A new study led by University of Cincinnati researchers sheds new light on the role of a signaling pathway in the brain to maintain health and prevent inflammation and cognitive deficits. UC’s Agnes (Yu) Luo, PhD, is corresponding author on the research, published June 21 in the journal Nature Communications, and focused on a signaling pathway called TGF-β that plays a number of roles depending on where it is located in the body.  Luo explained that signaling pathways in the body control different cell functions and require two components: a type of molecule called a ligand and a receptor that the ligand binds to and ...

DETROIT -- Early memory loss has been linked to wealth loss, but research has mostly focused on investments. Four years ago, clinical geropsychologist Peter Lichtenberg, Ph.D., wondered what clues might be found in an older person’s financial decisions to indicate their vulnerability to financial victimization. Lichtenberg is director of the Institute of Gerontology at Wayne State University and a national expert in the financial exploitation of older adults. The results of his curiosity have now been published as “The WALLET Study: Financial ...

Though exposure to “trace” (an extremely small amount) elements has been shown to affect ovarian functions in experimental studies, there has been little research on the impact of trace levels of non-essential elements, such as lead (Pb) and mercury (Hg), on female reproduction. Studies have shown that high levels of these non-essential elements may lead to decreased female fertility and reduce the likelihood of getting pregnant. Taken together, this evidence raises concern about the potential negative impact of exposure ...

Asthma patients experience respiratory distress due to allergens like house dust mites or pollen. However, the various triggers for asthma share a common pathway involving the release of proteins called type-2 cytokines by Type-2 helper T (Th2) cells and group-2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2s). Both Th2 and ILC2 require high amounts of GATA-binding protein 3 (GATA3) for their maturation. Specific gene sequences called enhancers are responsible for elevating the expression of GATA3 genes in humans. Studies have found that by controlling the production of GATA3, enhancers influence the development of Th2 and ILC2. The gene region G900, located close to ...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Imagine zooming in on a dried drop of salt solution — each pattern a unique masterpiece, reminiscent of abstract art, yet no larger than the size of a penny. New research by scientists in the Florida State University Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry uses the patterns formed by a dried salt solution to train a machine learning algorithm that can identify the chemical composition of different salts. The work will be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “We are taking chemical fingerprints ...

Nearly all the neural networks that power modern artificial intelligence tools such as ChatGPT are based on a 1960s-era computational model of a living neuron. A new model developed at the Flatiron Institute’s Center for Computational Neuroscience (CCN) suggests that this decades-old approximation doesn’t capture all the computational abilities that real neurons possess and that this older model is potentially holding back AI development. The new model developed at CCN posits that individual neurons exert more control over their surroundings than previously thought. The updated neuron model could ultimately lead to more powerful artificial neural ...

Proteins are the building blocks of life, involved in virtually every biological process. Understanding how proteins interact with each other is crucial for deciphering the complexities of cellular functions, and has significant implications for drug development and the treatment of diseases. However, predicting which proteins bind together has been a challenging aspect of computational biology, primarily due to the vast diversity and complexity of protein structures. But a new study from the group of Anne-Florence Bitbol at EPFL might now change all that. The team of scientists, ...

The world of artificial intelligence (AI) has recently seen significant advancements in generative models, a type of machine-learning algorithms that “learn” patterns from set of data in order to generate new, similar sets of data. Generative models are often used for things like drawing images and natural language generation – a famous example are the models used to develop chatGPT. Generative models have had remarkable success in various applications, from image and video generation to composing music and to language modeling. The problem ...

We’ve all seen the surreal footage in nature documentaries showing hydrothermal vents on the frigid ocean floor—bellowing black plumes of super-hot water—and the life forms that cling to them. Now, a new study by UC Santa Cruz researchers suggests that lower-temperature vents, which are common across Earth's seafloor, may help to create life-supporting conditions on "ocean worlds" in our solar system. Ocean worlds are planets and moons that have—or had in the past—a liquid ocean, often under an icy shell or within their rocky interior. In Earth's solar system, several of Jupiter's and Saturn's moons are ocean worlds, and ...

Media Contact: John Dudley (814) 490-3290 (cell) jjdudley@usf.edu TAMPA, Fla. (June 24, 2024) – Mindfulness – focusing on the present moment – can improve sleep, reduce stress and improve overall health. A new University of South Florida-led study helps explain why. Researchers studied 144 nurses over two weeks to see how well they could stay focused on the present and how often they fixated on negative thoughts. The nurses completed surveys three times a day and reported their sleep quality the following morning. The findings shed light on how mindfulness relates to emotion ...

The first issue of JACC, the flagship journal of the American College of Cardiology, under new Editor-in-Chief Harlan M. Krumholz, MD, SM, FACC, publishes today, ushering in a new era of one of the world’s leading scholarly journals. “I envision JACC, with all its strengths, as a transformative platform for building community, elevating strong science, influencing clinical practice, supporting career development, and improving patient outcomes.” Krumholz said in his Editor’s Page. “JACC and its group of journals can play a pivotal role in serving our community and shaping the future.” Under his editorship, JACC will be guided by ...

Using an instrument on the 4.1-meter Southern Astrophysical Research Telescope, researchers obtained the first astronomical spectrum using skipper charge-coupled devices (CCDs). The results were presented on June 16 at the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation meeting in Japan by Edgar Marrufo Villalpando, a physics PhD candidate at the University of Chicago and a Fermilab DOE Graduate Instrumentation Research Award Fellow. “This is a major milestone for skipper-CCD technology,” said Alex Drlica-Wagner, a cosmologist at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermi ...

