A woman’s fertility normally decreases by her late 30s with reproductive function eventually ceasing at menopause. It is known that a small molecule called nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) plays a critical role in this decline, and Buck scientists have revealed how this happens and have identified potential new approaches to enhance reproductive longevity. “Studying ovarian biology and reproductive aging is not just about trying to increase fertility, but really about the overall ...

Researchers at North Carolina State University and global collaborators have mapped the mosquito’s tree of life, a major step toward understanding important traits, such as how the insects choose their hosts, feed on blood and spread disease. The findings will help researchers make better predictions to model disease transmission and understand what makes some mosquitoes better disease carriers than others. The research suggests that mosquito evolution over the past 200 million years mirrors the Earth’s ...

Antimicrobial resistance – occurring when pathogens can survive antibiotic treatment – is one of the most rapidly emerging global public health threats today. According to a 2022 study, nearly five million deaths were associated with antibiotic-resistant bacteria in 2019, with over a million deaths per year directly attributable to antimicrobial resistance.  In a new study, researchers from the Typas Group at EMBL Heidelberg have systematically profiled over 10,000 drug combinations for their effectiveness against common multidrug-resistant bacteria. “Previously, ...

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (Oct. 18, 2023) — A new model developed by Van Andel Institute, Lund University and University of Florence scientists will enable researchers to better understand how Alzheimer’s disease progresses in the brain.   Like other neurodegenerative diseases, Alzheimer’s is challenging to study. It is immensely complex, develops over a long period of time and varies from person to person. Critically, scientists also lack non-invasive techniques to monitor disease progression in the human brain. Instead, they often rely on models that mimic the disease, allowing them to ...

About The Study: There was an increased likelihood of live birth among assisted reproductive technology cycles with a gestational carrier versus those without a gestational carrier in this analysis of 2014 to 2020 national surveillance data. Gestational carrier use was a risk factor for twins, even after adjusting for the number of embryos transferred. More than one-quarter of embryo transfers to gestational carriers involved two or more embryos despite national recommendations of single embryo transfer.  Authors: Lisa M. Shandley, M.D, M.Sc., of the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, is the corresponding author. To access ...

New York, NY | October 18, 2023 – Two grants from the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), a four-year $3.2 million award and a 12-month $550,000 administrative supplement, will support innovative research to advance the understanding of how climate change and extreme weather influence HIV-related health outcomes around the world. A multidisciplinary team of researchers from the CUNY Institute for Implementation Science in Population Health (CUNY ISPH) at the CUNY Graduate School of ...

Recently published in the scientific journal Critical Care Medicine, a review led by the D’Or Institute for Research and Education (IDOR) shed light on the importance of clinical quality registries (CQRs) for the healthcare sector. Also known as electronic medical records, CQRs are systems for collecting and storing health information related to patients and their treatments. The publication includes the collaboration of 15 countries' institutions and shows how the qualified collection of clinical and administrative information has been relevant for optimizing healthcare and management in intensive care units ...

AMES, Iowa – The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is looking for materials that “revolutionize and engineer our future.”   Researchers at Iowa State University and the University of California, Santa Barbara think they can do just that by fundamentally changing Digital Light Processing – a type of 3D printing that users light rather than heat to quickly cure and harden liquid resin into plastic layers – to enable multi-material printing.   “We want to produce two material properties ...

A newly launched, first-of-its-kind institute aims to address a glaring gap in the medical system by working to integrate food-based nutrition interventions into health care to treat disease and advance health equity. The Food is Medicine Institute at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, launched today, establishes a university-wide initiative aimed at transforming health care through scalable food-based interventions such as: medically tailored meals and prescriptions for produce; nutrition education for doctors; and clinical care, electronic health record, and reimbursement pathways for nutrition-based tools to help treat or prevent ...

By Benjamin Boettner (BOSTON) — The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), part of the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), partnered with the Wyss Institute at Harvard University to support the Institute in advancing its human Organ Chip platform and drug discovery capabilities to better understand the illness and injuries that result from a broad range of health security threats, including high doses of radiation, as well as predicting and evaluating ...

Quantum mechanics is full of weird phenomena, but perhaps none as weird as the role measurement plays in the theory. Since a measurement tends to destroy the “quantumness” of a system, it seems to be the mysterious link between the quantum and classical world. And in a large system of quantum bits of information, known as “qubits,” the effect of measurements can induce dramatically new behavior, even driving the emergence of entirely new phases of quantum information. This happens when two competing effects come to a head: interactions and measurement. In a quantum system, when the qubits interact ...

Investigators from the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai found that an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm can detect an abnormal heart rhythm in people not yet showing symptoms. The algorithm, which identified hidden signals in common medical diagnostic testing, may help doctors better prevent strokes and other cardiovascular complications in people with atrial fibrillation—the most common type of heart rhythm disorder. Previously developed algorithms have been primarily used in white ...

Colder is not always better for energy-hungry data centers, especially when it comes to their power bills. A new analysis says that keeping the centers at 41°C, or around 105°F, could save up to 56% in cooling costs worldwide. The study, publishing October 10 in the journal Cell Reports Physical Science, proposes new temperature guidelines that may help develop and manage more efficient data centers and IT servers in the future. “The cooling system accounts for over one-third of the data center’s total energy consumption, so many studies ...

Power grids—the web of electrical networks that sprawl across countries and continents—are under stress. Extreme weather events and volatile energy demands often push the system to the brink. Although these high-impact events can be very damaging, often overlooked is the impact of minor disruptions that trigger a domino effect throughout the system, according to a study analyzing European power blackouts. The findings, published October 18 in the journal Joule, showed that recovering power within 13 hours can reduce up to ...

