(2194,'Hybrid quantum bit based on topological insulators','hybrid-quantum-bit-based-on-topological-insulators','2022-04-15 12:43:23.656389',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">With their superior properties, topological qubits could help achieve a breakthrough in the development of a quantum computer designed for universal applications. So far, no one has yet succeeded in unambiguously demonstrating a quantum bit, or qubit for short, of this kind in a lab. However, scientists from Forschungszentrum Jülich have now gone some way to making this a reality. For the first time, they succeeded in integrating a topological insulator into a conventional superconducting qubit. Just in time for \"World Quantum Day\" on 14 April, their novel hybrid qubit made it to the cover of the latest issue of the journal <em>Nano Letters</em>.</p><p>Quantum computers are regarded as the computers of the future. Using quantum effects, they promise to deliver solutions for highly complex problems that cannot be processed by conventional computers in a realistic time frame. However, the widespread use of such computers is still a long way off. Current quantum computers generally contain only a small number of qubits. The main problem is that they are highly prone to error. The bigger the system, the more difficult it is to fully isolate it from its environment.</p><p>Many hopes are therefore pinned on a new type of quantum bit -- the topological qubit. This approach is being pursued by several research groups as well as companies such as Microsoft. This type of qubit exhibits the special feature that it is topologically protected; the particular geometric structure of the superconductors as well as their special electronic material properties ensure that quantum information is retained. Topological qubits are therefore considered to be particularly robust and largely immune to external sources of decoherence. They also appear to enable fast switching times comparable to those achieved by the conventional superconducting qubits used by Google and IBM in current quantum processors.</p><p>However, it is not yet clear whether we will ever succeed in actually producing topological qubits. This is because a suitable material basis is still lacking to experimentally generate the special quasiparticles required for this without any doubt. These quasiparticles are also known as Majorana states. Until now, they could only be unambiguously demonstrated in theory, but not in experiments. Hybrid qubits, as they have now been constructed for the first time by the research group led by Dr. Peter Schüffelgen at the Peter Grünberg Institute (PGI-9) of Forschungszentrum Jülich, are now opening up new possibilities in this area. They already contain topological materials at crucial points. Therefore, this novel type of hybrid qubit provides researchers with a new experimental platform to test the behaviour of topological materials in highly sensitive quantum circuits.</p>','2022-04-15 12:43:23.656389','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Forschungszentrum Juelich','With their superior properties, topological qubits could help achieve a breakthrough in the development of a quantum computer designed for universal applications. So far, no one has yet succeeded in unambiguously demonstrating a quantum bit, or qubit for short, of this kind in a lab. Scientists have now succeeded in integrating a topological insulator into a conventional superconducting qubit.\n',1,94,'<li>Tobias W. Schmitt, Malcolm R. Connolly, Michael Schleenvoigt, Chenlu Liu, Oscar Kennedy, José M. Chávez-Garcia, Abdur R. Jalil, Benjamin Bennemann, Stefan Trellenkamp, Florian Lentz, Elmar Neumann, Tobias Lindström, Sebastian E. de Graaf, Erwin Berenschot, Niels Tas, Gregor Mussler, Karl D. Petersson, Detlev Grützmacher, Peter Schüffelgen. <strong>Integration of Topological Insulator Josephson Junctions in Superconducting Qubit Circuits</strong>. <em>Nano Letters</em>, 2022; 22 (7): 2595 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.1c04055\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1021/acs.nanolett.1c04055</a>\n</li>'),(2195,'Energy-burning brown fat less active in boys with obesity','energy-burning-brown-fat-less-active-in-boys-with-obesity','2022-04-15 14:25:29.335316',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">A study at McMaster University has found that brown adipose tissue (BAT) is less active in boys with obesity compared to boys with a normal body mass index (BMI).</p><p>Senior author Katherine Morrison said that BAT, also known as brown fat, helps the body burn regular fat and is activated by cold, but her research team noticed reduced BAT activity in the boys with obesity in response to a cold stimulus.</p><p>The researchers of McMaster\'s Centre for Metabolism, Obesity and Diabetes Research performed MRI scans to measure BAT activity in 26 boys between the ages of eight and 10. They studied the BAT tissue in the neck before and after one hour of exposure to a cold suit set at a temperature of 18 degrees Celsius. The patient sample included 13 boys with a normal BMI and the same number again with obesity, in the first study of its kind in children.</p><p>\"The promise of this study is that if we can better understand BAT and how to mimic or stimulate its effects, it might offer us new therapies to treat obesity,\" said Morrison, a professor in the university\'s Department of Pediatrics and pediatrician at the McMaster Children\'s Hospital.</p><p>\"Beyond helping families improve their nutrition, physical activity, and sleep, we have few treatments to assist children and adolescents with obesity. There are new medications that reduce appetite used in some adolescents. Investigating BAT activity holds out the hope of developing a new class of drugs that increase the amount of energy you burn.\"</p><p>However, Morrison said that it is still unknown whether a lack of BAT activity causes obesity, or if the condition simply impairs brown fat\'s ability to burn energy.</p><p>She said that newborn babies have large amounts of BAT, but it steadily decreases through childhood, so that by adulthood it is mostly present only in the neck region. The reason for decreasing brown fat levels in children remains unknown.</p><p>Morrison said her team used MRI scans to measure BAT activity as it did not expose the boys to ionizing radiation, unlike CT or PET scans. This potential safety risk has impeded research in children until now.</p><p>This study was funded by an internal grant from the Boris Family and external funding for the study was provided by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.</p>','2022-04-15 14:25:29.335316','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'McMaster University','Researchers performed MRI scans to measure BAT activity in 26 boys between the ages of eight and 10. They studied the BAT tissue in the neck before and after one hour of exposure to a cold suit set at a temperature of 18 degrees Celsius. The patient sample included 13 boys with a normal BMI and the same number again with obesity, in the first study of its kind in children.\n',1,139,'<li>Basma A. Ahmed, Nina Varah, Frank J. Ong, Denis P. Blondin, Elizabeth Gunn, Norman B. Konyer, Nina P. Singh, Michael D. Noseworthy, Francois Haman, Andre C. Carpentier, Zubin Punthakee, Gregory R. Steinberg, Katherine M. Morrison. <strong>Impaired Cold Stimulated Supraclavicular Brown Adipose Tissue Activity in Young Boys with Obesity</strong>. <em>Diabetes</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.2337/db21-0799\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.2337/db21-0799</a>\n</li>'),(2197,'Lost South American wildflower named \'extinctus\' rediscovered (but still endangered)','lost-south-american-wildflower-named-\'extinctus\'-rediscovered-(but-still-endangered)','2022-04-15 17:40:48.321956',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Scientific names get chosen for lots of reasons -- they can honor an important person, or hint at what an organism looks like or where it\'s from. For a tropical wildflower first described by scientists in 2000, the scientific name \"<em>extinctus</em>\" was a warning. The orange wildflower had been found 15 years earlier in an Ecuadorian forest that had since been largely destroyed; the scientists who named it suspected that by the time they named it, it was already extinct. But in a new paper in <em>PhytoKeys</em>, researchers report the first confirmed sightings of <em>Gasteranthus extinctus </em>in 40 years.</p><p>\"<em>Extinctus</em> was given its striking name in light of the extensive deforestation in western Ecuador,\" says Dawson White, a postdoctoral researcher at Chicago\'s Field Museum and co-lead author of the paper. \"But if you claim something\'s gone, then no one is really going to go out and look for it anymore. There are still a lot of important species that are still out there, even though overall, we\'re in this age of extinction.\"</p><p>The rediscovered plant is a small forest floor-dweller with flamboyant neon-orange flowers. \"The genus name, <em>Gasteranthus</em>, is Greek for \'belly flower.\' Their flowers have a big pouch on the underside with a little opening top where pollinators can enter and exit,\" says White.</p><p><em>G. extinctus</em> is found in the foothills of the Andes mountains, where the land flattens to a plane that was once covered in cloud forest. The region, called the Centinela Ridge, is notorious among biologists for being home to a unique set of plants that vanished when its forests were almost completely destroyed in the 1980s. The late biologist E. O. Wilson even named the phenomenon of organisms instantly going extinct when their small habitat is destroyed \"Centinelan extinction.\"</p><p>The story of Centinela was also an alarm to draw attention to the fact that over 97% of the forests in the western half of Ecuador have been felled and converted to farmland. What remains is a fine mosaic of tiny islands of forest within a sea of bananas and a handful of other crops.</p><p>\"Centinela is a mythical place for tropical botanists,\" says Pitman. \"But because it was described by the top people in the field, no one really double-checked the science. No one went back to confirm that the forest was gone and those things were extinct.\"</p><p>But around the time that <em>Gasteranthus extinctus</em> was first described in 2000, scientists were already showing that some victims of Centinelan extinction weren\'t really extinct. Since 2009, a few scientists have mounted expeditions looking for <em>G. extinctus</em> was still around, but they weren\'t successful. But when White and Pitman received funding from the Field Museum\'s Women\'s Board to visit the Centinela Ridge, the team had a chance to check for themselves.</p><p>Starting in the summer of 2021, they began combing through satellite images trying to identify primary rainforest that was still intact (which was difficult, White recalls, because most of the images of the region were obscured by clouds). They found a few contenders and assembled a team of ten botanists from six different institutions in Ecuador, the US, and France, including Juan Guevara, Thomas Couvreur, Nicolás Zapata, Xavier Cornejo, and Gonzalo Rivas. In November of 2021, they arrived at Centinela.</p><p>\"It was my first time planning an expedition where we weren\'t sure we\'d even enter a forest,\" says Pitman. \"But as soon as we got on the ground we found remnants of intact cloud forest, and we spotted <em>G. extinctus</em> on the first day, within the first couple hours of searching. We didn\'t have a photo to compare it to, we only had images of dried herbarium specimens, a line drawing, and a written description, but we were pretty sure that we\'d found it based on its poky little hairs and showy \"pot-bellied\" flowers.\"</p><p>Pitman recalls mixed emotions upon the team finding the flower. \"We were really excited, but really tentative in our excitement -- we thought, \'Was it really that easy?\'\" he says. \"We knew we needed to check with a specialist.\"</p><p>The researchers took photos and collected some fallen flowers, not wanting to harm the plants if they were the only ones remaining on Earth. They sent the photos to taxonomic expert John Clark, who confirmed that, yes, the flowers were the not-so-extinct <em>G. extinctus</em>. Thankfully, the team found many more individuals as they visited other forest fragments, and they collected museum specimens to voucher the discovery and leaves for DNA analysis. The team was also able to validate some unidentified photos posted on the community science app iNaturalist as also being <em>G. extinctus</em>.</p><p>The plant will keep its name, says Pitman, because biology\'s code of nomenclature has very specific rules around renaming an organism, and <em>G. extinctus</em>\'s resurrection doesn\'t make the cut.</p><p>While the flower remains highly endangered, the expedition found plenty of reasons for hope, the researchers say.</p><p>\"We walked into Centinela thinking it was going to break our heart, and instead we ended up falling in love,\" says Pitman. \"Finding <em>G. extinctus</em> was great, but what we\'re even more excited about is finding some spectacular forest in a place where scientists had feared everything was gone.\"</p><p>The team is now working with Ecuadorian conservationists to protect some of the remaining fragments where <em>G. extinctus</em> and the rest of the spectacular Centinelan flora lives on. \"Rediscovering this flower shows that it\'s not too late to turn around even the worst-case biodiversity scenarios, and it shows that there\'s value in conserving even the smallest, most degraded areas,\" says White. \"It\'s an important piece of evidence that it\'s not too late to be exploring and inventorying plants and animals in the heavily degraded forests of western Ecuador. New species are still being found, and we can still save many things that are on the brink of extinction.\"</p>','2022-04-15 17:40:48.321956','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Field Museum','This South American wildflower was presumed extinct -- to the point that its official scientific name is Gasteranthus extinctus. But now, scientists are reporting the first confirmed sightings in 40 years. This not only means that this one little flower made it, but that an important concept in conservation biology called Centinelan extinction needs to be re-examined.\n',1,55,'<li>Nigel C. A. Pitman, Dawson M. White, Juan Ernesto Guevara Andino, Thomas L. P. Couvreur, Riley P. Fortier, José Nicolás Zapata, Xavier Cornejo, John L. Clark, Kenneth J. Feeley, Mark K. Johnston, Alix Lozinguez, Gonzalo Rivas-Torres. <strong>﻿Rediscovery of Gasteranthus extinctus L.E.Skog &amp; L.P.Kvist (Gesneriaceae) at multiple sites in western Ecuador</strong>. <em>PhytoKeys</em>, 2022; 194: 33 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/phytokeys.194.79638\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.3897/phytokeys.194.79638</a>\n</li>'),(2198,'Decoding a direct dialog between the gut microbiota and the brain','decoding-a-direct-dialog-between-the-gut-microbiota-and-the-brain','2022-04-15 17:40:52.009378',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Gut microbiota by-products circulate in the bloodstream, regulating host physiological processes including immunity, metabolism and brain functions. Scientists from the Institut Pasteur (a partner research organization of Université Paris Cité), Inserm and the CNRS have discovered that hypothalamic neurons in an animal model directly detect variations in bacterial activity and adapt appetite and body temperature accordingly. These findings demonstrate that a direct dialog occurs between the gut microbiota and the brain, a discovery that could lead to new therapeutic approaches for tackling metabolic disorders such as diabetes and obesity. The findings are due to be published in <em>Science </em>on April 15, 2022.</p><p>The gut is the body\'s largest reservoir of bacteria. A growing body of evidence reveals the degree of interdependence between hosts and their gut microbiota, and emphasizes the importance of the gut-brain axis. At the Institut Pasteur, neurobiologists from the Perception and Memory Unit (Institut Pasteur/CNRS)[1], immunobiologists from the Microenvironment and Immunity Unit (Institut Pasteur/Inserm), and microbiologists from the Biology and Genetics of the Bacterial Cell Wall Unit (Institut Pasteur/CNRS/Inserm)[2] have shared their expertise to investigate how bacteria in the gut directly control the activity of particular neurons in the brain.</p><p>The scientists focused on the NOD2 (nucleotide oligomerization domain) receptor which is found inside of mostly immune cells. This receptor detects the presence of muropeptides, which are the building blocks of the bacterial cell wall. Moreover, it has previously been established that variants of the gene coding for the NOD2 receptor are associated with digestive disorders, including Crohn\'s disease, as well as neurological diseases and mood disorders. However, these data were insufficient to demonstrate a direct relationship between neuronal activity in the brain and bacterial activity in the gut. This was revealed by the consortium of scientists in the new study.</p><p>Using brain imaging techniques, the scientists initially observed that the NOD2 receptor in mice is expressed by neurons in different regions of the brain, and in particular, in a region known as the hypothalamus. They subsequently discovered that these neurons\' electrical activity is suppressed when they come into contact with bacterial muropeptides from the gut. \"Muropeptides in the gut, blood and brain are considered to be markers of bacterial proliferation,\" explains Ivo G. Boneca, Head of the Biology and Genetics of the Bacterial Cell Wall Unit at the Institut Pasteur (CNRS/Inserm). Conversely, if the NOD2 receptor is absent, these neurons are no longer suppressed by muropeptides. Consequently, the brain loses control of food intake and body temperature. The mice gain weight and are more susceptible to developing type 2 diabetes, particularly in older females.</p><p>In this study, the scientists have demonstrated the astonishing fact that neurons perceive bacterial muropeptides directly, while this task was thought to be primarily assigned to immune cells. \"It is extraordinary to discover that bacterial fragments act directly on a brain center as strategic as the hypothalamus, which is known to manage vital functions such as body temperature, reproduction, hunger and thirst,\" comments Pierre-Marie Lledo, CNRS scientist and Head of the Institut Pasteur\'s Perception and Memory Unit.</p><p>The neurons thus appear to detect bacterial activity (proliferation and death) as a direct gauge of the impact of food intake on the intestinal ecosystem. \"<em>Excessive intake of a specific food may stimulate the disproportionate growth of certain bacteria or pathogens, thus jeopardizing intestinal balance,</em>\" says Gérard Eberl, Head of the Microenvironment and Immunity Unit at the Institut Pasteur (Inserm).</p><p>The impact of muropeptides on hypothalamic neurons and metabolism raises questions on their potential role in other brain functions, and may help us understand the link between certain brain diseases and genetic variants of NOD2. This discovery paves the way for new interdisciplinary projects at the frontier between neurosciences, immunology and microbiology, and ultimately, for new therapeutic approaches to brain diseases and metabolic disorders such as diabetes and obesity.</p><p>[1] This research unit is also known as the \"Genes, Synapses and Cognition Laboratory\" (Institut Pasteur/CNRS). Paris Brain Institute (CNRS/Inserm/Sorbonne Université/AP-HP) also contributed to these findings.</p><p>[2] The CNRS unit\'s name is the \"Integrative and Molecular Microbiology Unit\" and the Inserm unit\'s name is the \"Host-Microbe Interactions and Pathophysiology Unit\" (Institut Pasteur/CNRS/Inserm).</p>','2022-04-15 17:40:52.009378','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Institut Pasteur','Gut microbiota by-products circulate in the bloodstream, regulating host physiological processes including immunity, metabolism and brain functions. Scientists have discovered that hypothalamic neurons in an animal model directly detect variations in bacterial activity and adapt appetite and body temperature accordingly. These findings demonstrate that a direct dialog occurs between the gut microbiota and the brain, a discovery that could lead to new therapeutic approaches for tackling metabolic disorders such as diabetes and obesity.\n',1,124,'<li>Ilana Gabanyi, Gabriel Lepousez, Richard Wheeler, Alba Vieites-Prado, Antoine Nissant, Sébastien Wagner, Carine Moigneu, Sophie Dulauroy, Samia Hicham, Bernadette Polomack, Florine Verny, Philip Rosenstiel, Nicolas Renier, Ivo Gomperts Boneca, Gérard Eberl, Pierre-Marie Lledo. <strong>Bacterial sensing via neuronal Nod2 regulates appetite and body temperature</strong>. <em>Science</em>, 2022; 376 (6590) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.abj3986\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1126/science.abj3986</a>\n</li>'),(2199,'Smoking reduces wealth\'s tendency to increase life expectancy','smoking-reduces-wealth\'s-tendency-to-increase-life-expectancy','2022-04-15 18:56:50.266573',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Smoking dominates other factors, including amount of wealth, in shortening lifespan, reports a study by researchers at Georgetown University and the University of California, Riverside.</p><p>\"Our results suggest that even if wealth has a causal effect on mortality, it cannot compete with the impact of smoking. If you want to live longer, you better avoid the cancer sticks,\" said corresponding author Dana Glei, a senior research investigator at Georgetown University\'s Center for Population and Health.</p><p>The new study finds that the percentage of Americans surviving from age 65 to 85 was 19 percentage points higher for someone with at least $300,000 in wealth than for those with no assets. But there was a 37 percentage point difference between those who never smoked and current smokers. Due to how the data was collected, wealth was measured in 1995 dollars. $300,000 is the equivalent of $558,000 today.</p><p>The wealth-related disparity in mortality was larger than the disparities by education, occupation, income, or childhood socioeconomic status. But smoking made the greatest difference among all factors.</p><p>\"Our finding further confirmed that smoking shortens our lives and that abstaining from smoking might be cheaper and more effective for living longer,\" said Chioun Lee, an assistant professor of sociology at UC Riverside.</p><p>Glei, along with Lee and Maxine Weinstein, a professor at Georgetown University, used data from 6,320 participants in the Midlife in the United States, or MIDUS, study funded by the National Institute on Aging to examine the effects of childhood socioeconomic status, education, occupation, income, wealth, and smoking history on mortality for adults aged 20-92 years old.</p><p>In fully adjusted models -- which also controlled for age, sex, race, marital status, health insurance coverage, employment status, and numerous health-related measures -- the researchers found that wealth outpaced all other measures of socioeconomic status associated with living past age 65. Mortality declined at higher levels of wealth, but wealth above $500,000 (in 1995 dollars) yielded no further mortality benefit. This amount is the equivalent of more than $925,000 today.</p><p>\"We already know having a good education, a well-paid job, and extra savings are critical factors that help us live longer and stay healthier. Among education, occupation, income, and wealth, we found that wealth seems to be most important for longevity. However, beyond a certain amount, additional wealth may not yield extra years of life,\" said Lee.</p><p>For smokers, however, the picture was much grimmer. Above age 65, the mortality rate among current smokers was three times higher than never-smokers. Former smokers had significantly lower mortality than current smokers, but slightly higher mortality than never-smokers.</p><p>\"Health care practitioners cannot modify their patient\'s wealth, but they should continue to discourage smoking. Wealth may be associated with longevity, but just don\'t smoke,\" said Glei.</p><p>The open-access paper, \"Assessment of mortality disparities by wealth relative to other measures of socioeconomic status among us adults,\" is published in <em>Jama Network Open</em>.</p>','2022-04-15 18:56:50.266573','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of California - Riverside','A new study finds that the percentage of Americans surviving from age 65 to 85 was 19 percentage points higher for someone with at least $300,000 in wealth than for those with no assets. But there was a 37 percentage point difference between those who never smoked and current smokers.\n',1,27,'<li>Dana A. Glei, Chioun Lee, Maxine Weinstein. <strong>Assessment of Mortality Disparities by Wealth Relative to Other Measures of Socioeconomic Status Among US Adults</strong>. <em>JAMA Network Open</em>, 2022; 5 (4): e226547 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.6547\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.6547</a>\n</li>'),(2200,'Study reveals male sex hormones are new targets for cancer immunotherapy','study-reveals-male-sex-hormones-are-new-targets-for-cancer-immunotherapy','2022-04-15 18:56:52.110285',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Patients with cancers stemming from non-reproductive organs, such as bladder and liver cancer, have striking discrepancies in incidence, progression, response to treatment and survival outcomes depending on their sex. In almost all cases, male patients have worse prognoses and outcomes. This phenomenon has puzzled the scientific community for decades.</p><p>A study published today in <em>Science Immunology</em> and led by researchers in the Pelotonia Institute for Immuno-Oncology (PIIO) at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center -- Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC -- James) examined the differences in intratumoral immune responses between male and female cancers of non-reproductive origin</p><p>The focus of this research was the T cell immune response to malignancy, a key determinator of outcomes in cancer, and an important target that has contributed to the renaissance of cancer immunotherapy seen in recent years. The study reported a landmark finding that describes how male sex hormones contribute to cancer-related sex bias via the modulation of CD8<sup>+</sup> T cells -- a population of cells often referred to as cancer \"killer\" cells, which mediate adaptive immunity and are critical for mounting an anti-tumor response.</p><p>\"Collectively, these findings highlight androgen-mediated promotion of CD8<sup>+</sup> T cell dysfunction in cancer and suggest broader implications for therapeutic development to address sex disparities in health and disease,\" said the study\'s senior corresponding author Dr. Zihai Li, cancer immunologist, medical oncologist and founding director of the PIIO at OSUCCC -- James.</p><p>Androgens are sex hormones more highly present in males. This study revealed that CD8<sup>+</sup> T cells from cancers in male subjects, including human patients and mice, are more likely to have characteristics of a weakened anti-tumor immune function, also known as \"exhausted\" T cells. Androgen signaling promotes the progenitor exhausted CD8<sup>+</sup> T cell phenotype via modulating expression of TCF1, a master regulator of CD8<sup>+</sup> T cell function.</p><p>\"Androgen-mediated promotion of CD8<sup>+</sup> T cell dysfunction results in faster tumor growth and worsened outcomes, and targeting of this signaling cascade holds a crucial key to improving current cancer immunotherapies,\" said Li, who is also a professor in the Ohio State College of Medicine.</p><p>This work was made possible because of the unique collaborations happening in Ohio State\'s Pelotonia Institute for Immuno-Oncology. Founded in 2019, the PIIO is a comprehensive bench-to-bedside research initiative focused on harnessing the body\'s immune system to fight cancer at all levels -- from prevention to treatment and survivorship. The institute is centered on systems and translational immuno-oncology and supported by immune monitoring and discovery as well as immuno-informatics.</p><p>The PIIO was established through a $102 million pledge from OSUCCC -- James and Pelotonia. Founded in 2008, Pelotonia was established with the objective to fund innovative cancer research, and has raised over $236 million for cancer research.</p><p>Additional financial support for the study came from the National Institutes of Health, Prostate Cancer Foundation, Canadian Institutes of Health Research and Hollings Cancer Center.</p><p>Other study authors include Hyunwoo Kwon, Johanna Schafer, No-Joon Song, Satoski Kaneko, Anqi Li, Tong Xiao, Anjun Ma, Carter Allen, Komal Das, Lei Zhou, Brian Riesenberg, Yuzhou Chang, Payton Weltge, Maria Velegraki, David Oh, Lawrence Fong, Qin Ma and Debasish Sundi, as well as co-corresponding authors Drs. Xue Li (Cedars-Sinai Medical Center) and Dongjun Chung (OSUCCC -- James).</p>','2022-04-15 18:56:52.110285','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center','A study examined the differences in intratumoral immune responses between male and female cancers of non-reproductive origin.\n',1,89,'<li>Hyunwoo Kwon, Johanna M. Schafer, No-Joon Song, Satoshi Kaneko, Anqi Li, Tong Xiao, Anjun Ma, Carter Allen, Komal Das, Lei Zhou, Brian Riesenberg, Yuzhou Chang, Payton Weltge, Maria Velegraki, David Y. Oh, Lawrence Fong, Qin Ma, Debasish Sundi, Dongjun Chung, Xue Li, Zihai Li. <strong>Androgen conspires with the CD8<sup>+</sup> T cell exhaustion program and contributes to sex bias in cancer</strong>. <em>Science Immunology</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciimmunol.abq2630\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1126/sciimmunol.abq2630</a>\n</li>'),(2201,'Socioeconomic factors affect response to depression treatment','socioeconomic-factors-affect-response-to-depression-treatment','2022-04-15 18:56:55.329017',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Patients seeking treatment for depression who have lower income and education and those who are members of minority populations tend to have worse treatment outcomes even when receiving equal access to treatment, according to new research from the University of Cincinnati.</p><p>Led by Jeffrey Mills, PhD, and Jeffrey Strawn, MD, the UC cross-college collaborative research was recently published in the journal <em>Psychiatric Services.</em></p><p>Strawn, professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience in UC\'s College of Medicine and a UC Health adolescent psychiatrist, said that previous research has concluded that people seeking treatment for depression with lower income and less education have worse outcomes because of a lack of access to quality health care, but it is hard to isolate socioeconomic factors as they are often intertwined.</p><p>The research team analyzed data from a very large clinical trial known as CO-MED that enrolled 665 patients seeking treatment for depression. In the randomized trial, all patients had the same access to treatment without differences due to health insurance or income.</p><p>Study results</p><p>After controlling for sex, age and treatment type following 12 weeks of antidepressant medication treatment in the study, the team\'s analysis found patients who were non-white improved 11.3% less compared to white patients. Those who were unemployed saw 6.6% less improvement compared to employed patients. Compared to patients in the 75th percentile of income distribution, patients having income at the 25th percentile reduced improvement by 4.8%.</p><p>Strawn noted the findings are still preliminary, but he was particularly interested to find that patients without a college degree had 9.6% less improvement compared to college graduates.</p><p>\"We think about these things in terms of access, we think about them in terms of income inequality, and I realize that education does track with those, but just having a college degree while controlling for all of these other factors still had a significant impact,\" said Strawn.</p><p>The researchers also examined the effect of the combination of socioeconomic factors, since the individual factors are often correlated, Mills said. Patients who were non-white, unemployed with no degree and had income in the 25th percentile had 26% less improvement compared to patients who were white, employed with a college degree and had income in the 75th percentile.</p><p>Mills said that the findings do not negate the fact that a lack of access makes an impact on treatment outcomes, but it does show the importance of including a patients\' home environment when analyzing the effectiveness of treatment.</p><p>\"If you\'re going home to a wealthy neighborhood with highly educated parents or spouse, then you\'re arguably in a much better environment for the treatment to be effective than if you\'re going to a poor neighborhood with other problems,\" said Mills, professor of economics in UC\'s Carl H. Lindner College of Business.</p><p>Strawn said other research suggests patients in resource-poor environments may be affected by greater chronic variable stress, meaning high stress in a pattern that is intermittent and difficult to predict. Other studies suggest chronic variable stress has a worse effect on patients than chronic sustained stress that is more steady, he said.</p><p>\"So this is, \'I was able to pay my rent this month, but I\'m not sure that I will be able to next month. And I have a job right now, but I don\'t know that I will next month,\'\" Strawn said. \"So it\'s just the impact of all those things as well as maybe having relatives or kids who have fewer educational resources or other job-related stress, or potentially other health problems, and you\'re still running into those same barriers in terms of access and cost and support there.\"</p><p>Research application</p><p>The study findings have the potential to impact clinical trials by designing studies that pay better attention to socioeconomic variables that may have been previously overlooked, Strawn said.</p><p>\"When we don\'t control for these variables, which we often do not in our clinical trials because of differences in populations, we may miss detecting an effective treatment because its effect is obscured,\" Strawn said. \"So it can potentially jeopardize our treatment development by not accounting for these factors.\"</p><p>Strawn said those treating patients every day can use the knowledge from the study in a more straightforward approach. While removing barriers of access to treatment is important, he said clinicians must also acknowledge that a patient\'s socioeconomic environment may be affecting their ability to get better with treatment when measuring progress and crafting future treatment plans.</p><p>Mills said the research also has important implications when crafting and implementing economic policy, such as the recently passed infrastructure bill or ongoing discussions on the minimum wage. The impact of a policy on an individual\'s socioeconomic environment, and subsequently their mental health, is not typically considered, he said.</p><p>\"Someone employed at a higher wage has a chance to improve their socioeconomic status and environment, and so they\'re definitely less likely to get mental health problems,\" he said. \"If people with higher socioeconomic status do get mental health problems, what we\'re showing is they\'re more likely to improve if they get treatment.\"</p><p>Team science</p><p>In the past, two researchers with different specialties in different colleges within a university may have never worked together on research like this, but the collaboration shows the benefit of what is called team science, a transdisciplinary approach to research.</p><p>Strawn explained that traditional multidisciplinary research often looks like a psychiatrist, a neurologist and a psychologist all within the College of Medicine working together on a project. While that has its place, team science works across disciplines and involves completely separate sets of expertise, concepts and approaches.</p><p>\"We think of multidisciplinary as being kind of the fruit salad where you have your grapes and your bananas, but everything is still distinct,\" Strawn said. \"And then you have your transdisciplinary, where things are really blended and it\'s difficult to tell whose contributions are whose. That\'s probably more like the fruit smoothie of disciplinary integration. I think that\'s hopefully what we\'ve achieved.\"</p><p>Mills said he has previously seen colleagues expected to closely collaborate who never published a paper together because their skill sets were too similar and they did not need each other to move forward. Alternatively, Mills and Strawn have interest in each other\'s field and bring varying, complementary skill sets to the research.</p><p>\"It\'s further than just multidisciplinary, because if I get together with my colleagues, we still have had very similar training. We use the same jargon, we have similar ideas,\" Mills said. \"There\'s not the same cross pollination in stepping out of your field and thinking about other topics and giving each other ideas and concepts that you may not have thought about.\"</p><p>Moving forward, the researchers want to continue the research by combining data from other depression trials to produce more powerful results with a larger dataset.</p>','2022-04-15 18:56:55.329017','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Cincinnati','A new research study shows how socioeconomic factors affect outcomes for patients being treated for depression even when receiving equal access to care.\n',1,39,'<li>Jeffrey A. Mills, Vikram Suresh, Lenisa Chang, Taryn Mayes, Paul E. Croarkin, Madhukar H. Trivedi, Jeffrey R. Strawn. <strong>Socioeconomic Predictors of Treatment Outcomes Among Adults With Major Depressive Disorder</strong>. <em>Psychiatric Services</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1176/appi.ps.202100559\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1176/appi.ps.202100559</a>\n</li>'),(2202,'Research could enable assembly line synthesis of prevalent amine-containing drugs','research-could-enable-assembly-line-synthesis-of-prevalent-amine-containing-drugs','2022-04-15 19:33:04.383491',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">A University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign research team has discovered a way to produce a special class of molecule that could open the door for new drugs to treat currently untreatable diseases.</p><p>Open the household medicine cabinet and you will likely find organic derivatives of ammonia, called amines. They are one of the most prevalent structures found in medicines today. More than 40 percent of drugs and drug candidates contain amines, and 60 percent of those amines are tertiary, so named for the three carbons that are bonded to a nitrogen.</p><p>Tertiary amines are found in some of the most impactful human medicines, including antibiotics, breast cancer and leukemia drugs, opioid pain medications, antihistamines, blood thinners, HIV treatments, antimigraine medications and more. They increase a drug\'s solubility and can trigger its key biological functions.</p><p>Despite the prevalence of this special class of molecules in medicines today, much of the functional potential of tertiary amines likely remains untapped.</p><p>That\'s because the traditional process of making them requires specific, controlled conditions that inherently limit the discovery of new tertiary amines, which could potentially treat a wide range of currently untreatable diseases.</p><p>Now, an Illinois research team led by Lycan Professor of Chemistry M. Christina White and graduate students Siraj Ali, Brenna Budaitis, and Devon Fontaine have discovered a new chemical reaction, a carbon-hydrogen amination cross-coupling reaction, that creates a faster, simpler way of making tertiary amines without the inherent limitations of classic methods. The researchers believe this could also be used to discover new reactions with nitrogen.</p><p>This new reaction in the chemist\'s toolbox transforms the traditional tertiary amine building process -- with its classic chemical reactions that require highly-specialized conditions specific to each molecule -- into a procedure that can be carried out in general conditions open to air and moisture with the potential for automation.</p><p>As the researchers describe in their recently published paper in <em>Science</em>, this new procedure uses a metal catalyst discovered by their group (Ma-WhiteSOX/palladium) and two building blocks -- abundant hydrocarbons (olefins containing adjacent C -- H bond) and secondary amines -- to generate a variety of tertiary amines.</p><p>This has the potential, White explained, for chemists to take a lot of different secondary amines and couple them to a lot of different olefins, both of which you can either buy or easily make.