Media Contact: laura.kurtzman@ucsf.edu, (415) 502-6397 Subscribe to UCSF News After a spinal cord injury, nearby cells quickly rush to action, forming protective scar tissue around the damaged area to stabilize and protect it. But over time, too much scarring can prevent nerves from regenerating, impeding the healing process and leading to permanent nerve damage, loss of sensation or paralysis.  Now, UC San Francisco researchers have discovered how a rarely studied cell type controls the formation of scar tissue in spinal cord injuries. Activating ...

Scientists have pinpointed thousands of genetic changes in a gene that may increase a person’s risk of developing breast and ovarian cancer, paving the way for better risk assessment and more personalised care.  Researchers from the Wellcome Sanger Institute and their collaborators focused on the ‘cancer protection’ gene RAD51C, finding over 3,000 harmful genetic changes that could potentially disrupt its function and increase ovarian cancer risk six-fold and risk of aggressive subtypes of breast ...

Metal exposure from environmental pollution is associated with increased calcium buildup in the coronary arteries at a level comparable to traditional risk factors like smoking and diabetes, according to a study published today in JACC, the flagship journal of the American College of Cardiology. The findings support that metals in the body are associated with the progression of plaque buildup in the arteries and potentially provide a new strategy for managing and preventing atherosclerosis. "Our findings highlight the importance ...

New therapeutic opportunities often emerge from research on simple organisms. For instance, the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry awarded to Emmanuelle Charpentier, Ph.D., and Jennifer Doudna, Ph.D., for their CRISPR-based DNA editing discovery began with studies using bacteria just a decade prior. Today, CRISPR therapies are approved for several disorders, and more such treatments are in the offing. Recognizing the translational potential of studies in simpler animal models, a team of scientists led by Randy D. Blakely, ...

LOS ANGELES — Keck Hospital of USC has been named a top performer in the 2024 Bernard A. Birnbaum, MD, Quality Leadership award by Vizient, Inc., a leading health care performance improvement company. The top performer designation acknowledges the hospital’s excellence in delivering high-quality care as measured by the annual Vizient Quality and Accountability Study. Keck Hospital was among 14 top performers out of 115 comprehensive academic medical centers nationally and achieved a five-star ...

Note: Embargoed until 8:00 a.m. ET on Sept. 18, 2024 From the early telescopes made hundreds of years ago by Galileo to the sophisticated astronomical observatories of today, people have built increasingly innovative tools to probe and measure the cosmos. Soon, researchers at two new institutes funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and the Simons Foundation will build a new breed of astronomical tools by harnessing the uniquely powerful abilities of artificial intelligence to assist and accelerate humanity's understanding of the universe. The new National Artificial Intelligence ...

Low serum sodium concentrations in blood are called hyponatremia, a prevalent clinical electrolyte disorder. In contrast to acute hyponatremia, chronic hyponatremia has been previously considered asymptomatic because the brain can successfully adapt to hyponatremia. If not treated, chronic hyponatremia can lead to complications such as fractures, falls, memory impairment, and other mental issues. Treating the chronic condition is, however, quite tricky as it has been observed that overly rapid correction of hyponatremia ...

EMBARGOED by Alzheimer’s & Dementia until 7 a.m., ET, Sept. 18, 2024 Contact: Gina DiGravio, Boston University, 617-358-7838, ginad@bu.edu Contact: Andrea Zeek, IU School of Medicine, 317-671-3114, anzeek@iu.edu    (Boston)— The failure to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia in the elderly, at an early stage of molecular pathology is considered a major reason why treatments fail in clinical trials. Previous research to molecularly diagnose Alzheimer’s disease yielded "A/T/N" central biomarkers based on the measurements of proteins, β-amyloid (“A”) and tau (“T”), ...

About The Study: In this study, a higher burden of comorbidity was associated with worse clinical outcomes in people with multiple sclerosis (MS), although comorbidity could potentially be a partial mediator of other negative prognostic factors. The findings suggest a substantial adverse association of the comorbidities investigated with MS disease activity and that prevention and management of comorbidities should be a pressing concern in clinical practice.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Amber Salter, PhD, email amber.salter@utsouthwestern.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this ...

London, United Kingdom, 18 September 2024 – UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), the UK’s largest public funder of research, has confirmed funding for a new phase of the DARE UK (Data and Analytics Research Environments UK) programme with up to £18.2 million made available over 2.5 years. Starting this month, Phase 2 of the DARE UK programme will bring together Trusted Research Environments (TREs) across the UK to test and build new capabilities for a connected national network of secure data ...

The type 1 ryanodine receptor (RyR1) is an important calcium release channel in skeletal muscles essential for muscle contraction. It mediates calcium release from the sarcoplasmic reticulum, a calcium-storing organelle in muscle cells, a process vital for muscle function. Mutations in the RyR1 gene can affect the channel's function in extremely contrasting ways leading to severe muscle diseases such as malignant hyperthermia (MH) and central core disease (CCD). MH is an inherited disease that causes high fever and muscle contractures in response to inhalational anesthetics in patients with gain-of-function RyR1 variants. CCD is one ...

Millions of birds migrate every year to escape winter, but spending time in a warmer climate does not save them energy, according to research by the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior (MPI-AB). Using miniaturized loggers implanted in wild blackbirds, scientists recorded detailed measurements of heart rate and body temperature from birds every 30 minutes from fall to the following spring—the first time the physiology of free flying birds has been quantified continuously at this scale over the entire wintering period. The data offer unprecedented insights into the true energetic costs of migrant and resident strategies and reveal a previously unknown mechanism used by migrants to ...

