A team led by researchers at the University of Toronto has uncovered new targets that could be the key to effectively treating glioblastoma, a lethal type of brain cancer. These targets were identified through a screen for genetic vulnerabilities in patient-derived cancer stem cells that represent the variability found in tumours. Glioblastoma is the most common type of brain cancer in adults. It is also the most challenging to treat due to the resistance of glioblastoma cancer stem cells, from which tumours grow, to therapy. Cancer stem cells that survive after a tumour is treated go on to form new tumours that do not respond to further treatment. “Glioblastoma tumors have ...

There is a lung cancer screening test that is saving lives – and yet most people who could be getting the test have never heard of it or never talked about it with a doctor. “We’ve got a screening test that works. It works as well, if not better, than breast and colorectal cancer screening in terms of mortality reduction. It's one of the most life-saving things we have for a cancer that kills more people than either of those two combined,” said lung cancer pulmonologist Gerard Silvestri, M.D. And yet, he said, “Eighty percent of those eligible for this screening, regardless of race, education, ethnicity, health or income, hadn’t heard of or ...

About The Study: In this cohort study of hospital admissions among Medicare patients during the COVID-19 pandemic, greater hospital COVID-19 burden was associated with an increased risk of in-hospital adverse effects among both patients with and without COVID-19. These results illustrate the need for greater hospital resilience and surge capacity to prevent declines in patient safety during surges in demand.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Mark L. Metersky, MD, email metersky@uchc.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.42936) Editor’s ...

Supermassive black holes exist at the center of most galaxies, and modern telescopes continue to observe them at surprisingly early times in the Universe’s evolution. It’s difficult to understand how these black holes were able to grow so big so rapidly. But with the discovery of a low-mass supermassive black hole feasting on material at an extreme rate, seen just 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang, astronomers now have valuable new insights into the mechanisms of rapidly growing black holes in the early Universe. LID-568 was discovered ...

About The Article: To help clinicians keep up with ongoing basic and translational science discoveries that affect the diagnosis and treatment of human disease, JAMA has launched a new series, “Translational Science Reviews.” These new article types are succinct and informative summaries of important basic science advances that are transforming diagnosis and treatment of human disease.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Mary M. McDermott, MD, email mdm608@northwestern.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jama.2024.21146) Editor’s Note: Please ...

Scientists have long suspected the keto diet might be able to calm an overactive immune system and help some people with diseases like multiple sclerosis. Now, they have reason to believe it could be true. Scientists at UC San Francisco have discovered that the diet makes the gut and its microbes produce two factors that attenuated symptoms of MS in mice. If the study translates to humans, it points toward a new way of treating MS and other autoimmune disorders with supplements. The keto diet severely restricts carbohydrate-rich ...

Different from traditional alloys, BMGs exhibit a unique atomic arrangement characterized by short-range order and long-range disorder at the atomic level. Such atomic structure leads to the absence of defects such as grain boundaries and dislocations, resulting in exceptional mechanical properties. The promising properties of BMGs have rapidly positioned them as a new class of structural and functional materials, showing great application potential in various fields including structural, energy and chemical engineering. In order to facilitate their engineering applications, research has reported their cutting characteristics from various aspects, ...

New York, NY – The American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR), is proud to recognize the outstanding contributions of Megan Huisingh-Scheetz, MD, MPH, with the 2024 Terrie Fox Wetle Rising Star Award in Health Services and AgingResearch. This award honors a health services researcher in an early or middle phase of his/her career who has already made importantcontributions with work that respects the value of multidisciplinary health services science and that ...

New York, NY­–The American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR) is pleased to announce the recipient of the inaugural George M. Martin Lifetime Achievement in Mentoring Award: Steven N. Austad, PhD, Protective Life Endowed Chair in Healthy Aging Research and a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). The Award is named in honor of George M. Martin, MD (1927-2022), a pioneer in the field of aging research and AFAR’s Scientific Director for more than a decade. A Professor of Pathology at the University of Washington, Dr. Martin devoted his long, distinguished career to growing the field of aging ...