</p><p>\"And these are stable starting materials. You could have them in individual containers, mix and match them, and using our catalyst make many different combinations of tertiary amines,\" White said. \"The flexibility of this reaction makes the discovery process for tertiary amine drugs easier.\"</p><p>The difference between classical reactions and this new reaction for making tertiary amines is like the difference between picking a specialty sandwich from a menu versus creating your own sandwich from a diverse set of ingredients -- you have a lot more flexibility in terms of choices.</p><p>This highly flexible system for making tertiary amines is also very practical.</p><p>\"You could, in principle, run it on your stove top,\" White explains. \"You don\'t need to handle it with a lot of precautions, you can run it open to air and you don\'t have to exclude water. You just need your starting materials, the palladium/SOX catalyst and a little heat. It should work just the way we are doing it in the lab.\"</p><p>White explained that when a pharmaceutical company wants to make tertiary amines, they often have to use specialized procedures, but this reaction allows you to take two simple, often commercial, starting materials and put them together using the same procedure.</p><p>\"Because the conditions are so simple and work for so many different amines and olefins there is great potential to adopt this reaction for automation,\" White said.</p><p>The major challenge the team overcame in this discovery was solving a long-standing problem in C -- H functionalization chemistry: replacing a hydrogen atom on a molecule\'s carbon framework with a basic, secondary amine to directly make tertiary amines.</p><p>Metal catalysts prefer interacting with basic amines rather than the C -- H bonds in the olefin. The team hypothesized that amine salts (amine-BF3 salts that are easy to use and store) can prevent this interaction with the catalyst.</p><p>Like a dam modulating the flow of water, the team\'s palladium/SOX catalyst regulates the slow release of amines from the salts as well as mediates coupling the secondary amine and hydrocarbon to form the tertiary amine product.</p><p>Showcasing the power of this new chemical reaction, the researchers made 81 tertiary amines in their study, coupling a wide range of complex, medicinally relevant secondary amines to many complex olefins containing reactive functionality. This includes functionality that is reactive with secondary amines in the traditional tertiary amine manufacturing processes.</p><p>Further demonstrating the potential to discover new medicines, the research team also applied this new reaction to the efficient syntheses of 12 existing drug compounds, including Abilify, an anti-psychotic medication, Naftin, an anti-fungal, as well as 11 complex drug derivatives, including the anti-depressants, Paxil and Prozac, and the blood-thinner, Plavix.</p><p>In addition to this reaction being used in the pharmaceutical industry as a platform to expedite the discovery of new tertiary amine drugs, the researchers also believe that their catalyst-controlled slow-release strategy could be used by other researchers to discover many additional new reactions with nitrogen.</p>','2022-04-15 19:33:04.383491','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Illinois College of Liberal Arts & Sciences','A research team has discovered a new chemical reaction that provides a simple, rapid way of making tertiary amines -- swinging the door wide open to the discovery of new medicinal compounds.\n',1,203,'<li>Siraj Z. Ali, Brenna G. Budaitis, Devon F. A. Fontaine, Andria L. Pace, Jacob A. Garwin, M. Christina White. <strong>Allylic C–H amination cross-coupling furnishes tertiary amines by electrophilic metal catalysis</strong>. <em>Science</em>, 2022; 376 (6590): 276 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.abn8382\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1126/science.abn8382</a>\n</li>'),(2203,'Methane from waste should not be wasted: Exploring landfill ecosystems','methane-from-waste-should-not-be-wasted:-exploring-landfill-ecosystems','2022-04-15 20:22:16.532483',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Each year, humans across the globe produce billions of tons of solid waste. Roughly 70% of this refuse ends up deposited in landfills, where it slowly decays. Yet, what may seem an inert accumulation of useless debris, is in reality, a complex ecosystem, teeming with microbial activity. Vast communities of microorganisms feed on the waste, converting it into byproducts -- primarily carbon dioxide (CO<sub>2</sub>) and methane.</p><p>While most landfill methane is captured and flared away, researchers hope instead to make use of this resource, which can be converted into fuels, electricity or used for heating homes (see below).</p><p>In a new study published in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology, lead author Mark Reynolds, along with his Arizona State University and Industrial colleagues, explore these microbial communities flourishing in leachate, a liquid percolating through solid waste in a landfill. They find that the composition and behavior of specific microbes found in arid landfills, like those in Arizona, are distinct from similar communities in more subtropical or temperate climates. Microbial composition also differs depending on the age of the landfill deposits.</p><p>The project was carried out at the Salt River Landfill located in Scottsdale, near ASU\'s Tempe campus. The facility receives about 1,600 tons of municipal solid waste daily.</p><p><strong>Solid waste: a breakdown</strong></p><p>The study explores ecosystem-level microbial composition in leachate. Diverse environmental conditions seemingly affect the microbial niches that are compartmentalized across the landfill\'s 143 acres.</p><p>\"I think of a landfill as like a big carbon buffet to these microorganisms,\" says Reynolds, a researcher in the Biodesign Swette Center for Environmental Biotechnology. \"Our trash is mostly paper-heavy and it\'s really rich in cellulose and hemicellulose. These are readily degradable under anaerobic (oxygen-free) conditions.\"</p><p>The capture and use of gases produced in landfills can help reduce hazards associated with landfill emissions, and prevent methane from escaping into the atmosphere. Further, energy projects associated with the capture and processing of landfill gas can generate revenue and create jobs in the community.</p><p>By better understanding the behavior of these methane-producing microorganisms, researchers hope to improve the capture of this vital resource and possibly limit the escape of methane and CO<sub>2</sub> -- two potent greenhouse gases and leading contributors to climate change -- into the atmosphere.</p><p>\"We\'re diving into ecological theory to try to get to the source of what might be driving the organizational patterns of the methane-producing organisms,\" Reynolds says. The study\'s multifaceted analysis indicates that temperature and dissolved solids are the two key parameters governing their abundance and diversification. This is good news, because this data is routinely captured at landfill sites commonly on a monthly basis and can provide accurate diagnostics -- telltale indicators of broad trends in overall methane production.</p><p><strong>From garbage to fuel</strong></p><p>Municipal solid waste landfills accounted for over 15% of methane emissions in 2019, representing the third largest source of global methane emissions. As the study notes, emissions of methane from landfills amount to the equivalent of a billion tons of CO<sub>2, </sub>or roughly the greenhouse emissions produced by nearly 22 million cars driven for a year.</p><p>Typically, most of the methane released by microorganisms in a landfill is captured as biogas and subsequently flared off, converting it to CO<sub>2. </sub>Although this method limits the climate-damaging effects of the methane itself, it is a short-term and inadequate solution to the problem of greenhouse gas emission from landfills.</p><p>In addition to its adverse effect on the climate, the lost methane represents a missed opportunity to capture this valuable resource. The study estimates that approximately one-fifth of the nation\'s landfills would be suitable for such capture and processing, if economic and other hurdles can be overcome.</p><p>Currently, microorganisms degrading municipal solid waste generate landfill gas consisting of roughly 50% methane and 50% CO<sub>2</sub>. By understanding the subtle workings of these microorganisms -- particularly, methanogenic <em>Archaea</em>, which are the real workhorses in the methane production cycle -- researchers hope to boost methane output.</p><p>The increased methane can be harvested and used to create electricity, carbon neutral fuels or to heat homes. The latter option is particularly attractive as no further processing of the methane would be required. Alternately, modifying microbial communities could potentially be used to limit methane output, where mitigation is desired.</p><p><strong>On the hunt for archaea</strong></p><p>Landfills provide an ideal setting for the detailed study of <em>Archaea</em>, which are notoriously challenging to culture in the laboratory. Roughly 80% of archaea diversity remains largely unexplored. \"Our labs are really interested in the methanogens because the same metabolism they enact in the wetlands, which make them the highest source of methane, or instead the human gastrointestinal tract, they enact in the landfills,\" Reynolds says.</p><p>Because the methanogens are primitive, single-celled organisms, they can equally make use of plant, or food matter, or paper products. While the study found similar methane concentrations at their arid landfill site compared to other landfills, different communities of methanogens are doing the heavy lifting. The study demonstrates that microbial behavior is also dependent on the age of the solid waste deposited. Younger waste is higher in temperature compared with older waste and degrades according to different regimes. The aridity has also been shown to greatly affect solid waste breakdown over time.</p><p>\"There\'s a restructuring or reorganization of these arid climate microbes in landfills,\" Reynolds says. Future investigations will be aimed at clarifying the distinctions in these communities relative to their temperate and humid counterparts.</p><p>Further research will explore landfill microbial communities in greater detail as well as the use of biostimulants or other techniques that could be used to modify methane production.</p>','2022-04-15 20:22:16.532483','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Arizona State University','Scientists explore microbial communities flourishing in leachate, a liquid percolating through solid waste in a landfill. They find that the composition and behavior of specific microbes found in arid landfills, like those in Arizona, are distinct from similar communities in more subtropical or temperate climates. Microbial composition also differs depending on the age of the landfill deposits.\n',1,87,'<li>Mark C. Reynolds, Damien Finn, Analissa F. Sarno, Richard Allen, J. David Deathrage, Rosa Krajmalnik-Brown, Hinsby Cadillo-Quiroz. <strong>Delineating the Drivers and Functionality of Methanogenic Niches within an Arid Landfill</strong>. <em>Applied and Environmental Microbiology</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/aem.02438-21\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1128/aem.02438-21</a>\n</li>'),(2204,'A new toolkit to engineer safe and efficient therapeutic cells','a-new-toolkit-to-engineer-safe-and-efficient-therapeutic-cells','2022-04-15 20:22:18.673056',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Therapies based on engineered immune cells have recently emerged as a promising approach in the treatment of cancer. Compared to traditional drugs, engineered immune cells are more precise and sophisticated in their ability to detect and eliminate cancer cells.</p><p>But despite their promise, cell-based therapies still face important limitations, including toxicity and the possibility that they could attack healthy cells. In addition, scientists don\'t have a good handle on how to modify existing therapeutic cells to expand their applications or better control their activity.</p><p>To overcome these limitations, researchers at Gladstone Institutes and UC San Francisco (UCSF) undertook a systematic analysis of the molecular building blocks used to engineer therapeutic cells. Their work, reported in the journal <em>Cell</em>, resulted in a comprehensive rule book for the design of therapeutic cells with improved specificity and safety, and for the eventual customization of cell-based therapies.</p><p>\"We have identified principles that should greatly facilitate the engineering of therapeutic cells with greater sensitivity, accuracy, and safety than was possible before,\" says Kole Roybal, PhD, an associate professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at UCSF, an affiliate investigator at Gladstone Institutes and core member of the Gladstone-UCSF Institute of Genomic Immunology, a Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy investigator, and the study\'s senior author. \"Our work will provide biomedical researchers with a toolkit for directing a range of cell-based therapies to their intended targets and for programming their therapeutic activities.\"</p><p><strong>Building a Better Receptor</strong></p><p>At the core of most therapeutic cells is a molecule called a receptor. Receptors are large proteins that straddle the cell\'s outer membrane. Their outer portion recognizes a specific target (for instance a protein on the surface of a cancer cell) and their inner portion tells the cell what to do upon recognizing this target. One way to engineer a therapeutic cell is to insert in a cell -- often an immune cell called a T cell -- a synthetic receptor made by piecing together fragments of known receptors.</p><p>This approach was used to create CAR-T cells, which have proven very effective at eliminating some types of blood cancers. CAR-T cells harbor a \"chimeric antigen receptor\" (CAR) that is based on a receptor normally found in T cells.</p><p>Starting with a different backbone, Roybal previously developed a receptor called synNotch that can direct T cells to better recognize and kill solid tumors. Since this early stage research, Roybal\'s lab has shown how synNotch can be used in combination with CARs to develop next-generation cell therapies for ovarian cancer and mesothelioma. The synNotch receptor allows scientists to precisely control when and where the therapeutic T cell is active.</p><p>\"These smart cell therapies can unleash potent therapeutic activity precisely at the site of disease, improving the efficacy of the therapy and reducing the chance of life-threatening toxicities seen in patients,\" says Roybal.</p><p>However, the original synNotch receptor is difficult to deploy for cell-based therapy in humans. For one thing it is bulky, which makes it difficult to insert into human cells. For another, some of its parts come from mouse, yeast, and viruses instead of human receptors, which could lead to immune rejection of the engineered cells once introduced in a patient.</p><p>To understand what they could keep and remove from the synNotch receptor without losing its desirable features, the Roybal team systematically swapped out various portions of the receptor. After inserting the modified receptors in human T cells, the scientists tested their ability to recognize their intended targets and activate the expected response.</p><p>\"A challenging but fun feat was figuring out how different parts of known receptors function, so that we could take those pieces apart and put them back together in novel ways to meet our design specifications,\" says Raymond Liu, PhD, a first author of the study and postdoctoral fellow in Roybal\'s lab.</p><p>In the end, the team produced a catalog of receptors they dubbed SNIPRs, which are small enough for cost-effective engineering into human cells. They are also made exclusively from human receptor fragments and can detect and respond to even small amounts of their targets. In addition, the activity of SNIPRs can be adapted so that cells that harbor them don\'t just kill target cells, but can also deliver specific molecules to precise disease locations.</p><p>\"Understanding the rules of receptor design allowed us to build receptors that are more effective and also better suited for clinical translation,\" says Iowis Zhu, a graduate student in the Roybal Lab and the other first author of the new study.</p><p><strong>A Platform for Next-Generation Cell Therapy</strong></p><p>The researchers next assessed the ability of these optimized receptors to clear tumors in mouse models of leukemia, mesothelioma, and ovarian cancer.</p><p>To reduce the chances of killing non-target cells, they combined a SNIPR designed to recognize one molecule on the tumor with a CAR receptor tuned to another tumor molecule. Moreover, they made the production of the CAR receptor dependent on the activation of the SNIPR receptor. This way, only cells carrying the targets of both the synNotch and the CAR receptors would be killed, while cells carrying only one target would not.</p><p>In each of the three cancer types they tested, this two-step targeting strategy led to more selective elimination of cancer cells than could be achieved with either receptor alone, highlighting the promise of this approach to reduce off-target toxicity of cell therapies.</p><p>Cell therapies based on SNIPRs are now being optimized for the treatment of ovarian cancer, renal cancer, prostate cancer, and glioblastoma in both the academic setting and a company called Arsenal Bio, co-founded by Roybal.</p><p>And cancer may not be the only condition that could be treated with SNIPR-based cell therapy.</p><p>This receptor system is also amenable to enhancing the anti-inflammatory activity of immune cells for the treatment of autoimmunity. In addition, SNIPRs could be used to target stem cells or other cell types to detect tissue damage and induce tissue repair or the reversal of fibrosis.</p><p>\"Engineered cells have the potential to operate as much smarter therapeutics than traditional small molecules and biologics,\" says Roybal. \"We\'re hoping our new receptor system will serve as a technology platform enabling scientists and clinicians to design safer, targeted, and more effective cell-based therapies against cancer and many other diseases.\"</p>','2022-04-15 20:22:18.673056','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Gladstone Institutes','Researchers undertook a systematic analysis of the molecular building blocks used to engineer therapeutic cells. Their work resulted in a comprehensive rule book for the design of therapeutic cells with improved specificity and safety, and for the eventual customization of cell-based therapies.\n',1,89,'<li>Iowis Zhu, Raymond Liu, Julie M. Garcia, Axel Hyrenius-Wittsten, Dan I. Piraner, Josef Alavi, Divya V. Israni, Bin Liu, Ahmad S. Khalil, Kole T. Roybal. <strong>Modular design of synthetic receptors for programmed gene regulation in cell therapies</strong>. <em>Cell</em>, 2022; 185 (8): 1431 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2022.03.023\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.cell.2022.03.023</a>\n</li>'),(2205,'Rain, floods and green infrastructure: Are cities mitigating the hazards equitably?','rain,-floods-and-green-infrastructure:-are-cities-mitigating-the-hazards-equitably?','2022-04-15 20:22:24.313530',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">As cities grow, the area of impervious surfaces they cover grows. In cities across the US, roads, rooftops, parking lots, sidewalks and driveways increased by an average of 326,000 hectares per year between 2012 and 2017.</p><p>When it rains, stormwater gathers on these surfaces or flows into gutters, storm drains and sewer systems. However, extreme precipitation events can overwhelm a city\'s capacity to transport stormwater, resulting in urban floods. The introduction of green infrastructures (GI), such as bioswales with permeable surfaces, has provided municipalities with a new tool to manage flood risk associated with rainfall. Cities including Portland, Phoenix and Atlanta have developed plans and invested in implementing GI to mitigate the risk of floods.</p><p>New research from Portland State University combines demographic data with the distribution of GI and geographic areas prone to rainwater flooding in Portland, Phoenix and Atlanta and asks whether these cities are equitably building GI to mitigate flood risks.</p><p>The paper, \"Urban flood risk and green infrastructure: Who is exposed to risk and who benefits from investment? A case study of three US cities,\" appears in Landscape and Urban Planning.</p><p>According to the paper\'s lead author, Arun Pallathadka, a Ph.D. student in the Earth, Environment and Society program at Portland State, the research team found that the placement of GI in each of the cities inconsistently overlapped with areas prone to rainwater flooding, and non-white and low-income populations were more vulnerable to flood risk. Portland and Phoenix have increased investments in GI in neighborhoods with higher populations of non-white and low-income residents, marking a transition to more equitable flood risk management. In Atlanta, the risk of rainwater flooding was relatively low for non-white and low-income residents, though there was a substantial disparity in GI coverage.</p><p>\"Flooding is the costliest natural hazard,\" Pallathadka said. \"But when we talk about flooding, the focus is often on the floodplain, on rivers. But with climate change, we\'re expecting an increase in flooding associated with rainfall events. We wanted to know where the hotspots in cities are associated with a risk of flooding from rain, who are the people living in those communities, and where are cities placing infrastructure to help reduce the hazards.\"</p><p>In addition to the spatial, temporal and demographic analysis, the research team, which includes Heejun Chang, a professor of geography at Portland State and Jason Sauer and Nancy Grimm of Arizona State University, developed that can be used by researchers, city planners and policymakers to categorize neighborhood risk levels. Cities can use the tool to help guide investments in GI to neighborhoods most at risk of flooding from rainfall events. A conceptual framework for understanding the distribution and implications of urban pluvial flood risk and green infrastructure (GI) in urban communities.</p><p>The methods deployed by the team provide cities with a novel approach to assessing the need for GI in neighborhoods prone to flooding associated with rainwater while also planning for the equitable distribution of those resources as they move ahead under the threat of increasing extreme precipitation events associated with a warming planet.</p>','2022-04-15 20:22:24.313530','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Portland State University','New research combines demographic data with the distribution of GI and geographic areas prone to rainwater flooding in Portland, Phoenix and Atlanta and asks whether these cities are equitably building GI to mitigate flood risks.\n',1,93,'<li>Arun Pallathadka, Jason Sauer, Heejun Chang, Nancy B. Grimm. <strong>Urban flood risk and green infrastructure: Who is exposed to risk and who benefits from investment? A case study of three U.S. Cities</strong>. <em>Landscape and Urban Planning</em>, 2022; 223: 104417 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2022.104417\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.landurbplan.2022.104417</a>\n</li>'),(2206,'Engineers enlist AI to help scale up advanced solar cell manufacturing','engineers-enlist-ai-to-help-scale-up-advanced-solar-cell-manufacturing','2022-04-15 21:29:09.202658',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Perovskites are a family of materials that are currently the leading contender to potentially replace today\'s silicon-based solar photovoltaics. They hold the promise of panels that are far thinner and lighter, that could be made with ultra-high throughput at room temperature instead of at hundreds of degrees, and that are cheaper and easier to transport and install. But bringing these materials from controlled laboratory experiments into a product that can be manufactured competitively has been a long struggle.</p><p>Manufacturing perovskite-based solar cells involves optimizing at least a dozen or so variables at once, even within one particular manufacturing approach among many possibilities. But a new system based on a novel approach to machine learning could speed up the development of optimized production methods and help make the next generation of solar power a reality.</p><p>The system, developed by researchers at MIT and Stanford University over the last few years, makes it possible to integrate data from prior experiments, and information based on personal observations by experienced workers, into the machine learning process. This makes the outcomes more accurate and has already led to the manufacturing of perovskite cells with an energy conversion efficiency of 18.5 percent, a competitive level for today\'s market.</p><p>The research is reported in the journal <em>Joule</em>, in a paper by MIT professor of mechanical engineering Tonio Buonassisi, Stanford professor of materials science and engineering Reinhold Dauskardt, recent MIT research assistant Zhe Liu, Stanford doctoral graduate Nicholas Rolston, and three others.</p><p>Perovskites are a group of layered crystalline compounds defined by the configuration of the atoms in their crystal lattice. There are thousands of such possible compounds and many different ways of making them. While most lab-scale development of perovskite materials uses a spin-coating technique, that\'s not practical for larger-scale manufacturing, so companies and labs around the world have been searching for ways of translating these lab materials into a practical, manufacturable product.</p><p>\"There\'s always a big challenge when you\'re trying to take a lab-scale process and then transfer it to something like a startup or a manufacturing line,\" says Rolston, who is now an assistant professor at Arizona State University. The team looked at a process that they felt had the greatest potential, a method called rapid spray plasma processing, or RSPP.</p><p>The manufacturing process would involve a moving roll-to-roll surface, or series of sheets, on which the precursor solutions for the perovskite compound would be sprayed or ink-jetted as the sheet rolled by. The material would then move on to a curing stage, providing a rapid and continuous output \"with throughputs that are higher than for any other photovoltaic technology,\" Rolston says.</p><p>\"The real breakthrough with this platform is that it would allow us to scale in a way that no other material has allowed us to do,\" he adds. \"Even materials like silicon require a much longer timeframe because of the processing that\'s done. Whereas you can think of [this approach as more] like spray painting.\"</p><p>Within that process, at least a dozen variables may affect the outcome, some of them more controllable than others. These include the composition of the starting materials, the temperature, the humidity, the speed of the processing path, the distance of the nozzle used to spray the material onto a substrate, and the methods of curing the material. Many of these factors can interact with each other, and if the process is in open air, then humidity, for example, may be uncontrolled. Evaluating all possible combinations of these variables through experimentation is impossible, so machine learning was needed to help guide the experimental process.</p><p>But while most machine-learning systems use raw data such as measurements of the electrical and other properties of test samples, they don\'t typically incorporate human experience such as qualitative observations made by the experimenters of the visual and other properties of the test samples, or information from other experiments reported by other researchers. So, the team found a way to incorporate such outside information into the machine learning model, using a probability factor based on a mathematical technique called Bayesian Optimization.</p><p>Using the system, he says, \"having a model that comes from experimental data, we can find out trends that we weren\'t able to see before.\" For example, they initially had trouble adjusting for uncontrolled variations in humidity in their ambient setting. But the model showed them \"that we could overcome our humidity challenges by changing the temperature, for instance, and by changing some of the other knobs.\"</p><p>The system now allows experimenters to much more rapidly guide their process in order to optimize it for a given set of conditions or required outcomes. In their experiments, the team focused on optimizing the power output, but the system could also be used to simultaneously incorporate other criteria, such as cost and durability -- something members of the team are continuing to work on, Buonassisi says.</p><p>The researchers were encouraged by the Department of Energy, which sponsored the work, to commercialize the technology, and they\'re currently focusing on tech transfer to existing perovskite manufacturers. \"We are reaching out to companies now,\" Buonassisi says, and the code they developed has been made freely available through an open-source server. \"It\'s now on GitHub, anyone can download it, anyone can run it,\" he says. \"We\'re happy to help companies get started in using our code.\"</p><p>Already, several companies are gearing up to produce perovskite-based solar panels, even though they are still working out the details of how to produce them, says Liu, who is now at the Northwestern Polytechnical University in Xi\'an, China. He says companies there are not yet doing large-scale manufacturing, but instead starting with smaller, high-value applications such as building-integrated solar tiles where appearance is important. Three of these companies \"are on track or are being pushed by investors to manufacture 1 meter by 2-meter rectangular modules [comparable to today\'s most common solar panels], within two years,\" he says.</p><p>\'The problem is, they don\'t have a consensus on what manufacturing technology to use,\" Liu says. The RSPP method, developed at Stanford, \"still has a good chance\" to be competitive, he says. And the machine learning system the team developed could prove to be important in guiding the optimization of whatever process ends up being used.</p><p>\"The primary goal was to accelerate the process, so it required less time, less experiments, and less human hours to develop something that is usable right away, for free, for industry,\" he says.</p><p>The team also included Austin Flick and Thomas Colburn at Stanford and Zekun Ren at the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Science and Technology (SMART). In addition to the Department of Energy, the work was supported by a fellowship from the MIT Energy Initiative, the Graduate Research Fellowship Program from the National Science Foundation, and the SMART program.</p>','2022-04-15 21:29:09.202658','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Massachusetts Institute of Technology','Perovskite materials could potentially replace silicon to make solar cells that are far thinner, lighter, and cheaper. But turning these materials into a product that can be manufactured competitively has been a long struggle. A new system using machine learning could speed the development of optimized production methods, and help make this next generation of solar power a reality.\n',1,25,'<li>Zhe Liu, Nicholas Rolston, Austin C. Flick, Thomas W. Colburn, Zekun Ren, Reinhold H. Dauskardt, Tonio Buonassisi. <strong>Machine learning with knowledge constraints for process optimization of open-air perovskite solar cell manufacturing</strong>. <em>Joule</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.joule.2022.03.003\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.joule.2022.03.003</a>\n</li>'),(2207,'A key brain region for substance use disorders now has a searchable atlas of distinct cell populations','a-key-brain-region-for-substance-use-disorders-now-has-a-searchable-atlas-of-distinct-cell-populations','2022-04-16 00:12:51.945371',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">In a work of systematic biology that advances the field, University of Alabama at Birmingham researchers have identified 16 distinct cell populations in a complex area of the midbrain called the ventral tegmental area, or VTA.</p><p>The VTA is important for its role in the dopamine neurotransmission involved in reward-directed behavior. Substance use disorders involve dysregulation of these reward circuits, leading to repeated drug-seeking despite adverse consequences. These include more than 100,000 drug overdose deaths in the United States in the most recent year. The VTA also has a role in several other neuropsychiatric disorders.</p><p>Thus, expanding knowledge of its function is a start to explaining the mechanisms for substance use disorders involving drugs like cocaine, alcohol, opioids and nicotine, or psychiatric disorders like schizophrenia and attention deficit hyperactivity, or ADHD.</p><p>Dopamine is one of the neurotransmitters used by the brain as chemical messengers to send signals between nerve cells. While decades of research have focused on dopaminergic neurotransmission in the VTA, there is also substantial evidence for the importance of two other neurotransmitters acting in the VTA in reward-related behaviors -- GABA and glutamate. There is also evidence for \"combinatorial\" neurons that can potentially synthesize and release multiple neurotransmitters. These suggest an additional layer of complexity in VTA cellular and synaptic function.</p><p>Systematic biology is the science of classification, and it usually refers to the classification of organisms with regard to their natural relationships. The UAB VTA study classifies cell populations to extend and deepen previous work on the different cell types in the VTA, to provide a starting point for deciphering the relationships among these cells and their broad connections to other areas of the brain. The research, published in <em>Cell Reports</em>, was led by co-first authors Robert A. Phillips III and Jennifer J. Tuscher, Ph.D., and corresponding author Jeremy J. Day, Ph.D.</p><p>The 16 distinct cell populations were identified by differences in gene expression after single-nucleus RNA sequencing of 21,600 cells from the rat VTA, creating a searchable online atlas of the VTA. The rat is the prime model for reward and substance use studies. This unbiased approach -- in contrast to previous studies that selected some subsets of cells for RNA sequencing -- was used to create the largest and most comprehensive single-cell transcriptomic analysis focused exclusively on the composition and molecular architecture of the VTA.</p><p>Though it was well known that the VTA is composed of heterogeneous cell types, the UAB atlas expands those studies in several key ways.</p><p>\"For example, previous single-cell sequencing studies were conducted exclusively in the mouse brain and have relied primarily on sequencing a subset of fluorescence-activated cell sorting-isolated midbrain dopaminergic populations, rather than sampling all VTA cell types,\" Day said. \"Notably, our sequencing dataset focuses exclusively on VTA sub-regions, unlike other studies that have focused on pooled cells from the mouse substantia nigra and VTA or a subset of fluorescently tagged cells from general midbrain regions.\"</p><p>The 16 distinct cell populations include classic dopaminergic neurons, three subsets of glutamatergic neurons and three subsets of GABAergic neurons, as well as nine other cell types, including astrocytes and glial cells.</p><p>After sub-clustering neuronal cells, the UAB researchers also identified four sub-clusters that may represent neurons capable of combinatorial neurotransmitter release. They also identified selective gene markers for classically defined dopamine neurons and for the combinatorial neurons. A selective marker allows viral targeting of distinct VTA subclasses for functional studies.</p><p>The researchers also examined sub-clusters for opioid neuropeptides and their receptors, and identified pan-neuronal increased expression for risk genes associated with schizophrenia and \"smoking initiation,\" as well as enrichment of ADHD risk genes in two glutamatergic neuronal populations.</p><p>Co-authors besides Day, Phillips and Tuscher for the study, \"An atlas of transcriptionally defined cell populations in the rat ventral tegmental area,\" are Samantha L. Black, Emma Andraka and N. Dalton Fitzgerald, UAB Department of Neurobiology and Evelyn F. McKnight Brain Institute; and Lara Ianov, Civitan International Research Center at UAB. Day, Phillips and Tuscher are, respectively, associate professor, graduate student and postdoctoral fellow in the UAB Department of Neurobiology.</p><p>Support came from National Institutes of Health grants MH114990, DA039650 and DA048348; UAB\'s Pittman Scholars Program, AMC21 Scholars Program and Civitan International Research Center; and a Brain and Behavior Research Foundation Young Investigator grant.</p>','2022-04-16 00:12:51.945371','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Alabama at Birmingham','In a work of systematic biology that advances the field, researchers have identified 16 distinct cell populations in a complex area of the midbrain called the ventral tegmental area, or VTA. The VTA is important for its role in the dopamine neurotransmission involved in reward-directed behavior. Substance use disorders involve dysregulation of these reward circuits, leading to repeated drug-seeking despite adverse consequences.\n',1,182,'<li>Robert A. Phillips, Jennifer J. Tuscher, Samantha L. Black, Emma Andraka, N. Dalton Fitzgerald, Lara Ianov, Jeremy J. Day. <strong>An atlas of transcriptionally defined cell populations in the rat ventral tegmental area</strong>. <em>Cell Reports</em>, 2022; 39 (1): 110616 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2022.110616\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.celrep.2022.110616</a>\n</li>'),(2208,'New knowledge on lymphoid cell maturity could lead to more effective IBD therapies','new-knowledge-on-lymphoid-cell-maturity-could-lead-to-more-effective-ibd-therapies','2022-04-16 00:12:54.148436',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">A research group at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden has analysed how certain immune cells known as innate lymphoid cells (ILCs) develop into mature cells that play a part in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The findings could pave the way for more effective treatments against IBD, a disease that causes considerable suffering and that is linked to an increased risk of colorectal cancer. The results are published today in the journal <em>Science Immunology.</em></p><p>Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is characterised by a chronic inflammation of the gut mucosa that is thought to increase the risk of colon cancer. The disease often debuts before middle age with symptoms such as abdominal pain and weight loss. The cause is unknown but genetical, environmental and immunological factors are all believed to play a role. As a large group of IBD patients do not respond to available treatments, there is a great need for new knowledge about the mechanisms driving the disease.</p><p>ILCs are lymphocytes, a family of immune cells, found in the mucosa where they form part of the immune system and maintain tissue function, such as the production of mucous. Previous research has shown that ILCs change function during inflammation, making them a promising target for IBD treatment.</p><p>In the present study, the researchers isolated ILCs from the tonsils and gut tissue of patients who had undergone resection surgery or endoscopic examination. A total of 48 patients were involved in the study, 31 of whom had IBD. The ILCs were then examined in detail, both immediately after isolation and after cell culture.</p><p>The results show that a subgroup of ILCs constitute a pre-stage of mature ILCs and accumulate in the intestinal mucosa of patients with IBD. Factors in the gut environment can then influence the metabolism of the immature ILCs, stimulate increased cell division and production of cytokines, including IL-22, which helps to protect the intestinal tissue.</p><p>\"The function of ILCs changes during inflammation and therefore ILCs represent a promising therapeutic target for conditions like inflammatory bowel disease,\" says the study\'s first author Efthymia Kokkinou, doctoral student at the Department of Medicine, Huddinge at Karolinska Institutet. \"Insight into how these cells develop from immature cells into mature cells in tissue helps us understand how they influence tissue function or inflammation in mucosa and how they can be manipulated for therapeutic purposes.