Brown adipocytes are specialized cells that can use energy to produce heat. This property makes them attractive tools for the treatment of diseases like obesity and type 2 diabetes. Until recently, this therapeutic potential was constrained by limited understanding of how brown adipocyte tissue (BAT) develops from precursors. A team led by investigators at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, identified a set of cellular signaling cues that lead up to brown ...

Philadelphia, September 20, 2023 – Researchers from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) found that college athletes had worse post-injury outcomes related to concussions they experienced outside of sports than those they experienced while playing sports. Additionally, female athletes who sustained their injury outside of sports had more severe symptoms and more days in sports lost to injury relative to male athletes. These findings suggest the need for improved concussion recognition, reporting, and monitoring outside of sports. The study was recently published online by the Journal of Athletic Training. Concussions have the potential to ...

Philadelphia, September 20, 2023 – Zebrafish have revolutionized research into a wide variety of rare and complex genetic diseases. In early development stages, their transparent bodies allow researchers to more easily study tissues and organs. However, studying organ-level defects in adult zebrafish presents a variety of challenges that prevent researchers from studying them at a microscopic level. In a new study, researchers from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) have developed a noninvasive method for conducting magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in adult zebrafish. ...

The Gerontological Society of America (GSA) and the Journalists Network on Generations are welcoming 15 distinguished reporters for the next cohort of the Journalists in Aging Fellows Program, now in its 14th year. They represent a wide range of general audience, ethnic, and community media outlets, including local and national publications. This year’s group brings the program’s total number of participating reporters to 232. The new fellows were chosen — by a panel of gerontological and editorial professionals — based on their proposals for ...

MINNEAPOLIS – Do you want to improve your brain health? Neurologists, the experts in brain health, have a plan. The American Academy of Neurology (AAN), the world’s largest association of neurologists and neuroscience professionals with over 40,000 members, is sharing its vision to improve the nation’s brain health by 2050. The new vision is part of a new AAN position statement on brain health, published online September 20, 2023, in Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The AAN’s vision for national brain health by 2050 includes: Brain health research that leads to scientific breakthroughs Preventive neurology as a thriving ...

(Memphis, Tenn.— Sept. 20, 2023) Hyperdiploidy is a genetic condition observed in cancer cells, where the cells contain more chromosomes than usual. The condition is particularly prevalent in childhood B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL), the most common form of pediatric cancer. To bring clarity to the field, researchers at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital worked to better define this type of ALL in the context of modern therapy to more accurately predict patient outcomes and guide treatment decisions. The findings were published today in the Journal of Clinical ...

It is an all-too-common fact that potential drugs can look extremely promising in preclinical laboratory testing but fail when it comes to effectively treating humans. To better translate promising lab findings into effective new treatments, a team of researchers from the Keck School of Medicine of USC, supported by the National Institutes of Health, has developed, and tested, an innovative new system for conducting preclinical research on six potential new stroke treatments, identifying the strongest candidate for further study. “We now have a feasible preclinical research system ...

The American College of Cardiology (ACC), NCD Alliance and World Heart Federation (WHF), with support from Viatris, brought together leaders in global health and technology for a “Enhancing the Health Workforce Through Innovation,” forum yesterday in New York. The event was held in advance of the 78th session of the U.N. General Assembly discussion on the need for universal health coverage to improve global access to care and reduce the out-of-pocket burden of rising health care costs. “ACC has been committed to improving health care for all ...

“[...] we demonstrated that DPP4 inhibition increased sunitinib efficacy in DPP4-high RCC spheroids and DPP4 was upregulated in sunitinib-resistant RCC cells.”  BUFFALO, NY- September 20, 2023 – A new editorial paper was published in Oncotarget's Volume 14 on September 15, 2023, entitled, “Potential repurposing of DPP4 inhibitors for target therapy resistance in renal cell carcinoma.” In their new editorial, researchers Kuniko Horie and Satoshi Inoue from Saitama Medical University and Tokyo Metropolitan Institute for Geriatrics and Gerontology discuss renal cell carcinoma (RCC) — a major ...

“This etoposide-induced senescence model may help investigate the initiation of cellular senescence in chondrocytes [...]” BUFFALO, NY- September 20, 2023 – A new research paper was published in Aging (listed by MEDLINE/PubMed as "Aging (Albany NY)" and "Aging-US" by Web of Science) Volume 15, Issue 17, entitled, “Development of a DNA damage-induced senescence model in osteoarthritic chondrocytes.” Senescent cells (SnCs) have been described to accumulate in osteoarthritis (OA) joint tissues in response to injury, thereby participating in OA development and progression. However, clinical therapeutic approaches targeting SnCs using senolysis, ...

CORVALLIS, Ore. –  People experiencing a high degree of social vulnerability are also more exposed to wildfires in Oregon and Washington as wildfire risk increases, a new study shows. Social vulnerability is a characteristic of a person or community, such as age, race or ethnicity or socioeconomic status, that affects their susceptibility to incur harm from a hazard. From 2011 through 2021, the number of people with high social vulnerability who were exposed to wildfire in Oregon, Washington and California more than tripled compared to the previous decade. This compounding ...

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- For diabetes patients who must give themselves frequent insulin injections, the risk of low blood sugar can be life-threatening. A potential solution is a type of engineered insulin that circulates in the body and springs into action only when needed. Researchers working on this type of “glucose-responsive insulin” (GRI) hope that it could be injected less often and help the body maintain normal blood sugar levels for longer periods of time. To help in the efforts to develop this kind of insulin, MIT engineers have created a computational model that ...

