Picture walking outside on a dark, cloudless evening. You look up to admire the stars — maybe even a planet, if you’re lucky — and a sense of wonder washes of you. New research from the University of Washington shows this might be more than a memorable experience: It could ultimately spark scientific curiosity and influence life choices. Rodolfo Cortes Barragan, research scientist the UW Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences (I-LABS), and Andrew Meltzoff, co-director of I-LABS and professor of psychology, recently co-authored a study in Nature Scientific Reports showing a link between the ability to see the stars ...

WASHINGTON, D.C., Oct. 2, 2024 — The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) today announced $37 million in funding awards through its Health Systems Implementation Initiative (HSII). These awards will support 25 projects implementing PCORI-funded comparative clinical effectiveness research (CER) findings in participating HSII health systems.   Key Points: Twenty-five HSII participant health systems, covering more than 2,300 care sites across the country, received PCORI funding awards. HSII implementation projects will focus on one of two main areas: Improving antibiotic ...

A common mutation in the KRAS gene is associated with improved overall survival in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) compared with other variants, in part because the mutation appears to lead to less invasiveness and weaker biological activity, according to a multicenter study conducted at Weill Cornell Medicine, NewYork-Presbyterian, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and other institutions. The research, published August 29 in Cancer Cell, demonstrates that KRAS mutations, which occur in about 95 percent of people who ...

(Toronto, Canada) – A new study from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), in collaboration with leading researchers in Pakistan, has demonstrated the effectiveness of an integrated psychosocial intervention aimed at improving parenting skills and symptoms of depression. The treatment was effective for male postpartum depression (PPD) in a cohort of Pakistani fathers, improving both paternal mental health and child development outcomes. “Male mental health, and especially postpartum depression in fathers, remains a stigmatized and understudied area,” says Dr. Ishrat Husain, the study's lead investigator and senior ...

Heart failure is a rapidly growing public health issue that can be difficult to manage on a global scale. But there are tools that exist that can improve outcomes, such as guideline-directed medical therapy (GDMT). New UCLA-led research highlights the important role that these guidelines can play in reducing mortality rates for individuals suffering from heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF), a type of heart failure affecting an estimated 29 million people worldwide. “These guidelines are being significantly underutilized in clinical settings globally and there ...

Access to publicly available human single-cell gene expression datasets, or scRNA-seq datasets, has significantly enhanced researchers’ understanding of both complex biological systems and the etymology of various diseases. However, the increase in accessibility raises a greater concern about the privacy of the individuals who donated the cells and the likelihood of their private health details being shared without consent.  Previous studies on these privacy breaches have focused on bulk gene expression data sharing, where the average expression levels of genes are measured across a large population of cells from a tissue or sample rather than an individual cell. Because single-cell ...

KEY POINTS Human judgement of food images is influenced by judgements that precede it Experiment tested reactions of more than 600 people making food choices Highly relevant given widespread use of Uber Eats or phone-based menus Finding could assist treatments for eating disorders or assist with food marketing Research at the University of Sydney has revealed that we don’t judge food simply on its merits but are influenced by what we have seen beforehand, a cascading phenomenon known as ‘serial dependence’. The research, published today in the high-impact journal Current Biology, was conducted by Professors David Alais ...

A team of scientists supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH)’s The BRAIN Initiative®, including Davi Bock, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Neurological Sciences at UVM’s Robert Larner, M.D. College of Medicine, recently made a substantial advancement in neurobiological research by successfully mapping the entire brain of Drosophila melanogaster, more commonly known as the fruit fly. The study, titled “Whole-brain annotation and multi-connectome cell typing of Drosophila,” recently published ...

Boston, MA – A new thought piece led by the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute with collaborators from Duke University and Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute highlights the challenges facing healthcare researchers and decision makers in the quest to improve population health in a constantly evolving healthcare landscape. The authors offer strategies to enhance the effectiveness of pragmatic clinical trials and increase their impact on real-world healthcare settings. The Viewpoint appears October 2 in JAMA. Pragmatic clinical trials, designed to inform health ...

Inside every cell, inside every nucleus, your continued existence depends on an incredibly complicated dance. Proteins are constantly wrapping and unwrapping DNA, and even minor missteps can lead to cancer.   A new study from the University of Chicago reveals a previously unknown part of this dance—one with significant implications for human health.   In the study, published Oct. 2 in Nature, a team of scientists led by UChicago Prof. Chuan He, in collaboration with University of Texas Health Science Center at ...

Researchers at NYU Langone Health were awarded $1.6 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to investigate changes in the eye that may indicate early signs of Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. The award, OT2OD038130, recognizes the eye as a part of the brain and its role as a window into cognitive and visual health. After the initial $1.6 million award, the grant may renew an additional two years, for a total of $4.8 million as part of the NIH Common Fund Venture Program’s new Oculomics Initiative. Oculomics is a relatively new term to describe the integrative use of technology and ...

Groundbreaking Discoveries in Gamma-Ray Emissions from Thunderstorms In the recent edition of Nature, groundbreaking results about the gamma-ray emissions produced during thunderstorms are presented. Overall, these findings reveal that gamma-ray emission from thunderclouds is much more complex, diverse, and dynamic than previously thought. Understanding these phenomena is crucial to uncovering the secrets of lightning. Flickering Gamma-Ray Flashes: A New Discovery Entitled “Flickering Gamma-Ray Flashes, the Missing Link between Gamma Glows and TGFs,” the paper by Østgaard et al. [2024] reports unique observations of a new phenomenon called Flickering Gamma-Ray ...