</p><p>The research group now hopes to study if the presence and properties of immature intestinal ILCs can predict responses to medical drugs, particularly those containing the active substances ustekinumab, infliximab and tofacitinib, which are currently used to treat Crohn\'s disease and ulcerative colitis, two of the most common IBDs.</p><p>\"These studies are important since the right choice of effective treatment can reduce both personal suffering and societal costs,\" says Jenny Mjösberg, associate professor at the same department at Karolinska Institutet and the study\'s senior author.</p><p>The study was mainly financed through an ERC starting grant and by the Erling-Persson Foundation, the Swedish Research Council, the Swedish Cancer Society, the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research, the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation and Karolinska Institutet.</p>','2022-04-16 00:12:54.148436','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Karolinska Institutet','A research group has analyzed how certain immune cells known as innate lymphoid cells (ILCs) develop into mature cells that play a part in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The findings could pave the way for more effective treatments against IBD, a disease that causes considerable suffering and that is linked to an increased risk of colorectal cancer.\n',1,121,'<li>Efthymia Kokkinou, Ram Vinay Pandey, Luca Mazzurana, Irene Gutierrez-Perez, Christopher Andrew Tibbitt, Whitney Weigel, Tea Soini, Anna Carrasco, Anna Rao, Maho Nagasawa, Suzanne M. Bal, Mattias Jangard, Danielle Friberg, Ulrik Lindforss, Caroline Nordenvall, Malin Ljunggren, Staffan Haapaniemi, Åsa V. Keita, Johan Söderholm, Charlotte Hedin, Hergen Spits, Yenan T. Bryceson, Jenny Mjösberg. <strong>CD45RA                         CD62L            −            ILCs in human tissues represent a quiescent local reservoir for the generation of differentiated ILCs</strong>. <em>Science Immunology</em>, 2022; 7 (70) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciimmunol.abj8301\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1126/sciimmunol.abj8301</a>\n</li>'),(2209,'Changes in vegetation shaped global temperatures over last 10,000 years','changes-in-vegetation-shaped-global-temperatures-over-last-10,000-years','2022-04-16 00:13:00.195169',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Follow the pollen. Records from past plant life tell the real story of global temperatures, according to research from a climate scientist at Washington University in St. Louis.</p><p>Warmer temperatures brought plants -- and then came even warmer temperatures, according to new model simulations published April 15 in <em>Science Advances</em>.</p><p>Alexander Thompson, a postdoctoral research associate in earth and planetary sciences in Arts &amp; Sciences, updated simulations from an important climate model to reflect the role of changing vegetation as a key driver of global temperatures over the last 10,000 years.</p><p>Thompson had long been troubled by a problem with models of Earth\'s atmospheric temperatures since the last ice age. Too many of these simulations showed temperatures warming consistently over time.</p><p>But climate proxy records tell a different story. Many of those sources indicate a marked peak in global temperatures that occurred between 6,000 and 9,000 years ago.</p><p>Thompson had a hunch that the models could be overlooking the role of changes in vegetation in favor of impacts from atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations or ice cover.</p><p>\"Pollen records suggest a large expansion of vegetation during that time,\" Thompson said.</p><p>\"But previous models only show a limited amount of vegetation growth,\" he said. \"So, even though some of these other simulations have included dynamic vegetation, it wasn\'t nearly enough of a vegetation shift to account for what the pollen records suggest.\"</p><p>In reality, the changes to vegetative cover were significant.</p><p>Early in the Holocene, the current geological epoch, the Sahara Desert in Africa grew greener than today -- it was more of a grassland. Other Northern Hemisphere vegetation including the coniferous and deciduous forests in the mid-latitudes and the Arctic also thrived.</p><p>Thompson took evidence from pollen records and designed a set of experiments with a climate model known as the Community Earth System Model (CESM), one of the best-regarded models in a wide-ranging class of such models. He ran simulations to account for a range of changes in vegetation that had not been previously considered.</p><p>\"Expanded vegetation during the Holocene warmed the globe by as much as 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit,\" Thompson said. \"Our new simulations align closely with paleoclimate proxies. So this is exciting that we can point to Northern Hemisphere vegetation as one potential factor that allows us to resolve the controversial Holocene temperature conundrum.\"</p><p>Understanding the scale and timing of temperature change throughout the Holocene is important because it is a period of recent history, geologically speaking. The rise of human agriculture and civilization occurred during this time, so many scientists and historians from different disciplines are interested in understanding how early and mid-Holocene climate differed from the present day.</p><p>Thompson conducted this research work as a graduate student at the University of Michigan. He is continuing his research in the laboratory of climate scientist Bronwen Konecky at Washington University.</p><p>\"Overall, our study emphasizes that accounting for vegetation change is critical,\" Thompson said. \"Projections for future climate change are more likely to produce more trustworthy predictions if they include changes in vegetation.\"</p>','2022-04-16 00:13:00.195169','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Washington University in St. Louis','Follow the pollen. Records from past plant life tell the real story of global temperatures. Warmer temperatures brought plants -- and then came even warmer temperatures, according to new model simulations.\n',1,34,'<li>Alexander J. Thompson, Jiang Zhu, Christopher J. Poulsen, Jessica E. Tierney, Christopher B. Skinner. <strong>Northern Hemisphere vegetation change drives a Holocene thermal maximum</strong>. <em>Science Advances</em>, 2022; 8 (15) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abj6535\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1126/sciadv.abj6535</a>\n</li>'),(2210,'US Nationwide maps of bird species can help protect biodiversity','us-nationwide-maps-of-bird-species-can-help-protect-biodiversity','2022-04-16 14:22:21.866831',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison developed the maps at a fine-enough resolution to help conservation managers focus their efforts where they are most likely to help birds -- in individual counties or forests, rather than across whole states or regions.</p><p>The maps span the contiguous U.S. and predict the diversity of birds that live in a given area, related by traits such as nesting on the ground or being endangered. Those predictions are based on both detailed observations of birds and environmental factors that affect bird ranges, such as the degree of forest cover or temperature in an area.</p><p>\"With these maps, managers have a tool they didn\'t have before that allows them to get both a broad perspective as well as information at the level of detail that\'s necessary for their action plans,\" says Anna Pidgeon, a professor of forest and wildlife ecology at UW-Madison who helped lead the development of the maps.</p><p>Pidgeon worked with UW-Madison professor Volker Radeloff, postdoctoral researcher and lead author Kathleen Carroll and others to publish the research and the final maps April 11 in the journal Ecological Applications. The maps are available for public download from the open-access website Dryad.</p><p>The research was designed to address two outstanding problems in conservation.</p><p>\"Across the world we\'re seeing huge species losses. In North America, 3 billion birds have been lost since 1970. This is across virtually all habitat types,\" says Carroll. \"And we\'re seeing a disconnect between what scientists produce for conservation and how that translates to boots-on-the-ground management.\"</p><p>Many resources previously available to conservation managers, such as species range maps, are both at too broad of a scale to be useful and not rigorously tested for accuracy.</p><p>To overcome those challenges, Carroll and her team wanted to develop data-driven maps of existing bird biodiversity. They produced the maps by extrapolating observations of birds from scientific surveys to mile-by-mile predictions of where different species really live. Those predictions were based on factors including rainfall, the degree of forest cover and the extent of human influence on the environment, such as the presence of cities or farms.</p><p>To improve the predictive power of their maps, the scientists clustered individual species by behavior, habitat, diet, or conservation status -- such as fruit eaters or forest dwellers. These groups are called guilds. Many conservation decisions happen at the guild level, rather than at the level of species. Guilds can also make up for limited information on the most endangered species.</p><p>The final maps cover 19 different guilds at resolutions of 0.5, 2.5 and 5 kilometers. While the finest-grained maps were not as accurate, the 2.5-kilometer-resolution maps provided a good balance of accuracy and usefulness for realistic conservation needs, say the scientists. At the 5-kilometer resolution, the maps provide the greatest accuracy and are useful to conservationists operating across large areas.</p><p>\"We see this being really applicable for things like forest management action plans for the U.S. Forest Service,\" says Carroll. \"They can pull up these maps for a group of interest, and they can get a very clear indication of what areas where they might want to limit human use.\"</p><p>The maps may also help private land conservancies decide where to prioritize limited resources to maximize biodiversity protections.</p><p>Carroll is now working to extend the analysis down to individual species, rather than guilds made up of multiple species. The increased level of detail could help specialist conservation managers improve their work, especially those aiming to protect a single species.</p><p><em>This work was supported in part by the U.S. Geological Survey Landsat Science Team (grants G17PS00256) and the NASA Biodiversity and Ecological Forecasting Program (grant 20-BIODIV20-00460.</em></p><p><strong>Story Source:</strong></p>','2022-04-16 14:22:21.866831','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Wisconsin-Madison','Researchers have developed the maps at a fine-enough resolution to help conservation managers focus their efforts where they are most likely to help birds -- in individual counties or forests, rather than across whole states or regions.\n',1,34,'<li>Kathleen A. Carroll, Laura S. Farwell, Anna M. Pidgeon, Elena Razenkova, David Gudex‐Cross, David P. Helmers, Katarzyna E. Lewińska, Paul R. Elsen, Volker C. Radeloff. <strong>Mapping breeding bird species richness at management‐relevant resolutions across the United States</strong>. <em>Ecological Applications</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/eap.2624\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1002/eap.2624</a>\n</li>'),(2211,'Body\'s response to different strains of tuberculosis could affect transmission','body\'s-response-to-different-strains-of-tuberculosis-could-affect-transmission','2022-04-16 23:46:24.291087',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Two strains of the bacterium causing tuberculosis have only minor genetic differences but attack the lungs in completely different fashion, according to Rutgers researchers.</p><p>The findings, published in the journal <em>Nature Communications</em>, could help break the cycle of rapid transmission of TB, the second-leading infectious killer in the world after COVID-19, according to the World Health Organization. The disease mechanisms uncovered in the study could also provide answers about why treatments work in some patients but not others.</p><p>\"These findings implicate strain differences as having an important effect on the response of lung alveolar macrophages and how tuberculosis manifests itself in the body and how it is transmitted,\" said study author Padmini Salgame, associate director of the Public Health Research Institute at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. \"We also believe it will inform anyone hoping to devise more effective treatments.\"</p><p>To better understand transmission and how it relates to treatment outcomes, the researchers focused on the impact these two strains of <em>Mycobacterium tuberculosis</em> have on the lungs. Though the strains differ slightly in their gene sequences, one is regarded as \"high transmission\" because it spreads easily and the second as \"low transmission\" because it does not infect as readily. TB bacteria are spread through the air when persons with TB disease in their lungs cough, speak or even sing.</p><p>Using strains identified in a Rutgers collaborative study with researchers at Núcleo de Doenças Infecciosas (NDI)in Brazil comparing \"high transmission\" and \"low transmission\" households of people with TB, the scientists studied the immune pathways that the pathogen triggered in the lungs of the infected mice.</p><p>In mice infected with the high transmission strain, their lungs quickly formed clumps of immune cells known as granulomas that encased the invading bacteria, stopping development of a more virulent disease. In most cases, the granulomas broke down eventually, spilling their contents. Researchers believe that if the escaped bacteria are close enough to the bronchial airway, they could be expelled into the air as infectious aerosols.</p><p>\"By inducing granulomas with the potential to develop into cavitary lesions that aids bacterial escape into the airways, high transmission <em>M. tuberculosis</em> strains are poised for greater transmissibility,\" said Salgame, who is also a professor in the Department of Medicine.</p><p>In mice infected with the low transmission strain, the invading bacteria were slow to activate the lung alveolar macrophages and ended up producing patches of inflammation within the lungs that did not allow the bacteria to escape into airways and allowed them to conglomerate and intensify the infection, Salgame said.</p><p>The discovery of the different trajectories taken by the strains gives hope to new approaches to stopping transmission and treatment.</p><p>\"We have long known that some individuals with TB are more infectious than others,\" Salgame said. \"However, until now, the mechanisms responsible for this variability in transmission between individuals with TB have not been well understood.\"</p><p>Other Rutgers authors included Arianne Lovey, Sheetal Verma, Vaishnavi Kaipilyawar and Jerrold Ellner, all at the Center for Emerging Pathogens, and Seema Husain of The Genomics Center.</p>','2022-04-16 23:46:24.291087','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Rutgers University','Two strains of the bacterium causing tuberculosis have only minor genetic differences but attack the lungs in completely different fashion, according to researchers.\n',1,52,'<li>Arianne Lovey, Sheetal Verma, Vaishnavi Kaipilyawar, Rodrigo Ribeiro-Rodrigues, Seema Husain, Moises Palaci, Reynaldo Dietze, Shuyi Ma, Robert D. Morrison, David. R. Sherman, Jerrold J. Ellner, Padmini Salgame. <strong>Early alveolar macrophage response and IL-1R-dependent T cell priming determine transmissibility of Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains</strong>. <em>Nature Communications</em>, 2022; 13 (1) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-28506-2\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41467-022-28506-2</a>\n</li>'),(2212,'With dwindling water supplies, the timing of rainfall matters','with-dwindling-water-supplies,-the-timing-of-rainfall-matters','2022-04-18 16:31:56.194537',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">A new UC Riverside study shows it\'s not how much extra water you give your plants, but when you give it that counts.</p><p>This is especially true near Palm Springs, where the research team created artificial rainfall to examine the effects on plants over the course of two years. This region has both winter and summer growing seasons, both of which are increasingly impacted by drought and, occasionally, extreme rain events.</p><p>Normally, some desert wildflowers and grasses begin growing in December, and are dead by June. A second community of plants sprouts in July and flowers in August. These include the wildflowers that make for an extremely popular tourist attraction in \"super bloom\" years.</p><p>\"We wanted to understand whether one season is more sensitive to climate change than another,\" said Marko Spasojevic, UCR plant ecologist and lead study author. \"If we see an increase or decrease in summer rains, or winter rains, how does that affect the ecosystem?\"</p><p>The team observed that in summer, plants grow more when given extra water, in addition to any natural rainfall. However, the same was not true in winter.</p><p>\"Essentially, adding water in summer gets us more bang for our buck,\" Spasojevic said.</p><p>Their findings are described in a paper published in the University of California journal <em>Elementa.</em></p><p>Over the course of the study, the team observed 24 plots of land at the Boyd Deep Canyon Desert Research Center, in the Palm Desert area. Some of the plots got whatever rain naturally fell. Others were covered and allowed to receive rain only in one season. A third group of plots received additional collected rainwater.</p><p>While adding water in summer resulted in higher plant biomass, it generally did not increase the diversity of plants that grew, the researchers noted. Decreasing rainfall, in contrast, had negative effects on plants across both summer and winter, but may lead to some increased growth in the following off-seasons.</p><p>Implications of the work extend beyond learning when additional water resources might be applied simply to help plants grow. Whole communities of animals depend on these plants. They are critical for pollinators such as bees and butterflies, and they play a big role in controlling erosion and movement of soils by wind.</p><p>\"Studies like this one are critical for understanding the complex effects of climate change to dryland ecosystems,\" said Darrel Jenerette, UCR landscape ecologist and study co-author.</p><p>Desert plants also play an important role in removing carbon dioxide and nitrogen from the atmosphere to use as fuel for growth. Microbes that live in the soil can use the carbon and nitrogen released by plant roots, then send it back into the atmosphere where it can affect the climate.</p><p>\"Drylands cover roughly a third of the land surface, so even small changes in the way they take in and emit carbon or nitrogen could have a big impact on our atmosphere,\" said Peter Homyak, UCR environmental scientist and study co-author.</p><p>As the team continues this research over the next few years, they expect to see changes in soil carbon and nitrogen cycling, given that plants are already being affected by changes in seasonal rainfall, as this study shows.</p><p>\"Can changes in precipitation patterns alter the feedback between plants and microbes, destabilizing the carbon locked in soils and sending more of it into the atmosphere? We are working on figuring that out,\" Homyak said.</p>','2022-04-18 16:31:56.194537','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of California - Riverside','A new study shows it\'s not how much extra water you give your plants, but when you give it that counts. Researchers observed that in summer, plants grow more when given extra water, in addition to any natural rainfall. However, the same is not true in winter.\n',1,54,'<li>Marko J. Spasojevic, Peter M. Homyak, G. Darrel Jenerette, Mike L. Goulden, Shane McFaul, Tesa Madsen-McQueen, Lisa Schauer, Miguel Solis. <strong>Altered precipitation has asymmetric impacts on annual plant communities in warm and cool growing seasons</strong>. <em>Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene</em>, 2022; 10 (1) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/elementa.2021.00014\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1525/elementa.2021.00014</a>\n</li>'),(2213,'Some children with cerebral palsy scoliosis may not need pelvic fixation, study shows','some-children-with-cerebral-palsy-scoliosis-may-not-need-pelvic-fixation,-study-shows','2022-04-18 16:32:21.148230',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">A new Michigan Medicine study finds that some children with cerebral palsy and scoliosis do not require pelvic fixation when undergoing growing rod treatment, potentially avoiding several complications.</p><p>Using data from around 20 health systems, researchers analyzed nearly 100 pediatric patients with cerebral palsy and scoliosis treated with growth-friendly implants, in which expandable rods are inserted into the back to help control the spinal curvature while still allowing the spine to grow. They found that for children with a pelvic tilt and lower lumbar spine tilt of fewer than 10 degrees, the pelvis did not need to be included when inserting growing rods. The results are published in <em>Spine Deformity</em>.</p><p>\"Inserting screws into the pelvis to anchor the growing rods is not benign; screws in that area tend to be more prominent,\" said G. Ying Li, M.D., lead author of the paper and pediatric orthopaedic surgeon at University of Michigan Health C.S. Mott Children\'s Hospital.</p><p>\"Prominent screws can be painful and can also cause overlying skin breakdown, leading to infection. In the past, there has also been a high rate of these screws failing. For these reasons, understanding which kids have enough of a tilt in their pelvis and lower lumbar spine to benefit from anchoring the rods into the pelvis is important.\"</p><p>Children with cerebral palsy have abnormal nerve and muscle control, and many of them are wheelchair users. When they develop scoliosis, the curve in their spine tends to be longer and more sweeping than those without the condition. The curve may extend into the pelvis, affecting standing and sitting balance and causing pressure that can make sitting more painful or lead to skin breakdown.</p><p>Patients treated with growing rods require more than one surgery, and most children eventually need a spinal fusion. Growth-friendly treatment is already associated with more complications than a single spinal fusion. For patients with cerebral palsy who have a small enough pelvic tilt, Li says, it is beneficial to avoid inserting screws into the pelvis in the early stages of growth-friendly treatment.</p><p>\"Even though we did see some children with growing rods anchored to the spine who later needed to have the rods anchored to the pelvis, we inserted those pelvic screws when kids were undergoing their final spinal fusion procedure,\" she said.</p><p>\"These findings provide fellow surgeons with more information to help patients avoid complications while still correcting a curve that can impact quality of life, pain and lung development for children with cerebral palsy.\"</p>','2022-04-18 16:32:21.148230','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Michigan Medicine - University of Michigan','A new study finds that some children with cerebral palsy and scoliosis do not require pelvic fixation when undergoing growth-friendly treatment. Researchers say those with a small enough pelvic and lower lumbar spine tilt may not need screws inserted into the pelvis, potentially avoiding several complications.\n',1,156,'<li>Ying Li, Jennylee Swallow, Joel Gagnier, John T. Smith, Robert F. Murphy, Paul D. Sponseller, Patrick J. Cahill. <strong>Pelvic fixation is not always necessary in children with cerebral palsy scoliosis treated with growth-friendly instrumentation</strong>. <em>Spine Deformity</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s43390-022-00474-z\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1007/s43390-022-00474-z</a>\n</li>'),(2214,'Study shows simple, computationally-light model can simulate complex brain cell responses','study-shows-simple,-computationally-light-model-can-simulate-complex-brain-cell-responses','2022-04-18 17:13:32.487796',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">The brain is arguably the single most important organ in the human body. It controls how we move, react, think and feel, and enables us to have complex emotions and memories. The brain is composed of approximately 86 billion neurons that form a complex network. These neurons receive, process, and transfer information using chemical and electrical signals.</p><p>Learning how neurons respond to different signals can further the understanding of cognition and development and improve the management of disorders of the brain. But experimentally studying neuronal networks is a complex and occasionally invasive procedure. Mathematical models provide a non-invasive means to accomplish the task of understanding neuronal networks, but most current models are either too computationally intensive, or they cannot adequately simulate the different types of complex neuronal responses. In a recent study, published in <em>Nonlinear Theory and Its Applications, IEICE</em>, a research team led by Prof. Tohru Ikeguchi of Tokyo University of Science, has analyzed some of the complex responses of neurons in a computationally simple neuron model, the Izhikevich neuron model. \"My laboratory is engaged in research on neuroscience and this study analyzes the basic mathematical properties of a neuron model. While we analyzed a single neuron model in this study, this model is often used in computational neuroscience, and not all of its properties have been clarified. Our study fills that gap,\" explains Prof. Ikeguchi. The research team also comprised Mr. Yota Tsukamoto and PhD student Ms. Honami Tsushima, also from Tokyo University of Science.</p><p>The responses of a neuron to a sinusoidal input (a signal shaped like a sine wave, which oscillates smoothly and periodically) have been clarified experimentally. These responses can be either periodic, quasi-periodic, or chaotic. Previous work on the Izhikevich neuron model has demonstrated that it can simulate the periodic responses of neurons. \"In this work, we analyzed the dynamical behavior of the Izhikevich neuron model in response to a sinusoidal signal and found that it exhibited not only periodic responses, but non-periodic responses as well,\" explains Prof. Ikeguchi.</p><p>The research team then quantitatively analyzed how many different types of \'inter-spike intervals\' there were in the dataset and then used it to distinguish between periodic and non-periodic responses. When a neuron receives a sufficient amount of stimulus, it emits \'spikes,\' thereby conducting a signal to the next neuron. The inter-spike interval refers to the interval time between two consecutive spikes.</p><p>They found that neurons provided periodic responses to signals that had larger amplitudes than a certain threshold value and that signals below this value induced non-periodic responses. They also analyzed the response of the Izhikevich neuron model in detail using a technique called \'stroboscopic observation points,\' which helped them identify that the non-periodic responses of the Izhikevich neuron model were actually quasi-periodic responses.</p><p>When asked about the future implications of this study, Prof. Ikeguchi says, \"This study was limited to the model of a single neuron. In the future, we will prepare many such models and combine them to clarify how a neural network works. We will also prepare two types of neurons, excitatory and inhibitory neurons, and use them to mimic the actual brain, which will help us understand principles of information processing in our brain.\"</p><p>The use of a simple model for accurate simulations of neuronal response is a significant step forward in this exciting field of research and illuminates the way towards the future understanding of cognitive and developmental disorders.</p>','2022-04-18 17:13:32.487796','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Tokyo University of Science','Studying how brain cells respond to signals from their neighbors can aid the understanding of cognition and development. However, experimentally measuring the brain\'s activity is complicated. Neuron models provide a non-invasive way to investigate the brain, but most existing models are either computationally intensive or cannot model complex neuronal responses. Recently, a team has used a computationally simple neuron model to simulate some of the complex responses of neurons.\n',1,3,'<li>Yota Tsukamoto, Honami Tsushima, Tohru Ikeguchi. <strong>Non-periodic responses of the Izhikevich neuron model to periodic inputs</strong>. <em>Nonlinear Theory and Its Applications, IEICE</em>, 2022; 13 (2): 367 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1587/nolta.13.367\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1587/nolta.13.367</a>\n</li>'),(2215,'AF2Complex: Researchers leverage deep learning to predict physical interactions of protein complexes','af2complex:-researchers-leverage-deep-learning-to-predict-physical-interactions-of-protein-complexes','2022-04-18 17:14:52.068541',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">From the muscle fibers that move us to the enzymes that replicate our DNA, proteins are the molecular machinery that makes life possible.</p><p>Protein function heavily depends on their three-dimensional structure, and researchers around the world have long endeavored to answer a seemingly simple inquiry to bridge function and form: if you know the building blocks of these molecular machines, can you predict how they are assembled into their functional shape?</p><p>This question is not so easy to answer. With complex structures dependent on intricate physical interactions, researchers have turned to artificial neural network models -- mathematical frameworks that convert complex patterns into numerical representations -- to predict and \"see\" the shape of proteins in 3D.</p><p>In a new paper published in <em>Nature Communications</em>, researchers at Georgia Tech and Oak Ridge National Laboratory build upon one such model, AlphaFold 2, to not only predict the biologically active conformation of individual proteins, but also of functional protein pairings known as complexes.</p><p>The work could help researchers bypass lengthy experiments to study the structure and interactions of protein complexes on a large scale, said Jeffrey Skolnick, Regents\' Professor and Mary and Maisie Gibson Chair in the School of Biological Sciences and one of the corresponding authors of the study, adding that computational models such as these could mean big things for the field.</p><p>If these new computational models are successful, Skolnick said, \"it could fundamentally change the way biological molecular systems are studied.\"</p><p><strong>Primed for Protein Prediction</strong></p><p>Created by London-based artificial intelligence lab DeepMind, AlphaFold 2 is a deep learning neural network model designed to predict the three-dimensional structure of a single protein given its amino acid sequence. Skolnick and fellow corresponding author, Mu Gao, senior research scientist in the School of Biological Sciences, shared that the Alphafold 2 program was highly successful in blind tests occurring at the 14<sup>th </sup>iteration of the Community Wide Experiment on the Critical Assessment of Techniques for Protein Structure Prediction, or CASP14, a bi-annual competition where researchers around the globe gather to put their computational models to the test.</p><p>\"To us, what is striking about AlphaFold 2 is that it not only makes excellent predictions on individual protein domains (the basic structural or functional modules of a protein sequence), but it also performs very well on protein sequences composed of multiple domains,\" Skolnick shared. And so with the ability to predict the structure of these complicated, multi-domain proteins, the research team set out to determine if the program could go a little further.</p><p>\"The physical interactions between different [protein] domains of the same sequence are essentially the same as the interactions gluing different proteins together,\" Gao explained. \"It quickly became clear that relatively simple modifications to AlphaFold 2 could allow it predict the structural models of a protein complex.\" To explore different strategies, Davi Nakajima An, a fourth-year undergraduate in the School of Computer Science, was recruited to join the team\'s effort.</p><p>Instead of plugging in the features of just one protein sequence into AlphaFold 2 per its original design, the researchers joined the input features of multiple protein sequences together. Combined with new metrics to evaluate the strength of interactions among probed proteins, their new program AF2Complex was created.</p><p><strong>Charting New Territory</strong></p><p>To put AF2Complex to the test, the researchers partnered with the high-performance computing center, Partnership for an Advanced Computing Environment (PACE), at Georgia Tech, and charged the model with predicting the structures of protein complexes it had never seen before. The modified program was able to correctly predict the structure of over twice as many protein complexes as a more traditional method called docking. While AF2Complex only needs protein sequences as input, docking relies on knowing individual protein structures beforehand to predict their combined structure based on complementary shapes.</p><p>\"Encouraged by these promising results, we extended this idea to an even bigger problem, which is to predict interactions among multiple arbitrarily chosen proteins, e.g., in a simple case, two arbitrary proteins,\" shared Skolnick.</p><p>In addition to predicting the structure of protein complexes, AF2Complex was charged with identifying which of over 500 pairs of proteins were able to form a complex at all. Using newly designed metrics, AF2Complex outperformed conventional docking methods and AlphaFold 2 in identifying which of the arbitrary pairs were known to experimentally interact.</p><p>To test AF2Complex on the proteome scale, which encompasses an organism\'s entire library of the proteins that can be expressed, the researchers turned to the Summit Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility, the world\'s second largest supercomputing center. \"Thanks to this resource, we were able to apply AF2Complex to about 7,000 pairs of proteins from the bacteria <em>E. coli</em>,\" Gao shared.</p><p>In that test, the team\'s new model not only identified many pairs of proteins known to form complexes, but it was able to provide insights into interactions \"suspected but never observed experimentally,\" Gao said.</p><p>Digging deeper into these interactions revealed a potential molecular mechanism for protein complexes that are particularly important for energy transport. These protein complexes are known to carry hemes, essential metabolites giving blood dark red color. Using AF2Complex\'s predicted structural models, Jerry M. Parks, a senior research and development staff scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and a collaborator in the study, was able to place hemes at their suspected reaction sites within the structure. \"These computational models now provide insights into the molecular mechanisms for how this biomolecular system works,\" Gao said.</p><p>\"Deep learning is changing the way one studies a biological system,\" Skolnick added. \"We envision methods like AF2Complex will become powerful tools for any biologist who would like to understand molecular mechanisms of a biosystem involving protein interactions.\"</p><p><em>This work was supported in part by the DOE Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research (DOE DE-SC0021303) and the Division of General Medical Sciences of the National Institute Health (NIH R35GM118039). </em></p>','2022-04-18 17:14:52.068541','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Georgia Institute of Technology','Proteins are the molecular machinery that makes life possible, and researchers have long been interested in a key trait of protein function: their three-dimensional structure. A new study details a computational tool able to predict the structure protein complexes -- and lends new insights into the biomolecular mechanisms of their function.\n',1,123,'<li>Mu Gao, Davi Nakajima An, Jerry M. Parks, Jeffrey Skolnick. <strong>AF2Complex predicts direct physical interactions in multimeric proteins with deep learning</strong>. <em>Nature Communications</em>, 2022; 13 (1) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29394-2\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41467-022-29394-2</a>\n</li>'),(2216,'Tumors partially destroyed with sound don\'t come back','tumors-partially-destroyed-with-sound-don\'t-come-back','2022-04-18 17:14:55.474702',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Noninvasive sound technology developed at the University of Michigan breaks down liver tumors in rats, kills cancer cells and spurs the immune system to prevent further spread -- an advance that could lead to improved cancer outcomes in humans.</p><p>By destroying only 50% to 75% of liver tumor volume, the rats\' immune systems were able to clear away the rest, with no evidence of recurrence or metastases in more than 80% animals.</p><p>\"Even if we don\'t target the entire tumor, we can still cause the tumor to regress and also reduce the risk of future metastasis,\" said Zhen Xu, professor of biomedical engineering at U-M and corresponding author of the study in Cancers.</p><p>Results also showed the treatment stimulated the rats\' immune responses, possibly contributing to the eventual regression of the untargeted portion of the tumor and preventing further spread of the cancer.</p><p>The treatment, called histotripsy, noninvasively focuses ultrasound waves to mechanically destroy target tissue with millimeter precision. The relatively new technique is currently being used in a human liver cancer trial in the United States and Europe.</p><p>In many clinical situations, the entirety of a cancerous tumor cannot be targeted directly in treatments for reasons that include the mass\' size, location or stage. To investigate the effects of partially destroying tumors with sound, this latest study targeted only a portion of each mass, leaving behind a viable intact tumor. It also allowed the team, including researchers at Michigan Medicine and the Ann Arbor VA Hospital, to show the approach\'s effectiveness under less than optimal conditions.</p><p>\"Histotripsy is a promising option that can overcome the limitations of currently available ablation modalities and provide safe and effective noninvasive liver tumor ablation,\" said Tejaswi Worlikar, a doctoral student in biomedical engineering. \"We hope that our learnings from this study will motivate future preclinical and clinical histotripsy investigations toward the ultimate goal of clinical adoption of histotripsy treatment for liver cancer patients.\"</p><p>Liver cancer ranks among the top 10 causes of cancer related deaths worldwide and in the U.S. Even with multiple treatment options, the prognosis remains poor with five-year survival rates less than 18% in the U.S. The high prevalence of tumor recurrence and metastasis after initial treatment highlights the clinical need for improving outcomes of liver cancer.</p><p>Where a typical ultrasound uses sound waves to produce images of the body\'s interior, U-M engineers have pioneered the use of those waves for treatment. And their technique works without the harmful side effects of current approaches such as radiation and chemotherapy.</p><p>\"Our transducer, designed and built at U-M, delivers high amplitude microsecond-length ultrasound pulses -- acoustic cavitation -- to focus on the tumor specifically to break it up,\" Xu said. \"Traditional ultrasound devices use lower amplitude pulses for imaging.\"</p><p>The microsecond long pulses from UM\'s transducer generate microbubbles within the targeted tissues -- bubbles that rapidly expand and collapse. These violent but extremely localized mechanical stresses kill cancer cells and break up the tumor\'s structure.</p><p>Since 2001, Xu\'s laboratory at U-M has pioneered the use of histotripsy in the fight against cancer, leading to the clinical trial #HOPE4LIVER sponsored by HistoSonics, a U-M spinoff company. More recently, the group\'s research has produced promising results on histotripsy treatment of brain therapy and immunotherapy.</p><p>The study was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, Focused Ultrasound Foundation, VA Merit Review, U-M\'s Forbes Institute for Discovery and Michigan Medicine-Peking University Health Sciences Center Joint Institute for Translational and Clinical Research.