Bill Dingus ’81, a Rice University alumnus, and his wife Mary Anne have pledged $1 million to support the university’s Human Impacts on the Earth Fund, dedicated to mitigating and addressing the negative environmental effects caused by human activities on the planet. Additionally, the Dingus family is matching other donors’ contributions to the fund up to $250,000. The Dingus’ donation enables the launch of the Earth and Planetary Opportunities in Research (EXPLORE) program, a new initiative offered through the Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences (EEPS) that allows undergraduates of any major hands-on experience in research projects ...

Most patients may continue to safely take glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists as prescribed before undergoing elective surgery and gastrointestinal endoscopies, according to new clinical guidance released today by five surgical and medical societies including the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery (ASMBS), American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA), American Gastroenterological Association (AGA), International Society of Perioperative Care of Patients with Obesity (ISPCOP), and Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES). The guidance, published online in Surgery for Obesity and Related Diseases ...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  Using computational tools, researchers from the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have developed a method to assess which patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer could benefit from immunotherapy. The work by computational scientists and clinicians was published Oct. 28 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.  Immunotherapy is used to try to boost the body’s own immune system to attack cancer cells. However, only some patients respond to treatment, explains lead study author Theinmozhi Arulraj, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow at Johns Hopkins: “It’s really important ...

About The Study: The PROTECTED transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) trial could not show that the use of cerebral embolic protection (CEP) had a significant effect on the incidence of periprocedural stroke during TAVR. Although there was no significant interaction by geographic region, this exploratory post hoc analysis suggests a trend toward greater stroke reduction in the U.S. cohort but not in the outside the U.S. cohort. These findings are hypothesis generating, and further research is needed to determine if regional differences in patient characteristics or procedural practices ...

Jake Lewis, an entomologist in the Environmental Science and Informatics Section at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST), is fascinated by weevils, a diverse group of beetles that includes many species with elephant trunk-like mouthparts (called a rostrum). Weevils provide various ecosystem services such as pollination and decomposition, but some species are serious pests known to decimate crop fields and timber forests. Using x-ray microtomography, a 3D imaging technique ...

Ultrasound, once used almost exclusively to take images of the body, is quickly developing into a targeted therapy that can have a potentially life-changing impact on our brains, according to the authors of a new article. For decades, health professionals across the world have used ultrasound as a means of monitoring the development of unborn babies and assessing the health of patients’ internal organs. But writing in the journal PLOS Biology, researchers from Stanford University, the University of Plymouth, and Attune Neurosciences say it has now been demonstrated to offer a non-invasive and precise way of targeting ...

The U.S. Department of Defense awarded just under $514,000 to an interdisciplinary team of researchers at the U of A to study the efficacy of “self-delivering” gene editors in the treatment of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, or DMD.  DMD results from a mutation in the dystrophin gene and is one of the most severe inherited muscular dystrophies, leading to deterioration of the muscle fibers. Presently, there is no cure, but advances in treatment have helped patients live longer, better lives. Gene therapy designed to ...

With growing concern about the ubiquity of toxic chemicals in consumer products, many states have passed laws aimed at protecting people from harmful substances in everyday items like cosmetics, cleaning supplies, plastics, and food packaging. California’s Proposition 65, for instance, is considered one of the most extensive toxics laws in the country. But does the law work? According to a new study published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, it does. “Not only have people’s exposures to specific toxic chemicals gone down in California, ...

A survey of patients receiving gender affirming care shows that commercial insurance pays for most of their treatments, they receive less care in the South than other parts of the U.S. and they deal with disproportionate levels of housing insecurity and trauma compared to others, according to a new study by researchers at the Colorado School of Public Health and the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. The study, using data provided by Kythera Labs, a healthcare clearinghouse, examined millions of insurance claims by patients undergoing gender affirming care (GA) and those not. It also looked at social determinants of healthcare (SDOH), non-medical factors ...

LAWRENCE — With $5 million in support from the U.S. Department of Energy, the University of Kansas and Avium — a startup firm founded by researchers from KU’s School of Engineering — aim to make clean hydrogen more affordable. According to the DoE, the work at KU is part of $750 million in funding for 52 projects across 24 states “to dramatically reduce the cost of clean hydrogen and reinforce American leadership in the growing hydrogen industry.” Green hydrogen is a key tool in the worldwide ...

Microswimmers often need to independently navigate narrow environments like microchannels through porous media or blood vessels. The swimmers can be of biological origin, like algae or bacteria, but also constitute custom designed structures used for the transport of chemicals and drugs. In these cases, it is important to control how they swim in relation to walls and boundaries - as one might want them to exchange fuel or information, but also avoid them to stick where they are not supposed to. Many swimmers are electrically ...

WASHINGTON, DC – OCTOBER 28, 2024 – The first powered randomized trial examining early intervention with transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) in patients with asymptomatic, severe aortic stenosis (AS) found this strategy to be both a safe and effective alternative to clinical surveillance (CS). Findings were reported today at TCT 2024, the annual scientific symposium of the Cardiovascular Research Foundation (CRF). TCT is the world’s premier educational meeting specializing in interventional ...

Patients with late-stage cancer often have to endure multiple rounds of different types of treatment, which can cause unwanted side effects and may not always help. In hopes of expanding the treatment options for those patients, MIT researchers have designed tiny particles that can be implanted at a tumor site, where they deliver two types of therapy: heat and chemotherapy. This approach could avoid the side effects that often occur when chemotherapy is given intravenously, and the synergistic effect of the two therapies ...

