(1625,'Half of all women experience false positive mammograms after 10 years of annual screening','half-of-all-women-experience-false-positive-mammograms-after-10-years-of-annual-screening','2022-03-25 20:02:11.130604',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">A study led by UC Davis Health has found that half of all women will experience at least one false positive mammogram over a decade of annual breast cancer screening with digital breast tomosynthesis (3D mammography). The risk of false positive results after 10 years of screening is considerably lower in women screened every other year. A false positive is when a mammogram is flagged as abnormal, but there is no cancer in the breast.</p><p>The study was published today in <em>JAMA Network Open</em>.</p><p>It also showed that repeated breast cancer screening with 3D mammography only modestly decreases the chance of having a false positive result compared with the standard digital 2D mammography. Other factors more strongly linked to a lower false positive risk included screening every other year and having non-dense breasts. Older women were also less likely to have a false positive result.</p><p>\"The screening technology did not have the largest impact on reducing false positives,\" said Michael Bissell, epidemiologist in the UC Davis Department of Public Health Sciences and co-first author of the study. \"Findings from our study highlight the importance of patient-provider discussions around personalized health. It is important to consider a patient\'s preferences and risk factors when deciding on screening interval and modality.\"</p><p><strong>False positive mammograms are common</strong></p><p>Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related death for women in the U.S. Early detection using screening mammography is a key strategy to lower the risk of advanced breast cancer and death from this disease.</p><p>A false positive result is a positive screening mammography assessment that leads to more diagnostic work-up but no diagnosis of breast cancer. When abnormalities are found on a mammogram, the patient is recalled for additional imaging and follow-up tests. If found to be cancer-free at the end of diagnostic evaluation and for one year after her recall, the patient is considered to have received a false positive result.</p><p>\"Despite the important benefit of screening mammography in reducing breast cancer mortality, it can lead to extra imaging and biopsy procedures, financial and opportunity costs, and patient anxiety,\" said Diana Miglioretti, professor and division chief of biostatistics at the UC Davis Department of Public Health Sciences, UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center researcher and senior author of the study.</p><p>False positive results are common. While around 12% of 2D screening mammograms are recalled for more work-up, only 4.4% of those recalls, or 0.5% overall, conclude with a cancer diagnosis.</p><p>\"To detect breast cancer early, we need to be careful and investigate any potentially abnormal findings. So, women should not be worried if recalled for additional imaging or biopsy. The vast majority of these results are found to be benign,\" said Thao-Quyen Ho, radiologist at the University Medical Center in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam, research fellow at UC Davis School of Medicine and co-first author on the study.</p><p><strong>Analyzing mammograms for false positive results</strong></p><p>The researchers analyzed data collected by the Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium on 3 million screening mammograms for 903,495 women aged 40-79 years. The screenings were performed between 2005-2018 at 126 radiology facilities.</p><p>The study evaluated screening modality, screening interval, age and breast density. It estimated the cumulative risk that a woman would receive at least one false positive recall over 10 years of annual or biennial (every other year) screening. It also assessed the risks of a false positive that resulted in a recommendation to repeat imaging within six months (short interval follow-up) and separately, in a biopsy recommendation.</p><p><strong>Mammography versus tomosynthesis for breast cancer screening </strong></p><p>The study found that the probability of receiving at least one false positive recall over a 10-year period was slightly lower with 3D than 2D digital mammography. The decrease in false positives with 3D vs. 2D mammography was greatest for women with non-dense breasts and those who had annual screenings.</p><p>The researchers estimated that over 10 years of annual tomosynthesis screening, 50% of women will experience at least one false positive recall, 17% a false positive short-interval follow-up recommendation, and 11% a false positive biopsy recommendation. This is compared to 56% of women screened with 2D digital mammograms having a false positive recall, 18% a short-interval follow-up recommendation, and 12% a biopsy recommendation.</p><p>Regardless of the type of screening, false positive results were substantially lower for older than younger age groups and women with entirely fatty versus extremely dense breasts.</p><p><strong>Annual versus biennial breast cancer screening</strong></p><p>The study also estimated 10-year risks for annual vs. biennial screenings. It found that screening every other year showed a considerably lower probability of at least one false positive result than annual mammograms over ten years of screening. This finding was observed for both 3D and 2D mammography.</p><p>\"We were surprised that the newer 3D technology in breast cancer screening does not substantially reduce the risk of having a false positive result after 10 years of screening; however, chances of false positives are much lower with repeated biennial vs. annual screening,\" said Ho.</p><p>For short-interval follow-up recommendations, 17% of women undergoing annual 3D mammography are estimated to have at least one false positive over 10 years, compared to just 10% of those undergoing biennial screening. False positive benign biopsy recommendations are estimated to occur in 11% of women receiving annual 3D mammograms but in only 7% of those screened every two years.</p><p>After 10 years of annual screening, the risk of a false positive result was lower in 3D than 2D mammography for all outcomes. For biennial screening, the risk of a false positive recall was lower with 3D mammography. There was no difference in short interval follow-up or biopsy recommendations.</p><p>The other authors on this study are: Karla Kerlikowske and Jeffrey A. Tice at the University of California, San Francisco; Rebecca A. Hubbard at the University of Pennsylvania; Brian L. Sprague at the University of Vermont; Christoph I. Lee at the University of Washington and Hutchinson Institute for Cancer Outcomes Research; and Anna N. A. Tosteson at Dartmouth College and Norris Cotton Cancer Center. Miglioretti is also an affiliate investigator with UC Davis Center for Healthcare Policy and Research and Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research.</p>','2022-03-25 20:02:11.130604','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of California - Davis Health','Half of all women experience a false positive mammogram after 10 years of annual breast cancer screening with 3D mammography, a UC Davis-led study estimates. This risk was lower for women who had mammograms every other year. 3D screening showed slightly lower false positive results than standard mammography.\n',1,35,'<li>Thao-Quyen H. Ho, Michael C. S. Bissell, Karla Kerlikowske, Rebecca A. Hubbard, Brian L. Sprague, Christoph I. Lee, Jeffrey A. Tice, Anna N. A. Tosteson, Diana L. Miglioretti. <strong>Cumulative Probability of False-Positive Results After 10 Years of Screening With Digital Breast Tomosynthesis vs Digital Mammography</strong>. <em>JAMA Network Open</em>, 2022; 5 (3): e222440 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.2440\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.2440</a>\n</li>'),(1626,'Study shows how bioactive substance inhibits important receptor','study-shows-how-bioactive-substance-inhibits-important-receptor','2022-03-25 20:02:13.208699',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">The A2A receptor regulates how vigorously the innate immune system attacks diseased cells. Researchers at the University of Bonn have now been able to show for the first time how an important inhibitor binds to the receptor. In the future, the results will facilitate the targeted search for molecules that give the innate immune system more punch. These could for instance be used in the fight against cancer, but also against brain diseases such as Alzheimer\'s or Parkinson\'s disease. The final version of the study has been published in the journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition.</p><p>Anyone who enjoys reading thrillers knows: Before thieves break into a mansion, they like to toss a juicy chop over the fence, in which they have hidden a few sleeping pills. When the watchdogs get down to their second dinner, they succumb to deep slumber shortly thereafter. The jewels of the lady of the house change hands much more unperturbed after that.</p><p>Tumor cells often proceed in a very similar way: They cast out sleeping pills that paralyze the immune system. More specifically, they surround themselves with a cloud of adenosine, an important endogenous messenger. In this way, they disable the body\'s own \"killer cells,\" which would otherwise cause the cancer cells to die.</p><p>This is because the adenosine molecules bind to tiny antennae on the surface of the immune cells, the A2A receptors (the abbreviation stands for \"type 2A adenosine receptors\"). This knocks out the defensive troops, so to speak. Researchers around the globe are therefore looking for molecules that can block the A2A receptor and prevent the paralyzing effect of adenosine.</p><p><strong>Bombardment with X-rays</strong></p><p>\"Our study should make this search a lot easier,\" explains Prof. Dr. Christa Müller of the Pharmaceutical Institute of the University of Bonn. \"We have added novel variants of a known inhibitor, a substance called preladenant, to the A2A receptor. Then we created crystals from the receptor-inhibitor complexes -- it\'s the first time in the world that this has been achieved with preladenant-like substances.\"</p><p>Crystallization made it possible to elucidate the structure of the complex. \"To do this, we bombard the compound with X-rays,\" explains Tobias Claff, who performed the main part of the experiments. \"The crystal diffracts the rays. The way it does this then allows us to deduce the spatial structure of the complex -- right down to the arrangement of individual atoms and their interactions.\"</p><p>In this way, the researchers were able to show to which points of the A2A receptor preladenant binds. With this knowledge, it is now possible to specifically modify the inhibitor to give it better properties. In addition to having the strongest possible effect, drugs should for example not be broken down too quickly. They also need to be able to reach the place where they are supposed to do their work -- in this case, the brain. \"Our study will make it much easier to optimize the substance,\" Claff says with optimism.</p><p>A2A belongs to a group of receptors that regulate key functions in the body. They span the membrane of cells. The part of them that sits on the outside of the membrane serves as a sensor, receiving molecular signals like an antenna. When it does, it triggers specific reactions with its part that protrudes into the cell. This then activates certain genes, for example.</p><p><strong>Dye bound to the inhibitory molecule</strong></p><p>\"These receptors are immensely important because of their central position,\" says Christa Müller, who is also a member of the Transdisciplinary Research Areas (TRA) \"Building Blocks of Matter\" and \"Life and Health.\" \"Many of them, however, are unfortunately relatively unstable. This is unfavorable for X-ray structural analyses -- crystallization takes days, sometimes even weeks.\" The researchers therefore specifically modified the A2A receptor at a single point, making it considerably more stable.</p><p>Additionally, they succeeded in attaching a dye to the preladenant with a kind of molecular string. \"This allows us to control where in the tissue preladenant attaches to the A2A receptor,\" Müller says. At the same time, the length and flexibility of the nanostring ensures that the inhibitor is not obstructed from binding to the receptor.</p><p>Both advances could also serve as models for work with other receptors that belong to the same group. \"The methods we have developed in Bonn in recent years will allow us to elucidate the structure of such and other cell membrane proteins in the future,\" the pharmacist is convinced. \"There aren\'t many research facilities that can do this kind of structural analysis of extremely complex molecules.\"</p><p>Participating institutions and funding:</p><p>In addition to the University of Bonn, the Centre for Structural Systems Biology (CSSB) and Forschungszentrum Jülich were involved. The study was funded by the German Research Foundation and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research.</p>','2022-03-25 20:02:13.208699','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Bonn','The A2A receptor regulates how vigorously the innate immune system attacks diseased cells. Researchers have now been able to show for the first time how an important inhibitor binds to the receptor. In the future, the results will facilitate the targeted search for molecules that give the innate immune system more punch. These could for instance be used in the fight against cancer, but also against brain diseases such as Alzheimer\'s or Parkinson\'s disease.\n',1,91,'<li>Tobias Claff, Tim A. Klapschinski, Udaya K. Tiruttani Subhramanyam, Victoria J. Vaaßen, Jonathan G. Schlegel, Christin Vielmuth, Jan H. Voß, Jörg Labahn, Christa E. Müller. <strong>Single Stabilizing Point Mutation Enables High‐Resolution Co‐Crystal Structures of the Adenosine A            2A            Receptor with Preladenant Conjugates</strong>. <em>Angewandte Chemie International Edition</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/anie.202115545\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1002/anie.202115545</a>\n</li>'),(1627,'Scientists shave ‘hairs’ off nanocrystals to improve their electronic properties','scientists-shave-‘hairs’-off-nanocrystals-to-improve-their-electronic-properties','2022-03-25 20:21:46.957825',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">You can carry an entire computer in your pocket today because the technological building blocks have been getting smaller and smaller since the 1950s. But in order to create future generations of electronics -- such as more powerful phones, more efficient solar cells, or even quantum computers -- scientists will need to come up with entirely new technology at the tiniest scales.</p><p>One area of interest is nanocrystals. These tiny crystals can assemble themselves into many configurations, but scientists have had trouble figuring out how to make them talk to each other.</p><p>A new study introduces a breakthrough in making nanocrystals function together electronically. Published March 25 in <em>Science, </em>the research may open the doors to future devices with new abilities.</p><p>\"We call these super atomic building blocks, because they can grant new abilities -- for example, letting cameras see in the infrared range,\" said University of Chicago Prof. Dmitri Talapin, the corresponding author of the paper. \"But until now, it has been very difficult to both assemble them into structures <em>and </em>have them talk to each other. Now for the first time, we don\'t have to choose. This is a transformative improvement.\"</p><p>In their paper, the scientists lay out design rules which should allow for the creation of many different types of materials, said Josh Portner, a Ph.D. student in chemistry and one of the first authors of the study.</p><p><strong>A tiny problem</strong></p><p>Scientists can grow nanocrystals out of many different materials: metals, semiconductors, and magnets will each yield different properties. But the trouble was that whenever they tried to assemble these nanocrystals together into arrays, the new supercrystals would grow with long \"hairs\" around them.</p><p>These hairs made it difficult for electrons to jump from one nanocrystal to another. Electrons are the messengers of electronic communication; their ability to move easily along is a key part of any electronic device.</p><p>The researchers needed a method to reduce the hairs around each nanocrystal, so they could pack them in more tightly and reduce the gaps in between. \"When these gaps are smaller by just a factor of three, the probability for electrons to jump across is about a billion times higher,\" said Talapin, the Ernest DeWitt Burton Distinguished Service Professor of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering at UChicago and a senior scientist at Argonne National Laboratory. \"It changes very strongly with distance.\"</p><p>To shave off the hairs, they sought to understand what was going on at the atomic level. For this, they needed the aid of powerful X-rays at the Center for Nanoscale Materials at Argonne and the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, as well as powerful simulations and models of the chemistry and physics at play. All these allowed them to understand what was happening at the surface -- and find the key to harnessing their production.</p><p>Part of the process to grow supercrystals is done in solution -- that is, in liquid. It turns out that as the crystals grow, they undergo an unusual transformation in which gas, liquid and solid phases all coexist. By precisely controlling the chemistry of that stage, they could create crystals with harder, slimmer exteriors which could be packed in together much more closely. \"Understanding their phase behavior was a massive leap forward for us,\" said Portner.</p><p>The full range of applications remains unclear, but the scientists can think of multiple areas where the technique could lead. \"For example, perhaps each crystal could be a qubit in a quantum computer; coupling qubits into arrays is one of the fundamental challenges of quantum technology right now,\" said Talapin.</p><p>Portner is also interested in exploring the unusual intermediate state of matter seen during supercrystal growth: \"Triple phase coexistence like this is rare enough that it\'s intriguing to think about how to take advantage of this chemistry and build new materials.\"</p><p>The study included scientists with the University of Chicago, Technische Universität Dresden, Northwestern University, Arizona State University, SLAC, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and the University of California, Berkeley.</p><p>The research was conducted in part at the DOE\'s Advanced Materials for Energy-Water Systems Center, the Midwest Integrated Center for Computational Materials, the Center for Nanoscale Materials at Argonne, and the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.</p><p><em>Funding: U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Department of Defense, National Science Foundation, Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, David and Lucile Packard Foundation, Camille and Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Awards, Sherman Fairchild Foundation. </em></p>','2022-03-25 20:21:46.957825','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Chicago','A new study introduces a breakthrough in making nanocrystals function together electronically. The research may open the doors to future devices with new abilities.\n',1,27,'<li>Igor Coropceanu, Eric M. Janke, Joshua Portner, Danny Haubold, Trung Dac Nguyen, Avishek Das, Christian P. N. Tanner, James K. Utterback, Samuel W. Teitelbaum, ¸ Margaret H. Hudson, Nivedina A. Sarma, Alex M. Hinkle, Christopher J. Tassone, Alexander Eychmüller, David T. Limmer, Monica Olvera de la Cruz, Naomi S. Ginsberg, Dmitri V. Talapin. <strong>Self-assembly of nanocrystals into strongly electronically coupled all-inorganic supercrystals</strong>. <em>Science</em>, 2022; 375 (6587): 1422 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.abm6753\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1126/science.abm6753</a>\n</li>'),(1628,'New research shows certain exercises can help with muscular dystrophy','new-research-shows-certain-exercises-can-help-with-muscular-dystrophy','2022-03-25 20:21:52.660780',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Muscular dystrophy is a debilitating disease that causes the weakness and breakdown of skeletal muscles that progressively worsens over time. According to a team of University of Maine researchers, certain activities may help strengthen muscles affected by muscular dystrophy -- and they figured it out by stimulating zebrafish and watching them work out.</p><p>Zebrafish are an effective test model of muscular dystrophy because of the molecular similarities between zebrafish and human muscles. Zebrafish can also be bred with a mutation that closely models Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a severe type of muscular dystrophy that affects young boys.</p><p>Zebrafish can\'t lift weights, though, so UMaine researchers used a process called neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES), which stimulates specific nerves to elicit muscle contraction. The researchers designed four NMES regimens and named them after four common weight lifting routines: power, strength, hypertrophy and endurance. The zebrafish were then put into an underwater 3D printed \"gym\" made up of tunnels and electrodes, and the researchers analyzed their skeletal muscles to see how they had changed.</p><p>The study found that while each of the NMES weight lifting \"routines\" affected the zebrafish neuromuscular junction morphology, swimming and survival differently, only one -- the endurance neuromuscular stimulation (eNMES) -- improved all three, as long as it was accompanied by a certain antioxidant, heme oxygenase, and a receptor called integrin alpha7.</p><p>\"eNMES is defined by high-frequency, low-voltage pulses, which is similar to a high-repetition, low-weight workout that we would do in the gym. The longstanding consensus in the muscular dystrophy field is that minimizing resistance training preserves muscle strength and mass because it lowers the risk for muscle damage. However, our data suggest that a certain level of NMES-induced activity is actually beneficial for overall muscle health,\" says Elisabeth Kilroy, first author of the study who conducted the research for her Ph.D. at UMaine. Kilroy is now the director of the neuroMuscular ObserVational Research (MOVR) at the Muscular Dystrophy Association.</p><p>The study was published March 24, 2022, in the journal <em>ELife</em>.</p><p>The research suggests that the right type of resistance training might be beneficial to human patients with muscular dystrophy. There is also potential for NMES to improve mobility and strength in patients with muscular dystrophy, though not much is known about applying the technology this way.</p><p>\"I think the most exciting aspect is that we established a model for neuromuscular plasticity in healthy versus diseased muscle, and this model will allow us to elucidate mechanisms that could be the basis for potential therapeutics in the future,\" says Clarissa Henry, professor of biological sciences, director of Graduate School of Biomedical Science and Engineering, and principal director of the Henry Lab.</p>','2022-03-25 20:21:52.660780','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Maine','A new study using neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) in zebrafish found that certain activities may help strengthen muscles affected by Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a severe type of muscular dystrophy that affects young boys. The researchers designed four NMES regimens for zebrafish with a mutation that closely modeled the disease. They then put the fish into an underwater 3D printed \'gym\' made up of tunnels and electrodes, and analyzed their skeletal muscles to see how they had changed.\n',1,189,'<li>Elisabeth A Kilroy, Amanda C Ignacz, Kaylee L Brann, Claire E Schaffer, Devon Varney, Sarah S Alrowaished, Kodey J Silknitter, Jordan N Miner, Ahmed Almaghasilah, Tashawna L Spellen, Alexandra D Lewis, Karissa Tilbury, Benjamin L King, Joshua B Kelley, Clarissa A Henry. <strong>Beneficial impacts of neuromuscular electrical stimulation on muscle structure and function in the zebrafish model of Duchenne muscular dystrophy</strong>. <em>eLife</em>, 2022; 11 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.62760\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.7554/eLife.62760</a>\n</li>'),(1629,'Cells dancing harmonic duets could enable personalized cancer therapies','cells-dancing-harmonic-duets-could-enable-personalized-cancer-therapies','2022-03-25 20:21:58.488765',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Mechanical engineers at Duke University are using two electronic \"voices\" singing a harmonic duet to control suspended particles and cells in new and valuable ways. Their prototype device can form and rotate a single-layer crystal from a group of particles, create arbitrary shapes with a given number of particles, and move pairs of biological cells together and apart again hundreds of times.</p><p>These abilities could serve a wide variety of fields, such as materials science, soft condensed-matter physics, biophysics, life science and medicine.</p><p>For example, the researchers have shown that the device can selectively pair two individual cells and measure their adhesion forces -- a feat that doctors could use to determine treatment for individual cancer patients. Because of the dexterity and gentleness of the acoustic device, the researchers have named it the HANDS platform. (Harmonic Acoustics for Non-contact, Dynamic, Selective particle manipulation.)</p><p>The results appear online on March 24 in the journal <em>Nature Materials.</em></p><p>\"The separation of paired particles or cells has been a major target in the field of acoustic manipulation for many years,\" said Tony Jun Huang, the William Bevan Distinguished Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science at Duke. \"Our HANDS platform is the first method of separating paired objects, which provides a way into cell-cell interaction studies that are needed extensively in biophysics studies and drug discovery.\"</p><p>Acoustic tweezers are a rapidly developing field that uses various physical phenomena of sound waves to gently manipulate particles or cells suspended in liquids without touching them. Some examples pinch particles between two sound waves and adjust the waves\' phase or origination point to move them. Others create patterns by combining two static standing sound waves together to separate particles into different formations, such as a grid.</p><p>Now, researchers have added a new layer of complexity to these devices by introducing piezoelectric melodies and harmonies into the setup. Where previous devices create static standing waves, the HANDS platform prototype uses a function generator to create complex standing waves that change rapidly. One could think of it as, rather than the machines singing a single note, they\'re now hitting the rapid highs and lows of a complicated opera with two singers.</p><p>The new device works by placing sound-creating transducers on each side of a small square chamber filled with liquid. These four transducers work in step with those directly across from them, forming two pairs. One creates patterns in the chamber horizontally and the other vertically. The interaction of these two complex, quickly changing sound wave patterns creates dynamic abilities never before demonstrated within the field.</p><p>\"I simulated how these waves might combine to manipulate the particles in the chamber and then ran experiments to see actual results,\" said Shujie Yang, a postdoctoral associate in the Huang laboratory. \"It took a long time and many trials, but finally the simulations became good enough to start matching the results. And once the simulations were accurate, I could begin predicting new abilities.\"</p><p>In the paper, Yang demonstrates several novel abilities of the harmonic duet acoustic tweezers. In one experiment, he shows that the HANDS platform can flatten and pattern a 3D cluster of 24 particles into a crystalline structure. It can spin these flat formations like a plate on a fingertip.</p><p>Moving to individual particle manipulation, the paper demonstrates particles coaxed into three different formations bearing a striking resemblance to the letters O, D and K. The device then pairs together dozens of single particles like teenagers at a school dance and shows that it can pull each pair apart and put them back together again more than a thousand times.</p><p>In the final demonstration, Yang shows that the device can select a single pair of cells out of a lineup, push them together and pull them back apart. He then uses this ability to measure the adhesion forces at work between two cells touching one another.</p><p>According to the researchers, this is the most exciting ability of the HANDS platform, as it could allow detailed tests for personalized medicine.</p><p>\"I am thrilled about the capabilities of this platform, which is as gentle as a mother\'s hands,\" said Luke Lee, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, who is a co-leader of the research. \"Gentle and sensitive mother\'s hands allow us to establish the foundation of quantitative cell biology and translational precision medicine.\"</p><p>\"For example, we can systematically study T-cell interactions with cancer cells in a high-throughput manner and obtain precision cell-cell interaction forces,\" Lee said. \"This could help doctors find the most effective and specific cell therapy for patients as personalized precision medicine.\"</p><p>This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health (R01GM141055, R01GM132603, U18TR003778, UG3TR002978) and the National Science Foundation (ECCS-1807601, CMMI-2104295).</p><p><strong>Story Source:</strong></p>','2022-03-25 20:21:58.488765','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Duke University','Mechanical engineers are using two electronic \'voices\' singing a harmonic duet to control suspended particles and cells in new and valuable ways. Their prototype device can form and rotate a single-layer crystal from a group of particles, create arbitrary shapes with a given number of particles, and move pairs of biological cells together and apart again hundreds of times. These abilities could serve fields like materials science, biophysics, life science and medicine.\n',1,29,'<li>Shujie Yang, Zhenhua Tian, Zeyu Wang, Joseph Rufo, Peng Li, John Mai, Jianping Xia, Hunter Bachman, Po-Hsun Huang, Mengxi Wu, Chuyi Chen, Luke P. Lee, Tony Jun Huang. <strong>Harmonic acoustics for dynamic and selective particle manipulation</strong>. <em>Nature Materials</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41563-022-01210-8\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41563-022-01210-8</a>\n</li>'),(1630,'Citizen divers aid understanding of fish in the Salish sea','citizen-divers-aid-understanding-of-fish-in-the-salish-sea','2022-03-25 20:22:01.894964',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Hundreds of fish species live in the Salish Sea, and many face a number of threats. Monitoring the health of these fish populations is crucial. But with nearly 5,000 miles of coastline and more than 400 islands, it\'s no small task.</p><p>Historically, monitoring fish populations has included fishery catch data, active trawl surveys, underwater video, satellite imagery, hydroacoustics and more. But citizen scientists are increasingly playing crucial roles, according to a study from the University of California, Davis.</p><p>The study, published in the journal <em>Environmental Monitoring and Assessment,</em> revealed that in just over two decades, volunteers with Reef Environmental Education Foundation (REEF)\'s Volunteer Fish Survey Project helped monitor more than half of the total fish species known to occur in the Salish Sea.</p><p>The study found that the project\'s surveyors also expanded the known range of multiple species within the ecosystem and documented the presence of a fish species not previously known to occur in the Salish Sea -- the striped kelpfish (<em>Gibbonsia metzi</em>). This brings the total number of fish species known to use the Salish Sea to 261.</p><p>The research was led by SeaDoc Society, a program of the Karen C. Drayer Wildlife Health Center at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. SeaDoc has partnered with REEF for almost two decades to help train volunteer divers in the Pacific Northwest.</p><p><strong>Citizen scientists survey Salish Sea</strong></p><p>REEF is a marine conservation organization with a worldwide network of recreational divers and snorkelers who provide data to better understand status, trends, and distribution patterns of marine fishes and selected invertebrates and algae in oceans around the world. REEF citizen scientists have been surveying the Salish Sea since 1998. The region encompasses Puget Sound, the San Juan Islands and the waters off of Vancouver, British Columbia.</p><p>The study was also informed by a list of species published by fisheries biologists Theodore Pietsch and James Orr.</p><p>\"I had so much fun exploring the REEF database and published compilation of Salish Sea fishes,\" said lead author Elizabeth Ashley, a UC Davis research assistant with SeaDoc Society. \"This study highlights that the incredible biodiversity of the Salish Sea merits the use of a diverse set of tools, wielded by both professional and citizen scientists, to fully understand and protect these fishes.\"</p><p>Ashley and her co-authors compared data from 13,000 REEF surveys collected from about 800 sites in the Salish Sea over 21 years (1998-2019). Volunteers observed 138 of 261 recognized fish species in the Salish Sea and expanded the range of 18 species, meaning they were spotted in an area where they previously had not been documented to exist.</p><p>Not all fish species have an equal chance of being spotted by a scuba diver. Some might live hundreds of feet deep, expertly hide themselves, or only rarely venture into the Salish Sea. The authors took this into account and categorized each fish based on its potential for encounter by a diver.</p><p>REEF divers sighted 85% of fish species that lend themselves to visual observation. For these fishes, experienced citizen scientists can expand what scientists know about range, life history, population status, size, age, behavior, and more.</p><p>Citizen science monitoring is only minimally invasive since it relies purely on human observation. Trained divers can document what they see and enter it into the free international database housed at <a href=\"http://www.REEF.org\">www.REEF.org</a>.</p><p>\"It\'s exciting to see that the expertise within our community of citizen scientists has expanded what is known about fish assemblages of the Salish Sea and yielded a new discovery,\" said co-author Christy Pattengill-Semmens, REEF\'s co-executive director. \"Beyond providing much-needed data that can be used by researchers and management agencies, participating in citizen science programs like REEF\'s Volunteer Fish Survey Project creates an authentic connection to nature and empowers participants to make a difference.\"</p><p><strong>Story Source:</strong></p>','2022-03-25 20:22:01.894964','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of California - Davis','Citizen scientists are increasingly playing crucial roles in understanding fish populations, according to a new study. Over the past 20 years, volunteers have helped monitor more than half of the total fish species known to occur in the Salish Sea.\n',1,116,'<li>Elizabeth A. Ashley, Christy V. Pattengill-Semmens, James W. Orr, Janna D. Nichols, Joseph K. Gaydos. <strong>Documenting fishes in an inland sea with citizen scientist diver surveys: using taxonomic expertise to inform the observation potential of fish species</strong>. <em>Environmental Monitoring and Assessment</em>, 2022; 194 (3) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10661-022-09857-1\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1007/s10661-022-09857-1</a>\n</li>'),(1631,'Scientists develop the largest, most detailed model of the early universe to date','scientists-develop-the-largest,-most-detailed-model-of-the-early-universe-to-date','2022-03-25 20:22:05.129233',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">It all started around 13.8 billion years ago with a big, cosmological \"bang\" that brought the universe suddenly and spectacularly into existence. Shortly after, the infant universe cooled dramatically and went completely dark.</p><p>Then, within a couple hundred million years after the Big Bang, the universe woke up, as gravity gathered matter into the first stars and galaxies. Light from these first stars turned the surrounding gas into a hot, ionized plasma -- a crucial transformation known as cosmic reionization that propelled the universe into the complex structure that we see today.</p><p>Now, scientists can get a detailed view of how the universe may have unfolded during this pivotal period with a new simulation, known as Thesan, developed by scientists at MIT, Harvard University, and the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics.</p><p>Named after the Etruscan goddess of the dawn, Thesan is designed to simulate the \"cosmic dawn,\" and specifically cosmic reionization, a period which has been challenging to reconstruct, as it involves immensely complicated, chaotic interactions, including those between gravity, gas, and radiation.</p><p>The Thesan simulation resolves these interactions with the highest detail and over the largest volume of any previous simulation. It does so by combining a realistic model of galaxy formation with a new algorithm that tracks how light interacts with gas, along with a model for cosmic dust.</p><p>With Thesan, the researchers can simulate a cubic volume of the universe spanning 300 million light years across. They run the simulation forward in time to track the first appearance and evolution of hundreds of thousands of galaxies within this space, beginning around 400,000 years after the Big Bang, and through the first billion years.</p><p>So far, the simulations align with what few observations astronomers have of the early universe. As more observations are made of this period, for instance with the newly launched James Webb Space Telescope, Thesan may help to place such observations in cosmic context.</p><p>For now, the simulations are starting to shed light on certain processes, such as how far light can travel in the early universe, and which galaxies were responsible for reionization.</p><p>\"Thesan acts as a bridge to the early universe,\" says Aaron Smith, a NASA Einstein Fellow in MIT\'s Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research. \"It is intended to serve as an ideal simulation counterpart for upcoming observational facilities, which are poised to fundamentally alter our understanding of the cosmos.\"</p><p>Smith and Mark Vogelsberger, associate professor of physics at MIT, Rahul Kannan of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and Enrico Garaldi at Max Planck have introduced the Thesan simulation through three papers, the third published today in the <em>Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society</em>.</p><p><strong>Follow the light</strong></p><p>In the earliest stages of cosmic reionization, the universe was a dark and homogenous space. For physicists, the cosmic evolution during these early \"dark ages\" is relatively simple to calculate.</p><p>\"In principle you could work this out with pen and paper,\" Smith says. \"But at some point gravity starts to pull and collapse matter together, at first slowly, but then so quickly that calculations become too complicated, and we have to do a full simulation.\"</p><p>To fully simulate cosmic reionization, the team sought to include as many major ingredients of the early universe as possible. They started off with a successful model of galaxy formation that their groups previously developed, called Illustris-TNG, which has been shown to accurately simulate the properties and populations of evolving galaxies. They then developed a new code to incorporate how the light from galaxies and stars interact with and reionize the surrounding gas -- an extremely complex process that other simulations have not been able to accurately reproduce at large scale.</p><p>\"Thesan follows how the light from these first galaxies interacts with the gas over the first billion years and transforms the universe from neutral to ionized,\" Kannan says. \"This way, we automatically follow the reionization process as it unfolds.\"</p><p>Finally, the team included a preliminary model of cosmic dust -- another feature that is unique to such simulations of the early universe. This early model aims to describe how tiny grains of material influence the formation of galaxies in the early, sparse universe.</p><p><strong>Cosmic bridge</strong></p><p>With the simulation\'s ingredients in place, the team set its initial conditions for around 400,000 years after the Big Bang, based on precision measurements of relic light from the Big Bang. They then evolved these conditions forward in time to simulate a patch of the universe, using the SuperMUC-NG machine -- one of the largest supercomputers in the world -- which simultaneously harnessed 60,000 computing cores to carry out Thesan\'s calculations over an equivalent of 30 million CPU hours (an effort that would have taken 3,500 years to run on a single desktop).</p><p>The simulations have produced the most detailed view of cosmic reionization, across the largest volume of space, of any existing simulation. While some simulations model across large distances, they do so at relatively low resolution, while other, more detailed simulations do not span large volumes.</p><p>\"We are bridging these two approaches: We have both large volume and high resolution,\" Vogelsberger emphasizes.</p><p>Early analyses of the simulations suggest that towards the end of cosmic reionization, the distance light was able to travel increased more dramatically than scientists had previously assumed.</p><p>\"Thesan found that light doesn\'t travel large distances early in the universe,\" Kannan says. \"In fact, this distance is very small, and only becomes large at the very end of reionization, increasing by a factor of 10 over just a few hundred million years.\"</p><p>The researchers also see hints of the type of galaxies responsible for driving reionization. A galaxy\'s mass appears to influence reionization, though the team says more observations, taken by James Webb and other observatories, will help to pin down these predominant galaxies.</p><p>\"There are a lot of moving parts in [modeling cosmic reionization],\" Vogelsberger concludes. \"When we can put this all together in some kind of machinery and start running it and it produces a dynamic universe, that\'s for all of us a pretty rewarding moment.\"</p><p>This research was supported in part by NASA, the National Science Foundation, and the Gauss Center for Supercomputing.</p><p><strong>Story Source:</strong></p>','2022-03-25 20:22:05.129233','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Massachusetts Institute of Technology','Thesan is a new universe simulation that models the first billion years of the universe with the highest resolution, over the largest volume, to date.\n',1,27,'<li>A Smith, R Kannan, E Garaldi, M Vogelsberger, R Pakmor, V Springel, L Hernquist. <strong>The thesan project: Lyman-α emission and transmission during the Epoch of Reionization</strong>. <em>Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society</em>, 2022 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stac713\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1093/mnras/stac713</a>\n</li>'),(1632,'Spinal fluid sampling used to track treatment response in pediatric glioma','spinal-fluid-sampling-used-to-track-treatment-response-in-pediatric-glioma','2022-03-25 20:22:08.738532',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Treatment for glioma has long relied on MRI imaging to track tumor markers and treatment response. But findings from a team at the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center, led by Carl Koschmann, M.D., pediatric neuro-oncologist at University of Michigan Health C.S. Mott Children\'s Hospital and researcher with the Chad Carr Pediatric Brain Tumor Center, suggest a new method could provide additional data about tumor markers before changes appear on an MRI, indicating possible strategies to help clinicians address this aggressive form of cancer. The recent study appeared in <em>Neuro-Oncology</em><em>. </em></p><p>As part of a phase 1, multi-site clinical trial, Koschmann\'s team collected cerebrospinal fluid and plasma from patients with Diffuse Midline Glioma, or DMG, through blood draws and lumbar punctures over many months, collecting hundreds of samples. They wanted to track changes in cell-free tumor DNA as patients received treatment concurrent with the clinical trial.</p><p>\"We examined DNA floating in the plasma and CSF at various points in treatment and used a very sensitive machine called digital droplet polymerase chain reaction (ddPCR) to assess the fraction, called a variant allele fraction (VAF), of mutated DNA versus non-mutated,\" Koschmann said.</p><p>A higher VAF indicates more mutant DNA. Koschmann\'s team found that patients whose allele fraction went down after receiving the drug in the clinical trial took longer for the tumor to grow larger or relapse, data consistent with the team\'s expectations.</p><p>But the findings from the CSF also revealed a marker that hadn\'t been shown in this kind of study before, one that couldn\'t be found relying on MRI imaging alone.</p><p>\"When the treatment wasn\'t working and tumors were growing, as captured on an MRI, that didn\'t always correlate with the VAF rising and the tumor DNA getting worse,\" said Evan Cantor M.D., first author of the study who performed work at U-M and is now a pediatric neuro-oncology fellow at Washington University. \"More often, we saw a spike in the allele fraction in the tumor DNA <em>before</em> the tumor grew, on average about three to four months before.\"</p><p>Koschmann explains that this is the first study of its kind to collect serial CSF in a clinical trial for any type of glioma. \"It is very clear that DNA in the CSF can provide a lot of new information about the state of the tumor,\" he said.</p><p>The method falls under the genre of liquid biopsy, which Koschmann describes as an exciting new space in cancer care. For some types of cancer like leukemia, testing blood and bone marrow samples allows patients and physicians to follow the status of the disease and offers a thorough sense of treatment response. But for solid tumors, especially brain tumors, access to multiple metrics to measure tumor growth or response is not possible.</p><p>\"If you were to come into the clinic right now with a high-grade brain tumor, we\'d take an MRI and then make inferences from that imaging about how things are going. But there\'s a lot of handwaving about what it means, because it\'s the only piece of data we have about how things are going,\" Koschmann said.</p><p>As these findings suggest, knowing that the increase in the allele fraction proceeds tumor growth, discovered through serial CSF sampling, could inform clinicians about different treatment needs much sooner than if only referencing MRIs. \"As a patient or patient family member, you don\'t want to wait until the MRI worsens to change course,\" Koschmann said. \"Having early information that you might need to adjust treatment is very valuable.\"</p><p>This study was conducted as an exploratory arm of a multisite phase 1 clinical trial across 15 institutions for pediatric patients with midline glioma tumors who have about a 12 to 18 month survival rate. Patients received a promising experimental therapy called ONC201 over the course of months and, in some cases, years.</p><p>Koschmann shared the findings from this study with the principal investigators planning the follow-up phase 2 clinical trial with ONC201 through the Pacific Neuro-Oncology Consortium (PNOC). Based on this, the investigators made serial spinal fluid collection standard for every patient on the clinical trial. Koschmann explains that this is one step closer to gathering enough data to see if this method can be integrated into future treatment options.</p><p>\"If this study validates our early findings, we should be ready to make this part of routine clinical care for patients with DMG even off trial. By rolling this out at trial sites across the country, were pressing the gas pedal on bringing this test to the clinic.\"</p><p>Funding was provided by NIH/NINDS (K08-NS099427; R01-NS119231; R01NS124607; R01NS110572); Department of Defense (CA201129P1); the University of Michigan Chad Carr Pediatric Brain Tumor Center; the ChadTough Defeat DIPG Foundation; the DIPG Collaborative; Catching Up With Jack; The Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation; Prayers from Maria; Yuvaan Tiwari Foundation; The Morgan Behen Golf Classic; and the Michael Miller Memorial Foundation. Clinical Trial was supported by Chimerix.</p>','2022-03-25 20:22:08.738532','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Michigan Medicine - University of Michigan','Treatment for glioma has long relied on MRI imaging to track tumor markers and treatment response. But new findings suggest a new method could provide additional data about tumor markers before changes appear on an MRI, indicating possible strategies to help clinicians address this aggressive form of cancer.\n',1,124,'<li>Evan Cantor, Kyle Wierzbicki, Rohinton S Tarapore, Karthik Ravi, Chase Thomas, Rodrigo Cartaxo, Viveka Nand Yadav, Ramya Ravindran, Amy K Bruzek, Jack Wadden, Vishal John, Clarissa May Babila, Jessica R Cummings, Abed Rahman Kawakibi, Sunjong Ji, Johanna Ramos, Alyssa Paul, Dustin Walling, Marcia Leonard, Patricia Robertson, Andrea Franson, Rajen Mody, Hugh J L Garton, Sriram Venneti, Yazmin Odia, Cassie Kline, Nicholas A Vitanza, Soumen Khatua, Sabine Mueller, Joshua E Allen, Sharon L Gardner, Carl Koschmann. <strong>Serial H3K27M cell-free tumor DNA (cf-tDNA) tracking predicts ONC201 treatment response and progression in diffuse midline glioma</strong>. <em>Neuro-Oncology</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/neuonc/noac030\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1093/neuonc/noac030</a>\n</li>'),(1633,'Therapy can support medication treatment for opioid use disorder','therapy-can-support-medication-treatment-for-opioid-use-disorder','2022-03-25 20:22:11.566594',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Receiving psychosocial and behavioral therapy alongside medications for opioid use disorder leads to better treatment engagement and continuity, according to Rutgers researchers.</p><p>To better understand the role of psychosocial and behavioral therapy, the study, published in the <em>Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment</em>, examined services received by people in the first six months after beginning buprenorphine, a medication used to treat opioid use disorder.</p><p>Researchers found that the majority patients initiating buprenorphine medication to treat opioid use disorder had little to no psychosocial and behavioral therapy, with less than 1 in 5 receiving low-intensity therapy, about twice a month, and less than 1 in 10 receiving higher-intensity therapy.</p><p>In analyses of buprenorphine use among patients with at least seven days of treatment, receiving opioid use disorder-related therapy was associated with lower risk of medication discontinuation in the first 180 days after treatment, raising the possibility that therapy may help to reduce high attrition rates commonly observed early during treatment.</p><p>\"We focused on the first 180 days of treatment because this is a particularly high-risk period for discontinuing medication,\" said Hillary Samples, study author and an assistant professor in the Department of Health Behavior, Society, and Policy at the Rutgers School of Public Health.</p><p>While fewer patients with minimal or no therapy services reached the benchmark for minimum duration of pharmacotherapy, a substantial proportion had 180 days or more of buprenorphine treatment, indicating that many patients persist in treatment with medication alone.</p><p>\"This finding indicates that insurance policies requiring referral or receipt of psychosocial services to receive buprenorphine or other medications for opioid use disorder treatment may create overly restrictive barriers to highly effective medication treatment,\" said Samples. \"Still, efforts to ensure adequate availability of psychosocial support services are important to facilitate access for patients who could benefit from therapy, such as recent expansions in telehealth that could address current barriers to care.\"</p><p>The researchers note ?that patterns of therapy use corresponded to indicators of treatment need, which may signal appropriate alignment between patient characteristics and current clinical practices. Patients who received psychosocial and behavioral therapy had higher rates of co-occurring mental health and substance use diagnoses, including cannabis and stimulant use disorders.</p><p>\"Patients who have comorbid substance use disorders that lack effective medication options, such as cocaine and amphetamines, could represent a priority group for psychosocial services,\" adds Samples. \"Further research to understand the relationship between clinical profiles and therapy services is critical to align patient needs with evidence-based treatment to improve medication retention and patient outcomes.\"</p><p>The study was the first to characterize trends in psychosocial and behavioral therapy received alongside buprenorphine in the treatment of adults with opioid use disorder.</p>','2022-03-25 20:22:11.566594','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Rutgers University','Receiving psychosocial and behavioral therapy alongside medications for opioid use disorder leads to better treatment engagement and continuity, according to researchers.\n',1,65,'<li>Arthur Robin Williams, Christine M. Mauro, Tianshu Feng, Amanda Wilson, Angelo Cruz, Mark Olfson, Stephen Crystal, Hillary Samples, Lisa Chiodo. <strong>Non–prescribed buprenorphine preceding treatment intake and clinical outcomes for opioid use disorder</strong>. <em>Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment</em>, 2022; 108770 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jsat.2022.108770\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.jsat.2022.108770</a>\n</li>'),(1634,'Tropical peatland, sea level rise and climate change','Tropical-peatland-sea-level-rise-and-climate-change','2022-11-28 13:48:48.984168','<p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Tropical peatlands are one of the most efficient carbon sinks. The flipside is that they can become massive emitters of carbon if they are damaged, for instance by land use change, degradation or fire. This can lead to faster climate warming. In research led by the University of Göttingen, researchers show how peatland in the coastal areas in Sumatra and Borneo in Indonesia developed over thousands of years and how climate and sea level influenced their dynamics throughout. The results were published in <em>Global Change Biology</em>.</p><p>To discover more about the environment over the past 17,000 years, researchers analysed two peat cores, each over eight meters long. They carried out analyses for traces of pollen, spores and charcoal, as well as conducting carbon dating and biogeochemical investigations. Their study found that there were much higher concentrations of charcoal between 9,000 to 4,000 years ago (the mid-Holocene), when sea level was even higher than it is now. This is a sign that there were much larger forest fires at that time. Later, around 3,000 years ago, irregular periodic variations in winds and sea surface temperatures (known as El Nino-Southern Oscillation or ENSO) would have caused prolonged drought, making the forests dry and thus susceptible to fires ignited by lightning. However, even at this time, the fires were fewer than in the earlier mid-Holocene, which presented a puzzle. A clue was that during the earlier period in the mid-Holocene period, researchers found a high proportion of mangrove pollen.</p><p>The pollen grains indicate the presence of mangrove forests which grow along the coast in salty water. Their presence is a good indicator of rising sea level and an increase of salt in the otherwise freshwater peatland ecosystem. Salt is harmful to freshwater (inland) vegetation, which is likely to have resulted in more dry and dead tree leaves and branches. Salt can also reduce forest canopy cover and air humidity, which is the one important factor that can prevent fire spreading in peatland ecosystems. Furthermore, mangrove woods are high-quality fuels that can burn for a long time and reach high temperatures. The increase in dry or dead trees and the availability of high-quality firewood alongside decreased canopy cover and humidity, could all contribute to the larger fires from that time. \"We were surprised to find that rising sea levels could potentially exacerbate fires in coastal areas in Indonesia,\" says lead author Dr Anggi Hapsari, University of Göttingen. \"Our findings underline how the interaction between rising sea levels and dry climate may contribute to massive forest fires even in relatively fire-proof ecosystems, such as pristine peatlands. This reveals the potential hidden impact of sea level rise exacerbating climate warming.\"</p><p>\"However, in contrast to the past, the primary cause of peatland fires now is human activity,\" adds Hapsari. \"If people\'s behaviour continues in terms of, for instance, extensive destruction of peat swamp forests, peatland drainage, and intentional burning, when met with current rapidly rising sea level and stronger future ENSO, this could lead to catastrophic and widespread forest fires and uncontrollable carbon release,\" she continues.</p><p>\"Our unexpected finding adds an as yet unknown threat to the survival of these valuable ecosystems,\" explains coauthor Dr Tim Jennerjahn, Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research in Bremen. He concludes, \"It demonstrates how the reconstruction of past environmental change can help improve present-day management of coastal ecosystems. It is clear that fire risk assessment in tropical peatlands deserves more attention.\"</p>','2022-03-25 20:22:14.723473','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Göttingen','Tropical peatlands are one of the most efficient carbon sinks. The flipside is that they can become massive emitters of carbon if they are damaged, for instance by land use change, degradation or fire. This can lead to faster climate warming. Researchers now show how peatland in the coastal areas in Sumatra and Borneo in Indonesia developed over thousands of years and how climate and sea level influenced their dynamics throughout.',1,212,'<li>K. Anggi Hapsari, Tim Jennerjahn, Septriono Hari Nugroho, Eko Yulianto, Hermann Behling. <strong>Sea level rise and climate change acting as interactive stressors on development and dynamics of tropical peatlands in coastal Sumatra and South Borneo since the Last Glacial Maximum</strong>. <em>Global Change Biology</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16131\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1111/gcb.16131</a>\r\n</li>'),(1635,'Simply printing high-performance perovskite-based transistors','simply-printing-high-performance-perovskite-based-transistors','2022-03-25 21:02:15.863922',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">The printing press has contributed immensely to the advancement of humankind by elevating politics, economy, and culture to higher grounds. Today, it goes beyond simply printing books or documents, and is expanding its influence to the realm of cutting-edge technology. Most notably, high-performance components in various smart devices have been successfully printed and have attracted much attention. And now, a technology to print perovskite-based devices -- considered a challenge until now -- has been proposed.</p><p>A POSTECH research team led by Professor Yong-Young Noh and Ph.D. candidates Ao Liu and Huihui Zhu (Department of Chemical Engineering), in collaboration with Professor Myung-Gil Kim (School of Advanced Materials Science and Engineering) of Sungkyunkwan University, has improved the performance of a p-type semiconductortransistor using inorganic metal halide perovskite. One of the biggest advantages of the new technology is that it enables solution-processed perovskite transistors to be simply printed as semiconductor-like circuits.</p><p>Perovskite-based transistors control the current by combining p-type semiconductors that exhibit hole mobilities with n-type semiconductors. Compared to n-type semiconductors that have been actively studied so far, fabricating high-performance p-type semiconductors has been a challenge.</p><p>Many researchers have tried to utilize perovskite in the p-type semiconductor for its excellent electrical conductivity, but its poor electrical performance and reproducibility have hindered commercialization.</p><p>To overcome this issue, the researchers used the modified inorganic metal halidecaesium tin triiodide (CsSnI<sub>3</sub>) to develop the p-type perovskite semiconductor and fabricated the high-performance transistor based on this. This transistor exhibits high hole mobility of 50cm<sup>2</sup>V<sup>-1</sup>s<sup>-1 </sup>and higher and the current ratio of more than 10<sup>8</sup>, and recorded the highest performance among the perovskite semiconductor transistors that have been developed so far.</p><p>By making the material into a solution, the researchers succeeded in simply printing the p-type semiconductor transistor as if printing a document. This method is not only convenient but also cost-effective, which can lead to the commercialization of perovskite devices in the future.</p><p>\"The newly developed semiconductor material and transistor can be widely applicable as logic circuits in high-end displays and in wearable electronic devices, and also be used in stacked electronic circuits and optoelectronic devices by stacking them vertically with silicon semiconductors,\" explained Professor Yong-Young Noh on the significance of the study.</p><p>This study was conducted with the support from the Mid-Career Researcher Program, Creative Materials Discovery Program, Next-generation Intelligence-Type Semiconductor Development Program, and the Basic Research Lab Program of the National Research Foundation of Korea, and from Samsung Display Corporation.</p>','2022-03-25 21:02:15.863922','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Pohang University of Science & Technology (POSTECH)','A research team develops high performing p-type transistor using perovskite. Solution-processed metal halide perovskite transistors can now be printed.\n',1,66,'<li>Ao Liu, Huihui Zhu, Sai Bai, Youjin Reo, Taoyu Zou, Myung-Gil Kim, Yong-Young Noh. <strong>High-performance inorganic metal halide perovskite transistors</strong>. <em>Nature Electronics</em>, 2022; 5 (2): 78 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41928-022-00712-2\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41928-022-00712-2</a>\n</li>'),(1636,'No flight, no bite: \'Mosquito grounding\' bed net nearly halves malaria infection in Tanzanian children','no-flight,-no-bite:-\'mosquito-grounding\'-bed-net-nearly-halves-malaria-infection-in-tanzanian-children','2022-03-25 21:02:21.238839',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">A novel class of bed net that kills mosquitoes resistant to traditional insecticides by making them unable to move or fly, significantly reduces malaria infection in children, according to new research published in <em>The Lancet</em>.</p><p>Unlike other insecticides which kill the mosquito via the nervous system, the effects of the new bed net mean the mosquito dies from starvation or being unable to fend for itself.</p><p>The two-year community randomised trial involved more than 39,000 households and followed over 4,500 children aged 6 months to 14 years in Tanzania. It found that a long-lasting insecticidal net treated with two insecticides, chlorfenapyr and pyrethroid (chlorfenapyr LLIN), reduced the prevalence of malaria by 43% and 37% in the first and second year respectively, compared to the standard pyrethroid only long-lasting insecticidal net (LLIN).</p><p>Chlorfenapyr LLIN also reduced clinical episodes of malaria by 44% over the two years and the number of malaria-infected mosquitoes captured by 85%.