Researchers at the University of Toronto have harnessed a bacterial immune defense system, known as CRISPR, to efficiently and precisely control the process of RNA splicing. The technology opens the door to new applications, including systematically interrogating the functions of parts of genes and correcting splicing deficiencies that underlie numerous diseases and disorders. “Almost all human genes produce RNA transcripts that undergo the process of splicing, whereby coding segments, called exons, are joined together and non-coding segments, called introns, are removed and typically degraded,” said Jack Daiyang Li, first author on the study and PhD student ...

Oak Brook, IL – The Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening (SLAS) will launch NexusXp, its new interactive pavilion at SLAS2025 to showcase collaborative and integrated lab automation scenarios. NexusXp combines Nexus, the Latin word for link or connection where multiple elements meet, with the modern “Xp” to signify the “Xperience” of making that critical link or connection. Through this new pavilion, SLAS will demonstrate how automation integration transforms research and enables scientific breakthroughs. “NexusXp is an exclusive event or attendee ...

AMES, Iowa – A Google Cloud video takes you inside a company data center in southwest Iowa’s Council Bluffs.   There you are, in the middle of a long, industrial corridor. You slowly move past rack after rack after rack of the computer servers that are, Google says, “helping to keep the internet humming 24/7.”   Part of that hum is the power that keeps those data centers up and running.   “Think about when you use your computer,” said Matthew ...

LAWRENCE — Many people are familiar with oncogenes — genes long known to be involved in cancers in humans, such as the gene “Src.”  What’s less widely understood is that oncogenes didn’t evolve just to cause cancer in species, but rather to control events of normal growth and differentiation. “As an organism grows from a single fertilized egg to form all the different tissue types, these oncogenes, including Src, evolved to control these normal events,” said Erik Lundquist, professor of molecular ...

“Gold nanostars amplify brain-tumor selective laser interstitial thermal therapy.” BUFFALO, NY- June 24, 2024 – A new editorial paper was published in Oncotarget's Volume 15 on June 14, 2024, entitled, “Leveraging gold nanostars for precision laser interstitial thermal therapy.” In this new editorial, researchers Aden P. Haskell-Mendoza, Ethan S. Srinivasan, Tuan Vo-Dinh and Peter E. Fecci from Duke University discuss laser interstitial thermal therapy (LITT). Over the past decade, LITT has become an important tool for the neurosurgical treatment of a variety of intracranial pathologies, including focal epilepsies, vascular malformations, and ...

A new peer-reviewed study from researchers at The University of Texas at Arlington; the University of Nevada, Reno; Mokwon University in Daejeon, Korea; and Texas A&M University at Corpus Christi shows the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill of 2010 affected wildlife and their habitat much more than previously understood. “Overall, we found the area of deep-sea floor affected by the DWH spill was significantly larger than previously thought,” said Masoud Rostami, an author of the study and assistant ...

ITHACA, N.Y. – Intimate partner violence is notoriously underreported and correctly diagnosed at hospitals only around a quarter of the time, but a new method provides a more realistic picture of who is most affected, even when cases go unrecorded. PURPLE (Positive Unlabeled Relative PrevaLence Estimator), an algorithm developed by researchers at Cornell University, estimates how often underreported health conditions occur in different demographic groups. Using hospital data, the researchers showed that PURPLE can better quantify which groups of women are most likely to experience intimate partner violence compared with methods that ...

The Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation has named the first cohort of the Damon Runyon Scholars Program for Advancing Research and Knowledge (SPARK), a one-year intensive cancer research internship program for post-baccalaureate students who come from varied backgrounds . The goal of the program is to provide young trainees who have the potential to become leaders in cancer research with rigorous scientific training and a network of mentors and peers to support their next steps into graduate school and beyond. SPARK Scholars will conduct ...

University of Missouri researchers have developed a way to create complex devices with multiple materials — including plastics, metals and semiconductors – all with a single machine. The research, which was recently published in Nature Communications, outlines a novel 3D printing and laser process to manufacture multi-material, multi-layered sensors, circuit boards and even textiles with electronic components. It’s called the Freeform Multi-material Assembly Process, and it promises to revolutionize ...

Type 2 diabetes in young people ages 10 to19 has more than doubled in the past 20 years, yet it remains difficult for physicians to predict who will be diagnosed and who will improve with treatment. A newly published study from the University of Oklahoma shows that measuring the circulating abundance of microRNAs – which affect insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas – is likely as effective as measuring the level of sugar in the blood for determining how a young person with the condition will fare. Jeanie Tryggestad, M.D., an associate professor of pediatrics in the OU College of Medicine, led the study, which is published in The Journal of Clinical ...

AMHERST, Mass. – Craig Martin, professor of chemistry, and Sarah Perry, associate professor of chemical engineering, both at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, recently received support from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to develop a novel approach toward efficiently, reliably and cost effectively synthesizing novel strands of specialty “long RNA.” Future genetic research into everything from basic cell biology to advanced therapeutics depends in part on having just the sort of complex, modified RNA that Martin and Perry will be working to make widely available. RNA is a molecule ...

In a new article, researchers at the University of Illinois Chicago debunk four common myths about the safety of intermittent fasting.  Intermittent fasting has become an increasingly popular way to lose weight without counting calories. And a large body of research has shown it’s safe. Still, several myths about fasting have gained traction among clinicians, journalists and the general public: that fasting can lead to a poor diet or loss of lean muscle mass, cause eating disorders, or decrease sex hormones.  In a new commentary in Nature Reviews Endocrinology, UIC researchers debunk each of these. They base their ...

Digital Science, a technology company serving stakeholders across the research ecosystem, today announces an exciting new tranche of data that throws light on how and why research cuts through to society at large – in the shape of the Altmetric 500. A decade on from the first Altmetric 100 reports, which listed the most influential academic articles in a given year, a leading provider of alternative metrics for published research is now releasing an upgraded overview of research engagement: the Altmetric ...