A new paper, “Differences in misinformation sharing can lead to politically asymmetric sanctions,” published today in Nature suggests that the higher quantity of social media policy enforcement (such as account suspensions) for conservative users could be explained by the higher quantity of misinformation shared by those conservative users — and so does not constitute evidence of inherent biases in the policies from social media companies or in the definition of what constitutes misinformation.  Written by ...

Endosymbiosis is a fascinating biological phenomenon in which an organism lives inside another. Such an unusual relationship is often beneficial for both parties. Even in our bodies, we find remnants of such cohabitation: mitochondria, the powerhouses of our cells, evolved from an ancient endosymbiosis. Long ago, bacteria entered other cells and stayed. This coexistence laid the foundation for mitochondria and thus the cells of plants, animals, and fungi. What is still poorly understood, however, is how an endosymbiosis as a lifestyle actually arises. A bacterium that more or less accidentally ...

BUFFALO, N.Y. — A small University at Buffalo clinical trial has found that at low doses, lithium aspartate is ineffective in treating the fatigue and brain fog that is often a persistent feature of long COVID; however, a supplemental dose-finding study found some evidence that higher doses may be effective. Published in JAMA Network Open on Oct. 2, the study was led by Thomas J. Guttuso, Jr., MD, professor of neurology in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at UB and a physician with UBMD Neurology. “It’s a negative study with a positive twist,” Guttuso concludes. Because ...

Providing care for a family member with a disabling illness can be a demanding job that leaves many people unable to sleep, but an online insomnia treatment developed at the University of Virginia School of Medicine can help, new research shows. Not only did the SHUTi (Sleep Healthy Using the Internet) sleep intervention help caregivers get better rest, it most benefited those shouldering the greatest responsibilities in caring for their loved ones, the researchers found.  The results suggest the online format of the program ...

Attivare licenses Wyss Institute’s immune-modulating biomaterial technology to advance immunotherapies The company is developing the biomaterial-based technology to develop novel therapies able to program anti-cancer immunity and prevent infectious diseases By Benjamin Boettner (BOSTON) — Today, the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University and Attivare Therapeutics Inc. announced that Attivare has licensed a portfolio of immune-modulating biomaterial technologies from Harvard University that was created at the ...

The American College of Medical Informatics (ACMI) has announced that Chris Harle, PhD, of the Indiana University Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health and the Regenstrief Institute will be inducted as one of 25 new fellows on November 10 in San Francisco, CA, at ceremonies during the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) 2024 Annual Symposium. ACMI is a college of elected fellows who have made significant and sustained contributions to the field of biomedical informatics. Individuals who have achieved national recognition in the field and are committed to advancing ...

October 2, 2024, TORONTO – The Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR) continues to support Ontario drug discovery research by funding high-quality investigations of new therapies for some of the most prevalent pediatric and adult cancers. These projects are tackling substantial challenges in cancer by increasing the effectiveness and availability of immunotherapies, making cancer more vulnerable to chemotherapy and developing a new drug for one of the deadliest forms of childhood brain cancer. OICR’s Cancer Therapeutics Innovation Pipeline (CTIP) initiative is supporting three research teams ...

PHILADELPHIA – Driven by political partisanship, public trust in the U.S. Supreme Court has continued a downward slide since the court’s 2022 Dobbs decision overturning the Roe v. Wade ruling that established a constitutional right to abortion, according to a new survey by the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) of the University of Pennsylvania. More than half of Americans (56%) now disapprove of the Supreme Court, saying they trust it either “a little” or “not at all” to act in the best interest ...

Rice University is part of a multiuniversity research team that has secured an award of up to $34.9 million from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) to accelerate the development of a bioelectronic implant designed to improve adherence for obesity and type 2 diabetes (T2D) treatment while reducing development and manufacturing costs. Rice University’s Biotech Launch Pad will lead the commercialization effort for “Rx On-site Generation Using Electronics” (ROGUE), a self-contained, durable implantable device that houses cells engineered ...

PITTSBURGH – A Carnegie Mellon University-led team has secured an award of up to $42 million from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) to accelerate the development of implantable, cell-based bioelectronic devices that deliver patient-specific therapy and monitor disease status, for conditions like hypo- and hyperthyroidism, in real time. This award is part of the ARPA-H REACT program, which supports the advancement of implantable bioelectronic devices to improve patient management of chronic diseases. Burak ...

CLEVELAND—Researchers at Case Western Reserve University and Vanderbilt University are pioneering a new approach to prostate cancer surgery by combining advanced robotics and “low-field” MRI technology. The research aims to allow highly accurate, patient-tailored prostate cancer surgeries without the need for traditional incisions. This innovative research marks a major step in developing minimally invasive treatments for prostate cancer, with the potential to improve both safety and efficiency for patients. The project is being funded by a new five-year, $3.7 million grant from the National Cancer Institute, part of the ...

PITTSBURGH – A Carnegie Mellon University-led team of researchers has secured an award of up to $34.9 million from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H). The funds will fast track a bioelectronic implant that could radically improve treatment options and significantly reduce the cost of care for patients with obesity and Type 2 diabetes. The award will drive the accelerated development and testing of “Rx On-site Generation Using Electronics (ROGUE),” a bioelectrical device that hosts a “living pharmacy,” consisting of engineered cells that produce biological therapy to treat Type 2 diabetes and obesity. The device will offer continuous, ...

People with diabetes take insulin to lower high blood sugar. However, if glucose levels plunge too low — from taking too much insulin or not eating enough sugar — people can experience hypoglycemia, which can lead to dizziness, cognitive impairment, seizures or comas. To prevent and treat this condition, researchers in ACS Central Science report encapsulating the hormone glucagon. In mouse trials, the nanocapsules activated when blood sugar levels dropped dangerously low and quickly restored glucose levels. Glucagon is a hormone that signals the liver to ...