Starting buprenorphine treatment for opioid use disorder through telehealth was associated with an increased likelihood of staying in treatment longer compared to starting treatment in a non-telehealth setting, according to a new study analyzing Medicaid data from 2019-2020 in Kentucky and Ohio. Published in JAMA Network Open, these findings add to a growing body of evidence demonstrating positive outcomes associated with the use of telemedicine for treatment of opioid use disorder. In Kentucky, 48% of those who started buprenorphine treatment via telehealth remained in treatment for 90 continuous days, compared ...

In a first-in-human phase 1 trial in 41 patients with recurrent glioblastoma, an oncolytic virus treatment designed by Brigham researchers extended survival, especially among those with pre-existing viral antibodies Therapy turns ‘immune desert’ into inflammatory cancer-fighting zone Study demonstrated the safety and preliminary efficacy of a novel gene therapy for glioblastoma Glioblastoma (GBM), an aggressive brain cancer, is notoriously resistant to treatment, with recurrent GBM associated with survival of less than 10 months. Immunotherapies, ...

Ordinary pencil lead holds extraordinary properties when shaved down to layers as thin as an atom. A single, atom-thin sheet of graphite, known as graphene, is just a tiny fraction of the width of a human hair. Under a microscope, the material resembles a chicken-wire of carbon atoms linked in a hexagonal lattice.  Despite its waif-like proportions, scientists have found over the years that graphene is exceptionally strong. And when the material is stacked and twisted in specific contortions, it can take on surprising electronic behavior. Now, MIT physicists have discovered another surprising property ...

About The Study: The results of this meta-analysis of 40 studies including 310,000 children and adolescents suggest that, in general, the treatment rates for mental disorders among children and adolescents were low, especially for depression and anxiety. Targeted intervention policies and effective measures should be designed and implemented to improve treatment rates of psychiatric disorders among youths.  Authors: Yuanyuan Xiao, Ph.D., of Kunming Medical University in Kunming, Yunnan, China, is the corresponding author.  To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/  (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.38174) Editor’s ...

About The Study: The findings of this study including 340,000 pregnant women suggest that long-term exposure to antepartum and postpartum air pollution was associated with higher postpartum depression risks. Identifying the modifiable environmental risk factors and developing interventions are important public health issues to improve maternal mental health and alleviate the disease burden of postpartum depression.  Authors: Jun Wu, Ph.D., of the University of California, Irvine, is the corresponding author.  To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link ...

A microscopic discovery will not only enable scientists to understand the microbial world around us but could also provide a new way to control CRISPR-Cas biotechnologies.   An international team of researchers led by Professor Peter Fineran from the University of Otago and Dr Rafael Pinilla-Redondo from the University of Copenhagen has published a study in the prestigious journal Nature revealing new way viruses suppress the CRISPR-Cas immune systems of bacteria.   Co-first author Dr David Mayo-Muñoz, of the Phage-host interactions (Phi) laboratory in ...

DURHAM, N.C. – A vaccine designed to protect against three different deadly coronaviruses shows success in mouse studies, demonstrating the viability of a pan-coronavirus vaccine developed by researchers at the Duke Human Vaccine Institute.   Publishing in the journal Cell Reports, the single nanoparticle vaccine included components of a previous vaccine that was shown to protect mice and primates against multiple variants of SARS-CoV-2, which is the virus that causes COVID-19. In this study, the vaccine protected mice from SARS-CoV-1, another form of SARS coronavirus that can infect humans, and a MERS coronavirus that has led to periodic, deadly outbreaks ...

Particle accelerators are crucial tools in a wide variety of areas in industry, research and the medical sector. The space these machines require ranges from a few square meters to large research centers. Using lasers to accelerate electrons within a photonic nanostructure constitutes a microscopic alternative with the potential of generating significantly lower costs and making devices considerably less bulky. Until now, no substantial energy gains were demonstrated. In other words, it has not been shown that electrons really have increased in speed significantly. A team of laser physicists at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg ...

A new Corewell Health study suggests that men who have longer prostatic urethras, the part of the urethra that travels through the prostate, may be at a higher risk of experiencing moderate, often chronic urinary side effects after receiving radiation for prostate cancer.   To date, researchers have struggled to determine any risk factors that could shed light on who might experience these types of side effects ahead of time. But now, a simple MRI scan and a new metric to determine urethra length could change that. Results, now published in the journal Academic Radiology, indicate that for every 1-centimeter increase in length of the prostatic ...

They published their work on Oct. 12 in Energy Material Advances.   "The development of cost-effective and high-performance zinc-air battery cathode catalyst is imperative," said paper author Zhonghua Xiang, professor with the Beijing University of Chemical Technology. "Currently, zinc-air batteries still not occupy the market, because they are limited in both stability and in their energy density."   Xiang explained that zinc-air batteries can only work for very limited time at high current density, because there are lots of problems of its cathode, anode and electrolyte.   "The air ...

Annapolis, MD; October 18, 2023—Every so often, cicadas emerge above ground and blanket the earth with their exoskeletons while emitting a high-pitched chirp from sunrise to sunset. The periodical cicadas in the genus Magicicada come every 13 or 17 years, though other types of cicadas emerge much more frequently in our neighborhoods. A long-standing agricultural query related to the periodical cicadas was recently answered by an Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) research team at West Virginia's Appalachian Fruit Research Station. Simply: Once periodical ...