</p>','2022-04-18 17:14:55.474702','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Michigan','Noninvasive sound technology breaks down liver tumors in rats, kills cancer cells and spurs the immune system to prevent further spread -- an advance that could lead to improved cancer outcomes in humans.\n',1,124,'<li>Tejaswi Worlikar, Man Zhang, Anutosh Ganguly, Timothy L. Hall, Jiaqi Shi, Lili Zhao, Fred T. Lee, Mishal Mendiratta-Lala, Clifford S. Cho, Zhen Xu. <strong>Impact of Histotripsy on Development of Intrahepatic Metastases in a Rodent Liver Tumor Model</strong>. <em>Cancers</em>, 2022; 14 (7): 1612 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/cancers14071612\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.3390/cancers14071612</a>\n</li>'),(2217,'Taylor Swift, the millipede: Scientists name a new species after the singer','taylor-swift,-the-millipede:-scientists-name-a-new-species-after-the-singer','2022-04-18 17:14:57.068478',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Taylor Swift, U.S. singer-songwriter known for hits such as \"Shake It Off\" and \"You Belong With Me,\" has earned a new accolade -- she now has a new species of millipede named in her honor.</p><p>The twisted-claw millipede <em>Nannaria swiftae</em> joins 16 other new species described from the Appalachian Mountains of the United States. These little-known invertebrates have a valuable role as decomposers: breaking down leaf litter, they release their nutrients into the ecosystem. They live on the forest floor, where they feed on decaying leaves and other plant matter, and in fact, they are somewhat tricky to catch, because they tend to remain buried in the soil, sometimes staying completely beneath the surface.</p><p>Scientists Derek Hennen, Jackson Means, and Paul Marek, at Virginia Tech, U.S., describe the new species in a research paper published in the open access journal <em>ZooKeys</em>. The research was funded by a National Science Foundation Advancing Revisionary Taxonomy and Systematics grant (DEB# 1655635).</p><p>Because of their presence in museum collections, scientists long suspected that the twisted-claw millipedes included many new species, but these specimens went undescribed for decades. To fix this, the researchers began a multi-year project to collect new specimens throughout the eastern U.S. They traveled to 17 US states, checking under leaf litter, rocks, and logs to find species so that they could sequence their DNA and scientifically describe them.</p><p>Looking at over 1800 specimens collected on their field study or taken from university and museum collections, the authors described 17 new species, including <em>Nannaria marianae</em>, which was named after Hennen\'s wife. They discovered that the millipedes prefer to live in forested habitats near streams and are often found buried under the soil, exhibiting more cryptic behaviors than relatives.</p><p>The newly-described millipedes range between 18 and 38 mm long, have shiny caramel-brown to black bodies with white, red, or orange spots, and have white legs. The males have small, twisted and flattened claws on their anterior legs, which is the basis for their common name.</p><p>The lead author of the study, Derek Hennen, is a fan of Taylor Swift.</p><p>\"Her music helped me get through the highs and lows of graduate school, so naming a new millipede species after her is my way of saying thanks,\" he says.</p>','2022-04-18 17:14:57.068478','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Pensoft Publishers','Taylor Swift, an American singer known for her musical talents, has earned a new accolade. She now has a new species of millipede named after her. The new species of twisted-claw millipede was discovered in the mountains of Tennessee. Scientists described a total of 17 new species from the Appalachian Mountains.\n',1,132,'<li>Derek A. Hennen, Jackson C. Means, Paul E. Marek. <strong>﻿A revision of the wilsoni species group in the millipede genus Nannaria Chamberlin, 1918 (Diplopoda, Polydesmida, Xystodesmidae)</strong>. <em>ZooKeys</em>, 2022; 1096: 17 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1096.73485\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.3897/zookeys.1096.73485</a>\n</li>'),(2218,'Neural network model helps predict site-specific impacts of earthquakes','neural-network-model-helps-predict-site-specific-impacts-of-earthquakes','2022-04-18 17:15:02.787013',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">In disaster mitigation planning for future large earthquakes, seismic ground motion predictions are a crucial part of early warning systems and seismic hazard mapping. The way the ground moves depends on how the soil layers amplify the seismic waves (described in a mathematical site \"amplification factor\"). However, geophysical explorations to understand soil conditions are costly, limiting characterization of site amplification factors to date.</p><p>A new study by researchers from Hiroshima University published on April 5 in the <em>Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America</em> introduced a novel artificial intelligence (AI)-based technique for estimating site amplification factors from data on ambient vibrations or microtremors of the ground.</p><p>Subsurface soil conditions, which determine how earthquakes affect a site, vary substantially. Softer soils, for example, tend to amplify ground motion from an earthquake, while hard substrates may dampen it. Ambient vibrations of the ground or microtremors that occur all over the Earth\'s surface caused by human or atmospheric disturbances can be used to investigate soil conditions. Measuring microtremors provides valuable information about the amplification factor (AF) of a site, thus its vulnerability to damage from earthquakes due to its response to tremors.</p><p>The recent study from Hiroshima University researchers introduced a new way to estimate site effects from microtremor data. \"The proposed method would contribute to more accurate and more detailed seismic ground motion predictions for future earthquakes,\" says lead author and associate professor Hiroyuki Miura in the Graduate School of Advanced Science and Engineering. The study investigated the relationship between microtremor data and site amplification factors using a deep neural network with the goal of developing a model that could be applied at any site worldwide.</p><p>The researchers looked into a common method known as Horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratios (MHVR) which is usually used to estimate the resonant frequency of the seismic ground. It can be generated from microtremor data; ambient seismic vibrations are analyzed in three dimensions to figure out the resonant frequency of sediment layers on top of bedrock as they vibrate. Previous research has shown, however, that MHVR cannot reliably be used directly as the site amplification factor. So, this study proposed a deep neural network model for estimating site amplification factors from the MHVR data.</p><p>The study used 2012-2020 microtremor data from 105 sites in the Chugoku district of western Japan. The sites are part of Japan\'s national seismograph network that contains about 1700 observation stations distributed in a uniform grid at 20 km intervals across Japan. Using a generalized spectral inversion technique, which separates out the parameters of source, propagation, and site, the researchers analyzed site-specific amplifications.</p><p>Data from each site were divided into a training set, a validation set, and a test set. The training set were used to teach a deep neural network. The validation set were used in the network\'s iterative optimization of a model to describe the relationship between the microtremor MHVRs and the site amplification factors. The test data were a completely unknown set used to evaluate the performance of the model.</p><p>The model performed well on the test data, demonstrating its potential as a predictive tool for characterizing site amplification factors from microtremor data. However, notes Miura, \"the number of training samples analyzed in this study (80) sites is still limited,\" and should be expanded before assuming that the neural network model applies nationwide or globally. The researchers hope to further optimize the model with a larger dataset.</p><p>Rapid and cost-effective techniques are needed for more accurate seismic ground motion prediction since the relationship is not always linear. Explains Miura, \"By applying the proposed method, site amplification factors can be automatically and accurately estimated from microtremor data observed at arbitrary site.\" Going forward, the study authors aim to continue to refine advanced AI techniques to evaluate the nonlinear responses of the ground to earthquakes.</p><p>This research was funded by the National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention (NIED), Japan, and Neural Network Console provided by SONY (2021).</p>','2022-04-18 17:15:02.787013','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Hiroshima University','In disaster mitigation planning for future large earthquakes, seismic ground motion predictions are a crucial part of early warning systems. The way the ground moves depends on how the soil layers amplify the seismic waves (described in a mathematical site \'amplification factor\'). However, geophysical explorations to understand soil conditions are costly, limiting characterization of site amplification factors to date. Using data on microtremors in Japan, a neural network model can estimate site-specific responses to earthquakes based on subsurface soil conditions.\n',1,27,'<li>Da Pan, Hiroyuki Miura, Tatsuo Kanno, Michiko Shigefuji, Tetsuo Abiru. <strong>Deep-Neural-Network-Based Estimation of Site Amplification Factor from Microtremor H/V Spectral Ratio</strong>. <em>Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1785/0120210300\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1785/0120210300</a>\n</li>'),(2219,'Extract from a common kitchen spice could be key to greener, more efficient fuel cells','extract-from-a-common-kitchen-spice-could-be-key-to-greener,-more-efficient-fuel-cells','2022-04-18 18:24:09.172261',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Turmeric, a spice found in most kitchens, has an extract that could lead to safer, more efficient fuel cells.</p><p>Researchers at the Clemson Nanomaterials Institute (CNI) and their collaborators from the Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning (SSSIHL) in India discovered a novel way to combine curcumin -- the substance in turmeric -- and gold nanoparticles to create an electrode that requires 100 times less energy to efficiently convert ethanol into electricity.</p><p>While the research team must do more testing, the discovery brings replacing hydrogen as a fuel cell feedstock one step closer.</p><p>\"Of all the catalysts for alcohol oxidation in alkaline medium, the one we prepared is the best so far,\" said Apparao Rao, CNI\'s founding director and the R. A. Bowen Professor of Physics in the College of Science\'s.</p><p>Fuel cells generate electricity through a chemical reaction instead of combustion. They are used to power vehicles, buildings, portable electronic devices and backup power systems.</p><p>Hydrogen fuel cells are highly efficient and do not produce greenhouse gases. While hydrogen is the most common chemical element in the universe, it must be derived from substances such as natural gas and fossil fuels because it occurs naturally on Earth only in compound form with other elements in liquids, gases or solids. The necessary extraction adds to hydrogen fuel cells\' cost and environmental impact.</p><p>In addition, hydrogen used in fuel cells is a compressed gas, creating challenges for storage and transportation. Ethanol, an alcohol made from corn or other agricultural-based feeds, is safer and easier to transport than hydrogen because it is a liquid.</p><p>\"To make it a commercial product where we can fill our tanks with ethanol, the electrodes have to be highly efficient,\" said Lakshman Ventrapragada, a former student of Rao\'s who worked as a research assistant at the CNI and is an alumnus of SSSIHL. \"At the same time, we don\'t want very expensive electrodes or synthetic polymeric substrates that are not eco-friendly because that defeats the whole purpose. We wanted to look at something green for the fuel cell generation process and making the fuel cell itself.\"</p><p>The researchers focused on the fuel cell\'s anode, where the ethanol or other feed source is oxidized.</p><p>Fuel cells widely use platinum as a catalyst. But platinum suffers from poisoning because of reaction intermediates such as carbon monoxide, Ventrapragada said. It is also costly.</p><p>The researchers used gold as a catalyst. Instead of using conducting polymers, metal-organic frameworks, or other complex materials to deposit the gold on the surface of the electrode, the researchers used curcumin because of its structural uniqueness. Curcumin is used to decorate the gold nanoparticles to stabilize them, forming a porous network around the nanoparticles. Researchers deposited the curcumin gold nanoparticle on the surface of the electrode at a 100 times lower electric current than in previous studies.</p><p>Without the curcumin coating, the gold nanoparticles agglomerate, cutting down on the surface area exposed to the chemical reaction, Ventrapragada said.</p><p>\"Without this curcumin coating, the performance is poor,\" Rao said. \"We need this coating to stabilize and create a porous environment around the nanoparticles, and then they do a super job with alcohol oxidation.</p><p>\"There\'s a big push in the industry for alcohol oxidation. This discovery is an excellent enabler for that. The next step is to scale the process up and work with an industrial collaborator who can actually make the fuel cells and build stacks of fuel cells for the real application,\" he continued.</p><p>But the research could have broader implications than improved fuel cells. The electrode\'s unique properties could lend itself to future applications in sensors, supercapacitors and more, Ventrapragada said.</p><p>In collaboration with the SSSIHL research team, Rao\'s team is testing the electrode as a sensor that could help identify changes in the level of dopamine. Dopamine has been implicated in disorders such as Parkinson\'s disease and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. When members of the research team tested urine samples obtained from healthy volunteers, they could measure dopamine to the approved clinical range with this electrode using a cost-effective method compared to standard ones used today, Rao said.</p><p>\"In the beginning stages of the project, we did not imagine other applications that gold-coated curcumin could support. However, before the end of the alcohol oxidation experiments, we were fairly confident that other applications are possible,\" Ventrapragada said. \"Although we don\'t have a complete understanding of what\'s happening at the atomic level, we know for sure that curcumin is stabilizing the gold nanoparticles in a way that it can lend itself to other applications.\"</p>','2022-04-18 18:24:09.172261','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Clemson University','Researchers have discovered a novel way to combine curcumin -- the substance in turmeric -- and gold nanoparticles to create an electrode that requires 100 times less energy to efficiently convert ethanol into electricity.\n',1,115,'<li>Sai Prasad Nayak, Lakshman K. Ventrapragada, Sai Sathish Ramamurthy, J.K. Kiran Kumar, Apparao M. Rao. <strong>Green synthesis of a novel porous gold-curcumin nanocomposite for super-efficient alcohol oxidation</strong>. <em>Nano Energy</em>, 2022; 94: 106966 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nanoen.2022.106966\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.nanoen.2022.106966</a>\n</li>'),(2220,'Recipe for valuable chemical improved','recipe-for-valuable-chemical-improved','2022-04-18 19:39:09.201852',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Skipping ahead in a line is rude, but sometimes it\'s acceptable. Especially for salt. The Rice University lab of materials theorist Boris Yakobson shows why in its follow-up to a 2018 study that demonstrated how salt simplifies the formation of valuable 2D molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) with a first-principles analysis of the process that could refine it even further.</p><p>The theoretical study by Yakobson and colleagues Jincheng Lei, Yu Xie and Alex Kutana, all alumni of his lab, and researcher Ksenia Bets shows through the simulation of atom-level energies why salt -- particularly iodized salt -- lowers the reaction temperature in a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) furnace necessary to form MoS2.</p><p>It does so by helping to skip some steps and leap high energy barriers in conventional CVD growth to yield far more MoS6, an essential precursor to 2D MoS2.</p><p>Their study in the J<em>ournal of the American Chemical Society </em>focused on how salt lowers activation barriers to enhance the sulfurization of molybdenum oxyhalides, the gas feedstock in MoS2 crystallization.</p><p>MoS2 is a natural compound known in bulk form as molybdenite, and in 2D form is highly coveted for its semiconducting properties, which promise advances in electronic, optoelectronic, spintronic, catalytic and medical applications. But 2D MoS2 remains hard to manufacture in commercial quantities.</p><p>The Rice team first entered the fray when labs in Singapore, China, Japan and Taiwan used salt to make a \"library\" of 2D materials that combined transition metals and chalcogens. Why it worked so well was a mystery, prompting them to call upon the Yakobson lab\'s expertise in modeling materials -- even only theoretical ones -- from the ground up.</p><p>Their comprehensive models show that while the international labs used chloride salts to make their library of materials, the iodide salts commonly found on kitchen tables are better at speeding up the synthesis of MoS2.</p><p>\"Fast and large-scale synthesis is imperative for the widespread application of MoS2,\" Lei said. \"We carefully studied the entire growth process, hoping to optimize it as much as possible. It turned out that by simply changing chloride to iodide, one could synthesize MoS2 much faster while at even lower growth temperatures.\"</p><p>This happens when salt and the precursor form a eutectic, a mixture of substances that melt and solidify at a single temperature that\'s lower than the melting points of the constituents.</p><p>\"After salt-assisted synthesis was shown to enable the growth of many more TMD (transition metal dichalcogenide) compounds than was possible beforehand and significantly improved growth conditions for previously synthesized ones, it became clear that there is something special about this process,\" Bets said.</p><p>\"Some experimental groups attempted to investigate further, but monitoring the molecular composition of the gas phase under growth conditions is not a simple task,\" she said. \"Even then, you cannot see the whole picture.</p><p>\"We were very thorough, following up on Jincheng\'s work on the mechanism of conventional MoS2 growth. We simulated all parts of the process, from sulfurization to the 2D crystal growth. This comprehensive approach paid off.\"</p><p>In simulations, the Rice team directly observed the entire sulfurization process as oxygen and chlorine atoms were gradually replaced by sulfur in MoO2Cl2, a common precursor, under CVD conditions.</p><p>The lab said the eutectic effect may be a common phenomenon in the CVD synthesis of 2D dichalcogenide monolayers, and thus worth continued study.</p><p>Lei is now a postdoctoral researcher at Yale University. Xie is now a professor at Xi\'an University, China. Kutana is an assistant professor at Nagoya University, Japan. Yakobson is the Karl F. Hasselmann Professor of Engineering and a professor of materials science and nanoengineering and of chemistry.</p><p>The Department of Energy, Basic Energy Sciences (DE-SC0012547) and the Welch Foundation (C-1590) supported the research.</p>','2022-04-18 19:39:09.201852','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Rice University','Theorists show why salt gives a significant speed boost to valuable 2D molybdenum disulfide, an effect they say may work for other 2D materials as well.\n',1,30,'<li>Jincheng Lei, Yu Xie, Alex Kutana, Ksenia V. Bets, Boris I. Yakobson. <strong>Salt-Assisted MoS2 Growth: Molecular Mechanisms from the First Principles</strong>. <em>Journal of the American Chemical Society</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/jacs.2c02497\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1021/jacs.2c02497</a>\n</li>'),(2221,'Clinicians grapple with decisions in crisis-care simulation','clinicians-grapple-with-decisions-in-crisis-care-simulation','2022-04-18 19:39:11.842397',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">The COVID-19 pandemic has led healthcare organizations to draft plans for critical patient care in the event of shortages of resources such as ventilators. Invoking \"crisis-care\" standards at a hospital would prompt the deployment of a triage team -- three or four seasoned clinicians and a medical ethicist responsible to determine which patients have the best chance of survival and prioritizing these people to receive scarce resources while deprioritizing others.</p><p>If this task sounds tragic, you\'re in good company: A new analysis conveys the moral distress that triage team members experienced while participating in a simulated crisis-care event in which they had to decide which patients would and would not be prioritized to receive life-sustaining resources.</p><p>The paper was published April 18 in <em>JAMA Network Open</em>.</p><p>\"This was a setting to try to operationalize a process for making life-and-death patient decisions in a way that most medical professionals have never faced before,\" said the paper\'s lead author, Dr. Catherine Butler. She is an assistant professor of medicine (nephrology) at the University of Washington School of Medicine.</p><p>The qualitative analysis was based on interviews conducted from December 2020 to February 2021 with 41 triage-team members from hospitals in Washington state. They had participated in 12 patient simulations and their feedback informed the WA state Department of Health\'s guidebook for critical care in response to potential extreme resource scarcity during the pandemic.</p><p>The intention of the guidebook, Butler said, is to provide plans based on empirical evidence and community deliberation that would standardize the triage process, improve fairness, and reduce the emotional toil involved in the grave deliberations for which triage team members might be unprepared.</p><p>The goal of the state\'s prep work was to clarify operational, clinical and ethical issues and develop a standardized framework before invoking crisis-care standards. That way, triage teams would simply get a limited set of data about patients, make a prognostic determination and objectively prioritize care, she said.</p><p>Triage-team members were solely asked to grade patients\' chances of surviving until hospital discharge. The decisions were based on far less information than would be the case in usual clinical care. Triage team members, for instance, did not know personal information, such as race and gender, that might introduce bias into a decision to continue care. They did not know how many other patients were competing for a scarce resource.</p><p>Triage-team members completed the task but, as the process unfolded, they voiced uncertainty and misgivings about operational and ethical aspects of their role. The analysis included quotes from participant interviews (see comments in inset).</p><p>Participants also expressed tension between feelings of duty to individuals and the bigger-picture responsibility to allocate resources fairly, Butler said.</p><p>\"Balancing your patient\'s priorities versus priorities of others is quite hard for clinicians. You want to advocate for your patient, but with crisis care you have to wear a different hat, one that looks across all patients and prioritizes fair distribution of scarce resources at a population level,\" she said.</p><p>Some triage-team members said the simulation presented parallels to their work in busy emergency departments or in resource-limited countries, where decisions are frequently based on providing care for as many people as possible with limited supplies or staff. For these doctors, the nature of the task was not entirely unfamiliar.</p><p>Still, Butler said, \"our findings acknowledge that people in this triage-team role will probably struggle with this difficult task, no matter how much experience they have.\" In fact, some triage team members felt that struggling with such a consequential decision was part of their duty to respect the patients involved, she said.</p><p>\"No one wants this [triage-team] job; it\'s not why anyone chose a career in medicine. But we did hear from multiple participants that having a more concrete idea of what is entailed in a simulation made them more confident about being in these roles if they had to.\"</p><p>This paper is the last in a series of three in which Butler and colleagues studied the development of plans for crisis-care circumstances.</p>','2022-04-18 19:39:11.842397','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Washington School of Medicine/UW Medicine','A new analysis conveys the moral distress that triage team members experienced while participating in a simulated crisis-care event in which they had to decide which patients would and would not be prioritized to receive life-sustaining resources.\n',1,27,'<li>Catherine R. Butler, Laura B. Webster, Douglas S. Diekema, Megan M. Gray, Vicki L. Sakata, Mark R. Tonelli, Kelly C. Vranas. <strong>Perspectives of Triage Team Members Participating in Statewide Triage Simulations for Scarce Resource Allocation During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Washington State</strong>. <em>JAMA Network Open</em>, 2022; 5 (4): e227639 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.7639\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.7639</a>\n</li>'),(2222,'Recreational marijuana access reduces demand for prescription drugs','recreational-marijuana-access-reduces-demand-for-prescription-drugs','2022-04-18 20:04:35.879362',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Legalization of recreational marijuana reduces demand for costly prescription drugs through state Medicaid programs, according to an analysis by a Cornell researcher and a collaborator.</p><p>When states legalize marijuana, the volume of prescriptions within the drug classes that align with the medical indications for pain, depression, anxiety, sleep, psychosis and seizures significantly decline, the researchers found.</p><p>Shyam Raman, a doctoral student in the Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy, and Indiana University doctoral student Ashley Bradford conducted the research. Their article, \"Recreational Cannabis Legalizations Associated with Reductions in Prescription Drug Utilizations Among Medicaid Enrollees,\" published April 15 in the journal Health Economics.</p><p>Most cannabis research has focused on the impact of medical marijuana on demand for prescription drugs or the impact of recreational use legalization on opioid demand. This is among the first studies to focus on the impact of legal personal-use cannabis on a broad range of prescription drugs.</p><p>\"These results have important implications,\" Raman said. \"The reductions in drug utilization that we find could lead to significant cost savings for state Medicaid programs. The results also indicate an opportunity to reduce the harm that can come with the dangerous side effects associated with some prescription drugs.\"</p><p>Raman and Bradford based their study on an analysis of data retrieved from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in all 50 states from 2011 to 2019, a period that saw growth in the number of states permitting personal use of marijuana.</p><p>About 40 states have legalized medical marijuana that must be prescribed by a doctor. So far, about 20 states have legalized personal-use cannabis for all adults, but that number is likely to rise. In those states, Raman and Bradford found a meaningful change in the demand for drugs used to treat sleep and anxiety disorders but no real impact on drugs used to treat nausea.</p><p>Raman and Bradford caution that cannabis use is not itself without harm, noting the many studies that associate it with a potential triggering of anxiety and psychoses such as schizophrenia. Also, patients who use marijuana to treat their medical conditions may be shifting away from visiting their doctor and therein creating discontinuities in primary care.</p>','2022-04-18 20:04:35.879362','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Cornell University','Legalization of recreational marijuana reduces demand for costly prescription drugs through state Medicaid programs, according to a new analysis.\n',1,27,'<li>Shyam Raman, Ashley Bradford. <strong>Recreational cannabis legalizations associated with reductions in prescription drug utilization among Medicaid enrollees</strong>. <em>Health Economics</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hec.4519\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1002/hec.4519</a>\n</li>'),(2223,'Genetics affects functions of gut microbiome','genetics-affects-functions-of-gut-microbiome','2022-04-18 20:04:37.504368',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">New research from Cornell scientists is exploring how human genetics impacts functions of the gut microbiome, and is expanding awareness of the role human genetics plays in shaping the microbiome.</p><p>The trillions of individual organisms constituting a person\'s gut microbiome greatly impact metabolic function, disease and overall health. What has been less clear is how and to what extent the gut microbiome is, in turn, shaped by the genome of its human host.</p><p>Ilana Brito, assistant professor and Mong Family Sesquicentennial Faculty Fellow in the Nancy E. and Peter C. Meinig School of Biomedical Engineering, and her coauthors took a novel approach to examining host-microbiome genetic interactions and were able to show many instances where a human host\'s genetic makeup directly affected the functional performance of the gut microbiome.</p><p>Their paper, \"Collective Effects of Human Genomic Variation on Microbiome Function,\" was published March 9 in the journal <em>Scientific Reports.</em> The study was a cross-college collaboration that combined Brito\'s knowledge of the microbiome with faculty expertise in genetic variation and statistical methodology, respectively, from Andrew Clark, the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor of Population Genetics in the College of Arts and Sciences; and Martin Wells, the Charles A. Alexander Professor of Statistical Sciences in the Department of Information Science.</p><p>\"When a disease or phenotype is caused by a single genetic mutation it can be a relatively straightforward process to find the gene responsible,\" Brito said. But just as often, an entire suite of genes can interact to result in disease or other phenotypic expression, a much more complex mechanism. Within the human genome there are many sequential variations from person to person and even within paired chromosomes of the same person.</p><p>When a variation is produced by the substitution of a single nucleotide, this is called single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP). Using a unique computational and modeling approach, Brito\'s team was able to identify SNPs that correlated with microbiome-associated traits, disorders and cancers. In other words, they were able to show direct effects of the human genome on the functions of the gut microbiome.</p><p>\"Associating variation in the human genome with the variation in the gut microbiome has been tricky,\" Clark said, \"because the human genome variants are correlated with each other, and can have related functions, and the species of bacteria in the gut are also not independent of each other.\"</p><p>The novelty of the current study was to make use of this structure in the data. It focused on the function of the gut microbiome as opposed to the genetic makeup of each species in the agglomeration of organisms that forms the microbiome; it looked at broad collections of human genes and their effect on the functions of the microbiome as opposed to examining single genes; and it used a new type of strategy to model the distribution of functions and species within the human gut.</p><p>Past models haven\'t been a good fit for the characteristics common to metagenomic sequencing data sets. Wells introduced the idea of using the Tweedie distribution -- a type of probability modeling -- to account for these characteristics.</p><p>\"My research group has previously applied a Tweedie modeling strategy in natural language processing,\" Wells said. \"It seemed like a good fit here, too. We found that the Tweedie modeling approach was flexible enough to capture the mean-to-variance power relationship in the metagenomic taxa and gene abundances and was superior to the standard approaches.\"</p><p>First author of the paper is Felicia New, Ph.D. \'21, formerly part of Brito\'s lab group and second author is Benjamin Baer, Ph.D. \'21, a Wells advisee.</p><p>\"Felicia brought the expertise on these microbes and their functions and human genetics, and Benjamin brought the stats background and they worked together to mesh their expertise and see what specific approach made sense,\" Brito said. \"It was through this collaboration that we were to do some excellent work.\"</p><p>The research was supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health.</p>','2022-04-18 20:04:37.504368','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Cornell University','Scientists are exploring how human genetics impacts functions of the gut microbiome, and are expanding awareness of the role human genetics plays in shaping the microbiome.\n',1,65,'<li>Felicia N. New, Benjamin R. Baer, Andrew G. Clark, Martin T. Wells, Ilana L. Brito. <strong>Collective effects of human genomic variation on microbiome function</strong>. <em>Scientific Reports</em>, 2022; 12 (1) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-07632-3\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41598-022-07632-3</a>\n</li>');
INSERT INTO `news_news` VALUES (2224,'AI reduces miss rate of precancerous polyps in colorectal cancer screening','ai-reduces-miss-rate-of-precancerous-polyps-in-colorectal-cancer-screening','2022-04-18 20:30:57.284894',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Artificial intelligence reduced by twofold the rate at which precancerous polyps were missed in colorectal cancer screening, reported a team of international researchers led by Mayo Clinic. The study is published in <em>Gastroenterology.</em></p><p>Most colon polyps are harmless, but some over time develop into colon or rectal cancer, which can be fatal if found in its later stages. Colorectal cancer is the second most deadly cancer in the world, with an estimated 1.9 million cases and 916,000 deaths worldwide in 2020, according to the World Health Organization. A colonoscopy is an exam used to detect changes or abnormalities in the large intestine (colon) and rectum.</p><p>Between February 2020 and May 2021, 230 study participants each underwent two back-to-back colonoscopies on the same day at eight hospitals and community clinics in the U.S., U.K. and Italy. One colonoscopy used AI; the other, a standard colonoscopy, did not.</p><p>The rate at which precancerous colorectal polyps is missed has been estimated to be 25%. In this study, the miss rate was 15.5% in the group that had the AI colonoscopy first. The miss rate was 32.4 % in the group that had standard colonoscopy first. The AI colonoscopy detected more polyps that were smaller, flatter and in the proximal and distal colon.</p><p>\"Colorectal cancer is almost entirely preventable with proper screening,\" says senior author Michael B. Wallace, M.D., division chair of gastroenterology and hepatology at Sheikh Shakhbout Medical City in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates and the Fred C. Andersen Professor of Medicine at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla. \"Using artificial intelligence to detect colon polyps and potentially save lives is welcome and promising news for patients and their families.\"</p><p>In addition, false negative rates were 6.8% in the group that had the AI colonoscopy first. It was 29.6% in the group that had standard colonoscopy first. A false-negative result indicates that you do not have a particular condition, when in fact you do.</p><p>The study\'s senior author and principal investigator is Michael B. Wallace, M.D., of Sheikh Shakhbout Medical City in Abu Dhabi, UAE and Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla. Co-authors include Cesare Hassan, M.D., Ph.D, of Nuovo Regina Margherita Hospital in Rome, Italy; James East, M.D., of John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, U.K., and Mayo Clinic Healthcare in London; Frank Lukens, M.D., of Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla.; Genci Babameto, M.D., of Mayo Clinic Health System in La Crosse, Wis.; Daisy Batista, M.D., of Mayo Clinic Health System in La Crosse, Wis.; Davinder Singh, M.D., of Mayo Clinic Health System in La Crosse, Wis.; William Palmer, M.D. of Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla.; Francisco C. Ramirez, M.D., of Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Ariz.; Tisha Lunsford, M.D., of Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Ariz.; Kevin Ruff, M.D., of Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Ariz.; David Cangemi, M.D., of Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla.; Gregory Derfus, M.D., of Mayo Clinic Health System in Eau Claire, Wis. Victor Ciofoaia, M.D., another co-author, was affiliated with Mayo during the study, but has since left Mayo.</p><p>Cosmo Artificial Intelligence-AI Ltd. funded the study.</p><p>Dr. Wallace has financial interests in Verily, Cosmo Pharmaceuticals, Fujifilm, Olympus and Virgo.</p>','2022-04-18 20:30:57.284894','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Mayo Clinic','Artificial intelligence reduced by twofold the rate at which precancerous polyps were missed in colorectal cancer screening, reported a team of international researchers.\n',1,19,'<li>Micheal B. Wallace, Prateek Sharma, Pradeep Bhandari, James East, Giulio Antonelli, Roberto Lorenzetti, Micheal Vieth, Ilaria Speranza, Marco Spadaccini, Madhav Desai, Frank J. Lukens, Genci Babameto, Daisy Batista, Davinder Singh, William Palmer, Francisco Ramirez, Rebecca Palmer, Tisha Lunsford, Kevin Ruff, Elizabeth Bird-Liebermann, Victor Ciofoaia, Sophie Arndtz, David Cangemi, Kirsty Puddick, Gregory Derfus, Amitpal S. Johal, Mohammed Barawi, Luigi Longo, Luigi Moro, Alessandro Repici, Cesare Hassan. <strong>Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Miss Rate of Colorectal Neoplasia</strong>. <em>Gastroenterology</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1053/j.gastro.2022.03.007\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1053/j.gastro.2022.03.007</a>\n</li>'),(2225,'Nanoparticles show promise for locating, removing endometriosis lesions','nanoparticles-show-promise-for-locating,-removing-endometriosis-lesions','2022-04-18 22:13:40.465140',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Scientists have developed a new nanotechnology approach for locating and removing the painful and dangerous lesions associated with endometriosis, a common gynecological condition in women of childbearing age.</p><p>The research led by Oleh Taratula of the Oregon State University College of Pharmacy and Ov Slayden of the Oregon National Primate Research Center at Oregon Health &amp; Science University involves magnetic nanoparticles -- tiny pieces of matter as small as one-billionth of a meter.</p><p>The animal-model study, published today in the journal <em>Small</em>, shows that the iron oxide nanoparticles, injected intravenously, act as a contrast agent -- they accumulate in the lesions, making them easier to see by advanced imaging such as MRI.</p><p>And when exposed to an alternating magnetic field, a non-invasive procedure, the nanoparticles\' temperature soars to more than 120 degrees Fahrenheit, high enough for lesion removal via heat.</p><p>\"Endometriosis is a debilitating, systemic disease, and the need for an efficient, non-surgical method of removing the lesions is urgent,\" Taratula said. \"We invented targeted nanoparticles with extraordinary heating capabilities that enable the use of magnetic hyperthermia for the safe and efficient elimination of endometriosis lesions.\"</p><p>The endometrium is the innermost layer of the uterus, and endometriosis occurs when endometrium-like tissue forms lesions outside of the uterine cavity -- usually involving the ovaries, the fallopian tubes and the tissue lining the pelvis.</p><p>On rare occasions, endometrial tissue may spread beyond the pelvic region.