Florida Atlantic University’s Marcus Institute of Integrative Health has been awarded a monumental $6 million grant from the late Bernie Marcus and The Marcus Foundation to broaden its services, enhance educational programs, and expand community wellness initiatives, ultimately aiming to create a national model that demonstrates the effectiveness of comprehensive integrative health as the optimal approach for achieving overall well-being for everyone. This latest grant to FAU from The Marcus Foundation, which was made prior to the passing of Marcus in early November, brings its total contributions for advancing integrative health to more than $10 million, ...

Researchers led by Uljana Kravčenko and her colleagues in the lab of Professor Misha Kudryashev, Group Leader of the In Situ Structural Biology lab at the Max Delbrück Center, have revealed new features of the molecular architecture of synaptic vesicles. Using cryo-electron tomography, the team was able to visualize SVs in 3D and confirm a potentially important protein-protein interaction. They also broadened our understanding of SV function and of how the vesicles are recycled. The study was published in the Proceedings ...

From the RMS Titanic to the SS Endurance, shipwrecks offer valuable — yet swiftly deteriorating — windows into the past. Conservators slowly dry marine wooden artifacts to preserve them but doing so can inflict damage. To better care for delicate marine artifacts, researchers in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering developed a new hydrogel that quickly neutralizes harmful acids and stabilized waterlogged wood from an 800-year-old shipwreck. Wooden artifacts from shipwrecks are drenched with seawater, an environment that enables acid-producing ...

To study the effects of misinformation on attitudes, some social science experiments expose participants to false, misleading, or dangerous information. Most Institutional Review Boards require that such studies be followed by a debriefing session, in which participants are told that the information that was presented was not true. Katherine Clayton and colleagues sought to determine whether these debriefs can “undo” the effects of exposure to misinformation. The authors first replicated existing misinformation ...

Vadim N. Gladyshev and 80 colleagues surveyed the participants of the 2022 Systems Aging Gordon Research Conference to explore how researchers of aging perceive their subject of study. The authors found wide disagreement on fundamental questions, including “what is aging?” and “what causes aging?”. The collected responses indicated that some of the 103 professors, postdocs, graduate students, industry professionals, and other experts in the survey saw aging as a demographic increase in mortality rate, while other respondents saw aging as a loss of function over time, while still other respondents saw aging as the accumulation of damage ...

New research builds on scientific understanding of how air pollution and cancer risk are distributed throughout the U.S. Air pollution, often resulting from industrial or vehicle emissions, can travel for hundreds of miles and impact the health of communities through higher rates of asthma, respiratory infections, stroke, and lung cancer. Although previous studies have identified disparities in how public health risks vary by income and race, a new study takes a detailed look across U.S. census tracts to find patterns in who is most at risk from cancer resulting from lifetime exposure to air pollution and how ...

An experimental study in mice shows that SARS-CoV-2 infection can damage the retinas, with long-term implications for vision. Post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection include various neurocognitive symptoms, suggesting the virus can affect the central nervous system. The eyes are also part of the central nervous system, but little is known about the virus’s effects on these organs. David Williams and Nan Hultgren led a study in which transgenic mice that express human SARS-CoV-2 receptor ACE2 were infected with ...

Inspired by the diverse attachment organs of parasites, researchers have designed a millimeter-scale mechanism for soft tissue anchoring. Robert J. Wood and colleagues turned to the world of parasites as inspiration for developing methods to affix small-scale medical devices to the gastrointestinal tract or other soft tissues for sensing, sample collection, and extended drug release. While evolution has produced a wide range of different biomechanical structures that can attach to soft tissues, the authors ...

3 December 2024 – EMBO announces the selection of 27 life scientists as the newest members of the EMBO Young Investigator Programme. The programme supports young group leaders in Europe and beyond. The new young investigators will start in January, be active members of the programme for four years, and become part of an international network of nearly 800 current and former EMBO Young Investigators, Installation Grantees and Global Investigators. They carry out research across a wide range of life sciences topics from cell and computational biology to immunology and neuroscience. "EMBO welcomes ...

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a leading cause of chronic liver diseases, that spreads among individuals through blood or body fluids. According to the World Health Organization, globally 1.2 million new HBV infections are reported every year. Caused by the HBV, these infections are limited to a few species, including humans and chimpanzees. Despite their close evolutionary relationship with these animals, old-world monkeys are not susceptible to HBV infections. In a new study published in Nature Communications on October 25, 2024, scientists including Dr. Kaho Shionoya from the Tokyo University of Science, Dr. Jae-Hyun Park, Dr. Toru Ekimoto, Dr. Mitsunori Ikeguchi, and Dr. Sam-Yong ...

PULLMAN, Wash. -- The first-known direct observations of the movement of microfiber plastics through a thin layer of soil-like particles show that they tend to tumble, roll and sometimes get stuck in spaces.  The findings, reported in the journal, Water Resources Research, mean that the fibers could get easily trapped in sediment. The work helps to improve understanding of the exposure risks and possible health impacts of the pervasive pieces of plastic, which are the largest pollutant in the world by mass. “The ...

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem proudly congratulates two of its esteemed researchers for receiving prestigious European Research Council (ERC) grants. These grants, each valued at approximately 2 million euros, are awarded to researchers leading innovative projects and join a long tradition of Hebrew University scholars who have been recognized with this honor in previous years. The recipients from Hebrew University are: Prof. Dina Schneidman, The Rachel and Selim Benin School of Computer Science and Engineering, for her research titled "Deep Learning for Structure-Based Discovery of Adaptive Immune Receptors." Prof. Schneidman’s research ...