</p><p>The study was conducted by the London School of Hygiene &amp; Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), National Institute for Medical Research, Kilimanjaro Christian Medical University College in Tanzania, and the University of Ottawa, Canada.</p><p>Long-lasting insecticidal nets are the cornerstones of malaria control in sub-Saharan Africa. However, in the past few years the decline in malaria has stalled and even reversed in some countries. In 2020, there were 627,000deaths from malaria, mainly in Africa and occurring mostly in children.</p><p>Malaria’s resurgence is partly due to the bed nets’ effectiveness being compromised by widespread resistance to pyrethroid insecticides in <em>Anopheles</em> mosquitoes. Chlorfenapyr works very differently to pyrethroid, causing wing muscle cramps that stop the flight muscles from functioning. This prevents mosquitoes from making further host contacts or biting, ultimately leading to their death.</p><p>The research team says the novel net could lead to significant malaria control gains in sub-Saharan Africa, but more research is needed to examine feasibility of scale-up, and on resistance management strategies needed to preserve their effectiveness long term.</p><p>Dr Jacklin F. Mosha from the National Institute for Medical Research, Tanzania, the study’s first author, said: “Malaria remains a huge problem across sub-Saharan Africa and is one of the leading causes of death in Tanzania. We urgently need new interventions to get control efforts back on track and protect young people from this deadly disease. These exciting results highlight that we have another effective tool to help control malaria.”</p><p>Children from 72 villages in Misungwi, where high levels of resistance to pyrethroids have been reported, were randomised into groups and received one of three of the most promising new generation of bed nets. Children were then tested for malaria at the end of each rainy season.</p><p>After 24 months, malaria infection was reduced by 37% in children that received the chlorfenapyr LLIN (326/1272) compared to those receiving standard pyrethroid LLIN (549/1199).</p><p>A bednet treated with a piperonyl butoxide (PBO) to enhance the potency of pyrethroid reduced malaria infection by 27% over the first 12 months of the trial, but after two years malaria infection in this group was similar to the standard net. This is likely due to it being used less regularly as holes appeared in this net more quickly.</p><p>A third type of bednet, treated with pyrethroid and pyriproxyfen which sterilises female mosquitoes, had little additional effect compared to the standard pyrethroid net. The reason is not fully understood but likely due to insufficient pyriproxyfen remaining on the net over time.</p><p>Dr Manisha Kulkarni, a scientist at the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Medicine, said: “By essentially ‘grounding’ the mosquito, our work on adding chlorfenapyr to standard pyrethroid bed nets has great potential to maintain control of malaria transmitted by resistant mosquitoes in Africa.”</p><p>The higher costs of the chlorfenapyr LLIN were offset by the savings from reducing the number of malaria cases requiring treatment. Distributing chlorfenapyr nets is therefore expected to cost households and society less overall than standard, PBO, or pyriproxyfen nets.</p><p>Dr Natacha Protopopoff, from LSHTM and study Principal Investigator, said: “We’ve shown chlorfenapyr LLINs are safe, decrease malaria infection in children and are cost-effective. This is important evidence for the World Health Organization and malaria control programmes when they are assessing whether these new nets should be deployed in areas of insecticide resistance when standard bed nets have failed.</p><p>“However, caution is needed. The massive scale-up of standard pyrethroid LLINs 10-20 years ago led to the rapid spread of pyrethroid resistance. The challenge now is to preserve chlorfenapyr’s effectiveness by developing rational resistance management strategies.</p><p>“National malaria control programs and stakeholders should urgently advocate for better textile and insecticide durability for all novel classes of bed nets to maximise their longevity and potential.”</p><p>LSHTM scientists first identified the potential of the chlorfenapyr insecticide on malaria mosquitoes almost 20 years ago. The chlorfenapyr LLIN was subsequently developed by the manufacturer BASF in Germany, together with LSHTM.</p><p>Professor Mark Rowland, from LSHTM, explained: “When it comes to resistance to standard nets we were running out of options, but chlorfenapyr has come to the rescue. Although it may appear this has happened overnight, in reality there were twists and turns over many years to show how the new class of insecticide truly works ,to develop improved formulations to confirm effectiveness and safety on nets, and finally to demonstrate control of malaria in large scale trials.</p><p>“What really threw us for a long time was that in daytime tests the chlorfenapyr was not very toxic to the mosquito, but at night when the malaria mosquitoes naturally fly up against the treated bednet it gets a severe case of muscle cramps so it buckles and falls to where it is likely to be carried off by scavenging ants. No other mosquito insecticide works like this, and because of the unique mode of action it kills all kind of mosquito that have evolved resistance to other insecticides. It should have a long future.”</p><p>Professor Franklin W. Mosha, Principal Investigator from the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical College, Tanzania, said: “This achievement has only been made possible through partnership between research institutes, manufacturing industry and funding agencies like the Bill &amp; Melinda Gates Foundation and then the Innovative Vector Control Consortium We can all take pride in our respective roles in getting us to this exciting point.”</p><p>The authors acknowledge limitations of the study, including the rapid decrease in use of trial LLINs, within a context of high overall net usage, which may in part explain the relative lack of effectiveness of PBO LLINs and pyriproxyfen LLINs over the two years compared to standard LLINs.</p><p>This is the first of two trials of chlorfenapyr nets. The second in Benin in West Africa with the Centre de Recherche Entomologique de Cotonou and LSHTM is due to report later this year. This will confirm if chlorfenapyr LLINs are also more effective in a different malaria setting and if pyriproxyfen LLINs could perform better when net usage is higher.</p><p>The research was funded by the Joint Global Health Trials: Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, Medical Research Council, Wellcome and Department of Health and Social Care.</p>','2022-03-25 21:02:21.238839','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine','A novel class of bed net that kills mosquitoes resistant to traditional insecticides by making them unable to move or fly, significantly reduces malaria infection in children, according to new research published in The Lancet. Unlike other insecticides which kill the mosquito via the nervous system, the effects of the new bed net mean the mosquito dies from starvation or being unable to fend for itself.\n',1,27,'<li>Jacklin F Mosha, Manisha A Kulkarni, Eliud Lukole, Nancy S Matowo, Catherine Pitt, Louisa A Messenger, Elizabeth Mallya, Mohamed Jumanne, Tatu Aziz, Robert Kaaya, Boniface A Shirima, Gladness Isaya, Monica Taljaard, Jacklin Martin, Ramadhan Hashim, Charles Thickstun, Alphaxard Manjurano, Immo Kleinschmidt, Franklin W Mosha, Mark Rowland, Natacha Protopopoff. <strong>Effectiveness and cost-effectiveness against malaria of three types of dual-active-ingredient long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs) compared with pyrethroid-only LLINs in Tanzania: a four-arm, cluster-randomised trial</strong>. <em>The Lancet</em>, 2022; 399 (10331): 1227 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)02499-5\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/S0140-6736(21)02499-5</a>\n</li>'),(1637,'Rapid glacial advance reconstructed during the time of Norse occupation in Greenland','rapid-glacial-advance-reconstructed-during-the-time-of-norse-occupation-in-greenland','2022-03-25 21:02:23.192047',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">The Greenland Ice Sheet is the second largest ice body in the world, and it has the potential to contribute significantly to global sea-level rise in a warming global climate. Understanding the long-term record of the Greenland Ice Sheet, including both records of glacial advance and retreat, is critical in validating approaches that model future ice-sheet scenarios. However, this reconstruction can be extremely challenging. A new study published Thursday in the journal <em>Geology</em> reconstructed the advance of one of the largest tidewater glaciers in Greenland to provide a better understanding of long-term glacial dynamics.</p><p>\"In the news, we\'re very used to hearing about glacial retreat, and that\'s because in a warming climate scenario -- which is what we\'re in at the moment -- we generally document ice masses retreating. However, we also want to understand how glaciers react if there is a climate cooling and subsequent advance. To do this, we need to reconstruct glacier geometry from the past,\" said Danni Pearce, co-lead author of the study.</p><p>An interdisciplinary team of researchers studied the advance of Kangiata Nunaata Sermia (KNS) -- the largest tidewater glacier in southwest Greenland -- during a period of cooling when the Norse had settlements in Greenland. Differing from glaciers that are strictly on land, tidewater glaciers extend and flow all the way to the ocean or a sea, where they can then calve and break up into icebergs.</p><p>Reconstructing the advance of glaciers can be exceptionally difficult, because the glacier typically destroys or reworks everything in its path as it advances forward. The research team undertook multiple field seasons in Greenland, traveling on foot to remote sites -- many of which hadn\'t been visited since the 1930s -- to try and uncover the record of KNS advance.</p><p>\"When we went out into the field, we had absolutely no idea whether the evidence would be there or not, so I was incredibly nervous. Though we did a huge amount of planning beforehand, until you go out into the field you don\'t know what you\'re going to find,\" said James Lea, the other co-lead author of the study.</p><p>By traveling on foot, the research team was able to more closely examine and explore sites that otherwise may have been missed if traveling by helicopter. The team\'s planning paid off, and the sedimentary sequences they studied and sampled held the clues they were looking for to date and track the advance of the glacier.</p><p>The research team found that during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries CE, KNS advanced at least 15 km, at a rate of ~115 m/yr. This rate of advance is comparable to modern rates of glacial retreat observed over the past ~200 years, indicating that when climate is cooler glaciers can advance equally as fast as they are currently retreating. The glacier reached its maximum extent by 1761 CE during the Little Ice Age, culminating in a total advance of ~20 km. Since then, KNS has retreated ~23 km to its present position.</p><p>The period when the glacier was advancing coincided with when the Norse were present in Greenland. Prior to its maximum extent during the Little Ice Age, the researchers found that KNS advanced to a location within only 5 km of a Norse farmstead.</p><p>\"Even though KNS was rapidly coming down the fjord, it did not seem to affect the Norse, which we found really unusual,\" said Pearce. \"So the team started to think about the surrounding environment and the amount of iceberg production in the fjord during that time. At the moment, the fjord is completely filled with icebergs, making boat access challenging, and we know from historical record that it has been like this for the last 200 years while the glacier has been retreating. However, for KNS to advance at 115 m/yr, it needed to hang onto its ice and could not have been producing a lot of icebergs. So we actually think that the fjord would have looked very different with few icebergs, which allowed the Norse far more easy access to this site for farming, hunting, and fishing.\"</p><p>In the 1930s, archaeologists who visited the site hypothesized that conditions in the fjord must have been different from the present day in order for the Norse to have occupied the site, and this current research study provides data to support these long-held ideas.</p><p>\"So we have this counterintuitive notion that climate cooling and glacier advance might have actually helped the Norse in this specific circumstance and allowed them to navigate more of the fjord more easily,\" said Lea.</p><p>The Norse left Greenland during the fifteenth century CE, and these results are consistent with the idea that a cooling climate was likely not the cause of their exodus; rather, a combination of economic factors likely led the Norse to abandon Greenland.</p><p>The results from this research reconstructing rapid glacial advance are also shown to be consistent with the ways ice sheet models work, which brings confidence to the projections from these models. Having accurate models and projections are crucial in understanding and preparing for future scenarios of continued retreat of the Greenland Ice Sheet and associated sea-level rise.</p><p>\"Melt from Greenland not only impacts sea-level change but also the ecology around the ice sheets, fisheries, the biological productivity of the oceans -- how much algae is growing. And also because the types of glaciers we\'re looking at produce icebergs these can cause hazards to shipping and trade, especially if the Northwest Passage opens up as it is expected to,\" said James Lea.</p><p>Pearce added, \"Our research shows that climate cooling can change iceberg calving behavior and drive glacier advance at rates just as rapid as current retreat. It also shows how resilient the Greenlandic Norse were to the changing environmental conditions. Such adaptation can give us hope for the changes we may face over the coming century.\'\'</p>','2022-03-25 21:02:23.192047','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Geological Society of America','The Greenland Ice Sheet is the second largest ice body in the world, and it has the potential to contribute significantly to global sea-level rise in a warming global climate. Understanding the long-term record of the Greenland Ice Sheet, including both records of glacial advance and retreat, is critical in validating approaches that model future ice-sheet scenarios. However, this reconstruction can be extremely challenging. A new study has reconstructed the advance of one of the largest tidewater glaciers in Greenland to provide a better understanding of long-term glacial dynamics.\n',1,163,'<li>Danni M. Pearce, James M. Lea, Douglas W.F. Mair, Brice R. Rea, J. Edward Schofield, Nicholas A. Kamenos, Kathryn M. Schoenrock, Lukasz Stachnik, Bonnie Lewis, Iestyn Barr, Ruth Mottram. <strong>Greenland tidewater glacier advanced rapidly during era of Norse settlement</strong>. <em>Geology</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G49644.1\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1130/G49644.1</a>\n</li>'),(1638,'Quantum physics sets a speed limit to electronics','quantum-physics-sets-a-speed-limit-to-electronics','2022-03-25 21:02:32.504176',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Semiconductor electronics is getting faster and faster -- but at some point, physics no longer permits any increase. The speed can definitely not be increased beyond one petahertz (one million gigahertz), even if the material is excited in an optimal way with laser pulses.</p><p>How fast can electronics be? When computer chips work with ever shorter signals and time intervals, at some point they come up against physical limits. The quantum-mechanical processes that enable the generation of electric current in a semiconductor material take a certain amount of time. This puts a limit to the speed of signal generation and signal transmission.</p><p>TU Wien (Vienna), TU Graz and the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics in Garching have now been able to explore these limits: The speed can definitely not be increased beyond one petahertz (one million gigahertz), even if the material is excited in an optimal way with laser pulses. This result has now been published in the scientific journal <em>Nature Communications</em>.</p><p><strong>Fields and currents</strong></p><p>Electric current and light (i.e. electromagnetic fields) are always interlinked. This is also the case in microelectronics: In microchips, electricity is controlled with the help of electromagnetic fields. For example, an electric field can be applied to a transistor, and depending on whether the field is switched on or off, the transistor either allows electrical current to flow or blocks it. In this way, an electromagnetic field is converted into an electrical signal.</p><p>In order to test the limits of this conversion of electromagnetic fields to current, laser pulses -- the fastest, most precise electromagnetic fields available -- are used, rather than transistors.</p><p>\"Materials are studied that initially do not conduct electricity at all,\" explains Prof. Joachim Burgdörfer from the Institute for Theoretical Physics at TU Wien. \"These are hit by an ultra-short laser pulse with a wavelength in the extreme UV range. This laser pulse shifts the electrons into a higher energy level, so that they can suddenly move freely. That way, the laser pulse turns the material into an electrical conductor for a short period of time.\" As soon as there are freely moving charge carriers in the material, they can be moved in a certain direction by a second, slightly longer laser pulse. This creates an electric current that can then be detected with electrodes on both sides of the material.</p><p>These processes happen extremely fast, on a time scale of atto- or femtoseconds. \"For a long time, such processes were considered instantaneous,\" says Prof. Christoph Lemell (TU Wien). \"Today, however, we have the necessary technology to study the time evolution of these ultrafast processes in detail.\" The crucial question is: How fast does the material react to the laser? How long does the signal generation take and how long does one have to wait until the material can be exposed to the next signal? The experiments were carried out in Garching and Graz, the theoretical work and complex computer simulations were done at TU Wien.</p><p><strong>Time or energy -- but not both</strong></p><p>The experiment leads to a classic uncertainty dilemma, as it often occurs in quantum physics: in order to increase the speed, extremely short UV laser pulses are needed, so that free charge carriers are created very quickly. However, using extremely short pulses implies that the amount of energy which is transferred to the electrons is not precisely defined. The electrons can absorb very different energies. \"We can tell exactly at which point in time the free charge carriers are created, but not in which energy state they are,\" says Christoph Lemell. \"Solids have different energy bands, and with short laser pulses many of them are inevitably populated by free charge carriers at the same time.\"</p><p>Depending on how much energy they carry, the electrons react quite differently to the electric field. If their exact energy is unknown, it is no longer possible to control them precisely, and the current signal that is produced is distorted -- especially at high laser intensities.</p><p>\"It turns out that about one petahertz is an upper limit for controlled optoelectronic processes,\" says Joachim Burgdörfer. Of course, this does not mean that it is possible to produce computer chips with a clock frequency of just below one petahertz. Realistic technical upper limits are most likely considerably lower. Even though the laws of nature determining the ultimate speed limits of optoelectronics cannot be outsmarted, they can now be analyzed and understood with sophisticated new methods.</p>','2022-03-25 21:02:32.504176','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Vienna University of Technology','Semiconductor electronics is getting faster and faster - but at some point, physics no longer permits any increase. The speed can definitely not be increased beyond one petahertz (one million gigahertz), even if the material is excited in an optimal way with laser pulses.\n',1,97,'<li>M. Ossiander, K. Golyari, K. Scharl, L. Lehnert, F. Siegrist, J. P. Bürger, D. Zimin, J. A. Gessner, M. Weidman, I. Floss, V. Smejkal, S. Donsa, C. Lemell, F. Libisch, N. Karpowicz, J. Burgdörfer, F. Krausz, M. Schultze. <strong>The speed limit of optoelectronics</strong>. <em>Nature Communications</em>, 2022; 13 (1) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29252-1\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41467-022-29252-1</a>\n</li>'),(1639,'The hardy wild grass that could save our bread','the-hardy-wild-grass-that-could-save-our-bread','2022-03-25 21:02:35.847829',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">An obscure species of wild grass contains \"blockbuster\" disease resistance that can be cross bred into wheat to give immunity against one of the deadliest crop pathogens.</p><p>A collaborative international team of researchers identified the stem rust resistance gene from the wild goat grass species <em>Aegilops sharonensis. </em></p><p>The research team led by the John Innes Centre, The Sainsbury Laboratory, and the University of Minnesota used bioinformatic advances to develop the first accurate genome map of <em>Aegilops sharonensis</em>.</p><p>The genetic potential of this hardy relative of wheat found in Israel and southern Lebanon has been largely unexplored.</p><p>Using the genetic map and a search tool technique called Mutant Hunter the team scanned the genome for mutations looking for ones which were different in plants that were immune to stem rust, a disease which has troubled farmers for millennia.</p><p>This search identified a candidate gene, which the researchers thought was responsible for protecting plants. Using molecular tweezers, they isolated the gene of interest and transferred it into a susceptible plant, where it conferred strong protection against all tested strains of the wheat stem rust fungus,<em> Puccinia graminis </em>f. sp<em>. tritici</em>.</p><p>Dr Brande Wulff, a wheat researcher at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), formerly a group leader at the John Innes Centre and one of the authors of the study said: \"We now have this blockbuster gene that confers amazing immunity. If I were stem rust, I would be shaking in my spore.\"</p><p>\"It has been an arduous research journey lasting many years, but we have now found this gene that confers broad-spectrum resistance. We have yet to come across an isolate of the pathogen which can overcome the gene,\" added John Innes Centre researcher Dr Guotai Yu, first author of the study.</p><p>In this study which appears in <em>Nature Communications</em>, experiments showed that the <em>Sr62</em> gene encodes a molecule called a tandem protein kinase. Ongoing studies are looking at how this gene functions so researchers can biologically engineer the mechanism to be more efficient.</p><p>The research team plans to employ the new gene as part of a stack of genes -- bred into commonly used wheat varieties -- using genetic modification technology. They predict more resistance genes will be identified in and cloned from populations of <em>Aegilops sharonensis </em>and other wild grasses using their methods of gene discovery and deployment.</p><p><em>Aegilops sharonensis</em> is known to possess many traits of agricultural importance such as resistance to major diseases including rusts. However, its long generation time, tough seed coat, and difficulties of crossing it with wheat cultivars have made it less tractable than other species of wild grasses being mined for useful genetic traits.</p><p>This makes the findings in this study even more valuable, explains Professor Brian Steffenson from the University of Minnesota and co-author of the study: \"Given the great difficulties in crossing <em>Aegilops sharonensis</em> to wheat, we were fairly certain that the rust resistance genes discovered in the wild species would be novel.\" <em>Aegilops sharonensis</em> has a very narrow habitat range along the coastal plain of the Mediterranean Sea. Professor Steffenson adds: \"It is therefore timely and important that efforts were made to collect and characterize accessions of this species before they are lost to urbanization. It is our hope that the resistance gene cloned in this research will, when combined other genes, confer long-lasting resistance in wheat varieties, thereby reducing the threat of the stem rust disease\"</p><p>The study highlights recent developments in Latin America where GM (Genetically Modified) wheat engineered for drought tolerance has been approved -- potentially paving the way for GM traits to be bred into wheat more widely in the face of the climate crisis.</p><p>The search for resistance against stem rust has become more urgent as epidemics of the disease are becoming more frequent and climate change threatens to further increase its spread.</p><p>\"Pathogens like stem rust, already reduce the yield of wheat by 21 per cent. Not only is the grain itself lost or damaged by the pathogen, but also the energy that goes into production -- an equivalent of 420 billion kilowatts -- enough to power 300 million homes in the developing world is wasted. If we can intervene with genetics, by recruiting the resistance found in this wild-wispy looking grass then that would be an amazing contribution to agriculture and climate change,\" said Dr Wulff.</p>','2022-03-25 21:02:35.847829','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'John Innes Centre','An obscure species of wild grass contains \'blockbuster\' disease resistance that can be cross bred into wheat to give immunity against one of the deadliest crop pathogens.\n',1,27,'<li>Guotai Yu, Oadi Matny, Nicolas Champouret, Burkhard Steuernagel, Matthew J. Moscou, Inmaculada Hernández-Pinzón, Phon Green, Sadiye Hayta, Mark Smedley, Wendy Harwood, Ngonidzashe Kangara, Yajuan Yue, Catherine Gardener, Mark J. Banfield, Pablo D. Olivera, Cole Welchin, Jamie Simmons, Eitan Millet, Anna Minz-Dub, Moshe Ronen, Raz Avni, Amir Sharon, Mehran Patpour, Annemarie F. Justesen, Murukarthick Jayakodi, Axel Himmelbach, Nils Stein, Shuangye Wu, Jesse Poland, Jennifer Ens, Curtis Pozniak, Miroslava Karafiátová, István Molnár, Jaroslav Doležel, Eric R. Ward, T. Lynne Reuber, Jonathan D. G. Jones, Martin Mascher, Brian J. Steffenson, Brande B. H. Wulff. <strong>Aegilops sharonensis genome-assisted identification of stem rust resistance gene Sr62</strong>. <em>Nature Communications</em>, 2022; 13 (1) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29132-8\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41467-022-29132-8</a>\n</li>'),(1640,'Stem cell secrets allow researchers to revamp reprogramming','stem-cell-secrets-allow-researchers-to-revamp-reprogramming','2022-03-26 02:09:49.035115',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Researchers from the Babraham Institute\'s Epigenetics research programme have been able to learn more about naïve stem cell reprogramming following a genome wide functional screen. Their research, published today in <em>Science Advances</em>, describes the critical regulators of reprogramming and offers opportunities for a more efficient, faster way to generate human naïve pluripotent stem cells.</p><p>Human pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) are a useful tool for researchers investigating how cells specialise to make every tissue of our body. They come in two different states, primed and naïve. Both types of PSC can self-renew and differentiate into new cell types but they have distinct functions and molecular characteristics.</p><p>Group leader Peter Rugg-Gunn explained the importance of these cells: \"Human PSCs in the naïve state replicate the key molecular and cellular characteristics of cells in a pre-implantation stage embryo. Importantly, when naïve PSCs are encouraged to self-organise in particular conditions, they form structures that resemble an early blastocyst stage of development. By growing these cells in the lab, we can learn about the key events that happen during human development, and they have potential uses in personalised medicine. But we need to create high-quality, stable stem cell populations to be able to conduct our experiments.\"</p><p>Pluripotent stem cells are formed either from embryos or using Nobel Prize-winning methods to remove cell identity from specialised cells. The majority of reprogramming experiments generate primed PSCs, which are more developmentally advanced than naïve PSCs. Naïve PSCs can be collected directly from human pre-implantation embryos, or more commonly researchers expose primed PSCs to conditions that induces them to become naïve PSCs. Existing methods for reprogramming were inefficient and slow, preventing researchers\' from quickly producing the numbers of high-quality stem cells they needed.</p><p>Adam Bendall, PhD student and a lead researcher on the study, said: \"Very little was known about what genetic and epigenetic factors are required for naïve cell reprogramming, and this knowledge gap limited the design of reprogramming conditions.\"</p><p>The low efficiency of naïve reprogramming suggests the presence of barriers that limit cells in reaching the naïve state. Adam and his colleagues honed in on these barriers by performing a large-scale genetic screen to identify genes that hinder and help reprogramming. They were able to identify a large number of genes that have a crucial role in naïve PSC programming that had not been previously linked to the process.</p><p>The team focused on one epigenetic complex in particular, the PRC1.3 complex, that regulates gene expression without altering the underlying DNA sequence, and which they found to be essential for the formation of naïve PSCs. Without this complex, the cells undergoing reprogramming become a completely different type of cell rather than naïve PSCs. This suggests that the activity of PRC1.3 could encourage more cells to reprogram properly, in effect lowering the barrier.</p><p>After identifying factors that promote reprogramming, the researchers also looked at factors that impede reprogramming, exemplified in their study by an epigenetic protein called HDAC2. Dr Amanda Collier, first author on the paper, explained: \"Excitingly, when we inhibited one of these factors using selective chemicals, then naïve PSC reprogramming occurred more efficiently and rapidly. We\'re able to look at it from both sides; we can remove the barriers and introduce the factors that push cells towards state change.\"</p><p>Not only does this research improve scientists\' ability to produce human naïve PSCs, it provides details on the molecular events that occur during the cell state transition itself, some of which are conserved in developmental regulation in human embryos.</p><p>The Rugg-Gunn lab are putting together the pieces of a bigger puzzle -- the best understanding of the formation and control of naïve stem cells. Their previous research has identified molecular factors that help to maintain cells in a naïve stage. Group leader, Peter Rugg-Gunn said: \"By building up our tools for manipulating pluripotent stem cells, we can spend more time asking important questions about the pre-implantation embryo. In the longer term, further improvements in working with naïve PSCs might open up the possibility for using these cells in personalised disease models or cell therapies, although this will require more research on how to differentiate naïve PSCs into specialised cell types.\"</p>','2022-03-26 02:09:49.035115','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Babraham Institute','Researchers have identified key factors that promote the reprogramming of human stem cells to the naïve state, which can be used to model the earliest stages of development. This new knowledge will help researchers to generate naïve pluripotent stem cells more efficiently and quickly. Their findings also provide new insights into the mechanisms that destabilise and reconfigure cell identity during cell state transitions.\n',1,29,'<li>Amanda J. Collier, Adam Bendall, Charlene Fabian, Andrew A. Malcolm, Katarzyna Tilgner, Claudia I. Semprich, Katarzyna Wojdyla, Paola Serena Nisi, Kamal Kishore, Valar Nila Roamio Franklin, Bahar Mirshekar-Syahkal, Clive D’Santos, Kathrin Plath, Kosuke Yusa, Peter J. Rugg-Gunn. <strong>Genome-wide screening identifies Polycomb repressive complex 1.3 as an essential regulator of human naïve pluripotent cell reprogramming</strong>. <em>Science Advances</em>, 2022; 8 (12) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abk0013\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1126/sciadv.abk0013</a>\n</li>'),(1641,'Artificial hail for more accurate weather forecasts','artificial-hail-for-more-accurate-weather-forecasts','2022-03-26 02:09:53.086116',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">When the low-pressure system dubbed Bernd decided to park itself over part of Central Europe in the summer of 2021, the hazards associated with excessive rainfall events were made dramatically apparent in the form of the resultant catastrophic flooding. Weather records show that extreme natural occurrences such as drought, but also heavy rainfall and hail storms, are likely to occur even more frequently in this part of the world as a result of climate change. And their consequences could become even more devastating. Hailstones, for example, can cause damage to crops, vehicles, and buildings and they can be dangerous for exposed humans and animals, too. It is thus all the more important that weather models are capable of most accurately predicting the possibility and extent of any such precipitation. For this, the numerical weather models must be based on precisely formulated mathematical interpretations of the physical processes in clouds.</p><p>The vertical wind tunnel at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU), which is the only one of its kind in the world, is providing essential information in this connection through new experiments that are being conducted using artificial hailstones made by a 3D printer. \"One thing we have learned so far is that it is the form of hailstones that determines their velocity prior to impact,\" explained Dr. Miklós Szakáll of the Institute of Atmospheric Physics (IPA) at JGU. Szakáll\'s team has been able to demonstrate that lobed hailstones develop less kinetic energy and thus less destructive potential than hail with a smooth surface.</p><p>Hail and graupel, which is the term used to describe precipitated small, soft ice pellets, are formed when water droplets freeze within storm clouds. This freezing process is promoted by turbulences and complex physical processes in these clouds that can extend to very high altitudes. These ice particles melt if they pass through warmer air layers on the way down. The result is large, cold raindrops and these are often the culprits behind extreme rainfall precipitation. Assuming that the ice particles do not have time to melt completely before reaching the ground, they arrive in the form of hail or graupel.</p><p><strong>Experiments with natural and artificial hailstones</strong></p><p>The conditions in the interior of clouds determine the characteristic form, size, and mass of these frozen droplets. \"In our experiments with natural hailstones, we have seen that they melt to form raindrops that can be several millimeters in diameter. Large hailstones can also burst during the melting process, forming numerous small water droplets,\" Szakáll added. From the recorded measurements, his team was able to extrapolate parameters that they could use as the main elements for the numerical simulation of clouds and precipitation in computer models.</p><p>The research team in Mainz produced hailstones and graupel particles from frozen water in the lab. Employing realistic temperature and humidity conditions, the researchers looked closely at how these fell or melted in the vertical wind tunnel. In addition, they used a 3D printer to create artificial hail and graupel pellets modeled on their natural counterparts -- even the material density corresponded with that of ice. They used these to measure the free fall properties of the descending objects, factors that are particularly relevant to the microphysical processes in extreme precipitation events.</p><p>The hail and graupel pellets were suspended freely in an artificially produced vertical air stream in the six-meter-high wind tunnel. Their behavior was recorded using high speed and infrared cameras and a specially developed holographic imaging system.</p><p>\"If we apply the insights into microphysical aspects of precipitation we have obtained through these experiments to models used for the analysis of storm clouds, we can better anticipate what they will do,\" explained Professor Stephan Borrmann of the IPA and Director at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry. \"This becomes particularly significant in view of the probable increase in extreme weather events, such as drought and torrential rainfall, that will occur even in our part of the world due to climate change,\" emphasized Borrmann.</p><p>The experiments in Mainz were undertaken under the aegis of the HydroCOMET project sponsored by the German Research Foundation (DFG). The results have been published in five peer-reviewed journals and as a book contribution.</p><p>The experts reviewing the HydroCOMET findings provided very positive assessments of the lab experiments performed in Mainz and the associated publications. They particularly stressed the important role played by the available infrastructure, i.e., the vertical wind tunnel.</p><p><strong>Story Source:</strong></p>','2022-03-26 02:09:53.086116','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Johannes Gutenberg Universitaet Mainz','A vertical wind tunnel has supplied important data to facilitate the prediction of heavy rain, hail, and graupel precipitation.\n',1,45,'<li>Karoline Diehl, Florian Zanger, Miklós Szakáll, Andrew Heymsfield, Stephan Borrmann. <strong>Vertical wind tunnel experiments and a theoretical study on the microphysics of melting low-density graupel</strong>. <em>Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences</em>, 2021; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/JAS-D-21-0162.1\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1175/JAS-D-21-0162.1</a>\n</li>'),(1642,'The mystery of an unusual Panamanian plant’s dispersal','the-mystery-of-an-unusual-panamanian-plant’s-dispersal','2022-03-26 20:33:28.622760',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Sleeping in a car may be a necessity for scientists conducting fieldwork. In 2020, a team of young researchers spent two nights sleeping in their car in the mountains of western Panama. The second time it was not intentional: their car broke down in El Copé, in Coclé province, and they had to wait for a tow truck. At least a woman from the area took pity on them and offered them fried plantains and coffee. A few years and a pandemic later, the study resulting from those adventures was published in the journal <em>Ecology and Evolution</em>, revealing clues about the natural history of an unusual plant that only exists in Panama.</p><p><em>Zamia pseudoparasitica</em> is a unique species that is only found in the montane cloud forests of western Panama. It is a cycad, belonging to a very ancient order of plants that resemble palm trees and produce cones. The genus, <em>Zamia</em>, originated 68.3 million years ago, when there were still dinosaurs roaming the planet. But the most unusual thing about this particular species is that it is the only epiphytic <em>Zamia</em> in the world: it does not grow on the ground, but hangs on to the branches and trunks of trees using its roots, generally 7-20 meters above the ground.</p><p>To begin to solve the mystery of how it persists in the canopy, a somewhat fortuitous research team formed. Doctoral student at the Max Planck Institute for Animal Behavior and visiting scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), Claudio Monteza, and Senacyt-STRI intern and biologist Lilisbeth Rodríguez, ran into each other one day at the Smithsonian research station on Barro Colorado Island, in the Panama Canal. She told him about the project that she was conducting with <em>Z. pseudoparasitica</em> under the supervision of Juan Carlos Villarreal, a biologist from Laval University in Canada, and Kristin Saltonstall, a STRI staff scientist in Panama.</p><p>\"My goal was to collect samples from different species of <em>Zamias</em> in the country,\" Rodríguez said. \"These samples would later be analyzed in the laboratory to find out what species of fungi and bacteria grow inside their leaves.\"</p><p>Her supervisor, Juan Carlos Villarreal, told her that no one knew how this plant\'s seeds were dispersed: it was still a mystery. But given her experience climbing trees as part of the project, and aware of Claudio\'s work with camera traps to study mammal behavior, Lilisbeth asked to borrow some traps. She wanted to place them high up in the trees to find out what species of animals interacted with the <em>Zamia</em>.</p><p>Claudio joined the project, as did Pedro Luis Castillo, a research assistant at STRI, and Edgar Toribio, a tour guide from Santa Fe. At the end of 2019, they placed the camera traps on trees in three protected areas where <em>Z. pseudoparasitica</em> grows: the Palo Seco Protected Forest, the Santa Fe National Park and the Omar Torrijos Herrera National Park in El Copé. In March, shortly before a mandatory quarantine due to the pandemic began, they collected the camera traps.</p><p>What they saw in the images could help explain how <em>Z. pseudoparasitica</em> disperses in the trees and not on the ground like other <em>Zamia</em> species. While seven different mammals visited the branches where <em>Z. pseudoparasitica</em> were growing, some paid no attention to the plant; others, such as capuchin monkeys, opossums and kinkajous inspected its cones, some even licked them, but did not take the seeds. Only the northern olingo (<em>Bassaricyon gabbii</em>), a nocturnal tree-dwelling mammal that is active high in the canopy and feeds primarily on fruit, was repeatedly observed at all three sites. When the cones of <em>Z. pseudoparasitica</em> were still closed and immature, they were seen inspecting and biting them. Once opened, the cameras detected the olingos collecting up to four seeds at a time.</p><p>\"It could be that the olingos are taking the seeds to what would be their den or perhaps to a seed bank,\" Monteza explained. \"If they are, which we don\'t yet know for sure, it would help to explain why this is the only <em>Zamia</em> species that lives in the forest canopy.\"</p><p>In other words, if the seeds are being stored in the canopy by olingos, chances are they might end up in favorable places for germination up there.</p><p>\"The montane forests of western Panama are very unique, filled with many species that aren\'t found anywhere else,\" said Kristin Saltonstall, co-supervisor of the project. \"It\'s exciting to document this interaction between such a special plant and an animal that is also poorly understood.\"</p><p>\"<em>Z. pseudoparasitica</em> is a true epiphyte; that is to say, it spends its entire life in the forest canopy,\" said Monteza. \"How it persists there is a mystery that perhaps we will begin to solve with these initial findings. It\'s exciting because we can continue to the next phase by collecting more data; for example, it occurs to us that we can mark the seeds with bioluminescence, wait for the olingos to take them away and then search for the seeds at night.\"</p><p><strong>Story Source:</strong></p>','2022-03-26 20:33:28.622760','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute','Camera traps in the forest canopy document a nocturnal mammal that may be helping Zamia pseudoparasitica survive up in the air.\n',1,27,'<li>Claudio M. Monteza‐Moreno, Lilisbeth Rodriguez‐Castro, Pedro L. Castillo‐Caballero, Edgar Toribio, Kristin Saltonstall. <strong>Arboreal camera trapping sheds light on seed dispersal of the world’s only epiphytic gymnosperm:            Zamia pseudoparasitica</strong>. <em>Ecology and Evolution</em>, 2022; 12 (3) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8769\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1002/ece3.8769</a>\n</li>'),(1643,'New pathway for DNA transfer discovered in tumor microenvironment','new-pathway-for-dna-transfer-discovered-in-tumor-microenvironment','2022-03-26 20:33:54.481495',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">University of Notre Dame researchers have discovered another way tumor cells transfer genetic material to other cells in their microenvironment, causing cancer to spread.</p><p>In their latest study, published in <em>Cell Reports</em>, Crislyn D\'Souza-Schorey, the Morris Pollard Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, and collaborators discovered that DNA \"cargo\" is transported in small informational sacs called extracellular microvesicles. Their study is a continuation of work her lab has undertaken to further understand the sharing of information between cells.</p><p>\"We\'ve shown that DNA present in these microvesicles is related to metastasis, so now we have a great platform to assess for genetic aberrations,\" said D\'Souza-Schorey, who is also affiliated with the Berthiaume Institute for Precision Health, the Boler-Parseghian Center for Rare and Neglected Diseases and the Harper Cancer Research Institute.</p><p>Cancer cells, unlike normal cells, are often filled with cytosolic DNA, which is DNA found in the jelly-like fluid outside of the cell\'s nucleus. This DNA can be derived from multiple sources, but recent evidence suggests that chromosomal instability is a primary source of cytosolic DNA in tumor cells.</p><p>The research team used a cell model from a male cancer patient to show how Y-chromosomal DNA -- present in the cytosol due to chromosomal instability -- is carried by extracellular vesicles and transferred to a female mammary epithelial cell line.</p><p>\"These female cells do not have Y-chromosomal DNA present without exposure to the male microvesicles,\" said James Clancy, research assistant professor of biological sciences, who is the first author on the paper. \"This is an accessible way to show people that the DNA was transferred, making it easier to prove this form of communication.\"</p><p>The researchers demonstrated that cytosolic DNA is moved to microvesicles alongside an enzyme, cGAS, which was discovered in part because of its role during the immune response to bacterial and viral infections. Scientists have increasingly recognized that cGAS may play a part in tumor progression, and this new study delineated a way the DNA is modified to aid that progression.</p><p>Work published by D\'Souza-Schorey\'s lab in 2019 in <em>Nature Cell Biology</em> described how microRNA within tumor cells is moved to microvesicles just beginning to form at the cell periphery. Once shed, these vesicles are taken up by non-tumor cells in the microenvironment. Microvesicles can also be found circulating through the body in fluids like blood and urine, and can be used as biomarkers that point to the presence of cancer.</p><p>While microRNA can affect protein expression more quickly than DNA, the researchers were interested in the DNA content as it is the actual part of a person\'s genome, including any tumor-associated mutations, Clancy said. It was also more difficult to prove that DNA has moved from one cell to another.</p><p>The lab\'s continued foundational research in this area may lead to early detection of different types of tumors.</p><p>In addition to D\'Souza-Schorey and Clancy, others who worked on the study include Colin Sheehan, class of \'19, and Alex C. Boomgarden, a fourth-year doctoral student at Notre Dame and recipient of a Berthiaume Institute for Precision Health predoctoral fellowship. Sheehan is now pursuing his doctoral degree at the University of Chicago. The study was supported in part by the National Cancer Institute and the Boler Family Foundation.</p>','2022-03-26 20:33:54.481495','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Notre Dame','Researchers have discovered another way tumor cells transfer genetic material to other cells in their microenvironment, causing cancer to spread.\n',1,89,'<li>James W. Clancy, Colin S. Sheehan, Alex C. Boomgarden, Crislyn D’Souza-Schorey. <strong>Recruitment of DNA to tumor-derived microvesicles</strong>. <em>Cell Reports</em>, 2022; 38 (9): 110443 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2022.110443\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.celrep.2022.110443</a>\n</li>'),(1644,'Design of protein binders from target structure alone','design-of-protein-binders-from-target-structure-alone','2022-03-26 20:33:56.137707',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">A team of scientists has created a powerful new method for generating protein drugs. Using computers, they designed molecules that can target important proteins in the body, such as the insulin receptor, as well as vulnerable proteins on the surface of viruses. This solves a long-standing challenge in drug development and may lead to new treatments for cancer, diabetes, infection, inflammation, and beyond.</p><p>The research, appearing March 24 in the journal <em>Nature</em>, was led by scientists in the laboratory of David Baker, professor of biochemistry at the University of Washington School of Medicine and a recipient of the 2021 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences.</p><p>\"The ability to generate new proteins that bind tightly and specifically to any molecular target that you want is a paradigm shift in drug development and molecular biology more broadly,\" said Baker.</p><p>Antibodies are today\'s most common protein-based drugs. They typically function by binding to a specific molecular target, which then becomes either activated or deactivated. Antibodies can treat a wide range of health disorders, including COVID-19 and cancer, but generating new ones is challenging. Antibodies can also be costly to manufacture.</p><p>A team led by two postdoctoral scholars in the Baker lab, Longxing Cao and Brian Coventry, combined recent advances in the field of computational protein design to arrive at a strategy for creating new proteins that bind molecular targets in a manner similar to antibodies. They developed software that can scan a target molecule, identify potential binding sites, generate proteins targeting those sites, and then screen from millions of candidate binding proteins to identify those most likely to function.</p><p>The team used the new software to generate high-affinity binding proteins against 12 distinct molecular targets. These targets include important cellular receptors such as TrkA, EGFR, Tie2, and the insulin receptor, as well proteins on the surface of the influenza virus and SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19).</p><p>\"When it comes to creating new drugs, there are easy targets and there are hard targets,\" said Cao, who is now an assistant professor at Westlake University. \"In this paper, we show that even very hard targets are amenable to this approach. We were able to make binding proteins to some targets that had no known binding partners or antibodies,\"</p><p>In total, the team produced over half a million candidate binding proteins for the 12 selected molecular targets. Data collected on this large pool of candidate binding proteins was used to improve the overall method.</p><p>\"We look forward to seeing how these molecules might be used in a clinical context, and more importantly how this new method of designing protein drugs might lead to even more promising compounds in the future,\" said Coventry.</p><p>The research team included scientists from the University of Washington School of Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, Ghent University, The Scripps Research Institute, and the National Cancer Institute, among other institutions.</p><p>This work was supported in part by The Audacious Project at the Institute for Protein Design, Open Philanthropy Project, National Institutes of Health (HHSN272201700059C, R01AI140245, R01AI150855, R01AG063845), Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (HR0011835403 contract FA8750-17-C-0219), Defense Threat Reduction Agency (HDTRA1-16-C-0029), Schmidt Futures, Gates Ventures, Donald and Jo Anne Petersen Endowment, and an Azure computing gift for COVID-19 research provided by Microsoft.</p><p><strong>Story Source:</strong></p>','2022-03-26 20:33:56.137707','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Washington School of Medicine/UW Medicine','Scientists have now created a powerful new method for generating protein drugs. Using computers, they designed molecules that can target important proteins in the body, such as the insulin receptor, as well as vulnerable proteins on the surface of viruses. This solves a long-standing challenge in drug development and may lead to new treatments for cancer, diabetes, infection, inflammation, and beyond.\n',1,203,'<li>Longxing Cao, Brian Coventry, Inna Goreshnik, Buwei Huang, Joon Sung Park, Kevin M. Jude, Iva Marković, Rameshwar U. Kadam, Koen H. G. Verschueren, Kenneth Verstraete, Scott Thomas Russell Walsh, Nathaniel Bennett, Ashish Phal, Aerin Yang, Lisa Kozodoy, Michelle DeWitt, Lora Picton, Lauren Miller, Eva-Maria Strauch, Nicholas D. DeBouver, Allison Pires, Asim K. Bera, Samer Halabiya, Bradley Hammerson, Wei Yang, Steffen Bernard, Lance Stewart, Ian A. Wilson, Hannele Ruohola-Baker, Joseph Schlessinger, Sangwon Lee, Savvas N. Savvides, K. Christopher Garcia, David Baker. <strong>Design of protein binding proteins from target structure alone</strong>. <em>Nature</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04654-9\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41586-022-04654-9</a>\n</li>'),(1645,'Stabilizing emulsion research improves firefighting operations and more','stabilizing-emulsion-research-improves-firefighting-operations-and-more','2022-03-26 20:33:59.809494',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Researchers at Texas A&amp;M University have found a way to control the charge of nanoparticles on a two-fluid interface to create a more stable system in which its charge can also be switched and controlled. The ability to change the charge of nanoparticles on a two-fluid interface would result in a surface that could acclimate itself to fit many diverse applications, such as a more durable firefighting operation and even controlled release in certain medications.</p><p>\"Based on this idea, we proposed a concept that this will be a pH-responsive material. If we change the pH value, we can control the molecular diffusion,\" said Dr. Qingsheng Wang, associate professor in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering and holder of the George Armistead \'23 Faculty Fellowship at Texas A&amp;M.</p><p>The team\'s research was published in the American Chemical Society\'s journal, <em>ACS Applied Materials &amp; Interfaces</em>.</p><p>Emulsion is a mixture of two or more incompatible and unmixable liquids, much like oil and water, that can be stabilized by the interference of solid particles. These solid particles tightly assemble at the fluid-fluid interface, like swim lanes in a lap pool, to prevent coalescence. This process is known as Pickering emulsion.</p><p>The success of this system is ultimately made possible by the use of graphene quantum dots (GQDs) containing zwitterionic properties. Using several sheets of GQDs stacked together, the research team is able to not only stabilize emulsion, but also control the molecular diffusion on the interface by adjusting its pH values, much like flipping a light switch. These sheets together measure less than 5 nanometers in thickness. To put this into perspective, the average human hair is anywhere from 80,000 to 100,000 nanometers wide.</p><p>The functionalized GQDs are composed of nanocarbon materials containing zwitterionic structure, which is formed from nanoparticles that contain an equal amount of both positive and negative charges while still remaining electronically neutral. After the nanoparticles are added to the interface, they separate the two fluids by making one side hydrophobic and the other side hydrophilic.</p><p>This electronic makeup also makes it possible to control the overall pH of the interface. By adjusting the pH values, these GQDs can be finely tuned to both block and unblock an oil-water interface. Changing the nanoplatelets on the interface to the same charge means that they will be disassembled, thus creating a more stable emulsion system.</p><p>\"This is going to help us design a good system in high-performance fire suppression. In addition, because we can control the release, this could be promising for drug delivery and enhanced oil recovery,\" Wang said. \"Usually, this is very difficult to do. And sometimes, if we can control the release, but the system itself is not stable, it may only be possible to do one or two cycles of this before the system collapses.\"</p><p>The research team consists of chemical engineering doctoral student Rong Ma and former chemical engineering doctoral students Dr. Minxiang Zeng, now a research scientist at the University of Notre Dame, and Dr. Dali Huang, now a process engineer at Formosa Plastics Corporation.</p>','2022-03-26 20:33:59.809494','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Texas A&M University','Researchers have found a way to control the charge of nanoparticles on a two-fluid interface to create a more stable system in which its charge can also be switched and controlled. The ability to change the charge of nanoparticles on a two-fluid interface would result in a surface that could acclimate itself to fit many diverse applications, such as a more durable firefighting operation and even controlled release in certain medications.\n',1,45,'<li>Rong Ma, Minxiang Zeng, Dali Huang, Qingsheng Wang. <strong>Zwitterionic Graphene Quantum Dots to Stabilize Pickering Emulsions for Controlled-Release Applications</strong>. <em>ACS Applied Materials &amp; Interfaces</em>, 2022; 14 (5): 7486 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acsami.1c23226\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1021/acsami.1c23226</a>\n</li>'),(1646,'Attention to objects in peripheral vision is not driven by tiny eye movements','attention-to-objects-in-peripheral-vision-is-not-driven-by-tiny-eye-movements','2022-03-26 20:34:02.543828',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Minuscule involuntary eye movements, known as microsaccades, can occur even while one is carefully staring at a fixed point in space. When paying attention to something in the peripheral vision (called covert attention), these microsaccades sometimes align towards the object of interest. New research by National Eye Institute (NEI) investigators shows that while these microsaccades seem to boost or diminish the strength of the brain signals underlying attention, the eye movements are not drivers of those brain signals. The findings will help researchers interpret studies about covert attention and may open new areas for research into attention disorders and behavior. NEI is part of the National Institutes of Health.</p><p>Scientists working on the neuroscience of attention have recently become concerned that because both attention and eye movements, like microsaccades, involve the same groups of neurons in the brain, that microsaccades might be required for shifting attention.</p><p>\"If microsaccades were driving attention, that would bring into question a lot of previous research in the field.\" said Richard Krauzlis, Ph.D., chief of the NEI Section on Eye Movements and Visual Selection, and senior author of a study report on the research. \"This work shows that while microsaccades and attention do share some mechanisms, covert attention is not driven by eye movements.\"</p><p>Krauzlis\' previous research has shown that covert attention causes a modulation of certain neuronal signals in an evolutionarily ancient area of the brain called the superior colliculus, which is involved in the detection of events. When attention is being paid to a particular area -- for example, the right-hand side of one\'s peripheral vision -- signals in the superior colliculus relating to events that occur in that area will receive an extra boost, while signals relating to events occurring somewhere else, like on the left-hand side, will be depressed.</p><p>When something shows up in our peripheral vision, we quickly shift our eyes -- make a large saccade toward the event to take a better look. This movement brings the event into our high-resolution central vision. These eye movements are accompanied by a general decrease in visual signals, as the brain ignores the quickly shifting visual information received by the eye. In laboratory studies of covert attention, primates or people are directed to avoid those types of large saccades, keeping the attended event in the peripheral vision. However, involuntary microsaccades, which are accompanied by similar decreases in visual signals, often occur anyway.</p><p>In this study, led by first author Gongchen Yu, Ph.D., the researchers asked whether attention-based signal changes in the superior colliculus are driven by microsaccades, or if the two processes can be separated.</p><p>The researchers trained monkeys to hold their eyes straight ahead, while attending to their peripheral vision. The researchers would cue either the left or right side by flashing a ring on the \"cued\" side. After the cue, the monkeys would release a joystick if they detected a color change on the cued side, while ignoring any color changes on the uncued side. The researchers could measure changes in neuronal activity on both sides of the superior colliculus, detecting a boost to the cued side, and lower signals on the uncued side.</p><p>At the same time, the researchers used high-resolution eye-tracking cameras to measure microsaccades during the trials. Sometimes, there would be no microsaccades. In other trials, the monkeys would make a microsaccade toward the cued side, or away from the cued side. By lining up the signals based on the time any microsaccade began, the researchers found that the neuronal signals for attention in the superior colliculus were present before the microsaccade, and then would re-establish after the microsaccade.</p><p>In essence, although the eye movement would also trigger changes to neuronal signals in the superior colliculus, attention-related signals occurred independently of the eye movement signals.</p><p>\"While the neuronal circuits activated by these two systems do overlap, the link between microsaccades and attention is not a causal one,\" Krauzlis said.</p><p>\"The majority of vision neuroscientists have been using this type of experimental system to study visual attention for decades. It\'s a big relief to reconfirm that microsaccades are not the driver of the neuronal changes seen with visual attention,\" said Yu. \"This result means we don\'t need to reevaluate decades of work!\"</p><p>This study was funded by the NEI Intramural Program.</p>','2022-03-26 20:34:02.543828','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'NIH/National Eye Institute','New research shows that while microsaccades seem to boost or diminish the strength of the brain signals underlying attention, eye movements are not drivers of those brain signals.\n',1,27,'<li>Gongchen Yu, James P Herman, Leor N Katz, Richard J Krauzlis. <strong>Microsaccades as a marker not a cause for attention-related modulation</strong>. <em>eLife</em>, 2022; 11 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.74168\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.7554/eLife.74168</a>\n</li>'),(1647,'Alpaca nanobodies potently neutralize SARS-CoV-2 variants','alpaca-nanobodies-potently-neutralize-sars-cov-2-variants','2022-03-26 20:34:07.438452',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have developed a novel strategy for identifying potent miniature antibodies, so-called nanobodies, against emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants. The approach led to the discovery of multiple nanobodies that in cell cultures and mice effectively blocked infection with different SARS-CoV-2 variants. The findings, which are described in the journals <em>Nature Communications</em> and <em>Science Advances</em>, could pave the way for new treatments against COVID-19.</p><p>\"With the help of advanced laboratory techniques, we were able to identify a panel of nanobodies that very effectively neutralized several variants of SARS-CoV-2,\" says Gerald McInerney, professor at the Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology (MTC), Karolinska Institutet, and joint senior author of both studies.