Back when the biggest fly enthusiasts of 19th century Sweden — Carl Fredrik Fallén, for one, and later Johan Wilhelm Zetterstedt — were collecting insects for what would become Lund University’s entomological collections, they wondered exactly what was that buzzing coming from their can of raisins. Skip forward 200 years, and the humble fruit fly, known better to geneticists as Drosophila melanogaster, is one of the most thoroughly studied animals on the planet. And DNA from Fallén and Zetterstedt’s centuries-old curiosities are still revealing new insights into the fly’s evolution as it spread alongside ...

PHILADELPHIA (October 11, 2023) – Police officers often respond to incidents that do not involve crime or immediate threats to public safety but instead deal with community members facing unmet mental health needs. In response to this, many cities are experimenting with co-deploying police officers alongside health professionals or deploying teams entirely composed of civilian health professionals. Recently, researchers from the  University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing (Penn Nursing) explored the perspectives and preferences about these programs among residents in structurally disadvantaged areas where mental health distress is ...

PLYMOUTH MEETING, PA [October 12, 2023] — New research in the October 2023 issue of JNCCN—Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network finds that intensive local-regional treatment to remove as much tumor as possible (known as “debulking”), in addition to standard systemic therapy, does not impact overall quality of life significantly for people with metastatic colorectal cancer. The researchers examined the ongoing ORCHESTRA trial (NCT01792934) to compare patients treated with standard palliative chemotherapy alone to those who received palliative chemotherapy plus either surgery, ablative therapy, and/or radiotherapy ...

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — True altruism is rare behavior in animals, but a new study by Penn State researchers has found that honey bees display this trait. Additionally, they found that an evolutionary battle of genetics may determine the parent they inherit it from. For the study, published in the journal Molecular Ecology, the researchers examined the genetics behind “retinue” behavior in worker honey bees, who are always female. After the worker bees are exposed to the queen bee’s pheromone, they deactivate their own ovaries, help spread the pheromone to the other worker bees, and tend to the queen ...

BOSTON – The brain is made up of numerous types of cells that are organized into different structures and regions. Although several important steps have been made towards building models of the human brain, the advances have not produced undistorted 3D images of cellular architecture that are needed to build accurate and detailed models. In new research published in Science Advances, a team led by investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), a founding member of Mass General Brigham (MGB), has overcome this challenge to offer scientists and clinicians a comprehensive cellular atlas of a part of the human brain known as Broca’s area, with ...

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — An American born in 2019 will spend a larger share of their lifetime taking prescription drugs than being married or receiving an education, according to new research by Jessica Ho, associate professor of sociology and demography at Penn State. She found that American males will spend approximately 48% of their lives taking prescription drugs. The number jumped to 60% for females. Ho reported her findings this week (Oct. 1) in the journal Demography. “As an American, I’d like ...

Publishing an ad for an apartment or rental home in Spanish may seem like it would broaden the pool of potential renters, but new research shows it can harm rental-seekers’ perception of the property and its neighborhood. Finding a new apartment or home to rent can be nerve-wracking and tedious. It is increasingly digital and there are thousands of websites and Facebook groups for prospective renters to peruse. It can be a fraught endeavor — from vetting Craigslist listings to scrolling through hundreds of different listings to find the ...

A longstanding mystery in science is how the over 100 million individual neurons work together to form a network that forms the basis of who we are – every human thought, emotion and behavior.   Mapping these constellations of cells and discovering their function have been long-standing goals of scores of 21st century molecular cartographers working worldwide as part of the National Institutes of Health’s “Brain Initiative Cell Census Network” project. The overarching ...

A team of researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Yale University School of Medicine has created the first “multiome” atlas of brain cell development in the human cerebral cortex across six broad developmental time points from fetal development into adulthood, shedding new light on their roles during brain development and disease. “Multiome” refers to the simultaneous analysis of multiple types of genetic information within the same biological sample. They can include the genome, the DNA encoded in our cells; the transcriptome, the RNA copies that the cell makes from the ...