</p><p>Roughly 10% of childbearing-age women will experience endometriosis, according to the World Health Organization, and 35% to 50% of women with pelvic pain and or infertility suffer from the disorder. Globally, endometriosis affects about 190 million women, according to the WHO.</p><p>There\'s no cure for endometriosis, although surgical removal of the lesions can improve fertility. The downside, however, is that the lesions come back about half the time, and more than one-quarter of endometriosis surgery patients need three or more operations because it\'s hard to find all of the diseased tissue that needs to be removed.</p><p>\"Endometriosis is a non-malignant condition, but the lesions sometimes perforate organs, resulting in a life-threatening situation,\" said Olena Taratula of the College of Pharmacy, who also collaborated on the study. \"Therapies for pain result in infertility, and patients wishing to improve fertility often seek surgical removal of the lesions. And unfortunately, not only is the recurrence rate high, complications associated with surgery add to the overall risk.\"</p><p>Magnetic hyperthermia had not previously been considered as a potential means of ablating endometriosis lesions because other magnetic nanoparticles have relatively low heating efficiency, she said. The nanoparticles could only get hot enough after being directly injected into diseased tissue, which is not a realistic approach for endometriosis.</p><p>The collaboration that also included the College of Pharmacy\'s Youngrong Park, Abraham Moses, Peter Do and Ananiya Demessie overcame that problem by developing hexagonal-shaped nanoparticles that have more than six times the heating efficiency of conventional spherical nanoparticles when subjected to an alternating magnetic field.</p><p>Modifying the nanoparticles with a peptide -- multiple amino acids linked in a chain -- that targets a cellular receptor abundant in endometriosis cells enhanced their ability to accumulate in endometriosis lesions, the scientists said. Studies of mice with endometriotic tissue transplanted from macaques demonstrated the nanoparticles\' ability to eradicate the diseased cells following one session of magnetic hyperthermia.</p><p>\"Furthermore, in collaboration with Khashayar Farsad from OHSU\'s Dotter Interventional Institute, we showed the efficiency of the same nanoparticles as an MRI contrast agent,\" Oleh Taratula said. \"This feature of the nanoparticles can aid in the diagnosis of endometriotic lesions by MRI before their exposure to the external alternating magnetic field.\"</p><p>Also part of the project group were Addie Luo of the Oregon National Primate Research Center; Cory Wyatt of the OHSU Department of Diagnostic Radiology; Leonardo Campos and Younes Jahangiri of the Dotter Interventional Institute; Hassan Albarqi of Najran University in Saudi Arabia; and Parinaz Ghanbari, who helped prepare the graphical abstract illustrating the research.</p><p>Oleh and Olena Taratula each has an adjunct appointment with OHSU.</p><p>The National Institutes of Health, the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the National Primate Research Center and the OSU College of Pharmacy supported this study.</p>','2022-04-18 22:13:40.465140','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Oregon State University','Scientists have developed a new nanotechnology approach for locating and removing the painful and dangerous lesions associated with endometriosis, a common gynecological condition in women of childbearing age.\n',1,214,'<li>Youngrong Park, Ananiya A. Demessie, Addie Luo, Olena R. Taratula, Abraham S. Moses, Peter Do, Leonardo Campos, Younes Jahangiri, Cory R. Wyatt, Hassan A. Albarqi, Khashayar Farsad, Ov D. Slayden, Oleh Taratula. <strong>Targeted Nanoparticles with High Heating Efficiency for the Treatment of Endometriosis with Systemically Delivered Magnetic Hyperthermia</strong>. <em>Small</em>, 2022; 2107808 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/smll.202107808\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1002/smll.202107808</a>\n</li>'),(2226,'Adriatic ecosystems withstand major climate shifts but wither under human impact','adriatic-ecosystems-withstand-major-climate-shifts-but-wither-under-human-impact','2022-04-18 22:13:42.168218',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">An analysis of more than 70,000 fossils indicates that mollusk communities were incredibly resilient to major climatic shifts during the last ice age.</p><p>Scientists from the Florida Museum of Natural History and several European research institutions tracked the history of Adriatic ecosystems through two warm periods that bookend the most recent glacial expansion. Their results show that major changes in temperature, salinity and sea-level had much less of an impact on mollusk communities than the current environmental crisis caused by human activity in the region.</p><p>\"It is sobering to consider that about 120,000 years of major climate change did not affect these ecosystems nearly as much as the human-induced changes of the last few centuries,\" said senior author Micha? Kowalewski, the Florida Museum Thompson chair of Invertebrate Paleontology.</p><p>Researchers have known for some time that modern Adriatic ecosystems are considerably altered compared to historical baselines.</p><p>\"There are multiple human-driven stressors on these ecosystems, such as changes in land use that increase sedimentation rates,\" said co-author Rafa? Nawrot, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Vienna, formerly with the Florida Museum. \"This has occurred as far back as the Roman Empire, when increased agriculture led to higher rates of erosion.\"</p><p>While prior civilizations along the Italian peninsula have left a notable signature on Adriatic ecosystems, Nawrot explains that most of the changes have occurred within the last century. The influx of fertilizers into rivers and estuaries have sparked runaway reactions that deplete oxygen in marine and freshwater environments. Pollution from towns and cities creates a toxic mélange for sea life, and cargo vessels litter international shipping lanes with invasive stowaway species that disrupt native ecosystems. Perhaps most detrimental to Adriatic mollusks, commercial fisheries drag nets across the sea floor, scouring the basin for bottom-dwelling fish and bivalves.</p><p>\"The Adriatic Sea is the most heavily trawled area in the world,\" Nawrot said, citing a broad study published earlier this year.</p><p>What scientists have lacked, up until now, was data on natural disturbances in the Adriatic\'s recent past they could use to assess the significance of current ecological changes.</p><p>\"By looking at the fossil record, you can reconstruct a range of natural variability. If the present-day community falls outside that range, it\'s probably because of us,\" said lead author Daniele Scarponi, an associate professor at the University of Bologna.</p><p>To fill the gap in the region\'s history, the researchers sieved long, vertical sediment cores for marine mollusk fossils dating back to the Late Pleistocene.</p><p>The ice ages were a turbulent time for global marine ecosystems. Sea levels rose and fell as water from the world\'s oceans was cyclically released from and trapped in massive continental glaciers. All told, there were about 17 ice ages during the Pleistocene, starting approximately 2.5 million years ago and ending with the final retreat of the glaciers just 12,000 years before present.</p><p>The changes wrought by the onset of the last ice age are especially evident in the Adriatic Sea, which is mostly shallow across its northern extent. When sea levels dropped by about 400 feet at the peak of the ice age, the northern Adriatic nearly ceased to exist, its shores retreating over 150 miles south toward the Mediterranean.</p><p>\"It would have been possible to walk from modern-day Italy to Croatia,\" Scarponi said. \"The entire northern part of the basin was exposed and transformed into an immense lowland plain.\"</p><p>By studying fossils preserved before, during and after the last ice age, the researchers could directly observe the changes to mollusk communities. Their results show that as oceans receded and cooled, mollusks that are today restricted to colder regions flourished in the Adriatic while warmth-loving species declined.</p><p>The researchers note, however, that despite the strong shift in numbers, very few species disappeared altogether. \"The main difference between mollusk communities through the glacial/interglacial cycles isn\'t extinction or the appearance of new species, but rather changes in relative abundance,\" Nawrot said.</p><p>When the glaciers receded and the Adriatic swelled to its modern boundaries, mollusk species reverted back to their previous abundance patterns. If scientists hadn\'t known there was an ice age in-between, it would have seemed like nothing much had happened at all based solely on mollusks.</p><p>\"Our fossil analyses show that communities of mollusk species along northern Adriatic coasts essentially re-assembled into a nearly identical image of themselves when the sea returned,\" Kowalewski said.</p><p>By itself, the finding that mollusks are resilient to climate change is good news. Modern marine communities are already contending with increasing ocean temperatures associated with global warming caused by humans.</p><p>\"Temperatures during the last interglacial were actually a few degrees higher than they are at present, and yet we see the same associations of mollusks,\" Scarponi said. \"That means near-shore mollusk communities will likely be resilient to a slight increase in temperature going forward.\"</p><p>But a warmer world brings with it a unique set of compounding problems, warns Nawrot. \"Many stressors, like anoxia and the effects of invasive species will only intensify with warming, even if higher temperatures alone wouldn\'t be a huge deal\" he said.</p><p>The future of marine ecosystems in the Adriatic and throughout the world\'s oceans remains an open-ended question, one the study authors maintain will require a variety of strategies to solve. \"We need international policies addressing global climate change, but studies like these show we also need actions that mitigate local and regional threats,\" Nawrot said.</p><p>The study was published in the journal <em>Global Change Biology.</em></p><p><strong>Story Source:</strong></p>','2022-04-18 22:13:42.168218','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Florida Museum of Natural History','An analysis of more than 70,000 fossils indicates that mollusk communities were incredibly resilient to major climatic shifts during the last ice age. Scientists from the Florida Museum of Natural History and several European research institutions tracked the history of Adriatic ecosystems through two warm periods that bookend the most recent glacial expansion. Their results show that major changes in temperature, salinity and sea-level had much less of an impact on mollusk communities than the current environmental crisis caused by human activity in the region.\n',1,27,'<li>Daniele Scarponi, Rafał Nawrot, Michele Azzarone, Claudio Pellegrini, Fabiano Gamberi, Fabio Trincardi, Michał Kowalewski. <strong>Resilient biotic response to long‐term climate change in the Adriatic Sea</strong>. <em>Global Change Biology</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16168\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1111/gcb.16168</a>\n</li>'),(2227,'Lithium\'s narrow paths limit batteries','lithium\'s-narrow-paths-limit-batteries','2022-04-18 22:13:45.277529',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">If you could shrink enough for a fantastic voyage across a lithium battery electrode, you\'d see the level of charge at every scale is highly uneven.</p><p>This is not good for the battery\'s health. Rice University researchers who recognize the problem worked with the Department of Energy to view in great detail how the various particles in an electrode interact with lithium during use.</p><p>Specifically, the Rice lab of materials scientist Ming Tang analyzed nano- and micro-scale interactions within lithium iron phosphate cathodes through modeling and imaging offered by the transmission X-ray microscopy capabilities at Brookhaven National Laboratory and Argonne National Laboratory.</p><p>Their paper in the American Chemical Society journal <em>ACS Energy Letters </em>supports theories Tang and his colleagues formed several years ago that foresaw how lithium travels in the dynamic environment inside a typical commercial cathode.</p><p>Being able to watch sealed cathodes charge and discharge at Brookhaven offered absolute proof.</p><p>\"Batteries have a lot of particle aggregates that soak up and give up lithium, and we wanted to know what happens on their surfaces, how uniform the reaction is,\" said Tang, an associate professor of materials science and nanoengineering. \"In general, we always want a more uniform reaction so we can charge the battery faster.\"</p><p>In images taken at Brookhaven\'s powerful X-ray synchrotron, the researchers saw some regions inside the cathode were better at absorption than others. The ability to look at single or aggregated particles in 3D showed that rather than reacting over their entire surfaces, lithium favored particular regions over others.</p><p>\"This is very different from conventional wisdom,\" Tang said. \"The most interesting observation is that these reaction regions are shaped like one-dimensional filaments lying across the surface of these aggregated particles. It was kind of weird, but it matched what we saw in our models.\"</p><p>Tang said the lithium filaments looked something like thick nanotubes and were several hundred nanometers wide and several microns long.</p><p>He said stress between misaligned crystallites in the particle agglomerates prevents lithium from being uniformly inserted into or extracted from the aggregate surface because that will generate too large an energy penalty. Instead, lithium is forced to flow into or out of the aggregates at \"hot spots\" that develop the filament shape.</p><p>What does this mean for battery performance?</p><p>\"This is a bad thing,\" Tang said. \"Because the lithium can\'t go into the cathode uniformly, it slows down the intercalation mechanics.</p><p>\"What our study offers is some potential ways to help make lithium insertion or extraction more uniform on these aggregates or individual particles,\" he said. \"Introducing some porosity in the particle agglomerates might sacrifice some energy density, but at the same time would allow lithium to go in more uniformly. That could allow you to get more energy at a given charge/discharge rate.</p><p>\"Another thought is if we can somehow align the orientation of these small particles so their maximum expansion is perpendicular to each other, they\'ll better accommodate lithium intercalation,\" he said.</p><p>That would be a challenge for battery manufacturers, he admitted.</p><p>\"We don\'t have enough experience in synthesis to know how to make that happen,\" Tang said. \"What we\'re providing is bait. Let\'s see if somebody bites.\"</p><p>Rice graduate alumni Fan Wang and Kaiqi Yang are co-lead authors of the paper. Co-authors are Mingyuan Ge, Jiajun Wang, Jun Wang, Xianghi Xiao and Wah-Keat Lee, all of Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York; and Linsen Li of Shanghai Jiao Tong University.</p><p>The Department of Energy, Basic Energy Sciences (DE-SC0019111) and the National Science Foundation (CMMI-1929949) supported the research.</p>','2022-04-18 22:13:45.277529','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Rice University','Study suggests that lithium batteries would benefit from more porous electrodes with better-aligned particles that don\'t limit lithium distribution.\n',1,72,'<li>Fan Wang, Kaiqi Yang, Mingyuan Ge, Jiajun Wang, Jun Wang, Xianghui Xiao, Wah-Keat Lee, Linsen Li, Ming Tang. <strong>Reaction Heterogeneity in LiFePO4 Agglomerates and the Role of Intercalation-Induced Stress</strong>. <em>ACS Energy Letters</em>, 2022; 1648 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acsenergylett.2c00226\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1021/acsenergylett.2c00226</a>\n</li>'),(2228,'How to print a robot from scratch: Combining liquids, solids could lead to faster, more flexible 3D creations','how-to-print-a-robot-from-scratch:-combining-liquids,-solids-could-lead-to-faster,-more-flexible-3d-creations','2022-04-19 00:24:23.942087',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Imagine a future in which you could 3D-print an entire robot or stretchy, electronic medical device with the press of a button -- no tedious hours spent assembling parts by hand.</p><p>That possibility may be closer than ever thanks to a recent advancement in 3D-printing technology led by engineers at the University of Colorado Boulder. In a new study, the team lays out a strategy for using currently-available printers to create materials that meld solid and liquid components -- a tricky feat if you don\'t want your robot to collapse.</p><p>\"I think there\'s a future where we could, for example, fabricate a complete system like a robot using this process,\" said Robert MacCurdy, senior author of the study and assistant professor in the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering.</p><p>MacCurdy, along with doctoral students Brandon Hayes and Travis Hainsworth, published their results April 14 in the journal <em>Additive Manufacturing</em>.</p><p>3D printers have long been the province of hobbyists and researchers working in labs. They\'re pretty good at making plastic dinosaurs or individual parts for machines, such as gears or joints. But MacCurdy believes that they can do a lot more: By mixing solids and liquids, 3D printers could churn out devices that are more flexible, dynamic and potentially more useful. They include wearable electronic devices with wires made of liquid contained within solid substrates, or even models that mimic the squishiness of real human organs.</p><p>The engineer compares the advancement to traditional printers that print in color, not just black-and-white.</p><p>\"Color printers combine a small number of primary colors to create a rich range of images,\" MaCurdy said. \"The same is true with materials. If you have a printer that can use multiple kinds of materials, you can combine them in new ways and create a much broader range of mechanical properties.\"</p><p><strong>Empty space</strong></p><p>To understand those properties, it helps to compare 3D printers to the normal printers in your office. Paper printers create an image by laying down liquid inks in thousands of flat pixels. Inkjet 3D printers, in contrast, use a printhead to drop tiny beads of fluid, called \"voxels\" (a mash-up of \"volume\" and \"pixel\"), one on top of the other.</p><p>\"Very soon after those droplets are deposited, they are exposed to a bright, ultraviolet light,\" MacCurdy said. \"The curable liquids convert into solids within a second or less.\"</p><p>But, he added, there are many cases in which you might want those liquids to stay liquid. Some engineers, for example, use liquids or waxes to create tiny channels within their solid materials, which they then empty out at a later point. It\'s a bit like how drips of water can carve out an underground cavern.</p><p>Engineers have come up with ways to make those kinds of empty spaces in 3D-printed parts, but it usually takes a lot of time and effort to clean them. The channels also have to stay relatively simple.</p><p>MacCurdy and his colleagues decided to find a way around those limitations -- better understanding the conditions that would allow engineers to print solid and liquid materials at the same time.</p><p><strong>Liquid courage</strong></p><p>The researchers first designed a series of computer simulations that probed the physics of printing different kinds of materials next to each other. One of the big problems, MacCurdy said is: How can you keep your droplets of solid materials from mixing into the liquid materials, even when the droplets of solid material are printed directly on top of the liquid droplets?</p><p>\"We found that the surface tension of a liquid can be used to support solid material, but it is helpful to pick a liquid material that is more dense than the solid material -- the same physics that allow oil to float on top of water,\" Hayes said.</p><p>Next, the researchers experimented with a real 3D printer in the lab. They loaded the printer up with a curable polymer, or plastic (the solid), and with a standard cleaning solution (the liquid). Their creations were impressive: The group was able to 3D-print twisting loops of liquid and a complex network of channels not unlike the branching pathways in a human lung.</p><p>\"Both structures would have been nearly impossible to make through previous approaches,\" Hainsworth said.</p><p>MacCurdy also recently joined a team of researchers from CU Boulder and the CU Anschutz Medical Campus who are developing ways to 3D-print realistic models of human tissue. Doctors could use these models to practice for procedures and make diagnoses. The project will employ MacCurdy\'s liquid-solid approach among other tools.</p><p>\"We hope that our results will make multimaterial inkjet 3D printing using liquids and solids more accessible to researchers and enthusiasts around the world,\" he said.</p><p><strong>Story Source:</strong></p>','2022-04-19 00:24:23.942087','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Colorado at Boulder','Engineers have developed a new way to 3D-print liquid and solid materials together, potentially leading to more dynamic and useful products -- from robots to wearable electronic devices.\n',1,45,'<li>Brandon Hayes, Travis Hainsworth, Robert MacCurdy. <strong>Liquid-solid co-printing of multi-material 3D fluidic devices via material jetting</strong>. <em>Additive Manufacturing</em>, 2022; 102785 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.addma.2022.102785\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.addma.2022.102785</a>\n</li>'),(2229,'Scientists resurrect ancient enzymes to improve photosynthesis','scientists-resurrect-ancient-enzymes-to-improve-photosynthesis','2022-04-19 00:24:26.676378',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">A Cornell University study describes a breakthrough in the quest to improve photosynthesis in certain crops, a step toward adapting plants to rapid climate changes and increasing yields to feed a projected 9 billion people by 2050.</p><p>The study, \"Improving the Efficiency of Rubisco by Resurrecting Its Ancestors in the Family Solanaceae,\" published April 15 in <em>Science Advances</em>. The senior author is Maureen Hanson, the Liberty Hyde Bailey Professor of Plant Molecular Biology in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. First author Myat Lin is a postdoctoral research associate in Hanson\'s lab.</p><p>The authors developed a computational technique to predict favorable gene sequences that make Rubisco, a key plant enzyme for photosynthesis. The technique allowed the scientists to identify promising candidate enzymes that could be engineered into modern crops and, ultimately, make photosynthesis more efficient and increase crop yields.</p><p>Their method relied on evolutionary history, where the researchers predicted Rubisco genes from 20-30 million years ago, when Earth\'s carbon dioxide (CO<sub>2</sub>) levels were higher than they are today and the Rubisco enzymes in plants were adapted to those levels.</p><p>By resurrecting ancient Rubisco, early results show promise for developing faster, more efficient Rubisco enzymes to incorporate into crops and help them adapt to hot, dry future conditions, as human activities are increasing heat-trapping CO<sub>2</sub> gas concentrations in Earth\'s atmosphere.</p><p>The study describes predictions of 98 Rubisco enzymes at key moments in the evolutionary history of plants in the Solanaceae family, which include tomato, pepper, potato, eggplant and tobacco. Researchers use tobacco as the experimental model for their studies of Rubisco.</p><p>\"We were able to identify predicted ancestral enzymes that do have superior qualities compared to current-day enzymes,\" Hanson said. Lin developed the new technique for identifying predicted ancient Rubisco enzymes.</p><p>Scientists have known that they can increase crop yields by accelerating photosynthesis, where plants convert CO<sub>2</sub>, water and light into oxygen and sugars that plants use for energy and for building new tissues.</p><p>For many years, researchers have focused on Rubisco, a slow enzyme that pulls (or fixes) carbon from CO<sub>2</sub> to create sugars. Aside from being slow, Rubisco also sometimes catalyzes a reaction with oxygen in the air; by so doing, it creates a toxic byproduct, wastes energy and makes photosynthesis inefficient.</p><p>Hanson\'s lab had previously tried to use Rubisco from cyanobacteria (blue-green algae), which is faster but also reacts readily with oxygen, forcing the researchers to try to create micro-compartments to protect the enzyme from oxygen, with mixed results. Other researchers have tried to engineer more optimal Rubisco by making changes in the enzyme\'s amino acids, though little was known about which changes would lead to desired results.</p><p>In this study, Lin reconstructed a phylogeny -- a tree-like diagram showing evolutionary relatedness among groups of organisms -- of Rubisco, using Solanaceae plants.</p><p>\"By getting a lot of [genetic] sequences of Rubisco in existing plants, a phylogenetic tree could be constructed to figure out which Rubiscos likely existed 20 to 30 million years ago,\" Hanson said.</p><p>The advantage of identifying potential ancient Rubisco sequences is that carbon dioxide levels were possibly as high as 500 to 800 parts per million (ppm) in the atmosphere 25 million to 50 million years ago. Today, heat-trapping CO<sub>2</sub> levels are rising sharply due to many human activities, with current measurements at around 420 ppm, after staying relatively constant under 300 ppm for hundreds of millennia until the 1950s.</p><p>Lin, Hanson and colleagues then used an experimental system developed for tobacco in Hanson\'s lab, and described in a 2020 Nature Plants paper, which employs E. coli bacteria to test in a single day the efficacy of different versions of Rubisco. Similar tests done in plants take months to verify.</p><p>The team found that ancient Rubisco enzymes predicted from modern-day Solanaceae plants showed real promise for being more efficient.</p><p>\"For the next step, we want to replace the genes for the existing Rubisco enzyme in tobacco with these ancestral sequences using CRISPR [gene-editing] technology, and then measure how it affects the production of biomass,\" Hanson said. \"We certainly hope that our experiments will show that by adapting Rubisco to present day conditions, we will have plants that will give greater yields.\"</p><p>If their method proves successful, these efficient Rubisco sequences could be transferred into crops such as tomatoes, as well as those from other plant families, such as soybeans and rice.</p><p>The study was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy.</p>','2022-04-19 00:24:26.676378','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Cornell University','A new study describes a breakthrough in the quest to improve photosynthesis in certain crops, a step toward adapting plants to rapid climate changes and increasing yields to feed a projected 9 billion people by 2050.\n',1,54,'<li>Myat T. Lin, Heidi Salihovic, Frances K. Clark, Maureen R. Hanson. <strong>Improving the efficiency of Rubisco by resurrecting its ancestors in the family Solanaceae</strong>. <em>Science Advances</em>, 2022; 8 (15) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abm6871\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1126/sciadv.abm6871</a>\n</li>'),(2230,'COVID-19 vaccine protects kids and teens from severe illness','covid-19-vaccine-protects-kids-and-teens-from-severe-illness','2022-04-19 00:24:29.035730',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Results of a new multicenter study published in the <em>New England Journal of Medicine</em> found that vaccination with a primary series of the Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA COVID-19 vaccine reduced the risk of COVID-19-associated hospitalizations in children ages 5-11 years by two-thirds during the Omicron period. Among adolescents ages 12-18 years who were vaccinated with a primary series of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, protection against COVID-19-associated hospitalization during the Omicron period was lower than during the Delta period, similar to what has been previously shown among adults. Levels of protection against critical COVID-19 requiring life-supporting interventions remained high in vaccinated adolescents during both the Delta and the Omicron periods.</p><p>\"Our study results are reassuring that COVID-19 vaccination in eligible children and adolescents continues to protect against the most severe outcomes associated with COVID-19, regardless of variant type,\" said study co-author Bria Coates, MD, critical care physician at Ann &amp; Robert H. Lurie Children\'s Hospital of Chicago and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. \"It is difficult to predict whether the vaccine will be as effective against the current subvariant of Omicron, but most likely the level of protection would be similar. Our results reinforce the importance of COVID-19 vaccination, including receiving a booster dose for those ages 12 years and older, to protect against critical illness.\"</p><p>During the Omicron period (December 19, 2021-February 17, 2022), vaccination reduced the risk of COVID-19-associated hospitalization by 68 percent in children ages 5-11 years. Vaccine effectiveness against any type of COVID-19-associated hospitalization in adolescents ages 12-18 years who received a primary series declined from 92 percent during the Delta (July 1, 2021-December 18, 2021) period to 40 percent during the Omicron period. Protection against COVID-19 requiring life-supporting interventions remained high for adolescents during Delta (96 percent) and Omicron (79 percent).</p><p>Due to the low numbers of hospitalized children ages 5-11 years in the study, researchers could not analyze vaccine effectiveness by disease severity for this age group but will continue to monitor as these data are collected. Data in this age group was not available for the Delta period, since younger children were not eligible for the vaccine at that time.</p><p>Protection against hospitalization in adolescents during the Delta period remained consistent for more than 6 months after receipt of a primary series. Levels of protection during Omicron, although lower, also stayed consistent over time after completing the primary series.</p><p>\"This consistency in vaccine effectiveness during each variant suggests that the decline in protection among adolescents between the Delta and Omicron periods might be because the Omicron variant is more likely to escape control by the immune system, rather than waning immunity since vaccination,\" said Dr. Coates, who also is the Crown Family Research Scholar in Developmental Biology. \"However, more data are needed to answer this question.\"</p><p>The study was funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).</p><p>Research at Ann &amp; Robert H. Lurie Children\'s Hospital of Chicago is conducted through Stanley Manne Children\'s Research Institute. The Manne Research Institute is focused on improving child health, transforming pediatric medicine and ensuring healthier futures through the relentless pursuit of knowledge. Lurie Children\'s is ranked as one of the nation\'s top children\'s hospitals by <em>U.S. News &amp; World Report. </em>It is the pediatric training ground for Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.</p>','2022-04-19 00:24:29.035730','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children\'s Hospital of Chicago','Results of a new multicenter study found that vaccination with a primary series of the Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA COVID-19 vaccine reduced the risk of COVID-19-associated hospitalizations in children ages 5-11 years by two-thirds during the Omicron period.\n',1,74,'<li>Ashley M. Price, Samantha M. Olson, Margaret M. Newhams, Natasha B. Halasa, Julie A. Boom, Leila C. Sahni, Pia S. Pannaraj, Katherine Irby, Katherine E. Bline, Aline B. Maddux, Ryan A. Nofziger, Melissa A. Cameron, Tracie C. Walker, Stephanie P. Schwartz, Elizabeth H. Mack, Laura Smallcomb, Jennifer E. Schuster, Charlotte V. Hobbs, Satoshi Kamidani, Keiko M. Tarquinio, Tamara T. Bradford, Emily R. Levy, Kathleen Chiotos, Samina S. Bhumbra, Natalie Z. Cvijanovich, Sabrina M. Heidemann, Melissa L. Cullimore, Shira J. Gertz, Bria M. Coates, Mary A. Staat, Matt S. Zinter, Michele Kong, Brandon M. Chatani, Janet R. Hume, Katri V. Typpo, Mia Maamari, Heidi R. Flori, Mark W. Tenforde, Laura D. Zambrano, Angela P. Campbell, Manish M. Patel, Adrienne G. Randolph. <strong>BNT162b2 Protection against the Omicron Variant in Children and Adolescents</strong>. <em>New England Journal of Medicine</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa2202826\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1056/NEJMoa2202826</a>\n</li>'),(2231,'What food sector needs to know about how to reduce sodium','what-food-sector-needs-to-know-about-how-to-reduce-sodium','2022-04-19 00:24:31.941862',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Sodium is an essential micronutrient, but the amount we need is small. Three slices of bread or one teaspoon of table salt will do it, and chances are your daily sodium intake is far greater. More than 90% of Americans consume too much sodium, which can lead to hypertension, high blood pressure, and increased risk of heart disease and stroke.</p><p>Most of the excess sodium comes from processed and packaged foods, so the food industry and food scientists continuously look for ways to reduce sodium. A new paper from the University of Illinois provides a comprehensive review of scientific literature on sodium reduction strategies in food production.</p><p>\"Sodium overconsumption is a huge health concern, and the FDA has recommended sodium reduction in food since the 1980s, but we haven\'t succeeded yet. While the unit volume of salt in the food supply has not increased, the amount of sodium consumption has gone up, because we just consume a lot of food,\" says Soo-Yeun Lee, professor in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition (FSHN) at U of I and co-author on the paper.</p><p>We only need around 450 milligrams (mg) of sodium per day, and the recommended maximum amount is 2,300 mg, or 1,500 mg for those at risk for hypertension. But average consumption exceeds 3,000 to 3,500 mg per day -- or 50% to 100% above the upper limit. More than 70% of our sodium intake comes from processed and packaged foods, primarily cured meats, bread, cheese, and soups.</p><p>The researchers conducted a scoping review including primary studies, literature reviews, book chapters, and patents covering sodium reduction in food products. They focused on studies that included sensory data with human subjects, because palatability is essential for consumer acceptance.</p><p>\"In this review, we looked at different food systems. The way you would reduce salt in a solid system, like a topical application on snack foods, such as salted peanuts or salted chips, would be very different from embedded application in semi-solid foods like cheese or bread. And in a liquid system like soup, where it is completely dissolved, it would be really different in the way we could reduce salt yet provide the palatability it gives,\" Lee states.</p><p>\"We\'re hoping this work will provide insight into the wide variety of salt-reducing technologies that exist. This can help food companies be more informed to use different strategies than what they have been doing,\" she adds.</p><p>The researchers identified five main strategies: Salt reduction, salt replacers, flavor modification, physical modification, and functional modification.</p><p>\"The most obvious one is to remove salt from the recipe, and that is a key component in all of the strategies when sodium reduction is the goal,\" says Aubrey Dunteman, graduate student in FSHN and lead author on the paper.</p><p>But it is not possible to completely eliminate sodium, because it has both sensory and functional properties. For example, it is used for meat preservation and to make bread dough rise.</p><p>\"A lot of the studies we looked at combined more than one method, such as salt removal with salt replacers and flavor modification or salt removal and physical modification,\" Dunteman says.</p><p>Many studies used salt replacers such as potassium chloride, calcium chloride, or other chloride or acid salts. However, these substitutes tend to have a bitter taste, so they are often used in combination with flavor modifications, such as umami substances or bitter blockers.</p><p>\"Another method is physical modification. For example, you can encapsulate the salt crystals, which changes how the salt is dissolved in the mouth. This can alter the saltiness perception allowing for a reduction in the amount of sodium necessary to create the salty taste. You can also create an uneven distribution of the salt in a product that can further help enhance the perceived saltiness of the food product through taste contrast,\" Dunteman explains.</p><p>\"Finally, there is functional modification. For example, you could move away from a sodium-based preservative in cured meats, perhaps using a celery-powder preservative instead of sodium nitrate.\"</p><p>Functional modification is less represented in the scoping review because this type of sodium reduction research typically does not incorporate a sensory component as a main assessment method, Dunteman notes.</p><p>If consumers want to reduce their salt intake, the best strategy is to cook your own food and limit your consumption of processed and packaged foods. You can also wean yourself off salt with practice, essentially go on a \"salt diet.\"</p><p>\"If you\'re cooking at home, you can intentionally reduce salt and you\'ll appreciate the reduced saltiness perception as time goes on. People can adjust to the reduced salt level, but it\'s a learning and adapting process. You can also add flavor enhancers such as herbs and spices,\" Lee suggests.</p><p>\"If you are a consumer of canned soup, for example, you can buy a low-sodium version and add salt. Then you can gradually modify the amount of salt you add, so you can make it palatable to your taste,\" she notes.</p><p>The research was supported by the Institute for the Advancement of Food and Nutrition Sciences (IAFNS) through an ILSI North America Sodium Committee grant. IAFNS is a non-profit science organization that pools funding from industry collaborators and advances science through the in-kind and financial contributions from public and private sector participants. IAFNS had no role in the design, analysis, interpretation, or presentation of the data and results.</p>','2022-04-19 00:24:31.941862','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Illinois College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences','Sodium is an essential micronutrient, but the amount we need is small. Three slices of bread or one teaspoon of table salt will do it, and chances are your daily sodium intake is far greater. More than 90% of Americans consume too much sodium, which can lead to hypertension, high blood pressure, and increased risk of heart disease and stroke. A new article provides a comprehensive review of scientific literature on sodium reduction strategies in food production.\n',1,27,'<li>Aubrey N. Dunteman, Elle N. McKenzie, Ying Yang, Youngsoo Lee, Soo‐Yeun Lee. <strong>Compendium of sodium reduction strategies in foods: A scoping review</strong>. <em>Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety</em>, 2022; 21 (2): 1300 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1541-4337.12915\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1111/1541-4337.12915</a>\n</li>'),(2232,'Study finds infertility history linked with increased risk of heart failure','study-finds-infertility-history-linked-with-increased-risk-of-heart-failure','2022-04-19 00:24:34.691866',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">A new study finds that a history of infertility is associated with increased risk of heart failure. Published in the <em>Journal of the American College of Cardiology,</em> researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) revealed that women who had experienced infertility had a 16% increased risk of heart failure compared with women who did not have an infertility history.</p><p>\"We are beginning to recognize that a woman\'s reproductive history tells a lot about her future risk of heart disease,\" says first author Emily Lau, MD, MPH, cardiologist and director of the Menopause, Hormones &amp; Cardiovascular Clinic at MGH. \"Whether a woman has difficulty becoming pregnant, what happens during her pregnancies, when she transitions through menopause all influence her risk of heart disease later in life.