</p><p>Despite the roll-out of vaccines and antivirals, the need for effective therapeutics against severe COVID-19 infection remains high. Nanobodies -- which are fragments of antibodies that occur naturally in camelids and can be adapted for humans -- are promising therapeutic candidates as they offer several advantages over conventional antibodies. For example, they have favourable biochemical properties and are easy to produce cost-effectively at scale.</p><p>In the now published studies, the labs of Gerald McInerney and Ben Murrell, also at MTC, identify several potent nanobodies derived from an alpaca immunised with SARS-CoV-2 antigens.</p><p>The first report in <em>Nature Communications</em> describes a single nanobody, Fu2 (named after the alpaca Funny), that significantly reduced the viral load of SARS-CoV-2 in cell cultures and mice. Using electron cryo-microscopy, the researchers found that Fu2 naturally binds to two separate sites on the viral spike, thus inhibiting the virus\' ability to enter the host cell. This part of the study was conducted in collaboration with Hrishikesh Das and Martin Hällberg at the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology at Karolinska Institutet.</p><p>The researchers next delved deeper into the alpaca\'s nanobody repertoire by combining a range of advanced laboratory techniques and computational methods, resulting in a library of nanobodies described in detail.</p><p>The results, presented in <em>Science Advances</em>, revealed additional nanobodies that in cell cultures and mice effectively cross-neutralized both the founder and beta variant of SARS-CoV-2 and even neutralized the more distantly related SARS-CoV-1.</p><p>\"These nanobodies represent promising therapeutic candidates against several SARS-CoV-2 variants,\" says first author Leo Hanke, a postdoctoral researcher who established the nanobody technology in the McInerney group.</p><p>The researchers are currently applying the same techniques to identify which nanobodies from this set are best able to neutralize Omicron, the now dominating SARS-CoV-2 variant.</p><p>\"Once established, these libraries can be expanded and mined for nanobodies that neutralize new emerging variants,\" says Assistant Professor Ben Murrell, also joint senior author of both studies.</p><p>Funding was provided by David and Astrid Hagelén Foundation, the Clas Groschinskys Minnesfond and a Jonas Söderquist\'s scholarship, European Union\'s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program, Swedish Research Council, and Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation.</p>','2022-03-26 20:34:07.438452','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Karolinska Institutet','Researchers have developed a novel strategy for identifying potent miniature antibodies, so-called nanobodies, against emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants. The approach led to the discovery of multiple nanobodies that in cell cultures and mice effectively blocked infection with different SARS-CoV-2 variants. The findings could pave the way for new treatments against COVID-19.\n',1,74,'<li>Leo Hanke, Hrishikesh Das, Daniel J. Sheward, Laura Perez Vidakovics, Egon Urgard, Ainhoa Moliner-Morro, Changil Kim, Vivien Karl, Alec Pankow, Natalie L. Smith, Bartlomiej Porebski, Oscar Fernandez-Capetillo, Erdinc Sezgin, Gabriel K. Pedersen, Jonathan M. Coquet, B. Martin Hällberg, Ben Murrell, Gerald M. McInerney. <strong>A bispecific monomeric nanobody induces spike trimer dimers and neutralizes SARS-CoV-2 in vivo</strong>. <em>Nature Communications</em>, 2022; 13 (1) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-27610-z\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41467-021-27610-z</a>\n</li>'),(1648,'New study reveals why HIV remains in human tissue even after antiretroviral therapy','new-study-reveals-why-hiv-remains-in-human-tissue-even-after-antiretroviral-therapy','2022-03-26 20:34:10.141528',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Thanks to antiretroviral therapy, HIV infection is no longer the life sentence it once was. But despite the effectiveness of drugs to manage and treat the virus, it can never be fully eliminated from the human body, lingering in some cells deep in different human tissues where it goes unnoticed by the immune system.</p><p>Now, new research by University of Alberta immunologist Shokrollah Elahi reveals a possible answer to the mystery of why infected people can\'t get rid of HIV altogether.</p><p>Elahi and his team found that in HIV patients, killer T cells -- a type of white blood cells responsible for identifying and destroying cells infected with viruses -- have very little to none of a protein called CD73.</p><p>Because CD73 is responsible for migration and cell movement into the tissue, the lack of the protein compromises the ability of killer T cells to find and eliminate HIV-infected cells, explained Elahi.</p><p>\"This mechanism explains one potential reason for why HIV stays in human tissues forever,\" he said, adding that the research also shows the complexity of HIV infection.</p><p>\"This provides us the opportunity to come up with potential new treatments that would help killer T cells migrate better to gain access to the infected cells in different tissues.\"</p><p>After identifying the role of CD73 -- a three-year project -- Elahi turned his focus to understanding potential causes for the drastic reduction. He found it is partly due to the chronic inflammation that is common among people living with HIV.</p><p>\"Following extensive studies, we discovered that chronic inflammation results in increased levels of a type of RNA found in cells and in blood, called microRNAs,\" he explained. \"These are very small types of RNA that can bind to messenger RNAs to block them from making CD73 protein. We found this was causing the CD73 gene to be suppressed.\"</p><p>The team\'s discovery also helps explain why people with HIV have a lower risk of developing multiple sclerosis, Elahi noted.</p><p>\"Our findings suggest that reduced or eliminated CD73 can be beneficial in HIV-infected individuals to protect them against MS. Therefore, targeting CD73 could be a novel potential therapeutic marker for MS patients.\"</p><p>Elahi said the next steps in his research include identifying ways the CD73 gene can be manipulated to turn on in patients living with HIV and off in those with MS.</p>','2022-03-26 20:34:10.141528','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Alberta','Thanks to antiretroviral therapy, HIV infection is no longer the life sentence it once was. But despite the effectiveness of drugs to manage and treat the virus, it can never be fully eliminated from the human body, lingering in some cells deep in different human tissues where it goes unnoticed by the immune system. Now, new research by University of Alberta immunologist Shokrollah Elahi reveals a possible answer to the mystery of why infected people can\'t get rid of HIV altogether. Elahi and his team found that in HIV patients, killer T cells -- a type of white blood cells responsible for identifying and destroying cells infected with viruses -- have very little to none of a protein called CD73. Because CD73 is responsible for migration and cell movement into the tissue, the lack of the protein compromises the ability of killer T cells to find and eliminate HIV-infected cells, explained Elahi.\n',1,88,'<li>Shima Shahbaz, Isobel Okoye, Gregg Blevins, Shokrollah Elahi. <strong>Elevated ATP via enhanced miRNA-30b, 30c, and 30e downregulates the expression of CD73 in CD8  T cells of HIV-infected individuals</strong>. <em>PLOS Pathogens</em>, 2022; 18 (3): e1010378 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1010378\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1371/journal.ppat.1010378</a>\n</li>'),(1649,'COVID-19 mixed with flu increases risk of severe illness and death','covid-19-mixed-with-flu-increases-risk-of-severe-illness-and-death','2022-03-26 23:41:51.829990',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Adults in hospital who have Covid-19 and the flu at the same time are at much greater risk of severe disease and death compared with patients who have Covid-19 alone or with other viruses, research shows.</p><p>Patients with co-infection of SARS-CoV-2, which causes Covid-19, and influenza viruses were over four times more likely to require ventilation support and 2.4 times more likely to die than if they only had Covid-19, experts found.</p><p>Researchers say the findings show the need for greater flu testing of Covid-19 patients in hospital and highlight the importance of full vaccination against both Covid-19 and the flu.</p><p>The team from the University of Edinburgh, University of Liverpool, Leiden University and Imperial College London, made the findings in a study of more than 305,000 hospitalised patients with Covid-19.</p><p>The research -- delivered as part of the International Severe Acute Respiratory and emerging Infection Consortium\'s (ISARIC) Coronavirus Clinical Characterisation Consortium -- is the largest ever study of people with Covid-19 and other endemic respiratory viruses.</p><p>ISARIC\'s study was set up in 2013 in readiness for a pandemic such as this.</p><p>The team looked at the data of adults who had been hospitalised with Covid-19 in the UK between 6 February 2020 and 8 December 2021.</p><p>Test results for respiratory viral co-infections were recorded for 6965 patients with Covid-19. Some 227 of these also had the influenza virus, and they experienced significantly more severe outcomes.</p><p>Dr Maaike Swets, PhD student at the University of Edinburgh and Leiden University, said: \"In the last two years we have frequently witnessed patients with Covid-19 become severely ill, at times leading to an ICU admission and the employment of an artificial ventilator to help with breathing. That an influenza infection could give rise to a similar situation was already known, but less was understood about the outcomes of a double infection of SARS-CoV-2 and other respiratory viruses.\"</p><p>Professor Kenneth Baillie, Professor of Experimental Medicine at the University of Edinburgh, said: \"We found that the combination of Covid-19 and flu viruses is particularly dangerous. This will be important as many countries decrease the use of social distancing and containment measures. We expect that Covid-19 will circulate with flu, increasing the chance of co-infections. That is why we should change our testing strategy for Covid-19 patients in hospital and test for flu much more widely.\"</p><p>Professor Calum Semple, Professor of Outbreak Medicine and Child Health at the University of Liverpool, said: \"We are seeing a rise in the usual seasonal respiratory viruses as people return to normal mixing. So, we can expect flu to be circulating alongside Covid-19 this winter. We were surprised that the risk of death more than doubled when people were infected by both flu and Covid-19 viruses. It is now very important that people get fully vaccinated and boosted against both viruses, and not leave it until it is too late.\"</p><p>Dr Geert Groeneveld, doctor at Leiden University Medical Center\'s infectious diseases department, said: \"Understanding the consequences of double infections of SARS-CoV-2 and other respiratory viruses is crucial as they have implications for patients, hospitals and ICU capacity during seasons that SARS-CoV-2 and influenza circulate together.\"</p><p>Professor Peter Openshaw, Professor of Experimental Medicine at Imperial College London, said: \"Being infected with more than one virus is not very common but it\'s important to be aware that co-infections do happen. The vaccines that protect against Covid-19 and flu are different, and people need both. The way that these two infections are treated is also different so it\'s important to test for other viruses even when you have a diagnosis in someone who is hospitalised with a respiratory infection. This latest discovery by the ISARIC consortium again adds significantly to improving the way we manage patients.\"</p><p>The findings have been published in <em>The Lancet</em>. The research was funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and by the Department of Health and Social Care through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) as part of the UK Government\'s Covid-19 rapid research response.</p>','2022-03-26 23:41:51.829990','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Edinburgh','Adults in hospital who have COVID-19 and the flu at the same time are at much greater risk of severe disease and death compared with patients who have COVID-19 alone or with other viruses, research shows.\n',1,114,'<li>Maaike C Swets, Clark D Russell, Ewen M Harrison, Annemarie B Docherty, Nazir Lone, Michelle Girvan, Hayley E Hardwick, Leonardus G Visser, Peter J M Openshaw, Geert H Groeneveld, Malcolm G Semple, J Kenneth Baillie. <strong>SARS-CoV-2 co-infection with influenza viruses, respiratory syncytial virus, or adenoviruses</strong>. <em>The Lancet</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(22)00383-X\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/S0140-6736(22)00383-X</a>\n</li>'),(1650,'Advances in street lighting are reducing the efficacy of coastal species’ camouflage','advances-in-street-lighting-are-reducing-the-efficacy-of-coastal-species’-camouflage','2022-03-26 23:41:54.189309',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Species that rely on darkness to forage and feed are losing the gift of camouflage thanks to advances in the lighting used to illuminate the world\'s cities and coastlines, a study has shown.</p><p>The worldwide proliferation of energy efficient broad spectrum lighting has the potential to disrupt an array of visually guided ecological processes.</p><p>New research has demonstrated that these new lighting technologies can significantly improve a predator\'s ability to discriminate prey species against a natural background.</p><p>The magnitude of this effect varies depending on an organism\'s colour, meaning certain colour variations may be at greater risk.</p><p>The study, published in the <em>Journal of Applied Ecology</em>, was conducted by researchers at the University of Plymouth and Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML).</p><p>It is one of the first to examine the potential for artificial light at night (ALAN) to affect the camouflage mechanisms of coastal species.</p><p>Oak McMahon, who led the research while studying for an MSc in Applied Marine Science and is now a PhD candidate at the University of Plymouth, said: \"This study clearly indicates that new lighting technologies will increase the conspicuousness of prey species by reducing the efficacy of their camouflage. Our findings revealed that species of Littorinid snails found commonly on our coastlines will remain camouflaged when illuminated by older style lighting. However, when illuminated by modern broad spectrum lighting, they are clearly visible to predators and at far greater long-term risk as a result.\"</p><p>Funded by the Natural Environment Research Council, this is the latest research by the University and PML to highlight the growing levels of ALAN and its impacts on coastal environments.</p><p>For this study, scientists used a well-established model to determine the conspicuousness of three distinct colour morphs of Littorinid snail found commonly along the world\'s coastlines.</p><p>They compared how the species appeared to three common coastal predators when illuminated by different forms of lighting. This included 20th century narrow spectrum Low Pressure Sodium (LPS) lighting, three types of modern broad spectrum lighting -- High Pressure Sodium (HPS); Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs); and Metal Halide (MH) -- and the natural light provided by the sun and moon.</p><p>Under LPS lighting, all snails were effectively camouflaged. However, when illuminated by LEDs, MH, the sun or the moon, yellow snails were significantly more visible compared to brown and olive ones in the majority of cases.</p><p>Dr Thomas Davies, Lecturer in Marine Conservation at the University of Plymouth and the study\'s senior author, said: \"As technologies develop, there has been a shift from narrow spectrum to lighting that enables us to live and travel in a safe, secure manner. However, estimates suggest that a quarter of the planet between the Arctic Circle and Antarctica is now being affected by night-time light pollution. Some predictions say that LED bulbs will account for 85% of the global street lighting market in around five years, and our study highlights that such advances will have repercussions for humans and animals alike now and in the future.\"</p><p>Dr Tim Smyth, PML Head of Science for Marine Biogeochemistry and Observations and co-author on the research, added: \"The ability to light our environment around the clock has transformed the urban landscapes over the past century and has ushered in what some call the Urbanocene. The shift from the orange glow over cities, typical of my youth in the 1970s and 80s, has now shifted much more towards energy efficient wide spectrum LEDs which even enables us humans to correctly perceive colour. This work shows that this advancement has additional ramifications for the natural world, which is having to adapt at an increasing rate to the artificial changes we are making to the environment. We need to learn to adapt our technologies to avoid the worst consequences of their adoption.\"</p><p><strong>What can be done to reduce the impact of artificial lighting on our coastlines</strong></p><p>With estimates indicating that 23% of the world\'s surface, between the planet\'s polar regions, are affected by ALAN -- and a rate of increase of 2.2% between 2012 and 2016 -- the need to address the situation is pressing to say the least.</p><p>In the study, the researchers highlight a variety of mitigation methods available to planners and environmental managers when considering its ecological impacts.</p><p>These include reducing the amount of light used, shielding lights to reduce their effects on the surrounding environment, employing part-night lighting during times of peak demand, and manipulating the spectra of lighting to minimise ecological impacts.</p><p>The researchers highlight that while it may seem intuitive to suggest using narrow spectrum lighting to avoid these impacts, the effects of ALAN extend beyond those seen on camouflage and that all parts of the visual spectrum will likely have some ecological impact.</p>','2022-03-26 23:41:54.189309','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Plymouth','A study has shown species that rely on darkness to forage and feed are losing the gift of camouflage thanks to advances in the lighting used to illuminate the world\'s cities and coastlines.\n',1,34,'<li>Oak McMahon, Tim Smyth, Thomas W. Davies. <strong>Broad spectrum artificial light at night increases the conspicuousness of camouflaged prey</strong>. <em>Journal of Applied Ecology</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.14146\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1111/1365-2664.14146</a>\n</li>');
INSERT INTO `news_news` VALUES (1651,'Scientists find that the impact of social media on wellbeing varies across adolescence','scientists-find-that-the-impact-of-social-media-on-wellbeing-varies-across-adolescence','2022-03-28 16:35:12.311558',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Girls and boys might be more vulnerable to the negative effects of social media use at different times during their adolescence, say an international team of scientists.</p><p>In a study published today in <em>Nature Communications</em>, the researchers show that, in UK data, girls experience a negative link between social media use and life satisfaction when they are 11-13 years old and boys when they are 14-15 years old. Increased social media use again predicts lower life satisfaction at age 19 years. At other times the link was not statistically significant.</p><p>In just over a decade, social media has fundamentally changed how we spend our time, share information about ourselves, and talk to others. This has led to widespread concern about its potential negative impact, both on individuals and on the wider society. Yet, even after years of research, there is still considerable uncertainty about how social media use relates to wellbeing.</p><p>A team of scientists including psychologists, neuroscientists and modellers analysed two UK datasets comprising some 84,000 individuals between the ages of 10 and 80 years old. These included longitudinal data -- that is, data that tracks individuals over a period of time -- on 17,400 young people aged 10-21 years old. The researchers are from the University of Cambridge, University of Oxford, and the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour.</p><p>The team looked for a connection between estimated social media use and reported life satisfaction and found key periods of adolescence where social media use was associated with a decrease in life satisfaction 12 months later. In the opposite direction, the researchers also found that teens who have lower than average life satisfaction use more social media one year later.</p><p>In girls, social media use between the ages of 11 and 13 years was associated with a decrease in life satisfaction one year later, whereas in boys this occurred between the ages of 14 and 15 years. The differences suggest that sensitivity to social media use might be linked to developmental changes, possibly changes in the structure of the brain, or to puberty, which occurs later in boys than in girls. This requires further research.</p><p>In both females and males, social media use at the age of 19 years was again associated with a decrease in life satisfaction a year later. At this age, say the researchers, it is possible that social changes -- such as leaving home or starting work -- may make us particularly vulnerable. Again, this requires further research.</p><p>At other times, the link between social media use and life satisfaction one year later was not statistically significant. Decreases in life satisfaction also predicted increases in social media use one year later; however this does not change across age and or differ between the sexes.</p><p>Dr Amy Orben a group leader at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge, who led the study, said: \"The link between social media use and mental wellbeing is clearly very complex. Changes within our bodies, such as brain development and puberty, and in our social circumstances appear to make us vulnerable at particular times of our lives.\"</p><p>Professor Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience at Cambridge and a co-author of the study, said: \"It\'s not possible to pinpoint the precise processes that underlie this vulnerability. Adolescence is a time of cognitive, biological and social change, all of which are intertwined, making it difficult to disentangle one factor from another. For example, it is not yet clear what might be due to developmental changes in hormones or the brain and what might be down to how an individual interacts with their peers.\"</p><p>Dr Orben added: \"With our findings, rather than debating whether or not the link exists, we can now focus on the periods of our adolescence where we now know we might be most at risk and use this as a springboard to explore some of the really interesting questions.\"</p><p>Further complicating the relationship is the fact -- previously reported and confirmed by today\'s findings -- that not only can social media use negatively impact wellbeing, but that the reverse is also true and lower life satisfaction can drive increased social media use.</p><p>The researchers are keen to point out that, while their findings show at a population level that there is a link between social media use and poorer wellbeing, it is not yet possible to predict which individuals are most at risk.</p><p>Professor Rogier Kievit, Professor of Developmental Neuroscience at the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behaviour, said: \"Our statistical modelling examines averages. This means not every young person is going to experience a negative impact on their wellbeing from social media use. For some, it will often have a positive impact. Some might use social media to connect with friends, or cope with a certain problem or because they don\'t have anyone to talk to about a particular problem or how they feel -- for these individuals, social media can provide valuable support.\"</p><p>Professor Andrew Przybylski, Director of Research at the Oxford Internet Institute at the University of Oxford said: \"To pinpoint which individuals might be influenced by social media, more research is needed that combines objective behavioural data with biological and cognitive measurements of development. We therefore call on social media companies and other online platforms to do more to share their data with independent scientists, and, if they are unwilling, for governments to show they are serious about tackling online harms by introducing legislation to compel these companies to be more open.\"</p><p>The research was supported by Emmanuel College, the UK Economic and Social Research Council, the Huo Family Foundation, Wellcome, the Jacobs Foundation, the Wellspring Foundation, the Radboud UMC and the Medical Research Council.</p>','2022-03-28 16:35:12.311558','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Cambridge','Girls and boys might be more vulnerable to the negative effects of social media use at different times during their adolescence, say an international team of scientists. The researchers show that, in UK data, girls experience a negative link between social media use and life satisfaction when they are 11-13 years old and boys when they are 14-15 years old. Increased social media use again predicts lower life satisfaction at age 19 years. At other times the link was not statistically significant.\n',1,149,'<li>Amy Orben, Andrew K. Przybylski, Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, Rogier A. Kievit. <strong>Windows of developmental sensitivity to social media</strong>. <em>Nature Communications</em>, 2022; 13 (1) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29296-3\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41467-022-29296-3</a>\n</li>'),(1652,'Octopus-like tentacles help cancer cells invade the body','octopus-like-tentacles-help-cancer-cells-invade-the-body','2022-03-28 16:35:14.647469',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">With help from the best tweezers in the world a team of researchers from the University of Copenhagen has shed new light on a fundamental mechanism in all living cells that helps them explore their surroundings and even invade tissue. Their discovery could have implications for research into cancer, neurological disorders and much else.</p><p>Using octopus-like tentacles, a cell pushes toward its target, a bacterium, like a predator tracking down its prey. The scene could be playing out in a nature programme. Instead the pursuit is being observed at the nano-scale through a microscope at the University of Copenhagen\'s Niels Bohr Institute. The microscope recording shows a human immune cell pursuing and then devouring a bacterium.</p><p>With their new study, a team of Danish researchers has added to the world\'s understanding of how cells use octopus-like tentacles called filopodia to move around in our bodies. This discovery about how cells move had never been addressed. The study is being published today in the journal, <em>Nature Communications.</em></p><p>\"While the cell doesn\'t have eyes or a sense of smell, its surface is equipped with ultra-slim filopodia that resemble entangled octopus tentacles. These filopodia help a cell move towards a bacterium, and at the same time, act as sensory feelers that identify the bacterium as a prey,\" explains Associate Professor Poul Martin Bendix, head of the laboratory for experimental biophysics at the Niels Bohr Institute.</p><p>The discovery is not that filopodia act as sensory devices -- which was already well established -- but rather about how they can rotate and behave mechanically, which helps a cell move, as when a cancer cell invades new tissue.</p><p>\"Obviously, our results are of interest to cancer researchers. Cancer cells are noted for their being highly invasive. And, it is reasonable to believe that they are especially dependent on the efficacy of their filopodia, in terms of examining their surroundings and facilitating their spread. So, it\'s conceivable that by finding ways of inhibiting the filopodia of cancer cells, cancer growth can be stalled,\" explains Associate Professor Poul Martin Bendix.</p><p>For this reason, researchers from the Danish Cancer Society Research Center are a part of the team behind the discovery. Among other things, the cancer researchers are interested in whether switching off the production of certain proteins can inhibit the transport mechanisms which are important for the filopodia of cancer cells.</p><p><strong>The cell\'s engine and cutting torch</strong></p><p>According to Poul Martin Bendix, the mechanical function of filopodia can be compared to a rubber band. Untwisted, a rubber band has no power. But if you twist it, it contracts. This combination of twisting and contraction helps a cell move directionally and makes the filopodia very flexible.</p><p>\"They\'re able to bend -- twist, if you will -- in a way that allows them to explore the entire space around the cell, and they can even penetrate tissues in their environment,\" says lead author, Natascha Leijnse.</p><p>The mechanism discovered by the Danish researchers appears to be found in all living cells. Besides cancer cells, it is also relevant to study the importance of filopodia in other types of cells, such as embryonic stem cells and brain cells, which are highly dependent on filopodia for their development.</p><p><strong>Studying cells with the best tweezers in the world </strong></p><p>The project involved interdisciplinary collaboration at the Niels Bohr Institute, where Associate Professor Amin Doostmohammadi, who heads a research group that simulates biologically active materials, contributed with the modelling of filopodia behaviour.</p><p>\"It is very interesting that Amin Doostmohammadi could simulate the mechanical movements we witnessed through the microscope, completely independent of chemical and biological details,\" explains Poul Martin Bendix.</p><p>The main reason that the team succeeded in being the first to describe the mechanical behaviour of filopodia is that NBI has unique equipment for this type of experiment, as well as skilled researchers with tremendous experience working with optical tweezers. When an object is extraordinarily small, holding onto it mechanically becomes impossible. However, it can be held and moved using a laser beam with a wavelength carefully calibrated to the object being studied. This is called an optical tweezers.</p><p>\"At NBI, we have some of the world\'s best optical tweezers for biomechanical studies. The experiments require the use of several optical tweezers and the simultaneous deployment of ultra-fine microscopy,\" explains Poul Martin Bendix.</p><p>Leading the study alongside Poul Martin Bendix and Assistant Professor Natascha Leijnse was NBI Technical Scientist Younes Barooji. The article on cell filopodia is published today in <em>Nature Communications</em>.</p>','2022-03-28 16:35:14.647469','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Copenhagen - Faculty of Science','With help from the best tweezers in the world a team of researchers has shed new light on a fundamental mechanism in all living cells that helps them explore their surroundings and even invade tissue. Their discovery could have implications for research into cancer, neurological disorders and much else.\n',1,29,'<li>Natascha Leijnse, Younes Farhangi Barooji, Mohammad Reza Arastoo, Stine Lauritzen Sønder, Bram Verhagen, Lena Wullkopf, Janine Terra Erler, Szabolcs Semsey, Jesper Nylandsted, Lene Broeng Oddershede, Amin Doostmohammadi, Poul Martin Bendix. <strong>Filopodia rotate and coil by actively generating twist in their actin shaft</strong>. <em>Nature Communications</em>, 2022; 13 (1) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-28961-x\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41467-022-28961-x</a>\n</li>'),(1653,'Potential therapy may boost chemoimmunotherapy response in bladder cancer','potential-therapy-may-boost-chemoimmunotherapy-response-in-bladder-cancer','2022-03-28 16:35:17.459877',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Adding an anti-inflammatory medication to immunotherapy and standard chemotherapy drugs may provide long-term suppression of aggressive bladder tumor growth, according to a proof-of-concept study led by Cedars-Sinai Cancerinvestigators. The findings, made in laboratory mice, were published TK in the peer-reviewed journal <em>Nature Communications</em>.</p><p>The researchers\' previous work, led by Cedars-Sinai scientist Keith Syson Chan, PhD -- the study\'s corresponding author -- found that the combined use of the chemotherapy drugs gemcitabine and cisplatin is unable to activate a patient\'s own immune response to cancer. They also found that chemotherapy prompts the overwhelming release of an inhibitory signal, or brake, that suppresses an immune response by counteracting \"go\" signals. When the investigators added the anti-inflammatory drug celecoxib to gemcitabine to remove the brake, they were able to shift the balance toward the \"go\" signals, improving the immune response in laboratory mice.</p><p>Building on those findings, the researchers discovered a mechanism that may drive the immune-dampening effect of chemotherapy and determined how to counteract it, therefore activating a longer-lasting immune response.</p><p>\"These results are significant because the novel drug combination of an anti-inflammatory medication like celecoxib, chemotherapy and immunotherapy potentially can increase the chemoimmunotherapy response in patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer,\" said Fotis Nikolo, PhD, a project scientist at Cedars-Sinai Cancer and first co-author of the study. \"We\'re also hopeful that our findings will be relevant to other cancer types.\"</p><p>Muscle-invasive bladder cancer is aggressive and more likely to spread to other parts of the body, according to the Urology Care Foundation. Each year, more than 83,000 new U.S. cases of bladder cancer are diagnosed in men and women. About one quarter of those newly diagnosed have the muscle-invasive type.</p><p><strong>Past and Present Treatments</strong></p><p>Since the 1940s, the main treatment for killing cancer cells has involved chemotherapy drugs, which kill the cells directly. But many of the current drugs fail to induce the most efficient form of cell death, known as immunogenic cell death, which activates the release of a protein that instructs the patients\' own immune cells to kill the invading cancer cells. This \"go\" signal prompts immune cells -- called dendritic cells -- to activate T cells to eradicate tumors. Instead, most current chemotherapies for pancreatic, bladder, breast and ovarian cancers not only are non-immunogenic, they suppress the immune system.</p><p>In recent years, immunotherapy drugs have been added to cancer treatment regimens to help a patient\'s own immune cells attack cancer, but the response rate is low. Currently, about 70% to 80% of patients taking immunotherapy drugs fail to respond to them, Nikolo said.</p><p><strong>Unlocking the Puzzle</strong></p><p>The researchers may have discovered why the combination of chemotherapy and immunotherapy often fails. In their current study, the investigators found that chemotherapy induced a remarkable release of prostaglandin E<sub>2</sub>, a bioactive lipid associated with inflammation and cancer. Called an inhibitory damage-associated molecular pattern, or iDAMP, prostaglandin E<sub>2</sub> blocks dendritic cells from maturing and fighting cancer, explained Kazukuni Hayashi, PhD, a study co-author.</p><p>To counteract that effect, the researchers added to the chemoimmunotherapy the drug celecoxib. The anti-inflammatory medication targets the protein COX-2, which promotes the release of prostaglandin E<sub>2, </sub>Hayashi explained. This drug combination allows killer T cells to infiltrate the tumor core and kill the tumor cells.</p><p>\"The addition of the celecoxib not only worked well with chemotherapy, it also sensitized bladder tumors toward chemoimmunotherapy, providing a long-lasting response,\" Hayashi said.</p><p>Next, the researchers plan to test the efficacy of the new treatment in randomized, placebo-controlled human trials in collaboration with their Cedars-Sinai Cancer and Mount Sinai clinical colleagues, including those researching new treatments for colon and pancreatic cancer.</p><p>\"Harnessing the patients\' immune system to attack tumor cells has become an important tool for physicians treating cancer,\" said Dan Theodorescu, MD, PhD, director of Cedars-Sinai Cancer and a study co-author. \"With these findings, patients who don\'t respond to chemotherapy and immunotherapy have the potential for better outcomes in the future.\"</p><p><em>Additional Cedars-Sinai Cancer co-authors include Xen Ping Hoi; Mark Alonzo; Armine Kasabyan; Hideki Furuya, PhD; Charles Rosser, MD; Dolores Di Vizio, MD, PhD; and Jlenia Guarnerio, PhD. Collaborators at Mt. Sinai, NCI, and Moffitt Cancer Center also contributed to the study.</em></p><p><em>Research reported in this study was supported in part by theNational Cancer Institute under award numbers R01CA255609-01A1, F31CA247257, T32GM088129, and the U.S. Department of Defense, under award numbers CA181002, CA200750, and CA210889.</em></p>','2022-03-28 16:35:17.459877','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Cedars-Sinai Medical Center','Adding an anti-inflammatory medication to immunotherapy and standard chemotherapy drugs may provide long-term suppression of aggressive bladder tumor growth, according to a proof-of-concept study.\n',1,19,'<li>Fotis Nikolos, Kazukuni Hayashi, Xen Ping Hoi, Mark Ellie Alonzo, Qianxing Mo, Armine Kasabyan, Hideki Furuya, Jane Trepel, Dolores Di Vizio, Jlenia Guarnerio, Dan Theodorescu, Charles Rosser, Andrea Apolo, Matthew Galsky, Keith Syson Chan. <strong>Cell death-induced immunogenicity enhances chemoimmunotherapeutic response by converting immune-excluded into T-cell inflamed bladder tumors</strong>. <em>Nature Communications</em>, 2022; 13 (1) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29026-9\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41467-022-29026-9</a>\n</li>'),(1654,'Scientists discover body\'s natural alarm to battle blood loss','scientists-discover-body\'s-natural-alarm-to-battle-blood-loss','2022-03-28 16:55:53.679306',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">University of Virginia School of Medicine scientists have discovered a cluster of cells in the brainstem that controls the body\'s response to severe blood loss, a finding which could benefit efforts to develop new treatments for traumatic injuries.</p><p>The discovery pinpoints a collection of neurons that drives a response that maintains blood pressure during blood loss. However, severe blood loss eventually causes cardiovascular collapse -- a condition termed \"decompensated hemorrhage\" marked by an abrupt and dangerous loss of blood pressure -- and the new results shed light on why that happens.</p><p>\"During blood loss, the brain coordinates a cardiovascular response that supports blood flow to critical organs, like the heart and brain,\"said researcher George Souza, PhD, of UVA\'s Department of Pharmacology. \"Our study shows that the cardiovascular response to blood loss depends on changes in the activity of a few hundred neurons in the brainstem.\"</p><p><strong>Under Pressure</strong></p><p>The new results, from UVA\'s Stephen Abbott, PhD, and collaborators, shed light on an important process the body uses to maintain its blood pressure. The neurons Abbott and his team describe -- properly known as \"adrenergic C1 neurons\" -- monitor blood pressure and swing into action during blood loss. When the neurons detect blood loss, they increase nerve activity that constricts blood vessels and maintains proper blood pressure.</p><p>The scientists were able to determine this using advanced imaging and a technique called optogenetics that allows for the remote control of neurons using light. Their research revealed that the C1 neurons are hyperactive during blood loss, and this maintains blood pressure. But these neurons become inactive with severe blood loss, resulting in cardiovascular collapse.</p><p>Decompensated hemorrhage is the prelude to hemorrhagic shock, in which the body begins to shut down. But the scientists found that re-activating the C1 neurons in lab rats restored both blood pressure and heart rate.</p><p>\"Our study indicates that reactivating the brain pathways controlling blood pressure during decompensated hemorrhage effectively reverses cardiovascular collapse. We think this indicates that neuromodulation of the pathways described by our study could be a beneficial adjunct therapy for low blood pressure following blood loss,\" said Abbott, of UVA\'s Department of Pharmacology.</p><p>The scientists note that there may be several factors that contribute to the decline in the activity of the C1 neurons during the onset of decompensated hemorrhage. More research on that front is needed. But the team\'s findings identify important new directions for that future research.</p><p><em>\"</em>These findings illuminate the importance of the brain-body interactions during blood loss and provide a new perspective for the underlying cause of cardiovascular collapse,\" Abbott said.</p><p>The work was supported by the American Heart Association, grant 19POST34430205, and the National Institutes of Health, grants HL148004, HL28785 and HL074011.</p>','2022-03-28 16:55:53.679306','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Virginia Health System','Fresh insights into how the body responds to blood loss could lead to a new treatment for traumatic injuries.\n',1,127,'<li>George M.P.R. Souza, Ruth L. Stornetta, Daniel S. Stornetta, Patrice G. Guyenet, Stephen B.G. Abbott. <strong>Adrenergic C1 neurons monitor arterial blood pressure and determine the sympathetic response to hemorrhage</strong>. <em>Cell Reports</em>, 2022; 38 (10): 110480 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2022.110480\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.celrep.2022.110480</a>\n</li>'),(1655,'Mysterious death of carbon star plays out like six-ring circus','mysterious-death-of-carbon-star-plays-out-like-six-ring-circus','2022-03-28 16:55:58.897952',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Scientists studying V Hydrae (V Hya) have witnessed the star\'s mysterious death throes in unprecedented detail. Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and data from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), the team discovered six slowly-expanding rings and two hourglass-shaped structures caused by the high-speed ejection of matter out into space. The results of the study are published in <em>The Astrophysical Journal</em>.</p><p>V Hya is a carbon-rich asymptotic giant branch (AGB) star located approximately 1,300 light-years from Earth in the constellation Hydra. More than 90-percent of stars with a mass equal to or greater than the Sun evolve into AGB stars as the fuel required to power nuclear processes is stripped away. Among these millions of stars, V Hya has been of particular interest to scientists due to its so-far unique behaviors and features, including extreme-scale plasma eruptions that happen roughly every 8.5 years and the presence of a nearly invisible companion star that contributes to V Hya\'s explosive behavior.</p><p>\"Our study dramatically confirms that the traditional model of how AGB stars die -- through the mass ejection of fuel via a slow, relatively steady, spherical wind over 100,000 years or more -- is at best, incomplete, or at worst, incorrect,\" said Raghvendra Sahai, an astronomer at NASA\'s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the principal researcher on the study. \"It is very likely that a close stellar or substellar companion plays a significant role in their deaths, and understanding the physics of binary interactions is both important across astrophysics and one of its greatest challenges. In the case of V Hya, the combination of a nearby and a hypothetical distant companion star is responsible, at least to some degree, for the presence of its six rings, and the high-speed outflows that are causing the star\'s miraculous death.\"</p><p>Mark Morris, an astronomer at UCLA and a co-author on the research added, \"V Hydra has been caught in the process of shedding its atmosphere -- ultimately most of its mass -- which is something that most late-stage red giant stars do. Much to our surprise, we have found that the matter, in this case, is being expelled as a series of outflowing rings. This is the first and only time that anybody has seen that the gas being ejected from an AGB star can be flowing out in the form of a series of expanding \'smoke rings.\'\"</p><p>The six rings have expanded outward from V Hya over the course of roughly 2,100 years, adding matter to and driving the growth of a high-density flared and warped disk-like structure around the star. The team has dubbed this structure the DUDE, or Disk Undergoing Dynamical Expansion.</p><p>\"The end state of stellar evolution -- when stars undergo the transition from being red giants to ending up as white dwarf stellar remnants -- is a complex process that is not well understood,\" said Morris. \"The discovery that this process can involve the ejections of rings of gas, simultaneous with the production of high-speed, intermittent jets of material, brings a new and fascinating wrinkle to our exploration of how stars die.\"</p><p>Sahai added, \"V Hya is in the brief but critical transition phase that does not last very long, and it is difficult to find stars in this phase, or rather \'catch them in the act. We got lucky and were able to image all of the different mass-loss phenomena in V Hya to better understand how dying stars lose mass at the end of their lives.\"</p><p>In addition to a full set of expanding rings and a warped disk, V Hya\'s final act features two hourglass-shaped structures -- and an additional jet-like structure -- that are expanding at high speeds of more than half a million miles per hour (240 km/s). Large hourglass structures have been observed previously in planetary nebulae, including MyCn 18 -- also known as the Engraved Hourglass Nebula -- a young emission nebula located roughly 8,000 light-years from Earth in the southern constellation of Musca, and the more well-known Southern Crab Nebula, an emission nebula located roughly 7,000 light-years from Earth in the southern constellation Centaurus.</p><p>Sahai said, \"We first observed the presence of very fast outflows in 1981. Then, in 2022, we found a jet-like flow consisting of compact plasma blobs ejected at high speeds from V Hya. And now, our discovery of wide-angle outflows in V Hya connects the dots, revealing how all these structures can be created during the evolutionary phase that this extra-luminous red giant star is now in.\"</p><p>Due to both the distance and the density of the dust surrounding the star, studying V Hya required a unique instrument with the power to clearly see matter that is both very far away and also difficult or impossible to detect with most optical telescopes. The team enlisted ALMA\'s Band 6 (1.23mm) and Band 7 (.85mm) receivers, which revealed the star\'s multiple rings and outflows in stark clarity.</p><p>\"The processes taking place at the end stages of low mass stars, and during the AGB phase in particular, have long fascinated astronomers and have been challenging to understand,\" said Joe Pesce, an astronomer and NSF program officer for NRAO/ALMA. \"The capabilities and resolution of ALMA are finally allowing us to witness these events with the extraordinary detail necessary to provide some answers and enhance our understanding of an event that happens to most of the stars in the Universe.\"</p><p>Sahai added that the incorporation of infrared, optical, and ultraviolet data into the study created a complete multi-wavelength picture of what might be one of the greatest shows in the Milky Way, at least for astronomers. \"Each time we observe V Hya with new observational capabilities, it becomes more and more like a circus, characterized by an even bigger variety of impressive feats. V Hydrae has impressed us with its multiple rings and acts, and because our own Sun may one day experience a similar fate, it has us at rapt attention.\"</p><p><strong>Story Source:</strong></p>','2022-03-28 16:55:58.897952','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'National Radio Astronomy Observatory','Scientists studying V Hydrae (V Hya) have witnessed the star\'s mysterious death throes in unprecedented detail. The team discovered six slowly-expanding rings and two hourglass-shaped structures caused by the high-speed ejection of matter out into space.\n',1,192,'<li>R. Sahai, P-S. Huang, S. Scibelli, M. R. Morris, K. Hinkle, C-F. Lee. <strong>The rapidly evolving AGB star, V Hya: ALMA finds a multi-ring circus with high velocity outflow</strong>. <em>The Astrophysical Journal (preprint on arXiv)</em>, 2022 [<a href=\"https://arxiv.org/abs/2202.09335?context=astro-ph\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">abstract</a>]</li>'),(1656,'Less antibody diversity as we age','less-antibody-diversity-as-we-age','2022-03-28 16:56:03.475944',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">As we age, our immune system works less well. We become more susceptible to infections and vaccinations no longer work as effectively. A research team led by Dario Riccardo Valenzano investigated whether short-lived killifish also undergo aging of the immune system. Indeed, they found that as early as four months of age, killifish have less diverse circulating antibodies compared to younger fish, which may contribute to a generalized decrease in the immune function.</p><p>The immune system must constantly respond to new attacks from pathogens and remember them in order to be protected during the next infection. For this purpose, B cells build an information repository and produce a variety of antibodies that can directly recognize the pathogens.</p><p>\"We wanted to know about the antibody repertoire in old age,\" explains Dario Riccardo Valenzano, who led the study. \"It is difficult to study a human being\'s immune system over his or her entire life, because humans live a very long time. Moreover, in humans you can only study the antibodies in peripheral blood, as it is problematic to get samples from other tissues. For this reason, we used the killifish. It is very short-lived and we can get probes from different tissues.\"</p><p>Killifishes are the shortest-lived vertebrates that can be kept in the laboratory. They live for only three to four months, age in a time-lapse and have become the focus of ageing research in recent years due to these characteristics.</p><p><strong>Less antibody diversity</strong></p><p>The researchers were able to characterize with high accuracy all the antibodies that killifish produce. They found that older killifish have different types of antibodies in their blood than younger fish. They also had a lower diversity of antibodies throughout their bodies.</p><p>\"If we have fewer different antibodies as we age, this could lead to a reduced ability to respond to infections. We now want to further investigate why the B cells lose their ability to produce diverse antibodies and whether they can possibly be rejuvenated in the killifish and thus regain this ability,\" says Valenzano.</p><p>The research for this study was conducted at the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing and was funded by the CECAD Cluster of Excellence for Aging Research and the Collaborative Research Center 1310 at the University of Cologne. Dario Riccardo Valenzano is now group leader of the research group \"Evolutionary Biology / Microbiome-Host Interactions in Aging\" at the Leibniz Institute on Aging -- Fritz Lipmann Institute (FLI) and Professor at Friedrich Schiller University in Jena.</p>','2022-03-28 16:56:03.475944','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing','As we age, our immune system works less well. We become more susceptible to infections and vaccinations no longer work as effectively. A research team has investigated whether short-lived killifish also undergo aging of the immune system. Indeed, they found that as early as four months of age, killifish have less diverse circulating antibodies compared to younger fish, which may contribute to a generalized decrease in the immune function.\n',1,91,'<li>William John Bradshaw, Michael Poeschla, Aleksandra Placzek, Samuel Kean, Dario Riccardo Valenzano. <strong>Extensive age-dependent loss of antibody diversity in naturally short-lived turquoise killifish</strong>. <em>eLife</em>, 2022; 11 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.65117\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.7554/eLife.65117</a>\n</li>'),(1657,'Chaos theory provides hints for controlling the weather','chaos-theory-provides-hints-for-controlling-the-weather','2022-03-28 17:48:04.050661',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Under a project led by the RIKEN Center for Computational Science, researchers have used computer simulations to show that weather phenomena such as sudden downpours could potentially be modified by making small adjustments to certain variables in the weather system. They did this by taking advantage of a system known as a \"butterfly attractor\" in chaos theory, where a system can have one of two states -- like the wings of a butterfly -- and that it switches back and forth between the two states depending on small changes in certain conditions.</p><p>While weather predictions have reached levels of high accuracy thanks to methods such as supercomputer-based simulations and data assimilation, where observational data is incorporated into simulations, scientists have long hoped to be able to control the weather. Research in this area has intensified due to climate change, which has led to more extreme weather events such as torrential rain and storms.</p><p>There are methods at present for weather modification, but they have had limited success. Seeding the atmosphere to induce rain has been demonstrated, but it is only possible when the atmosphere is already in a state where it might rain. Geoengineering projects have been envisioned, but have not been carried out due to concerns about what unpredicted long-term effects they might have.</p><p>As a promising approach, researchers from the RIKEN team have looked to chaos theory to create realistic possibilities for mitigating weather events such as torrential rain. Specifically, they have focused on a phenomenon known as a butterfly attractor, proposed by mathematician and meteorologist Edward Lorentz, one of the founders of modern chaos theory. Essentially, this refers to a system that can adopt one of two orbits that look like the wings of a butterfly, but can change the orbits randomly based on small fluctuations in the system.</p><p>To perform the work, the RIKEN team ran one weather simulation, to serve as the control of \"nature\" itself, and then ran other simulations, using small variations in a number of variables describing the convection -- how heat moves through the system -- and discovered that small changes in several of the variables together could lead to the system being in a certain state once a certain amount of time elapsed.</p><p>According to Takemasa Miyoshi of the RIKEN Center for Computational Science, who led the team, \"This opens the path to research into the controllability of weather and could lead to weather control technology. If realized, this research could help us prevent and mitigate extreme windstorms, such as torrential rains and typhoons, whose risks are increasing with climate change.\"</p><p>\"We have built a new theory and methodology for studying the controllability of weather,\" he continues. \"Based on the observing system simulation experiments used in previous predictability studies, we were able to design an experiment to investigate predictability based on the assumption that the true values (nature) cannot be changed, but rather that we can change the idea of what can be changed (the object to be controlled).\"</p><p>Looking to the future, he says, \"In this case we used an ideal low-dimensional model to develop a new theory, and in the future we plan to use actual weather models to study the possible controllability of weather.\"</p><p>The work, published in Nonlinear Processes of Geophysics, was done as part of the Moonshot R&amp;D Millennia program, contributing to the new Moonshot goal #8.</p>','2022-03-28 17:48:04.050661','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'RIKEN','Researchers have used computer simulations to show that weather phenomena such as sudden downpours could potentially be modified by making small adjustments to certain variables in the weather system. They did this by taking advantage of a system known as a \'butterfly attractor\' in chaos theory, where a system can have one of two states -- like the wings of a butterfly -- and that it switches back and forth between the two states depending on small changes in certain conditions.\n',1,151,'<li>Takemasa Miyoshi, Qiwen Sun. <strong>Control simulation experiment with Lorenz\'s butterfly attractor</strong>. <em>Nonlinear Processes in Geophysics</em>, 2022; 29 (1): 133 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/npg-29-133-2022\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.5194/npg-29-133-2022</a>\n</li>'),(1658,'Brain waves reveal the active nature of engaging with art','brain-waves-reveal-the-active-nature-of-engaging-with-art','2022-03-28 17:48:05.878702',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Have you ever wondered what the millions of neurons in your brain are doing when you ponder a favorite piece of art? In a new paper just published in the <em>Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience</em>, a team of researchers from Breda University of Applied Sciences and Tilburg University in the Netherlands, as well as the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics (MPIEA) in Frankfurt, Germany, present new work measuring brain waves generated by aesthetically appealing experiences. Their findings suggest that aesthetic experience goes hand in hand with both actively constructing meaning from an artwork and being in a state of heightened attention.</p><p>Neurons in the human brain are constantly communicating. This communication relies on very fast oscillations. In order to investigate these processes during the reception of art, the international research team conducted a study using electroencephalography (EEG): The participants viewed different images of works of art and rated how much each artwork moved them aesthetically while their brain waves were measured via an EEG cap.</p><p>When participants looked at artworks they found to be appealing, the electroencephalogram revealed a greater amount of very fast gamma waves over a certain part of the brain, as compared to when they viewed artworks that were not appealing. Interestingly, these gamma waves did not appear right away, but only after about one second. This delay suggests that participants were not simply reacting to the visual properties of an artwork, but that these brainwaves reflected a process of meaning formation.</p><p>Edward A. Vessel, research associate at the MPIEA and co-author of the study, explains: \"We don\'t just passively perceive art, but engage in a process of discovery that can last several seconds. We try out different interpretations and meanings. This process takes time to develop, and can continue for many seconds as a viewer savors the feeling of engaging with art.\"</p><p>In addition to gamma waves, the scientists also observed so-called alpha waves. These were more pronounced for both high- and low-rated artworks, as compared to images given medium ratings. These waves likely reflect the fact that study participants pay more attention to art they either especially like or dislike than to works they feel neutral about.</p><p>The authors hope that this new research can contribute to our understanding of how people appreciate art, but they also see it as part of a larger question. By using art viewing as an example of a visual experience whose interpretation is both highly individual and linked to meaning, their work aims to unlock the mysteries of how and why we take pleasure in making sense of our environment.</p><p><strong>Story Source:</strong></p>','2022-03-28 17:48:05.878702','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Max-Planck-Gesellschaft','A new study suggests that aesthetic experience goes hand in hand with both actively constructing meaning from an artwork and being in a state of heightened attention.\n',1,198,'<li>Wim Strijbosch, Edward A. Vessel, Dominik Welke, Ondrej Mitas, John Gelissen, Marcel Bastiaansen. <strong>On the Neuronal Dynamics of Aesthetic Experience: Evidence from Electroencephalographic Oscillatory Dynamics</strong>. <em>Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience</em>, 2022; 34 (3): 461 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/jocn_a_01812\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1162/jocn_a_01812</a>\n</li>'),(1659,'Marmoset monkeys solve hearing tests on the touchscreen','marmoset-monkeys-solve-hearing-tests-on-the-touchscreen','2022-03-28 19:01:27.524188',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">According to estimates by the World Health Organization (WHO) more than five percent of the world\'s population is affected by hearing loss and deafness, which is mostly caused by loss of hair cells in the ear. For future treatment, researchers are focusing on optogenetics, a genetic engineering method that they hope will make auditory nerve cells in patients sensitive to light. The optical cochlear implants developed at the Göttingen Campus, which convert sound waves into light instead of electricity, could provide a much more differentiated sound spectrum and thus enable a hearing impression that is much closer to natural hearing than with current cochlear implants. However, before clinical trials in patients can begin, tests in animals, including monkeys, are necessary.</p><p>A team of researchers led by Marcus Jeschke at the German Primate Center -- Leibniz Institute for Primate Research (DPZ) and at the Institute for Auditory Neuroscience led by Tobias Moser at the University Medical Center has taken a new approach. They have developed an automated auditory training program that marmoset monkeys can perform in their familiar environment on a voluntary basis. The team has accomplished getting non-human primates to complete a series of tests in which they hear different sounds and then match them to the appropriate, previously learned visual stimuli by clicking on a touchscreen. This allows scientists to track which sounds the animals can hear and discriminate. The monkeys themselves decide whether, when and for how long they participate in a hearing test (<em>Nature Communications</em>).</p><p>Common marmosets communicate using a variety of sounds, including chirps, whistles and trills. Their extensive sound repertoire makes them an important animal model for studying the auditory system and treating hearing loss. After testing in rodents and before application in humans, a research endeavor as complex as the development of an optical cochlear implant must also verify efficacy and safety in non-human primates that are more similar to humans. In this regard, researchers at the DPZ are paying particular attention to animal welfare and, consequently, to improving experimental methods. In the training program developed at the DPZ, each marmoset monkey can perform the hearing tests in its familiar environment in the animal house in the company of its social partner. For this purpose, a device created at the Göttingen Campus is hung on the cage. The animals are gradually introduced first to the device itself, then to the interaction with the device, and finally to the tasks. In doing so, the researchers take advantage of the animals\' natural curiosity, that inspect new objects with an open attitude. The animals are trained to interact with a touchscreen by means of positive reinforcement, in which the correct behavior or the correct solution of a task is rewarded with an offer of a tidbit.</p><p>\"We were able to train common marmosets for behavioral experiments in which they associated a species-specific sound and an artificial sound to two different images. Then we replaced the acoustic stimuli by other acoustic stimuli to test whether animals can abstract from what they have learned so far. This was also successful.