Even highly mobile, large, and long-lived species are sensitive to dynamic and changing conditions as the Arctic warms. A new study reports that population swings in eastern North Pacific grey whales – some of which have resulted in recent mass mortality events – are driven by changing prey biomass and ice cover in the Arctic. Climate change is driving rapid change in Arctic ecosystems, including the highly productive shallow basins of the Pacific Arctic, which are critical marine areas that support seasonal foraging opportunities for various migratory marine species. While climate impacts affect lower-trophic level and short-lived species most directly, ...

Two million years ago, Homo erectus had expanded beyond the lowland savanna environments of East Africa and into the high-altitude regions of the Ethiopian highlands, where they produced both Oldowan and Acheulean tools, according to a new study. It presents a reanalysis of an early hominin fossil first discovered in 1981. The findings provide novel insights into the evolution, migration and adaptive capacities of early human ancestors. In Africa, the limited number of hominin fossils found in direct association with stone tools has hindered attempts to link Homo habilis and Homo erectus with ...

A new probiotic-guided chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T platform uses engineered bacteria to infiltrate and produce synthetic antigen targets, enabling CAR-T cells to find, identify, and destroy tumor cells in situ, according to a new study. The combined cell therapy platform expands the scope of CAR-T cell therapy to include difficult-to-target solid tumors. Immunotherapies using CAR-T cells have proven successful in treating some types of blood cancers. However, their efficacy against solid tumors remains elusive. A key challenge facing tumor-antigen targeting immunotherapies like CAR-T is the identification of suitable ...

New pharmaceuticals, cleaner fuels, biodegradable plastics: in order to meet society’s needs, chemists have to develop new synthesis methods to obtain new products that do not exist in their natural state. A research group at the University of Geneva (UNIGE), in collaboration with Cardiff University, has discovered how to use an external electric field to control and accelerate a chemical reaction, like a ‘‘switch’’. This work, to be read in Science Advances, could have a considerable impact on the development of new molecules, enabling not only more environmentally friendly synthesis, but also very simple external control of a chemical reaction. In ...

NEWPORT, Ore. – Dynamic and changing Arctic Ocean conditions likely caused three major mortality events in the eastern North Pacific gray whale population since the 1980s, a new study has found. During each of these die-offs, including one that began in 2019 and is ongoing, the gray whale population was reduced by up to 25% over just a few years, said Joshua Stewart, an assistant professor with Oregon State University’s Marine Mammal Institute and the study’s lead author. “These are extreme population swings that we did not expect to see in a large, long-lived species like gray whales,” Stewart said. “When the availability ...

In two parallel projects, researchers at Karolinska Institutet have been involved in creating the most comprehensive atlases of human brain cells to date. The two studies, which are published in Science, provide clues on different brain diseases and give hope for medical advancements in the future, such as new cancer drugs. Knowing what cells constitute the healthy brain, where different cell types are located and how the brain develops from the embryo stage is fundamental to the ability to compare and better understand how diseases arise. There are at present advanced atlases of the ...

Tropical crops such as coffee, cocoa, watermelon and mango may be at risk due to the loss of insect pollinators, finds a new study led by UCL and Natural History Museum researchers. Published in Science Advances, the study explores the intricate interplay between climate change, land use change, and their impact on pollinator biodiversity, ultimately revealing significant implications for global crop pollination. The study, which compiled data from 1,507 crop growing sites around the world and catalogued 3,080 insect pollinator species, exposes a concerning trend – the combined pressures ...

A group of international scientists have mapped the genetic, cellular, and structural makeup of the human brain and the nonhuman primate brain. This understanding of brain structure, achieved by funding through the National Institutes of Health’s Brain Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies® Initiative, or The BRAIN Initiative®, allows for a deeper knowledge of the cellular basis of brain function and dysfunction, helping pave the way for a new generation of precision therapeutics for people with mental disorders and other disorders of the brain. The findings appear in a compendium of ...