\"</p><p>Infertility affects about 1 in 5 US women and includes a spectrum of conception difficulties, but its link with heart failure has not been well-studied until recently. Partnering with the Women\'s Health Initiative (WHI), which was designed in the early 1990s and queried a woman\'s reproductive history, Lau and colleagues studied postmenopausal women from the WHI and examined whether infertility was associated with development of heart failure.</p><p>There are two types of heart failure: heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) and heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF). Ejection fraction is a measurement related to the volume percentage of blood that is pumped from the left ventricle of the heart during each beat. An ejection fraction less than 50% is commonly viewed as abnormal or reduced.</p><p>The team found an association between infertility and overall heart failure, specifically with HFpEF, a form of heart failure that is far more common in women regardless of fertility history. Among the 38,528 postmenopausal women studied, 14% of the participants reported a history of infertility. Over a 15-year follow up period, the researchers noted that infertility was associated with 16% future risk of overall heart failure. When they examined heart failure subtypes, they found that infertility was associated with a 27% increased future risk of HFpEF.</p><p>Over the past decade, HFpEF (where the heart muscle does not relax well) as opposed to HFrEF (where the left ventricle does not pump well), has become the dominant form of heart failure in both men and women. But it remains more common in women. \"It\'s a challenging condition because we still do not completely understand how HFpEF develops and we do not have very good therapies to treat HFpEF,\" says Lau.</p><p>\"I think our findings are particularly noteworthy because heart failure with preserved ejection fraction is more prevalent in women,\" says Lau. \"We don\'t understand why we see HFpEF more in women. Looking back in a woman\'s early reproductive life may give us some clues as to why.\" Of note, the team observed that the link persisted regardless of whether an individual eventually conceived or had a live birth.</p><p>The increased risk was independent of traditional cardiovascular risk factors and other infertility-related conditions. \"There has been some suggestion in previous studies that women with infertility do have more cardiometabolic risk factors,\" says Lau, but the team did not find that cardiometabolic risk factors explained the link between infertility with heart failure in this study. They also looked to see if other infertility-related conditions like thyroid disease, irregular menses, and early menopause explained the association between infertility and heart failure but did not evidence to support that hypothesis either.</p><p>\"So it really begs the question: what are the mechanisms driving the association between infertility and heart failure,\" says Lau. Is it shared risk factors, or is infertility on the causal pathway? She mentions vascular and endothelial dysfunction may be involved and plans on eventually clarifying the mechanism underlying the link between infertility and heart failure. In the future, Lau hopes to conduct a prospective study of women with an infertility history involving exercise parameters, vascular measures, and more, to solve the mystery.</p><p>\"We as scientists and doctors are beginning to recognize how important a woman\'s reproductive history is for their future risk of heart disease. Infertility is one of many cardiovascular risk factors, such as hypertension and high blood pressure, but reproductive history is not routinely considered as part of the cardiovascular risk assessment,\" says Lau. Since people do not tend to develop heart failure until well in their 60s and beyond, and infertility is mostly experienced in the 20s, 30s, and 40s, many physicians are not thinking about the connection. \"We cannot change a woman\'s history of infertility, but if we know a woman has had a history of infertility, we can be more aggressive about counseling her about other modifiable risk factors including high blood pressure, high cholesterol, smoking, and beyond.\"</p><p>This research was supported in part by the National Institutes of Health and American Heart Association.</p>','2022-04-19 00:24:34.691866','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Massachusetts General Hospital','A woman\'s reproductive history can help predict her future risk of heart disease.\n',1,150,'<li>Emily S. Lau, Dongyu Wang, Mary Roberts, Christy N. Taylor, Gayathree Murugappan, Aladdin H. Shadyab, Peter F. Schnatz, Leslie V. Farland, Malissa J. Wood, Nandita S. Scott, Charles B. Eaton, Jennifer E. Ho. <strong>Infertility and Risk of Heart Failure in the Women’s Health Initiative</strong>. <em>Journal of the American College of Cardiology</em>, 2022; 79 (16): 1594 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jacc.2022.02.020\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.jacc.2022.02.020</a>\n</li>'),(2233,'Pacific Northwest wildfires alter air pollution patterns across North America','pacific-northwest-wildfires-alter-air-pollution-patterns-across-north-america','2022-04-19 16:53:46.267232',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Increasingly large and intense wildfires in the Pacific Northwest are altering the seasonal pattern of air pollution and causing a spike in unhealthy pollutants in August, new research finds. The smoke is undermining clean air gains, posing potential risks to the health of millions of people, according to the study.</p><p>The research, led by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), found that levels of carbon monoxide -- a gas that indicates the presence of other air pollutants -- have increased sharply as wildfires spread in August. Carbon monoxide levels are normally lower in the summer because of chemical reactions in the atmosphere related to changes in sunlight, and the finding that their levels have jumped indicates the extent of the smoke\'s impacts.</p><p>\"Wildfire emissions have increased so substantially that they\'re changing the annual pattern of air quality across North America,\" said NCAR scientist Rebecca Buchholz, the lead author. \"It\'s quite clear that there is a new peak of air pollution in August that didn\'t used to exist.\"</p><p>Although carbon monoxide generally is not a significant health concern outdoors, the gas indicates the presence of more harmful pollutants, including aerosols (airborne particulates) and ground-level ozone that tends to form on hot summer days.</p><p>The research team used satellite-based observations of atmospheric chemistry and global inventories of fires to track wildfire emissions during most of the past two decades, as well as computer modeling to analyze the potential impacts of the smoke. They focused on three North American regions: the Pacific Northwest, the central United States, and the Northeast.</p><p>Buchholz said the findings were particularly striking because carbon monoxide levels have been otherwise decreasing, both globally and across North America, due to improvements in pollution-control technologies.</p><p>The study was published this week in <em>Nature Communications. </em>The research was funded in part by the U.S. National Science Foundation, NCAR\'s sponsor. The paper was co-authored by researchers from the University of Colorado, Boulder; Columbia University; NASA; Tsinghua University; and Colorado State University.</p><p><strong>Increasing impacts on air pollution</strong></p><p>Wildfires have been increasing in the Pacific Northwest and other regions of North America, due to a combination of climate change, increased development, and land use policies. The fires are becoming a larger factor in air pollution, especially as emissions from human activities are diminishing because of more efficient combustion processes in motor vehicles and industrial facilities.</p><p>To analyze the impacts of fires, Buchholz and her collaborators used data from two instruments on the NASA Terra satellite: MOPITT (Measurements of Pollution in the Troposphere), which has tracked carbon monoxide continually since 2002; and MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer), which detects fires and provides information on aerosols. They also studied four inventories of wildfire emissions, which rely on MODIS data.</p><p>The scientists focused on the period from 2002, the beginning of a consistent and long-term record of MOPPIT data, to 2018, the last year for which complete observations were available at the time when they began their study.</p><p>The results showed an increase in carbon monoxide levels across North America in August, which corresponded with the peak burning season of the Pacific Northwest. The trend was especially pronounced from 2012 to 2018, when the Pacific Northwest fire season became much more active, according to the emissions inventories. Data from the MODIS instrument revealed that aerosols also showed an upward trend in August.</p><p>To determine whether the higher pollution levels were caused by the fires, the scientists eliminated other potential emission sources. They found that carbon monoxide levels upwind of the Pacific Northwest, over the Pacific Ocean, were much lower in August -- a sign that the pollution was not blowing in from Asia. They also found that fire season in the central U.S. and the Northeast did not coincide with the August increase in pollution, which meant that local fires in those regions were not responsible. In addition, they studied a pair of fossil fuel emission inventories, which showed that carbon monoxide emissions from human activities did not increase in any of the three study regions from 2012 to 2018.</p><p>\"Multiple lines of evidence point to the worsening wildfires in the Pacific Northwest as the cause of degraded air quality,\" Buchholz said. \"It\'s particularly unfortunate that these fires are undermining the gains that society has made in reducing pollution overall.\"</p><p><strong>Risks to human health </strong></p><p>The findings have implications for human health because wildfire smoke has been linked to significant respiratory problems, and it may also affect the cardiovascular system and worsen pregnancy outcomes.</p><p>Buchholz and her co-authors used an NCAR-based computer model, the Community Atmosphere Model with a chemistry component, to simulate the movement of emissions from the Pacific Northwest fires and their impact on carbon monoxide, ozone, and fine particulate matter. They ran the simulations on the Cheyenne supercomputer at the NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputing Center. The results showed the pollutants could affect more than 130 million people, including about 34 million in the Pacific Northwest, 23 million in the Central U.S., and 72 million in the Northeast.</p><p>Although the study did not delve deeply into the health implications of the emissions, the authors looked at respiratory death rates in Colorado for the month of August from 2002 to 2011, compared with the same month in 2012 to 2018. They chose Colorado, located in the central U.S. region of the study, because respiratory death rates in the state were readily obtainable.</p><p>They found that Colorado respiratory deaths in August increased significantly during the 2012-2018 period, when fires in the Pacific Northwest -- but not in Colorado -- produced more emissions in August.</p><p>\"It\'s clear that more research is needed into the health implications of all this smoke,\" Buchholz said. \"We may already be seeing the consequences of these fires on the health of residents who live hundreds or even thousands of miles downwind.\"</p>','2022-04-19 16:53:46.267232','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'National Center for Atmospheric Research/University Corporation for Atmospheric Research','Increasingly large and intense wildfires in the Pacific Northwest are altering the seasonal pattern of air pollution and causing a spike in unhealthy pollutants in August, according to new research. The smoke is undermining clean air gains, posing potential risks to the health of millions of people, according to the study.\n',1,153,'<li>Rebecca R. Buchholz, Mijeong Park, Helen M. Worden, Wenfu Tang, David P. Edwards, Benjamin Gaubert, Merritt N. Deeter, Thomas Sullivan, Muye Ru, Mian Chin, Robert C. Levy, Bo Zheng, Sheryl Magzamen. <strong>New seasonal pattern of pollution emerges from changing North American wildfires</strong>. <em>Nature Communications</em>, 2022; 13 (1) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29623-8\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41467-022-29623-8</a>\n</li>'),(2234,'Genetic analysis provides insights into the cause of hydrocephalus, or \'water on the brain\'','genetic-analysis-provides-insights-into-the-cause-of-hydrocephalus,-or-\'water-on-the-brain\'','2022-04-19 16:56:20.061498',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Hydrocephalus, or \"water on the brain,\" occurs when the cerebral ventricles -- four interconnected cavities of the brain that are filled with cerebrospinal fluid -- become enlarged, but its cause is unknown in many cases. A better understanding could lead to improved treatments for hydrocephalus, which is the leading reason for brain surgery in children and is associated with neurodevelopmental disability. To provide insights, a team led by investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Yale University analyzed variations in genetic sequences and gene expression patterns in the brains of patients with congenital hydrocephalus. The research, which is published in <em>Nature Neuroscience</em>, indicates that hydrocephalus does not result from a defect of cerebrospinal fluid \"plumbing\" but rather arises because primitive cells in the brain do not behave properly during development.</p><p>In patients with hydrocephalus, continued accumulation of fluid dilates the cerebral ventricles, increases pressure in the skull, and compresses the surrounding brain structure. This compression can cause acute symptoms such as vomiting and headache, and even coma or even death. In the long-term, brain compression can lead to neurocognitive issues and neurodevelopmental disabilities in children, even when a medical device called a shunt is surgically placed in the brain.</p><p>\"Neurosurgical shunting of cerebrospinal fluid addresses some consequences of the disease but does not target the underlying mechanisms,\" says senior author Kristopher T. Kahle, MD, PhD, director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at MGH and director of the Harvard Center for Hydrocephalus and Neurodevelopmental. \"Knowing the molecular cause of disease could be very helpful towards clinical decision making.\"</p><p>To provide insights, Kahle and his colleagues genetically sequenced cells from 483 children with hydrocephalus and their unaffected parents, using a profiling technology that uncovers gene mutations in patients across the entire genome. By combining the genetic sequence data with gene expression data, the team found that many hydrocephalus-associated genes converge not in fluid circulation components but instead in neuroepithelial cells, which are the earliest stem cells of the brain that arise during the first several weeks of development. These cells go on to generate all of the neurons and support cells of the brain.</p><p>\"This began to hint to us that rather than affecting fluid circulation, hydrocephalus gene mutations may be disrupting the earliest processes of human brain development to cause hydrocephalus,\" says co-lead author Phan Q. Duy, an MD/PhD student at Yale University School of Medicine.</p><p>The most frequently mutated gene in the study\'s patients -- called <em>TRIM71</em>-codes for a protein that is part of a pathway that regulates the timing of stem cell development. When the investigators bred mice to express <em>TRIM71 </em>mutations, the mice developed fetal-onset hydrocephalus similar to human patients. Mechanistically, stem cells in the brains of the <em>Trim71</em>-mutated mice prematurely generated neurons, leading to a deficient pool of stem cells to support brain growth and development. This caused deficient expansion of brain tissue and underdevelopment of the cerebral cortex.</p><p>The scientists note that the resulting altered structure of the brain is not capable of holding the pressure exerted by cerebrospinal fluid, and thus the brain deforms and its ventricles passively expand. \"The site of pathology is therefore not happening in the fluid itself, but rather the vessel -- or the brain tissue -- that\'s holding the fluid,\" says Duy.</p><p>The findings suggest that treatment strategies for hydrocephalus should go beyond draining fluid in the brain. \"A more nuanced treatment approach may include not only cerebrospinal fluid diversion but also other approaches more tailored towards improving neurodevelopmental function,\" says Kahle. \"In the long-term, with continued gene discovery and better understanding of how other gene mutations disrupt brain development to cause hydrocephalus, we may be able to develop drug treatments or even gene therapy to correct the gene mutations months before the birth of patients.\"</p><p>Beyond providing a better understanding hydrocephalus, this work may offer additional insights into other pediatric brain disorders. In fact, ventricular dilation is a common feature in developmental neuropsychiatric diseases such as autism and schizophrenia, and many of the processes involved with hydrocephalus may also be relevant for other structural brain malformations.</p><p>This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health, Rudi Schulte Institute, and the Hydrocephalus Association.</p>','2022-04-19 16:56:20.061498','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Massachusetts General Hospital','Genetic studies of children with hydrocephalus (\'water on the brain\') combined with mouse models indicate that in certain genetic subtypes, the condition arises due to abnormal neurodevelopment that disrupts mechanical stability of the brain. Treatment strategies need to optimize brain development beyond the current standard of simply draining brain fluid.\n',1,124,'<li>Phan Q. Duy, Stefan C. Weise, Claudia Marini, Xiao-Jun Li, Dan Liang, Peter J. Dahl, Shaojie Ma, Ana Spajic, Weilai Dong, Jane Juusola, Emre Kiziltug, Adam J. Kundishora, Sunil Koundal, Maysam Z. Pedram, Lucia A. Torres-Fernández, Kristian Händler, Elena De Domenico, Matthias Becker, Thomas Ulas, Stefan A. Juranek, Elisa Cuevas, Le Thi Hao, Bettina Jux, André M. M. Sousa, Fuchen Liu, Suel-Kee Kim, Mingfeng Li, Yiying Yang, Yutaka Takeo, Alvaro Duque, Carol Nelson-Williams, Yonghyun Ha, Kartiga Selvaganesan, Stephanie M. Robert, Amrita K. Singh, Garrett Allington, Charuta G. Furey, Andrew T. Timberlake, Benjamin C. Reeves, Hannah Smith, Ashley Dunbar, Tyrone DeSpenza, June Goto, Arnaud Marlier, Andres Moreno-De-Luca, Xin Yu, William E. Butler, Bob S. Carter, Evelyn M. R. Lake, R. Todd Constable, Pasko Rakic, Haifan Lin, Engin Deniz, Helene Benveniste, Nikhil S. Malvankar, Juvianee I. Estrada-Veras, Christopher A. Walsh, Seth L. Alper, Joachim L. Schultze, Katrin Paeschke, Angelika Doetzlhofer, F. Gregory Wulczyn, Sheng Chih Jin, Richard P. Lifton, Nenad Sestan, Waldemar Kolanus, Kristopher T. Kahle. <strong>Impaired neurogenesis alters brain biomechanics in a neuroprogenitor-based genetic subtype of congenital hydrocephalus</strong>. <em>Nature Neuroscience</em>, 2022; 25 (4): 458 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41593-022-01043-3\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41593-022-01043-3</a>\n</li>'),(2235,'The origins and ID of pancreatic endocrine cells','the-origins-and-id-of-pancreatic-endocrine-cells','2022-04-19 16:58:24.143389',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">The pancreas is a key metabolic regulator. When pancreatic beta cells cease producing enough insulin, blood sugar levels rise dangerously -- a phenomenon known as hyperglycemia -- thus triggering diabetes. After discovering that other mature pancreatic cells can adapt and partly compensate for the lack of insulin, a team from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) demonstrates that the stem cells from which beta cells are derived are only present during embryonic development. This discovery puts an end to a long-standing controversy about the hypothetical existence of adult pancreatic stem cells that would give rise to newly differentiated hormone-producing cells after birth. The scientists also succeeded in precisely defining the \'identity card\' of pancreatic endocrine cells, which is a promising tool for the production of replacement insulin-secreting cells. These results can be read in <em>Cell Reports </em>and<em> Nature Communications</em>.</p><p>Diabetes is a common metabolic disease. It is characterised by a persistent hyperglycemia that occurs when pancreatic cells responsible for the production of insulin -- the beta cells -- are destroyed or are no longer able to produce this regulatory hormone in sufficient quantities. Since 2010, studies performed by the team of Pedro Herrera, a professor in the Department of Genetic Medicine and Development and in the Diabetes Centre at the UNIGE Faculty of Medicine, as well as at the Geneva Institute of Genetics and Genomics (iGE3), reveal that the other pancreatic endocrine cells -- namely alpha, delta and gamma cells, which produce other hormones useful for the metabolic balance -- can \"learn\" to produce insulin when beta cells are absent or defective. This phenomenon, observed in mice and humans, demonstrates the plasticity of pancreatic cells and paves the way to new therapeutic strategies.</p><p><strong>The short life of pancreatic endocrine stem cells </strong></p><p>In two recent publications, Pedro Herrera\'s team reports new advances in the knowledge of the mechanisms of pancreatic cell formation, and in the gene expression profile defining the identity of each of the different islet endocrine cell types. The first research, published and featured in the cover of Cell Reports, demonstrates that pancreatic endocrine cells all derive from undifferentiated progenitor cells that emerge exclusively during embryonic development, but not after birth.</p><p>\"Until now, some scientists thought that intra-pancreatic stem cells persist throughout life,\"explains Pedro Herrera. Marta Perez-Frances, a researcher in Pedro Herrera\'s team and first author of this study, adds: \"Our work shows that this is not the case. Indeed, all pancreatic hormone-producing cells that emerge after birth originate from the division of existing differentiated cells that were generated during embryonic and fetal life from undifferentiated progenitor cells.\"</p><p>To decipher this mechanism, the scientists generated mouse models in which the different types of pancreatic endocrine cells were genetically tagged with a fluorescent tracer at different developmental stages in order to track them down after birth. The cells were traced up to the age of ten months, when mice are old.</p><p><strong>A detailed ID card</strong></p><p>In a second article, published in Nature Communications, Pedro Herrera\'s team focus on the gene expression profile of pancreatic endocrine cells. \"Precisely defining the \'identity card\' of these cells now helps us to design a tool aiming at engineering cell replacement therapies to treat diabetes. Such therapies could for instance consist of in vitro manufacturing of insulin-producing cells, or in stimulating pancreatic regeneration by exploiting the plasticity of the non-beta cells that we have discovered,\" explains Léon van Gurp, first author and post-doctoral fellow in the lab of Pedro Herrera.</p><p>The generation of surrogate cells with stable functional identities is crucial for the development of cell-based therapies to treat degenerative diseases. However, their generation requires reliable tools to accurately assess cell identities. To this aim, the researchers performed an extensive meta-analysis of single-cell transcriptomics, i.e. the analysis of the genes expressed by individual endocrine cells isolated from human pancreatic islets (these cells are grouped in small \"clusters\" within the pancreas). The identification of robustly expressed gene-sets allow the precise definition of the genetic signature of each endocrine cell type of the pancreas.</p><p>\"Our work has no immediate clinical translation. Yet, by deciphering in detail the mechanisms governing the construction of cellular identities, it paves the way for developing innovative therapeutic approaches for treating diabetes and other pathologies linked to the loss of any given cell type,\"concludes Pedro Herrera.</p><p>The gene lists that the authors have generated can be downloaded from the Molecular Signatures Database (<a href=\"https://www.gsea-msigdb.org/gsea/msigdb\">https://www.gsea-msigdb.org/gsea/msigdb</a>) or through the web application scPancMeta (<a href=\"https://rapps.hirnetwork.org/scPancMeta\">https://rapps.hirnetwork.org/scPancMeta</a>)</p>','2022-04-19 16:58:24.143389','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Université de Genève','Scientists show that endocrine stem cells in the pancreas disappear after birth, and detail the genetic identity of the different types of pancreatic hormone-producing cells.\n',1,29,'<li>Léon van Gurp, Leon Fodoulian, Daniel Oropeza, Kenichiro Furuyama, Eva Bru-Tari, Anh Nguyet Vu, John S. Kaddis, Iván Rodríguez, Fabrizio Thorel, Pedro L. Herrera. <strong>Generation of human islet cell type-specific identity genesets</strong>. <em>Nature Communications</em>, 2022; 13 (1) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29588-8\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41467-022-29588-8</a>\n</li>'),(2236,'No glacial fertilization effect in the Antarctic Ocean','no-glacial-fertilization-effect-in-the-antarctic-ocean','2022-04-19 16:58:27.205801',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Changes in the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO<sub>2</sub>) are considered to be the main cause of past and future climate change. A long-standing debate centers on whether the roughly 30 percent lower CO<sub>2</sub> content of the ice-age atmosphere was caused by iron fertilization. It is argued that iron-rich dust is carried into the ocean by wind and water, where it stimulates the growth of algae that absorb more CO<sub>2</sub>. As the algae die and then sink permanently into the depths of the ocean, the CO<sub>2</sub> also remains there like in a trap. Although there is clear evidence that dust input increased during the ice ages, the fertilization effect is controversial, at least for the Antarctic Ocean.</p><p>In a recent study, an international team of 38 researchers from 13 countries led by Dr. Michael Weber from the Institute for Geosciences at the University of Bonn investigated this question. As part of the Integrated Ocean Discovery Program (IODP), the team traveled to the Scotia Sea on the drillship \"JOIDES Resolution\" and spent two months in 2019 bringing up cores from the seafloor at depths of 3,000 to 4,000 meters. Weber: \"We collected the highest-resolution and longest climate archive ever obtained near Antarctica and its main dust source, Patagonia.\"</p><p><strong>1.5 million years of climate history</strong></p><p>In the 200-meter-long deep-sea core U1537, the climate history of the last 1.5 million years was recorded in detail. This allows the reconstruction of the dust input to be nearly doubled, since Antarctic ice cores only cover the last 800,000 years. Current records from the deep ocean show that dust deposition during the ice ages was actually five to 15 times higher. This is also reflected in the ice cores.</p><p>However, the researchers found no evidence of a fertilization effect from dust in the Antarctic Ocean during the ice ages. Rather, the production of algae, for example, and thus carbon CO<sub>2</sub> sequestration, was high only during warm periods when dust input into the Scotia Sea was low. This means that during cold periods, other processes prevented the CO<sub>2</sub> captured in the ocean from escaping into the atmosphere and triggering warming. The main factors here are much more extensive sea ice cover, more intense stratification in the ocean, and reduced dynamics of the current systems, which contributed to a reduction in the CO<sub>2</sub> content of the atmosphere during cold periods.</p><p>The opposing trends in dust deposition and oceanic productivity during the ice ages and interglacial periods of the Pleistocene are accompanied by long-term, gradual changes in the climate system in the southern polar region. Bioproductivity was particularly high during the interglacial periods of the last 400,000 years, but during the mid-Pleistocene transition 1.2 million to 700,000 years ago, it differed little from that during cold periods. As the transition progressed, the dust input covered larger and larger areas in the Southern Hemisphere. Abrupt changes continued to occur 900,000 years ago, indicating greater glaciation of Antarctica.</p><p>\"There is indeed evidence of a fertilization effect during the ice ages in cores outside the Antarctic zone,\" Weber concludes. \"However, our study shows that atmospheric CO<sub>2</sub> fluctuations do not depend solely on iron fertilization from dust deposition. In the Antarctic Ocean, it is rather a complex interplay of a westerly wind system, productivity, and feedback with sea ice. This relationship has been consistent over the last 1.5 million years.\"</p>','2022-04-19 16:58:27.205801','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Bonn','Can iron-rich dust fertilize the ocean, stimulate algae growth there, and thereby capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere? An international research team used deep-sea sediment cores from the Scotia Sea to investigate whether this hypothetical greenhouse gas sink had an effect during ice ages. Although dust input was high during ice ages, no evidence of a fertilization effect could be found in the Antarctic Ocean. Rather, the production of algae, for example, and thus carbon dioxide sequestration, was high only during warm periods when dust input was low.\n',1,163,'<li>Michael E. Weber, Ian Bailey, Sidney R. Hemming, Yasmina M. Martos, Brendan T. Reilly, Thomas A. Ronge, Stefanie Brachfeld, Trevor Williams, Maureen Raymo, Simon T. Belt, Lukas Smik, Hendrik Vogel, Victoria L. Peck, Linda Armbrecht, Alix Cage, Fabricio G. Cardillo, Zhiheng Du, Gerson Fauth, Christopher J. Fogwill, Marga Garcia, Marlo Garnsworthy, Anna Glüder, Michelle Guitard, Marcus Gutjahr, Iván Hernández-Almeida, Frida S. Hoem, Ji-Hwan Hwang, Mutsumi Iizuka, Yuji Kato, Bridget Kenlee, Suzanne OConnell, Lara F. Pérez, Osamu Seki, Lee Stevens, Lisa Tauxe, Shubham Tripathi, Jonathan Warnock, Xufeng Zheng. <strong>Antiphased dust deposition and productivity in the Antarctic Zone over 1.5 million years</strong>. <em>Nature Communications</em>, 2022; 13 (1) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29642-5\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41467-022-29642-5</a>\n</li>'),(2237,'Guiding a superconducting future with graphene quantum magic','guiding-a-superconducting-future-with-graphene-quantum-magic','2022-04-19 16:58:30.315099',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Superconductors are materials that conduct electrical current with practically no electrical resistance at all. This ability makes them extremely interesting and attractive for a plethora of applications such as loss-less power cables, electric motors and generators, as well as powerful electromagnets that can be used for MRI imaging and for magnetic levitating trains. Now, researchers from Nagoya University have detailed the superconducting nature of a new class of superconducting material, magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene.</p><p>For a material to behave as a superconductor, low temperatures are required. Most materials only enter the superconducting phase at extremely low temperatures, such as -270°C, lower than those measured in outer space! This severely limits their practical applications because such extensive cooling requires very expensive and specialized liquid helium cooling equipment. This is the main reason superconducting technologies are still in their infancy. High temperature superconductors (HTS), such as some iron and copper-based ones, enter the superconducting phase above -200°C, a temperature that is more readily achievable using liquid nitrogen which cools down a system to ?195.8°C. However, the industrial and commercial applications of HTS have been thus far limited. Currently known and available HTS materials are brittle ceramic materials that are not malleable into useful shapes like wires. In addition, they are notoriously difficult and expensive to manufacture. This makes the search for new superconducting materials critical, and a strong focus of research for physicists like Prof. Hiroshi Kontani and Dr. Seiichiro Onari from the Department of Physics, Nagoya University.</p><p>Recently, a new material has been proposed as a potential superconductor called magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene (MATBG). In MATBG, two layers of graphene, essentially single two-dimensional layers of carbon arranged in a honeycomb lattice, are offset by a magic angle (about 1.1 degrees) that leads to the breakage of rotational symmetry and the formation of a high-order symmetry known as SU(4). As temperature changes, the system experiences quantum fluctuations, like water ripples in the atomic structure, that lead to a novel spontaneous change in the electronic structure and a reduction in symmetry. This rotational symmetry breaking is known as the nematic state and has been closely associated with superconducting properties in other materials.</p><p>In their work published recently in <em>Physical Review Letters</em>, Prof. Kontani and Dr. Onari use theoretical methods to better understand and shine light on the source of this nematic state in MATBG. \"Since we know that high temperature superconductivity can be induced by nematic fluctuations in strongly correlated electron systems such as iron-based superconductors, clarifying the mechanism and origin of this nematic order can lead to the design and emergence of higher temperature superconductors,\" explains Dr. Onari.</p><p>The researchers found that nematic order in MATBG originates from the interference between the fluctuations of a novel degree-of-freedom that combines the valley degrees of freedom and the spin degrees of freedom, something that has not been reported from conventional strongly correlated electron systems. The superconducting transition temperature of twisted bilayer graphene is very low, at 1K (-272°C), but the nematic state manages to increase it by several degrees. Their results also show that although MATBG behaves in some ways like an iron-based high temperature superconductor, it also has some distinct properties that are quite exciting, such as a net charge loop current giving rise to a magnetic field in a valley polarized state, while the loop current is canceled out by each valley in the nematic state. Besides, the malleability of graphene can also play an important role in increasing the practical applications of these superconductors. With a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms of superconductivity, science and technology inch closer to a conducting future that is indeed <em>super</em>.</p>','2022-04-19 16:58:30.315099','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Nagoya University','Superconductors are materials that conduct electrical current with practically no electrical resistance at all. This ability makes them extremely interesting and attractive for a plethora of applications such as loss-less power cables, electric motors and generators, as well as powerful electromagnets that can be used for MRI imaging and for magnetic levitating trains. Now, researchers have detailed the superconducting nature of a new class of superconducting material, magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene.\n',1,61,'<li>Seiichiro Onari, Hiroshi Kontani. <strong>SU(4) Valley+Spin Fluctuation Interference Mechanism for Nematic Order in Magic-Angle Twisted Bilayer Graphene: The Impact of Vertex Corrections</strong>. <em>Physical Review Letters</em>, 2022; 128 (6) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.128.066401\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1103/PhysRevLett.128.066401</a>\n</li>'),(2238,'About 30 percent of COVID patients develop \'Long COVID,\' research finds','about-30-percent-of-covid-patients-develop-\'long-covid,\'-research-finds','2022-04-19 16:58:34.252503',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">New UCLA research finds that 30% of people treated for COVID-19 developed Post Acute Sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC), most commonly known as \"Long COVID.\" People with a history of hospitalization, diabetes, and higher body mass index were most likely to develop the condition, while those covered by Medicaid, as opposed to commercial health insurance, or had undergone an organ transplant were less likely to develop it. Surprisingly, ethnicity, older age, and socioeconomic status were not associated with the syndrome even though those characteristics have been linked with severe illness and greater risk of death from COVID-19.</p><p>Of the 309 people with long COVID studied, the most persistent symptoms were fatigue and shortness of breath (31% and 15%, respectively) in hospitalized persons, and loss of sense of smell (16%) in outpatients.</p><p>The incidence and risk factors of Long COVID, and even how to define the syndrome, have remained unclear throughout the pandemic. The researchers sought evaluate its association with demographics and clinical characteristics in order to devise the most effective treatments.</p><p>The UCLA researchers studied 1,038 people who were enrolled in the UCLA COVID Ambulatory Program between April 2020 and February 2021. Of those, 309 developed Long COVID. A person was determined to have the syndrome if they reported persistent symptoms on questionnaires 60 or 90 days after infection or hospitalization.</p><p>Potential weaknesses in the study include the subjective nature of how patients rated their symptoms, the limited number of symptoms the researchers evaluated, and limited information about patients\' pre-existing conditions.</p><p>\"This study illustrates the need to follow diverse patient populations longitudinally to understand the Long COVID disease trajectory and evaluate how individual factors such as pre-existing co-morbidities, sociodemographic factors, vaccination status and virus variant type affect type and persistence of Long COVID symptoms,\" said Dr Sun Yoo, health sciences assistant clinical professor at David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and medical director of the Extensivist Program. \"Studying outcomes in a single health system can minimize variation in quality of medical care. Our study also raises questions such as: Why were patients with commercial insurance twice as likely to develop Long COVID than patients insured through Medicaid? Because persistent symptoms can be subjective in nature, we need better tools to accurately diagnose Long COVID and to differentiate it from exacerbations of other emerging or chronic conditions. Finally, we need to ensure equitable access to outpatient Long COVID care.\"</p><p>Additional study authors are Dr. Teresa Liu, Yash Motwani, Myung Sim, Dr. Nisha Viswanathan, Dr. Nathan Samras, Dr. Felicia Hsu, and Dr. Neil Wenger of UCLA.</p>','2022-04-19 16:58:34.252503','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of California - Los Angeles Health Sciences','New research finds that 30 percent of people treated for COVID-19 developed Post Acute Sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC), most commonly known as \'Long COVID.\'\n',1,16,'<li>Sun M. Yoo, Teresa C. Liu, Yash Motwani, Myung S. Sim, Nisha Viswanathan, Nathan Samras, Felicia Hsu, Neil S. Wenger. <strong>Factors Associated with Post-Acute Sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 (PASC) After Diagnosis of Symptomatic COVID-19 in the Inpatient and Outpatient Setting in a Diverse Cohort</strong>. <em>Journal of General Internal Medicine</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11606-022-07523-3\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1007/s11606-022-07523-3</a>\n</li>'),(2239,'Researchers take step toward developing \'electric eye\'','researchers-take-step-toward-developing-\'electric-eye\'','2022-04-19 16:58:42.455460',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Georgia State University researchers have successfully designed a new type of artificial vision device that incorporates a novel vertical stacking architecture and allows for greater depth of color recognition and scalability on a micro-level. The new research is published in the top journal <em>ACS Nano.