\" explains Jorge Cabrera Moreno, one of the first authors. Antonino Calapai adds: \"In previous studies, it had been shown that monkeys can solve difficult visual tasks, but fail in the auditory domain even with seemingly simple tasks. For example, baboons succeed in locating food based on visual but not auditory cues.\" The ability of common marmosets to perform acoustic tasks so well makes them ideal model animals for hearing system research.</p><p>Initially, the animals learn that they can receive rewards by touching the screen, while still being monitored by the researchers via video transmission. Later, the training runs fully automatically. Each animal trains according to its individual learning speed in many finely adjusted stages. The programming ensures that each animal is presented with tasks that it is capable of solving. Only if this works reliably, the animal is introduced to the next, more complicated, task. The respective learning level of the animals is stored, so that an animal can always start again at the respective level reached after breaks. In this way, the training can also contribute to the mental well-being of the animals through cognitive occupation. The animals always decide for themselves whether, when and for how long they engage with the device.</p><p>\"Our results showed that common marmosets kept participating in the psychoacoustic behavioral experiments with high engagement even when the device was highly familiar to them.\" The animals could remain in their familiar environment and in the company of their social partners. \"With this method, one person can train several animals in parallel and the results are of such high quality that we will be able to use this training and testing method for our research on optical cochlear implants in the future,\" concludes study leader Marcus Jeschke.</p>','2022-03-28 19:01:27.524188','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Deutsches Primatenzentrum (DPZ)/German Primate Center','Researchers have developed an automated auditory training program that marmoset monkeys can perform in their familiar environment on a voluntary basis. The team has accomplished getting non-human primates to complete a series of tests in which they hear different sounds and then match them to the appropriate, previously learned visual stimuli by clicking on a touchscreen. This allows scientists to track which sounds the animals can hear and discriminate.\n',1,100,'<li>A. Calapai, J. Cabrera-Moreno, T. Moser, M. Jeschke. <strong>Flexible auditory training, psychophysics, and enrichment of common marmosets with an automated, touchscreen-based system</strong>. <em>Nature Communications</em>, 2022; 13 (1) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29185-9\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41467-022-29185-9</a>\n</li>'),(1660,'COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy does not increase complications around the time of childbirth, study finds','covid-19-vaccination-during-pregnancy-does-not-increase-complications-around-the-time-of-childbirth,-study-finds','2022-03-28 19:02:01.197360',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Researchers have found that receiving a COVID-19 vaccine during pregnancy does not lead to increases in the frequency of complications around the time of childbirth. The findings, which are published in <em>JAMA</em>, provide further assurances about the safety of mRNA vaccines for this particularly unique population.</p><p>Lead author Dr. Deshayne Fell led the study of nearly 100,000 pregnancies by analyzing data from BORN Ontario (Ontario’s provincial birth registry), which is linked to the province’s COVID-19 immunization database.</p><p>While analyzing childbirths between December 2020 and September 2021, Dr. Fell found:</p><p>“There is increasing evidence from studies around the world showing that COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy is not associated with poor pregnancy or birth outcomes, and showing that COVID-19 vaccines are effective at preventing COVID-19 in pregnant mothers and also in their babies in the first few months of life.” says Dr. Fell, an Associate Professor in the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Medicine and a Scientist at the CHEO Research Institute.</p><p>Vaccination against COVID-19 is recommended for pregnant individuals since they are at a higher risk of complications from the disease, including hospitalization, ICU admission and death, compared with nonpregnant individuals. COVID-19 during pregnancy has also been linked with increased risks of pregnancy complications such as preterm birth of the babies.</p>','2022-03-28 19:02:01.197360','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Ottawa','Researchers have found that receiving a COVID-19 vaccine during pregnancy does not lead to increases in the frequency of complications around the time of childbirth. The findings provide further assurances about the safety of mRNA vaccines for this particularly unique population.\n',1,13,'<li>Deshayne B. Fell, Tavleen Dhinsa, Gillian D. Alton, Eszter Török, Sheryll Dimanlig-Cruz, Annette K. Regan, Ann E. Sprague, Sarah A. Buchan, Jeffrey C. Kwong, Sarah E. Wilson, Siri E. Håberg, Christopher A. Gravel, Kumanan Wilson, Darine El-Chaâr, Mark C. Walker, Jon Barrett, Shannon E. MacDonald, Nannette Okun, Prakesh S. Shah, Shelley D. Dougan, Sandra Dunn, Lise Bisnaire. <strong>Association of COVID-19 Vaccination in Pregnancy With Adverse Peripartum Outcomes</strong>. <em>JAMA</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.2022.4255\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1001/jama.2022.4255</a>\n</li>'),(1661,'The surprising diversity of the fallopian tube','the-surprising-diversity-of-the-fallopian-tube','2022-03-28 19:02:19.181299',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">The fallopian tube is the site of fertilization, where once a month for the duration of a female\'s post-pubescent, pre-menopausal life, an egg is moved from the ovary, ready for fertilization by a sperm cell.</p><p>A new study from Michigan Medicine researchers creates a detailed \"atlas\" of the various cell types and their gene activities within the highly specialized fallopian tube, paving the way for new research into infertility and other diseases affecting this organ, including some cancers.</p><p>Using tissue samples from four premenopausal women, Saher Sue Hammoud, Ph.D., and Jun Li, Ph.D. from the Department of Human Genetics led a team at U-M to analyze almost 60,000 cells by single-cell RNA sequencing. They used the data to characterize the diversity of cells that make up the fallopian tube, including both the lining of the tube (the epithelium) and the deeper stromal layer, consisting of immune, blood, muscle, and other cells.</p><p>Hammoud and Li are joined by Ariella Shikanov, Ph.D., of the Department of Biomedical Engineering, Erica Marsh, M.D., of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and team members Nicole Ulrich, M.D., Yu-chi Shen, Ph.D., and Qianyi Ma, Ph.D. Their project is part of the Human Cell Atlas Seed Networks, an international effort supported by the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative to map all cells in the human body as a resource for better understanding health and disease.</p><p>Prior to their work, \"it was known that there are about four epithelial cell types in the fallopian tube,\" said Hammoud. \"We were able to reveal a deeper level of heterogeneity within these cells.\"</p><p>Specifically, they identified 10 epithelial cell subtypes, including four of the finger-like ciliated cells responsible for moving the egg through the fallopian tube\'s three sections before and after fertilization.</p><p>The cells within the fallopian tube are ever changing, replenishing themselves over time and varying in number depending on a woman\'s age, hormones, menstrual cycle, and in the presence of disease. By comparing cells from women with healthy fallopian tubes to two samples from women with a fallopian tube disease known as hydrosalpinx (conventionally known as a blocked fallopian tube), the researchers were able to pinpoint which cells increased in number, and which changed characteristics, such as a high degree of inflammation.</p><p>\"Some of the cells are the cause of the disease state, and some others are the consequence; and now we know the patterns for individual cell types to figure out the molecular reasons for that pathology,\" commented Li.</p><p><strong>Precursor cells in the tube and cancer connection?</strong></p><p>The team also found that some of the cell subtypes they defined in the fallopian tube may function as precursor cells, those that can regenerate multiple cell types in response to normal tissue turnover, or for repairing a damage.</p><p>One of the most surprising findings of the study, says Hammoud, was the discovery of cells with markers for epithelial-mesenchymal transition, also known as EMT, a process not previously associated with the fallopian tube, through which a cell can, under certain circumstances, become cancerous.</p><p>Ovarian cancer, it turns out, may be a misnomer. The new study adds to accumulating evidence that the root of ovarian cancer -- the fifth leading cause of cancer death in women -- may originate within the adjacent fallopian tube.</p><p>\"The EMT process seems to be tightly regulated in the pre-menopausal woman,\" she said. \"One possible connection to cancer is that when there is misregulation in this population of cells in some unfortunate individuals, they may develop ovarian cancer. With EMT cells in the fallopian tube, you do have the predisposition right there.\"</p><p>Additional insights came from the fallopian tube cells from women with hydrosalpinx, specifically, that the disease may lead to a type of scarring called fibrosis. The implication is that for women who don\'t want to have their tubes removed, \"you could think about treating them with anti-fibrotic drugs such as the ones used to treat lung fibrosis as a way to save their tubes during reproductive age,\" noted Hammoud.</p><p>Compared to past efforts, the study provides much more detailed information about cell types and functions in the tube for researchers interested in a host of questions about the normal female reproductive system. \"This really is a basecamp to launch future studies,\" says Li, including ones that look at the effects of age, the menstrual cycle, hormone therapy, and ancestral background on cellular diversity and disease pathology.</p><p>Additional authors on the paper include Kun Yang, D. Ford Hannum, Andrea Jones, Jordan Machlin, John F. Randolph Jr, Yolanda R. Smith, Samantha B. Schon, Richard Lieberman, Stephen J. Gurczynski, and Bethany B. Moore.</p>','2022-03-28 19:02:19.181299','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Michigan Medicine - University of Michigan','A new study creates a detailed \'atlas\' of the various cell types and their gene activities within the highly specialized fallopian tube, paving the way for new research into infertility and other diseases affecting this organ, including some cancers.\n',1,27,'<li>Nicole D. Ulrich, Yu-chi Shen, Qianyi Ma, Kun Yang, D. Ford Hannum, Andrea Jones, Jordan Machlin, John F. Randolph, Yolanda R. Smith, Samantha B. Schon, Ariella Shikanov, Erica E. Marsh, Richard Lieberman, Stephen J. Gurczynski, Bethany B. Moore, Jun Z. Li, Sue Hammoud. <strong>Cellular heterogeneity of human fallopian tubes in normal and hydrosalpinx disease states identified using scRNA-seq</strong>. <em>Developmental Cell</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.devcel.2022.02.017\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.devcel.2022.02.017</a>\n</li>'),(1662,'Identifying risk factors following ICH strokes','identifying-risk-factors-following-ich-strokes','2022-03-28 19:48:59.807103',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">A new study led by University of Cincinnati researchers provides new insights on how different risk factors following one of the most severe types of stroke can affect patient outcomes.</p><p>Daniel Woo, MD, said intracerebral hemorrhages (ICH) are caused when a blood vessel bursts inside the brain and causes bleeding in the brain. ICH strokes are often deadly and can cause high neurological disability.</p><p>Up to this point, many different factors have been generally reported to be associated with a higher likelihood of disability or death following an ICH stroke, but Woo said there was a need for more specific data.</p><p>To learn more, Woo led a cohort study analyzing outcome data three months after an ICH event from one of the largest-ever prospectively recruited group of patients, which included 1,000 non-Hispanic white, 1,000 non-Hispanic Black and 1,000 Hispanic patients. The results of the study were recently published in <em>JAMA.</em></p><p><strong>New insights</strong></p><p>One of the avenues researchers used to assess risk factors were two clinical grading scales that have been previously developed.</p><p>Woo said both grading scales are easy to calculate and take several variables like age and hemorrhage size, location and severity to assign a point value to the patient, with one of the scales additionally considering whether a patient had cognitive impairment before the hemorrhage. A higher point value using the scales is designed to correlate with a prediction of higher death rates.</p><p>In this study, Woo said high scores on both scales were confirmed for the first time to be correlated with increased mortality rates in Black and Hispanic populations after previously being verified in a predominantly white patient dataset. Each individual variable that makes up each score, as well as certain markers found on brain scans, were also found to be associated with poor outcomes for all patient ethnicities.</p><p>\"Scores like these are easy to learn and to apply but they obviously don\'t capture the wide variation among patients,\" said Woo, vice chair of research in UC\'s Department of Neurology and a UC Health physician at the UC Gardner Neuroscience Institute. \"For me, adding in a few baseline variables from the CT scan at admission would greatly enhance these scores.\"</p><p>Although the grading scales are useful to compare large numbers of patients to predict outcomes, Woo said physicians should use more than just the scores to predict outcomes and guide care decisions. The researchers analyzed a total of 76 separate risk factors for association with good or poor results for patients to provide a fuller picture.</p><p>The researchers found that a previous history of ischemic stroke, when a vessel supplying blood to the brain is obstructed, or atrial fibrillation, an irregular heart rhythm, nearly doubled the likelihood of serious disability or death.</p><p>The study found that larger hemorrhages were correlated with a greater likelihood of death, but Black and Hispanic patients were even more likely to die than white patients with similar hemorrhage sizes. Woo said further study needs to be conducted to find the reason for this disparity.</p><p><strong>Clinical applications</strong></p><p>Woo said some of the most fascinating results from the study were the effect of events that occurred after patients had been admitted to the hospital.</p><p>\"Most previous findings were reported based on when the patient first reached the hospital, but we found that many complications occurring during the hospitalization had a marked impact on outcomes,\" he said.</p><p>Researchers found patients who developed infections during a hospital stay were more than three times more likely for serious disability or death. Patients whose hematoma, or collection of blood within the brain, expanded during their hospital stay were 1.6 times more likely to have poor results.</p><p>\"These had very strong effects and may be things that we can intervene on to improve outcomes,\" Woo said.</p><p>With the correlation between these variables and outcomes now better understood, Woo said physicians can take the knowledge from this study to make more informed decisions when caring for individual patients.</p><p>\"Our research provides a wide variety of past history, signs and subsequent events that can affect outcomes after ICH that clinicians can now incorporate into their assessment,\" he said. \"It also provides the relative strength of each variable which they can incorporate into their assessments. In addition, many of these may be targets we can design treatments for through research to improve outcomes in the future.\"</p>','2022-03-28 19:48:59.807103','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Cincinnati','Researchers reveal new insights into how different risk factors following intracerebral hemorrhages can affect patient outcomes.\n',1,27,'<li>Daniel Woo, Mary E. Comeau, Simone Uniken Venema, Christopher D. Anderson, Matthew Flaherty, Fernando Testai, Steven Kittner, Michael Frankel, Michael L. James, Gene Sung, Mitchell Elkind, Bradford Worrall, Chelsea Kidwell, Nicole Gonzales, Sebastian Koch, Christiana Hall, Lee Birnbaum, Douglas Mayson, Bruce Coull, Marc Malkoff, Kevin N. Sheth, Jacob L. McCauley, Jennifer Osborne, Misty Morgan, Lee Gilkerson, Tyler Behymer, Elisheva R. Coleman, Jonathan Rosand, Padmini Sekar, Charles J. Moomaw, Carl D. Langefeld. <strong>Risk Factors Associated With Mortality and Neurologic Disability After Intracerebral Hemorrhage in a Racially and Ethnically Diverse Cohort</strong>. <em>JAMA Network Open</em>, 2022; 5 (3): e221103 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.1103\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.1103</a>\n</li>'),(1663,'Relatedness and size interact in shaping cannibal aggression','relatedness-and-size-interact-in-shaping-cannibal-aggression','2022-03-28 20:23:22.650313',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Cannibalism is common throughout the animal kingdom. It can be strange to think about real life \"battle-royales\" playing out in nature such that many individuals enter and only a few emerge victorious, but in the tropics we observe exactly that. According to researchers at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland, in addition to size difference, relatedness affects whether or not a poison frog tadpole is more likely to be eaten.</p><p>Fathers of the dyeing poison frog, <em>Dendrobates tinctorius</em>, will transport their tadpoles to small pools of water where they are confined until metamorphosis. Tadpoles of this species are aggressive cannibals and resources in these small pools of water are limited. Thus, there is a fierce competition between individuals for resources to survive until metamorphosis. Although these nurseries become the arena for a battle-royale between tadpoles, there are instances where more than one individual survives to become a frog, indicating that sometimes cannibals let each other live. This led a research team based at the University of Jyväskylä to wonder: what exactly shapes aggressive decisions between individuals who have the ability to cannibalize each other?</p><p>Researchers suspected that aggression could be mediated by relatedness, size differences, or perhaps a combination between these two forces. Biologically, there is precedence for siblings to be more tolerant of each other. This would mean that firstly, tadpoles have some mechanism of distinguishing related from unrelated individuals and secondly, that even if they do distinguish siblings they \"care\" enough about them to leave them alone. Alternatively, aggression could be determined by physical assessment, where size differences inform tadpoles about the competitive ability of the other. In theory, we would imagine that when size differences are large between competitors that overall aggression is lower, as the risks of a smaller fighter becoming a meal are high when faced with a much larger cannibal.</p><p>Researchers were surprised to discover that cannibals care about the individuals they are faced to fight (up to a point). They found that large tadpoleswere half as aggressive towards their smaller siblings than towards non-siblings. In other words, cannibals are able to discriminate their siblings and change their behaviour accordingly.</p><p>Thanks to this study, we now have more information to better understand the apparently strange decisions parents make when depositing their young children in pools that are already occupied by cannibals -- ultimately, high-quality nurseries are hard to find in the jungle, and parents may rather deposit their young in a superior pool with an older, larger sibling who they believe may forfeit an easy meal for the sake of family.</p>','2022-03-28 20:23:22.650313','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Jyväskylä - Jyväskylän yliopisto','New research finds that in addition to size difference, relatedness affects whether or not a poison frog tadpole is more likely to be eaten.\n',1,67,'<li>Chloe A Fouilloux, Lutz Fromhage, Janne K Valkonen, Bibiana Rojas. <strong>Size-dependent aggression towards kin in a cannibalistic species</strong>. <em>Behavioral Ecology</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arac020\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1093/beheco/arac020</a>\n</li>'),(1664,'Ancient helium leaking from core offers clues to Earth\'s formation','ancient-helium-leaking-from-core-offers-clues-to-earth\'s-formation','2022-03-28 21:11:09.691245',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Helium-3, a rare isotope of helium gas, is leaking out of Earth\'s core, a new study reports. Because almost all helium-3 is from the Big Bang, the gas leak adds evidence that Earth formed inside a solar nebula, which has long been debated.</p><p>Helium-3 has been measured at Earth\'s surface in relatively small quantities. But scientists did not know how much was leaking from the Earth\'s core, as opposed to its middle layers, called the mantle.</p><p>The new study pins down the core as a major source of helium-3 for the Earth. Some natural processes can generate helium-3, such as the radioactive decay of tritium, but helium-3 is made primarily in solar nebulae -- massive, spinning clouds of gas and dust like the one that gave rise to our Solar System. Because helium is one of the earliest elements produced in the universe, most helium-3 can be traced back to the Big Bang.</p><p>As a planet grows, it accumulates material from its surroundings, so its composition reflects the environment in which it formed. To get high concentrations of helium-3 deep in the core, Earth would have had to form inside a thriving solar nebula, not on its fringes or during its waning phase.</p><p>The new research adds further clues to the mystery surrounding Earth\'s formation, lending additional evidence to the theory that our planet formed inside the solar nebula.</p><p>The study was published in the AGU journal <em>Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems</em>, which publishes research on the chemistry, physics, geology and biology of Earth and planetary processes.</p><p>About 2,000 grams of helium-3 leak out of the Earth every year, \"about enough to fill a balloon the size of your desk,\" said lead study author Peter Olson, a geophysicist at the University of New Mexico. \"It\'s a wonder of nature, and a clue for the history of the Earth, that there\'s still a significant amount of this isotope in the interior of the Earth.\"</p><p>The researchers modeled helium during two key stages of Earth\'s history: early formation, when the planet was accumulating helium, and following the formation of the Moon, after which helium was lost. Evidence suggests an object one-third the size of the Earth hit the planet early in its history, around 4 billion years ago and that impact would have re-melted the Earth\'s crust, allowing much of the helium to escape. The gas continues escaping to this day.</p><p>Using the modern helium-3 leak rate along with models of helium isotope behavior, the researchers estimated there are between 10 teragrams (10<sup>13</sup> grams) to a petagram (10<sup>15</sup> grams) of helium-3 in the core -- a vast quantity that Olson said points to Earth\'s formation inside the solar nebula, where high concentrations of the gas would have allowed it to build up deep in the planet.</p><p>However, future work looking for other nebula-created gases, such as hydrogen, leaking in similar rates and locations as helium-3 could be a \"smoking gun\" for the core as the source, Olson said. \"There are many more mysteries than certainties.\"</p>','2022-03-28 21:11:09.691245','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'American Geophysical Union','Helium-3, a rare isotope of helium gas, is leaking out of Earth\'s core, a new study reports. Because almost all helium-3 is from the Big Bang, the gas leak adds evidence that Earth formed inside a solar nebula, which has long been debated.\n',1,27,'<li>Peter L. Olson, Zachary D. Sharp. <strong>Primordial Helium‐3 Exchange Between Earth\'s Core and Mantle</strong>. <em>Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems</em>, 2022; 23 (3) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2021GC009985\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1029/2021GC009985</a>\n</li>'),(1665,'New nasal spray treats Delta variant infection in mice, indicating broad spectrum results','new-nasal-spray-treats-delta-variant-infection-in-mice,-indicating-broad-spectrum-results','2022-03-28 21:11:22.300357',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Researchers have shown a new compound delivered in a nasal spray is highly effective in preventing and treating COVID-19 caused by the Delta variant in mice.</p><p>The researchers, including at UBC, Université de Sherbrooke, and Cornell University, believe this is the first treatment of its kind proven to be effective against all COVID-19 variants of concern reported to date, including alpha, beta, gamma and delta. Published today in <em>Nature</em>, the research opens the door to developing a therapeutic spray for humans.</p><p>Variants of concern, including the recent Omicron variants, have reduced vaccine effectiveness, but senior author Dr. François Jean, associate professor in the UBC department of microbiology and immunology, says early, still unpublished results from his team show promise that N-0385 is also effective at blocking Omicron variant infections in human lung cells. \"Our unpublished results represent encouraging findings with the current rapid propagation of Omicron BA.2 around the world.\"</p><p>\"Unfortunately, with another wave of an Omicron variant hitting the U.K., Europe, and China and our knowledge of how these waves occur, this may be what we see in Canada in the near future. Once approved, this compound could be used in combination with already available drugs that inhibit the virus\' replication, to provide a stronger defense against COVID-19 variants of concern,\" says Dr. Jean, founder of FINDER, the state-of-the-art level three biocontainment facility where the work on SARS-CoV-2 variants was conducted.</p><p>The specially designed compound, named N-0385, blocks a particular human enzyme\'s activity, used by the virus to infect a host cell. The small molecule was developed by Drs. Richard Leduc, Éric Marsault, Pierre-Luc Boudreault and their team at Université de Sherbrooke. UBC researchers tested four variants, including Delta, in human lung cells and organoids, tissue cultures that can mimic the organ they\'re taken from, and found that N-0385 inhibits infection, with no evidence of toxicity. \"The compound is unique because it blocks entry at the cell surface, without having to get into the cell, which prevents it from causing any detectable cell damage. As well, it\'s highly potent, in that it needs only a tiny amount to work very effectively,\" says co-author Dr. Andrea Olmstead (<em>she/her</em>), research associate in the department of microbiology and immunology.</p><p>In a preprint, the researchers at Cornell University led by Associate Professor Hector Aguilar-Carreno showed that genetically engineered mice infected with the virus causing COVID-19 and given a daily dose of the compound in a nasal spray for four days. All ten of the treated mice survived infection, compared with only 20 per cent of the untreated mice.</p><p>In the newly published paper, N-0385 was tested against the Delta variant, and was found to not only help with prevention of COVID-19, but also treatment 12 hours after infection, including with infection-related weight loss, and levels of the virus in the mice lungs, compared with controls.</p><p>The enzyme which N-0385 targets is present in nasal cells, where the virus tends to enter, making a nasal spray the most practical and effective way to administer the compound. In addition, no mutations relating to the virus which causes COVID-19 have been found in this enzyme\'s mechanism so far, as has occurred with other enzymes and COVID-19 variants, making it a useful target for defense against future strains of the virus, says Dr. Jean.</p><p>The compound has the potential to be used as a broad-spectrum treatment against other viruses which use the same mechanism, Dr. Jean says, including influenza viruses such as influenza A, H1N1, and influenza C. \"Even not knowing what you\'ve been infected with during flu season, you could potentially be prescribed a nasal spray to treat coronaviruses and the flu.\"</p><p>However, the spray should be used in combination with other drugs already on the market, he says, as the compound is an entry inhibitor, blocking entry of the virus to cells while other drugs reduce replication. \"The big picture is, there are multiple steps in the life cycle of a virus. The first step is entering a cell to pass on genetic material, then it goes on to replicate. So you would use both drugs: N-0385 could block most of the virus\' entry, making less work for the replicator drug.\"</p><p>The project teams are working with Ebvia, a private company, to secure funding for clinical trials. Future avenues of research at UBC and Université de Sherbrooke include optimizing N-0385 when used in combination with recently approved drugs to treat COVID-19.</p><p>This work was partly funded by the Coronavirus Variants Rapid Response Network, CIHR\'s SARS-COV-2 variants supplement, Stream 2, CIHR COVID-Rapid Research Funding, and Genome BC Rapid Response Funding (RRF) for COVID-19 Research and Innovation Projects.</p>','2022-03-28 21:11:22.300357','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of British Columbia','Researchers have shown a new compound delivered in a nasal spray is highly effective in preventing and treating COVID-19 caused by the Delta variant in mice. The researchers believe this is the first treatment of its kind proven to be effective against all COVID-19 variants of concern reported to date, including alpha, beta, gamma and delta.\n',1,141,'<li>Tirosh Shapira, I. Abrrey Monreal, Sébastien P. Dion, David W. Buchholz, Brian Imbiakha, Andrea D. Olmstead, Mason Jager, Antoine Désilets, Guang Gao, Mathias Martins, Thierry Vandal, Connor A. H. Thompson, Aaleigha Chin, William D. Rees, Theodore Steiner, Ivan Robert Nabi, Eric Marsault, Julie Sahler, Diego G. Diel, Gerlinde R. Van de Walle, Avery August, Gary R. Whittaker, Pierre-Luc Boudreault, Richard Leduc, Hector C. Aguilar, François Jean. <strong>A TMPRSS2 inhibitor acts as a pan-SARS-CoV-2 prophylactic and therapeutic</strong>. <em>Nature</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04661-w\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41586-022-04661-w</a>\n</li>'),(1666,'Unprecedented videos show RNA switching ‘on’ and ‘off’','unprecedented-videos-show-rna-switching-‘on’-and-‘off’','2022-03-28 21:11:56.283892',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Similar to a light switch, RNA switches (called riboswitches) determine which genes turn \"on\" and \"off.\" Although this may seem like a simple process, the inner workings of these switches have confounded biologists for decades.</p><p>Now researchers led by Northwestern University and the University at Albany discovered one part of RNA smoothly invades and displaces another part of the same RNA, enabling the structure to rapidly and dramatically change shape. Called \"strand displacement,\" this mechanism appears to switch genetic expression from \"on\" to \"off.\"</p><p>Using a simulation they launched last year, the researchers made this discovery by watching a slow-motion simulation of a riboswitch up close and in action. Affectionately called R2D2 (short for \"reconstructing RNA dynamics from data\"), the new simulation models RNA in three dimensions as it binds to a compound, communicates along its length and folds to turn a gene \"on\" or \"off.\"</p><p>The findings could have potential implications for engineering new RNA-based diagnostics and for designing successful drugs to target RNA to treat illness and disease.</p><p>The research is described in a new paper published today (March 28) in the journal<em> Nucleic Acids Research (NAR)</em>, which has designated the study as a \"Breakthrough Article.\" NAR reserves \"Breakthrough Article\" status for the most high-impact studies answering long-standing questions in nucleic acids research.</p><p>\"We have found this strand displacement mechanism occurring in other types of RNA molecules, indicating this might be a potential generality of RNA folding,\" said Northwestern\'s Julius B. Lucks, who co-led the study. \"We are starting to find similarities among different types of RNA molecules, which could eventually lead to RNA design rules for folding and function.\"</p><p>Lucks is a professor of chemical and biological engineering in Northwestern\'s McCormick School of Engineering and a member of the Center for Synthetic Biology and of the Chemistry of Life Processes Institute. He co-led the study with Alan Chen, an associate professor of chemistry at the University at Albany in New York.</p><p><strong>R2D2\'s \'groundbreaking approach\'</strong></p><p>Although RNA folding takes place in the human body more than 10 quadrillion times per second -- every time a gene is expressed in a cell -- researchers know very little about the process. To help visualize and understand the mysterious yet crucial process, Lucks and Chen unveiled R2D2 last year, in a paper published in the journal Molecular Cell.</p><p>Employing a technology platform developed in Lucks\' lab, R2D2 captures data related to RNA folding as the RNA is being made. Then, it uses computational tools to mine and organize the data, revealing points where the RNA folds and what happens after it folds. Angela Yu, a former student of Lucks, inputted this data into computer models to generate accurate videos of the folding process.</p><p>\"What\'s so groundbreaking about the R2D2 approach…is that it combines experimental data on RNA folding at the nucleotide level with predictive algorithms at the atomic level to simulate RNA folding in ultra-slow motion,\" said Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, in his February 2021 blog. \"While other computer simulations have been available for decades, they have lacked much-needed experimental data of this complex folding process to confirm their mathematical modeling.\"</p><p><strong>Long-distance communication</strong></p><p>While Lucks and Chen\'s previous simulations visualized the folding of an ancient RNA called SRP, the new movies model a riboswitch from Bacillus subtilis, a common bacterium found in soil.</p><p>Riboswitches have two basic parts. One part binds to a compound. Then, depending on how the compound is bound, the second part causes the RNA to fold into a shape that allows it to control gene expression. While these two parts are intertwined and overlapping in many riboswitches, the Bacillus subtilis is different.</p><p>\"What\'s strange is that they are separated by a long distance, but the bound molecule can cause large functional changes,\" Lucks said. \"If the chemical binds at one end, then how is that communicated downstream to the other end of the RNA? It\'s been a mystery.\"</p><p>Lucks, Chen and their teams found the riboswitch likely communicates downstream through the strand displacement mechanism. In response to the chemical binding, the strand exchange process triggers structural switching between \"on\" and \"off\" states.</p><p><strong>Optimizing RNA for drugs and diagnostics</strong></p><p>With this new understanding, Lucks believes the stage is set for optimizing the riboswitch to perform useful tasks. The switch could be used for synthetic biology-based diagnostics, for example -- engineered to turn \"on\" in the presence of an environmental contaminant. By studying this riboswitch, researchers also will learn lessons that could lead to new approaches to create RNA-targeted drugs or new classes of antibiotics.</p><p>\"Many diseases are likely caused by something going awry at the RNA level,\" Lucks said. \"The more we know about this, the better we can design RNA targeting drugs and RNA therapeutics.\"</p><p>The study, \"Cotranscriptional RNA strand exchange underlies the gene regulation mechanism in a purine-sensing transcriptional riboswitch,\" was supported by National Institute of General Medical Sciences (award numbers 5T32GM008382, R35GM13346901 and 1R01GM130901) and the National Science Foundation (award number PHY1914596).</p><p><strong>Story Source:</strong></p>','2022-03-28 21:11:56.283892','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Northwestern University','Using new simulations, researchers discovered one part of RNA smoothly invades and displaces another part of the same RNA, enabling the structure to rapidly and dramatically change shape. Called strand displacement, this mechanism appears to switch genetic expression from \'on\' to \'off\'.\n',1,123,'<li>Luyi Cheng, Elise N White, Naomi L Brandt, Angela M Yu, Alan A Chen, Julius B Lucks. <strong>Cotranscriptional RNA strand exchange underlies the gene regulation mechanism in a purine-sensing transcriptional riboswitch</strong>. <em>Nucleic Acids Research</em>, March 28, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkac102\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1093/nar/gkac102</a>\n</li>'),(1667,'Squid skin-inspired cup cozy will keep your hands cool and your coffee hot','squid-skin-inspired-cup-cozy-will-keep-your-hands-cool-and-your-coffee-hot','2022-03-28 21:12:53.539038',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">In the future, you may have a squid to thank for your coffee staying hot on a cold day. Drawing inspiration from cephalopod skin, engineers at the University of California, Irvine invented an adaptive composite material that can insulate beverage cups, restaurant to-go bags, parcel boxes and even shipping containers.</p><p>The innovation is an infrared-reflecting metallized polymer film developed in the laboratory of Alon Gorodetsky, UCI associate professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering. In a paper published today in <em>Nature Sustainability</em>, Gorodetsky and his team members describe a large-area composite material that regulates heat by means of reconfigurable metal structures that can reversibly separate from one another and come back together under different strain levels.</p><p>\"The metal islands in our composite material are next to one another when the material is relaxed and become separated when the material is stretched, allowing for control of the reflection and transmission of infrared light or heat dissipation,\" said Gorodetsky. \"The mechanism is analogous to chromatophore expansion and contraction in a squid\'s skin, which alters the reflection and transmission of visible light.\"</p><p>Chromatophore size changes help squids communicate and camouflage their bodies to evade predators and hide from prey. Gorodetsky said by mimicking this approach, his team has enabled \"tunable thermoregulation\" in their material, which can lead to improved energy efficiency and protect sensitive fingers from hot surfaces.</p><p>A key breakthrough of this project was the UCI researchers\' development of a cost-effective production method of their composite material at application-relevant quantities. The copper and rubber raw materials start at about a dime per square meter with the costs reduced further by economies of scale, according to the paper. The team\'s fabrication technique involves depositing a copper film onto a reusable substrate such as aluminum foil and then spraying multiple polymer layers onto the copper film, all of which can be done in nearly any batch size imaginable.</p><p>\"The combined manufacturing strategy that we have now perfected in our lab is a real game changer,\" said Gorodetsky. \"We have been working with cephalopod-inspired adaptive materials and systems for years but previously have only been able to fabricate them over relatively small areas. Now there is finally a path to making this stuff roll-by-roll in a factory.\"</p><p>The developed strategy and economies of scale should make it possible for the composite material to be used in a wide range of applications, from the coffee cup cozy up to tents, or in any container in which tunable temperature regulation is desired.</p><p>The invention will go easy on the environment due its environmental sustainability, said lead author Mohsin Badshah, a former UCI postdoctoral scholar in chemical and biomolecular engineering. \"The composite material can be recycled in bulk by removing the copper with vinegar and using established commercial methods to repurpose the remaining stretchable polymer,\" he said.</p><p>The team conducted universally relatable coffee cup testing in their laboratory on the UCI campus, where they proved they could control the cooling of the coffee. They were able to accurately and theoretically predict and then experimentally confirm the changes in temperature for the beverage-filled cups. The was also able to achieve a 20-fold modulation of infrared radiation transmittance and a 30-fold regulation of thermal fluxes under standardized testing conditions. The stable material even worked well for high levels of mechanical deformation and after repeated mechanical cycling.</p><p>\"There is an enormous array of applications for this material,\" said Gorodetsky. \"Think of all the perishable goods that have been delivered to people\'s homes during the pandemic. Any package that Amazon or another company sends that needs to be temperature-controlled can use a lining made from our squid-inspired adaptive composite material. Now that we can make large sheets of it at a time, we have something that can benefit many aspects of our lives.\"</p><p>Joining Gorodetsky and Badshah on this project were Erica Leung, who recently graduated UCI with a Ph.D. in chemical and biomolecular engineering, and Aleksandra Strzelecka and Panyiming Liu, who are current UCI graduate students. The research was funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Advanced Research Projects Agency -- Energy and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research. A provisional patent for the technology and manufacturing process has been applied for.</p><p><strong>Story Source:</strong></p>','2022-03-28 21:12:53.539038','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of California - Irvine','Drawing inspiration from cephalopod skin, engineers have invented an adaptive fabric that can be used to insulate the contents of coffee cups, to-go boxes and containers of almost any size. In a new paper, the researchers describe the manufacturing process they developed which enables economical mass production of their novel material.\n',1,27,'<li>Mohsin Ali Badshah, Erica M. Leung, Panyiming Liu, Aleksandra Anna Strzelecka, Alon A. Gorodetsky. <strong>Scalable manufacturing of sustainable packaging materials with tunable thermoregulability</strong>. <em>Nature Sustainability</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41893-022-00847-2\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41893-022-00847-2</a>\n</li>'),(1668,'New test predicts sepsis before blood clots cause permanent organ damage, markedly increasing survival','new-test-predicts-sepsis-before-blood-clots-cause-permanent-organ-damage,-markedly-increasing-survival','2022-03-28 21:13:03.855924',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">In a potential paradigm change for sepsis diagnostics, a new test predicted sepsis soon after infection in mice -- well before blood clotting and organ failure -- enabling early antibiotic treatment and markedly increased survival. The findings provide a platform to develop rapid and easy-to-perform clinical tests for early sepsis detection and clinical intervention in human patients.</p><p>The collaborative effort by a research team including scientists from UC Santa Barbara, UC San Diego, and Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute (SBPMDI) is detailed in a new study published in the <em>Lancet</em> journal, <em>eBioMedicine</em>. The team succeeded in detecting a catastrophic shift in blood protein abundance soon after infection that can predict sepsis well before disease symptoms and organ damage arise.</p><p>The project was led by professor Michael Mahan of UC Santa Barbara, along with professors Dzung Le of UC San Diego, and Jeffrey Smith and Jamey Marth of SBPMDI. Additional collaborators include UCSB scientists Douglas Heithoff and Scott Mahan, as well as SBPMDI scientists Genaro Pimienta and Won Ho Yang, and University of Sydney veterinarian scientist John House.</p><p>Sepsis is the number one cause of death in U.S. hospitals. In the clinic, sepsis is diagnosed by a symptom-based approach that may include kidney or liver failure, blood clotting or bleeding -- which often occurs well after permanent organ damage. Thus, molecular diagnostics that detect infection at early stages of disease to minimize host injury are sorely needed.</p><p>\"The key finding was identifying proteins in the blood that arise very soon after infection -- well before overt disease symptoms,\" Mahan explained. \"Early detection is critical for clinical intervention to increase survival in sepsis patients.\"</p><p>To carry out the test, a small amount of blood was collected and analyzed for an increase in coagulation proteins that are induced but inactive at early stages of infection. Such detection enabled early antibiotic treatment -- well before activated coagulation proteins induced blood clotting -- resulting in markedly increased survival in mice. The technology is open source and freely accessible to all.</p><p>The study also demonstrated that antibiotics are less effective after blood proteins increase in response to infection. Treatment failure may be due to host injury triggered by excessive blood clotting, providing insight into why delays in antibiotic treatment in human sepsis are associated with increased risk for death.</p><p>\"The future plan is to identify a biopanel of early sepsis blood proteins for incorporation into existing blood tests, enabling sepsis prediction well before excessive blood clotting and permanent organ damage,\" Heithoff explained.</p><p>The researchers demonstrated that the changes in blood proteins soon after infection observed in mice were similar to that reported for human sepsis. Thus, they are optimistic that these findings are translatable for the early detection and treatment of sepsis in humans.</p><p>\"Currently, one in four patients die of sepsis, with many survivors experiencing lifelong debilitation with cognitive decline,\" Scott Mahan said. \"We hope technologies like this offer new ways of delivering state-of-the-art molecular diagnostics that predict sepsis before permanent injury occurs.\"</p><p>This research was funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health\'s National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital, and the U.S. Army Research Office via the Institute for Collaborative Biotechnologies cooperative agreement and contract.</p>','2022-03-28 21:13:03.855924','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of California - Santa Barbara','In a potential paradigm change for sepsis diagnostics, a new test predicted sepsis soon after infection in mice -- well before blood clotting and organ failure -- enabling early antibiotic treatment and markedly increased survival. The findings provide a platform to develop rapid and easy-to-perform clinical tests for early sepsis detection and clinical intervention in human patients.\n',1,27,'<li>Douglas M. Heithoff, Genaro Pimienta, Scott P. Mahan, Won Ho Yang, Dzung T. Le, John K. House, Jamey D. Marth, Jeffrey W. Smith, Michael J. Mahan. <strong>Coagulation factor protein abundance in the pre-septic state predicts coagulopathic activities that arise during late-stage murine sepsis</strong>. <em>eBioMedicine</em>, 2022; 78: 103965 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2022.103965\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.ebiom.2022.103965</a>\n</li>'),(1669,'Black patients with cancer fare worse with COVID-19, study shows','black-patients-with-cancer-fare-worse-with-covid-19,-study-shows','2022-03-28 21:13:18.834486',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Black patients with cancer experienced significantly worse outcomes after COVID-19 diagnosis than non-Hispanic white cancer patients in a study published March 28 in <em>JAMA Network Open</em>. Investigators of the COVID-19 and Cancer Consortium, which includes more than 125 cancer centers and other organizations, studied the electronic health records of 3,506 patients for the analysis, including data of 1,068 Black patients and 2,438 non-Hispanic white patients.</p><p>\"We saw worse COVID-19 illness at presentation, higher rates of hospitalization, higher rates of intensive care unit admission, higher rates of mechanical ventilation and worse death rates in Black patients compared to non-Hispanic white patients, even after making the two groups comparable in terms of type, status and treatment of cancer by statistical analysis methods,\" said senior and corresponding author Dimpy Shah, MD, PhD, assistant professor of population health sciences at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UT Health San Antonio). Dr. Shah leads the cancer and infectious diseases epidemiology research program at the Mays Cancer Center, home to UT Health San Antonio MD Anderson Cancer Center. The program has specific focus on minority health and health disparities. Dr. Shah also serves as steering committee member, lead epidemiologist and patient advocacy co-chair for CCC19.</p><p><strong>Structural racism</strong></p><p>A framework of structural racism in the U.S. can explain the increased COVID-19 burden in Black patients, Dr. Shah and her co-authors wrote. Structural racism refers to the ways in which societies reinforce systems of health care, law enforcement, education, employment, benefits, media and housing, perpetuating discriminatory distribution of resources and attitudes, the authors wrote, citing a 2017 article by Zinzi D Bailey, ScD, et al., published in <em>The Lancet</em>.</p><p>\"Race in medicine is largely a social construct because the majority of differences in health outcomes between Black patients and white patients are due to systematic racialization,\" Dr. Shah said. \"Some of the societal root causes of health disparities, including lack of access to health care, social determinants of health, preexisting comorbidities and access to clinical research, are common to both cancer and COVID-19, and together these two diseases create a perfect storm.\"</p><p><strong>Treatments</strong></p><p>The researchers also noted differences in COVID-19 treatments provided to the two groups. Hydroxychloroquine was prescribed more in Black patients, and white patients had higher administration of remdesivir. Remdesivir is an antiviral drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat COVID-19 in adults and children 12 and older. Hydroxychloroquine, meanwhile, is a malaria drug. The FDA withdrew emergency use authorization of it after data indicated it is not effective in treating the coronavirus.</p><p>Although Black individuals represent 13% of the U.S. population, they account for 20% of COVID-19 cases and 23% of COVID-related deaths, the study authors noted.</p><p>\"We saw that Black patients with cancer and COVID-19 infection are facing a disproportionately higher burden of COVID-19 complications and death,\" said Sonya Reid, MD, MPH, assistant professor of Medicine at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, who was a lead author of the study. \"This is unfortunately very similar to what we have seen with racial disparities in cancer outcomes. We now have to prioritize addressing the root causes of health disparities in order to achieve equitable care for all patients.\"</p><p><strong>Cancer burden greater</strong></p><p>Disparity is also seen in cancer epidemiology. The cancer burden is greater in Black individuals (461 new cancer cases per 100,000) than in white individuals (445 new cancer cases per 100,000). Mortality in Black individuals is higher (174 deaths per 100,000) than in white individuals (152 deaths per 100,000). This is a 15% difference in the cancer-associated death rate in Black patients compared to non-Hispanic white patients.</p><p>\"Black patients fare worse with cancer outcomes for a range of reasons, including access and many aspects that plague cancer health equity,\" said Ruben Mesa, MD, FACP, executive director of the Mays Cancer Center. \"The Mays Cancer Center is committed to improving cancer health equity across all peoples, and crucial knowledge from studies such as this help focus the needed work ahead.\"</p><p><strong>Fair opportunity</strong></p><p>\"Structural racism and discrimination create inequitable access to health care and other health-promoting assets for our vulnerable communities, including Blacks and Latinos,\" said Amelie G. Ramirez, DrPH, chair of the Department of Population Health Sciences and director of the Institute for Health Promotion Research at UT Health San Antonio.</p><p>\"This issue warrants more research to change structures and systems toward health equity, where everyone has a fair, just opportunity to be their healthiest, and better quality of life for all our patients,\" said Dr. Ramirez, who serves as associate director of cancer outreach and engagement for the Mays Cancer Center.</p><p>The study is another step toward changing attitudes to hopefully change health, the leaders agreed.</p><p>\"There have been unfounded claims that structural racism does not exist,\" said Dr. Shah, a senior member of the CCC19 Racial Disparities Interest Group. \"Besides adding to the science of COVID-19 and cancer, this study is important because it is a call to action that structural racism still very much exists, and we can see the evidence of how it affects our minority patients with cancer.\"</p><p>\"Understanding and addressing racial inequities within the causal framework of structural racism is essential to reduce the disproportionate burden of diseases, such as COVID-19 and cancer, in Black patients and other minorities,\" the authors concluded.</p>','2022-03-28 21:13:18.834486','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio','Lack of access to health care, social determinants of health, preexisting comorbidities and reduced access to clinical research are common to both cancer and COVID-19 in Black individuals. Together these two diseases create a perfect storm in this population, a new study indicates.\n',1,108,'<li>Julie Fu, Sonya A. Reid, Benjamin French, Cassandra Hennessy, Clara Hwang, Na Tosha Gatson, Narjust Duma, Sanjay Mishra, Ryan Nguyen, Jessica E. Hawley, Sunny R. K. Singh, David D. Chism, Neeta K. Venepalli, Jeremy L. Warner, Toni K. Choueiri, Andrew L. Schmidt, Leslie A. Fecher, Jennifer E. Girard, Mehmet A. Bilen, Deepak Ravindranathan, Sharad Goyal, Trisha M. Wise-Draper, Cathleen Park, Corrie A. Painter, Sheila M. McGlown, Gilberto de Lima Lopes, Oscar K. Serrano, Dimpy P. Shah, for the COVID-19 and Cancer Consortium (CCC19). <strong>Racial Disparities in COVID-19 Outcomes Among Black and White Patients With Cancer</strong>. <em>JAMA Network Open</em>, 2022; 5 (3): e224304 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.4304\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.4304</a>\n</li>'),(1670,'Spirituality can improve quality of life for heart failure patients, study finds','spirituality-can-improve-quality-of-life-for-heart-failure-patients,-study-finds','2022-03-28 21:45:02.652608',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Numerous studies have shown that spirituality can help improve quality of life for people with chronic diseases like cancer. According to a literature review published today in <em>JACC Heart Failure, </em>spirituality can also have a positive impact on quality of life for heart failure patients. It further concludes spirituality should be considered a potential target for palliative care interventions to improve patient-centered and clinical outcomes in these individuals.</p><p>\"Patients who have heart failure experience a poorer quality of life compared to their peers, with high levels of depression, anxiety and spiritual distress,\" said Rachel S. Tobin, MD, resident in Internal Medicine at Duke University Hospital, and lead author of the study. \"Contributing to diminished quality of life is the fact that heart failure, unlike many other chronic diseases, is very unpredictable and can lead to hopelessness, isolation and altered self-image.\"</p><p>The American College of Cardiology and other major cardiovascular societies recommend palliative care for heart failure patients. Spirituality is a core domain of palliative care, with the goal of identifying and addressing spiritual concerns and providing patients with appropriate spiritual and religious resources. However, limited research has been conducted on spirituality\'s impact on patients with heart failure, and there are no known tools designed to measure it.</p><p>According to the researchers, spirituality is hard to define, but they reference several definitions that describe spirituality as how individuals find meaning and purpose in life, which can be separate from religious beliefs.</p><p>For instance, the Institute of Medicine defines spirituality as \"the needs and expectations which humans have to find meaning, purpose and value in their life. Such needs can be specifically religious, but even people who have no religious faith or are not members of an organized religion have belief systems that give their lives meaning and purpose.\"</p><p>Researchers conducted a review of 47 articles in order to explore the current knowledge of spirituality in heart failure patients; describe associations between spirituality and quality of life, as well as patient outcomes; and propose clinical applications and future directions for spirituality in this population. There were approximately 10 varying instruments used to measure spirituality, some simple, others complex. Key data examined include:</p><p>\"The literature suggests not only can spirituality improve quality of life for the patient, it can help support caregivers and potentially help heart failure patients from needing to be readmitted to the hospital,\" Tobin said. \"What we have suggested and are now doing is developing a spirituality screening tool, similar to ones used to screen for depression. This can be used to identify heart failure patients in palliative care who are at risk for spiritual distress. However, this is just a start. More research needs to be done.\"</p>','2022-03-28 21:45:02.652608','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'American College of Cardiology','Numerous studies have shown that spirituality can help improve quality of life for people with chronic diseases like cancer. According to a literature review, spirituality can also have a positive impact on quality of life for heart failure patients.\n',1,197,'<li>Rachel S. Tobin, Michael F. Cosiano, Christopher M. O’Connor, Mona Fiuzat, Bradi B. Granger, Joseph G. Rogers, James A. Tulsky, Karen E. Steinhauser, Robert J. Mentz. <strong>Spirituality in Patients With Heart Failure</strong>. <em>JACC: Heart Failure</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jchf.2022.01.014\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.jchf.2022.01.014</a>\n</li>'),(1671,'Deleting a protein might reduce cardiovascular disease','deleting-a-protein-might-reduce-cardiovascular-disease','2022-03-28 22:40:41.665317',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Macrophages travel through our arteries, gobbling fat. But fat-filled macrophages can narrow blood vessels and cause heart disease. Now, UConn Health researchers describe in <em>Nature Cardiovascular Research</em> how deleting a protein could prevent this and potentially prevent heart attacks and strokes in humans.</p><p>Macrophages are large white blood cells that cruise through our body as a kind of clean-up crew, clearing hazardous debris. But in people with atherosclerosis -- fatty deposits and inflammation in their blood vessels -- macrophages can cause trouble. They eat excess fat inside artery walls, but that fat causes them to become foamy. And foamy macrophages tend to encourage inflammation in the arteries and sometimes bust apart plaques, freeing clots that can cause heart attack, stroke or embolisms elsewhere in the body.</p><p>Changing how macrophages express a certain protein could prevent that kind of bad behavior, reports a team of researchers from UConn Health. They found that the protein, called TRPM2, is activated by inflammation. It signals macrophages to start eating fat. Since inflammation of the blood vessels is one of the primary causes of atherosclerosis, TRPM2 gets activated quite a bit. All that TRPM2 activation pushes macrophage activity, which leads to more foamy macrophages and potentially more inflamed arteries. The way that TRPM2 activated macrophage activity was surprising, says Lixia Yue, a UConn School of Medicine cell biologist.</p><p>\"They form a vicious cycle promoting the development of atherosclerosis,\" Yue says.</p><p>Yue and Pengyu Zong, a graduate student and the first author of the paper, demonstrated one way to stop the cycle, at least in mice. They deleted TRPM2 from a type of lab mouse that tends to get atherosclerosis. Deleting that protein didn\'t seem to hurt the mice, and it prevented the macrophages from getting foamy. It also alleviated the animals\' atherosclerosis.</p><p>Now Yue and Pengyu Zong, and the rest of the team are looking at whether increased TRPM2 expression in monocytes (precursors of macrophages) in the blood correlates with severity of cardiovascular disease in humans. If they find that there is a correlation, high levels of TRPM2 might be a risk marker for heart attack and stroke.</p><p>This research was funded by grants from the American Heart Association and the National Institutes of Health National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.</p>','2022-03-28 22:40:41.665317','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Connecticut','Macrophages travel through our arteries, gobbling fat. But fat-filled macrophages can narrow blood vessels and cause heart disease. Now, researchers describe how deleting a protein could prevent this and potentially prevent heart attacks and strokes in humans.\n',1,150,'<li>Pengyu Zong, Jianlin Feng, Zhichao Yue, Albert S. Yu, Jean Vacher, Evan R. Jellison, Barbara Miller, Yasuo Mori, Lixia Yue. <strong>TRPM2 deficiency in mice protects against atherosclerosis by inhibiting TRPM2–CD36 inflammatory axis in macrophages</strong>. <em>Nature Cardiovascular Research</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s44161-022-00027-7\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s44161-022-00027-7</a>\n</li>'),(1672,'Hundreds of new mammal species waiting to be found, study says','hundreds-of-new-mammal-species-waiting-to-be-found,-study-says','2022-03-28 22:40:58.086798',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">At least hundreds of so-far unidentified species of mammals are hiding in plain sight around the world, a new study suggests.</p><p>Researchers found that most of these hidden mammals are small bodied, many of them bats, rodents, shrews, and moles.</p><p>These unknown mammals are hidden in plain sight partly because most are small and look so much like known animals that biologists have not been able to recognize they are actually a different species, said study co-author Bryan Carstens, a professor of evolution, ecology and organismal biology at The Ohio State University.</p><p>\"Small, subtle differences in appearance are harder to notice when you\'re looking at a tiny animal that weighs 10 grams than when you\'re looking at something that is human-sized,\" Carstens said.</p><p>\"You can\'t tell they are different species unless you do a genetic analysis.\"</p><p>The study was published today (March 28, 2022) in the <em>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</em>.</p><p>The team, led by Ohio State graduate student Danielle Parsons, used a supercomputer and machine-learning techniques to analyze millions of publicly available gene sequences from 4,310 mammal species, as well as data on where the animals live, their environment, life history and other relevant information.