In the future, we could fuel the world with sunlight and water – using sunlight to derive hydrogen fuel from H2O. Currently, most hydrogen that’s used as feedstock and fuel is derived from natural gas, and therefore doesn’t help us cut out fossil fuels. But Japanese scientists are leading the way towards a future powered by hydrogen, with new, easily-manufactured photocatalytic sheets and a proof-of-concept panel reactor which shows that it is possible to refine hydrogen fuel from water at scale.  “Sunlight-driven water splitting using photocatalysts is an ideal technology for solar-to-chemical ...

CHICAGO – Skeletal muscle loss is a risk factor for developing dementia, according to a study being presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). Skeletal muscles make up about one-third of a person’s total body mass. They are connected to the bones and allow for a wide range of movements. As people grow older, they begin to lose skeletal muscle mass. Because age-related skeletal muscle loss is often seen in older adults with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) dementia, this study aimed to examine whether temporalis muscle ...

CHICAGO – A minimally invasive procedure provides significant relief from knee pain and may prevent the need for knee replacement surgery in people with osteoarthritis, according to a study being presented this week at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). “This study addresses osteoarthritis, which is a significant public health issue and the leading cause of chronic pain and disability worldwide,” said the study’s lead author, Florian Nima Fleckenstein, M.D., interventional radiologist at Charité – University Hospital Berlin in Germany. “With millions of people affected by knee ...

A group of scientists, including researchers from Rutgers University-New Brunswick, Princeton University and Carleton University, has questioned the accuracy and utility of the metaphor “tipping point” in calling attention to the threat of climate change. The phrase, while perhaps initially useful as a clarion call that warns about sudden, drastic changes, may now be confusing the public and impeding action, researchers said. Writing a perspective in Nature Climate Change, the scientists, from the Rutgers Climate and Energy Institute, Princeton’s Center ...

Plant species can fulfil different functions within an ecosystem, even if they are closely related to each other. This surprising conclusion was reached by a global analysis of around 1.7 million datasets on plant communities. The study was led by Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) and the University of Bologna. Their findings overturn previous assumptions in ecology. The study was published in "Nature Ecology & Evolution" and offers insights for nature conservation. When ...

Specially packaged DNA secreted by tumor cells can trigger an immune response that inhibits the metastatic spread of the tumor to the liver, according to a study led by researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Korea’s Yonsei University. The discovery improves the scientific understanding of cancer progression and anticancer immunity, and could yield new clinical tools for assessing and reducing metastasis risk. In the study, reported Dec. 3 in Nature Cancer, the researchers examined cancer cells’ secretion of short stretches of DNA packaged on tiny capsules called extracellular ...

The first summer on record that melts practically all of the Arctic’s sea ice, an ominous milestone for the planet, could occur as early as 2027. For the first time, an international research team, including University of Colorado Boulder climatologist Alexandra Jahn and Céline Heuzé from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, used computer models to predict when the first ice-free day could occur in the northernmost ocean. An ice-free Arctic could significantly impact the ecosystem and Earth’s climate by changing weather patterns.    “The first ice-free day in the Arctic won’t change things dramatically,” ...

Lion numbers in the country are at a critical low while hyenas are faring well across four major protected areas in Uganda, according to new survey findings co-led by Griffith University, Southern University of Science and Technology (China) and Northern Arizona University.  Researchers unveiled the first comprehensive population estimate of Uganda’s lions, leopards, and spotted hyenas in nearly two decades.   Conducted across six major protected areas – including the 4000 km2 Murchison Falls and the 2400 km2 Queen Elizabeth Conservation Area – this innovative study was a collaborative ...

Leuven, 3 December 2024 – Alzheimer’s disease is a debilitating condition that slowly robs people of their memory and cognitive abilities, affecting millions of people worldwide. Familial Alzheimer’s disease (FAD), a rare inherited form of the disease, is linked to mutations in several genes, including APP, PSEN1, and PSEN2. The impact of PSEN2 mutations has remained less understood—until now. A research team led by Prof. Wim Annaert at VIB-KU Leuven has shed light on how mutated PSEN2 accelerates disease ...

A 10-minute brain scan can predict the effectiveness of a risky spinal surgery to alleviate intractable pain. The Kobe University result gives doctors a much-needed biomarker to discuss with patients considering spinal cord stimulation. For patients with chronic pain that cannot be cured in any other way, a surgical procedure called “spinal cord stimulation” is seen as a method of last resort. The treatment works by implanting leads into the spine of patients and electrically stimulating the spinal cord. Because the spinal cord transmits sensations to the brain from all over the body, the position ...

The risk of developing dementia later in life is strongly predicted by a person’s cognitive ability, functional limitations and physical health as many as 20 years before onset of the illness, according to a new RAND report.   Related new research found that early detection of cognitive impairment helps people to take mitigating actions to prepare for future loss of financial and physical independence.    While older adults’ take-up of cognitive testing currently is low, additional research found that use of cognitive tests would increase if it was free and readily accessible, ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Some say the holidays are the most wonderful time of the year. But for others, the hectic holiday season may be the most stressful.  A new national survey of 1,000 Americans commissioned by The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and College of Medicine shows that 46% of Americans say they don’t get the alone time they need during the holidays. In addition, 56% of survey respondents say that it’s very important to their mental health to have adequate alone time. Sophie Lazarus, PhD, a clinical psychologist in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health at Ohio State, says in ...

How did human brains get so big? The answer could be in our gut Microbes supporting the production of more metabolic energy could be key to the evolution of large brains First study to show gut microbes from different animal species shape variations in their biology Offers new take on human evolution, particularly the evolution of our large brains Mice with large-brain primate microbes eat more, but grew slower and put on less body fat  Their bodies use the excess energy to produce high levels of glucose, which is the brain’s primary ...