New York, NY – The American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR), is pleased to recognize the exemplary contributions of Jeremy D. Walston, MD, to the field of aging research through the 2024 Irving S. Wright Award of Distinction. This award is named in honor of AFAR’s founder and recognizes exceptional contributions to basic or clinical research in the field of aging. Established in 1982, the award is a framed citation and carries a cash prize of $5,000. Dr. Walston, the Raymond and Anna Lublin Professor of Geriatric Medicine at Johns Hopkins University (JHU), holds multiple leadership roles at JHU, including Director of the Human Aging Project, ...

SAN ANTONIO — November 4, 2024 —Southwest Research Institute has received two contracts totaling $23 million from the U.S. Air Force for a program to address aging aircraft structures and material degradation. Under these contracts, the Institute will help the Air Force modernize methods to sustain the T-38 Talon, the A-10 Thunderbolt and the B-52 Stratofortress. All three military aircraft first came into service more than 45 years ago. “SwRI will assist with the full spectrum of structural sustainment for these aircraft,” said Luciano Smith, manager of SwRI’s Structural Integrity Group. “Our analyses will help the Air Force know ...

Insilico Medicine(“Insilico”), a global leading generative artificial intelligence (AI)-driven biotechnology company, today announced it has signed a Revolving Loan Facility of up to US$100 million with HSBC, one of the world's largest banks and financial services institutions. HSBC’s customized financing solution will support Insilico’s global development centered on multiple sites, as well as the expansion of innovative advantages, thus driving the economy growth in the Greater Bay Area. Insilico is committed to driving advancements in healthcare using cutting-edge AI technology, reducing costs and improving efficiency in early-stage ...

Alongside artificial intelligence, quantum computing is one of the fastest-growing subsets in the high-performance computing community. But what happens when this relatively new and powerful computing method reaches the limit of the cyberinfrastructure and network security capabilities of today? Researchers at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications are addressing this issue before it becomes a problem. “The problem is urgent because practical quantum computers will break classical encryption in the next decade,” ...

Researchers from Peking University have developed a novel noninvasive choroidal angiography method that enables layer-wise visualization and evaluation of choroidal vessels using deep learning. This new approach, published in Health Data Science, employs an advanced segmentation model that can handle varying quality of optical coherence tomography (OCT) B-scans, making it a promising tool for clinical applications in diagnosing retinal diseases. Choroidal Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography (C-OCTA) offers a significant improvement in the analysis of choroidal vessels, a critical component in the ...

CLEVELAND—Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a debilitating disease of the brain and spinal cord that impacts millions worldwide. In MS, the immune system mistakenly attacks the myelin sheath—a protective layer surrounding nerve cells in the nervous system. The loss of myelin, combined with ongoing inflammation, causes dysfunction and death of nerve cells, making the disability worse, such as difficulties with movement, coordination, and sensation. Treatments now focus on reducing attacks on myelin, but don’t address nerve-cell damage and death. But with $1 million from the National Multiple ...

Nationwide, fewer people smoke than did a decade ago, but the proportion who smoke menthol-flavored cigarettes is on the rise. More than 9 million adults, or about 32 percent of all smokers, use menthol cigarettes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In Virginia, the proportion stands higher, at 38 percent. A team of researchers including Roberta Freitas-Lemos, assistant professor at Virginia Tech’s Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC, found that if menthol products were unavailable, smokers found replacement therapies such as nicotine gum and lozenges were practical alternatives, potentially improving health outcomes for people who use menthol ...

Physicians are a vital component of the healthcare landscape and along with other medical professionals, they ensure timely diagnosis, treatment, and management of complex illnesses. They regularly work extended and overnight shifts, often at the cost of sleep. However, the long duty hours of physicians can lead to physical and mental exhaustion, resulting in negative consequences such as depression and burnout. Consequently, this can affect their level of alertness and thus the quality of patient care. To protect the health of Japanese physicians, a duty hour reform went into effect ...