</p><p>This allowed them to build a predictive model to identify the taxa of mammals that are likely to contain hidden species.</p><p>\"Based on our analysis, a conservative estimate would be that there are hundreds of species of mammals worldwide that have yet to be identified,\" Carstens said.</p><p>That finding, in itself, would not be surprising to biologists, he said. Only an estimated 1 to 10% of Earth\'s species have been formally described by researchers.</p><p>\"What we did that was new was predict where these new species are most likely to be found,\" Carstens said.</p><p>Results showed unidentified species are most likely to be found in the families of small-bodied animals, such as bats and rodents.</p><p>The researchers\' model also predicted hidden species would most likely be found in species that have wider geographic ranges with higher variability in temperature and precipitation.</p><p>Many of the hidden species are also likely to occur in tropical rain forests, which is not surprising because that\'s where most mammal species occur.</p><p>But many unidentified species are also likely living here in the United States, Carstens said. His lab has identified some of them. For example, in 2018, Carstens and his then-graduate student Ariadna Morales published a paper showing that the little brown bat, found in much of North America, is actually five different species.</p><p>That study also showed a key reason why it is important to identify new species. One of the newly delimited bats had a very narrow range where it lived, just around the Great Basin in Nevada -- making its protection especially critical.</p><p>\"That knowledge is important to people who are doing conservation work. We can\'t protect a species if we don\'t know that it exists. As soon as we name something as a species, that matters in a lot of legal and other ways,\" Carstens said.</p><p>Based on the results of this study, Carstens estimates that somewhere near 80% of mammal species worldwide have been identified.</p><p>\"The shocking thing is that mammals are very well described compared to beetles or ants or other types of animals,\" he said.</p><p>\"We know a lot more about mammals than many other animals because they tend to be larger and are more closely related to humans, which makes them more interesting to us.\"</p><p>The study was supported by the National Science Foundation and the Ohio Supercomputer Center.</p><p>Other co-authors were Tara Pelletier, assistant professor of biology at Radford University; and Jamin Wieringa and Drew Duckett, graduate students at Ohio State.</p>','2022-03-28 22:40:58.086798','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Ohio State University','At least hundreds of so-far unidentified species of mammals are hiding in plain sight around the world, a new study suggests. Researchers found that most of these hidden mammals are small bodied, many of them bats, rodents, shrews, and moles.\n',1,132,'<li>Danielle J. Parsons, Tara A. Pelletier, Jamin G. Wieringa, Drew J. Duckett, Bryan C. Carstens. <strong>Analysis of biodiversity data suggests that mammal species are hidden in predictable places</strong>. <em>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</em>, 2022; 119 (14) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2103400119\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1073/pnas.2103400119</a>\n</li>'),(1673,'Researchers offer new treatment protocol for advanced head and neck cancer','researchers-offer-new-treatment-protocol-for-advanced-head-and-neck-cancer','2022-03-28 22:41:11.008366',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">The current treatment of patients diagnosed with advanced or metastatic head and neck cancer (HNC) is ineffective. Ben-Gurion University of the Negev researchers, along with their international colleagues, have investigated and validated a potential treatment combination against the aggressive disease driven by hyper-activation of a specific signaling pathway, which is found in over 40% of HNC patients.</p><p>Their findings were just published in the <em>Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer</em>.</p><p>Specifically, the authors showed in pre-clinical HNC models that treating tumor-bearing mice with a therapy that blocks this signaling pathway, sensitizes tumors to the immunotherapy of anti-PD1, resulting in the disappearance of tumors after the therapy combination. This effective treatment was validated in four HNC cancer models, and most mice were cured with no recurrent disease. Together with Dr. Pierre Saintygn from Lyon the authors also validated some of the findings in HNC patients.</p><p>The research was led by PhD student Manu Prasad in the laboratory of Prof. Moshe Elkabets in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.</p><p>\"Our unique ability to generate pre-clinical HNC models and to investigate new treatment and treatment combinations provides hope for HNC patients. We sincerely hope that oncologists will test this treatment combination in HNC patients, as improving immunotherapy efficacy is crucial for prolonging the survival of cancer patients,\" says Prof. Elkabets.</p><p>The authors also showed for the first time in mice bearing HNC that the treatment should be given sequentially. They found that a short treatment with trametinib is sufficient to sensitize anti-PD-1 resistant tumors. This sensitization happens because trametinib treatment, on the one hand, inhibits tumor cell proliferation and, on the other hand, down-regulates the expression of an immunosuppressive factor that determines the propagation of immunosuppressive cells in the tumor site. This effect enables cytotoxic white blood cells to reach the tumor site, and together with anti-PD1, can kill the tumor cells efficiently. However, when mice were treated with prolonged trametinib treatment, tumors failed to respond to immunotherapy.</p><p>The study was conducted by national and international groups from Soroka University Medical Center and Barzilai Medical Centers, Memorial Sloan Kettering, and Heidelberg Hospital.</p><p>This study was supported by the Cooperational Research Program of the Foundation Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, Heidelberg, with the Ministry of Science, Technology &amp; Space (DKFZ-MOST #001192), the Israel Cancer Research Fund (ICRF 17-1693-RCDA), the United States -- Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF, 2017323), NSFC Israel-China project (#3409/20) and the Israel Science Foundation (ISF) Grant no. 700/16 and 302/21.</p>','2022-03-28 22:41:11.008366','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Ben-Gurion University of the Negev','The current treatment of patients diagnosed with advanced or metastatic head and neck cancer (HNC) is ineffective. Researchers have investigated and validated a potential treatment combination against the aggressive disease driven by hyper-activation of a specific signaling pathway, which is found in over 40 percent of HNC patients.\n',1,124,'<li>Manu Prasad, Jonathan Zorea, Sankar Jagadeeshan, Avital B Shnerb, Sooraj Mathukkada, Jebrane Bouaoud, Lucas Michon, Ofra Novoplansky, Mai Badarni, Limor Cohen, Ksenia M Yegodayev, Sapir Tzadok, Barak Rotblat, Libor Brezina, Andreas Mock, Andy Karabajakian, Jérôme Fayette, Idan Cohen, Tomer Cooks, Irit Allon, Orr Dimitstein, Benzion Joshua, Dexin Kong, Elena Voronov, Maurizio Scaltriti, Yaron Carmi, Cristina Conde-Lopez, Jochen Hess, Ina Kurth, Luc G T Morris, Pierre Saintigny, Moshe Elkabets. <strong>MEK1/2 inhibition transiently alters the tumor immune microenvironment to enhance immunotherapy efficacy against head and neck cancer</strong>. <em>Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer</em>, 2022; 10 (3): e003917 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/jitc-2021-003917\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1136/jitc-2021-003917</a>\n</li>'),(1674,'Quantum information theory: Quantum complexity grows linearly for an exponentially long time','quantum-information-theory:-quantum-complexity-grows-linearly-for-an-exponentially-long-time','2022-03-28 22:41:20.446570',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Physicists know about the huge chasm between quantum physics and the theory of gravity. However, in recent decades, theoretical physics has provided some plausible conjecture to bridge this gap and to describe the behaviour of complex quantum many-body systems, for example black holes and wormholes in the universe. Now, a theory group at Freie Universität Berlin and HZB, together with Harvard University, USA, has proven a mathematical conjecture about the behaviour of complexity in such systems, increasing the viability of this bridge. The work is published in <em>Nature Physics</em>.</p><p>\"We have found a surprisingly simple solution to an important problem in physics,\" says Prof. Jens Eisert, a theoretical physicist at Freie Universität Berlin and HZB. \"Our results provide a solid basis for understanding the physical properties of chaotic quantum systems, from black holes to complex many-body systems,\" Eisert adds.</p><p>Using only pen and paper, i.e. purely analytically, the Berlin physicists Jonas Haferkamp, Philippe Faist, Naga Kothakonda and Jens Eisert, together with Nicole Yunger Halpern (Harvard, now Maryland), have succeeded in proving a conjecture that has major implications for complex quantum many-body systems. \"This plays a role, for example, when you want to describe the volume of black holes or even wormholes,\" explains Jonas Haferkamp, PhD student in the team of Eisert and first author of the paper.</p><p>Complex quantum many-body systems can be reconstructed by circuits of so-called quantum bits. The question, however, is: how many elementary operations are needed to prepare the desired state? On the surface, it seems that this minimum number of operations -- the complexity of the system -- is always growing. Physicists Adam Brown and Leonard Susskind from Stanford University formulated this intuition as a mathematical conjecture: the quantum complexity of a many-particle system should first grow linearly for astronomically long times and then -- for even longer -- remain in a state of maximum complexity. Their conjecture was motivated by the behaviour of theoretical wormholes, whose volume seems to grow linearly for an eternally long time. In fact, it is further conjectured that complexity and the volume of wormholes are one and the same quantity from two different perspectives. \"This redundancy in description is also called the holographic principle and is an important approach to unifying quantum theory and gravity. Brown and Susskind\'s conjecture on the growth of complexity can be seen as a plausibility check for ideas around the holographic principle,\" explains Haferkamp.</p><p>The group has now shown that the quantum complexity of random circuits indeed increases linearly with time until it saturates at a point in time that is exponential to the system size. Such random circuits are a powerful model for the dynamics of many-body systems. The difficulty in proving the conjecture arises from the fact that it can hardly be ruled out that there are \"shortcuts,\" i.e. random circuits with much lower complexity than expected. \"Our proof is a surprising combination of methods from geometry and those from quantum information theory. This new approach makes it possible to solve the conjecture for the vast majority of systems without having to tackle the notoriously difficult problem for individual states,\" says Haferkamp.</p><p>\"The work in <em>Nature Physics </em>is a nice highlight of my PhD,\" adds the young physicist, who will take up a position at Harvard University at the end of the year. As a postdoc, he can continue his research there, preferably in the classic way with pen and paper and in exchange with the best minds in theoretical physics.</p>','2022-03-28 22:41:20.446570','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie','Physicists know about the huge chasm between quantum physics and the theory of gravity. However, in recent decades, theoretical physics has provided some plausible conjecture to bridge this gap and to describe the behavior of complex quantum many-body systems -- for example, black holes and wormholes in the universe. Now, researchers have proven a mathematical conjecture about the behavior of complexity in such systems, increasing the viability of this bridge.\n',1,56,'<li>Jonas Haferkamp, Philippe Faist, Naga B. T. Kothakonda, Jens Eisert, Nicole Yunger Halpern. <strong>Linear growth of quantum circuit complexity</strong>. <em>Nature Physics</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41567-022-01539-6\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41567-022-01539-6</a>\n</li>'),(1675,'Atlas of migraine cell types sheds light on new therapeutic targets','atlas-of-migraine-cell-types-sheds-light-on-new-therapeutic-targets','2022-03-28 22:44:06.097789',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Headaches such as migraine are among the leading causes of morbidity worldwide, but most treatments provide only partial relief. While scientists know that migraine and related headaches are caused by activity in a part of the nervous system known as the trigeminal ganglion (TG), it remains unclear which genes and cell types of the TG are involved. By analyzing both human and mouse TG, investigators from Brigham and Women\'s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital profiled, at single-cell resolution, the genes expressed in each TG cell type. Their research, published in <em>Neuron</em>, will allow researchers to design more effective treatments for pain by selectively targeting certain genes and cells.</p><p>\"Very few pain therapeutics have made it to the clinic, despite strong efficacy in animal models, so our goal was to analyze human tissue to look for new targets for headache and facial pain treatment,\" said William Renthal, MD, PhD, of the Department of Neurology at the Brigham. \"We now have an atlas of the genes that are expressed in each of the cell types in the TG, the key relay center for migraine and facial pain, and we are now using this tool to identify potential therapeutic targets that are selectively expressed in cell types that drive head pain. We believe this will lead to more precise medicines without as many side effects.\"</p><p>In addition to analyzing the TG of four human donors, the researchers studied two mouse models of headache. Importantly, they found that while cell types between mice and human are largely conserved, some of the genes known to be involved in pain are expressed in different subsets of cells in mice versus humans. This gave the researchers new ideas about which cells to study further.</p><p>\"A major value of this study is that it wasn\'t limited to one specific cell-type or branch of the trigeminal ganglion,\" said Jochen K. Lennerz, MD, PhD, of the Center for Integrated Diagnostics in the Department of Pathology at MGH. Lennerz\'s lab performed the complex tissue-harvesting procedures required to extract the TG, which is located inside the cranium but has neurons that enervate the teeth, eyes, and other facial structures. \"We included all of the cells that make up the TG,\" he said. \"This was a very holistic approach which has resulted in an amazing compendium that researchers can look at from all perspectives and specialties. It may not only be neurons we are looking for when identifying biomolecules as therapeutic targets.\"</p><p>The information from the researchers\' atlas, which is available publicly online, could prompt new investigations into the molecular basis of different varieties of pain, such as tooth pain. It may also shed light on how to treat head pain beyond migraine, including post-concussive headaches or cluster headaches.</p><p>Going forward, the researchers plan to improve the current atlas by sequencing additional human tissues. They hope that the atlas can help researchers develop more selective pain therapeutics by targeting, through gene therapies, the specific cells they\'ve identified.</p><p>\"We have a resource now that allows an individual to go online, look up a gene of interest, find out where it\'s expressed and how it\'s regulated, and then use this information to inspire new experiments,\" Renthal said. \"This atlas is only a first draft, and we need to expand the number of donors to build a more complete one. That\'s a current limitation but also a future direction for our work.\"</p><p><strong>Disclosures:</strong> Renthal receives research funding from Teva Pharmaceuticals and is on an AbbVie scientific advisory board.</p><p><strong>Funding:</strong> Funding for this work was primarily provided by the Migraine Research Foundation and the Burroughs Wellcome Fund. Researchers are also supported by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (K08NS101064, R01NS119476, R01NS115972 and R01NS078263), National Institute of Drug Abuse (DP1DA054343), Teva Pharmaceuticals, Brigham and Women\'s Hospital Women\'s Brain Initiative and Neurotechnology studio.</p>','2022-03-28 22:44:06.097789','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Brigham and Women\'s Hospital','By mapping the cell types and genes expressed in the human and mouse trigeminal ganglion, researchers have created an online resource for studying the molecular basis of headache and facial pain.\n',1,27,'<li>Lite Yang, Mengyi Xu, Shamsuddin A. Bhuiyan, Jia Li, Jun Zhao, Randall J. Cohrs, Justin T. Susterich, Sylvia Signorelli, Ursula Green, James R. Stone, Dan Levy, Jochen K. Lennerz, William Renthal. <strong>Human and mouse trigeminal ganglia cell atlas implicates multiple cell types in migraine</strong>. <em>Neuron</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2022.03.003\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.neuron.2022.03.003</a>\n</li>'),(1676,'New technology could make biopsies a thing of the past','new-technology-could-make-biopsies-a-thing-of-the-past','2022-03-28 22:44:23.368072',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">A Columbia Engineering team has developed a technology that could replace conventional biopsies and histology with real-time imaging within the living body. Described in a new paper published today in <em>Nature Biomedical Engineering</em>, MediSCAPE is a high-speed 3D microscope capable of capturing images of tissue structures that could guide surgeons to navigate tumors and their boundaries without needing to remove tissues and wait for pathology results.</p><p>For many medical procedures, particularly cancer surgery and screening, it is common for doctors to take a biopsy, cutting out small pieces of tissue to be able to take a closer look at them with a microscope. \"The way that biopsy samples are processed hasn\'t changed in 100 years, they are cut out, fixed, embedded, sliced, stained with dyes, positioned on a glass slide, and viewed by a pathologist using a simple microscope. This is why it can take days to hear news back about your diagnosis after a biopsy,\" says Elizabeth Hillman, professor of biomedical engineering and radiology at Columbia University and senior author of the study.</p><p>Hillman\'s group dreamed of a bold alternative, wondering whether they could capture images of the tissue while it is still within the body. \"Such a technology could give a doctor real-time feedback about what type of tissue they are looking at without the long wait,\" she explains. \"This instant answer would let them make informed decisions about how best to cut out a tumor and ensure there is none left behind.\"</p><p>Another major benefit of the approach is that cutting tissue out, just to figure out what it is, is a hard decision for doctors, especially for precious tissues such as the brain, spinal cord, nerves, the eye, and areas of the face. This means that doctors can miss important areas of disease. \"Because we can image the living tissue, without cutting it out, we hope that MediSCAPE will make those decisions a thing of the past,\" says Hillman.</p><p>Although some microscopes for surgical guidance are already available, they only give doctors an image of a small, single 2D plane, making it difficult to quickly survey larger areas of tissue and interpret results. These microscopes also generally require a fluorescent dye to be injected into the patient, which takes time and can limit their use for certain patients.</p><p>Over the past decade, Hillman, who is also Herbert and Florence Irving Professor at Columbia\'s Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, has been developing new kinds of microscopes for neuroscience research that can capture very fast 3D images of living samples like tiny worms, fish, and flies to see how neurons throughout their brains and bodies fire when they move. The team decided to test whether their technology, termed SCAPE (for Swept Confocally Aligned Planar Excitation microscopy) could see anything useful in tissues from other parts of the body.</p><p>\"One of the first tissues we looked at was fresh mouse kidney, and we were stunned to see gorgeous structures that looked a lot like what you get with standard histology,\" says Kripa Patel, a recent PhD graduate from the Hillman lab and lead author of the study. \"Most importantly, we didn\'t add any dyes to the mouse -- everything we saw was natural fluorescence in the tissue that is usually too weak to see. Our microscope is so efficient that we could see these weak signals well, even though we were also imaging whole 3D volumes at speeds fast enough to rove around in real time, scanning different areas of the tissue as if we were holding a flashlight.\"</p><p>As she \"roved around,\" Patel could even stitch together the acquired volumes and turn the data into large 3D representations of the tissue that a pathologist could examine as if it were a full box of histology slides.</p><p>\"This was something I didn\'t expect -- that I could actually look at structures in 3D from different angles,\" says collaborator Dr. Shana Coley, a renal pathologist at Columbia University Medical Center who collaborated closely on the study. \"We found many examples where we would not have been able to identify a structure from a 2D section on a histology slide, but in 3D we could clearly see its shape. In renal pathology in particular, where we routinely work with very limited amounts of tissue, the more information we can derive from the sample, the better for delivering more effective patient care.\"</p><p>The team demonstrated the power of MediSCAPE for a wide range of applications, from analysis of pancreatic cancer in a mouse, to Coley\'s interest in non-destructive, rapid evaluation of human transplant organs such as kidneys. Coley helped the team get fresh samples from human kidneys to prove that MediSCAPE could see telltale signs of kidney disease that matched well to conventional histology images.</p><p>The team also realized that by imaging tissues while they are alive in the body, they could get even more information than from lifeless excised biopsies. They found that they could actually visualize blood flow through tissues, and see the cellular-level effects of ischemia and reperfusion (cutting off the blood supply to the kidney and then letting it flow back in).</p><p>\"Understanding whether tissues are staying healthy and getting good blood supply during surgical procedures is really important,\" says Hillman. \"We also realized that if we don\'t have to remove (and kill) tissues to look at them, we can find many more uses for MediSCAPE, even to answer simple questions such as \'what tissue is this?\' or to navigate around precious nerves. Both of these applications are really important for robotic and laparoscopic surgeries where surgeons are more limited in their ability to identify and interact with tissues directly.\"</p><p>A critical final step for the team was to reduce the large format of the standard SCAPE microscopes in Hillman\'s lab to something that would fit into an operating room and could be used by a surgeon in the human body. Post-doctoral fellow Wenxuan Liang worked with the team to develop a smaller version of the system with a better form factor, and a sterile imaging cap. PhD candidate Malte Casper helped to acquire the team\'s first demonstration of MediSCAPE in a living human, collecting images of a range of tissues in and around the mouth. These results included rapidly imaging while a volunteer literally licked the end of the imaging probe, producing detailed 3D views of the papillae of the tongue.</p><p>Eager to take this technology to the next level with a larger clinical trial, the team is currently working on commercialization and FDA approval. Hillman adds, \"We are just so amazed to see what MediSCAPE reveals every time we use it on a new tissue, and especially that we barely ever even needed to add dyes or stains to see structures that pathologists can recognize.\"</p><p>Hillman and her team hopes that MediSCAPE will make standard histology a thing of the past, putting the power of real-time histology and decision making into the surgeon\'s hands.</p><p>Funding for this work was provided by the Columbia-Coulter Translational Research Partnership and the Coulter Foundation Early Career programme to E.M.C.H; the National Institutes of Health BRAIN initiative grants U01NS09429, UF1NS108213 to E.M.C.H and U19NS104649 to Costa; NCI grant U01CA236554 to E.M.C.H. and Brenner; the National Science Foundation NSF-GRFP DGE -- 1644869 to K.B.P., IGERT 0801530 to V.V. and CAREER CBET-0954796 to E.M.C.H.; the Simons Foundation Collaboration on the Global Brain 542951 to E.M.C.H.; the Department of Defense MURI W911NF-12-1-0594 to E.M.C.H.; and the Kavli Institute for Brain Science to E.M.C.H.</p><p>Intellectual property related to SCAPE microscopy is held by Columbia University and is licensed to Leica Microsystems for certain applications. The authors of this study could benefit financially from commercial development of this technology.</p>','2022-03-28 22:44:23.368072','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science','Researchers have developed a technology that could replace conventional biopsies and histology with real-time imaging within the living body. MediSCAPE is a high-speed 3D microscope capable of capturing images of tissue structures that could guide surgeons to navigate tumors and their boundaries without needing to remove tissues and wait for pathology results.\n',1,27,'<li>Kripa B. Patel, Wenxuan Liang, Malte J. Casper, Venkatakaushik Voleti, Wenze Li, Alexis J. Yagielski, Hanzhi T. Zhao, Citlali Perez Campos, Grace Sooyeon Lee, Joyce M. Liu, Elizabeth Philipone, Angela J. Yoon, Kenneth P. Olive, Shana M. Coley, Elizabeth M. C. Hillman. <strong>High-speed light-sheet microscopy for the in-situ acquisition of volumetric histological images of living tissue</strong>. <em>Nature Biomedical Engineering</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41551-022-00849-7\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41551-022-00849-7</a>\n</li>'),(1677,'Smells like ancient society: Scientists find ways to study and reconstruct past scents','smells-like-ancient-society:-scientists-find-ways-to-study-and-reconstruct-past-scents','2022-03-28 22:44:54.148558',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">In a new call for action paper published in <em>Nature Human Behaviour</em>, researchers from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Jena, Germany, discuss the importance of scent in human history and address how and why experts might investigate smells from the past.</p><p>In recent years, millions of people worldwide have suffered the loss of smell due to COVID-19. Even those who have avoided infection with the new coronavirus experience the world of scent differently now due to the very masks that provide protection from the virus. This loss of olfaction has highlighted the important role of smell in how we perceive and navigate the world, and underscored the connections between olfaction and mental and physical health.</p><p>Scent has always been an integral component of the human experience, but up until now, the past has remained largely odorless. Most scents come from organic substances that decay quickly, leaving little for archaeologists to investigate thousands of years later. Now a team of researchers from the MPI for the Science of Human History is looking for new ways to bring the smellscapes of the past back to life and using smell to study past experience, behaviour, and society.</p><p>\"Tracking scent in the deep past is not a simple task,\" says Barbara Huber, the lead author of the paper, \"but the fact that history records expeditions of discovery, wars, and long-distance exchange to acquire materials with strong olfactory properties -- like incense and spices -- reveals how significant scent has been for human kind.\"</p><p>Understanding the sensorial dimension of human history and the use of odorous and aromatic substances can contribute knowledge about many aspects of the past -- including ritual, perfumery, hygiene, cuisine, trade and commerce. But because scent is part of how we experience, understand and navigate the world, ancient scents can also provide insight into more general aspects of the past, from social hierarchy and social practices to group identity.</p><p>\"Scent is a powerful and underappreciated aspect of human experience,\" notes Professor Nicole Boivin, senior author of the study and Director of the Department of Archaeology at the MPI Science of Human History \"Smells reach our brain fairly directly and motivate us in critical ways -- whether to avoid danger, identify something that is good for us, or remember something from our past, for example.\"</p><p>\"Using only traces of scented substances preserved in archaeological artefacts and features,\" adds Huber, \"novel methods are revealing the powerful odours that were a cardinal feature of ancient lived realities, and that shaped human action, thoughts, emotions and memories.\"</p><p>By leveraging potent new biomolecular and omics approaches, such as proteomic and metabolomics techniques, and linking new data with information from ancient texts, visual depictions, and the broader archaeological and environmental records, researchers stand to open up new aspects of the ancient world, our changing societies and cultures, and our evolution as a species. The authors of the new paper hope that more research into the rich \'smellscapes\' of the past will provide insight into the sensory worlds of long ago, and the diverse ways that people have captured scents from nature in order to shape human experience.</p>','2022-03-28 22:44:54.148558','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History','In a new paper, researchers discuss the importance of scent in human history and address how and why experts might investigate smells from the past.\n',1,162,'<li>Barbara Huber, Thomas Larsen, Robert N. Spengler, Nicole Boivin. <strong>How to use modern science to reconstruct ancient scents</strong>. <em>Nature Human Behaviour</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41562-022-01325-7\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41562-022-01325-7</a>\n</li>'),(1678,'Solar energy explains fast yearly retreat of Antarctica\'s sea ice','solar-energy-explains-fast-yearly-retreat-of-antarctica\'s-sea-ice','2022-03-28 22:46:08.257524',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">In the Southern Hemisphere, the ice cover around Antarctica gradually expands from March to October each year. During this time the total ice area increases by 6 times to become larger than Russia. The sea ice then retreats at a faster pace, most dramatically around December, when Antarctica experiences constant daylight.</p><p>New research led by the University of Washington explains why the ice retreats so quickly: Unlike other aspects of its behavior, Antarctic sea ice is just following simple rules of physics.</p><p>The study was published March 28 in <em>Nature Geoscience.</em></p><p>\"In spite of the puzzling longer-term trends and the large year-to-year variations in Antarctic sea ice, the seasonal cycle is really consistent, always showing this fast retreat relative to slow growth,\" said lead author Lettie Roach, who conducted the study as a postdoctoral researcher at the UW and is now research scientist at NASA and Columbia University. \"Given how complex our climate system is, I was surprised that the rapid seasonal retreat of Antarctic sea ice could be explained with such a simple mechanism.\"</p><p>Previous studies explored whether wind patterns or warm ocean waters might be responsible for the asymmetry in Antarctica\'s seasonal sea ice cycle. But the new study shows that, just like a hot summer day reaches its maximum sizzling conditions in late afternoon, an Antarctic summer hits peak melting power in midsummer, accelerating warming and sea ice loss, with slower changes in temperature and sea ice when solar input is low during the rest of the year.</p><p>The researchers investigated global climate models and found they reproduced the quicker retreat of Antarctic sea ice. They then built a simple physics-based model to show that the reason is the seasonal pattern of incoming solar radiation.</p><p>At the North Pole, Arctic ice cover has gradually decreased since the 1970s with global warming. Antarctic ice cover, however, has seesawed over recent decades. Researchers are still working to understand sea ice around the South Pole and better represent it in climate models.</p><p>\"I think because we usually expect Antarctic sea ice to be puzzling, previous studies assumed that the rapid seasonal retreat of Antarctic sea ice was also unexpected -- in contrast to the Arctic, where the seasons of ice advance and retreat are more similar,\" Roach said. \"Our results show that the seasonal cycle in Antarctic sea ice can be explained using very simple physics. In terms of the seasonal cycle, Antarctic sea ice is behaving as we should expect, and it is the Arctic seasonal cycle that is more mysterious.\"</p><p>The researchers are now exploring why Arctic sea ice doesn\'t follow this pattern, instead each year growing slightly faster over the Arctic Ocean than it retreats. Because Antarctica\'s geography is simple, with a polar continent surrounded by ocean, this aspect of its sea ice may be more straightforward, Roach said.</p><p>\"We know the Southern Ocean plays an important role in Earth\'s climate. Being able to explain this key feature of Antarctic sea ice that standard textbooks have had wrong, and showing that the models are reproducing it correctly, is a step toward understanding this system and predicting future changes,\" said co-author Cecilia Bitz, a UW professor of atmospheric sciences.</p><p>Other co-authors are; Edward Blanchard-Wrigglesworth, a UW research assistant professor in atmospheric sciences; Ian Eisenman at Scripps Institution of Oceanography; and Till Wagner at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Roach is currently a research scientist with the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. This work was funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.K.-based Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research.</p>','2022-03-28 22:46:08.257524','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Washington','Sea ice around Antarctica retreats more quickly than it advances, an asymmetry that has been a puzzle. New analysis shows that the Southern Hemisphere is following simple rules of physics, as peak midsummer sun causes rapid changes. In this respect, it seems, it\'s Arctic sea ice that is more mysterious.\n',1,163,'<li>L. A. Roach, I. Eisenman, T. J. W. Wagner, E. Blanchard-Wrigglesworth, C. M. Bitz. <strong>Asymmetry in the seasonal cycle of Antarctic sea ice driven by insolation</strong>. <em>Nature Geoscience</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41561-022-00913-6\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41561-022-00913-6</a>\n</li>'),(1679,'Layover or nonstop? Unique pattern of connectivity lets highly creative people\'s brains take road less traveled to their destination','layover-or-nonstop?-unique-pattern-of-connectivity-lets-highly-creative-people\'s-brains-take-road-less-traveled-to-their-destination','2022-03-28 22:46:25.949433',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">A new study led by UCLA Health scientists shows highly creative people\'s brains appear to work differently from others\', with an atypical approach that makes distant connections more quickly by bypassing the \"hubs\" seen in non-creative brains.</p><p>Exceptionally creative visual artists and scientists -- called \"Big C\" creative types -- volunteered to undergo functional MRI brain imaging, giving researchers in psychiatry, behavioral sciences and psychology a look at how regions of the brain connected and interacted when called upon to perform tasks that put creative thinking to the test.</p><p>\"Our results showed that highly creative people had unique brain connectivity that tended to stay off the beaten path,\" said Ariana Anderson, a professor and statistician at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA, the lead author of a new article in the journal <em>Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts</em>. While non-creatives tended to follow the same routes across the brain, the highly creative people made their own roads.</p><p>Although the concept of creativity has been studied for decades, little is known about its biological bases, and even less is understood about the brain mechanisms of exceptionally creative people, said senior author Robert Bilder, director of the Tennenbaum Center for the Biology of Creativity at the Semel Institute. This uniquely designed study included highly creative people representing two different domains of creativity -- visual arts and the sciences -- and used an IQ-matched comparison group to identify markers of creativity, not just intelligence. The researchers analyzed how connections were made between brain regions globally and locally.</p><p>\"Exceptional creativity was associated with more random connectivity at the global scale -- a pattern that is less \'efficient\' but would appear helpful in linking distant brain nodes to each other,\" Bilder said. \"The patterns in more local brain regions varied, depending on whether people were performing tasks. Surprisingly, Big C creatives had more efficient local processing at rest, but less efficient local connectivity when performing a task demanding \'thinking outside the box.\'\"</p><p>Using airline route maps for comparison, the researchers said the Big C creatives\' brain activity is akin to skipping flights to connecting hubs to get to a small city.</p><p>\"In terms of brain connectivity, while everyone else is stuck in a three-hour layover at a major airport, the highly creatives take private planes directly to a distant destination,\" Anderson said. \"This more random connectivity may be less efficient much of the time, but the architecture enables brain activity to \'take a road less traveled\' and make novel connections.\"</p><p>Bilder, who has more than 30 years\' experience researching brain-behavior relations, said, \"The fact that Big C people had more efficient local brain connectivity, but only under certain conditions, may relate to their expertise. Consistent with some of our prior findings, they may not need to work as hard as other smart people to perform certain creative tasks.\"</p><p>The artists and scientists in the study were nominated by panels of experts before being validated as exceptional based on objective metrics. The \"smart\" comparison group was recruited from participants in a previous UCLA study who had agreed to be contacted for possible participation in future studies, and from advertisements in the community for individuals with graduate degrees. The researchers made efforts to ensure that age, sex, race and ethnicity were comparable to those of participants in the Big C groups.</p><p>In addition to Bilder and Anderson, authors include Kevin Japardi, a data intelligence analyst at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center; Kendra Knudsen, a researcher in psychology at UCLA; Susan Bookheimer, a researcher in psychiatry, behavioral sciences and psychology at UCLA; and Dara Ghahremani, a researcher in psychiatry and behavioral sciences at UCLA.</p><p>The research was funded by a grant from the John Templeton Foundation (42052) awarded to Robert Bilder, and by the Michael E. Tennenbaum Family Center for the Biology of Creativity. The authors thank the Staglin IMHRO Center for Cognitive Neuroscience for their support and assistance. Ariana Anderson holds a Career Award at the Scientific Interface from Burroughs Wellcome Fund.</p><p>The authors report no additional disclosures or potential conflicts of interest.</p>','2022-03-28 22:46:25.949433','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of California - Los Angeles Health Sciences','A new study shows highly creative people\'s brains appear to work differently than others, with an atypical approach that makes distant connections more quickly by bypassing the \'hubs\' seen in non-creative brains.\n',1,198,'<li>Ariana Anderson, Kevin Japardi, Kendra S. Knudsen, Susan Y. Bookheimer, Dara G. Ghahremani, Robert M. Bilder. <strong>Big-C creativity in artists and scientists is associated with more random global but less random local fMRI functional connectivity.</strong>. <em>Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/aca0000463\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1037/aca0000463</a>\n</li>'),(1680,'How cells control their borders','how-cells-control-their-borders','2022-03-28 22:47:32.838936',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Bacteria, fungi, and yeast are very good at excreting useful substances such as weak acids. One way in which they do this is through passive diffusion of molecules across the cell membrane. At the same time, cells need to prevent leakage of numerous small molecules. Yeast cells, for instance, can live in hostile environments thanks to a very robust and relatively impermeable membrane system. Biochemists at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands, have studied how the composition of the membrane affects passive diffusion and the robustness of the cell membrane. Their results, which were published in <em>Nature Communications</em> 25 March, could help the biotech industry to optimize microbial production of useful molecules and help in drug design.</p><p>Border control is very important to cells. Their membranes separate the inner and outer environments, which are quite different. To absorb useful compounds, such as nutrients, or to excrete waste, cells can use selective transport systems. However, some transport across the membrane takes place by passive diffusion. This is a non-selective process that will let some molecules go in or out, depending on their size and hydrophobicity, for example. Active transporters have been studied extensively; however, our knowledge of passive diffusion through the membrane is still very incomplete.</p><p><strong>Synthetic vesicles</strong></p><p>This is a problem for the biotechnology industry, which uses cells as factories to produce a myriad of useful substances and that needs these worker cells to survive under harsh conditions, for example in an environment with high alcohol or weak acid concentrations. Bert Poolman, Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Groningen, was approached by a biotech company that was interested in producing lactic acid in bacteria. They wanted to know more about passive diffusion. This fitted in nicely with another project that Poolman is working on. \'We are highly interested in these passive transport processes because of our involvement in a project to build a synthetic cell,\' says Poolman. \'If you can use passive diffusion instead of an active transport system, you need fewer parts to construct such a cell.\'</p><p>So, he combined both questions in a research project. \'We started out with a systematic study of what causes the differences in permeability of yeast membranes and bacterial membranes,\' says Poolman. His team created synthetic vesicles that were made up of three to four different lipids. Ergosterol or cholesterol was added to the membranes to affect their fluidity and rigidity. A range of small molecules was tested using this system and the results from these experiments guided molecular dynamic simulations of diffusion through membranes. The <em>in-silico</em> studies, supervised by Professor Siewert-Jan Marrink, provided a deeper insight into the molecular mechanism of diffusion.</p><p><strong>Tweaking</strong></p><p>The fatty acid tails of the lipids turned out to be most important in determining the properties of membranes, whereas the hydrophilic head groups had little effect on the permeability. The length of the tails also mattered. \'And saturated tails, with no double carbon bonds, are stiffer than unsaturated ones. Hydrophobic interactions cause a close packing of these tails, resulting in a gel phase that is not very penetrable,\' explains Poolman. Sterols increase the fluidity but in the case of yeast, which uses ergosterol, the permeability remains low. \'Thus, by tweaking the saturation of the fatty acids and the type and amount of sterol in the membrane, we can modify the permeability of the plasma membrane of yeast and bacterial cells.\'</p><p>Poolman and his colleagues have, therefore, defined a number of variables that alter the permeability of membranes for different classes of compounds. This information can be used by companies that use yeasts or bacteria as cell factories. \'However, our results cannot be directly applied to those cells,\' warns Poolman. \'Real membranes contain hundreds of different lipids and the composition can vary between different locations in the membrane. In addition, these cell membranes contain all kinds of proteins. If you make changes in, for example, the lipid composition of the membrane, a lot can go wrong and the function of a membrane protein can be affected.\'</p><p><strong>Drug design</strong></p><p>The increased understanding of the physical processes that affect permeability can help companies to understand why certain cells are better for specific processes than others. \'The usual way to tweak strains is by directed evolution. Our results will help companies to better understand the results of those optimizations and guide their cell engineering efforts.\'</p><p>Another application is the design of drugs that act inside cells. \'Pharmaceutical companies use a set of empirically established rules to optimize drugs for action inside cells, based on parameters such as size or polarity. Our study highlights the importance of the membrane composition of the targeted cells and this could help in drug design.\'</p>','2022-03-28 22:47:32.838936','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Groningen','Bacteria and yeast need to prevent leakage of numerous small molecules through their cell membrane. Biochemists have studied how the composition of the membrane affects passive diffusion and the robustness of this membrane. Their results could help the biotech industry to optimize microbial production of useful molecules and help in drug design.\n',1,29,'<li>Jacopo Frallicciardi, Josef Melcr, Pareskevi Siginou, Siewert J. Marrink, Bert Poolman. <strong>Membrane thickness, lipid phase and sterol type are determining factors in the permeability of membranes to small solutes</strong>. <em>Nature Communications</em>, 2022; 13 (1) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29272-x\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41467-022-29272-x</a>\n</li>'),(1681,'Scientists observe mysterious death of a star emitting six rings','scientists-observe-mysterious-death-of-a-star-emitting-six-rings','2022-03-28 23:14:37.923961',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Astrophysicists studying in unprecedented detail a red giant star named V Hydrae -- abbreviated as V Hya -- have witnessed the star\'s mysterious death throes.</p><p>Researchers from UCLA and NASA\'s Jet Propulsion Laboratory discovered that the carbon-rich star has expelled six slowly expanding molecular rings and an hourglass-shaped structure ejecting matter out into space at high speeds, signaling that the star is undergoing rapid evolution as it ends its life in a blaze of glory before shutting down its energy production.</p><p>\"This is the first and only time that a series of expanding rings has been seen around a star that is in its death throes -- a series of expanding \'smoke rings\' that we have calculated are being blown every few hundred years,\" said Mark Morris, a UCLA professor of physics and astronomy and a co-author of the study.</p><p>The results of the study, which was conducted using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, known as ALMA, and data from the Hubble Space Telescope, are published March 28 in the<em> Astrophysical Journal.</em></p><p>More than 90% of stars with a mass equal to or greater than the sun\'s mass evolve into what scientists call asymptotic giant branch stars, or AGB stars, of which V Hya is an example. The star is located approximately 1,300 light-years from Earth in the constellation Hydra.</p><p>Among these millions of stars, V Hya has been of particular interest to astronomers due to its unique behaviors and features, including extremely large eruptions of plasma that occur approximately every eight years and the presence of a nearly invisible companion star that contributes to V Hya\'s explosive behavior.</p><p>\"We have caught this dying star in the process of shedding its atmosphere -- ultimately most of its mass -- which is something that most late-stage red giant stars do,\" Morris said. \"But much to our surprise, we have found that the matter in this case is being expelled as a series of rings.\"</p><p>Morris said the team also observed high-speed blasts of gas, perpendicular to those rings, that were expelled into two opposite directions. He added that the mechanism that produces the rings is unknown and will require further investigation.</p><p>\"We suspect that it might be related to the presence of orbiting companion stars, but it is difficult to explain that given the few-hundred-year interval between ring ejections,\" Morris said. \"This star is providing a new and fascinating wrinkle to our understanding of how stars end their lives.\"</p><p>Raghvendra Sahai, an astronomer at JPL and the study\'s lead author, said the research indicates that previous assumptions about star deaths may be wrong.</p><p>\"Our study dramatically reveals that the traditional model of how AGB stars die -- through the mass ejection of fuel via a slow, relatively steady, spherical wind over 100,000 years or more -- is at best, incomplete, or at worst, incorrect,\" he said.</p><p>The six rings that have expanded outward from V Hya over the course of roughly 2,100 years have formed a warped, disk-like structure, creating a dust-rich region around the star, the researchers report. The team dubbed the structure the DUDE, for Disk Undergoing Dynamical Expansion.</p><p>\"V Hya is in the brief but critical transition phase that dying stars go through at the end of their lives,\" Sahai said. \"It\'s the phase when they lose most of their mass. It\'s likely that this phase does not last very long, so it is difficult to catch them in the act. We got lucky with V Hya, and were able to image all of the different activities going on in and around this star to better understand how dying stars lose mass at the end of their lives.\"</p><p>V Hya\'s final act also has produced an hourglass-shaped structure centered on the star and oriented perpendicularly to the disk. The two lobes of the hourglass have been shaped by a directed, fast wind that is blowing in two opposite directions at speeds up to 500,000 miles per hour.</p><p>Due to the large quantities of dust surrounding the star, studying V Hya required a unique instrument with the power to clearly see cold matter that is impossible to detect with optical telescopes. ALMA\'s receivers are exceptionally sensitive to very short radio wavelengths of approximately 1 millimeter, which revealed the star\'s multiple rings and outflows of molecular gas in stark clarity.</p><p>The researchers used additional infrared, optical and ultraviolet data to produce a remarkable picture of a spectacular show in our galaxy, much of which was unexpected, Morris said.</p><p>\"Each time we observe V Hya, it becomes more and more like a circus, with each new evolutionary stage characterized by an even bigger variety of impressive feats,\" Sahai said. \"V Hydrae has impressed us with its multiple rings and acts, and because our own sun may one day experience a similar fate, it has us at rapt attention.\"</p><p>The research was funded in part by the National Science Foundation and NASA.</p><p><strong>Story Source:</strong></p>','2022-03-28 23:14:37.923961','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of California - Los Angeles','Astrophysicists studying in unprecedented detail a red giant star named V Hydrae have witnessed the star\'s mysterious death throes. Researchers discovered that the carbon-rich star has expelled six slowly expanding molecular rings and two hourglass-shaped structures ejecting matter out into space at high speeds.\n',1,192,'<li>R. Sahai, P-S. Huang, S. Scibelli, M. R. Morris, K. Hinkle, C-F. Lee. <strong>The Rapidly Evolving AGB Star, V Hya: ALMA finds a Multi-Ring Circus with High-Velocity Outflows</strong>. <em>arXiv.org (Accepted for ApJ)</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2202.09335\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2202.09335</a>\n</li>'),(1682,'New information about amyloid filaments in neurodegenerative diseases','new-information-about-amyloid-filaments-in-neurodegenerative-diseases','2022-03-28 23:41:46.133862',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Experts at Indiana University School of Medicine have helped identify that a common protein found in neurodegenerative diseases forms amyloid filaments in an age-dependent manner without a connection to disease.</p><p>Many age-dependent neurodegenerative diseases, like Alzheimer\'s and Parkinson\'s, are characterized by amyloid abundance, or plaque. In a new paper published in <em>Nature</em>, researchers from the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England, United Kingdom and colleagues around the world, including several IU School of Medicine experts, used electron cryo-microscopy structure determination to discover that lysosomal type II transmembrane protein, TMEM106B, also forms amyloid filaments in human brains but, uniquely, it forms in an age-dependent manner and might not be connected to a type of disease.</p><p>\"Until now, the presence of abundant intraneuronal amyloid filaments in human tissues has always been associated with disease,\" said Bernardino Ghetti, MD, a distinguished professor and professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at IU School of Medicine. \"While TMEM106B has been associated with frontotemporal dementias and other diseases, the evidence for a causal relationship between TMEM106B aggregation and disease now remains unclear.\"</p><p>Researchers studied 22 individuals with abundant amyloid deposits, including sporadic and inherited Alzheimer\'s, as well as the frontal cortex of three neurologically normal individuals. They also studied three TMEM106B folds, with no clear relationships between folds and diseases. The TMEM106B filaments discovered in the brains of older, but not younger, neurologically normal individuals suggests that these proteins form in an age-dependent manner and that there was no clear relationship between protein folds and neurodegenerative diseases. Previously, TMEM106B has been identified as a risk factor for frontotemporal lobar degeneration, but this research opens the dialogue as the protein may no longer be associated with the cause of a disease.</p><p>\"This insight encourages us to further assess the role of filament formation, like TMEM106B, in relation to human aging and other pathologies, as well as if they\'re found outside the nervous system,\" Ghetti said.</p><p>The study was supported by National Institutes of Health grants. Other study authors from IU School of Medicine include Holly Garringer, PhD, Grace Hallinan, PhD, Kathy Newell, MD and Ruben Vidal, PhD. Previously, this research group also explored the pathological differences in inherited versus sporadic Alzheimer\'s disease.</p>','2022-03-28 23:41:46.133862','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Indiana University School of Medicine','Researchers have helped identify that a common protein found in neurodegenerative diseases forms amyloid filaments in an age-dependent manner without a connection to disease.\n',1,179,'<li>Manuel Schweighauser, Diana Arseni, Mehtap Bacioglu, Melissa Huang, Sofia Lövestam, Yang Shi, Yang Yang, Wenjuan Zhang, Abhay Kotecha, Holly J. Garringer, Ruben Vidal, Grace I. Hallinan, Kathy L. Newell, Airi Tarutani, Shigeo Murayama, Masayuki Miyazaki, Yuko Saito, Mari Yoshida, Kazuko Hasegawa, Tammaryn Lashley, Tamas Revesz, Gabor G. Kovacs, John van Swieten, Masaki Takao, Masato Hasegawa, Bernardino Ghetti, Maria Grazia Spillantini, Benjamin Ryskeldi-Falcon, Alexey G. Murzin, Michel Goedert, Sjors H. W. Scheres. <strong>Age-dependent formation of TMEM106B amyloid filaments in human brains</strong>. <em>Nature</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04650-z\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41586-022-04650-z</a>\n</li>'),(1683,'Caribou herd rebounds as Indigenous stewards lead conservation efforts','caribou-herd-rebounds-as-indigenous-stewards-lead-conservation-efforts','2022-03-28 23:41:55.243049',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Despite recovery efforts from federal and provincial governments, caribou populations across Canada continue to decline, largely due to human activity.</p><p>But as a new UBC Okanagan study finds, in central British Columbia there is one herd of mountain caribou, the Klinse-Za, whose numbers are going in the opposite direction -- all thanks to a collaborative recovery effort led by West Moberly First Nations and Saulteau First Nations.</p><p>In partnership with many organizations and governments, the Indigenous-led conservation initiative paired short-term recovery actions such as predator reduction and caribou guardians at maternal pens, with ongoing work to secure landscape-level protection in an effort to create a self-sustaining caribou population.</p><p>Their efforts paid off.</p><p>Dr. Clayton Lamb, a Liber Ero Fellow, along with Carmen Richter, a biology master\'s student, and Dr. Adam T. Ford, Canada Research Chair in Wildlife Restoration Ecology, conduct research in the Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science. Their latest study shows Klinse-Za caribou numbers have nearly tripled in under a decade.</p><p>\"We have an Indigenous-led conservation effort to thank for averting the looming extinction of this herd,\" says Dr. Lamb. \"The population was declining rapidly -- a West Moberly Elder once described the herd as a \'sea of caribou,\' but by 2013 it had declined to only 38 animals.\"</p><p>Today, the herd count is more than 110 and numbers continue to rise.</p><p>\"This work provides an innovative, community-led, paradigm shift to conservation in Canada,\" Dr. Lamb says. \"While Indigenous Peoples have been actively stewarding landscapes for a long time, this approach is new in the level of collaboration among western scientists and Indigenous Peoples to create positive outcomes on the land and put an endangered species on the path to recovery.\"</p><p>Richter, who is a Saulteau First Nations member, says Indigenous communities have really come together for the good of the caribou.</p><p>\"We are working hard to recover these caribou. Each year, community members pick bags and bags of lichen to feed the mother caribou in the pen while other members live up at the top of the mountain with the animals. One day, we hope to return the herds to a sustainable size,\" she says.</p><p>Though the partnership has yielded great success, Dr. Ford is the first to acknowledge that more time and effort will be needed to fully recover the Klinse-Za.</p><p>\"This work is also an important part of decolonizing the mindset of conservation, which has historically worked to exclude the views of Indigenous Peoples,\" he adds.</p><p>With caribou declines exceeding 40 per cent in recent decades across Canada, many populations have already been lost. But Dr. Ford insists there is a brighter path forward, and this study proves it.</p><p>\"This is truly an unprecedented success and signals the critical role that Indigenous Peoples can play in conservation,\" he says. \"I hope this success opens doors to collaborative stewardship among other communities and agencies. We can accomplish so much more when working together.\"</p><p>This study was co-produced by western scientists and members of West Moberly First Nations and Saulteau First Nations. The work was recently published in <em>Ecological Applications</em> and is supported by a companion manuscript in <em>Ecological Applications</em> exploring the expeditious population growth.</p>','2022-03-28 23:41:55.243049','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of British Columbia Okanagan campus','Despite recovery efforts from federal and provincial governments, caribou populations across Canada continue to decline, largely due to human activity. But as a new study finds, in central British Columbia there is one herd of mountain caribou, the Klinse-Za, whose numbers are going in the opposite direction -- all thanks to a collaborative recovery effort led by West Moberly First Nations and Saulteau First Nations.\n',1,34,'<li>Clayton T. Lamb, Roland Willson, Carmen Richter, Naomi Owens‐Beek, Julian Napoleon, Bruce Muir, R. Scott McNay, Estelle Lavis, Mark Hebblewhite, Line Giguere, Tamara Dokkie, Stan Boutin, Adam T. Ford. <strong>Indigenous‐led conservation: Pathways to recovery for the nearly extirpated            Klinse‐Za            mountain caribou</strong>. <em>Ecological Applications</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/eap.2581\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1002/eap.2581</a>\n</li>'),(1684,'Lack of sleep increases unhealthy abdominal fat, study finds','lack-of-sleep-increases-unhealthy-abdominal-fat,-study-finds','2022-03-29 00:28:27.309577',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">New research from Mayo Clinic shows that lack of sufficient sleep combined with free access to food increases calorie consumption and consequently fat accumulation, especially unhealthy fat inside the belly.</p><p>Findings from a randomized controlled crossover study led by Naima Covassin, Ph.D., a cardiovascular medicine researcher at Mayo Clinic, show that lack of sufficient sleep led to a 9% increase in total abdominal fat area and an 11% increase in abdominal visceral fat, compared to control sleep. Visceral fat is deposited deep inside the abdomen around internal organs and is strongly linked to cardiac and metabolic diseases.</p><p>The findings are published in the <em>Journal of the American College of Cardiology</em>, and the study was funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.</p><p>Lack of sufficient sleep is often a behavior choice, and this choice has become increasingly pervasive. More than one-third of adults in the U.S. routinely do not get enough sleep, in part due to shift work, and smart devices and social networks being used during traditional sleep times. Also, people tend to eat more during longer waking hours without increasing physical activity.</p><p>\"Our findings show that shortened sleep, even in young, healthy and relatively lean subjects, is associated with an increase in calorie intake, a very small increase in weight, and a significant increase in fat accumulation inside the belly,\" says Virend Somers, M.D., Ph.D., the Alice Sheets Marriott Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine, and principal investigator of the study.</p><p>\"Normally, fat is preferentially deposited subcutaneously or under the skin. However, the inadequate sleep appears to redirect fat to the more dangerous visceral compartment. Importantly, although during recovery sleep there was a decrease in calorie intake and weight, visceral fat continued to increase. This suggests that inadequate sleep is a previously unrecognized trigger for visceral fat deposition, and that catch-up sleep, at least in the short term, does not reverse the visceral fat accumulation. In the long term, these findings implicate inadequate sleep as a contributor to the epidemics of obesity, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases,\" says Dr. Somers.</p><p>The study cohort consisted of 12 healthy people who were not obese, each spending two 21-day sessions in the inpatient setting. Participants were randomly assigned to the control (normal sleep) group or restricted sleep group during one session and the opposite during the next session, after a three-month washout period. Each group had access to free choice of food throughout the study. Researchers monitored and measured energy intake; energy expenditure; body weight; body composition; fat distribution, including visceral fat or fat inside the belly; and circulating appetite biomarkers.