New York, NY—October 12, 2023—For several years, researchers have been successfully using chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells to target specific antigens found on blood cells as a cure for patients with leukemia and lymphoma. But solid tumors, like breast and colon cancers, have proven to be more difficult to home in on. Solid tumors contain a mix of cells that display different antigens on their surface-often shared with healthy cells in the body. Thus, identifying a consistent and safe target has impeded the success of most CAR-T cell therapy for solid tumors at the first phase ...

Tobacco is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and cigarette smoking causes three in 10 of all cancer deaths. Smoking also accounts for more than 30 percent of the difference in life expectancy among different socioeconomic groups. Roberta Freitas-Lemos, research assistant professor at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC, recently received a career development award to explore the ways in which nicotine tax policies can influence health disparities. The award of more than $680,000 over five years from the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health is designed ...

New York, NY (October 12, 2023) - The Mount Sinai Health System has received a $12,180,625 grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute to compare new treatment options for sickle cell disease and determine which work best for specific patients. “Sickle cell traditionally has been a neglected disease, but it benefited from a flurry of innovation over the last decade and there are now three new medications approved for the disease,” says Jeffrey Glassberg, MD, Director of the Mount Sinai Sickle Cell Program. “While this is welcome news, clinicians now have a new challenge. ...

Advocates for the use of trigger warnings suggest that they can help people avoid or emotionally prepare for encountering content related to a past trauma. But trigger warnings may not fulfill either of these functions, according to an analysis published in Clinical Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.   Instead, warnings appear to heighten the anticipatory anxiety a person may feel prior to viewing sensitive material while making them no less likely to consume that content, wrote Victoria M. E. Bridgland of ...

Researchers at Lund University in Sweden are investigating a car fuel comprised of a liquid that is converted to hydrogen by a solid catalyst. The used liquid is then emptied from the tank and charged with hydrogen, after which it can be used again in a circular system that is free from greenhouse gas emissions.  In two research articles, Lund researchers have demonstrated that the method works, and while it is still basic research, it has the potential to become an efficient energy-storage system in the future. “Our catalyst is one of the most efficient around, at least if you look at publicly available research,” says Ola ...

FROEDTERT HEALTH, WISCONSIN DIAGNOSTIC LABORATORIES AND HEALTHECO LAUNCH ATALAN, A TECHNOLOGY-ENABLED CLINICAL PARTNERSHIP PROVIDING ACCESS TO THE BEST IN LABORATORY MEDICINE   Atalan’s Access Hub Connects Doctors and Medical Centers to a Vetted Network of the Nation’s Foremost Clinical Laboratories to Improve Patient Diagnostics and Care   MILWAUKEE, Oct. 12, 2023 – Froedtert Health, Wisconsin Diagnostic Laboratories (WDL) and HealthEco announced today the launch of Atalan, a technology-enabled clinical partnership providing doctors and medical centers unprecedented access to a vetted network of the nation’s ...

Researchers from the Veterinary Education, Research, & Outreach (VERO) program at the Texas A&M School of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences (VMBS) have received $300,000 from the United States Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture to study the costliest disease in the cattle industry, bovine respiratory disease (BRD). The grant will fund a highly collaborative project involving Mississippi State University, West Texas A&M University and Texas A&M ...

A new study will combine an Alzheimer’s medication that slows disease progression in some patients with two other drugs to see if their effects can be amplified. The trial will be the first to test drugs acting on two disease-driving proteins, amyloid and tau, for patients with late-onset Alzheimer’s, the most common type of dementia.  The trial will recruit 900 participants with early Alzheimer’s at UC San Francisco and other sites nationwide. It is funded by a grant from the National Institute on Aging, part of the National Institutes of Health. It is awarded to Adam Boxer, MD, PhD, principal investigator and project ...