldwide in communities with limited access to clean water and sanitation. The findings, published today in the journal Immunity, suggest that currently available non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS), similar to ibuprofen, could act on the newly discovered pathway to boost immunity to parasitic infections. “While parasitic worms are less of an issue in most of the U.S. and other wealthy nations, these infections affect almost a quarter ...

A new analysis of an exquisitely preserved fossil that lived half a billion years ago suggests that arachnids – spiders and their close kin – evolved in the ocean, challenging the widely held belief that their diversification happened only after their common ancestor had conquered the land.  Spiders and scorpions have existed for some 400 million years, with little change. Along with closely related arthropods grouped together as arachnids, they have dominated the Earth as the most successful ...