</p><p>The first four days were an acclimation period. During this time, all participants were allowed nine hours in bed to sleep. For the following two weeks, the restricted sleep group was allowed four hours of sleep and the control group maintained with nine hours. This was followed by three days and nights of recovery with nine hours in bed for both groups.</p><p>The participants consumed more than 300 extra calories per day during sleep restriction, eating approximately 13% more protein and 17% more fat, compared to the acclimation stage. That increase in consumption was highest in the early days of sleep deprivation and then tapered off to starting levels during the recovery period. Energy expenditure stayed mostly the same throughout.</p><p>\"The visceral fat accumulation was only detected by CT scan and would otherwise have been missed, especially since the increase in weight was quite modest -- only about a pound,\" Dr. Covassin says. \"Measures of weight alone would be falsely reassuring in terms of the health consequences of inadequate sleep. Also concerning are the potential effects of repeated periods of inadequate sleep in terms of progressive and cumulative increases in visceral fat over several years.\"</p><p>Dr. Somers says behavioral interventions, such as increased exercise and healthy food choices, need to be considered for people who cannot easily avoid sleep disruption, such as shift workers. More study is needed to determine how these findings in healthy young people relate to people at higher risk, such as those who are already obese, or have metabolic syndrome or diabetes.</p>','2022-03-29 00:28:27.309577','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Mayo Clinic','New research shows that lack of sufficient sleep combined with free access to food increases calorie consumption and consequently fat accumulation, especially unhealthy fat inside the belly.\n',1,201,'<li>Naima Covassin, Prachi Singh, Shelly K. McCrady-Spitzer, Erik K. St Louis, Andrew D. Calvin, James A. Levine, Virend K. Somers. <strong>Effects of Experimental Sleep Restriction on Energy Intake, Energy Expenditure, and Visceral Obesity</strong>. <em>Journal of the American College of Cardiology</em>, 2022; 79 (13): 1254 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jacc.2022.01.038\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.jacc.2022.01.038</a>\n</li>'),(1685,'Solid aerosols found in Arctic atmosphere could impact cloud formation and climate','solid-aerosols-found-in-arctic-atmosphere-could-impact-cloud-formation-and-climate','2022-03-29 00:28:39.434280',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">The Arctic is rapidly losing sea ice, and less ice means more open water, and more open water means more gas and aerosol emissions from the ocean into the air, warming the atmosphere and making it cloudier.</p><p>So when researchers from the lab of University of Michigan aerosol scientist Kerri Pratt collected aerosols from the Arctic atmosphere during summer 2015, Rachel Kirpes, then a doctoral student, discovered a curious thing: Aerosolized ammonium sulfate particles didn\'t look like typical liquid aerosols.</p><p>Working with fellow aerosol scientist Andrew Ault, Kirpes discovered that ammonium sulfate particles, which should have been liquid, were actually solid. The team\'s results are published in the <em>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</em>.</p><p>Solid aerosols can change how clouds form in the Arctic. And, as the Arctic loses ice, researchers expect to see more of these unique particles formed from oceanic emissions combined with ammonia from birds, which will impact cloud formation and climate. Additionally, understanding the characteristics of aerosols in the atmosphere is critical for improving the ability of climate models to predict current and future climate in the Arctic and beyond.</p><p>\"The Arctic is warming faster than anywhere else in the world. As we have more emissions from open water in the atmosphere, these types of particles could become more important,\" said Pratt, associate professor of chemistry, and earth and environmental sciences. \"These types of observations are so critical because we have so few observations to even evaluate the accuracy of models of the Arctic atmosphere.</p><p>\"With so few observations, sometimes you get surprises like this when you make measurements. These particles didn\'t look like anything we had ever seen in the literature, in the Arctic, or anywhere else in the world.\"</p><p>The aerosols observed in the study were up to 400 nanometers, or about 300 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair. Ault, associate professor of chemistry, says that aerosols in the Arctic are typically assumed to be liquid.</p><p>Once the relative humidity of the atmosphere reaches 80% -- about the level of a humid day -- the particle becomes liquid. When you dry the aerosol back out, it doesn\'t turn into a solid until the relative humidity is about 35%-40%. Because the air over the Arctic Ocean -- or any ocean -- is humid, researchers expect to see liquid aerosols.</p><p>\"But what we saw is a pretty new phenomenon where a small particle collides with our droplets when it\'s below 80% humidity, but above 40% humidity. Essentially, this provides a surface for the aerosol to solidify and become a solid at a higher relative humidity than you would have expected,\" Ault said.</p><p>\"These particles were much more like a marble than a droplet. That\'s really important, particularly in a region where there haven\'t been a lot of measurements because those particles can eventually end up acting as the seeds of clouds or having reactions happen on them.\"</p><p>Additionally, the researchers say, the size, composition and phase of atmospheric aerosols impact climate change through water uptake and cloud formation.</p><p>\"It\'s our job to keep helping modelers refine their models,\" Ault said. \"It\'s not that the models are wrong, but they always need more new information as events on the ground change, and what we saw was something completely unexpected.\"</p><p>Pratt\'s team collected aerosols in August-September 2015 in Utqia?vik, the northernmost point of Alaska. To do this, they used what\'s called a multistage impactor, a device that has several stages that collect particles according to their size. Kirpes later analyzed these particles in Ault\'s lab using microscopy and spectroscopy techniques that can examine the composition and phase of particles less than 100 nanometers in size.</p><p>\"If we were to go back several decades when there was ice near the shore, even in August and September, we would not be observing these particles. We\'re observing the consequences of this climate already changing,\" Pratt said. \"We need to have the reality captured in models that simulate clouds and the atmosphere, which are critical for understanding the energy budget of the Arctic atmosphere, for this place that is changing faster than anywhere else.\"</p>','2022-03-29 00:28:39.434280','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Michigan','Solid aerosols can change how clouds form in the Arctic. And, as the Arctic loses ice, researchers expect to see more of these unique particles formed from oceanic emissions combined with ammonia from birds, which will impact cloud formation and climate. Additionally, understanding the characteristics of aerosols in the atmosphere is critical for improving the ability of climate models to predict current and future climate in the Arctic and beyond.\n',1,164,'<li>Rachel M. Kirpes, Ziying Lei, Matthew Fraund, Matthew J. Gunsch, Nathaniel W. May, Tate E. Barrett, Claire E. Moffett, Andrew J. Schauer, Becky Alexander, Lucia M. Upchurch, Swarup China, Patricia K. Quinn, Ryan C. Moffet, Alexander Laskin, Rebecca J. Sheesley, Kerri A. Pratt, Andrew P. Ault. <strong>Solid organic-coated ammonium sulfate particles at high relative humidity in the summertime Arctic atmosphere</strong>. <em>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</em>, 2022; 119 (14) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2104496119\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1073/pnas.2104496119</a>\n</li>'),(1686,'Genetic risk for asthma comes from changes in airway cells, study finds','genetic-risk-for-asthma-comes-from-changes-in-airway-cells,-study-finds','2022-03-29 00:59:31.485955',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">A significant amount of genetic risk for asthma is likely mediated through altered gene expression within the airway epithelium. That is the conclusion of a National Jewish Health-led study to identify genetic variants that cause asthma by altering the function of airway cells. The team\'s paper published March 28, 2022, in the journal <em>Nature Communications</em><em>.</em></p><p>\"This work will help us identify targetable pathways to intervene for asthma, to stop mucus hypersecretion or type 2 airway inflammation, an allergic response that can exacerbate asthma,\" said Max A. Seibold, PhD, professor of Pediatrics in the National Jewish Health Center for Genes, Environment and Health and senior author of the paper. \"One of the banes of human existence is mucus, which plays a role in so many health conditions, everything from the common cold, to COVID, to chronic lung diseases like asthma and COPD. The more we know about what causes it, the better equipped we will be to develop impactful treatments.\"</p><p>For the study, the team performed the first airway transcriptome-wide association study (TWAS) for childhood and adult onset asthma. The first step in a TWAS study is to build models that will allow prediction of how a person\'s genes will function in a particular tissue, based solely on their genetic profile. Dr. Seibold and colleagues leveraged nasal airway samples and genetic data from a cohort of 700 children in Puerto Rico, who either were in good health or had asthma, to build these models for airway tissue.</p><p>The team then applied these models to genetic data from over 300,000 participants in the UK Biobank study, a large-scale biomedical database and research resource. This allowed them to test whether genetically altered function of airway genes is associated with asthma risk. The study data found over a third of identified genetic risk factors for asthma may confer their risk through alteration of the cells that line the airways (i.e. airway epithelium).</p><p>In particular, the researchers found genetic changes in a gene that forms the structure of mucus (MUC5AC), and another gene (FOXA3) that directs the production of mucus secretory cells. This is one of the first times anyone has found genetic variants that influence asthma risk through the alteration of mucus secretory function. The team also found that some of the key genes in the type 2 inflammatory pathway have genetic changes that increase their level of expression in the airway, increasing asthma risk.</p><p>This study was primarily funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI). The Institute provides global leadership for research, training and education programs that promote the prevention and treatment of heart, lung, and blood diseases and enhance the health of all individuals so that they can live longer and more fulfilling lives. The NHLBI is one of the largest institutes within the National Institutes of Health (NIH).</p><p>\"This study demonstrates how obtaining additional data on the expression of genes from participants in genome-wide association studies can shed light on their biological functions. It also shows that some genes may be expressed differently in different tissues,\" said James P. Kiley, PhD, director of NHLBI\'s Division of Lung Diseases. \"Research like this moves us one step closer to developing personalized medicine treatments for asthma and other common diseases.\"</p><p>Asthma is a major health crisis in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control estimates 26.5 million Americans, or 1 in 13 people, are living with the condition.</p>','2022-03-29 00:59:31.485955','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'National Jewish Health','A significant amount of genetic risk for asthma is likely mediated through altered gene expression within the airway epithelium. That is the conclusion of a new study to identify genetic variants that cause asthma by altering the function of airway cells.\n',1,84,'<li>Satria P. Sajuthi, Jamie L. Everman, Nathan D. Jackson, Benjamin Saef, Cydney L. Rios, Camille M. Moore, Angel C. Y. Mak, Celeste Eng, Ana Fairbanks-Mahnke, Sandra Salazar, Jennifer Elhawary, Scott Huntsman, Vivian Medina, Deborah A. Nickerson, Soren Germer, Michael C. Zody, Gonçalo Abecasis, Hyun Min Kang, Kenneth M. Rice, Rajesh Kumar, Noah A. Zaitlen, Sam Oh, José Rodríguez-Santana, Esteban G. Burchard, Max A. Seibold. <strong>Nasal airway transcriptome-wide association study of asthma reveals genetically driven mucus pathobiology</strong>. <em>Nature Communications</em>, 2022; 13 (1) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-28973-7\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41467-022-28973-7</a>\n</li>'),(1687,'Potential window for treating ALS identified','potential-window-for-treating-als-identified','2022-03-29 16:42:27.849543',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disorder that affects as many as 30,000 people in the United States, with 5,000 new cases diagnosed each year. It weakens muscles over time, impacting physical function and ultimately leading to death. There is no single cause for the disease and no known cure. However, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers have found a possible window of opportunity during ALS treatment to target astrocyte abnormalities -- a subtype of cells in the central nervous system that provide a structure to metabolically support neurons and fine-tune neuron network signaling.</p><p>The research team believes that astrocytes are actively involved in the death of motor neurons, which are cells in the brain and spinal cord that allow people to move, speak, swallow and breathe by sending commands from the brain to the muscles that carry out these functions.</p><p>\"We think this is particularly important because the astrocyte dysfunction is active after symptom onset in patients with ALS,\" says Nicholas Maragakis, M.D., professor of neurology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and medical director of the Johns Hopkins ALS clinical trials unit. \"This finding may enable us to target abnormalities in astrocytes for ALS treatment.\"</p><p>In their study, published March 21 in the <em>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</em>, researchers analyzed brain and spinal cord tissues from patients with ALS and observed that a particular astrocyte protein, connexin 43, acts as an open pore that sends toxic factors to the motor neurons from the astrocytes. The pore was particularly active in patients with ALS who have a family history of the disease and those who contracted the disease in a sporadic fashion.</p><p>The research team was also able to develop stem cell lines from patients with ALS and develop them into astrocytes. They found that these astrocytes induced motor neuron death through hemichannels (proteins that provide pathways for the movement of molecules among cells).</p><p>\"This is a new pathway that we have shown to be present in ALS tissues, animal models and patient-derived stem cells,\" Maragakis says. \"It\'s also exciting that this particular hemichannel protein seems to be elevated in spinal fluid from patients with ALS and could serve as an important biomarker. This is a true precision medicine approach toward the disease.\"</p><p>Maragakis says pharmaceuticals are being developed that could block this hemichannel. During the study, his team showed that tonabersat, a drug originally developed for treatment of migraine and epilepsy, could block astrocyte-induced motor neuron death in human ALS stem cell lines and animal models.</p><p>This study, Maragakis says, offers increasing evidence that astrocytes play a role in the spread of ALS. Next, the team will try to establish why this hemichannel is so active in ALS astrocytes, giving them a better understanding of how the disease progresses. Maragakis says it\'s equally important because it furthers his team\'s work to identify new drugs that can block this particular hemichannel, serving as future therapeutics for ALS.</p><p>The study was funded by the ALS Association, the Maryland Stem Cell Research Fund, the Robert Packard Center for ALS Research at Johns Hopkins, the U.S. Department of Defense and the National Institutes of Health.</p>','2022-03-29 16:42:27.849543','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Johns Hopkins Medicine','Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disorder that affects as many as 30,000 people in the United States, with 5,000 new cases diagnosed each year. It weakens muscles over time, impacting physical function and ultimately leading to death. There is no single cause for the disease and no known cure. However, researchers have found a possible window of opportunity during ALS treatment to target astrocyte abnormalities.\n',1,95,'<li>Akshata A. Almad, Arens Taga, Jessica Joseph, Sarah K. Gross, Connor Welsh, Aneesh Patankar, Jean-Philippe Richard, Khalil Rust, Aayush Pokharel, Caroline Plott, Mauricio Lillo, Raha Dastgheyb, Kevin Eggan, Norman Haughey, Jorge E. Contreras, Nicholas J. Maragakis. <strong>Cx43 hemichannels contribute to astrocyte-mediated toxicity in sporadic and familial ALS</strong>. <em>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</em>, 2022; 119 (13) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2107391119\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1073/pnas.2107391119</a>\n</li>'),(1688,'Pharmacogenetic testing shows promise improving symptoms in patients with treatment-resistant depression','pharmacogenetic-testing-shows-promise-improving-symptoms-in-patients-with-treatment-resistant-depression','2022-03-29 16:42:30.443227',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Pharmacogenetic testing was associated with nearly a two-fold (89 per cent) increase in remission rates compared to treatment as usual in a Centre for Addiction and Mental Health- (CAMH-)led clinical study just published in the journal<em> Translational Psychiatry.</em></p><p>The 52-week double-blind study, comparing pharmacogenetic testing guided treatment to treatment as usual, is the first of its kind in Canada and involved 276 patients who had been previously diagnosed with treatment-resistant depression, meaning that their condition had not improved after trying at least two antidepressant medications.</p><p>\"Remission, or full recovery from symptoms, is one of the most challenging endpoints to achieve when treating major depressive disorder,\" said senior author Dr. James Kennedy, Head of the Tanenbaum Centre for Pharmacogenetics at the Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute at CAMH. \"The findings from this study contribute the first randomized, controlled data in Canada to the growing body of evidence of the clinical value of combined multi-gene pharmacogenetic testing.\"</p><p>Pharmacogenetics is based on the premise that each person may metabolize or respond to medications in different ways based on their own individual genetic profile. That can mean that patients given the same dosage of an anti-depressant medication may have very different levels of it in their bodies, or that some patients may be able to tolerate higher doses of a drug without debilitating side effects based on their genetics. Through customized genetic testing via a cheek swab, pharmacogenetics can help select appropriate drugs and dosages for each patient with the fewest side effects in the shortest period of time.</p><p>\"Myriad Genetics is proud to support this important study that advances our knowledge of the utility of pharmacogenetic testing in Canadian patients suffering from treatment-resistant major depressive disorder,\" said Jay Elliott, Vice President of Medical Affairs at Myriad Genetics. \"Although the CAMH trial was underpowered, it is encouraging that the results largely replicate prior studies in American patients, reinforcing the generalizability of pharmacogenetic testing for depression across health care settings.\"</p><p>\"Using pharmacogenetics for treatment-resistant depression we can be much more precise about exactly which drug will suit each person\'s unique blueprints for the bodily systems that usher the drug into the brain and enable it to fight depression,\" said Dr. Kennedy. \"It\'s very personalized to each individual.\"</p><p>At the recommendation of her doctor, Toronto lawyer Cara Sweeny turned to pharmacogenetics at CAMH after not responding to a variety of medications for depression and anxiety. After genetic testing determined her body could tolerate -- and in fact needed -- three times the standard dose of one anti-depressant drug, she was given the higher dose and within two months her mood improved dramatically.</p><p>\"I have this very specific memory of one day just opening up my back door to let my dog out, just an ordinary thing, and I felt that feeling of happiness that starts in your gut for the first time in a really long time,\" says Sweeny, 52.</p><p>While the findings of this Canadian study are considered preliminary because of the sample size, they mirror the results of a much larger American pharmacogenetics clinical trial that reported a 51 per cent increase in remission rates for major depression compared to treatment as usual.</p><p>\"Pharmacogenetic tests are currently not covered by public health plans in Canada,\" added Dr. Kennedy. \"The average healthcare savings following pharmacogenetic testing, per depression patient, are over $3,000. If half of the 1.6 million Canadians with depression could get the test, savings could total $2.4 billion per year. Patient suffering during trial-and-error prescribing would be reduced. These study findings should be considered by health policy decision makers, as they provide further impetus for implementation of reimbursement by public payers.\"</p><p>Funding for the study was provided by Assurex Health Ltd. (now affiliated with Myriad Genetics), CAMH, Ontario Genomics and Genome Canada.</p>','2022-03-29 16:42:30.443227','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Centre for Addiction and Mental Health','Pharmacogenetic testing was associated with nearly a two-fold (89 per cent) increase in remission rates compared to treatment as usual in a recent clinical study.\n',1,65,'<li>Arun K. Tiwari, Clement C. Zai, C. Anthony Altar, Julie-Anne Tanner, Paige E. Davies, Paul Traxler, James Li, Elizabeth S. Cogan, Matthew T. Kucera, Ana Gugila, Nicole Braganza, Heather Emmerson, Gwyneth Zai, Daniel J. Müller, Robert Levitan, Stefan Kloiber, Zafiris J. Daskalakis, Benicio N. Frey, James M. Bowen, Jean-Eric Tarride, Richard Tytus, Ranjith Chandrasena, Nicholas Voudouris, Valerie H. Taylor, Raymond Tempier, Verinder Sharma, Akshya Vasudev, Peter Dzongowski, Lew Pliamm, Todd Greenspoon, Bryan M. Dechairo, James L. Kennedy. <strong>Clinical utility of combinatorial pharmacogenomic testing in depression: A Canadian patient- and rater-blinded, randomized, controlled trial</strong>. <em>Translational Psychiatry</em>, 2022; 12 (1) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41398-022-01847-8\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41398-022-01847-8</a>\n</li>'),(1689,'Rehabilitation psychologists: Specialists you may not yet know, but might one day need','rehabilitation-psychologists:-specialists-you-may-not-yet-know,-but-might-one-day-need','2022-03-29 16:42:35.489993',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">After a month-long hospitalization from COVID-19, a once-independent older adult struggles to complete daily tasks. They can\'t make breakfast without getting fatigued or focus on reading the paper. They\'ve been in physical therapy for months and are not making the progress they think they should be making. Depression is starting to set in. Family members wonder if they should consider a care home.</p><p>On a wet morning, an avid mountain biker loses control and is knocked out. They\'re hospitalized and initially make great strides in recovery. Months later, however, physical therapy hasn\'t fully resolved their feeling of being off-balance. They\'ve been avoiding biking, and even walking or running, because they\'re terrified of falling again.</p><p>Physical rehabilitation alone isn\'t working for these patients, and it\'s beginning to feel like recovery either won\'t come or won\'t end. These are circumstances in which a rehabilitation psychologist may be useful to guide them through the process of rehab and recovery, says Brigid Waldron-Perrine, Ph.D., a rehabilitation psychologist at Michigan Medicine.</p><p>\"You don\'t get a manual that comes with your injury that tells you how to navigate returning to your usual pattern of functioning,\" said Waldron-Perrine, who is also an associate professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at U-M Medical School. \"In many cases, there are cognitive, behavioral or emotional barriers to progress that patients may not understand or know how to manage. As experts in human functioning, that\'s where we can be useful guides.\"</p><p><strong>What is rehabilitation psychology?</strong></p><p>Around 25% of Americans -- more than 60 million people -- have some type of disability. And millions of people are evaluated each year for traumatic brain injury, stroke, heart attacks and other conditions that can affect a person\'s mobility, cognition or other forms of functioning.</p><p>Many conditions don\'t have one straightforward treatment or \"answer\" that will result in certain success. There may not be a surgery to receive or pill to take that returns someone to optimal functioning. This uncertainty, Waldron-Perrine says, makes many patients very uncomfortable.</p><p>\"There is this sort of internalized belief in society that medicine is certain, but when you actually find yourself in the health care system, you realize very quickly that there is a great deal more uncertainty in medicine that anyone would have ever guessed,\" she said. \"Physicians often do not have the skill set or tools to respond to your discomfort with uncertainty.\"</p><p>Rehabilitation psychology addresses that uncertainty directly and encourages maximizing meaningful engagement in individually relevant ways. The field developed after World War II as soldiers were treated and was further advanced by Beatrice Wright in the 1970s and beyond. Wright notably expresses that coping with or adjusting to disability cannot be fully understood without examining social and environmental factors that contribute to success in living or, alternately, distress.</p><p>Rehabilitation psychologists assess and treat cognitive, emotional and functional difficulties. Often working in multidisciplinary treatment teams, they help people to identify and overcome barriers to participation in life activities. If a patient who had a stroke because of high blood pressure or diabetes is not effectively managing their condition and continually ends up back in the hospital because they don\'t understand the physician\'s instructions or can\'t follow them, a rehab psychologist could be consulted.</p><p>\"We encourage the patient to understand their own needs and to assert those needs within the system, while assisting the system in meeting the care needs of the patient,\" Waldron-Perrine said. \"Oftentimes, addressing issues of communication or identifying problems to be addressed proactively can cut downstream costs of rehospitalization or redundant treatment because of lack of an integrated treatment plan.\"</p><p>Rehabilitation psychologists are integral members of the rehabilitation team at U-M Health, says Ted Claflin, M.D., associate director of the Michigan Medicine Inpatient Rehabilitation Facility.</p><p>\"Their understanding of human behavior allows them to better understand and treat psychological issues that confront our patients after a significant medical issue has happened,\" Claflin said. \"They can help people adjust to a new diagnosis, stay motivated during their recovery or deal with the emotional aftermath of hospitalization and/or treatment.\"</p><p><strong>Where is the field of rehabilitation psychology heading?</strong></p><p>During the COVID-19 pandemic, several studies have shown increasing demand for therapy after people experience long hospitalizations. While it may seem to be solely a growing demand for rehabilitation and psychologists dedicated to it, Waldron-Perrine says, it\'s just a need that has consistently not been met.</p><p>\"The need is being met in some places where the system recognizes the impact we can have not just at the patient level but at the clinician, therapy team and system level,\" she said. \"But the traditional medical model does not necessarily include rehabilitation psychology as a universally available resource, which means our services and reach are often limited.\"</p><p>Over several decades, as rehab psychologists have seen a need for more of their services, reimbursement margins for the care provided have dipped. The costs of tests and technology used to assist patients continue to rise, while services for patients are met with less coverage by insurance providers. Additionally, categorization by insurance panels can provide an additional barrier to accessing care, with separate coverage and authorizations often the only option for patients seeking what is considered \"mental health\" treatment, no matter the medical context.</p><p>In a recent \"state of the field\" study, Waldron-Perrine and several experts concluded that rehab psychologists need to be more active in promoting their unique contributions to health care, with the ultimate goal of being seen as \"go-to\" experts for the many roles they serve. The results are published in <em>Rehabilitation Psychology</em>.</p><p>In addition to cost savings from decreased hospitalization and redundant care, researchers say rehab psychologists can demonstrate their ability to assess the likelihood of successful outcomes for surgical intervention, such as bariatric surgery for obesity and spinal cord stimulator placement for back pain.</p><p>Ultimately, Waldron-Perrine says, there are simply not enough people in the field to optimize the care of the many and diverse patients seen in rehabilitation settings. The researchers noted that professional recruitment outreach needs to happen \"broadly and simultaneously\" at the high school, college and graduate school levels.</p><p>\"A rehabilitation psychologist recognizes that individuals have unique needs, and function within a complex system,\" Waldron-Perrine said. \"The goal is to maximize function and adaptation of every person in every aspect of life. With increased public awareness of this profession and increased recruitment from a relatively early level of education, we will hopefully see payoff in future research and public policy advocacy that contributes to meeting the needs of all patients and, ultimately, a more equitable world.\"</p><p>Additional authors include: Laurie N. Baker, Ph.D., Mark Barisa, Ph.D., Mark Sweatman, Ph.D., all of the Shepherd Center, and Robert L. Karol, Karol Neuro+Rehab Consulting, Greg A. Stern, PsyD, Courage Kenny Rehabilitation Institute</p>','2022-03-29 16:42:35.489993','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Michigan Medicine - University of Michigan','Rehabilitation psychology is a field that focuses on assessing and treating cognitive, emotional and functional difficulties for patients in a rehabilitation setting. In a recent state of the field survey paper, researchers conclude that providers need to communicate the value they bring to organizations through saving costs from decreased hospitalizations, assessing the likelihood of successful interventions and recovery, and more. Authors also call for broad and simultaneous promotion and recruitment in the field.\n',1,27,'<li>Laurie N. Baker, Robert L. Karol, Greg A. Stern, Brigid Waldron-Perrine, Mark Barisa, Mark Sweatman. <strong>Rehabilitation psychology: 2020 state of the field survey.</strong>. <em>Rehabilitation Psychology</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/rep0000433\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1037/rep0000433</a>\n</li>'),(1690,'Critical and underutilized: Fire and police responders associated with higher cardiac arrest survival rates','critical-and-underutilized:-fire-and-police-responders-associated-with-higher-cardiac-arrest-survival-rates','2022-03-29 16:42:38.380539',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">In a cardiac arrest, everything comes down to how quickly you \"get on the chest.\" Every minute CPR is not initiated or an automated external defibrillator, or AED, is not utilized, the chance of survival decreases by 7-10%.</p><p>A new study finds that survival rates increase when first responders in police and fire departments intervene in out-of-hospital cardiac arrests. However, the paper published in <em>Resuscitation</em> suggests these non-medical first responders are likely underutilized as lifesaving resources.</p><p>Researchers from Michigan Medicine analyzed more than 25,000 cardiac arrest incidents in the state from 2014 to 2019. They found that police and fire first responders initiated CPR in 31.8% of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests, and police accounted for AED use in 6.1% of incidents. Those interventions were associated with significantly higher chances of survival and hospital discharge with good neurological outcomes.</p><p>\"It is clear that these non-medical first responders play a critical role in time saved to chest compressions,\" said Mahshid Abir, M.D., M.Sc., senior author of the paper and an emergency physician at University of Michigan Health, Michigan Medicine. \"In fact, in communities that were the highest performing in the state as far as survival is concerned, those responders work closely with emergency medical services to cross-train and debrief after incidents. When these agencies see their role as not just preventing crime or stopping fires, but also saving lives, it improves the overall chain of survival for cardiac events.\"</p><p>The likelihood of the return of a sustained heart rhythm for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest didn\'t change significantly when CPR or defibrillation was initiated by an EMS provider versus a non-medical first responder. However, the survival rate for initiation by non-medical first responders was significantly higher.</p><p>In fact, for patients who had CPR initiated by non-medical first responders, the odds of survival were 1.25 times higher. Similarly, patients who had an AED applied by police were 1.4 times more likely to survive.</p><p>\"Our findings reinforce what we know: whoever can start CPR and utilize an AED <em>first</em> is the best person to do it,\" said Rama Salhi, M.D., M.H.S., M.Sc., lead author of the paper and national clinical scholar at the U-M Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation. \"Sometimes, that\'s bystanders, but for a large percentage who have unwitnessed cardiac arrests, police and fire are on the scene first. Current evidence suggests this may be in upwards of 50% of cardiac arrest calls. In a disease where seconds and minutes matter, this can be lifechanging.\"</p><p>Non-medical first responders can treat cardiac arrest similar to overdose, Abir says. When they receive an overdose call, law enforcement officials will often administer naloxone, or Narcan, which can reverse overdose and save lives.</p><p>\"If we make it mission-oriented to begin with, because you want to get buy-in from folks, we can give them the training to optimize giving chest compressions,\" said Abir, who is also an associate professor of emergency medicine at University of Michigan Medical School. \"Some people are just not comfortable doing this, so training them in these applications, including AEDs, and purchasing them for first responder vehicles would save more lives in the most effective way.\"</p><p>The research team recognizes that in some communities where there may be fractured or complicated relationships with law enforcement, people might not be comfortable with anything other than an ambulance arriving on scene.</p><p>\"All of these responders can make a huge difference in the survival of a person\'s loved one, so we need to educate the communities around when and for what to call 9-1-1, and also who shows up and why they need to open the door,\" Abir said. \"If we take this extra step to educate around the emergency response system overall, it will help improve the relationships and outcomes.\"</p><p>Michigan Medicine has partnered with first responders in Washtenaw and Livingston counties to create the Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Learning Community, which works to improve survival rates through awareness and implementation of lifesaving interventions in the region.</p><p>The learning community has several work groups focused on AED accessibility, community engagement and more.</p><p>\"Ultimately the goal is to think creatively about how to get care to our patients in the least amount of time,\" said Salhi, an emergency physician at U-M Health. \"This means empowering all members of our community to get involved and save someone\'s life.\"</p><p>Additional authors include Stuart Hammond, B.S., Jessica L. Lehrich, M.S., Michael O\'Leary, B.S., Neil Kadmar, M.A., Christine Brent, M.D., Carlos F. Mendes de Leon, Ph.D., Robert Neumar, M.D., Ph.D., Brahmajee K. Nallamothu, M.D., all of Michigan Medicine, and Christopher Nelson, Ph.D., Peter Mendel, Ph.D., both of RAND Corporation, and Bill Forbush of the City of Alpena Fire Department, Alpena County EMS: Bill Forbush</p><p>This work is part of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute-funded Enhancing Pre-hospital Outcomes for Cardiac Arrest (EPOC) project.</p>','2022-03-29 16:42:38.380539','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Michigan Medicine - University of Michigan','Police and fire first responders are often first on the scene during an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, and a new study finds that their intervention correlates with significantly higher chances of patient survival and hospital discharge with good neurological outcomes. Researchers say non-medical first responders are likely underutilized as lifesaving resources in these cases.\n',1,150,'<li>Rama A. Salhi, Stuart Hammond, Jessica L. Lehrich, Michael O\'leary, Neil Kamdar, Christine Brent, Carlos F. Mendes de Leon, Peter Mendel, Christopher Nelson, Bill Forbush, Robert Neumar, Brahmajee K. Nallamothu, Mahshid Abir. <strong>The association of fire or police first responder initiated interventions with out of hospital cardiac arrest survival</strong>. <em>Resuscitation</em>, 2022; 174: 9 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.resuscitation.2022.02.026\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.resuscitation.2022.02.026</a>\n</li>'),(1691,'I was here first! This is how hepatitis C inhibits hepatitis E','i-was-here-first!-this-is-how-hepatitis-c-inhibits-hepatitis-e','2022-03-29 16:42:41.896082',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Infections with hepatitis C and E are so common that, going only by statistics, many people should be infected with both viruses at the same time. However, only very few such cases have been reported. A research team has a guess as to why this is the case: The researchers found that the viruses inhibit each other when they infect at the same time.</p><p>It is well known that co-infections with hepatitis viruses do exist. \"However, the co-infection of hepatitis C and E has not yet been systematically researched,\" says Thomas Burkard. \"Even though the possibility always looms that a simultaneous infection with two viruses could perhaps be particularly dangerous.\"</p><p><strong>A single protein suppresses infection</strong></p><p>In order to find out more about simultaneous infection with the hepatitis C (HCV) and hepatitis E virus (HEV), the researchers infected liver cells in cell culture with both pathogens in the first step. It turned out that HCV is able to suppress an infection with hepatitis E. The team wanted to find out why. \"HCV consists of ten proteins,\" explains Thomas Burkard. \"By producing individual ones in excess, we were able to study their effect.\" This allowed the researchers to find that a single viral protein -- called NS3/4A -- successfully suppressed the replication of hepatitis E viruses in cell culture. \"It seemed that co-infection with both viruses was only possible to a very limited extent,\" says Thomas Burkard.</p><p>Experiments in animal models, however, presented a different pattern: genetically modified mice that have a human liver could become infected with both viruses. However, the infections proceeded in different ways depending on which one the mice were exposed to first. If HEV was present first, HCV could not successfully infect the animals. If HCV was present first, the infection course with HEV was often delayed. \"Here, HCV did not turn out to be as dominant as in cell culture,\" says Thomas Burkard. In-depth analyses of the liver cells should now shed light on the underlying causes: \"Perhaps we will only find islets that are infected with one or the other virus,\" speculates the researcher. \"In any case, it is clear that the two viruses affect each other.\"</p>','2022-03-29 16:42:41.896082','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Ruhr-University Bochum','Infections with hepatitis C and E are so common that, going only by statistics, many people should be infected with both viruses at the same time. However, only very few such cases have been reported. A research team has a guess as to why this is the case: The researchers found that the viruses inhibit each other when they infect at the same time.\n',1,21,'<li>Thomas Burkard, Nora Proske, Kathrin Resner, Laura Collignon, Leonard Knegendorf, Martina Friesland, Lieven Verhoye, Ibrahim M. Sayed, Yannick Brüggemann, Maximilian K. Nocke, Patrick Behrendt, Heiner Wedemeyer, Philip Meuleman, Daniel Todt, Eike Steinmann. <strong>Viral Interference of Hepatitis C and E Virus Replication in Novel Experimental Co-Infection Systems</strong>. <em>Cells</em>, 2022; 11 (6): 927 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/cells11060927\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.3390/cells11060927</a>\n</li>'),(1692,'New estimation strategy improves soil carbon sampling in agricultural fields','new-estimation-strategy-improves-soil-carbon-sampling-in-agricultural-fields','2022-03-29 17:35:07.833109',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">There is much more carbon stored in Earth\'s soil than in its atmosphere. A significant portion of this soil carbon is in organic form (carbon bound to carbon), called soil organic carbon (SOC). Notably, unlike the inorganic carbon in soils, the amount of SOC, and how quickly it is built up or lost, can be influenced by humans. Since its advent about 10,000 years ago, agriculture has caused a significant amount of SOC to be released into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide, contributing to climate change.</p><p>Quantifying the amount of SOC in agricultural fields is therefore essential for monitoring the carbon cycle and developing sustainable management practices that minimize carbon emissions and sequester carbon from the atmosphere to the soil to reduce or reverse the climate effects of agriculture.</p><p>\"Accurate and efficient SOC estimation is essential,\" said Eric Potash, a Research Scientist in the Agroecosystem Sustainability Center (ASC) and Department of Natural Resource &amp; Environmental Sciences (NRES) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. \"Governments need to estimate SOC in order to implement policies to minimize climate change. Researchers need to estimate SOC to develop sustainable management practices. And farmers need to estimate SOC to participate in emerging carbon credit markets.\"</p><p>The traditional and most reliable way to quantify SOC is by soil sampling, with analyses in the lab (\"wet chemical\" measurement). But which locations in the field should be sampled? And how many samples should be taken for an accurate estimate? Each additional soil core adds significant labor and expense -- and uncertainties in how to optimize sampling can lead to substantial extra costs.</p><p>In a new publication from the U.S. Department of Energy\'s (DOE) SMARTFARM Project, Potash and other SMARTFARM researchers evaluated strategies for estimating SOC. Their goal was to develop an estimation strategy that maximizes accuracy while minimizing the number of soil cores sampled.</p><p>The SMARTFARM Project, a program led by co-author and Blue Waters Professor in NRES Kaiyu Guan and funded by the DOE\'s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), endeavors to develop a precise solution for measuring and quantifying greenhouse gas emissions and SOC change during the production of crops.</p><p>\"We aim to collect gold-standard ground truth data and also to develop new technology to quantify field-level carbon outcomes for bioenergy crops, improving yield and also improving environmental sustainability,\" said Guan, ASC Founding Director.</p><p>This work is made possible with unprecedented data collection effort.</p><p>\"We have collected 225 soil samples at 3 samples per acre at one of the SMARTFARM sites. The samples were collected up to 1 meter deep using a Giddings probe. This level of dense sampling has never been done before,\" said co-author DoKyoung Lee, a Professor of Crop Sciences, a co-PI of the SMARTFARM project, and also an ASC founding faculty member.</p><p>In this work, the researchers approached the problem by evaluating the two steps involved in estimating SOC: (1) deciding where in a field to take soil samples; and (2) deciding on a statistical rule for calculating an estimate (called an estimator). By using a commercial field in central Illinois that had been intensively sampled to measure SOC, a variety of strategies could be evaluated for their performance in estimating SOC in the field.</p><p>The researchers found that in a typical Midwestern agricultural field, they can leverage publicly available soil surveys and satellite imagery to efficiently select sample locations. This should reduce the number of samples needed to achieve a given accuracy of SOC quantification by about 28% compared to selecting sampling locations at random.</p><p>\"For researchers and agencies monitoring SOC stocks, this study offers a strategy to increase accuracy, supporting cost optimization of sampling methods,\" said co-author Andrew Margenot, Crop Sciences Assistant Professor and ASC Associate Director.</p><p>\"Future studies can use these findings both as a benchmark against which to compare new SOC stock estimation strategies and as a demonstration of how to evaluate those strategies,\" Potash said.</p><p>The research team is currently collecting data from many more fields to test the ability to generalize their findings -- as well as to develop further improvements to SOC estimation strategies. Team members are also developing a software tool to make their improved sampling methods available to farmers and researchers.</p><p>In addition to Potash, Guan, Lee, and Margenot, co-authors on this publication include Evan DeLucia, ASC and Professor Emeritus of Plant Biology; Sheng Wang, ASC and NRES Research Assistant Professor; and Chunhwa Jang, Crop Sciences Postdoctoral Researcher. Read the full article in <em>Geoderma</em> &gt;&gt;&gt;</p>','2022-03-29 17:35:07.833109','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment','Researchers have evaluated strategies for efficiently estimating soil organic carbon in agricultural fields. Quantifying soil organic carbon stocks in agricultural fields is essential for developing sustainable management practices and monitoring. The research team found that in a typical Midwestern agricultural field, public soil surveys and satellite imagery can be leveraged to efficiently select sample locations. This may reduce the number of samples needed to achieve a given precision (compared to random sampling).\n',1,163,'<li>Eric Potash, Kaiyu Guan, Andrew Margenot, DoKyoung Lee, Evan DeLucia, Sheng Wang, Chunhwa Jang. <strong>How to estimate soil organic carbon stocks of agricultural fields? Perspectives using ex-ante evaluation</strong>. <em>Geoderma</em>, 2022; 411: 115693 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2021.115693\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.geoderma.2021.115693</a>\n</li>'),(1693,'An approach to treating a severe congenital myopathy','an-approach-to-treating-a-severe-congenital-myopathy','2022-03-29 17:35:13.067355',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">The diagnosis is rare, but devastating -- children with congenital muscle disorders often never learn to walk. Until now, there was no chance of recovery, but researchers at the University of Basel and University Hospital Basel are now presenting a possible therapeutic approach for the first time.</p><p>Professor Susan Treves remembers seeing one child affected by the condition at the age of six months. The boy seemed more like a newborn, she recalls. Today, several years later and thanks to intensive physiotherapy, he is at least able sit. \"He made it,\" says the researcher. There is as yet no cure for children like this one. Their first priority is survival. Another child with mutations in the same gene as the boy mentioned above, did not survive. However, his genetic alterations now form the basis of a therapeutic approach presented by the research group led by Susan Treves and Professor Francesco Zorzato in the scientific journal <em>eLife</em>.</p><p>The affected gene contains the blueprint for a calcium channel called <em>RYR1</em> in skeletal muscle. The mutations render the gene useless, and this has severe consequences for muscle function. The researchers used the gene alterations found in a patient, as a template to develop a mouse model for this type of congenital myopathy. \"The mice don\'t die, but their muscle system is severely impaired,\" says Treves. \"They\'re smaller, and move much less.\" With a combination of two drugs, however, the research team was able to significantly improve muscle function and movement of the mice.</p><p><strong>Genetic material overload</strong></p><p>The therapy is based on the observation that certain enzymes are produced in excessive quantities in the skeletal muscles of affected patients. These enzymes -- histone deacetylases and DNA methyltransferases, to be specific -- affect the density of the packaging of the genetic material. This makes genes less accessible to the cellular machinery that reads them and translates them into instructions for protein production.</p><p>Treves and her team used inhibitors against these enzymes, which are already approved as cancer drugs or are being tested in clinical trials. The treatment brought about a significant improvement in the ability of the mice to move, although they remained smaller than healthy animals from the same litter. Importantly, the researchers did not observe any adverse side effects during the study period.</p><p><strong>From gene to therapy</strong></p><p>The approach is still far from being a clinically applicable therapy, says Treves. \"But it\'s a first step in the right direction.\" In their next step, the researchers aim to further optimize the treatment and test combinations of newly developed drugs targeting the same enzymes to achieve even better effects. \"We anticipate around about two more years of optimization and testing before we can initiate a phase I clinical trial,\" she says.</p><p>For Susan Treves and Francesco Zorzato, these first promising results represent a milestone victory after more than 10 years of research -- especially as Zorzato was the one who first isolated the gene affected in these muscle disorders years ago. \"We\'ve now succeeded in bridging the gap from the isolation of the affected gene to a therapeutic approach,\" says Treves.</p>','2022-03-29 17:35:13.067355','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Basel','The diagnosis is rare, but devastating -- children with congenital muscle disorders often never learn to walk. Until now, there was no chance of recovery, but researchers are now presenting a possible therapeutic approach.\n',1,27,'<li>Alexis Ruiz, Sofia Benucci, Urs Duthaler, Christoph Bachmann, Martina Franchini, Faiza Noreen, Laura Pietrangelo, Feliciano Protasi, Susan Treves, Francesco Zorzato. <strong>Improvement of muscle strength in a mouse model for congenital myopathy treated with HDAC and DNA methyltransferase inhibitors</strong>. <em>eLife</em>, 2022; 11 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.73718\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.7554/eLife.73718</a>\n</li>'),(1694,'Residual water from the food industry gives seaweed cultivation a boost','residual-water-from-the-food-industry-gives-seaweed-cultivation-a-boost','2022-03-29 17:35:16.207907',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Process water from the food industry is an excellent fertilizer in land-based seaweed cultivation. Not only does the seaweed grow faster; its protein content also multiplies. In this way, process water can go from being a cost to becoming a resource in the food industry.</p><p>Can macroalgae, such as sea lettuce, become a competitive source of protein in the foods of the future the way soybeans are today? Seaweed naturally has a lower protein content than soybeans, but with fertilizer that difference decreases.</p><p>A scientific article from researchers at the University of Gothenburg and Chalmers University of Technology shows that process water from food production can serve as an excellent fertilizer in seaweed cultivation. The seaweed grew more than 60 per cent faster, and the protein content quadrupled with the addition of process water.</p><p>\"The protein content of soybeans is about 40 per cent. By using process water, we have increased the protein content in the seaweed to more than 30 per cent,\" says Kristoffer Stedt, a doctoral student at the Department of Marine Sciences at the University of Gothenburg.</p><p>We already know that algae grow better in the vicinity of fish farms in the sea due to nutrients in fish faeces that spread in the water. Process water from food industries is often rich in nitrogen and phosphorus in a similar way.</p><p><strong>Different food producers</strong></p><p>The researchers tested four different types of seaweed and added process water from several different food producers -- from the herring industry, salmon farming, shellfish processors, and a manufacturer of oat milk. A certain amount of process water with a controlled content of nitrogen was added to the seaweed cultivation. After eight days the researchers analysed the results.</p><p>\"We included oat milk to achieve cultivation that was completely vegan. And it turned out that all different types of process water worked well as fertilizer for the seaweed,\" says Stedt.</p><p>Food production requires large amounts of water, and taking care of the process water is currently a cost for producers. But this water can be turned into a valuable resource.</p><p>\"We think that you could have land-based cultivations of algae, such as sea lettuce, near a herring factory, for example. Seaweed cultivation can cleanse large portions of the nutrients from the process water. That brings us closer to a sustainable approach, and the companies have another leg to stand on,\" says Stedt.</p><p><strong>No off-taste for the seaweed</strong></p><p>The researchers were worried that the seaweed would be tainted by the process water. Not everyone may appreciate herring-flavoured sea lettuce. But test panels did not note any impact on the taste of the seaweed from the process water.</p><p>In the future, Kristoffer Stedt and his colleagues will focus on scaling up the experiments with seaweed cultivation. They will use process water from the herring industry, which showed very promising results, and focus on the species <em>Ulva fenestrata</em> (sea lettuce).</p><p>\"We need to conduct tests in larger volumes as a first step in a controlled environment. But we believe that this may be an alternative source of protein in future foods. It could also be a completely circular system if we used cultivated seaweed as feed for salmon culture on land and used the process water to fertilize the seaweed cultivation,\" says Stedt.</p><p><strong>Great need for new protein sources</strong></p><p>An estimated 10 billion people will live on Earth by 2050, and there is a great demand for sustainably produced food protein. Between 2000 and 2018, the production of seaweed tripled, reaching 32 million tonnes. Almost 99 per cent is produced in the Far East.</p><p>In the research project CirkAlg, researchers from the University of Gothenburg and Chalmers University of Technology are collaborating on processes that can generate a new Swedish marine protein source in a resource-efficient way through both cultivation and processing of seaweed.</p><p>\"In addition to boosting the seaweed\'s protein content with process water, we are looking at several ways to extract the proteins from the algae for use in other foods in the same way as protein is extracted from soybeans today. However, this presents a challenge, because the protein in seaweed is bound more tightly than in the soybeans,\" says Ingrid Undeland, a professor of food science at the Department of Biology and Biological Engineering at Chalmers. She is also the coordinator for CirkAlg.</p>','2022-03-29 17:35:16.207907','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Gothenburg','Process water from the food industry is an excellent fertilizer in land-based seaweed cultivation. Not only does the seaweed grow faster; its protein content also multiplies. In this way, process water can go from being a cost to becoming a resource in the food industry.\n',1,101,'<li>Kristoffer Stedt, João P. Trigo, Sophie Steinhagen, Göran M. Nylund, Bita Forghani, Henrik Pavia, Ingrid Undeland. <strong>Cultivation of seaweeds in food production process waters: Evaluation of growth and crude protein content</strong>. <em>Algal Research</em>, 2022; 63: 102647 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.algal.2022.102647\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.algal.2022.102647</a>\n</li>'),(1695,'Heat storage: Scientists develop material that is stable, efficient and eco-friendly','heat-storage:-scientists-develop-material-that-is-stable,-efficient-and-eco-friendly','2022-03-29 17:35:18.504739',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">A new heat storage material could help to significantly improve the energy efficiency of buildings. Developed by researchers at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) and the University of Leipzig, it can be used to store surplus heat and release it back into the environment when needed. Unlike existing materials, the new one can absorb significantly more heat, is more stable, and is made of harmless substances. In the <em>Journal of Energy Storage</em> the team describes the formation mechanism of the material.</p><p>The invention is a so-called shape-stabilized phase change material. It can absorb large amounts of heat by changing its physical state from solid to liquid. The stored heat is then re-released when the material hardens. \"Many people are familiar with this principle from hand warmers,\" explains Professor Thomas Hahn from the Institute of Chemistry at MLU. However, the invention from Halle won\'t be used in coat pockets. Instead, it could be used by the construction industry as large panels that could be integrated into walls. These would then absorb heat during the sunny hours of the day and release it again later when the temperature goes down. This could save a lot of energy: The researchers have calculated that when the new material heats up, it can store -- under the right conditions -- up to 24 times per 10 degrees Celsius more heat than conventional concrete or wallboard.</p><p>Unlike hand warmers, the panels made of this material mixture do not melt when they absorb heat. \"In our invention, the heat storage material is enclosed in a framework of solid silicate and cannot escape due to high capillary forces,\" explains Hahn. Most importantly, the substances used in its production are environmentally friendly: harmless fatty acids like those found in soaps and creams. Even the additives that lend the material its strength and increased thermal conductivity can be obtained from rice husks.</p><p>In the current study, the team describes the steps involved in creating the structure of the material and how the different chemicals influence each other. For this, the team received support from a group of researchers led by Professor Kirsten Bacia from MLU, who used fluorescence microscopy to visualise the mechanism. \"The knowledge we are gaining can be used to further optimise the material and to potentially produce it on an industrial scale,\" says Felix Marske, who drove the development forward as part of his doctorate with Thomas Hahn. Until now the material is still only being produced in small quantities in the laboratory. In the future, it can be combined with other steps to help to make buildings significantly more energy efficient or to passively cool photovoltaic systems and batteries, thereby increasing their efficiency.</p>','2022-03-29 17:35:18.504739','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg','A new heat storage material could help to significantly improve the energy efficiency of buildings. It can be used to store surplus heat and release it back into the environment when needed. Unlike existing materials, the new one can absorb significantly more heat, is more stable, and is made of harmless substances.\n',1,27,'<li>Felix Marske, Joe Dasler, Caroline Haupt, Kirsten Bacia, Thomas Hahn, Dirk Enke. <strong>Influence of surfactants and organic polymers on monolithic shape-stabilized phase change materials synthesized via sol-gel route</strong>. <em>Journal of Energy Storage</em>, 2022; 49: 104127 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.est.2022.104127\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.est.2022.104127</a>\n</li>'),(1696,'Osmotic pressure and viscosity: Anticancer drug efficacy and restricting tumors using LDDS','osmotic-pressure-and-viscosity:-anticancer-drug-efficacy-and-restricting-tumors-using-ldds','2022-03-29 17:35:21.096190',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Cancer often transfers from its primary lesion to other lesions -- clinically referred to as metastasis. In early metastasis, cancer cells invade lymphatic vessels, reach lymph nodes, and proliferate. Conventional chemotherapy for metastatic lymph nodes has limitations because only part of anticancer drug administrated by intravenous injection reaches the metastatic lymph nodes, and the expanded tumors restrict the bloodstream, preventing anticancer drug delivery.</p><p>The lymphatic drug delivery system (LDDS) provides an alternative strategy to conventional chemotherapy. Anticancer drugs are injected directly into sentinel lymph nodes under ultrasound guidance. LDDS is also available during intra-operative or image-guided surgery.</p><p>Professor Tetsuya Kodama and assistant professor Ariunbuyan Sukhbaatar of the Tohoku University Graduate School of Medical Engineering investigated the effect of osmotic pressure and the viscosity of anticancer drugs on the efficacy of lymph node metastasis treatment in collaboration with Dr Shiro Mori of Tohoku University Hospital. The authors found that optimal osmotic pressure and viscosity ranges significantly improved an antitumor effect.</p><p>This improvement could be explained as follows: the hyperosmotic fluid injected into the tumor-draining lymph nodes may increase the inflow of liquid components from blood vessels and high endothelial venules. Anticancer drugs with higher osmotic fluid could also flow in the efferent lymphatic vessels and the case expansion of lymphatic channels and vessels, allowing anticancer drugs to target tumor cells. Moreover, the optimized anticancer drugs of LDDS could target not only sentinel lymph nodes but also downstream lymph nodes with a high risk of secondary metastasis.</p><p>In summary, treatment using LDDS optimizes the physical properties of anticancer drugs, osmotic pressure and viscosity; improves the treatment efficacy; and restricts the spread of tumors in lymph node metastasis. It is anticipated these optimal ranges will be a starting point for developing more effective drug regimens to treat metastatic lymph nodes with the LDDS.