WASHINGTON, DC – OCTOBER 28, 2024 – The EVOLVED trial found that early aortic valve intervention in patients with asymptomatic severe aortic stenosis (AS) and mid-wall myocardial fibrosis on magnetic resonance imaging did not reduce the incidence of the composite primary endpoint of all-cause death or unplanned aortic stenosis hospitalization compared with guideline-directed conservative management.   Findings were reported today at TCT 2024, the annual scientific symposium of the Cardiovascular Research Foundation (CRF). TCT is the world’s premier educational meeting specializing in interventional cardiovascular ...

Earlier this year, researchers at the Flatiron Institute’s Center for Computational Quantum Physics (CCQ) announced that they had successfully used a classical computer and sophisticated mathematical models to thoroughly outperform a quantum computer at a task that some thought only quantum computers could solve. Now, those researchers have determined why they were able to trounce the quantum computer at its own game. Their answer, presented on October 29 in Physical Review Letters, reveals that the quantum problem they tackled — involving ...

University of Texas at Dallas mechanical engineers have designed a 3D-printed femur that could help doctors prepare for surgeries to repair bones and develop treatments for bone tumors. The engineers, who worked in collaboration with UT Southwestern Medical Center orthopedic surgeons, published their first study on the 3D-printed thigh bone online Aug. 5 in the Journal of Orthopaedic Research. The study, which focused on the middle section of the bone, establishes 3D-printing parameters for a femur for use in biomechanical testing. Researchers said more studies will be needed before the technology could be available for widespread use. To study and validate innovative surgical implants ...

A study led by researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus reveals patients and providers have more positive overall care experiences when the entire healthcare team is a part of bedside interdisciplinary rounds (BIDR). The study published today in the Journal of General Internal Medicine. The study found that BIDR, when the team meets at a patients’ bedside in the hospital to discuss care plans, helps build trust between patients and their healthcare providers and within healthcare teams by allowing everyone to observe and work together more closely. “Traditional ...

Background and objectives Radiation injury poses a serious threat to human health, causing complex and multifaceted damage to cells and tissues. Such injury can be caused by various factors, including nuclear accidents, medical radiation therapy, and space travel. Currently, finding effective treatment methods and drugs to mitigate the harmful effects of radiation injury on the human body is a crucial research direction. This study aimed to explore the protective effects and mechanisms of Licochalcone ...

“This case report highlights the importance of full tumor genotyping to identify potentially actionable targets in rare tumors such as malignant glomus tumors.” BUFFALO, NY- October 29, 2024 – A new case report was published in Oncotarget's Volume 15 on October 11, 2024, entitled “Complete response to encorafenib plus binimetinib in a BRAF V600E-mutant metastasic malignant glomus tumor.” As highlighted in the abstract, glomus tumors (GT) are rare mesenchymal neoplasms originating in dermal arteriovenous structures involved in thermoregulation. ...

UNDER EMBARGO UNTIL 15:00 GMT / 11:00 ET TUESDAY 29 OCTOBER 2024 Gold bugs: spectacular new fossil arthropod preserved in fool’s gold Images available via link in the notes section A new 450-million-year-old fossil arthropod, preserved in 3D by iron pyrite (fool’s gold), has been unveiled by scientists. The new species, Lomankus edgecombei, is distantly related to spiders, scorpions, and horseshoe crabs. The findings have been published today (29 Oct) in the journal Current Biology. A team of researchers led by Associate Professor Luke Parry, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford, have unveiled a spectacular ...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 29, 2024 – While many smoking rooms in U.S. airports have closed in recent years, they are still common in other airports around the world. These lounges can be ventilated, but how much does it actually help the dispersion of smoke? Research published in Physics of Fluids, by AIP Publishing, shows that not all standing positions in airport smoking lounges are created equal. Researchers from the University of Hormozgan in Iran studied nicotine particles in a simulated airport smoking room and found that the thermal environment and positioning of smokers influenced how particles ...

AURORA, Colo. (Oct. 29, 2024) –  An ancient gene mutation among First Nations inhabitants of Oceania may make them more susceptible to infectious diseases like influenza, according to a new study by scientists at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. “We found quite a diverse set of genes in this population but there was one allele that really stood out in terms of genetic composition,” said the study’s lead author Paul Norman, PhD, professor of biomedical informatics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. “We did some investigating, and we suspect this allele ...

New Haven, Conn. — Paleontologists have identified fossils of an ancient species of bug that spent the past 450 million years covered in fool’s gold in central New York. The new species, Lomankus edgecombei, is a distant relative of modern-day horseshoe crabs, scorpions, and spiders. It had no eyes, and its small front appendages were best suited for rooting around in dark ocean sediment, back when what is now New York state was covered by water. Lomankus also happens to be bright gold — thanks to layers of pyrite ...

Osaka, Japan—Achieving a sustainable society requires the development of advanced degradable plastics, or polymers, which are molecules composed of long chains of repeating units. The goal of a resource-circulating society is now one step closer thanks to the efforts of a team from Osaka University that has developed tough biodegradable plastics by including movable crosslinking groups. In a study published this month in Chem, the researchers have revealed that developing polymers with movable crosslinks not only increases their strength but also promotes degradation by enzymes under mild conditions. Plastics and polymers need to achieve both desirable performance ...

A new study by UCLA Health reveals that hospital emergency departments may be missing signs of suicidal thoughts and behaviors in children, boys and Black and Hispanic youth.  The research, published in the journal JAMA Open Network, analyzed electronic health records of nearly 3,000 children and teenagers presenting to two emergency departments in southern California for mental health reasons. Using machine learning algorithms, the researchers determined standard medical record surveillance methods miss youth with suicide-related emergencies. These methods disproportionately missed suicide-related visits among Black, Hispanic, male, and preteen youths, compared with ...