The National Science Foundation has announced a $22 million grant to establish a “BioFoundry” laboratory for the study of extreme microorganisms with collaborating facilities at UC Riverside, UC Santa Barbara, and Cal Poly Pomona. The BioFoundry for Extreme and Exceptional Fungi, Archaea, and Bacteria, or ExFAB, will focus on developing techniques to learn from nature’s more unusual microorganisms. These microbes are considered “extreme” because they have unusual nutritional requirements, grow at extremely high or low temperatures, or grow without ...

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) — This week, the National Science Foundation announced the award of a six-year, $22M grant to UC Santa Barbara under its biofoundries program for the establishment of the BioFoundry for Extreme and Exceptional Fungi, Archaea and Bacteria (ExFAB), a collaboration led by UC Santa Barbara (UCSB), together with UC Riverside (UCR), and Cal Poly Pomona (CPP). ExFAB establishes the nation’s first biofoundry that focuses on largely untapped and unexplored extreme microbes. UCSB's award is one of only five grants made under NSF's BioFoundry program during this funding cycle, which awarded ...

Misconceptions about dyslexia are held by professionals who assess children for the learning difficulty, according to a new study which calls for evidence-based standardised assessment procedures. The research, led by Durham University, found that almost half of dyslexia professionals in the study believed at least one unproven indicator for dyslexia, which could lead to children being misdiagnosed. In a survey of 275 dyslexia professionals, the most common myth – which is not backed up by solid evidence – was that people with dyslexia read letters in reverse order, believed by 61 per cent of specialists. Just over 30 per cent of professionals also ...

A recently developed block copolymer could help push the limits of integration and miniaturization in semiconductor manufacturing, report scientists in Tokyo Tech and TOK. Chemically tailored for reliable directed self-assembly, the proposed compound can arrange itself into perpendicular lamellar structures whose half-pitch width is less than 10 nanometers, outperforming conventional and widely used block copolymers. Miniaturization is one of the fundamental qualities of modern electronics and is largely responsible for the incredible increments in performance witnessed ...

Researchers at Macquarie University have developed a new way to produce ultraviolet (UV) light sensors, which could lead to more efficient and flexible wearable devices. The study, published in the journal Small in July, shows how acetic acid vapour – essentially vinegar fumes – can rapidly improve the performance of zinc oxide nanoparticle-based sensors without using high-temperatures for processing. Co-author Professor Shujuan Huang, from the School of Engineering at Macquarie University, says: “We found by briefly exposing the sensor to vinegar vapour, adjoining ...

Sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT-2) inhibitors used to treat type 2 diabetes might prevent dementia, providing greater benefits with longer treatment, suggests a large study from Korea published by The BMJ today.  As this study was observational, the researchers note that the effect size could have been overestimated and say randomised controlled trials are now needed to confirm these findings. According to the World Health Organization, the number of people with dementia globally is expected to reach 78 million ...

Girls with mental illness or neurodevelopmental conditions are less likely than their peers to be vaccinated with the HPV vaccine that protects against future cervical cancer. This is according to a new registry study from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden published in The Lancet Public Health. The study involved more than 115,000 girls covered by the Swedish school-based human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination programme. The vaccine, which prevents cervical cancer, among other things, is offered to all children in Sweden and given by school health services. Significant ...

Scientists are on the verge of a cancer breakthrough after working out how the body’s immune system targets cells devastated by the disease. A new study has discovered that our natural killer cells, from the immune system which protect against disease and infections, instinctively recognise and attack a protein that drives cancer growth. The experts say that by hijacking this protein, known as XPO1, they may be able to activate more killer cells to destroy the disease. Scientists from the University of Southampton, working with experts worldwide, led the study and now believe it could offer new ...

Geriatrics experts have long known that collaboration is key to delivering quality, patient-centered care to older adults. That’s why USC’s Interprofessional Education and Collaboration for Geriatrics (IECG) trains up to 150 students annually from seven health professions to teach the importance of teamwork in meeting the complex needs of the elderly. Now, a study published in the Journal of Interprofessional Care highlights the long-term impact of IECG on USC health sciences graduates. Researchers surveyed graduates one to three years after completing IECG to assess how the program influenced their practice. The findings were significant: 81% ...

New Haven, Conn. — More than two decades ago, a research team in the lab of David Hafler, a Yale researcher who at the time was at Harvard, discovered a type of T cell in humans that suppresses the immune system; they later found that these so-called regulatory T cells, when defective, are an underlying cause of autoimmune disease, specifically multiple sclerosis (MS). For many years, however, the mechanism behind this dysfunction has remained unclear. In a new Yale-led study, a team of researchers finds that this loss of immune regulation is triggered by an increase in PRDM1-S, a protein involved in immune function, ...

When it comes to purchasing and using electric vehicles (EVs), housing- and income-related factors significantly shape perceptions and preferences among potential buyers, finds a new study in Energy and Climate Change. This research, a collaboration between the Boston University Institute for Global Sustainability (IGS) and the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), is among the first to examine both EV adoption and charging infrastructure through an equity lens coupled with state-of-the-art original survey data. Understanding the barriers to widespread EV adoption ...

An external study of Twitter in 2022 estimated that between a third and two thirds of accounts on the social media site were bots. And many of these automatons flooding social media are dispatched to sow political polarization, hate, misinformation, propaganda and scams. The ability to sift them out of the online crowds is vital for a safer, more humane (or at least more human) internet. But the recent proliferation of large language models (known as "LLMs" for short), such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Meta’s Llama, ...