</p>','2022-03-29 17:35:21.096190','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Tohoku University','Chemotherapy is known for its painful side-effects. It also has limitations when the cancer has metastasized to the lymph nodes. The lymphatic drug delivery system, where anticancer drugs are injected directly into the sentinel lymph nodes under ultrasound guidance, offers an alternative to conventional chemotherapy. Researchers have now found the optimal osmotic pressure and viscosity ranges, significantly improving the antitumor effect.\n',1,152,'<li>Ariunbuyan Sukhbaatar, Shiro Mori, Tetsuya Kodama. <strong>Intranodal delivery of modified docetaxel: Innovative therapeutic method to inhibit tumor cell growth in lymph nodes</strong>. <em>Cancer Science</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/cas.15283\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1111/cas.15283</a>\n</li>'),(1697,'Good hydration may reduce long-term risks for heart failure','good-hydration-may-reduce-long-term-risks-for-heart-failure','2022-03-29 19:22:01.328894',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Staying well-hydrated may be associated with a reduced risk for developing heart failure, according to researchers at the National Institutes of Health. Their findings, which appear in the <em>European Heart Journal</em>, suggest that consuming sufficient amounts of fluids throughout life not only supports essential body functioning but may also reduce the risk of severe heart problems in the future.</p><p>Heart failure, a chronic condition that develops when the heart does not pump enough blood for the body\'s needs, affects more than 6.2 million Americans, a little more than 2% of the population. It is also more common among adults ages 65 and older.</p><p>\"Similar to reducing salt intake, drinking enough water and staying hydrated are ways to support our hearts and may help reduce long-term risks for heart disease,\" said Natalia Dmitrieva, Ph.D., the lead study author and a researcher in the Laboratory of Cardiovascular Regenerative Medicine at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), part of NIH.</p><p>After conducting preclinical research that suggested connections between dehydration and cardiac fibrosis, a hardening of the heart muscles, Dmitrieva and researchers looked for similar associations in large-scale population studies. To start, they analyzed data from more than 15,000 adults, ages 45-66, who enrolled in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study between 1987-1989 and shared information from medical visits over a 25-year period.</p><p>In selecting participants for their retrospective review, the scientists focused on those whose hydration levels were within a normal range and who did not have diabetes, obesity, or heart failure at the start of the study. Approximately 11,814 adults were included in the final analysis, and, of those, the researchers found 1,366 (11.56%) later developed heart failure.</p><p>To assess potential links with hydration, the team assessed the hydration status of the participants using several clinical measures. Looking at levels of serum sodium, which increases as the body\'s fluid levels decrease, was especially useful in helping to identify participants with an increased risk for developing heart failure. It also helped identify older adults with an increased risk for developing both heart failure and left ventricular hypertrophy, an enlargement and thickening of the heart.</p><p>For example, adults with serum sodium levels starting at 143 milliequivalents per liter (mEq/L) -- a normal range is 135-146 mEq/L -- in midlife had a 39% associated increased risk for developing heart failure compared to adults with lower levels. And for every 1 mEq/L increase in serum sodium within the normal range of 135-146 mEq/L, the likelihood of a participant developing heart failure increased by 5%.</p><p>In a cohort of about 5,000 adults ages 70-90, those with serum sodium levels of 142.5-143 mEq/L at middle age were 62% more likely to develop left ventricular hypertrophy. Serum sodium levels starting at 143 mEq/L correlated with a 102% increased risk for left ventricular hypertrophy and a 54% increased risk for heart failure.</p><p>Based on these data, the authors conclude serum sodium levels above 142 mEq/L in middle age are associated with increased risks for developing left ventricular hypertrophy and heart failure later in life.</p><p>A randomized, controlled trial will be necessary to confirm these preliminary findings, the researchers said. However, these early associations suggest good hydration may help prevent or slow the progression of changes within the heart that can lead to heart failure.</p><p>\"Serum sodium and fluid intake can easily be assessed in clinical exams and help doctors identify patients who may benefit from learning about ways to stay hydrated,\" said Manfred Boehm, M.D., who leads the Laboratory of Cardiovascular Regenerative Medicine.</p><p>Fluids are essential for a range of bodily functions, including helping the heart pump blood efficiently, supporting blood vessel function, and orchestrating circulation. Yet many people take in far less than they need, the researchers said. While fluid guidelines vary based on the body\'s needs, the researchers recommended a daily fluid intake of 6-8 cups (1.5-2.1 liters) for women and 8-12 cups (2-3 liters) for men. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also provides tips to support healthy hydration.</p><p>This research was supported by the Division of Intramural Research at NHLBI. Other coauthors include Delong Liu, Ph.D., from the Laboratory of Vascular and Matrix Genetics and Colin O. Wu, Ph.D., from the Office of Biostatistics Research. The ARIC study has been supported by research contracts from NHLBI, NIH, and the Department of Health and Human Services.</p>','2022-03-29 19:22:01.328894','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'NIH/National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute','Staying well-hydrated may be associated with a reduced risk for developing heart failure. New findings suggest that consuming sufficient amounts of fluids throughout life not only supports essential body functioning but may also reduce the risk of severe heart problems in the future.\n',1,150,'<li>Natalia I. Dmitrieva, Delong Liu, Colin O. Wu, Manfred Boehm. <strong>Middle age serum sodium levels in the upper part of normal range and risk of heart failure</strong>. <em>European Heart Journal</em>, 2022 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehac138\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1093/eurheartj/ehac138</a>\n</li>'),(1698,'Dried avocado meal, a novel fiber source to be added to commercial dog food','dried-avocado-meal,-a-novel-fiber-source-to-be-added-to-commercial-dog-food','2022-03-29 19:22:03.500737',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">When avocados were first recognized as a nutrient-dense superfood for humans, consumption skyrocketed. Today, consumers buy and eat the fresh fruit (hello, avocado toast), purchase pre-packaged guacamole, cook with avocado oil, and more.</p><p>The trend means there are now more avocado-derived products in the supply chain than ever. In a unique study, University of Illinois researchers looked at the possibility of using avocado meal -- the ground, dried, and defatted pulp, seed, and skin left over after avocado oil processing -- as a fiber source in dry dog food.</p><p>Wait, aren\'t avocados toxic to dogs?</p><p>A simple Google search turns up scads of sources warning against the potentially harmful effects of avocados for pets, placing blame on a compound called persin in the fruit. But Maria Cattai de Godoy, who led the project, says the claims about avocado toxicity are overblown. As for avocado meal, Godoy couldn\'t find detectable levels of persin in the product. And best of all? Avocado meal is also palatable and a functional fiber source in canine nutrition.</p><p>\"Being from Brazil, avocados grow in our backyards. They fall on the ground, and if dogs get hold of them, they eat them. Just like they do with mangoes, bananas, or any other fruits that grow natively in our country. I\'d never heard of a dog dying from eating an avocado, so I was really curious why they were considered toxic here,\" says Cattai de Godoy, associate professor in the Department of Animal Sciences at U of I.</p><p>\"When you look at the literature for avocado toxicity, all that exists are a few case studies. Dogs reported to have a fondness for avocado showed some signs of toxicity, but the case reports couldn\'t prove avocados caused those symptoms. There are a lot of uncontrolled factors in these cases.\"</p><p>When she looked into it, Cattai de Godoy couldn\'t find direct evidence showing cause and effect of persin toxicity in dogs. Few studies detailed where persin was most concentrated in the avocado plants and fruits, and not a single study explored whether it was found in avocado meal.</p><p>It was time for some answers.</p><p>Cattai de Godoy teamed up with David Sarlah, associate professor in the Department of Chemistry at U of I. They were able to look more closely at the chemical structure of persin, and realized why they couldn\'t find it in the dried, processed meal.</p><p>\"Persin is structurally similar to a polyunsaturated fatty acid, meaning there are a lot of double bonds,\" Cattai de Godoy says. \"They\'re not very stable; heat and light can make them break down. Processing is very likely breaking down persin, which is probably why we cannot see it in the meal.</p><p>\"In fact, the concentration was so small in the avocado meal that it was out of our standard curve linear range, meaning it was below detection level. We observed, however, detectable amounts of persin in the raw fruit, including the peel, pulp, and pit.\"</p><p>After they determined persin was undetectable in avocado meal, the researchers fed it to beagles as one of three fiber sources in their diets: avocado meal, or industry standards beet pulp or cellulose. They watched the animals closely for any signs of toxicity or distress, but found none during the two-week feeding trials.</p><p>Cellulose is an insoluble fiber used to create fecal bulk. Beet pulp, which Cattai de Godoy refers to as the gold-standard fiber in pet foods, is a mix of soluble and insoluble fiber that helps feed good gut bacteria while promoting fecal bulk.</p><p>As a fiber source, avocado meal fell right in between cellulose and beet pulp, depending on the metrics the researchers studied. For example, energy intake was similar for all three diets, and avocado meal tied with other fiber sources for digestibility of fat and organic matter. Dogs who ate the avocado meal diet had similar fiber digestibility and fecal butyrate concentration, an energy source for microbial cells in the gut, to dogs who ate the beet pulp diet.</p><p>\"High fiber diets are not always palatable for pets, but that is not what we saw. The dogs consumed enough food to meet or exceed their energy requirements. The high inclusion of avocado meal [about 19%] was acceptable to them,\" Cattai de Godoy says.</p><p>The researchers note they only tested one source of avocado meal. Persin levels vary across avocado cultivars and processing practices haven\'t been standardized across the industry, so it will be important to test for persin in each source of avocado meal. But Cattai de Godoy thinks this first study shows the potential of avocado meal for dogs.</p><p>\"If you have a tool nobody has looked at and it\'s economical and highly abundant, why not use it? From what we can tell, it seems to be a safe ingredient. We don\'t see a signal for persin in avocado meal, and there is not really a robust literature pointing to persin as a true toxin for dogs or cats\" she says. \"I certainly think there\'s still work to be done in order to say there are no concerns, especially if we were giving the fresh fruit. But according to our study, I think avocado meal is a safe bet and can be used effectively as a sole source of dietary fiber or in fiber blends.\"</p><p>Funding was provided by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.</p>','2022-03-29 19:22:03.500737','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Illinois College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences','Thanks to avocados\' rise to superfood stardom, there are now more avocado-derived products in the supply chain than ever. In a unique study, researchers looked at the possibility of using avocado meal -- the ground, dried, and defatted pulp, seed, and skin left over after avocado oil processing -- as a fiber source in dry dog food.\n',1,27,'<li>Amanda N Dainton, Fei He, Tanner W Bingham, David Sarlah, Katelyn B Detweiler, Heather J Mangian, Maria Regina Cattai de Godoy. <strong>Nutritional and physico-chemical implications of avocado meal as a novel dietary fiber source in an extruded canine diet</strong>. <em>Journal of Animal Science</em>, 2022; 100 (2) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jas/skac026\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1093/jas/skac026</a>\n</li>'),(1699,'Distinct classes of fibroblasts in tumors play opposing roles, promoting or restraining pancreatic cancer growth','distinct-classes-of-fibroblasts-in-tumors-play-opposing-roles,-promoting-or-restraining-pancreatic-cancer-growth','2022-03-29 19:22:07.625619',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have discovered that two distinct classes of cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) accumulate in the pancreatic tumor microenvironment and play opposing roles to promote and restrain pancreatic cancer development.</p><p>The preclinical findings suggest that appropriately targeting these unique CAF populations may offer strategies to improve the use of other treatments, such as chemotherapy and immunotherapy. The results were published today in <em>Cancer Discovery</em>, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.</p><p>\"Cancer-associated fibroblasts are known to regulate cancer progression, but targeting these cells in pancreatic cancer has largely failed to improve patient outcomes and has, in some cases, worsened response,\" said lead author Kathleen McAndrews, Ph.D., postdoctoral fellow in Cancer Biology. \"Our findings provide the first evidence of the functional heterogeneity of CAFs in pancreatic cancer that may explain the variations in patient outcomes.\"</p><p>Fibroblasts, a type of cell found in connective tissue, are involved in important biological processes, such as wound repair. Cancer-associated fibroblasts are those that accumulate in tumors. These cells can be found in large numbers in pancreatic cancers, but their precise role in cancer development had remained unclear.</p><p>The researchers performed single-cell RNA sequencing to analyze gene expression and clarify the types of CAFs present in pancreatic tumors. They identified two distinct subsets of CAFs marked by expression of fibroblast activation protein (FAP) and alpha-smooth muscle actin (αSMA).</p><p>Interestingly, the researchers found that expression of these proteins in treatment-naïve human tumor samples correlated with eventual outcomes. Increased expression of αSMA was associated with significantly improved overall survival (OS), whereas elevated FAP levels were associated with significantly decreased OS.</p><p>Using novel mouse models, the researchers demonstrated that FAP+ and αSMA+ CAFs play distinct and opposing roles in the tumor microenvironment. Loss of FAP+ cells suppressed tumor progression and improved OS, suggesting these cells act to promote tumor development.</p><p>Conversely, loss of αSMA+ fibroblasts resulted in more aggressive tumors and shorter OS, indicating that these cells work to block pancreatic cancer progression.</p><p>Loss of FAP+ vs. αSMA+ cells resulted in distinct gene expression changes in the tumor, resulting in altered regulation of various cancer-associated pathways and different accumulation of immune cells in the tumor microenvironment.</p><p>To clarify the distinct roles of FAP+ and αSMA+ cells, the research team also analyzed secreted proteins that may affect the tumor and surrounding cells. The immune signaling protein interleukin 6 (IL-6) is produced by both classes of CAFs. Loss of IL-6 in αSMA+ cells, but not FAP+ cells, improved responses to chemotherapy and immunotherapy with significantly improved OS.</p><p>These results are indicative of the complex and heterogeneous roles of these different classes of CAFs, explained senior author Raghu Kalluri, M.D., Ph.D., professor and chair of Cancer Biology.</p><p>\"This is a new discovery that helps move the field forward, with a new appreciation of the biology of pancreatic cancer and possible strategies for therapeutic interventions,\" Kalluri said. \"Our next steps are to identify therapies that can target the tumor promoting fibroblasts while sparing the sum beneficial responses of our body in its effort to fight cancer.\"</p><p>This research was supported primarily by the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) (RP150231) with additional funding from the National Institutes of Health/National Cancer Institute (UL1TR000371, P01CA117969, P30CA016672), the Sid W. Richardson Foundation, the American Legion Auxiliary Fellowship and Ergon Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowships.</p>','2022-03-29 19:22:07.625619','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center','Researchers discovered that two distinct classes of fibroblast cells accumulate in pancreatic tumors and play opposing roles to promote and restrain pancreatic cancer growth. Appropriately targeting these cells may offer options to improve treatment outcomes.\n',1,23,'<li>Kathleen M. McAndrews et al. <strong>Identification of Functional Heterogeneity of Carcinoma-Associated Fibroblasts with Distinct IL-6 Mediated Therapy Resistance in Pancreatic Cancer</strong>. <em>Cancer Discovery</em>, 2022 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1158/2159-8290.CD-20-1484\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1158/2159-8290.CD-20-1484</a>\n</li>'),(1700,'AI helps radiologists detect bone fractures','ai-helps-radiologists-detect-bone-fractures','2022-03-29 19:22:10.578677',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Artificial intelligence (AI) is an effective tool for fracture detection that has potential to aid clinicians in busy emergency departments, according to a study in <em>Radiology</em>.</p><p>Missed or delayed diagnosis of fractures on X-ray is a common error with potentially serious implications for the patient. Lack of timely access to expert opinion as the growth in imaging volumes continues to outpace radiologist recruitment only makes the problem worse.</p><p>AI may help address this problem by acting as an aid to radiologists, helping to speed and improve fracture diagnosis.</p><p>To learn more about the technology\'s potential in the fracture setting, a team of researchers in England reviewed 42 existing studies comparing the diagnostic performance in fracture detection between AI and clinicians. Of the 42 studies, 37 used X-ray to identify fractures, and five used CT.</p><p>The researchers found no statistically significant differences between clinician and AI performance. AI\'s sensitivity for detecting fractures was 91-92%.</p><p>\"We found that AI performed with a high degree of accuracy, comparable to clinician performance,\" said study lead author Rachel Kuo, M.B. B.Chir., from the Botnar Research Centre, Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Sciences in Oxford, England. \"Importantly, we found this to be the case when AI was validated using independent external datasets, suggesting that the results may be generalizable to the wider population.\"</p><p>The study results point to several promising educational and clinical applications for AI in fracture detection, Dr. Kuo said. It could reduce the rate of early misdiagnosis in challenging circumstances in the emergency setting, including cases where patients may sustain multiple fractures. It has potential as an educational tool for junior clinicians.</p><p>\"It could also be helpful as a \'second reader,\' providing clinicians with either reassurance that they have made the correct diagnosis or prompting them to take another look at the imaging before treating patients,\" Dr. Kuo said.</p><p>Dr. Kuo cautioned that research into fracture detection by AI remains in a very early, pre-clinical stage. Only a minority of the studies that she and her colleagues looked at evaluated the performance of clinicians with AI assistance, and there was only one example where an AI was evaluated in a prospective study in a clinical environment.</p><p>\"It remains important for clinicians to continue to exercise their own judgment,\" Dr. Kuo said. \"AI is not infallible and is subject to bias and error.\"</p>','2022-03-29 19:22:10.578677','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Radiological Society of North America','Artificial intelligence (AI) is an effective tool for fracture detection that has potential to aid clinicians in busy emergency departments, according to a new study.\n',1,156,'<li>Rachel Y. L. Kuo, Conrad Harrison, Terry-Ann Curran, Benjamin Jones, Alexander Freethy, David Cussons, Max Stewart, Gary S. Collins, Dominic Furniss. <strong>Artificial Intelligence in Fracture Detection: A Systematic Review                     and Meta-Analysis</strong>. <em>Radiology</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1148/radiol.211785\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1148/radiol.211785</a>\n</li>'),(1701,'How eye imaging technology could help robots and cars see better','how-eye-imaging-technology-could-help-robots-and-cars-see-better','2022-03-29 19:22:12.500518',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Even though robots don\'t have eyes with retinas, the key to helping them see and interact with the world more naturally and safely may rest in optical coherence tomography (OCT) machines commonly found in the offices of ophthalmologists.</p><p>One of the imaging technologies that many robotics companies are integrating into their sensor packages is Light Detection and Ranging, or LiDAR for short. Currently commanding great attention and investment from self-driving car developers, the approach essentially works like radar, but instead of sending out broad radio waves and looking for reflections, it uses short pulses of light from lasers.</p><p>Traditional time-of-flight LiDAR, however, has many drawbacks that make it difficult to use in many 3D vision applications. Because it requires detection of very weak reflected light signals, other LiDAR systems or even ambient sunlight can easily overwhelm the detector. It also has limited depth resolution and can take a dangerously long time to densely scan a large area such as a highway or factory floor. To tackle these challenges, researchers are turning to a form of LiDAR called frequency-modulated continuous wave (FMCW) LiDAR.</p><p>\"FMCW LiDAR shares the same working principle as OCT, which the biomedical engineering field has been developing since the early 1990s,\" said Ruobing Qian, a PhD student working in the laboratory of Joseph Izatt, the Michael J. Fitzpatrick Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Duke. \"But 30 years ago, nobody knew autonomous cars or robots would be a thing, so the technology focused on tissue imaging. Now, to make it useful for these other emerging fields, we need to trade in its extremely high resolution capabilities for more distance and speed.\"</p><p>In a paper appearing March 29 in the journal Nature Communications, the Duke team demonstrates how a few tricks learned from their OCT research can improve on previous FMCW LiDAR data-throughput by 25 times while still achieving submillimeter depth accuracy.</p><p>OCT is the optical analogue of ultrasound, which works by sending sound waves into objects and measuring how long they take to come back. To time the light waves\' return times, OCT devices measure how much their phase has shifted compared to identical light waves that have travelled the same distance but have not interacted with another object.</p><p>FMCW LiDAR takes a similar approach with a few tweaks. The technology sends out a laser beam that continually shifts between different frequencies. When the detector gathers light to measure its reflection time, it can distinguish between the specific frequency pattern and any other light source, allowing it to work in all kinds of lighting conditions with very high speed. It then measures any phase shift against unimpeded beams, which is a much more accurate way to determine distance than current LiDAR systems.</p><p>\"It has been very exciting to see how the biological cell-scale imaging technology we have been working on for decades is directly translatable for large-scale, real-time 3D vision,\" Izatt said. \"These are exactly the capabilities needed for robots to see and interact with humans safely or even to replace avatars with live 3D video in augmented reality.\"</p><p>Most previous work using LiDAR has relied on rotating mirrors to scan the laser over the landscape. While this approach works well, it is fundamentally limited by the speed of the mechanical mirror, no matter how powerful the laser it\'s using.</p><p>The Duke researchers instead use a diffraction grating that works like a prism, breaking the laser into a rainbow of frequencies that spread out as they travel away from the source. Because the original laser is still quickly sweeping through a range of frequencies, this translates into sweeping the LiDAR beam much faster than a mechanical mirror can rotate. This allows the system to quickly cover a wide area without losing much depth or location accuracy.</p><p>While OCT devices are used to profile microscopic structures up to several millimeters deep within an object, robotic 3D vision systems only need to locate the surfaces of human-scale objects. To accomplish this, the researchers narrowed the range of frequencies used by OCT, and only looked for the peak signal generated from the surfaces of objects. This costs the system a little bit of resolution, but with much greater imaging range and speed than traditional LiDAR.</p><p>The result is an FMCW LiDAR system that achieves submillimeter localization accuracy with data-throughput 25 times greater than previous demonstrations. The results show that the approach is fast and accurate enough to capture the details of moving human body parts -- such as a nodding head or a clenching hand -- in real-time.</p><p>\"In much the same way that electronic cameras have become ubiquitous, our vision is to develop a new generation of LiDAR-based 3D cameras which are fast and capable enough to enable integration of 3D vision into all sorts of products,\" Izatt said. \"The world around us is 3D, so if we want robots and other automated systems to interact with us naturally and safely, they need to be able to see us as well as we can see them.\"</p><p>This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health (EY028079), the National Science Foundation, (CBET-1902904) and the Department of Defense CDMRP (W81XWH-16-1-0498).</p>','2022-03-29 19:22:12.500518','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Duke University','Using lessons learned from the eye-imaging technology optical coherence tomography (OCT), engineers have demonstrated a LiDAR system that is fast and accurate enough to potentially improve the vision of autonomous systems such as driverless cars and robotic manufacturing plants.\n',1,97,'<li>Ruobing Qian, Kevin C. Zhou, Jingkai Zhang, Christian Viehland, Al-Hafeez Dhalla, Joseph A. Izatt. <strong>Video-rate high-precision time-frequency multiplexed 3D coherent ranging</strong>. <em>Nature Communications</em>, 2022; 13 (1) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29177-9\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41467-022-29177-9</a>\n</li>'),(1702,'Lung damage may persist long after COVID-19 pneumonia','lung-damage-may-persist-long-after-covid-19-pneumonia','2022-03-29 19:22:17.687882',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Some people recovering from COVID-19 pneumonia have CT evidence of damage to their lungs that persists a full year after the onset of symptoms, according to a new study published in the journal <em>Radiology</em>.</p><p>The COVID-19 pandemic, caused by the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus type 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has considerably increased the demand for acute and post-acute healthcare worldwide.</p><p>COVID-19\'s short-term effects on the lungs, such as pneumonia, are well documented. Much less is known about the illness\' long-term effects on the lungs.</p><p>As part of an Austria-based observational study on the development of lung disease in patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection, researchers looked at patterns and rates of improvement of chest CT abnormalities in patients one year after COVID-19 pneumonia. CT has been an important imaging tool in the workup of patients suspected of having COVID-19.</p><p>The researchers assessed lung abnormalities on chest CT in 91 participants, mean age 59 years, at several points over one year after the onset of COVID-19 symptoms.</p><p>At one year, CT abnormalities were present in 49, or 54%, of the 91 participants. Of these 49 participants, two (4%) had received outpatient treatment only, while 25 (51%) were treated on a general hospital ward and 22 (45%) had received intensive care unit (ICU) treatment.</p><p>\"The observed chest CT abnormalities from our study are indicative of damaged lung tissue,\" said study co-author Anna Luger, M.D., from the Department of Radiology at Innsbruck Medical University in Innsbruck, Austria. \"However, it is currently unclear if they represent persistent scarring, and whether they regress over time or lead to pulmonary fibrosis.\"</p><p>While CT abnormalities decreased in initial follow-ups, 63% of participants with abnormalities did not show any further improvement after six months. Age over 60 years, critical COVID-19 severity and male gender were associated with persistent CT abnormalities at one year.</p><p>Evidence from the SARS-CoV-1 outbreak of 2002 to 2004 shows that lung abnormalities may remain detectable even after decades, but do not show any progression, according to study co-author Leonhard Gruber, M.D., from the Department of Radiology at Innsbruck Medical University. Recent studies, though, have shown a risk of progression of lung abnormalities such as the ones depicted on CT.</p><p>\"In a recently published clinical study of our CovILD interdisciplinary working group, we were able to show that the severity of acute COVID-19, protracted systemic inflammation and the presence of residual chest CT abnormalities are strongly related to persistently impaired lung function and clinical symptoms,\" said study co-author Christoph Schwabl, M.D., from Innsbruck Medical University.</p><p>The study underscores radiology\'s role in helping identify patients at risk for post-COVID-19 consequences and assisting in COVID-19 follow-up management.</p><p>\"In the end, long-term follow-up, both clinical and radiological, is necessary to gather more information about the course and clinical role of persisting SARS-CoV-2 related chest CT abnormalities,\" said study senior author Gerlig Widmann, M.D., chief thoracic radiologist at Innsbruck Medical University.</p><p>The researchers intend to continue gathering data on patients with persistent CT abnormalities.</p>','2022-03-29 19:22:17.687882','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Radiological Society of North America','Some people recovering from COVID-19 pneumonia have CT evidence of damage to their lungs that persists a full year after the onset of symptoms, according to a new study.\n',1,211,'<li>Anna K. Luger, Thomas Sonnweber, Leonhard Gruber, Christoph Schwabl, Katharina Cima, Piotr Tymoszuk, Anna K. Gerstner, Alex Pizzini, Sabina Sahanic, Anna Boehm, Maximilian Coen, Carola J. Strolz, Ewald Wöll, Günter Weiss, Rudolf Kirchmair, Gudrun M. Feuchtner, Helmut Prosch, Ivan Tancevski, Judith Löffler-Ragg, Gerlig Widmann. <strong>Chest CT of Lung Injury 1 Year after COVID-19 Pneumonia: The CovILD                     Study</strong>. <em>Radiology</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1148/radiol.211670\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1148/radiol.211670</a>\n</li>'),(1703,'Promising Alzheimer\'s drug may also improve memory in Down syndrome and normal aging','promising-alzheimer\'s-drug-may-also-improve-memory-in-down-syndrome-and-normal-aging','2022-03-29 19:22:19.297291',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">A new study shows that a potential treatment for Alzheimer\'s disease may also improve cognitive function in people with Down syndrome.</p><p>The drug sargramostim (GM-CSF, which stands for granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor) is the first to show memory improvement in Alzheimer\'s patients in a phase II clinical trial. GM-CSF is a normal human protein that is safe and well-tolerated with over 30 years of FDA-approved use for other disorders.</p><p>A multidisciplinary team at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus studied the safety and tolerability of GM-CSF treatment and its effects on behavior and brain pathology in a mouse model of Down syndrome and in mice undergoing typical aging. The results reported in the journal <em>Neurobiology of Disease </em>suggest that GM-CSF has potential applicability to humans.</p><p>\"People with Down syndrome are at higher risk for Alzheimer\'s disease and previous work showed that GM-CSF improves cognition and brain pathology in Alzheimer\'s disease patients. This new study shows that GM-CSF also, unexpectedly, improves cognition in mice that do not have Alzheimer\'s disease,\" said senior author Huntington Potter, PhD, professor of neurology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, director of the University of Colorado Alzheimer\'s and Cognition Center and director of Alzheimer\'s disease research at the Linda Crnic Institute for Down Syndrome. All three groups are located on the CU Anschutz Medical Campus.</p><p>He adds, \"Discovering a treatment that may help children and young adults with Down syndrome to develop their physical and mental capabilities is critical to improving their health and activities of daily living.\"</p><p>The research team, led by Md. Mahiuddin Ahmed, PhD, discovered that treatment with GM-CSF, which has pro-inflammatory, anti-inflammatory and immune regulatory properties, reverses learning and memory deficits, the loss of certain nerve cells, and other abnormalities in the brain in a mouse model of Down syndrome and also improves cognition in normal aging mice. The human version of GM-CSF/sargramostim has already been shown to be effective in improving cognition in people with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer\'s disease and in cancer patients. The findings support the hypothesis that GM-CSF/sargramostim may promote neuronal recovery from injury or from neurological disease through multiple mechanisms, some of which evidently enhance cognitive function.</p><p>The next step is to determine whether this treatment is safe, tolerable and efficacious in people with Down syndrome.</p><p>The CU Anschutz Medical Campus team was recently awarded a grant from the National Institutes of Health/National Institute on Aging to study sargramostim treatment in young adults with Down syndrome who do not show evidence of Alzheimer\'s disease. They will investigate its safety and potential efficacy regarding cognitive function, quality of life measures and biomarkers associated with neuronal damage.</p><p>\"We are breaking new ground in studying sargramostim for multiple, different disorders -- Down syndrome and Alzheimer\'s disease,\" Potter said. \"We hope that this therapy, already proven to be safe for other diseases, will greatly improve cognitive function in people with Down syndrome.\"</p><p>The new NIH-funded project, co-directed by Potter and Peter Pressman, MD, from the CU department of neurology, will leverage collaborations between research teams on the CU Anschutz Medical Campus and at Colorado State University. They will work closely with the Linda Crnic Institute for Down Syndrome, which is an affiliate of the Global Down Syndrome Foundation (GLOBAL). GLOBAL is the leading Down syndrome organization successfully advocating for Down syndrome research funding at the NIH.</p>','2022-03-29 19:22:19.297291','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus','New research is breaking ground in repurposing an FDA-approved drug as a potential treatment in Down syndrome and normal aging. The results suggest that GM-CSF may improve cognitive function in people with Down syndrome. The drug sargramostim (GM-CSF, which stands for granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor) is also the first to show memory improvement in Alzheimer\'s patients in a phase II clinical trial. GM-CSF is a normal human protein that is safe and well-tolerated with over 30 years of FDA-approved use for other disorders.\n',1,179,'<li>Md. Mahiuddin Ahmed, Athena Ching-Jung Wang, Mihret Elos, Heidi J. Chial, Stefan Sillau, D. Adriana Solano, Christina Coughlan, Leila Aghili, Paige Anton, Neil Markham, Vanesa Adame, Katheleen J. Gardiner, Timothy D. Boyd, Huntington Potter. <strong>The innate immune system stimulating cytokine GM-CSF improves learning/memory and interneuron and astrocyte brain pathology in Dp16 Down syndrome mice and improves learning/memory in wild-type mice</strong>. <em>Neurobiology of Disease</em>, 2022; 168: 105694 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nbd.2022.105694\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.nbd.2022.105694</a>\n</li>'),(1704,'Researchers shorten manufacturing time for CAR T cell therapy','researchers-shorten-manufacturing-time-for-car-t-cell-therapy','2022-03-29 19:22:24.062743',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">A new approach from Penn Medicine researchers could cut the time it takes to alter patients\' immune cells for infusion back into the body to find and attack cancer. The cell manufacturing process for this type of immunotherapy that was pioneered at Penn -- CAR T cell therapy -- typically takes nine to 14 days. In a pre-clinical study published in <em>Nature Biomedical Engineering</em>, a team in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania abbreviated this process and generated functional CAR T cells with enhanced anti-tumor potency in just 24 hours.</p><p>These results demonstrate the potential for a vast reduction in the time, materials, and labor required to generate CAR T cells, which could be especially beneficial in patients with rapidly progressive disease and in resource-poor healthcare environments. The study was led by Center for Cellular Immunotherapies researchers Michael C. Milone, MD, PhD, anassociate professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and Saba Ghassemi, PhD, a research assistant professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine.</p><p>\"While traditional manufacturing approaches used to create CAR T cells that take several days to weeks continue to work for patients with \'liquid\' cancers such as leukemia, there is still a significant need to reduce the time and cost of producing these complex therapies\" Milone said. \"Building on our research from 2018 that reduced the standard manufacturing approach to three days, and now to less than 24 hours, the manufacturing method reported in this study is a testament to the potential to innovate and improve the production of CAR T cell therapies for the benefit of more patients.\"</p><p>CAR T cell therapy is a type of immunotherapy used to fight cancer with a patient\'s own altered immune cells. T cells are taken from a patient\'s blood and changed in the lab by adding a gene for a receptor (called a <em>chimeric antigen receptor</em> or <em>CAR</em>). The CAR T cells are then infused back into a patient to find, bind to, and destroy cancer cells. However, when removed too long from the body during the engineering process, T cells can lose their ability to replicate, which is central to their effectiveness as a living drug. Thus, the Penn research team sought to shorten the process without sacrificing the T cell potency.</p><p>In animal models, the researchers learned that the quality, rather than the quantity, of the CAR T cell product is an important determinant of their efficacy. Their experiment provided evidence that a smaller number of high-quality CAR T cells that are generated without extensive expansion outside the body is superior to a higher number of reduced-quality CAR T cells that are extensively expanded before returning to the patient.</p><p>Traditional manufacturing approaches require T cells to be stimulated (or \"activated\") in a way that induces the cells to replicate and expand in number. A key to the Penn researchers\' manufacturing approach is the lentiviral vector that delivers the CAR gene to the T cells. Lentiviral vectors, which are derived from the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), are able to transfer genes like the CAR to cells without the need for this initial \"activation\" step, but the efficiency of this process was low. Using engineering approaches that built in part upon knowledge of how HIV naturally infects T cells, the Penn researchers developed a way to overcome this requirement for T cell activation and deliver genes directly to non-activated T cells freshly isolated from the blood. This had a dual benefit of expediting the overall manufacturing process while also maintaining T cell potency. Patients are not being infected with HIV through this process.</p><p>The process of engineering T cells is costly and time-intensive, since the treatment must be manufactured for each individual patient. The team hopes that cutting manufacturing time could make the therapy more cost-effective and accessible to more patients.</p><p>\"This innovative approach is remarkable in that it may be able to help patients who might otherwise not be able to benefit from CAR T cell therapy such as those with rapidly progressing cancer due to significant time currently need to generate these therapies,\" Ghassemi said. \"Efficient reprogramming of T cells with a CAR in as little as 24 hours in a more simplified manufacturing process without T cell activation or extensive culture outside the body also offers the possibility of expanding where and when these therapies are produced. Not only might it improve the production capacity of centralized manufacturing facilities, but if simple and consistent enough, it might be possible to produce these therapies locally near the patient, which could be tantamount to addressing the many logistical challenges that impede delivery of this effective therapy especially in resource-poor environments.\"</p><p>This study is a catalyst for more clinical research to investigate how the engineered CAR T cells, through this shortened approach, work in patients with specific cancers.</p><p>Penn scientists led research, development and clinical trials of this pioneering CAR T therapy in collaboration with Novartis and Children\'s Hospital of Philadelphia. In 2017, the experimental therapy now known as Kymriah<sup>®,</sup> became the first CAR T cell approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), for the treatment of pediatric and young adult patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). The therapy was also approved for certain types of lymphoma in 2018.</p><p>The study originated in work supported by the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research through a research alliance with the University of Pennsylvania. It was funded by a St. Baldrick\'s Foundation Scholar Award, a National Blood Foundation Scientific Research Grant Award, and the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs through the Peer Reviewed Cancer Research Program (W81XWH-20-1-0417) and RO1CA226983.</p>','2022-03-29 19:22:24.062743','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Pennsylvania','A new approach could cut the time it takes to alter patients\' immune cells for infusion back into the body to find and attack cancer. The cell manufacturing process for this type of immunotherapy that was pioneered at Penn -- CAR T cell therapy -- typically takes nine to 14 days. In a pre-clinical study, scientists have abbreviated this process and generated functional CAR T cells with enhanced anti-tumor potency in just 24 hours.\n',1,29,'<li>Saba Ghassemi, Joseph S. Durgin, Selene Nunez-Cruz, Jai Patel, John Leferovich, Marilia Pinzone, Feng Shen, Katherine D. Cummins, Gabriela Plesa, Vito Adrian Cantu, Shantan Reddy, Frederic D. Bushman, Saar I. Gill, Una O’Doherty, Roddy S. O’Connor, Michael C. Milone. <strong>Rapid manufacturing of non-activated potent CAR T cells</strong>. <em>Nature Biomedical Engineering</em>, 2022; 6 (2): 118 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41551-021-00842-6\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41551-021-00842-6</a>\n</li>'),(1705,'Fuel from waste wood','fuel-from-waste-wood','2022-03-29 19:22:26.406432',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Ethanol is usually produced through the fermentation of sugars from starchy raw materials such as corn, or from lignocellulosic biomass, such as wood or straw. It is an established fuel that decarbonizes the transportation sector and can be a building block to reduce emissions of CO<sub>2</sub> over the long term. In collaboration with the Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology (LUT) in Finland, researchers at the Straubing Campus for Biotechnology and Sustainability of the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have developed a new process for the production of ethanol.</p><p>In this context, offcut materials from the area of forestry are used together with hydrogen. The hydrogen is produced by separating water into hydrogen and oxygen with the use of electricity -- in other words, with the use of water electrolysis. In the future, this will allow the excess electricity to be used for the production of ethanol.</p><p>\"The overall process mainly consists of technically mature sub-processes. However, the composition of the process steps and the final step -- the hydrogenation of acetic acid to produce ethanol -- are new,\" explains Daniel Klüh, a doctoral student at the Professorship of Renewable Energy Systems at the TUM Straubing Campus.</p><p><strong>The costs of ethanol with the new production method are competitive</strong></p><p>The researchers have also assessed the economic feasibility. \"The prices we have calculated are based on assumptions for raw materials and energy. We are not using any current market prices. The calculation basis of our prices for the components in the chemical system is the year 2020,\" explains Klüh. The lowest cost for ethanol in the modeling was 0.65 euros per liter, with biomass costs of 20 euros per megawatt hour, electricity costs of 45 euros per megawatt hour, and a production volume of approximately 42 kilotons of ethanol per year.</p><p>\"With the current lignocellulosic ethanol production options, the costs are therefore competitive. The price of ethanol is very sensitive to the costs of electricity, and fluctuates between 0.56 and 0.74 euros per liter,\" explains Assistant Professor Kristian Melin of LUT in Finland. One reason for the high profitability is that the ethanol yield is much higher compared to traditional fermentation based bioethanol process from straw or wood. This process produces 1350 to 1410 liters of ethanol, compared to only 200 to 300 liters of ethanol for the traditional process per dry ton of biomass.</p><p><strong>Where production facilities could be located</strong></p><p>Part of the study is focusing on the variable geographical positioning of production sites, which would enable a degree of independence from suppliers to be achieved. \"Countries with a high potential for waste wood and green electricity, such as Finland or even Canada, can serve as producers of acetic acid, which, in the final process step, is hydrogenated to produce ethanol,\" explains Prof. Tuomas Koiranen of LUT.</p><p>\"In the future, countries like Germany will hopefully have a green electricity mix and will be able to carry out the hydrogenation of acetic acid to ethanol at a domestic level. However, Germany does not have the waste wood potential for a large-scale biomass gasification which is required for the synthesis of acetic acid,\" adds Prof. Matthias Gaderer, Professor of Renewable Energy Systems at TUM.</p><p><strong>The technology needs to mature further</strong></p><p>With the use of green electricity to power the electrolysis, this process can produce a low CO<sub>2</sub> fuel that has a greenhouse gas reduction potential of 75 percent in comparison with a fossil fuel such as gasoline. Ethanol is established as a fuel. It can be used in the form of both E-10 gasoline, with 10 percent ethanol in the fuel mixture for regular automobiles, as is already the case, or as ED95, which is 95 percent ethanol, as a diesel substitute for heavy goods transportation.</p><p>With their process simulation, the scientists have demonstrated the competitiveness of the process. \"To commercialize this product, it is necessary to further improve the degree of technological maturity. The next steps could entail further catalyst developments, a reactor design and the construction and operation of a pilot system,\" says Prof. Gaderer.</p>','2022-03-29 19:22:26.406432','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Technical University of Munich (TUM)','According to the latest assessment report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a considerable reduction in CO2 emissions is required to limit the consequences of climate change. Producing fuel from renewable sources such as waste wood and straw or renewable electricity would be one way to reduce carbon emissions from the area of transportation.\n',1,70,'<li>Kristian Melin, Harri Nieminen, Daniel Klüh, Arto Laari, Tuomas Koiranen, Matthias Gaderer. <strong>Techno-Economic Evaluation of Novel Hybrid Biomass and Electricity-Based Ethanol Fuel Production</strong>. <em>Frontiers in Energy Research</em>, 2022; 10 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fenrg.2022.796104\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.3389/fenrg.2022.796104</a>\n</li>'),(1706,'Treatment for substance use reduces depression for many adolescents and young adults with both problems','treatment-for-substance-use-reduces-depression-for-many-adolescents-and-young-adults-with-both-problems','2022-03-29 19:22:30.234450',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">A study in the <em>Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (JAACAP)</em>, published by Elsevier, reports that, among youth with substance use and depression, a significant proportion show early improvements in depression during their treatment for substance use. Youth who are using cannabis less frequently prior to treatment and those without conduct disorder are more likely to experience early depression improvement.</p><p>\"The combination of alcohol or cannabis use and depression is a significant problem in adolescents and young adults. In addition to the negative outcomes associated with substance use, like automobile accidents and academic problems, those with both conditions tend to have longer episodes of depression, more substance-related problems, and, most importantly, an increased risk for suicidal behavior,\" said lead author John Curry, PhD, Professor Emeritus in the Department of Psychiatry &amp; Behavioral Sciences at Duke University, Durham, NC. \"Yet there is no standard approach to treating them, and they are often treated in two separate systems of care.\"</p><p>Earlier studies have shown that some of these young people will show significant improvement in depression during treatment for substance use alone, suggesting that if that improvement is sustained, they may not need additional depression treatment. Based on this evidence, the researchers tested an adaptive approach in which everyone received substance use treatment. Yet, if they were still depressed after a month, they would receive additional depression treatment either with the same therapist or in the community.</p><p>\"This approach allowed us to examine two different approaches to depression treatment for youth with substance use,\" said Dr. Curry. \"We also wanted to discover what proportion of the youth would have an early depression response during substance use treatment and what factors predicted it.\"</p><p>Across two sites, a sample of 95 youths between the ages of 14 and 21 with alcohol or cannabis use and depressive symptoms received up to 12 sessions of cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) for substance use over 14 weeks. Before treatment, they completed measures of psychiatric diagnoses, alcohol or cannabis use, and severity of depression. Early depression response was defined as a 50% reduction in symptoms by week 4 of treatment. Those without early depression response were randomized to add either CBT for depression with the same therapist or depression treatment in the community.</p><p>Thirty-five participants (37%) demonstrated early depression response. Predictors of early depression response were lower frequency of cannabis use at baseline and lack of a conduct disorder diagnosis. No other variables -- including demographic characteristics, severity of depression, or other psychiatric diagnoses -- were predictors. Frequency of drinking, heavy drinking, and cannabis use declined over the full course of treatment for all participants. Among those without early depression response, depression improved significantly with either additional CBT or community treatment, with no difference between treatments.</p><p>\"This treatment study emphasizes the importance of recognizing the heterogeneity of youth with substance use and co-occurring disorders such as depression, including the different trajectories of their responses to treatment,\" said lead author Yifrah Kaminer, MD, MBA, Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry at the University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT. \"An important finding is that the level of cannabis use affects the trajectory of change in depression during treatment. Additional examination of potential biological markers or other predictors of treatment response is of paramount importance for developing cost-effective interventions.\"</p><p>Additional analyses will examine the course of depression and substance use after treatment, and whether the young people whose depression responded to substance use treatment continue to remain less depressed. Given the relatively small sample, it will be important to replicate the study\'s findings in other samples. Future research is needed to investigate the factors that underlie the relationship between substance use and depression over time.</p>','2022-03-29 19:22:30.234450','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Elsevier','A new study reports that, among youth with substance use and depression, a significant proportion show early improvements in depression during their treatment for substance use. Youth who are using cannabis less frequently prior to treatment and those without conduct disorder are more likely to experience early depression improvement.\n',1,39,'<li>John F. Curry, Yifrah Kaminer, David B. Goldston, Grace Chan, Karen C. Wells, Rebecca H. Burke, Adrienne Banny Inscoe, Allison E. Meyer, Shayna M. Cheek. <strong>Adaptive Treatment for Youth With Substance Use and Depression: Early Depression Response and Short-term Outcomes</strong>. <em>Journal of the American Academy of Child &amp; Adolescent Psychiatry</em>, 2022; 61 (4): 508 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2021.07.807\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.jaac.2021.07.807</a>\n</li>'),(1707,'Scientists achieve record efficiency for ultra-thin solar panels','scientists-achieve-record-efficiency-for-ultra-thin-solar-panels','2022-03-29 19:22:35.515581',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">A team co-led team by the University of Surrey has successfully increased the levels of energy absorbed by wafer-thin photovoltaic panels by 25%. Their solar panels, just one micrometre thick (1μm), convert light into electricity more efficiently than others as thin and pave the way to make it easier to general more clean, green energy.</p><p>In a paper published in the American Chemical Society\'s <em>Photonics</em> journal, the team detail how they used characteristics of sunlight to design a disordered honeycomb layer which lies on top of a wafer of silicon. Their approach is echoed in nature in the design of butterfly wings and bird eyes. The innovative honeycomb design enables light absorption from any angle and traps light inside the solar cell, enabling more energy to be generated.</p><p>Dr Marian Florescu from the University of Surrey\'s Advanced Technology Institute (ATI) said, \"One of the challenges of working with silicon is that nearly a third of light bounces straight off it without being absorbed and the energy harnessed. A textured layer across the silicon helps tackle this and our disordered, yet hyperuniform, honeycomb design is particularly successful.\"</p><p>The team of researchers from the University of Surrey and Imperial College London worked with experimental collaborators at AMOLF in Amsterdam to design, model and create the new ultra-thin photovoltaic.</p><p>In the laboratory, they achieved absorption rates of 26.3 mA/cm<sup>2</sup>, a 25% increase on the previous record of 19.72 mA/cm<sup>2</sup> achieved in 2017. They secured an efficiency of 21% but anticipate that further improvements will push the figure higher, resulting in efficiencies that are significantly better than many commercially available photovoltaics.</p><p>Dr Florescu continued, \"There\'s enormous potential for using ultra-thin photovoltaics. For example, given how light they are, they will be particularly useful in space and could make new extra-terrestrial projects viable. Since they use so much less silicon, we are hoping there will be cost savings here on Earth as well, plus there could be potential to bring more benefits from the Internet of Things and to create zero-energy buildings powered locally.\"</p><p>As well as benefiting solar power generation, the findings could also benefit other industries where light management and surface engineering are crucial, for example, photo-electrochemistry, solid-state light emission and photodetectors.</p><p>Next steps for the team will include investigating commercial partners and developing manufacturing techniques.</p>','2022-03-29 19:22:35.515581','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Surrey','A team has successfully increased the levels of energy absorbed by wafer-thin photovoltaic panels by 25%. Their solar panels, just one micrometer thick, convert light into electricity more efficiently than others as thin and pave the way to make it easier to general more clean, green energy.\n',1,27,'<li>Nasim Tavakoli, Richard Spalding, Alexander Lambertz, Pepijn Koppejan, Georgios Gkantzounis, Chenglong Wan, Ruslan Röhrich, Evgenia Kontoleta, A. Femius Koenderink, Riccardo Sapienza, Marian Florescu, Esther Alarcon-Llado. <strong>Over 65% Sunlight Absorption in a 1 μm Si Slab with Hyperuniform Texture</strong>. <em>ACS Photonics</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acsphotonics.1c01668\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1021/acsphotonics.1c01668</a>\n</li>'),(1708,'Nature-based carbon removal can help protect us from a warming planet','nature-based-carbon-removal-can-help-protect-us-from-a-warming-planet','2022-03-29 19:22:42.327920',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">A new study finds that temporary nature-based carbon removal can lower global peak warming levels but only if complemented by ambitious fossil fuel emission reductions.</p><p>Nature-based climate solutions aim to preserve and enhance carbon storage in terrestrial or aquatic ecosystems and could be a potential contributor to Canada\'s climate change mitigation strategy. \"However, the risk is that carbon stored in ecosystems could be lost back to the atmosphere as a result of wildfires, insect outbreaks, deforestation or other human activities,\" says Kirsten Zickfeld, a distinguished professor of climate science in Simon Fraser University\'s Department of Geography who is on the research team.</p><p>The researchers used a global climate model to simulate temperature change through two scenarios ranging from weak to ambitious greenhouse gas emissions reductions. In the relatively weak emissions reduction scenario, carbon emissions continue through 2100. In the ambitious scenario carbon emissions reach net-zero by 2050.</p><p>In order to meet the Paris Agreement\'s climate goals, the world will need to reach net-zero CO2 emissions around or before mid-century, according to the United Nations\' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.</p><p>In both scenarios, it is assumed that carbon storage through nature-based climate solutions is temporary as forests are vulnerable to both natural and human disturbances. Therefore, nature-based climate solutions are anticipated to withdraw carbon from the atmosphere over the next 30 years then slowly release the carbon during the second half of the century.</p><p>The team found that in a scenario with carbon emissions decreasing rapidly to net-zero, temporary nature-based carbon storage can decrease the level of peak warming. However, in a scenario with continued carbon emissions temporary nature-based carbon storage would serve only to delay the temperature increase.</p><p>\"Our study shows that nature-based carbon storage, even if temporary, can have tangible climate benefits, but only if implemented alongside a rapid transition to zero fossil-fuel emissions,\" says Zickfeld.</p><p>The findings are published in <em>Communications Earth &amp; Environment</em>.</p><p>Zickfeld is also the lead author of the recent United Nations\' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Working Group I contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report released in summer 2021, and the IPCC\'s 2018 special report on the global warming of 1.5 degrees.</p><p>The researchers also note that investing in protecting and restoring nature offers social and environmental benefits for local and Indigenous communities beyond storing carbon to mitigate climate change. They add that biodiversity, water and air quality are inherently valuable and that efforts to enhance these can also help to build community resilience to climate change.</p><p><strong>Story Source:</strong></p>','2022-03-29 19:22:42.327920','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Simon Fraser University','A new study finds that temporary nature-based carbon removal can lower global peak warming levels but only if complemented by ambitious fossil fuel emission reductions.\n',1,34,'<li>H. Damon Matthews, Kirsten Zickfeld, Mitchell Dickau, Alexander J. MacIsaac, Sabine Mathesius, Claude-Michel Nzotungicimpaye, Amy Luers. <strong>Temporary nature-based carbon removal can lower peak warming in a well-below 2 °C scenario</strong>. <em>Communications Earth &amp; Environment</em>, 2022; 3 (1) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s43247-022-00391-z\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s43247-022-00391-z</a>\n</li>'),(1709,'Sensor for faster, more accurate COVID-19 tests','sensor-for-faster,-more-accurate-covid-19-tests','2022-03-29 19:22:44.515359',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">A COVID-19 sensor developed at Johns Hopkins University could revolutionize virus testing by adding accuracy and speed to a process that frustrated many during the pandemic.</p><p>In a new study published today in <em>Nano Letters</em>, the researchers describe the new sensor, which requires no sample preparation and minimal operator expertise, offering a strong advantage over existing testing methods, especially for population-wide testing.</p><p>\"The technique is as simple as putting a drop of saliva on our device and getting a negative or a positive result,\" said Ishan Barman, an associate professor of mechanical engineering, who along with David Gracias, a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, are senior authors of the study. \"The key novelty is that this is a label-free technique, which means no additional chemical modifications like molecular labeling or antibody functionalization are required. This means the sensor could eventually be used in wearable devices.\"</p><p>Barman says the new technology, which is not yet available on the market, addresses the limitations of the two most widely used types of COVID-19 tests: PCR and rapid tests.</p><p>PCR tests are highly accurate, but require complicated sample preparation, with results taking hours or even days to process in a laboratory. On the other hand, rapid tests, which look for the existence of antigens, are less successful at detecting early infections and asymptomatic cases, and can lead to erroneous results.