Intermittent fasting has proven benefits for metabolic health, but a new study shows that it could slow hair growth—at least in mice. Researchers report December 13 in the Cell Press journal Cell that mice subjected to intermittent fasting regimes showed improved metabolic health but slower hair regeneration compared to mice with 24/7 access to food. A similar process might occur in humans, based on a small clinical trial that the team also conducted, but it’s likely to be less severe since humans have a much slower metabolic rate and different hair growth patterns compared to mice. “We don't want to scare people away ...

About The Study: The findings of this study suggest that body mass index and obesity prevalence in the U.S. decreased in 2023 for the first time in more than a decade. The most notable decrease was in the South, which had the highest observed per capita glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonist (GLP-1RA) dispensing rate. However, dispensing does not necessarily mean uptake, and the South also experienced disproportionately high COVID-19 mortality among individuals with obesity.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Benjamin Rader, PhD, MPH, email benjamin.rader@childrens.harvard.edu. To ...

About The Study: In 2023, among 29,522 respondents to the National Health Interview Survey, a nationally representative household survey, 8.4% of adults in the U.S. reported they ever had post–COVID-19 condition (PCC; also known as long COVID), 3.6% currently had PCC, and 2.3% currently had activity-limiting PCC. Significant differences across all 3 outcomes were observed by sex, sexual orientation, age, race and Hispanic origin, family income, and urbanization.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Anjel Vahratian, PhD, MPH, email avahratian@cdc.gov. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website ...

A recent study has reported a novel breeding strategy to rapidly create climate-smart crops that show higher yield under normal conditions and greatly rescue yield losses under heat stress both in staple grain and vegetable crops. The study, which was published in Cell on 13 December, was conducted by Prof. XU Cao’s team from the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology (IGDB) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The year 2050 is fast approaching and farm productivity must increase by 60% in order to feed a projected global population of 10 billion. However, current crop production is insufficient and is expected to worsen due to the abiotic-stress burden ...

Led by researchers from the University of Oxford’s Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science and the University of Iceland, the review explores how genetic variations can explain differences in reproductive health and longevity. The study provides the most comprehensive review of male and female genetic discoveries of reproductive traits to date, and provides new insights into how our DNA affects when we have children, the timing of menopause, and even how that is connected to how long we live.   Genes at the heart of reproduction Using the GWAS Catalog, an online database of Genome Wide Association Studies (GWAS), the researchers identified ...

Wildfire smoke has long been known to exacerbate health problems like heart disease, lung conditions, and asthma, but now a new study finds that smoke from these fires can lead to poor health thousands of miles away. Researchers from the University of Maryland Institute for Health Computing (UM-IHC) found that medical visits for heart and lung problems rose by nearly 20 percent during six days in June, 2023, when smoke from Western Canadian wildfires drifted across the country, leading to very poor air quality days in Baltimore and ...

PASADENA, CA – December 13, 2024 – The Giant Magellan Telescope announced today that Northwestern University has joined its international consortium to construct the $2.54 billion observatory.   Home to the world-renowned Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA) and the newly founded NSF-Simons AI Institute for the Sky (SkAI), Northwestern is at the forefront of advancing astrophysical research. Northwestern researchers will develop and apply cutting-edge artificial intelligence ...

SAN ANTONIO – Patients with early-stage, node-negative, hormone receptor (HR)-positive, HER2- negative breast cancer who have a high risk of recurrence based on the OncotypeDX genomic test had better outcomes when treated with adjuvant anthracycline- plus taxane-based chemotherapy regimens compared with those receiving adjuvant taxane-based chemotherapy regimens alone, according to results presented at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS), held December 10-13, 2024. “HR-positive, HER2-negative is the most common type of breast cancer in the United States and we frequently need to decide whether or not adjuvant chemotherapy ...

SAN ANTONIO – The ZEST clinical trial, designed to evaluate niraparib (Zejula) for the prevention of breast cancer recurrence in patients with circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA), failed to accrue enough patients positive for ctDNA, according to results presented at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS), held December 10-13, 2024. As some of the lessons learned from this trial, investigators suggest beginning ctDNA testing during treatment rather than waiting for treatment completion as done in ZEST, and including patients with high- risk ...

SAN ANTONIO – A machine learning (ML) model incorporating both clinical and genomic factors outperformed models based solely on either clinical or genomic data in predicting which patients with hormone receptor (HR)-positive, HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer would have better outcomes from adding CDK4/6 inhibitors to endocrine therapy as first-line treatment, according to results presented at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS), held December 10-13, 2024. While the use of CDK4/6 inhibitors combined with endocrine therapy have significantly improved outcomes in patients with HR-positive, ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Researchers are shining a light on cancer cells’ energy centers – literally – to damage these power sources and trigger widespread cancer cell death. In a new study, scientists combined strategies to deliver energy-disrupting gene therapy using nanoparticles manufactured to zero in only on cancer cells. Experiments showed the targeted therapy is effective at shrinking glioblastoma brain tumors and aggressive breast cancer tumors in mice. The research team overcame a significant challenge to break ...

DALLAS, December 13, 2024 — The American Heart Association and Major League Baseball (MLB) brought cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and automated external defibrillator (AED) training to the League’s annual Winter Meetings held in Dallas this week. Attendees from all 30 Major League Clubs and many organizations across the baseball industry learned lifesaving skills needed to respond confidently and capably in the event of a cardiac emergency. According to American Heart Association data, 9 out of ...

More than six million Americans are affected by Alzheimer’s disease, a form of dementia marked by accumulation of amyloid-β within the brain. Amyloid-β is a relatively small protein that forms toxic plaques in the brain contributing to the harmful effects of Alzheimer's disease. Another protein, hyperphosphorylated tau (pTau), also accumulates as toxic neurofibrillary tangles. Together, amyloid-β plaques and pTau tangles result in brain damage, neuroinflammation and ultimately brain death. Gene expression studies have already identified ...