Rutgers University-New Brunswick scientists have discovered a virus that caused a nationwide die-off of superworms, a common food for birds, reptiles, other pets and, more and more so, even for humans as an alternative protein source. In doing so, they pioneered a different way to search for and identify emerging viruses and pathogens in humans, plants and animals. Using chopped up beetle carcasses forming a slurry and an electron microscope cooled by liquid nitrogen, the scientists reported today in Cell that they have discovered what they have titled Zophobas morio black wasting virus. The name is derived from ...

University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) Dean Mark T. Gladwin, MD, announced today the appointment of Elana J. Fertig, PhD, FAIMBE, as the new Director of the School’s Institute for Genome Sciences (IGS). She is  internationally-recognized for her work in integrating spatial multi-omics technologies with mathematical models to develop a new predictive medicine paradigm in cancer. Spatial technologies allow researchers to learn about any cell type inside of natural tissue, including gene activity ...

A multi-university research team co-led by University of Virginia engineering professor Gustavo K. Rohde has developed a system that can spot genetic markers of autism in brain images with 89 to 95% accuracy. Their findings suggest doctors may one day see, classify and treat autism and related neurological conditions with this method, without having to rely on, or wait for, behavioral cues. And that means this truly personalized medicine could result in earlier interventions. “Autism is traditionally diagnosed behaviorally but has a strong genetic basis. A genetics-first approach could ...

Zhili Feng, a distinguished R&D staff member, and Jian Chen, a senior R&D staff member, in Materials Science and Technology Division at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, will receive the Elmer L. Hann Award at the Society of Naval Architects and Maritime Engineers, or SNAME, Convention on Oct. 15 in Norfolk, Virginia. SNAME plays a crucial role in promoting excellence in marine engineering and naval architecture, supporting professionals through education, research and collaboration. The award is presented to authors of the best paper on ship production delivered at a SNAME event. In September 2023, Feng and Chen presented “Develop ...

Chemical engineers at the University of British Columbia have developed a new treatment that traps and treats PFAS substances—widely known as “forever chemicals”—in a single, integrated system. Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are widely used in manufacturing consumer goods like waterproof clothing due to their resistance to heat, water and stains. However, they are also pollutants, often ending up in surface and groundwater worldwide, where they have been linked to cancer, liver damage and ...

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — A researcher in Purdue University’s College of Science is developing a patent-pending platform technology that mimics the dual-layer structure of viruses to deliver nucleic acid (NA)-based therapies to targeted cancer cells. David Thompson leads a team developing the carrier system called LENN. He is a professor in the James Tarpo Jr. and Margaret Tarpo Department of Chemistry and on the faculty of the Purdue Institute for Cancer Research and the Purdue ...

With swing states playing a pivotal role in the 2024 presidential election, new reports from the Center for Inclusive Democracy (CID) at the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy have found significant voter turnout disparities between white, non-Latino voters and voters of color in all nine battleground states. The reports highlight the persistent “voter representation gap,” where voters of color remain underrepresented at the polls, despite substantial population growth. If narrowed by November, the research concludes, this gap could significantly influence election results, particularly in swing states that had particularly close ...

August 28, 2024-- A new, easy-to-use, evidence-based career assessment, the Public Health Career Explorer, has just launched to help job-seekers who are interested specifically in public health careers. The Public Health Career Explorer career assessment tool, three years in the making, was developed at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. Using the well-researched O*Net MyNextMove assessment, Columbia Mailman School’s Heather Krasna, PhD, EdM, MS, associate dean of career and professional development  painstakingly matched the Holland Codes (career interest codes) for each of the specific ...

Asian Americans comprise just 6% of the U.S. population, but they represent over 60% of Americans with hepatitis B. Hepatitis B (HBV) is a virus that infects the liver, and while some people may recover from the infection, others can go on to develop liver failure or cancer. HBV is transmitted through blood, semen or other bodily fluids, but it can also be passed from mother to child during birth, which is how the majority of Asian Americans acquire the disease. Up until 2010, laws in China allowed for discrimination against people with HBV, barring adults from employment and keeping ...

MINNEAPOLIS – When taken at the first signs of a migraine, before headache pain begins, a drug called ubrogepant may be effective in helping people with migraine go about their daily lives with little or no symptoms, according to a new study published in the August 28, 2024, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The study focused on people with migraine who could tell when an attack was about to happen, due to early symptoms such as sensitivity to light and sound, fatigue, neck pain or stiffness, or dizziness.    Ubrogepant ...

WASHINGTON  –  U.S. Naval Research Laboratory researcher Mark Romanczyk, Ph.D., developed new analytical methods to rapidly analyze fuels and complex petroleum products by using high-resolution mass spectrometry.   The approaches Romanczyk utilizes enable highly detailed qualitative analysis of complex mixtures in minutes. One recent method facilitated the investigation of chemical changes that occurred in weathered crude oil in terrestrial environments. Several of the methods were recently published in the ...

Preview blurb: Geisel’s new fully online 9-month MS in Implementation Science will give graduates the skills to identify and address gaps in moving evidence-based clinical practices into routine use in the real world. HANOVER, NH - “How can we more quickly and effectively move new, proven scientific evidence into routine healthcare practice? What obstacles must be overcome to embrace change and modify behavior? How can we scale a successful intervention so that more people will benefit?” These are some of the key questions future students will learn to tackle as enrollees ...

World-renowned physicians and scientists will gather at the Houston Methodist Research Institute September 17-18 to discuss pioneering research discoveries and technologies in neuroscience that have the potential to transform the field and evolve into innovative treatments for neurological disorders of all kinds. Hosted by the Houston Methodist and Rice University Center for Neural Systems Restoration, the symposium brings together experts in the field of neural circuits, neural technology and neuro-restoration. Twenty-four speakers will highlight the ...