Stem cells grown in microgravity aboard the International Space Station (ISS) have unique qualities that could one day help accelerate new biotherapies and heal complex disease, two Mayo Clinic researchers say. The research analysis by Fay Abdul Ghani and Abba Zubair, M.D., Ph.D., published in NPJ Microgravity, finds microgravity can strengthen the regenerative potential of cells. Dr. Zubair is a laboratory medicine expert and medical director for the Center for Regenerative Biotherapeutics at Mayo Clinic in Florida. Abdul Ghani is a Mayo Clinic research technologist. Microgravity is weightlessness ...

Toronto, ON, November 4, 2024 – People with a history of concussion face a 25% higher risk of having severe mental health issues after childbirth, according to a new study from ICES and the University of Toronto.  The research underscores the importance of identifying individuals with past concussions early in their prenatal care and highlights the need for long-term, trauma-informed support to safeguard their mental health.  “We found that individuals with a history of concussion were significantly more likely to experience serious mental health challenges, ...

ITHACA, N.Y. – A popular new strategy for combatting misinformation doesn’t by itself help people distinguish truth from falsehood but improves when paired with reminders to focus on accuracy, finds new Cornell University-led research supported by Google. Psychological inoculation, a form of “prebunking” intended to help people identify and refute false or misleading information, uses short videos in place of ads to highlight manipulative techniques common to misinformation, such as emotional language, false dichotomies and scapegoating. The strategy has already been deployed ...

CAMBRIDGE, MA – Silicon transistors, which are used to amplify and switch signals, are a critical component in most electronic devices, from smartphones to automobiles. But silicon semiconductor technology is held back by a fundamental physical limit that prevents transistors from operating below a certain voltage. This limit, known as “Boltzmann tyranny,” hinders the energy efficiency of computers and other electronics, especially with the rapid development of artificial intelligence technologies that demand faster computation. In an effort to overcome this fundamental limit of silicon, MIT researchers fabricated a different type ...

When torrential rains and powerful winds hit densely populated coastal regions, whole cities can be destroyed—but governments and residents can take precautions with sufficient warning. Many of these coastal deluges are caused by atmospheric rivers—regions of concentrated water vapor carried along on strong winds, sometimes called “rivers in the sky.” Meteorologists monitor them, but the ability to predict exactly how an atmospheric river might behave based on its underlying physics would offer more precise forecasts. In a paper published today in Nature Communications, senior author Da Yang, assistant professor of geophysical sciences at the University ...

More children have overweight in regions with high rates of single parenthood, low education levels, low income and high child poverty. The pandemic may also have reinforced this trend. This is shown by a study conducted by researchers at Uppsala University and Region Sörmland in collaboration with Region Skåne. “During and after the pandemic, we see a greater difference between regions in terms of children's weight. It even looks like it has exacerbated health inequalities,” explains ...

Researchers have identified 22 pesticides consistently associated with the incidence of prostate cancer in the United States, with four of the pesticides also linked with prostate cancer mortality. The findings are published by Wiley online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society. To assess county-level associations of 295 pesticides with prostate cancer across counties in the United States, investigators conducted an environment-wide association study, using a lag period between exposure and prostate cancer incidence of 10–18 years to account for the slow-growing nature of most prostate cancers. The years 1997–2001 ...

The AI tool AlphaFold has been improved so that it can now predict the shape of very large and complex protein structures. Linköping University researchers have also succeeded in integrating experimental data into the tool. The results, published in Nature Communications, are a step toward more efficient development of new proteins for, among other things, medical drugs. In all living organisms, there is a huge variety of proteins that regulate cell functions. Basically, everything that happens in the body, from controlling muscles and forming hair to transporting ...