BOSTON – A newly-released study by Boston Medical Center (BMC) and Boston University’s Center for Regenerative Medicine (CReM) found that the fetal lung is a potential source of hemogenic endothelial cells (HECs) that have the capacity to make blood. The findings broaden the understanding of where and how blood forms, which has the potential to enhance the treatment of blood-related diseases such as leukemia and lymphoma. Previously, no lung HECs had ever been detected. “Our findings show that hemogenic endothelium, which was previously thought to be restricted to ...

From energy production to recreational fishing, Louisiana’s coastal waters are a busy place. Having reliable data about oceanic conditions can be critical to safe operations for those who work and play in coastal waters. Up until now, Louisiana’s Gulf Coast has been hampered by a lack of high-quality information about currents, waves and other important factors. A new, LSU-led high-frequency radar project will change that. This $5 million, NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) funded project will install up to eight high-frequency radar, or HF radar, systems along the Louisiana coastline. Spearheaded by the ...

SAN ANTONIO (Sept. 20, 2023) – Capitalizing on the power of its longstanding international partnership portfolio, Texas Biomedical Research Institute (Texas Biomed) has created a new global center to foster collaborations in infectious disease research. The International Center for the Advancement of Research & Education (I·CARE) leverages the power of global exchange to solve complex health issues in an increasingly connected world. Texas Biomed currently maintains a portfolio of more than 15 international partnerships across Latin America, Africa, Asia and Europe. These partnerships are driving research in ...

72% of cetacean and pinniped stocks managed under US jurisdiction are highly or very highly vulnerable to climate change, according to a study published in PLOS ONE led by Matthew D. Lettrich at NOAA Fisheries, in Silver Spring, Maryland, United States of America. Climate change could affect the distribution, behavior, and movements of marine mammals via warming ocean temperatures, rising sea levels, decreasing dissolved oxygen, declining sea ice coverage, ocean acidification, and salinity changes. Climate vulnerability assessments (CVAs) provide a framework for evaluating climate impacts over a broad range of species. Prior to the study, no known CVAs specifically assessed US-managed ...

Caves served as sites for burial and later modification of human remains for thousands of years in the Iberian Peninsula, according to a study published September 20, 2023 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Zita Laffranchi and Marco Milella of the University of Bern, Switzerland, and Rafael Martinez Sanchez, Universidad de Córdoba, Spain, and colleagues. The use of caves as burial sites is a cultural phenomenon with a broad distribution in both space and time. In the southern Iberian Peninsula, this practice became particularly ...

Interpersonal violence was a consistent part of life in ancient hunter-gatherer communities on the Atacama Desert coast of northern Chile, according to a study published September 20, 2023 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Vivien Standen of the University of Tarapacá, Chile and colleagues. Archaeological research supports the notion that interpersonal violence and warfare have played an important role in the lives of hunter-gatherer groups over time, but many questions remain about the factors that influence such violence. The record of ...

The first comprehensive analysis of the relationship between campaign donations and the issues legislators prioritize with congressional speech is published in the open access journal PLOS ONE this week. While prior research reaches mixed conclusions on associations between political donations in the US and voting patterns of legislators, this research suggests there are substantial associations between donations and policy priorities expressed in congressional speeches, and marks language use as an interesting and viable arena for looking at the impact political donors may have on congressional behavior. Publicly traded corporations and labor unions in the US routinely raise funds ...

Job ads which use masculine rather than gender-inclusive language are perceived by women as sexist, leading them to feel ostracized, demotivated, and as though they don't belong at work ### Article URL:  https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0290709 Article Title: The impact of gender-exclusive language on women’s anticipated ostracism: A preregistered replication of Stout and Dasgupta (2011) Author Countries: USA Funding: Miami University Committee on Faculty Research, Heather M. Claypool Miami University College of Arts and Science, Heather M. Claypool. END ...

Only 1% of US kids who are obese in elementary school transition to a healthy weight within two years, although 1 in 4 overweight children progress to a healthy weight range ### Article URL:  https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0290565 Article Title: Weight trajectories and obesity remission among school-aged children Author Countries: USA Funding: Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute of Diabetes And Digestive And Kidney Diseases of the National Institutes of ...

The commonly-held belief that attempting to suppress negative thoughts is bad for our mental health could be wrong, a new study from scientists at the University of Cambridge suggests. Researchers at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit trained 120 volunteers worldwide to suppress thoughts about negative events that worried them, and found that not only did these become less vivid, but that the participants’ mental health also improved. “We’re all familiar with the Freudian idea that if we suppress our feelings or thoughts, then these thoughts remain in our unconscious, influencing our behaviour and wellbeing ...

The Amazon river basin is known for its immense and lush tropical forests, so one might assume that the Amazon’s land is equally rich. In fact, the soils underlying the forested vegetation, particularly in the hilly uplands, are surprisingly infertile. Much of the Amazon’s soil is acidic and low in nutrients, making it notoriously difficult to farm.  But over the years, archaeologists have dug up mysteriously black and fertile patches of ancient soils in hundreds of sites across the Amazon. This “dark earth” has been found in and around human settlements dating ...

HOUSTON ― The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center today broke ground on a 600,000-square-foot facility intended to anchor the institution’s expansive south campus research park. The building was purposefully built to enable collaborative science and impactful breakthrough discoveries that will accelerate efforts to end cancer. A $668 million institutional investment will support the construction of MD Anderson’s South Campus Research Building 5 (SCRB5), a 7-story building designed by Elkus Manfredi Architects with state-of-the-art research facilities and inspiring public spaces to facilitate exceptional science. ...

Researchers from Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and colleagues reported for the first time that a genetic biomarker may be able to help predict the severity of food allergy reactions. Currently there is no reliable or readily available clinical biomarker that accurately distinguishes patients with food allergies who are at risk for severe life-threatening reactions versus more mild symptoms. Findings were published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. Dr. Lang and colleagues found that the presence of an enzyme isoform called α-tryptase, ...