Amyloid-beta and tau proteins have long been associated with Alzheimer’s disease. The pathological buildup of these proteins leads to cognitive decline in people with the disease. How it does that, though, remains poorly understood.   A new study from the labs of Sylvain Baillet at The Neuro and Sylvia Villeneuve at the Douglas Research Centre provides important insight into how these proteins impact brain activity and possibly contribute to cognitive decline.   The team led by Jonathan Gallego Rudolf, a Ph.D. candidate in Baillet and Villeneuve’s ...

UPTON, N.Y. — Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory have shown that a type of qubit whose architecture is more amenable to mass production can perform comparably to qubits currently dominating the field. With a series of mathematical analyses, the scientists have provided a roadmap for simpler qubit fabrication that enables robust and reliable manufacturing of these quantum computer building blocks. This research was conducted as part of the Co-design Center for ...

New archaeological research by the University of Sydney has discovered for the first time clear links between fossils of the iconic Australian dingo, and dogs from East Asia and New Guinea.  The remarkable findings suggest that the dingo came from East Asia via Melanesia, and challenges previous claims that it derived from pariah dogs of India or Thailand.   Previous studies used traditional morphometric analysis – which looks at the size and shape of the animal using callipers – ...

The National Multiple Sclerosis Society (USA) has awarded a grant of 1 million dollars to Dr. Isabel Pérez-Otaño, who leads the Plasticity and Remodeling of Neural Circuits laboratory at the Institute for Neurosciences (IN), a joint center of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and the Miguel Hernández University (UMH) of Elche. The grant is part of the NMSS 'Pathways to Cure' program that funds innovative therapeutic approaches to treat multiple sclerosis (MS). The team will work on identifying mechanisms that mediate a special kind of brain plasticity, known as myelin plasticity. The goal is to find ways to stimulate  myelin plasticity ...

[Strasbourg, 18th September 2024] A new online tool designed to assess the equity of scholarly communication models is launched today at the OASPA 2024 conference. The “How Equitable Is It” tool, developed by a multi-stakeholder Working Group, comprising librarians, library consortia representatives, funders and publishers, and convened by cOAlition S, Jisc and PLOS, aims to provide a framework for evaluating scholarly communication models and arrangements on the axis of equity. The tool, which was inspired by the “How Open Is It?” framework, is targeted at institutions, library consortia, ...

Preschool teachers have different views on finger counting. Some teachers consider finger counting use in children to signal that they are struggling with math, while others associate its use as advanced numerical knowledge. In a new Child Development study, researchers at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland and Lea.fr, Editions Nathan in Paris, France, explored whether a finger counting strategy can help kindergarten-aged children solve arithmetic problems.  Adults rarely use their fingers to calculate a small sum (e.g., 3+2) as such behaviors could be attributed to pathological difficulties in mathematics or cognitive impairments. However, young children between ...

Researchers led by Hiroshi Ohno at the RIKEN Center for Integrative medical sciences (IMS) in Japan have discovered that food antigens like milk proteins help keep tumors from growing in our guts, specifically the small intestines. Experiments revealed how these proteins trigger the intestinal immune system, allowing it to effectively stop the birth of new tumors. The study was published in the scientific journal Frontiers in Immunology on Sep. 18. Food antigens get a lot of negative press because they are the source of allergic reactions to foods such as peanuts, shellfish, bread, eggs, and ...

Researchers want to transform the natural and abundant resource wood into useful materials, and central to that is a molecular machine found in fungi that decomposes the complex raw material into its basic components. A Kobe University researcher and his team now were the first to come up with a test feed for the fungal molecular machine that allows them to observe its close-to-natural action, opening the door to improving it and to putting it to industrial application. Biochemical engineers want to transform the abundant and renewable material wood into bioplastics, medically relevant chemicals, food additives or fuel. ...

PHILADELPHIA – Today, the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) released the 14th edition of its annual Cancer Progress Report. This comprehensive report provides the latest statistics on cancer incidence, mortality, and survivorship. It also outlines how basic, translational, and clinical cancer research and cancer-related population sciences—largely supported by federal investments in the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the Centers for Disease ...

Most of the heavy metals in pig manure originate from feed additives, such as copper and zinc. When these heavy metals are introduced into agricultural soil, they can significantly increase the heavy metal content in crops, posing a threat to both the environment and human health. While pig manure is rich in nitrogen, an essential nutrient for crop growth, a substantial amount of nitrogen is lost in gaseous form during the composting process, impacting the quality of the compost. Moreover, this process results in the emission of ...

A team from Kumamoto University has uncovered a new mechanism that could revolutionize infertility care by promoting embryo implantation. The discovery focuses on prostaglandin (PG) receptors in the uterus that enhance the critical process of decidualization, which is necessary for a successful pregnancy. This finding opens the door to developing new fertility treatments that target these receptors. Prostaglandins are bioactive lipids known for their role in body’s response to injury by causing fever and pain, but they are also crucial in reproductive ...

Perceptual recognition of numerical characters, like Arabic numerals, is indispensable for our daily activities in the modern society. Studying the perceptual and neural mechanisms that endow us with the ability to understand those characters is an important scientific topic. In this project, researchers explored a bistable perceptual phenomenon of a specially designed character named occluded digital numeral, to get a deeper understanding of the mechanisms underpinning the perceptual recognition of numbers. The digital numeral is a special version of number fonts designed for application in electronic products ...

Quantum computers show advantages over classical computers in some problems, such as unordered data base searching and prime factorization. Finding more problems that can take quantum speedup has become one of the focus problems in quantum computing. Before this, there is no research work on the quantum query complexity and quantum algorithm for matroid problems. It is interesting and meaningful to search for structures that can take quantum advantage in matroid problems. In order to study the possibility and limitation of acceleration of quantum computing in matroid problems, a ...