</em></p><p>\"This work is the first step toward our final destination-to develop a micro-scale camera for microrobots,\" says assistant professor of Physics Sidong Lei, who led the research. \"We illustrate the fundamental principle and feasibility to construct this new type of image sensor with emphasis on miniaturization.\"</p><p>Lei\'s team was able to lay the groundwork for the biomimetic artificial vision device, which uses synthetic methods to mimic biochemical processes, using nanotechnology.</p><p>\"It is well-known that more than 80 percent of the information is captured by vision in research, industry, medication, and our daily life,\" he says. \"The ultimate purpose of our research is to develop a micro-scale camera for microrobots that can enter narrow spaces that are intangible by current means, and open up new horizons in medical diagnosis, environmental study, manufacturing, archaeology, and more.\"</p><p>This biomimetic \"electric eye\" advances color recognition, the most critical vision function, which is missed in the current research due to the difficulty of downscaling the prevailing color sensing devices. Conventional color sensors typically adopt a lateral color sensing channel layout and consume a large amount of physical space and offer less accurate color detection.</p><p>Researchers developed the unique stacking technique which offers a novel approach to the hardware design. He says the van der Waals semiconductor-empowered vertical color sensing structure offers precise color recognition capability which can simplify the design of the optical lens system for the downscaling of the artificial vision systems.</p><p>Ningxin Li, a graduate student in Dr. Lei\'s Functional Materials Studio who was part of the research team, says recent advancements in technology make the new design possible.</p><p>\"The new functionality achieved in our image sensor architecture all depends on the rapid progress of van der Waals semiconductors during recent years,\" says Li. \"Compared with conventional semiconductors, such as silicon, we can precisely control the van der Waals material band structure, thickness, and other critical parameters to sense the red, green, and blue colors.\"</p><p>The van der Waals semiconductors empowered vertical color sensor (vdW-Ss) represent a newly-emerged class of materials, in which individual atomic layers are bonded by weak van der Waals forces. They constitute one of the most prominent platforms for discovering new physics and designing next-generation devices.</p><p>\"The ultra-thinness, mechanical flexibility, and chemical stability of these new semiconductor materials allow us to stack them in arbitrary orders. So, we are actually introducing a three-dimensional integration strategy in contrast to the current planar micro-electronics layout. The higher integration density is the main reason why our device architecture can accelerate the downscaling of cameras,\" Li says.</p><p>The technology currently is patent pending with Georgia State\'s Office of Technology Transfer &amp; Commercialization (OTTC). OTTC anticipates this new design will be of high interest to certain industry partners. \"This technology has the potential to overcome some of the key drawbacks seen with current sensors, says OTTC\'s Director, Cliff Michaels. \"As nanotechnology advances and devices become more compact, these smaller, highly sensitive color sensors will be incredibly useful.\"</p><p>Researchers believe the discovery could even spawn advancements to help the vision-impaired one day.</p><p>\"This technology is crucial for the development of biomimetic electronic eyes and also other neuromorphic prosthetic devices,\" says Li. \"High-quality color sensing and image recognition function may bring new possibilities of colorful item perception for the visually impaired in the future.\"</p><p>Lei says his team will continue pushing these advanced technologies forward using what they\'ve learned from this discovery.</p><p>\"This is a great step forward, but we are still facing scientific and technical challenges ahead, for example, wafer-scale integration. Commercial image sensors can integrate millions of pixels to deliver high-definition images, but this has not been implemented in our prototype yet,\" he says. \"This large-scale van der Waals semiconductor device integration is currently a critical challenge to be surmounted by the entire research society. Along with our nationwide collaborators that is where our team is devoting our efforts.\"</p><p><strong>Story Source:</strong></p>','2022-04-19 16:58:42.455460','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Georgia State University','Using nanotechnology, scientists have created a newly designed neuromorphic electronic device that endows microrobotics with colorful vision. The newly designed artificial vision device could have far-reaching applications for the fields of medicine, artificial intelligence, and microrobotics.\n',1,25,'<li>Ningxin Li, Aisha Okmi, Tara Jabegu, Hongkui Zheng, Kuangcai Chen, Alexander Lomashvili, Westley Williams, Diren Maraba, Ivan Kravchenko, Kai Xiao, Kai He, Sidong Lei. <strong>van der Waals Semiconductor Empowered Vertical Color Sensor</strong>. <em>ACS Nano</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.1c09875\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1021/acsnano.1c09875</a>\n</li>'),(2240,'Fruit snack or edible? Study finds some cannabis products look like popular snacks','fruit-snack-or-edible?-study-finds-some-cannabis-products-look-like-popular-snacks','2022-04-19 16:58:55.080129',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Some cannabis edibles look remarkably like popular snack foods and may be easily confused for them, finds a new study led by researchers at NYU School of Global Public Health published in <em>Drug and Alcohol Dependence</em>.</p><p>These \"copycat\" edibles also have levels of tetrahydrocannabinol or THC -- the main psychoactive compound in cannabis -- that far exceed the limits set by state cannabis regulations.</p><p>\"At first glance, most of the packages look almost exactly like familiar snacks. If these copycat cannabis products are not stored safely, there is the potential for accidental ingestion by children or adults,\" said Danielle Ompad, associate professor of epidemiology at NYU School of Global Public Health and the study\'s lead author.</p><p>Edibles are a popular and growing segment of the cannabis market. In states where cannabis use is legal, more than half (56%) of people who use cannabis consume edibles, with younger people more likely to do so.</p><p>Recent news reports have drawn attention to edibles that use similar branding and imagery to mimic popular snack foods. These copycat cannabis products are a public health concern given that people -- including children -- could mistake them for snacks and accidentally consume them. From 2017 to 2019, U.S. Poison Control Centers handled nearly 2,000 cases of young children ages 0 to 9 consuming edibles.</p><p>To gain a deeper understanding of copycat edibles, the researchers collected hundreds of photos of cannabis products and analyzed their packaging, including branding, names, imagery, and THC content. They focused on photos for 267 edibles and found that 8% (22 photos) closely resembled 13 different snack products.</p><p>Twelve of the products were candies or sweet snacks (fruit chews, fruit snacks, rice and marshmallow treats, and gummies) and one was a salty snack (chips). Eight of the 13 packages used the exact brand or product name of the original product; the remaining five used names that were similar (for instance, \"Stoner Patch Dummies\" instead of \"Sour Patch Kids\"). Seven of the packages used the same cartoon or brand character as the original product.</p><p>Most states that have legalized cannabis limit the amount of THC in edibles -- typically 5 mg or 10 mg of THC per dose and 100 mg per package. According to information listed on the packaging of the lookalike products, these edibles contained an average of 459 mg of THC and a range of 300 to 600 mg per package, greatly exceeding the maximum limits.</p><p>\"While each package is likely intended to include multiple doses, few packages indicate the serving size or number of servings,\" said Ompad, who is also the deputy director of the Center for Drug Use and HIV/HCV Research (CDUHR) at NYU School of Global Public Health. \"Moreover, if we\'re considering 10 mg a standard dose, these products could contain an alarming 30 to 60 doses per package.\"</p><p>The findings highlight the risk that these copycat products could be attractive to children, given the colorful packaging and use of familiar branding and characters.</p><p>\"Policies to prevent cannabis packaging from appealing to children haven\'t stopped copycat products from entering the market -- nor have food brands taking legal action against cannabis companies for copyright infringement,\" said Ompad. \"People who purchase edibles that look like snack foods should store them separately from regular snacks and out of reach of children.\"</p><p>In addition to Ompad, study authors include Kyle Snyder, Simon Sandh, Daniel Hagen, Emily Goldmann, and Melody Goodman of NYU School of Global Public Health; Kewanda Collier of Morgan State University; and Andy Tan of the University of Pennsylvania. The research was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (P30DA011041, R21DA052421, and R01DA054236) and National Cancer Institute (R01CA237670).</p>','2022-04-19 16:58:55.080129','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'New York University','Some cannabis edibles look remarkably like popular snack foods and may be easily confused for them, finds a new study.\n',1,27,'<li>Danielle C. Ompad, Kyle M. Snyder, Simon Sandh, Daniel Hagen, Kewanda J. Collier, Emily Goldmann, Melody S. Goodman, Andy S.L. Tan. <strong>Copycat and lookalike edible cannabis product packaging in the United States</strong>. <em>Drug and Alcohol Dependence</em>, 2022; 109409 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2022.109409\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2022.109409</a>\n</li>'),(2241,'Novel treatment effective for sidewall brain aneurysm, study finds','novel-treatment-effective-for-sidewall-brain-aneurysm,-study-finds','2022-04-19 18:07:02.004520',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">A novel mesh plug that has been traditionally used to treat brain aneurysms occurring where the blood vessels branch out was found to be equally effective in treating aneurysms on the side of the vessel, according to a study in the journal <em>Radiology</em>.</p><p>Aneurysms result from a weakness in the blood vessel wall that typically occurs where the vessel branches or bifurcates -- where the vessel divides or forks into two branches. Untreated, an aneurysm can grow and rupture. A common treatment involving the placement of tiny platinum coils into the aneurysm has limitations.</p><p>\"If the aneurysm has a wide neck, the coil might fall into the blood vessel and lead to clot formation and incomplete aneurysm occlusion,\" said study lead author Nimer Adeeb, M.D., from the Department of Neurosurgery and Interventional Neuroradiology at Louisiana State University in Shreveport, Louisiana. \"Many times, you end up putting a stent in the blood vessel to prevent the coils from falling out and to keep them compacted within the aneurysm. This can have its own complications and requires using blood thinners.\"</p><p>A braided wire device known as the Woven EndoBridge (WEB) was developed to overcome those limitations. The device is placed inside the aneurysm under angiographic guidance, where it causes a clot to form, closing off the aneurysm and reducing the risk of bleeding without requiring supporting stents or blood thinners.</p><p>\"After you put the WEB device through the neck of the aneurysm, it opens up,\" Dr. Adeeb said. \"Given that it\'s bigger than the neck of the aneurysm, it usually stays in place. One quick procedure is usually enough for successful treatment.\"</p><p>The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the WEB device for wide-neck intracranial bifurcation aneurysms. Some specialists have used it off-label for the treatment of sidewall aneurysms, a type of wide-necked aneurysm that occurs at the side of a blood vessel rather than its bifurcation tip.</p><p>Research on the WEB device\'s use in wide-necked sidewall aneurysms has been limited to studies with a small number of cases.</p><p>For the new study, Dr. Adeeb and colleagues compared the WEB device in bifurcation and sidewall aneurysms using a large database spanning more than 10 years from the WorldWideWEB consortium, a group of 23 academic institutions in North America, South America, Australia and Europe. Dr. Adeeb co-led the effort with Adam A. Dmytriw, M.D., from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.</p><p>A total of 683 intracranial aneurysms were treated using the WEB device in 671 patients. Of those, 572 were bifurcation aneurysms, and 111 were sidewall aneurysms. Propensity score matching, a way to increase the power of a study by accounting for differences in patients, resulted in 91 bifurcation and sidewall aneurysms pairs.</p><p>The complication rate was very similar between the two approaches.</p><p>\"We found out that there is no significant difference using the WEB device in sidewall aneurysms compared with bifurcation aneurysms,\" Dr. Adeeb said. \"The results show that the WEB device is safe and effective to use for sidewall aneurysms.\"</p><p>Dr. Adeeb hopes that the study will help drive a discussion about expanding the indications for the WEB device to include certain sidewall aneurysms.</p><p>As additional institutions continue to join the consortium, Dr. Adeeb and his colleagues are continuing the research, comparing the WEB device with other treatments for different types and locations of aneurysms. They also plan to track changes that happen to device shape and compaction over time and its relationship to aneurysm occlusion status.</p><p>\"Our ultimate goal is to provide our patients with the best possible treatment for their brain aneurysms,\" he said.</p>','2022-04-19 18:07:02.004520','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Radiological Society of North America','A novel mesh plug that has been traditionally used to treat brain aneurysms occurring where the blood vessels branch out was found to be equally effective in treating aneurysms on the side of the vessel, according to a new study.\n',1,150,'<li>Nimer Adeeb, Mahmoud Dibas, Jose Danilo Bengzon Diestro, Hugo H. Cuellar-Saenz, Ahmad Sweid, Sandeep Kandregula, Sovann V. Lay, Adrien Guenego, Leonardo Renieri, Sri Hari Sundararajan, Guillaume Saliou, Assala Aslan, Markus Möhlenbruch, Justin E. Vranic, Robert W. Regenhardt, For the WorldWideWEB Consortium. <strong>Multicenter Study for the Treatment of Sidewall versus Bifurcation                     Intracranial Aneurysms with Use of Woven EndoBridge (WEB)</strong>. <em>Radiology</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1148/radiol.212006\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1148/radiol.212006</a>\n</li>'),(2242,'A better way to reduce child maltreatment','a-better-way-to-reduce-child-maltreatment','2022-04-19 18:07:04.066977',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">A first-of-its-kind national study has found that a special program adopted in many states to help some families at risk of child maltreatment has been surprisingly successful.</p><p>The study found that states with what is called \"differential response\" (DR) programs had about 19% fewer substantiated reports of child maltreatment, 25% fewer substantiated reports of neglect and a 17% reduction in using foster care services when compared to states without DR programs.</p><p>The success of DR in reducing the number of children sent to foster care is especially important, said Michelle Johnson-Motoyama, lead author of the study and associate professor of social work at The Ohio State University.</p><p>\"In certain situations, foster care is necessary to protect children from harm. However, it is also costly from human and societal perspectives and some states have been creative in finding ways to keep families together,\" Johnson-Motoyama said.</p><p>\"We found differential response programs may be getting families the resources they need to prevent foster care entry.\"</p><p>The study was published recently in the journal <em>Child Maltreatment</em>.</p><p>Normally, when a state\'s Child Protective Services (CPS) agency learns about children who may be in danger, it triggers investigations that can lead to court orders and a more legalistic path, Johnson-Motoyama said.</p><p>Differential response was developed as an alternative pathway for CPS workers to help families who came to their attention but were at lower risk of child maltreatment.</p><p>\"These families have an opportunity to receive voluntary services and to receive referrals to community agencies that may be able to provide assistance,\" she said.</p><p>The assistance could be in the form of links to organizations that help with housing, food, teaching parenting skills and other resources.</p><p>When the researchers started this work, they weren\'t planning to focus on differential response programs. They originally were analyzing the effect of social safety net policies in the United States and their impact on preventing child maltreatment.</p><p>But when they took differential response programs into account as they analyzed their data, the impact of the programs stood out, Johnson-Motoyama said.</p><p>\"What was surprising to us was that these programs emerged as really important protective factors for children in all our analyses. We decided we had to take a closer look,\" she said.</p><p>The researchers analyzed data from the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System from 2004 to 2017. They harnessed variations in when states implemented differential response programs to compare substantiated reports of maltreatment and neglect and foster care placements in states with and without DR programs.</p><p>Over the study period, 24 states and the District of Columbia used DR at some point in time.</p><p>The positive findings regarding the success of differential response programs stood out even after the researchers took into account a wide variety of other factors that could have been related, including whether states that had DR programs also had more generous social safety net programs.</p><p>Johnson-Motoyama said the data didn\'t allow the researchers to determine exactly why differential response programs were so successful. But they do have some ideas about what might be happening.</p><p>She noted that most of the families who encounter Child Protective Services are poor and may face problems with housing, food, child care and mental health, among other issues.</p><p>In the traditional pathway, families may face court orders to participate in various services if they want to keep their children out of foster care.</p><p>\"Sometimes these court-ordered services can set families up to fail. They mean well, but they may not be feasible to complete on the timelines of the child welfare system given a family\'s limited resources,\" she said.</p><p>\"Some parents can end up losing their child, simply because they couldn\'t fulfill the court-ordered plan.\"</p><p>In contrast, under differential response programs, CPS employees work with families to develop voluntary plans that help them meet their needs and keep their children.</p><p>\"Typically, these services are tailored to fit the family\'s needs. This contrasts with court-ordered services, which may be one size fits all depending on the jurisdiction,\" Johnson-Motoyama said.</p><p>The results show, she said, that differential response is worth investigating further as states consider ways of reducing foster care entry.</p><p>The study was supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.</p><p>Other authors were Rebecca Phillips and Oliver Beer of Ohio State, Donna Ginther of the University of Kansas and Lisa Merkel-Holguin and John Fluke of the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.</p>','2022-04-19 18:07:04.066977','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Ohio State University','A first-of-its-kind national study has found that a special program adopted in many states to help some families at risk of child maltreatment has been surprisingly successful.\n',1,105,'<li>Michelle Johnson-Motoyama, Donna K. Ginther, Rebecca Phillips, Oliver W. J. Beer, Lisa Merkel-Holguin, John Fluke. <strong>Differential Response and the Reduction of Child Maltreatment and Foster Care Services Utilization in the U.S. From 2004 to 2017</strong>. <em>Child Maltreatment</em>, 2022; 107755952110657 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/10775595211065761\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1177/10775595211065761</a>\n</li>'),(2243,'Psychiatric symptoms in Alzheimer´s disease','psychiatric-symptoms-in-alzheimer´s-disease','2022-04-19 18:07:07.285630',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">In addition to memory problems and other cognitive symptoms, most people with Alzheimer\'s disease also suffer from mental health issues. It has long been unclear whether these occur because of tissue changes in the brain, or whether they represent psychological reactions to cognitive symptoms. A study from Lund University in Sweden has provided new insight, and is published in <em>Biological Psychiatry.</em></p><p>Cognitive symptoms combined with elevated levels of certain proteins form the basis for diagnosis of Alzheimer\'s disease. At the same time, researchers and physician alike have, over the past decade, recognised that changes in mood and behaviour are often very early signs of the disease. Yet, these symptoms have not received as much scientific attention as cognitive ones.</p><p>Now, researchers from Lund University have investigated the complex relationships between psychological symptoms, Alzheimer\'s proteins and cognitive symptoms. This was done within the framework of the internationally renowned BioFINDER study, led by Professor Oskar Hansson.</p><p>The study examined 356 people over the age of 65 with no cognitive symptoms at the start of the research. In addition to analysing the levels of the Alzheimer\'s proteins amyloid beta and phosphorylated tau in their cerebrospinal fluid, participants\' levels of anxiety, apathy and overall cognitive function were also assessed on a biannual basis. Participants were followed for a total of eight years.</p><p>When data was analyzed, the researchers found a clear link between elevated levels of amyloid beta at the start of the study and future development of anxiety and apathy.</p><p>Maurits Johansson, physician and lead author of the study, explains: \"Alzheimer\'s disease affects large parts of the brain, including the regions that control our emotional life. Our study shows that psychiatric symptoms, just like cognitive symptoms, occur mainly as a direct consequence of the underlying changes to the brain, due to increased levels of amyloid beta.\"</p><p>The researchers further demonstrated that amyloid beta drives the development of apathy predominately through direct effects, and that apathy only to a limited extent evolves secondary to cognitive decline. Anxiety was not linked to cognitive change.</p><p>\"The findings thus argue against the idea that these early changes in emotion and motivation in Alzheimer\'s disease are primarily psychological reactions to cognitive decline. Instead, the results suggest that for apathy and anxiety at least, these occur due to the pathological accumulation of amyloid beta,\" clarifies Professor Oskar Hansson.</p><p>\"Our findings imply that psychiatric symptoms in Alzheimer\'s disease could be used as alternative outcome measures in treatment trials. Ultimately, this could lead to more effective study design,\" he continues.</p><p>\"A previous BioFINDER study suggested that the presence of anxiety or apathy among elderly people who continued to show no signs of dementia may point to an increased risk of future cognitive impairment. As a next step, studies are needed to clarify how these symptoms may contribute to the established clinical diagnosis in the early stages of disease, possibly even before cognition has been affected,\" they conclude.</p>','2022-04-19 18:07:07.285630','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Lund University','In addition to memory problems and other cognitive symptoms, most people with Alzheimer\'s disease also suffer from mental health issues. It has long been unclear whether these occur because of tissue changes in the brain, or whether they represent psychological reactions to cognitive symptoms.\n',1,179,'<li>Maurits Johansson, Erik Stomrud, Per Mårten Johansson, Anna Svenningsson, Sebastian Palmqvist, Shorena Janelidze, Danielle van Westen, Niklas Mattsson-Carlgren, Oskar Hansson. <strong>Development of Apathy, Anxiety, and Depression in Cognitively Unimpaired Older Adults: Effects of Alzheimer’s Disease Pathology and Cognitive Decline</strong>. <em>Biological Psychiatry</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2022.01.012\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.biopsych.2022.01.012</a>\n</li>'),(2244,'Phase transitions in the early universe and their signals','phase-transitions-in-the-early-universe-and-their-signals','2022-04-19 18:07:08.129358',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">The early universe may chirp about unknown physics. A University of Helsinki research team has demonstrated how an early universe phase transition will lead to gravitational wave signals potentially visible in the upcoming satellite missions. The research results were recently published in the journal <em>Physical Review Letters.</em></p><p>Phase transitions, such as the boiling of water or the melting of a metal, are commonplace but fascinating phenomena that spur surprises decades after decades. They often occur as the temperature of a substance is changed, through the nucleation of bubbles of the new phase which then expands. In the end, the new phase has taken over the whole container.</p><p>The early universe was composed of a hot plasma whose temperature decreased as the universe expanded. It is speculated by many physicists that a phase transition may have occurred soon after the Big Bang. This would then had lead to nucleation of bubbles and their subsequent collisions. Such collisions would create powerful ripples in spacetime which could be observed in planned gravitational wave detectors. The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA), with a provisional launch date in 2037, is one such probe that may be able to detect these early Universe spacetime ripples.</p><p>However, to describe early universe phase transitions has been challenging. The University of Helsinki researchers Oscar Henriksson, Mark Hindmarsh, and Niko Jokela, together with colleagues at the U. of Oviedo and the U. of Sussex, attacked this problem using a technique from string theory known as holographic duality. They showed how the duality can be used to map the problem to a more tractable one, and how the important quantities describing the bubble nucleation and the associated gravitational wave signals can be extracted.</p><p>In the future these new methods can be applied directly in more realistic scenarios, where the starting point would be a possible extension of Standard Model of particle physics.</p><p>The group is also tackling the remaining obstacle, the computation of the bubble wall velocity, needed for the full first principles description of early universe phase transition and the imprint it makes on the gravitational wave spectrum.</p>','2022-04-19 18:07:08.129358','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Helsinki','The early universe may chirp about unknown physics. A research team has demonstrated how an early universe phase transition will lead to gravitational wave signals potentially visible in the upcoming satellite missions.\n',1,27,'<li>Fëanor Reuben Ares, Oscar Henriksson, Mark Hindmarsh, Carlos Hoyos, Niko Jokela. <strong>Gravitational Waves at Strong Coupling from an Effective Action</strong>. <em>Physical Review Letters</em>, 2022; 128 (13) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.128.131101\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1103/PhysRevLett.128.131101</a>\n</li>'),(2245,'When the rust settles: Uncovering the movements of coffee leaf rust disease','when-the-rust-settles:-uncovering-the-movements-of-coffee-leaf-rust-disease','2022-04-19 18:07:20.660336',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Coffee is one of the world\'s most popular drinks, yet there are still many unknowns in the coffee-growing business. Now, researchers from Japan have shed new light on the nature of a disease that seriously affects coffee plants.</p><p>In a study published this month in Frontiers in Plant Science, researchers from the University of Tsukuba and Ibaraki University have revealed that coffee leaf rust (CLR) disease is widespread in the main coffee-growing regions of Vietnam, the world\'s second-largest coffee producer.</p><p>Rusts are plant diseases named after the powdery rust- or brown-colored fungal spores found on the surfaces of infected plants. CLR fungus, <em>Hemileia vastatrix</em>, causes CLR disease in <em>Coffea</em> plants -- the source of coffee beans. This disease severely affects the plants, resulting in high yield losses and lowering bean quality; developing effective and practical ways of managing the disease is essential for mitigating this problem. The best way to control CLR is by using disease-resistant plant varieties. However, there have been recent reports of CLR outbreaks in coffee-growing regions where rust-resistant varieties are planted.</p><p>\"To control this disease, we need to understand rust population diversity,\" says senior author of the study, Associate Professor Izumi Okane. \"We must also identify the genetic variations that underpin it, and anticipate potential future variations.\"</p><p>To do this, the researchers examined the occurrence of CLR disease in key coffee-producing regions of Vietnam, assessed the current population structure and genetic diversity of the CLR fungus via genetic sequencing, and estimated the geographic region where <em>H. vastatrix</em> first established, as well as its direction of migration between Vietnam\'s main coffee-producing areas.</p><p>The results showed a high incidence of CLR disease in most of the regions investigated, and that <em>H. vastatrix</em> populations in Vietnam shared a close genetic relationship with several Central and South American populations. The study also uncovered potential starting points and migration routes of <em>H. vastatrix</em> in Vietnam\'s coffee-growing regions. The spread of CLR from northern to southern Vietnam revealed that agents other than wind and monsoon were involved in moving spores from an infected region to other areas.</p><p>\"Our study highlights the need to consider human-mediated activities, because they may quickly accelerate the genetic diversification of rust fungi populations,\" explains Associate Professor Okane.</p><p>The results of this study have revealed new information on the genetic diversity of <em>H. vastatrix</em> in Vietnam and Central and South America. The researchers\' findings will help to predict the spread of this fungus in the future. Furthermore, seedling sources and human activities have been highlighted as factors that should be considered in the coffee-growing industry for the control of CLR disease.</p><p>This research was financially supported by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) KAKENHI Grant Number 20H03006 (IO), the annual fund of the Biotechnology Center of Ho Chi Minh City and the fund for student research from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Sciences, and Technology of Japan.</p>','2022-04-19 18:07:20.660336','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Tsukuba','Researchers have found a high incidence of coffee leaf rust (CLR) disease in Vietnam, the world\'s second-largest coffee producer. Potential origins and migration routes were revealed, as well as a close genetic relationship with several Central and South American rust fungus populations. These findings will help to predict future spread of CLR, and highlight the need to consider seedling sources and human activities in CLR management.\n',1,128,'<li>Cham Thi Mai Le, Izumi Okane, Yoshitaka Ono, Yoshiaki Tsuda, Yuichi Yamaoka. <strong>Incidence of Coffee Leaf Rust in Vietnam, Possible Original Sources and Subsequent Pathways of Migration</strong>. <em>Frontiers in Plant Science</em>, 2022; 13 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2022.872877\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.3389/fpls.2022.872877</a>\n</li>'),(2246,'Promising drug candidates for Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever identified','promising-drug-candidates-for-crimean-congo-haemorrhagic-fever-identified','2022-04-19 18:07:23.269634',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have identified key signalling pathways that when blocked by existing drug candidates limit reproduction of the Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF) virus. The findings, published in the journal <em>eLife</em>, offer hope for patients affected by this potentially deadly disease.</p><p>\"The spread of the CCHF virus poses an increased threat to public health due to its high mortality rate in humans, which varies between 3 to as much as 40 per cent in some regions,\" says the study\'s senior author Ali Mirazimi, adjunct professor at the Department of Laboratory Medicine, Karolinska Institutet. \"Unfortunately, there are currently no vaccines or effective treatments available, which is why it is of utmost urgency to identify promising drug candidates that could lead to better treatments and reduce the high mortality rate.\"</p><p>The CCHF virus is primarily transmitted to people from tick bites or through contact with infected animals, although human-to-human transmission can also occur. The virus causes the disease Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever, which typically manifests itself with symptoms such as fever, muscle aches, joint pain, vomiting and bleeding, and can progress to organ failure and death.</p><p>The disease is endemic with fairly stable infection levels in 30 countries in Central Asia, the Middle East, southeast Europe and parts of Africa. However, with global warming, the ticks carrying the virus are spreading to other parts of the world, with more cases seen in other parts of Europe in recent years. The disease is classified as hazardous to society according to the Communicable Diseases Act.</p><p><strong>Pathways identified</strong></p><p>All viruses are parasites that are completely dependent on their hosts for reproduction. A virus that infects a cell reprograms the cell to create more virus. The cells\' energy supply and functions are controlled via signalling pathways, and viruses take advantage of these pathways to spread within the body.</p><p>In the study, the research group investigated how the CCHF virus infects cells and what types of changes take place. Using blood samples from patients with both acute infection and one year after recovery and cell culture experiments, the researchers found that the CCHF virus prefers pathways involving energy metabolism to reproduce.</p><p><strong>Drug candidates reduce viral spread</strong></p><p>By blocking two key metabolic pathways, glycolysis and glutaminolysis, with previously identified drug candidates, the researchers were able to significantly reduce viral reproduction in a laboratory setting. The findings build on earlier research from the same research groups at Karolinska Institutet, including a study that found similar mechanisms involved in the proliferation of SARS-CoV-2, which causes the disease COVID-19.</p><p>\"We hope that our findings can lead to new antiviral treatments against Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever,\" says the study\'s first author Ujjwal Neogi, researcher at the Department of Laboratory Medicine at Karolinska Institutet. \"Based on our discovery, we will soon begin <em>in vivo</em> studies in animals and hopefully translate these findings into clinical trials in the near future.\"</p><p>The study was supported by grants from the Swedish Research Council, the Public Health England Grant In Aid, Karolinska Institutet and the European Union Horizon 2020 CCHF Vaccine Grant.</p>','2022-04-19 18:07:23.269634','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Karolinska Institutet','Researchers have identified key signalling pathways that when blocked by existing drug candidates limit reproduction of the Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF) virus. The findings offer hope for patients affected by this potentially deadly disease.\n',1,21,'<li>Nazif Elaldi, Ujjwal Neogi, Sofia Appelberg, Anoop Ambikan, Emma Kennedy, Stuart Dowall, Binnur K Bagci, Soham Gupta, Jimmy E Rodriguez, Sara Svensson-Akusjärvi, Vanessa Monteil, Akos Vegvari, Rui Benfeitas, Akhil Banerjea, Friedemann Weber, Roger Hewson, Ali Mirazimi. <strong>Multi-omics insights into host-viral response and pathogenesis in Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever viruses for novel therapeutic target</strong>. <em>eLife</em>, 2022; 11 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.76071\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.7554/eLife.76071</a>\n</li>'),(2247,'Study reveals new therapeutic option for head and neck carcinomas','study-reveals-new-therapeutic-option-for-head-and-neck-carcinomas','2022-04-19 18:07:27.988308',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">The various manifestations of head and neck carcinomas rank sixth in frequency worldwide and are fatal for about half a million people every year. In a quarter of cases, head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is caused by human papillomavirus (HPV) and, currently, is not always treatable. A research team led by Lorenz Kadletz-Wanke from MedUni Vienna\'s Department of Otorhinolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery has now discovered a new therapeutic option in the context of a study.</p><p>In the course of their investigations, the researchers were able to identify a protein that can be used to predict above-average survival of patients with HPV-positive head and neck carcinoma and to achieve progress in treatment. Specifically, this involves the Creb-binding protein (CBP), which controls various cellular programs and plays a role in carcinogenesis, among other things. As the study shows, CBP is much more active in HPV-induced head and neck tumours.</p><p><strong>Prognostic marker</strong></p><p>The most common triggers of head and neck tumours continue to be alcohol consumption and smoking. That said, human papillomavirus infections have increasingly been identified as the cause of HNSCC in recent years. Patients with HPV-positive head and neck tumours have so far been treated with chemotherapy and radiotherapy. This standard method acts systemically, i.e. on the whole body, is often accompanied by serious side effects such as hair loss, nausea and anemia, and not all patients respond to it. In the search for targeted treatments, the interdisciplinary research group studied the tissue of patients with HPV-positive HNSCC tumours histologically and in preclinical models. In the process, they not only discovered the protein CBP as a prognostic marker for above-average patient survival but also found that HPV-positive HNSCC cell models in particular can be effectively treated with a CBP inhibitor.</p><p><strong>Targeted therapy</strong></p><p>CBP inhibitors are drugs currently in development and may be available within the next few years. \"For patients with HPV-positive head and neck carcinoma, treatment with CBP inhibitors has the advantage that it can be targeted, rather than affecting the whole body. It is also better tolerated than conventional chemotherapy or radiotherapy and this would significantly improve the quality of life of those affected,\" says study leader Lorenz Kadletz-Wanke, summarising the key finding of the research, which was conducted at MedUni Vienna\'s Department of Otorhinolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery in collaboration with Lukas Kenner (MedUni Vienna\'s Department of Pathology, Department of Laboratory Animal Pathology at Vetmeduni Vienna) and Stefan Stoiber (MedUni Vienna\'s Department of Biomedical Imaging and Image-guided Therapy).</p>','2022-04-19 18:07:27.988308','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Medical University of Vienna','The various manifestations of head and neck carcinomas rank sixth in frequency worldwide and are fatal for about half a million people every year. In a quarter of cases, head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is caused by human papillomavirus (HPV) and, currently, is not always treatable. A research team has now discovered a possible new therapeutic option.