</p><p>The sensor is nearly as sensitive as a PCR test and as convenient as a rapid antigen test. During initial testing, the sensor demonstrated 92% accuracy at detecting SARS-COV-2 in saliva samples -- comparable to that of PCR tests. The sensor was also highly successful at rapidly determining the presence of other viruses, including H1N1 and Zika.</p><p>The sensor is based on large area nanoimprint lithography, surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) and machine learning. It can be used for mass testing in disposable chip formats or on rigid or flexible surfaces.</p><p>Key to the method is the large-area, flexible field enhancing metal insulator antenna (FEMIA) array developed by the Gracias lab. The saliva sample is placed on the material and analyzed using surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy, which employs laser light to examine how molecules of the examined specimen vibrate. Because the nanostructured FEMIA strengthens the virus\'s Raman signal significantly, the system can rapidly detect the presence of a virus, even if only small traces exist in the sample. Another major innovation of the system is the use of advanced machine learning algorithms to detect very subtle signatures in the spectroscopic data that allow researchers to pinpoint the presence and concentration of the virus.</p><p>\"Label-free optical detection, combined with machine learning, allows us to have a single platform that can test for a wide range of viruses with enhanced sensitivity and selectivity, with a very fast turnaround,\" said lead author Debadrita Paria, who worked on the research as a post-doctoral fellow of Mechanical Engineering.</p><p>The sensor material can be placed on any type of surface, from doorknobs and building entrances to masks and textiles.</p><p>\"Using state of the art nanoimprint fabrication and transfer printing we have realized highly precise, tunable, and scalable nanomanufacturing of both rigid and flexible COVID sensor substrates, which is important for future implementation not just on chip-based biosensors but also wearables,\" said Gracias.</p><p>He says the sensor could potentially be integrated with a hand-held testing device for fast screenings at crowded places like airports or stadiums.</p><p>\"Our platform goes beyond the current COVID-19 pandemic,\" said Barman. \"We can use this for broad testing against different viruses, for instance, to differentiate between SARS-CoV-2 and H1N1, and even variants. This is a major issue that can\'t be readily addressed by current rapid tests.\"</p><p>The team continues working to further develop and test the technology with patient samples. Johns Hopkins Technology Ventures has applied for patents on the intellectual property associated it and the team is pursuing license and commercialization opportunities.</p><p>Authors include: Kam Sang (Mark) Kwok, a graduate student in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering; Piyush Raj, a graduate student; and Peng Zheng, a post-doctoral fellow in Mechanical Engineering.</p><p>The research was supported by a National Science Foundation\'s Early-concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGER) program and the National Institute of Health Director\'s New Innovator award.</p>','2022-03-29 19:22:44.515359','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Johns Hopkins University','Researchers say the sensor combines accuracy levels approaching that of PCR testing with the speed of rapid antigen tests, and could be used for mass testing at airports, schools, and hospitals.\n',1,65,'<li>Dilip Kumar Agarwal, Vikas Nandwana, Stephen E. Henrich, Vara Prasad V.N. Josyula, C. Shad Thaxton, Chao Qi, Lacy M. Simons, Judd F. Hultquist, Egon A. Ozer, Gajendra S. Shekhawat, Vinayak P. Dravid. <strong>Highly sensitive and ultra-rapid antigen-based detection of SARS-CoV-2 using nanomechanical sensor platform</strong>. <em>Biosensors and Bioelectronics</em>, 2022; 195: 113647 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bios.2021.113647\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.bios.2021.113647</a>\n</li>'),(1710,'How accelerated biological aging may cause bowel cancer','how-accelerated-biological-aging-may-cause-bowel-cancer','2022-03-29 19:22:47.077886',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Scientists have shown how accelerated biological aging measured by an epigenetic clock may increase the risk of bowel cancer, according to a report published today in eLife.</p><p>The study provides evidence that biological age might play a causal role in the increased risk of certain diseases, and paves the way for interventions that could slow down this process.</p><p>Epigenetic markers are changes to DNA which may alter the way in which our genes work and are known to vary as we age. A type of epigenetic marker called DNA methylation is often used to measure age. DNA methylation patterns on the genome have been shown to relate closely with age and they can provide insights into \'biological aging\' -- that is, how old our cells look compared to how old they are in years.</p><p>\"When an individual\'s biological age is older than their chronological age, they are said to be experiencing epigenetic age acceleration,\" explains first author Fernanda Morales-Berstein, a Wellcome Trust PhD Student in Molecular, Genetic and Lifecourse Epidemiology at the MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit, University of Bristol, UK. \"Epigenetic age acceleration, as measured by DNA methylation-based predictors of age called epigenetic clocks have been associated with several adverse health outcomes including cancer. But although epigenetics can be used to predict cancer risk or detect the disease early, it is still unclear whether accelerated epigenetic aging is a cause of cancer.\"</p><p>Making a causal link between biological clocks and disease is challenging because it is hard to know whether biological aging increases the risk of disease, or whether other independent factors raise the risk of a disease and biological aging at the same time. To address this, the team used a method called Mendelian randomization to mimic a randomized trial evaluating the effectiveness of changes in epigenetic aging as a cancer prevention strategy. They used information on known genetic variants associated with levels of epigenetic age acceleration to investigate this.</p><p>The team compared four established epigenetic clocks used to measure biological aging and their genetically predicted associations with a range of cancer types. Two were first-generation clocks which use patterns of DNA methylation strongly linked to chronological age. The others were second-generation clocks which use markers associated with increased risk of age-related diseases or death.</p><p>They found limited evidence that accelerated epigenetic age is causally linked to breast, lung, ovarian or prostate cancer.</p><p>The most striking result was seen for bowel cancer, where the results measured by one of the second-generation clocks, called GrimAge, suggested a 12% increased risk of bowel cancer with every additional year of biological age (over chronological age). These results were further corroborated by an association between biological age acceleration and parental history of bowel cancer. Further analysis suggested that evidence for the risk was stronger for colon cancer compared with rectal cancer.</p><p>Previous studies have suggested that epigenetic age acceleration is influenced by several cancer risk factors, such as obesity and smoking. The additional evidence from the current study suggests that targeting this pathway, for example through lifestyle changes or epigenetic-targeted therapies, could help reduce this risk.</p><p>\"Our work provides potentially relevant findings for public health,\" says senior author Rebecca Richmond, Vice-Chancellor\'s Research Fellow in Molecular Epidemiology at the MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit, University of Bristol. \"If epigenetic age acceleration is a causal mediator between risk factors and bowel cancer, the clock may be a treatable intermediary for when targeting the underlying risk factors is not feasible or too difficult to accomplish, particularly in populations at high risk. More research is needed to support our findings and evaluate whether epigenetic age acceleration can be modified by lifestyle or clinical interventions.\"</p><p>This research was funded by: Wellcome; Cancer Research UK; Medical Research Council; Operational Programme \'Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovation\'; National Institute for Health Research (NIHR); NIHR Biomedical Research Centres; University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust; Alzheimer\'s Society; and National Institutes of Health.</p>','2022-03-29 19:22:47.077886','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'eLife','Scientists have shown how accelerated biological aging measured by an epigenetic clock may increase the risk of bowel cancer, according to a new report.\n',1,27,'<li>Fernanda Morales Berstein, Daniel L McCartney, Ake T Lu, Konstantinos K Tsilidis, Emmanouil Bouras, Philip C Haycock, Kimberley Burrows, Amanda I Phipps, Daniel D Buchanan, Iona Cheng, Richard M Martin, George Davey Smith, Caroline L Relton, Steve Horvath, Riccardo E Marioni, Tom G Richardson, Rebecca C Richmond. <strong>Assessing the causal role of epigenetic clocks in the development of multiple cancers: a Mendelian randomization study</strong>. <em>eLife</em>, 2022; 11 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.75374\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.7554/eLife.75374</a>\n</li>'),(1711,'Improving asphalt road pavement using engineered nano mineral composites','improving-asphalt-road-pavement-using-engineered-nano-mineral-composites','2022-03-29 20:30:32.828756',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">A novel and eco-friendly nano asphalt binder has been developed by researchers at Swansea University and the Technical University of Braunschweig.</p><p>The product generates a new class of warm mix asphalt (WMA) additive that significantly reduces energy consumption while simultaneously minimizing vapours and greenhouse gas emissions during the production of asphalt mixtures when compared to conventional asphalt, it also works effectively at a large scale.</p><p>To achieve net-zero carbon emissions, Highways UK is increasing the adoption of WMA as a standard across its supply chain. When compared to conventional hot-mix asphalts, WMA technologies can provide increased efficiency and reduce carbon production, with CO<sub>2</sub> reductions of up to 15%. WMAs are produced at temperatures of up to 40°C lower than ordinary asphalt, therefore, switching to them would save roughly 61,000 tonnes of CO<sub>2</sub> each year in the UK, which is the equivalent of reducing 300 million miles of automobile travel.</p><p>To address these issues in WMA technology, a team from the Braunschweig Pavement Engineering Centre (ISBS) at the Technische Universität Braunschweig and Energy Safety Research Institute (ESRI) at Swansea University have discovered the potential for engineered clay/fumed silica nanocomposites to be used as an anti-aging binder that can not only serve to reduce temperatures but also overcome significant limitations caused by moisture susceptibility.</p><p>Lead researcher Dr Goshtasp Cheraghian of the Technical University of Braunschweigsaid, \"The study given fills the technical gap in WMA technology. Our nanocomposite is a cost-effective and non-toxic substance that can have a significant impact on WMA stability.\"</p><p>Dr Sajad Kiani of ESRI said: \"Typically, asphalt binders are susceptible to aging due to heat, air, sunlight, and water, that have a detrimental effect on the pavement quality, reducing durability. We found that the addition of mineral-reinforced particle will not only decrease oxidation and aging of asphalt but also improve road pavement lifespan and decrease asphalt-related emissions.\"</p><p>Professor Andrew Barron, the Founder and Director of ESRI and the Sêr Cymru Chair of Low Carbon Energy and Environment at Swansea University, said \"Compared to commercial materials, our solution requires lower concentrations (less than 0.3 wt.%) of additives due to their superior surface activity, and as such has the potential to solve some of the challenges associated with, less durable the roads.\"</p><p>Dr Cheraghian summarises: \"Our results on the molecular interaction between nanoparticles and asphalt binders could pave the way for novel nanotechnology applications in asphalt engineering.\"</p>','2022-03-29 20:30:32.828756','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Swansea University','Researchers have developed a new, greener nano asphalt binder that produces a new type of asphalt which uses less energy and produces less vapor and fewer greenhouse gas emissions.\n',1,37,'<li>Goshtasp Cheraghian, Michael P. Wistuba, Sajad Kiani, Ali Behnood, Masoud Afrand, Andrew R. Barron. <strong>Engineered nanocomposites in asphalt binders</strong>. <em>Nanotechnology Reviews</em>, 2022; 11 (1): 1047 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/ntrev-2022-0062\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1515/ntrev-2022-0062</a>\n</li>'),(1712,'Plastic bag bans may unintentionally drive other bag sales','plastic-bag-bans-may-unintentionally-drive-other-bag-sales','2022-03-29 21:58:27.993220',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">When cities or counties institute plastic bag bans or fees, the idea is to reduce the amount of plastic headed to the landfill.</p><p>But a new analysis by a University of Georgia researcher finds these policies, while created with good intentions, may cause more plastic bags to be purchased in the communities where they are in place. The study was published earlier this year in the journal<em> Environmental and Resource Economics</em>.</p><p>That\'s because while plastic grocery bags are viewed as a single-use item, they often find a second use as liners for small trash cans. When these shopping bags are taxed or taken away, people look for alternatives -- which means they buy small plastic garbage bags.</p><p>\"We know there is a demand for using plastic bags, and we know, if these policies go into effect, some bags will disappear or will become more costly to get,\" said Yu-Kai Huang, a postdoctoral researcher at the UGA Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources. \"So, we wanted to see the effectiveness of this policy in reducing bag usage overall.\"</p><p>Previous studies have looked at the effect of bag bans on plastic consumption, but not the combined effects of fees or a bag ban. An environmental economist, Huang used a new way to calculate the effect of either policy while also accounting for variables such as residents\' income levels and an area\'s population density, both of which influence the amount of trash generated in a community.</p><p><strong>Is banning plastic bags effective overall?</strong></p><p>Keeping in mind the second life that plastic grocery bags take on in many homes, Huang and professor Richard Woodward of Texas A&amp;M University measured plastic trash bag sales in counties with bans or fees in place, and compared them to other counties without such policies. The selected counties were far enough away from each other to account for shoppers who might cross into a neighboring county to avoid the policy.</p><p>The study found California communities with bag policies saw sales of 4-gallon trash bags increase by 55% to 75%, and sales of 8-gallon trash bags increase 87% to 110%. These results echo earlier studies that also showed increases in sales of smaller plastic trash bags.</p><p>But while sales of small garbage bags jumped after policies were implemented, sales of larger 13-gallon trash bags -- the size often found in kitchen trash cans -- remained relatively unchanged. This further underscored the double life of plastic grocery bags, Huang said.</p><p>\"Carryout grocery bags were substituted for similar sizes of trash bags before implementing the regulations,\" he wrote in the paper. \"After the regulations came into effect, consumers\' plastic bag demand switched from regulated plastic bags to unregulated bags.\"</p><p>The unintended increase in trash bag sales could also be measured by weight. By purchasing 4-gallon trash bags, plastic consumption increased by between 30 and 135 pounds per store per month. The sales of 8-gallon trash bags created an additional 37 to 224 pounds of plastic per store per month.</p><p>But, Huang noted, bag bans or fees could make a dent in plastic waste among high-volume stores. The study found that if a store generated at least 326 carryout plastic bags a day -- about 9,769 per month -- the policy would end up sending less plastic to the landfill.</p><p>It\'s important for policymakers to understand the unintended consequences of plastic bag bans or fees before implementing them, Huang said. And, if residents are reusing bags for trash cans, it can also affect the overall use.</p><p>\"There\'s no clear answer for this,\" he said. \"Whether the provided free carryout grocery bags are reused is a key to determining the overall effectiveness of the related grocery bag policies.\"</p>','2022-03-29 21:58:27.993220','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Georgia','When cities or counties institute plastic bag bans or fees, the idea is to reduce the amount of plastic headed to the landfill. But a new analysis finds these policies, while created with good intentions, may cause more plastic bags to be purchased in the communities where they are in place.\n',1,27,'<li>Yu-Kai Huang, Richard T. Woodward. <strong>Spillover Effects of Grocery Bag Legislation: Evidence of Bag Bans and Bag Fees</strong>. <em>Environmental and Resource Economics</em>, 2022; 81 (4): 711 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10640-022-00646-5\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1007/s10640-022-00646-5</a>\n</li>'),(1713,'Study finds 10-second videos predict blood cancer relapse','study-finds-10-second-videos-predict-blood-cancer-relapse','2022-03-29 22:00:18.948554',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">In a new study from Vanderbilt University Medical Center, 10-second videos of white blood cell motion in the skin\'s microvasculature greatly improved the prediction of which stem cell and bone marrow transplant patients would have a relapse of their blood cancer.</p><p>In the typical immune response, white blood cells are seen to interact with the inner walls of veins, rolling along them like bowling balls before adhering to them, then exiting through them to go to sites of inflammation.</p><p>Transplant patients whose white blood cells were caught on video with greater adherence levels and greater rolling along vessel walls were more than three times as likely to have cancer relapse or die, compared to those with normal adherence and rolling levels.</p><p>The stark finding, much more predictive than established models of blood cancer relapse and death, was reported March 26 in <em>JAMA Dermatology </em>and presented the same day in Boston at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Dermatology.</p><p>In a previous study involving noninvasive microscopy and graft-versus-host disease, the researchers stumbled on what appeared to be an association between higher white blood cell activity and cancer relapse.</p><p>\"When we were able to turn our focus to this activity and measure it carefully in this new study, we found the association to be indeed striking,\" said Inga Saknite, PhD, adjoint assistant professor of Dermatology, who gave the presentation in Boston. Saknite led the study with Eric Tkaczyk, MD, PhD, assistant professor of Dermatology and Biomedical Engineering, director of the Vanderbilt Dermatology Translational Research Clinic and staff dermatologist at Nashville VA Medical Center.</p><p>According to their report, the clinical value of using videomicroscopy to noninvasively view white blood cell activity in patients\' blood vessels has been unexplored until now.</p><p>\"Our study raises the prospect of a new application of so-called diagnostic optical biopsy,\" Tkaczyk said, \"with a special confocal microscope brought to stem cell and bone marrow transplant patients for non-invasive inspection of their skin right at the bedside. While this is a pilot study of just over 50 patients, it would appear to point strongly to potential clinical application for improved patient evaluation and management. Patients found to be at high risk for relapse could, for example, be more readily referred to clinical trials.\"</p><p>Distinct from autologous transplant, where the patient is the donor for him or herself, allogeneic transplant uses stem cells or bone marrow from a sibling or other donor matched as closely as possible to the patient. With allogeneic transplant, immunosuppressant drugs are often used to prevent graft-versus-host disease.</p><p>In 56 blood cancer patients who had undergone allogeneic transplants, the team used confocal videomicroscopy to record white blood cell activity in the skin\'s microvasculature at 34 to 58 days after transplant. With a clinically meaningful threshold having been selected for high and low rates of adhering or rolling, or A&amp;R, of white blood cells in the microvasculature, the study group was divided into 35 participants (62%) with low A&amp;R and 21 (38%) with high A&amp;R.</p><p>Participants were followed via review of electronic health records for a median of 15 months after transplant, during which 13 relapsed and 14 died. Among the 13 relapses, nine had high A&amp;R, with eight of the nine relapses occurring within four months of imaging.</p><p>A&amp;R vastly outperformed an established predictive model of cancer relapse or death following bone marrow transplant, called the refined Disease Risk Index, such that when the two models were combined, A&amp;R accounted for over 80% of the prognostic information for relapse and death.</p><p>Also on the study from VUMC were James Patrinely, MD, Zijun Zhao, MD, Heidi Chen, PhD, Alicia Beeghly-Fadiel, MPH, PhD, Tae Kon Kim, MD, PhD, Madan Jagasia, MBBS, and Michael Byrne, DO. The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health (CA090625) and a Career Development Award to Tkaczyk from the Department of Veterans Affairs Clinical Sciences R&amp;D Service (IK2 CX001785).</p>','2022-03-29 22:00:18.948554','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Vanderbilt University Medical Center','Ten-second videos of white blood cell motion in the skin\'s microvasculature greatly improved the prediction of which stem cell and bone marrow transplant patients would have a relapse of their blood cancer.\n',1,69,'<li>Inga Saknite, James R. Patrinely, Zijun Zhao, Heidi Chen, Alicia Beeghly-Fadiel, Tae Kon Kim, Madan Jagasia, Michael Byrne, Eric R. Tkaczyk. <strong>Association of Leukocyte Adhesion and Rolling in Skin With Patient Outcomes After Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation Using Noninvasive Reflectance Confocal Videomicroscopy</strong>. <em>JAMA Dermatology</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jamadermatol.2022.0924\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1001/jamadermatol.2022.0924</a>\n</li>'),(1714,'Describing the devastating eruption in Tonga','describing-the-devastating-eruption-in-tonga','2022-03-29 22:00:23.479722',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">On January 15, the volcano Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha\'apai devastated the nation of Tonga. The eruption triggered tsunamis as far afield as the Caribbean and generated atmospheric waves that travelled around the globe several times. Meanwhile, the volcano\'s plume shot gas and ash through the stratosphere into the lower mesosphere.</p><p>Just two months after the eruption, geologists have put together a preliminary account of how it unfolded. UC Santa Barbara\'s Melissa Scruggs and emeritus Professor Frank Spera were part of an international team of researchers that published the first holistic account of the event in the journal <em>Earthquake Research Advances</em>. The authors think that an eruption the day before may have primed the volcano for the violent explosion by sinking its main vent below the ocean\'s surface. This enabled molten rock to vaporize a large volume of seawater, intensifying the volcanic eruption the very next day.</p><p>\"This is definitely, without a doubt, the largest eruption since Mt. Pinatubo in 1991,\" said corresponding author Scruggs, who studies magma mixing and eruption triggering mechanisms, and recently completed her doctorate at UC Santa Barbara. She compared January\'s event to the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa, which was heard 3,000 miles away.</p><p>Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha\'apai (HTHH) is a stratovolcano: a large, cone-shaped mountain that is prone to periodic violent eruptions, but which usually experiences milder activity. It\'s one of many along the Tofua Volcanic Arc, a line of volcanoes fed by magma from the Pacific Plate diving beneath the Indo-Australian Plate. Heat and pressure cook the rocks of the descending plate, driving out water and other volatiles. That same water decreases the melting temperature of the rock above, leading to a chain of volcanoes about 100 kilometers from the plate boundary.</p><p><strong>A submerged danger</strong></p><p>The islands of Hunga Tonga and Hunga Ha\'apai -- after which the volcano is named -- are merely the two highest points along the rim of the caldera, or central crater. Or they were, until the eruption blew most of the islands sky high.</p><p>Scruggs first heard about the eruption as she scrolled through her Twitter feed while getting ready for bed. \"I saw a GIF of the satellite eruption, and my heart just stopped,\" she said, pausing to find her words. She immediately knew that the event would cause massive devastation. \"The scariest part was that the entire country was cut off, and we didn\'t know what had happened.\"</p><p>She was already messaging other volcanologists as the events unfolded, trying to understand the images that satellites had so clearly captured. \"We really just set out to try to understand what happened,\" Scruggs said. \"So, we gathered all the information that we could, anything that was available within the first few weeks.\" The authors drew on whatever resources they could find to quickly characterize this eruption, including publicly available data, videos and even tweets.</p><p>Using a variety of data sets, the team calculated that the January 15 event began at 5:02 p.m. local time (0402 ±1 UTC). The U.S. Geological Survey recorded a seismic event around 13 minutes later at the vent location. The first two hours of the eruption were particularly violent, with activity fading after about 12 hours.</p><p>But eruption activity had actually started all the way back on December 20, 2021. And before that, the volcano had erupted in 2009 and again in 2014 and 2015. Scruggs believes these earlier episodes are key to understanding the violence behind HTHH\'s recent eruption, perhaps related to changes in the magma plumbing system at depth or the chemistry of the magma over time.</p><p>Hunga Tonga and Hunga Ha\'apai used to be separate islands until they were united by eruptions from the volcano\'s main vent, which created a land bridge. \"This island was just born in 2015,\" said Scruggs. \"And now it\'s gone. Were it not for the satellite era, we would not have even known it ever existed.\"</p><p>On January 14, 2022 an explosion from the main vent razed this connection, sinking the vent beneath the ocean\'s surface. \"Had that land bridge not been taken out, the January 15 eruption might have behaved just like the day before because it would not have had that excess seawater,\" Scruggs remarked.</p><p><strong>A staggering explosion</strong></p><p>Same volcano, one day\'s difference: On Friday the vent was above the water, and by Saturday it was below. \"That made all of the difference in the world,\" Scruggs said.</p><p>The team believes that the seawater played a large part in the violence and force behind the Jan. 15 eruption. Much like a bottle rocket, an eruption of this scale takes the right ratio of water and gas to provide the force to send it skyward.</p><p>And it took off like a rocket, too. \"It went halfway to space,\" Scruggs exclaimed. The ash plume shot 58 kilometers into the atmosphere, past the stratosphere and into the lower mesosphere. This is more than twice the height reached by the plume from Mt. Saint Helens in 1980. It was the tallest volcanic plume ever recorded.</p><p>A truly staggering amount of lightning also accompanied the eruption. The authors suspect that vaporizing seawater caused the lava to fragment into microscopic ash particles, which were joined by tiny ice crystals once the steam froze in the upper atmosphere. The motion, temperature change and size of the particles generated incredible amounts of static charge separation that flashed above the eruption. For the first two hours of the eruption, about 80% of all lightning strikes on Earth split the sky above Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha\'apai.</p><p>The authors estimate around 1.9 km<sup>3</sup> of material, weighing 2,900 teragrams, erupted from HTHH on Jan. 15. \"But the volume of the eruption was not the big deal,\" said Spera, a coauthor on the paper and Scruggs\' doctoral advisor. \"What was special is how the energy of the eruption coupled to the atmosphere and oceans: A lot of the energy went into moving air and water on a global scale.\"</p><p>The shockwave traveling through the ocean triggered tsunamis throughout the Pacific, and beyond. What\'s more, the wave arrived faster than tsunami warning models predicted because the models aren\'t calibrated for volcanic eruptions -- they\'re based on equations that describe tsunamis generated by earthquakes.</p><p>A second tsunami followed the atmospheric pressure wave. This shockwave even triggered a meteo-tsunami in the Caribbean, which has no direct connection to the South Pacific. Scruggs called it unprecedented: \"Basically the whole ocean just kind of sloshed around for five days after the eruption,\" she added.</p><p><strong>Plenty of work to do</strong></p><p>Scientists are still piecing together what happened at the volcano, so they have yet to develop a complete understanding of the tsunami wave. However, it\'s an important task needed to update tsunami travel forecast systems so they account for this type of mechanism. Otherwise, warnings could be incorrect the next time a volcano like HTHH erupts, potentially costing more lives.</p><p>Indeed, the event highlights the danger posed by unmonitored submarine volcanoes. Despite the devastation, the people of Tonga were relatively well prepared for the Jan. 15 eruption. The government had issued warnings based on the previous day\'s activity, and the nation had plans in place for eruptions and tsunamis.</p><p>HTHH has experienced similarly violent eruptions in the past. A recent paper by researchers at the University of Otago, New Zealand revealed that a large eruption destroyed the caldera at the summit of the undersea volcano about 1,000 years ago. And similar volcanoes could well erupt in the same manner. Consider Kick \'em Jenny, another submarine volcano whose main vent is a mere 150 meters underwater. It\'s located just 8 km north of the island of Grenada. \"Imagine if something like the Tonga eruption happened in the Caribbean,\" Scruggs said.</p><p>The researchers worked quickly with only publicly available data. They plan to revisit all their findings as more information and samples become available and as more researchers publish their own findings on this groundbreaking eruption. Their primary goal was to provide a point of departure for future work on the topic.</p><p>Scruggs is particularly keen on learning about the ash collected from this eruption. Volcanic rock provides a wealth of information to a trained geologist. Examining the material could shed light on the type of magma that erupted, how much of it there was and perhaps even how much seawater was involved in the eruption.</p><p>\"There\'s so many questions that have been raised,\" said Scruggs. \"Things we didn\'t even think were possible have now been recorded.\"</p><p>The UC Santa Barbara researchers will lead a special invited session on the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha\'apai eruption at the Geological Society of America\'s 2022 annual meeting in Denver this October. \"It will be exciting to see what scores of other earth scientists can discover about this unique volcano,\" Spera said. \"We are just at the beginning.\"</p>','2022-03-29 22:00:23.479722','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of California - Santa Barbara','On January 15, the volcano Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha\'apai devastated the nation of Tonga. The eruption triggered tsunamis as far afield as the Caribbean and generated atmospheric waves that travelled around the globe several times. Meanwhile, the volcano\'s plume shot gas and ash through the stratosphere into the lower mesosphere.\n',1,143,'<li>David A. Yuen, Melissa A. Scruggs, Frank J. Spera, Yingcai Zheng, Hao Hu, Stephen R. McNutt, Glenn Thompson, Kyle Mandli, Barry R. Keller, Songqiao Shawn Wei, Zhigang Peng, Zili Zhou, Francesco Mulargia, Yuichiro Tanioka. <strong>Under the Surface: Pressure-Induced Planetary-Scale Waves, Volcanic Lightning, and Gaseous Clouds Caused by the Submarine Eruption of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai Volcano Provide an Excellent Research Opportunity</strong>. <em>Earthquake Research Advances</em>, 2022; 100134 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eqrea.2022.100134\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.eqrea.2022.100134</a>\n</li>'),(1715,'Prior COVID-19 infection linked to robust, accelerated immune response after first vaccine dose, researchers report','prior-covid-19-infection-linked-to-robust,-accelerated-immune-response-after-first-vaccine-dose,-researchers-report','2022-03-29 22:00:26.339045',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Since March 2020, the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the cause of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), has infected more than 460 million people worldwide. The vast majority of people who recover from infection demonstrate long-lasting immune memory of the virus. Little is known, however, about how this immune memory alters responses to SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines, despite possible impacts on public health guidelines for vaccination.</p><p>Now, in recent research published in the journal <em>JCI Insight</em>, scientists at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University show that responses to the Pfizer-BioNTech BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine differ significantly in individuals based on whether or not they were previously infected with SARS-CoV-2. Notably, those who had COVID before vaccination experienced rapid antibody production after the first vaccine dose, with little or no increase after the second dose. The opposite pattern was observed in infection-naive individuals.</p><p>\"Our study shows that the presence of immune memory induced by prior infection alters the way in which individuals respond to SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccination,\" explained <strong>Steven G. Kelsen, MD</strong>, Professor in the Department of Thoracic Medicine and Surgery at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine, and first author on the new report. \"The lack of response after the second vaccine dose in previously infected individuals is especially relevant, because it could mean that some people may require only one dose or could potentially skip the booster shot.\"</p><p>Dr. Kelsen and Temple colleagues carried out the study in health care workers, some having previously tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection and others never having been infected. In both groups, the researchers measured levels of neutralizing antibodies in blood samples taken at three different time points, including before vaccination and after each vaccine dose. They also performed qualitative assessment for local reactions and systemic symptoms, such as fever, headache, and fatigue, associated with vaccination.</p><p>While levels of neutralizing antibodies reached their maximum in some people with prior COVID illness after the first vaccine dose, individuals with no history of infection exhibited massive responses after the second dose. But those high levels also plummeted quickly, and for the COVID group, despite the lack of response to a second dose, individuals overall had longer-lasting immunity. Prior infection, however, was also linked to more frequent and longer-lasting adverse reactions to the vaccine.</p><p>\"Previous studies had similarly reported long-lasting immunity and strong immune reactions in COVID patients,\" Dr. Kelsen said. \"We now provide new information on how prior infection interacts with vaccination in terms of measurable immune response and how individuals react to mRNA vaccines based on infection history.\"</p><p>In future work, Dr. Kelsen and collaborators plan to modify their neutralizing antibody assay to detect Omicron and other SARS-CoV-2 variants. \"We also are interested in understanding how long protection from a booster dose of the vaccine lasts,\" he said.</p><p>Other researchers at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine who contributed to the study include Alan S. Braverman, Department of Thoracic Medicine and Surgery and Department of Anatomy; Mark O. Aksoy, Jacob A. Hayman, Puja S. Patel, and Charu Rajput, Department of Thoracic Medicine and Surgery; Huaqing Zhao and Susan G. Fisher, Department of Biomedical Education and Data Science; Michael R. Ruggieri Sr., Department of Anatomy; and Nina T. Gentile, Department of Emergency Medicine.</p><p>The study was supported by Temple University institutional funds.</p>','2022-03-29 22:00:26.339045','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Temple University Health System','Scientists show that responses to the Pfizer-BioNTech BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine differ significantly in individuals based on whether or not they were previously infected with SARS-CoV-2. Notably, those who had COVID before vaccination experienced rapid antibody production after the first vaccine dose, with little or no increase after the second dose. The opposite pattern was observed in infection-naive individuals.\n',1,74,'<li>Steven G. Kelsen, Alan S. Braverman, Mark O. Aksoy, Jacob A. Hayman, Puja S. Patel, Charu Rajput, Huaqing Zhao, Susan G. Fisher, Michael R. Ruggieri, Nina T. Gentile. <strong>SARS-CoV-2 BNT162b2 vaccine–induced humoral response and reactogenicity in individuals with prior COVID-19 disease</strong>. <em>JCI Insight</em>, 2022; 7 (4) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1172/jci.insight.155889\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1172/jci.insight.155889</a>\n</li>'),(1716,'New software to help discover valuable compounds','new-software-to-help-discover-valuable-compounds','2022-03-29 22:00:28.745220',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Because the comparative metabolomics field lacks sophisticated data analysis tools that are available to genomics and proteomics researchers, metabolomics researchers spend a lot of time hunting for candidate compounds that could be useful as leads for the development of new pharmaceuticals or agrochemicals. To solve this problem, scientists have developed Metaboseek, a free, easy-to-use app that integrates multiple data analysis features for the metabolomics community.</p><p>As a postdoctoral research associate in the lab of BTI faculty member Frank Schroeder, Max Helf saw his labmates continually struggle when they were analyzing data. So, he decided to do something about it and developed a free, open-source app called Metaboseek, which is now essential to the lab\'s work.</p><p>The Schroeder lab studies the roundworm <em>Caenorhabditis elegans</em>, one of the most successful model systems for human biology, to discover new metabolites that govern evolutionarily conserved signaling pathways and could be useful as leads for the development of new pharmaceuticals or agrochemicals. The researchers accomplish this task by comparing the metabolites between two different worm populations -- a process called comparative metabolomics.</p><p>Given that samples routinely have more than 100,000 compounds in them, computational approaches are essential to perform the analysis.</p><p>The team had been relying on software packages that did not offer the required level of flexibility to easily customize analysis parameters. That limitation, and the lack of a suitable graphical user interface, meant Helf\'s colleagues faced the cumbersome task of visually inspecting mounds of data -- for example, to spot possible false positives -- and jumping between several other software tools to confirm and filter out those meaningless results.</p><p>\"It just seemed very inefficient to me, and I couldn\'t get over the shortcomings of other software solutions for this problem,\" Helf said. \"I thought there had to be an easier way, so I started to write code for my own software.\"</p><p>Helf developed the initial version of his software in 2017, and continued to improve it over the next two years. \"Besides addressing the problems my labmates were already facing, I talked to them about what else held them back -- what they wanted to do but weren\'t even trying -- and built those features in the app,\" said Helf, who is now a bioinformatics product manager at proteomics company Biognosys AG. \"I wanted this new tool to be user-friendly and accessible to anyone who does chemical biology.\"</p><p>The result was Metaboseek, an app with a graphical interface that incorporates multiple data analysis tools that non-coding researchers would otherwise not have. The app streamlines the analysis of comparative metabolomics data by helping the researcher determine which data features are real and letting them dig deeper into those features -- all within the same tool.</p><p>\"Max did this without me even requesting it,\" Schroeder said. \"Before I knew that this was happening, there was Metaboseek. We started using it, and now our lab and many collaborators couldn\'t exist without it.\"</p><p>In a study published in <em>Nature Communications</em> on February 10, Schroeder\'s team provided proof-of-concept for Metaboseek by applying it to an important fat metabolism pathway that hadn\'t yet been studied: the α-oxidation pathway in <em>C. elegans</em> that helps break down a class of fatty acids.</p><p>Using Metaboseek, the team found that roundworms lacking a key gene in the α-oxidation pathway accumulated hundreds of previously unreported metabolites. The findings are important because α-oxidation is a basic biochemical pathway in worms that is conserved in humans, Schroeder said.</p><p>\"Bennett Fox did the chemistry work, so this study was a nice collaboration between the two postdocs,\" added Schroeder, who is also professor in Cornell University\'s Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology.</p><p>According to Schroeder and Helf, there are a few reasons why there aren\'t a lot of good analytic tools for comparing metabolomics data. First, comparative metabolomics is a relatively young field compared with other data-heavy fields of biology like genomics (which focuses on DNA) and proteomics (which focuses on proteins), so there hasn\'t been enough time to develop software tools and database infrastructure.</p><p>Additionally, over the last decade, the advent of affordable, ultra-high-resolution mass spectrometers for collecting metabolomics data has increased by perhaps more than tenfold the amount of data one sample can generate -- creating an even greater need for sophisticated tools that can keep up with the flood of data.</p><p>Metaboseek meets these needs with an array of features for analyzing various types of data to aid compound identification, structure determination, assignment of metabolites to families based on structural similarities, tracking radiolabeled compounds, and more.</p><p>The study was supported in part by grants from the National Institutes of Health (R35GM131877 and U01GM110714) and a research fellowship Helf received from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Project Number 386228702).</p>','2022-03-29 22:00:28.745220','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Boyce Thompson Institute','Because the comparative metabolomics field lacks sophisticated data analysis tools that are available to genomics and proteomics researchers, metabolomics researchers spend a lot of time hunting for candidate compounds that could be useful as leads for the development of new pharmaceuticals or agrochemicals. To solve this problem, scientists have developed Metaboseek, a free, easy-to-use app that integrates multiple data analysis features for the metabolomics community.\n',1,51,'<li>Maximilian J. Helf, Bennett W. Fox, Alexander B. Artyukhin, Ying K. Zhang, Frank C. Schroeder. <strong>Comparative metabolomics with Metaboseek reveals functions of a conserved fat metabolism pathway in C. elegans</strong>. <em>Nature Communications</em>, 2022; 13 (1) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-28391-9\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41467-022-28391-9</a>\n</li>'),(1717,'Mounds of ice in craters give new insight into Mars’ past climate','mounds-of-ice-in-craters-give-new-insight-into-mars’-past-climate','2022-03-29 22:00:31.260762',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Newly discovered deposits of layered ice in craters scattered around Mars\' southern hemisphere provide insights into how the planet\'s orientation controlled the planet\'s climate over the past 4 million years, according to a new study. The findings help scientists understand what controlled Mars\' past climate, which is essential for predicting when the planet could have been habitable.</p><p>The study was published in the AGU journal <em>Geophysical Research Letters</em>, which publishes short-format, high-impact research with implications spanning the Earth and space sciences.</p><p>Ice deposits on Mars reflect a combination of temperature, hydrology and planetary dynamics, as they do on Earth. The planet\'s tilt and orbit impact temperature and sunlight on the surface, which contribute to climate. Thicker, more pure ice layers generally reflect cold periods with more ice accumulation, while thin, dusty layers were likely warmer and less able to build up ice.</p><p>The new study matches these ice layers to the tilt of Mars\' axis and its orbital precession, or how the planet\'s elliptical orbit rotates around the sun over time, with unprecedented resolution and confidence.</p><p>The findings give scientists insight into how Mars\' climate has changed over time. While the study is limited to the recent past, establishing these climate-orbit relationships helps scientists understand Martian climate deeper in the past, which could help pinpoint periods of potential habitability.</p><p>\"It was unexpected how cleanly those patterns matched to the orbital cycles,\" said lead study author Michael Sori, a planetary scientist at Purdue University. \"It was just such a perfect match, as good as you can ask for.\"</p><p><strong>From caps to craters</strong></p><p>Previously, Martian climate scientists have focused on polar ice caps, which span hundreds of kilometers. But these deposits are old and may have lost ice over time, losing fine details that are necessary to confidently establish connections between the planet\'s orientation and motion and its climate.</p><p>Sori and his colleagues turned to ice mounds in craters, just tens of kilometers wide but much fresher and potentially less complicated. After scouring much of the southern hemisphere, they pinpointed Burroughs crater, 74 kilometers wide, that has \"exceptionally well-preserved\" layers visible from NASA HiRISE imagery, Sori said.</p><p>The researchers analyzed the layers\' thicknesses and shapes and found they had strikingly similar patterns to two important Martian orbital dynamics, the tilt of Mars\' axis and orbital precession, over the last 4 to 5 million years.</p><p>The findings improve on previous research, which used Mars\' polar ice records of climate to establish tentative connections to orbit. But those records were too \"noisy,\" or complicated, to confidently connect the two. Younger, cleaner crater ice preserves less complicated climate records, which the researchers used to match climate changes to orbital precession and tilt with a high level of precision.</p><p><strong>Mars as a natural lab</strong></p><p>Discerning the connections between orbital cycles and climate is important for understanding both Martian history and complex climate dynamics on Earth. \"Mars is a natural laboratory for studying orbital controls on climate,\" Sori said, because many of the complicating factors that exist on Earth -- biology, tectonics -- are negligible on Mars. The whole planet, in essence, isolates the variable for scientists.</p><p>\"If we\'re ever going to understand climate, we need to go to places that don\'t have these interfering factors,\" said Isaac Smith, a planetary scientist at the Planetary Science Institute and York University who was not involved in the study. In that sense, \"Mars is a pristine planet. And there are a lot of potential applications here. Mars has a lot more in common with Pluto and Triton than you think.\"</p><p>Not all smaller ice deposits have clean, exposed layers at their surface. Some might be hidden inside the mounds. Eventually, Sori said, the goal is to sample ice cores like scientists do on Earth, but Mars rovers don\'t have that capability yet. Instead, scientists can use ground-penetrating radar data to \"peer inside\" the ice and check for layers, making sure visible layers extend throughout the deposit. It\'s a necessary quality-control step in the present study, and the method may help future explorations of Martian ice without layers visible at the surface.</p><p>\"Being able to pull a climate signal from a small ice deposit is a really cool result,\" said Riley McGlasson, a study co-author from Purdue University who applied this method in the new study. \"With radar, we can get closer to the full story. That\'s why I\'m excited to take this a step further in the future.\"</p>','2022-03-29 22:00:31.260762','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'American Geophysical Union','Newly discovered deposits of layered ice in craters scattered around Mars\' southern hemisphere provide insights into how the planet\'s orientation controlled the planet\'s climate over the past 4 million years, according to a new study. The findings help scientists understand what controlled Mars\' past climate, which is essential for predicting when the planet could have been habitable.\n',1,27,'<li>Michael M. Sori, Patricio Becerra, Jonathan Bapst, Shane Byrne, Riley A. McGlasson. <strong>Orbital Forcing of Martian Climate Revealed in a South Polar Outlier Ice Deposit</strong>. <em>Geophysical Research Letters</em>, 2022; 49 (6) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2021GL097450\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1029/2021GL097450</a>\n</li>'),(1718,'Planet-scale MRI','planet-scale-mri','2022-03-29 22:00:33.354522',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Earthquakes do more than buckle streets and topple buildings. Seismic waves generated by earthquakes pass through the Earth, acting like a giant MRI machine and providing clues to what lies inside the planet.</p><p>Seismologists have developed methods to take wave signals from the networks of seismometers at the Earth\'s surface and reverse engineer features and characteristics of the medium they pass through, a process known as seismic tomography.</p><p>For decades, seismic tomography was based on ray theory, and seismic waves were treated like light rays. This served as a pretty good approximation and led to major discoveries about the Earth\'s interior. But to improve the resolution of current seismic tomographic models, seismologists need to take into account the full complexity of wave propagation using numerical simulations, known as full-waveform inversion, says Ebru Bozdag, assistant professor in the Geophysics Department at the Colorado School of Mines.</p><p>\"We are at a stage where we need to avoid approximations and corrections in our imaging techniques to construct these models of the Earth\'s interior,\" she said.</p><p>Bozdag was the lead author of the first full-waveform inversion model, GLAD-M15 in 2016, based on full 3D wave simulations and 3D data sensitivities at the global scale. The model used the open-source 3D global wave propagation solver SPECFEM3D_GLOBE (freely available from Computational Infrastructure for Geodynamics) and was created in collaboration with researchers from Princeton University, University of Marseille, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). The work was lauded in the press. Its successor, GLAD-M25 (Lei et al. 2020), came out in 2020 and brought prominent features like subduction zones, mantle plumes, and hotspots into view for further discussions on mantle dynamics.</p><p>\"We showed the feasibility of using full 3D wave simulations and data sensitivities to seismic parameters at the global scale in our 2016 and 2020 papers. Now, it\'s time to use better parameterization to describe the physics of the Earth\'s interior in the inverse problem,\" she said.</p><p>At the American Geophysical Union Fall meeting in December 2021, Bozdag, post-doctoral researcher Ridvan Örsvuran, PhD student Armando Espindola-Carmona and computational seismologist Daniel Peter from KAUST, and collaborators presented the results of their efforts to perform global full waveform inversion to model attenuation -- a measure of the loss of energy as seismic waves propagate within the Earth -- and azimuthal anisotropy -- including the way wave speeds vary as a function of propagation direction azimuthally in addition to radial anisotropy taken into account in the first-generation GLAD models.</p><p>They uses data from 300 earthquakes to construct the new global full wave inversion models. \"We update these Earth models such that the difference from observation and simulated data is minimized iteratively,\" she said. \"And we seek to understand how our model parameters, elastic and anelastic, trade-off with each other, which is a challenging task.\"</p><p>The research is supported by a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER award, and enabled by the Frontera supercomputer at the Texas Advanced Computing Center -- the fastest as any university and the 13th fastest overall in the world -- as well as the Marconi100 system at Cineca, the largest Italian computing center.</p><p>\"With access to Frontera, publicly available data from all around the world, and the power of our modeling tools, we\'ve started approaching the continental-scale resolution in our global full wave inversion models,\" she said.</p><p>Bozdag hopes to provide better constraints on the origin of mantle plumes and the water content of the upper mantle. Furthermore, \"to accurately locate earthquakes and other seismic sources, determine earthquake mechanisms and correlate them to plate tectonics better, you need to have high-resolution crustal and mantle models,\" she said.</p><p><strong>From the Deepest Oceans to Outer Space </strong></p><p>Bozdag\'s work isn\'t only relevant on Earth. She also shares her expertise in numerical simulations with the NASA\'s InSight mission as part of the science team to model the interior of Mars.</p><p>Preliminary details of the Martian crust, constrained by seismic data for the first time, were published in <em>Science</em> in September 2021. Bozdag, together with the InSight team, is continuing to analyze the marsquake data and resolve details of the planet\'s interior from the crust to the core with the help of 3D wave simulations performed on Frontera.</p><p>The Mars work put in perspective the dearth of data in some parts of the Earth, specifically beneath oceans. \"We now have data from other planets, but it is still challenging to have high-resolution images beneath the oceans due to lack of instruments,\" Bozdag said.</p><p>To address that, she is working on integrating data from emerging instruments into her models as part of her NSF CAREER award, such as those from floating acoustic robots known as MERMAIDs (Mobile Earthquake Recording in Marine Areas by Independent Divers). These autonomous submarines can capture seismic activity within the ocean and rise to the surface to deliver that data to scientists.</p><p><strong>Seismic Community Access </strong></p><p>In September 2021, Bozdag was part of a team awarded a $3.2 million NSF award to create a computational platform for the seismology community, known as SCOPED (Seismic COmputational Platform for Empowering Discovery), in collaboration with Carl Tape (University of Alaska-Fairbanks), Marine Denolle (University of Washington), Felix Waldhauser (Columbia University), and Ian Wang (TACC).</p><p>\"The SCOPED project will establish a computing platform, supported by Frontera, that delivers data, computation, and services to the seismological community to promote education, innovation, and discovery,\" said Wang, TACC research associate and co-principal investigator on the project. \"TACC will be focusing on developing the core cyberinfrastructure that serves both compute- and data-intensive research, including seismic imaging, waveform modeling, ambient noise seismology, and precision seismic monitoring.\"</p><p>Another community-oriented project from Bozdag\'s group is PhD student Caio Ciardelli\'s recently released SphGLLTools: a visualization toolbox for large seismic model files. The toolbox based facilitates easy plotting and sharing of global adjoint tomography models with the community. The team described the toolbox in <em>Computers &amp; Geosciences</em> in February 2022.</p><p>\"We provide a full set of computational tools to visualize our global adjoint models,\" Bozdag said. \"Someone can take our models based on HPC simulations and convert them into a format to make it possible to visualize them on personal computers and use collaborative notebooks to understand each step.\"</p><p>Said Robin Reichlin, Director of the Geophysics Program at NSF: \"With new, improved full-waveform models; tools to lower the bar for community data access and analysis; and a supercomputing-powered platform to enable seismologists to discover the mysteries of the Earth\'s and other planetary deep interior, Bozdag is pushing the field into more precise, and open, territory.\"</p><p>Video: <a href=\"https://youtu.be/ilna9RAX6r8\">https://youtu.be/ilna9RAX6r8</a></p>','2022-03-29 22:00:33.354522','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Texas at Austin, Texas Advanced Computing Center','Researchers presented the results of efforts to perform global full waveform inversions of the Earth using the Frontera supercomputer. They used data from 300 earthquakes to construct the new global full wave inversion models that include attenuation and azimuthal anisotropy and approach continental-scale resolution. The researchers also recently released a visualization toolbox for large seismic model files and are building a platform for seismic analysis.\n',1,33,'<li>Caio Ciardelli, Ebru Bozdağ, Daniel Peter, Suzan van der Lee. <strong>SphGLLTools: A toolbox for visualization of large seismic model files based on 3D spectral-element meshes</strong>. <em>Computers &amp; Geosciences</em>, 2022; 159: 105007 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cageo.2021.105007\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.cageo.2021.105007</a>\n</li>'),(1719,'Roundworms’ egg cells have a backup plan','roundworms’-egg-cells-have-a-backup-plan','2022-03-29 22:00:38.494964',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">For reproduction to be successful, an egg cell must divide perfectly. Egg cell divisions are so error-prone, however, that they are the leading cause of miscarriages and birth defects in humans.</p><p>In a new study, Northwestern University researchers discovered a previously unknown mechanism in roundworms that protects their egg cells from division errors. Uncovering and understanding this hidden mechanism could ultimately lead to new strategies for combatting infertility in humans.</p><p>\"Prior to our work, certain proteins were thought to be essential for cells to divide,\" said Northwestern\'s Sadie Wignall, who led the study. \"However, when we removed these proteins, we were surprised to discover a previously hidden \'backup\' mechanism that was able to kick in when the main proteins were missing. We uncovered something that other researchers missed because, if the major mechanism is in place, then you wouldn\'t know that backup existed.\"</p><p>The study was published today (March 29) in the journal <em>eLife.</em></p><p>Wignall is an associate professor of molecular biosciences at Northwestern\'s Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences. Gabriel Cavin-Meza, a graduate student in Wignall\'s laboratory, is the paper\'s first author.</p><p>When an egg is fertilized with sperm, the resulting embryo begins to rapidly divide, eventually developing into a healthy organism. If either the egg or the sperm have the wrong amount of genetic material, however, then the organism cannot properly develop.</p><p>While other cells in the human body divide perfectly more than 99% of the time, egg cells are mysteriously error prone. About 10-25% of the time, egg cells incorrectly divide, resulting in the wrong amount of genetic material ending up in the embryo.</p><p>To understand why egg cells are more susceptible to errors, Wignall studies a football-shaped structure, called the spindle, which organizes genetic material before the egg divides.</p><p>\"The spindle is like a machine,\" Wignall said. \"It lines up chromosomes and then pulls them apart, ensuring that the right number of chromosomes end up in each half of the cell.\"</p><p>The spindle is made up of long ropelike structures called microtubules. The microtubules gather into points at each pole of the spindle, giving it its football shape. Then microtubules attach to the chromosomes and eventually pull them apart.</p><p>\"Motor proteins bind to the microtubules and take steps to move along them -- just like humans walk using their legs,\" Wignall said. \"When microtubules are first formed, they are a random mess. Then the motors use this walking motion to push the microtubules around to arrange them into the spindle structure.\"</p><p>Before Wignall\'s new study, researchers believed two motor proteins (dynein and kinesin-12) were primarily responsible for this task. But when Cavin-Meza removed both proteins from roundworms\' egg cells, he saw something shocking.</p><p>\"When we removed these proteins, it made the entire spindle blow apart,\" Wignall said. \"Then we were surprised to see the spindle reform.\"</p><p>In the absence of dynein and kinesin-12, another motor protein (called kinesin-5) came out of hiding to perform its backup duty. In the end, this previously unknown mechanism restored the spindle structure, allowing the chromosomes to be pulled apart.</p><p>Although this study was completed in C. elegans -- a well-studied roundworm that is commonly used as a model for reproduction -- Wignall believes similar mechanisms might be present in humans. But because so few human eggs cells are donated to science, researchers study model organisms to probe questions and work out details before examining humans.</p><p>\"All of the components in our study are also present in human eggs,\" Wignall said. \"Spindles seem to form the same way in humans and even look exactly the same. It would be really interesting to see if humans also have this backup mechanism.\"</p><p>The study, \"Multiple motors cooperate to establish and maintain acentrosomal spindle bipolarity in C. elegans oocyte meiosis,\" was supported by the National Institutes of Health (award numbers R01GM124354 and T32 CA009560).</p>','2022-03-29 22:00:38.494964','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Northwestern University','Researchers discovered a previously unknown mechanism in roundworms that protects their egg cells from division errors. Uncovering and understanding this hidden mechanism could ultimately lead to new strategies for combating infertility in humans.\n',1,29,'<li>Gabriel Cavin-Meza, Michelle M Kwan, Sarah M Wignall. <strong>Multiple motors cooperate to establish and maintain acentrosomal spindle bipolarity in C. elegans oocyte meiosis</strong>. <em>eLife</em>, 2022; 11 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.72872\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.7554/eLife.72872</a>\n</li>'),