(Carlisle, Pa.) — A new study in the journal Scientific Reports offers a rare glimmer of hope in the face of climate change, suggesting glacial rivers and lakes may play a crucial role in mitigating the effects of  methane, a powerful greenhouse gas that recent studies have shown emerging as glaciers melt in warming global temperatures. This new study, led by Dickinson College Associate Professor of Environmental Studies Kristin Strock, looked at what happens when glaciers melt and release trapped methane, a potent greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change. Strock, a 2019 National Geographic Explorer, led an all-female team of researchers ...

Over the last decade, the global market for plant-based beverages has seen remarkable growth, with oat, almond, soy and rice drinks emerging as popular alternatives to cow’s milk in coffee and oatmeal during this time. One of the likely reasons for millions of liters of plant-based drinks ending up in the shopping baskets of consumers is that their climate footprint is often lower than that of cow’s milk. But consumers would be mistaken if they considered plant-based beverages healthier than cow’s milk. This is highlighted in a new study conducted by the University of Copenhagen in collaboration with the University ...

A team at the Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares (CNIC) has developed a comprehensive set of innovative genetic tools and mouse lines, called iFlpMosaics, designed to enhance the study of gene function and its implications in health and disease. The groundbreaking study, led by Dr. Rui Benedito and published in Nature Methods, presents a pioneering approach that overcomes critical limitations of existing methods for generating genetic mosaics. These innovations will enable scientists to more accurately investigate the effects of somatic mutations on cellular biology and disease. The study highlights the iFlpMosaics toolkit's utility across different experimental setups, ...

Philadelphia, December 13, 2024 – Researchers from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and Stanford University have revealed the molecular structure of TRACeR-I, a protein platform for reprogramming immune responses. A better understanding of its structure may help optimize designs for the platform, which can be used to develop cancer treatments by either directly modifying immune cells or by creating proteins that help immune cells locate cancer cells. The findings were published today by the journal Nature ...

Also known as Virgo A or NGC 4486, M87 is the brightest object in the Virgo cluster of galaxies, the largest gravitationally bound type of structure in the universe. It came to fame in April 2019 after scientists from EHT released the first image of a black hole in its center. Led by the EHT multi wavelength working group, a study published in Astronomy and Astrophysics Journal presents the data from the second EHT observational campaign conducted in April 2018, involving over 25 terrestrial and orbital telescopes. The authors report the first observation of a high-energy gamma-ray flare in over a decade from the supermassive black hole M87, based on nearly ...

A new database of African hippo populations has revealed huge gaps in our knowledge of where the megaherbivores live and thrive, with populations fragmented and reliant on protected areas. Hippos are classified as “vulnerable to extinction” by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List and have been called the “neglected megafauna”, with a lack of scientific attention and much less research into their lives and habitats than other large mammals. University of Leeds School of Biology Postgraduate Researcher Hannah Lacy ...

Sometimes, moving just a few inches can go a long way. Osaka Metropolitan University researchers have developed a promising technique for head and neck reconstruction that shifts the placement of transferred tissue with blood vessels attached, offering a safer, faster option for patients with complex tissue defects, especially those at high risk. Head and neck reconstruction plays a crucial role in the treatment of patients with head and neck cancer. The goal is to preserve functions vital for breathing, ...

Precursor lesions of pancreatic cancer are very difficult to characterise with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). But now, in a new study, researchers led by Noam Shemesh and Carlos Bilreiro – respectively head of the Preclinical MRI lab at Champalimaud Research and a doctor at the Champalimaud Clinical Centre’s Radiology Department – have shown, for the first time, that a particular form of MRI, called Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI), is capable of robustly detecting pre-malignant lesions in the pancreas. ...

New research from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden highlights the possibility of screening people with type 2 diabetes for liver damage at the same time as they undergo screening for eye disease. The study is published in Lancet Gastroenterology and Hepatology. More than half of all people with type 2 diabetes have steatotic (or fatty) liver disease, but most do not realise it since liver disease rarely causes any symptoms in the earlier stages. Over time, liver fibrosis can develop. This is a type of scarring of the liver that can lead to cirrhosis or liver cancer in some patients. International ...

New research finds that giraffes much prefer flat terrain and do not traverse slopes of more than 20°, which severely limits the areas in, and outside, protected reserves they can access. The findings, which is are yet to be published, will be presented at the British Ecological Society’s (BES) Annual meeting in Liverpool on the 13th December. A new study analysing the movements of 33 GPS collared giraffes in South Africa has found that they avoid steep terrain and are unable to navigate slopes with a gradient of more than 20° , most likely due to the energy required and the risk of falling. The researchers from the University of Manchester ...

1. A research team from NIMS and UTokyo has proposed and demonstrated that the transverse magneto-thermoelectric conversion in magnetic materials can be utilized with much higher performance than previously by developing artificial materials comprising alternately and obliquely stacked multilayers of a magnetic metal and semiconductor. 2. When a temperature gradient is applied to a magnetic conductor, a charge current is generated in a direction orthogonal to directions of both temperature gradient and magnetization of the magnetic conductor. This transverse magneto-thermoelectric phenomenon, ...

-With images-   Durham University scientists have made a groundbreaking discovery in marine geoscience, revealing unprecedented insights into the dynamics of Earth’s longest runout sediment flows.   By using seabed seismographs placed safely outside the destructive paths of powerful underwater avalanches of sediment, researchers have successfully monitored turbidity currents—a natural phenomenon that shapes deep-sea landscapes, damages telecommunication cables, and transports large quantities of sediment and organic carbon to the ocean floor.   The study recorded two massive turbidity ...