\n',1,27,'<li>Faris F. Brkic, Stefan Stoiber, Tobias Maier, Elisabeth Gurnhofer, Lukas Kenner, Gregor Heiduschka, Lorenz Kadletz-Wanke. <strong>Targeting Wnt/Beta-Catenin Signaling in HPV-Positive Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma</strong>. <em>Pharmaceuticals</em>, 2022; 15 (3): 378 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ph15030378\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.3390/ph15030378</a>\n</li>'),(2248,'Particles released by red blood cells are effective carriers for anti-cancer immunotherapy','particles-released-by-red-blood-cells-are-effective-carriers-for-anti-cancer-immunotherapy','2022-04-19 18:07:31.144449',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">In the fight against cancer, the development of efficacious drugs is only half the battle; equally important is how drugs may be delivered efficiently and safely to the diseased sites in the body.The challenge of drug delivery is especially pertinent for RNA therapeutics which target an important immuno-modulatory receptor, RIG-I. When activated by certain types of RNAs, the receptor can initiate immune responses to kill cancer cells. As RNAs are unstable and fragile by nature, RNA-based drugs must be packaged in suitable carriers to prevent degradation, and promote efficient uptake by target cancer tissues.</p><p>A study led by researchers at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore (NUS Medicine) -- in collaboration with the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technology University, Singapore (LKCMedicine, NTU Singapore) and A*STAR\'s Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS) -- demonstrated that nano-sized vesicles released by red blood cells are a viable platform for delivering immunotherapeutic RNA molecules to suppress breast cancer growth and metastasis. Published in the <em>Journal of Extracellular Vesicles</em>, the study successfully delivered RIG-I-activating RNAs using small, lipid membrane-bound particles released by red blood cells, called red blood cell extracellular vesicles (RBCEVs), to suppress cancer progression. The team had also discovered in earlier studies that these vesicles are ideal therapeutic carriers with a natural ability to deliver bioactive molecules to many cell types.</p><p>Assistant Professor Minh Le from the Institute for Digital Medicine (WisDM) and Department of Pharmacology at NUS Medicine, who led the study, explained, \"With the discovery of these vesicles\' ability to deliver therapeutics effectively to targeted receptors, we hope that our research can lead to better treatment outcomes for cancer patients. The correct homing of the therapeutics to diseased cells is also critical in minimising off-target effects that can result in toxicity.\"</p><p>For the study, two novel RNA molecules were developed at LKCMedicine, and packaged into RBCEVs to activate the RIG-I pathway, induce cell death in breast cancer cell cultures, and suppress tumour growth in laboratory models with breast cancer. The team also engineered RBCEVs to improve their specificity of homing towards metastatic cells that took hold in the lungs. Associate Professor Luo Dahai, Associate Professor of Infection and Immunity at LKCMedicine, said, \"Asst Prof Le\'s RBCEV technology can overcome several hurdles related to therapeutic RNA delivery and unleash the anticancer potential of our immunomodulatory RNA (immRNA). I am thrilled to see the success of our collaboration.\"</p><p>Dr Tam Wai Leong, Group Leader and Associate Director at GIS, one of the collaborators of the study, added, \"The promising results highlight two key strengths of this innovative platform -- the capacity for efficient delivery of different therapeutic cargoes, as well as the possibility for genetic modifications to enhance targeting to more cancer types.\"</p><p>To further examine the function of RBCEVs in carrying a broader range of therapeutics to more cancer cell types, the team plans to conduct further research in collaboration with the National University Cancer Institute and Cancer Science Institute of Singapore. Concurrently, RBCEV technologies are under intensive research at Carmine Therapeutics, an EVX Ventures company which aims to develop the next generation of gene therapy based on RBCEVs for treatments of rare diseases and cancer. \"We hope to expand the therapeutic value of the RBCEV platform to more cancer types and increase the reach of such novel forms of therapy to benefit more cancer patients,\" said Asst Prof Minh Le, who is also one of the co-founders of the company.</p>','2022-04-19 18:07:31.144449','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'National University of Singapore, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine','A study has demonstrated that nano-sized vesicles released by red blood cells are a viable platform for delivering immunotherapeutic RNA molecules to suppress breast cancer growth and metastasis. The study successfully delivered RIG-I-activating RNAs using small, lipid membrane-bound particles released by red blood cells, called red blood cell extracellular vesicles (RBCEVs), to suppress cancer progression. The team had also discovered in earlier studies that these vesicles are ideal therapeutic carriers with a natural ability to deliver bioactive molecules to many cell types.\n',1,89,'<li>Boya Peng, Trinh Mai Nguyen, Migara Kavishka Jayasinghe, Chang Gao, Thach Tuan Pham, Luyen Tien Vu, Eric Yew Meng Yeo, Gracemary Yap, Lingzhi Wang, Boon Cher Goh, Wai Leong Tam, Dahai Luo, Minh TN Le. <strong>Robust delivery of RIG‐I agonists using extracellular vesicles for anti‐cancer immunotherapy</strong>. <em>Journal of Extracellular Vesicles</em>, 2022; 11 (4) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jev2.12187\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1002/jev2.12187</a>\n</li>'),(2249,'Genes can affect our nutrient tolerance','genes-can-affect-our-nutrient-tolerance','2022-04-19 18:07:33.253777',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Carbohydrates, proteins and fats are essential nutrients to all animals. Yet dietary variation between species, populations and individuals can vary dramatically.</p><p>In an international collaborative study, researchers from Australia, Denmark and Finland investigated how individuals of a same population differ in their ability to survive on various diets.</p><p>The researchers utilised a genetic reference panel consisting of roughly 200 closely related fruit fly strains (<em>Drosophila melanogaster</em>). The flies were fed six different diets containing high concentrations respectively of protein, sugar, starch, coconut oil or lard, or a combination of sugar and lard. The strains used in the study have had their genomes fully mapped, which made it possible to link the differences seen in the experiments to specific genetic variation.</p><p>The study found that small genetic differences affected the flies\' ability to use the energy of various nutrients.</p><p>\"Unexpectedly we found that the fruit fly strains differed considerably, for example, in their ability to survive on a high-sugar diet. What makes this particularly surprising is the fact that the food consumed by fruit flies in nature contains a lot of sugars,\" says Essi Havula, now a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki and the lead author of the study.</p><p>\"The genes that regulate metabolism have been conserved well in evolution, which is why we can learn a lot about human metabolism through studies carried out with fruit flies,\" Havula adds.</p><p><strong>Genetic analyses uncover several genes that affect nutrient tolerance</strong></p><p>In genetic analyses, the researchers identified a number of genes that contributed to the ability of flies to tolerate sugar. Most of these genes are found also in humans and have been suggested in previous genome-wide association studies to play a role in obesity and type 2 diabetes.</p><p>\"Fly studies enable fast and cost-effective functional studies to investigate the genes in depth. Among other things, we demonstrated that the <em>tailless</em> gene (TLX), previously investigated primarily from the perspective of the function and development of the nervous system, is necessary for the normal function of sugar metabolism in flies,\" Havula says.</p><p>In addition, the researchers demonstrated that the JNK pathway, one of the most important stress-signalling pathways, regulated sugar metabolism and storage-fat synthesis in the case of high-sugar diets in the study.</p><p>\"It appears that dietary sugar causes stress to the cells, giving the JNK pathway an important role in how effectively flies tolerate and process sugar,\" Havula says.</p><p><strong>Can nutrigenomics assist the development of personalised nutrition?</strong></p><p>According to the researchers, most of the findings can be applied to humans as well, even though further research is still needed. Havula points out that the study provides concrete evidence on how the same dietary recommendations do not necessarily suit everyone.</p><p>\"Research-based knowledge increasingly shows how metabolic responses to diets differ between animal populations and individuals. Traditional dietary recommendations are not necessarily suited to everyone, which explains the continued lack of consensus on a \'healthy diet\'.\"</p><p>One option is to develop nutrition in a more personalised direction with the help of nutrigenomics.</p><p>\"Hopefully, in the future type 2 diabetes and many other metabolic diseases can be treated with nutritional planning based on knowledge of individual genomes. This would be considerably less expensive than drug therapies as well as better for the health of individuals in the long run,\" says Havula.</p><p>The potential of nutrigenomics is not limited to the treatment of traditional metabolic diseases.</p><p>\"For example, cancer cells are known to alter their metabolism, extending the potential of nutrigenomics to a wide range of fields,\" Havula adds.</p>','2022-04-19 18:07:33.253777','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Helsinki','A new study finds that minor genetic differences can affect the ability to utilize the energy of various nutrients. This work shows how nutritional planning based on genetic data could promote the development of personalized nutrition for health.\n',1,118,'<li>E. Havula, S. Ghazanfar, N. Lamichane, D. Francis, K. Hasygar, Y. Liu, L. A. Alton, J. Johnstone, E. J. Needham, T. Pulpitel, T. Clark, H. N. Niranjan, V. Shang, V. Tong, N. Jiwnani, G. Audia, A. N. Alves, L. Sylow, C. Mirth, G. G. Neely, J. Yang, V. Hietakangas, S. J. Simpson, A. M. Senior. <strong>Genetic variation of macronutrient tolerance in Drosophila melanogaster</strong>. <em>Nature Communications</em>, 2022; 13 (1) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29183-x\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41467-022-29183-x</a>\n</li>'),(2250,'Nanoparticles prove effective against the yellow fever mosquito','nanoparticles-prove-effective-against-the-yellow-fever-mosquito','2022-04-19 18:07:36.691196',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Before being accidentally introduced to the New World by the 16th century slave trade, the yellow fever mosquito was a species native only to Africa. Highly adaptable, it has since become an invasive species in North America, but researchers at The Ohio State University may have found a way to squash the pesky population in its juvenile stages.</p><p>Recently published in the journal <em>Insects</em>, a new paper describes how mosquitoes have evolved a natural resistance to some chemical insecticides, and offers an alternative called carbon black, a type of carbon-based nanoparticles, or CNPs.</p><p>Study co-author and an associate professor of entomology at Ohio State, Peter Piermarini described CNPs as \"microscopic\" materials made out of organic elements. The study used a modified version of carbon black called Emperor 1800, which is often used to coat automobiles black. While CNPs are a relatively new scientific development, they have been considered as new tools to control various insect and pest infestations, he said.</p><p>\"If we can learn more about how carbon black works and how to use it safely, we could design a commercially available nanoparticle that is highly effective against insecticide-resistant mosquitoes,\" Piermarini said.</p><p>The yellow fever mosquito, or <em>Aedes aegypti,</em> is a species of mosquito known for spreading not just yellow fever, but also diseases like the Zika virus, dengue fever and chikungunya fever. Adults rarely fly more than a few hundred meters from where they emerge, but their abundance leads to steady transmission of diseases -- enough to claim tens of thousands of lives every year and hospitalize hundreds of thousands more people.</p><p>Because of this, the mosquito is considered to be one of the deadliest animals on the planet. For this study, the researchers\' goal was to figure out how toxic these nanomaterials could be to mosquito larvae, or the immature form of the insect.</p><p>Contrary to popular belief, not all mosquitoes set their sights on turning our blood into their latest meal. Male mosquitoes subsist only on flower nectar; it\'s the females that will consume both flower nectar and blood in a bid to provide their eggs with enough protein to grow.</p><p>When female mosquitoes are ready to lay their eggs, they return to standing pools of water, like lakes or birdbaths, to release them. After they hatch, these larvae will stay in the water for about a week until they reach adulthood, and take wing.</p><p>To test whether Emperor 1800 would be effective in stopping that process, researchers worked with two different strains of the yellow fever mosquito inside the lab, one extremely susceptible to typical chemical insecticides, and the other, extremely resistant to them.</p><p>By applying the carbon black nanomaterials to the water during the earliest stages of the mosquito\'s life cycle and checking in 48 hours later, they were able to determine that CNPs kill mosquito larvae both quickly and efficiently.</p><p>\"Given the properties of carbon black, it has the most potential for killing larvae because it can be suspended in water,\" Piermarini said. Their findings showed that the material seemed to accumulate on the mosquito larvae\'s head, abdomen, and even in its gut, meaning that at some point, the larvae were ingesting smaller particles of carbon black.</p><p>\"Our hypothesis is that these materials may be physically obstructing their ability to perform basic biological functions. It could be blocking their digestion, or might be interfering with their ability to breathe,\" said Piermarini.</p><p>However, there was one thing that Piermarini found particularly surprising.</p><p>When first suspended in water, carbon black appeared equally toxic to larvae of insecticide-resistant and insecticide-susceptible mosquitoes, but the longer the carbon black was suspended in water before treating them. it became more toxic to the insecticide-resistant larvae.</p><p>\"When you first apply the CNP solution it has similar toxicity against both strains,\" Piermarini said. \"But when you let the suspension age for a few weeks, it tends to become more potent against the resistant strain of mosquitoes.\"</p><p>Although they couldn\'t determine the reason behind the time-lapsed deaths, the study concluded that these new nanomaterials could be extremely beneficial to controlling the species when applied as a preventive treatment to mosquito breeding grounds.</p><p>But before it can be utilized by the public, Piermarini said, carbon black needs to undergo rigorous testing to ensure it won\'t harm humans and the environment as a whole.</p><p>Co-authors were Erick Martinez Rodriguez, a visiting scholar currently in the Ohio State Entomology Graduate program, Parker Evans, a previous PhD student in the Ohio State Translational Plant Sciences Graduate program, and Megha Kalsi, a previous postdoctoral researcher in entomology. This research was supported by Ohio State\'s College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences and Vaylenx LLC.</p>','2022-04-19 18:07:36.691196','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Ohio State University','Before being accidentally introduced to the New World by the 16th century slave trade, the yellow fever mosquito was a species native only to Africa. Highly adaptable, it has since become an invasive species in North America, but researchers at may have found a way to squash the pesky population in its juvenile stages.\n',1,27,'<li>Erick J. Martínez Rodríguez, Parker Evans, Megha Kalsi, Noah Rosenblatt, Morgan Stanley, Peter M. Piermarini. <strong>Larvicidal Activity of Carbon Black against the Yellow Fever Mosquito Aedes aegypti</strong>. <em>Insects</em>, 2022; 13 (3): 307 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects13030307\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.3390/insects13030307</a>\n</li>'),(2251,'Researchers create 3D model for rare neuromuscular disorders, setting stage for clinical trial','researchers-create-3d-model-for-rare-neuromuscular-disorders,-setting-stage-for-clinical-trial','2022-04-19 18:07:40.519233',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">A scientific team supported by the National Institutes of Health has created a tiny, bioengineered 3-D model that mimics the biology of chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy and multifocal motor neuropathy, a pair of rare, devastating neuromuscular diseases. The researchers used the organ-on-a-chip, or \"tissue chip,\" model to show how a drug could potentially treat the diseases. They provided key preclinical data for a drug company to submit to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to get authorization for testing in a clinical trial.</p><p>This work provides one of the first examples of scientists using primarily tissue chip data for an FDA Investigational New Drug application to test the efficacy of a candidate drug in people with rare diseases. The drug company Sanofi started recruiting participants into a Phase 2 clinical trial in April 2021. The drug was tested for safety previously and approved by the FDA for a different indication.</p><p>The tissue chip research was led by Hesperos, Inc., an Orlando-based company partially funded by a Small Business Innovation Research grant from NIH\'s National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS). This study could open the door to studying and developing new therapies for other rare diseases by establishing a new avenue for repurposing existing drugs for rare diseases. Most of the known 7,000 rare diseases do not have effective treatments. Researchers often lack animal models for studying rare disease biology and testing potential drugs.</p><p>\"This marks an important milestone in the evolution of the use of tissue chips,\" said Lucie Low, Ph.D., scientific program manager for the NCATS Tissue Chip for Drug Screening initiative. \"We know that pharmaceutical companies are using tissue chips internally. Submitting data to regulatory agencies generated from tissue chip platforms is a powerful indicator of their growing promise.\"</p><p>James Hickman, Ph.D., chief scientist at Hesperos, and his colleagues described the development of the model and their research results in <em>Advanced Therapeutics</em>. In these diseases, the immune system makes proteins called antibodies that damage nerve cells and slow down messages moving from the brain to the muscles. This can make it hard for people to move their arms, hands and legs. Current treatments can help, but often are inconsistent.</p><p>The researchers developed a tissue chip model consisting of two cell types: motoneurons and Schwann cells. Motoneurons transmit messages from the brain to muscles. Schwann cells help the signals move more quickly. The model could mimic functional characteristics of the diseases, allowing the scientists to see how a drug was working by determining whether the brain\'s messages to muscles were slowing down or not.</p><p>The researchers showed that exposing the cells to blood serum from people with these rare diseases caused a shower of immune system antibodies against the cells. This made the motoneuron signals move more slowly. After treatment with TNT005, a drug that blocks the immune system reaction, the cells and the message speed returned to normal.</p><p>\"We\'re confident that our system can reproduce what happens to a patient, including the disease symptoms and disease progression,\" said Hickman. \"It\'s important to create functionally relevant patient models that will mimic what is seen in clinical trials.\"</p><p>Approximately 90% of promising therapies fail in clinical trials because animal models used in preclinical testing are not good at predicting how people will respond. To improve that success rate and help get more treatments to people who have few options, scientists are exploring the uses of tissue chips. Designed to support living human tissues and cells, tissue chips mimic the structure and function of human organs and systems, such as the lungs, heart and liver. Researchers are studying their uses in many areas, including for testing the safety and effectiveness of candidate drugs and modeling diseases.</p><p>The potential clinical uses of tissue chip data are growing. Recently, an NIH-supported research team at Harvard University\'s Wyss Institute reported using a tissue chip model to generate data on the effectiveness of a repurposed drug for treating lung damage from COVID-19 infection. In the NCATS-funded Clinical Trials on a Chip program, several projects examine how tissue chip data can help researchers design more useful clinical trials. This might include using such data to predict which patients in a trial are most likely to respond to a therapy.</p><p>\"Creating a platform that can predict human responses to a drug in a rare disease could lead to exciting new opportunities in research,\" said Low. \"If tissue chip data can be generated that inform the decisions made before early human trials, this could reduce the risks to vulnerable populations.\"</p><p>Funding for this research was provided by True North Therapeutics (now Sanofi), NCATS (SBIR 2R44TR001326-03) and internal Hesperos development funds.</p>','2022-04-19 18:07:40.519233','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'NIH/National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS)','Scientists have created a bioengineered 3-D model that mimics the biology of two rare diseases. The researchers used the \'tissue chip\' model to show how a drug could potentially treat the diseases, providing data for a drug company\'s FDA submission for authorization for clinical testing. This is one of the first examples of using primarily tissue chip data for an FDA application to test the efficacy of a candidate drug for rare diseases.\n',1,203,'<li>John W. Rumsey, Case Lorance, Max Jackson, Trevor Sasserath, Christopher W. McAleer, Christopher J. Long, Arindom Goswami, Melissa A. Russo, Shruti M. Raja, Karissa L. Gable, Doug Emmett, Lisa D. Hobson‐Webb, Manisha Chopra, James F. Howard, Jeffrey T. Guptill, Michael J. Storek, Miguel Alonso‐Alonso, Nazem Atassi, Sandip Panicker, Graham Parry, Timothy Hammond, James J. Hickman. <strong>Classical Complement Pathway Inhibition in a “Human‐On‐A‐Chip” Model of Autoimmune Demyelinating Neuropathies</strong>. <em>Advanced Therapeutics</em>, 2022; 2200030 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/adtp.202200030\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1002/adtp.202200030</a>\n</li>'),(2252,'Biologists find new protective factor against excessive lipid accumulation in liver of obese mouse','biologists-find-new-protective-factor-against-excessive-lipid-accumulation-in-liver-of-obese-mouse','2022-04-19 18:07:43.831658',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), commonly known as fatty liver disease, is a prevalent disease frequently seen in obese people. Having high fat content in the liver is detrimental as it is strongly associated with severe health problems like diabetes, high blood pressure, and liver cancer. A research team led by Dr Chi Bun CHAN, Assistant Professor from the School of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, the University of Hong Kong (HKU), uncovers a new protective mechanism against this disorder. The research findings have recently been published in the scientific journal <em>Hepatology</em>.</p><p>The liver is the vital organ that orchestrates the overall glucose and fat metabolisms in the human body. Disruption of the fat metabolism in the liver will eventually result in hyperglycemia and hyperlipidemia, which are strong risk factors for developing diabetes, hyperlipidemia, and liver cancer. It is predicted that the number of NAFLD patient will increase from 80 million in 2015 to 100 million in 2030. While the outcomes of fat accumulation in the liver have been well established, it remains unclear if the liver possesses any defensive mechanism to work against the damage.</p><p>To answer this question, Dr Chan\'s team examined the expression of genes in the liver of high fat diet-induced obese mouse and found a protein, SH3 domain binding kinase (SBK1), was exclusively elevated in the obese mouse liver. SBK1 is a protein kinase first discovered in 2001, but no follow-up study has been performed to determine its functions in mammals. Hence, the functions of this novel protein remain unknown.</p><p>For the first time, Dr Chan\'s team found that fatty acid accumulation is an inducer of SBK1 in the mouse liver. They also observed that the mice without the SBK1 gene in their liver, called \'LSKO (liver-specific SBK1 knockout)\' mice, have higher lipid accumulation and fibrosis in this tissue. Moreover, the LSKO mice displayed uncontrolled hepatic glucose output and higher blood glucose level, and are less sensitive to insulin stimulation than their control cohort, which are strong indicators of diabetes development.</p><p>In addition to the animal studies, Dr Chan\'s team also utilised cultured cell models to answer how SBK1 gene controlled the lipid metabolism in the liver. They found that SBK1 phosphorylated and enhanced the activity of Nur77, a well-established transcriptional factor, in liver cells to control fatty acid uptake and lipid synthesis. When the SBK1 protein activity was abolished in the liver cells, they took up more fatty acids and developed excessive lipid accumulation that interfered the insulin signaling. Surprisingly, another metabolic hormone in the liver cells, fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21), was also reduced when the SBK1 protein was abolished in the cultured liver cells and the LSKO mice. Since FGF21 is an important hormone from the liver to communicate with other peripheral organs like white adipose tissues, the reduced FGF21 hormone production in the LSKO liver thus impairs the communication between the liver and other organs, leading to the development of insulin resistance in other tissues.</p><p>To extend their findings to therapeutic application, the research team further tested if manipulating the SBK1 protein activity in the liver could rescue the damaging effect of obesity. Using adenovirus-mediated gene delivery, they transiently increased the amount of SBK1 protein in the mouse\'s liver with fructose diet-induced fatty liver disease and found pathological symptoms like liver steatosis, inflammation, etc. hyperlipidemia, and hyperglycemia were all alleviated.</p><p>\'Our findings clearly show that SBK1 protein is an important regulator of the lipid metabolism that was neglected before,\' said Dr Chan. \'We are very excited to see that increasing its activity effectively alleviates the health problems caused by fatty liver. But we still need more studies to fully depict its functional activity so that we can develop SBK1 activator as a new treatment agent for this common liver disease,\' Dr Chan further added.</p><p>This work was supported by the Hong Kong Research Grant Council, the Health and Medical Research Fund, and HKU Seed Fund for Basic Research.</p><p><strong>Key findings on the liver protective factor SBK1:</strong></p><p><strong>Note:</strong></p><p><strong>SBK1 protein</strong> -- serves to control lipid accumulation in the liver.</p><p><strong>Nur77</strong> -- a well-established transcriptional factor in liver cells to control the expression of genes for lipid synthesis.</p><p><strong>FGF21</strong> -- a metabolic hormone fibroblast growth  factor 21 in the liver cell, which impairs the communication between the  liver and other organs.</p>','2022-04-19 18:07:43.831658','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'The University of Hong Kong','Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), commonly known as fatty liver disease, is a prevalent disease frequently seen in obese people. Having high fat content in the liver is detrimental as it is strongly associated with severe health problems like diabetes, high blood pressure, and liver cancer. A research team uncovers a new protective mechanism against this disorder.\n',1,146,'<li>Palak Ahuja, Xinyi Bi, Chun Fai Ng, Margaret Chui Ling Tse, Miaojia Hang, Brian Pak Shing Pang, Elsie Chit Yu Iu, Wing Suen Chan, Xin Ci Ooi, Anqi Sun, Oana Herlea‐Pana, Zhixue Liu, Xiuying Yang, Baowei Jiao, Xin Ma, Kelvin Ka Lok Wu, Leo Tsz On Lee, Kenneth King Yip Cheng, Chi Wai Lee, Chi Bun Chan. <strong>Src homology 3 domain binding kinase 1 protects against hepatic steatosis and insulin resistance through the Nur77‐ fibroblast growth factor 21 pathway</strong>. <em>Hepatology</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hep.32501\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1002/hep.32501</a>\n</li>'),(2253,'Explanation for formation of abundant features on Europa bodes well for search for extraterrestrial life','explanation-for-formation-of-abundant-features-on-europa-bodes-well-for-search-for-extraterrestrial-life','2022-04-19 18:58:47.639442',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Europa is a prime candidate for life in our solar system, and its deep saltwater ocean has captivated scientists for decades. But it\'s enclosed by an icy shell that could be miles to tens of miles thick, making sampling it a daunting prospect. Now, increasing evidence reveals the ice shell may be less of a barrier and more of a dynamic system -- and site of potential habitability in its own right.</p><p>Ice-penetrating radar observations that captured the formation of a \"double ridge\" feature in Greenland suggest the ice shell of Europa may have an abundance of water pockets beneath similar features that are common on the surface. The findings, which appear in <em>Nature Communications</em> April 19, may be compelling for detecting potentially habitable environments within the exterior of the Jovian moon.</p><p>\"Because it\'s closer to the surface, where you get interesting chemicals from space, other moons and the volcanoes of Io, there\'s a possibility that life has a shot if there are pockets of water in the shell,\" said study senior author Dustin Schroeder, an associate professor of geophysics at Stanford University\'s School of Earth, Energy &amp; Environmental Sciences (Stanford Earth). \"If the mechanism we see in Greenland is how these things happen on Europa, it suggests there\'s water everywhere.\"</p><p><strong>A terrestrial analog</strong></p><p>On Earth, researchers analyze polar regions using airborne geophysical instruments to understand how the growth and retreat of ice sheets might impact sea-level rise. Much of that study area occurs on land, where the flow of ice sheets is subject to complex hydrology -- such as dynamic subglacial lakes, surface melt ponds and seasonal drainage conduits -- that contributes to uncertainty in sea-level predictions.</p><p>Because a land-based subsurface is so different from Europa\'s subsurface ocean of liquid water, the study co-authors were surprised when, during a lab group presentation about Europa, they noticed that formations that streak the icy moon looked extremely similar to a minor feature on the surface of the Greenland ice sheet -- an ice sheet that the group has studied in detail.</p><p>\"We were working on something totally different related to climate change and its impact on the surface of Greenland when we saw these tiny double ridges -- and we were able to see the ridges go from \'not formed\' to \'formed,\'?\" Schroeder said.</p><p>Upon further examination, they found that the \"M\"-shaped crest in Greenland known as a double ridge could be a miniature version of the most prominent feature on Europa.</p><p><strong>Prominent and prevalent</strong></p><p>Double ridges on Europa appear as dramatic gashes across the moon\'s icy surface, with crests reaching nearly 1000 feet, separated by valleys about a half-mile wide. Scientists have known about the features since the moon\'s surface was photographed by the Galileo spacecraft in the 1990s but have not been able to conceive a definitive explanation of how they were formed.</p><p>Through analyses of surface elevation data and ice-penetrating radar collected from 2015 to 2017 by NASA\'s Operation IceBridge, the researchers revealed how the double ridge on northwest Greenland was produced when the ice fractured around a pocket of pressurized liquid water that was refreezing inside of the ice sheet, causing two peaks to rise into the distinct shape.</p><p>\"In Greenland, this double ridge formed in a place where water from surface lakes and streams frequently drains into the near-surface and refreezes,\" said lead study author Riley Culberg, a PhD student in electrical engineering at Stanford. \"One way that similar shallow water pockets could form on Europa might be through water from the subsurface ocean being forced up into the ice shell through fractures -- and that would suggest there could be a reasonable amount of exchange happening inside of the ice shell.\"</p><p><strong>Snowballing complexity</strong></p><p>Rather than behaving like a block of inert ice, the shell of Europa seems to undergo a variety of geological and hydrological processes -- an idea supported by this study and others, including evidence of water plumes that erupt to the surface. A dynamic ice shell supports habitability since it facilitates the exchange between the subsurface ocean and nutrients from neighboring celestial bodies accumulated on the surface.</p><p>\"People have been studying these double ridges for over 20 years now, but this is the first time we were actually able to watch something similar on Earth and see nature work out its magic,\" said study co-author Gregor Steinbrügge, a planetary scientist at NASA\'s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) who started working on the project as a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford. \"We are making a much bigger step into the direction of understanding what processes actually dominate the physics and the dynamics of Europa\'s ice shell.\"</p><p>The co-authors said their explanation for how the double ridges form is so complex, they couldn\'t have conceived it without the analog on Earth.</p><p>\"The mechanism we put forward in this paper would have been almost too audacious and complicated to propose without seeing it happen in Greenland,\" Schroeder said.</p><p>The findings equip researchers with a radar signature for quickly detecting this process of double ridge formation using ice-penetrating radar, which is among the instruments currently planned for exploring Europa from space.</p><p>\"We are another hypothesis on top of many -- we just have the advantage that our hypothesis has some observations from the formation of a similar feature on Earth to back it up,\" Culberg said. \"It\'s opening up all these new possibilities for a very exciting discovery.\"</p><p><em>Schroeder is also a faculty affiliate with the </em><em>Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI)</em><em>, an associate professor, by courtesy, of electrical engineering and a center fellow, by courtesy, at the </em><em>Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment</em><em>. </em></p><p><em>This research was supported by a National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship and, in part, by NASA Grant NNX16AJ95G and NSF Grant 1745137.</em></p><p>Video: <a href=\"https://youtu.be/8YOmER50epo\">https://youtu.be/8YOmER50epo</a></p><p><strong>Story Source:</strong></p>','2022-04-19 18:58:47.639442','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Stanford University','Ice-penetrating radar data from Greenland suggests that shallow water pockets may be common within Europa\'s ice shell, increasing the potential habitability of the Jovian moon\'s ice shell.\n',1,27,'<li>Culberg, R., Schroeder, D.M. &amp; Steinbrügge, G. <strong>Double ridge formation over shallow water sills on Jupiter’s moon Europa</strong>. <em>Nat Commun</em>, 2022 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29458-3\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41467-022-29458-3</a>\n</li>'),(2254,'New process enables 3D printing of small and complex components made of glass in just a few minutes','new-process-enables-3d-printing-of-small-and-complex-components-made-of-glass-in-just-a-few-minutes','2022-04-19 18:59:22.842864',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Because of its outstanding transparency as well as its stability in contact with heat or chemicals, glass is relevant for many high-tech applications. However, conventional processes for shaping glass are often tedious, energy-intensive and quickly reach their limits for small and complicated components. The Freiburg materials scientists Dr. Frederik Kotz-Helmer and Prof. Dr. Bastian E. Rapp, in cooperation with the University of California at Berkeley in the US, have developed a novel process that can be used to produce very small components from transparent glass quickly and precisely using micro 3D printing. Possible applications include components for sensors and microscopes, but also for lab-on-a-chip systems. The researchers were able to publish their results in the current issue of the  journal <em>Science</em>.</p><p><strong>Glass powder in plastic binder</strong></p><p>The new technology is based on so-called Glassomer materials, which Kotz-Helmer and Rapp developed at the Department of Microsystems Engineering (IMTEK) at the University of Freiburg. \"Glassomer materials consist of glass powder in a special plastic binder,\" says Kotz-Helmer, \"allowing to process glass like a plastic.\" The resulting components are then placed in a furnace, which causes the plastic to burn and the glass to be sintered, i.e. densified. \"In the end, the components consist of one hundred percent highly transparent fused silica glass,\" says Kotz-Helmer.</p><p><strong>Component is created in a single step</strong></p><p>The Freiburg scientists have now combined Glassomer materials with a new 3D printing process developed by a research team led by Prof. Dr. Hayden Taylor from the University of California, Berkeley. Conventional 3D printers print their objects layer by layer. However, in the new process, called Computed Axial Lithography (CAL), the component is created in a single step. A vessel containing liquid, light-sensitive material is exposed to two-dimensional light images of the object to be printed from many different angles. Where the images overlap and the amount of light absorbed thus locally exceeds a certain threshold, the material hardens abruptly -- within a few minutes, the component is formed. The excess, still liquid material can be washed off.</p><p><strong>Structures with the thickness of a single hair</strong></p><p>\"In principle, this process also works with Glassomer material,\" says Kotz-Helmer. For this purpose, the Freiburg scientists developed a material made of glass powder and plastic that is both highly transparent and hardens quickly at a suitable threshold value. \"The devil was in the chemical details here,\" says the materials scientist. Previously, moreover, the CAL process had only been suitable for relatively coarse structures. By combining the materials science expertise at the University of Freiburg and the project partner Glassomer GmbH, a Freiburg spin-off, as well as the further development of the system technology at the University of California, it has now been possible to combine and improve these technologies. \"For the first time, we were able to print glass with structures in the range of 50 micrometers in just a few minutes, which corresponds roughly to the thickness of a hair,\" says Kotz-Helmer. \"In addition, the surfaces of the components are smoother than with conventional 3D printing processes.\"</p><p><strong>Glass as a substitute for vulnerable plastic</strong></p><p>Kotz-Helmer sees possible applications for the innovative manufacturing process, for example, in micro-optical components of sensors, virtual reality headsets and modern microscopes: \"The ability to manufacture such components at high speed and with great geometric freedom will enable new functions and more cost-effective products in the future.\"</p><p>Microfluidic channels are also needed for so-called lab-on-a-chip systems for research and medical diagnostics. Until now, these have mostly been made of plastics, but they often cannot withstand high temperatures and aggressive chemicals. Thanks to the new process technology, complex channel systems can now be manufactured in glass, says Kotz-Helmer: \"Thanks to the thermal and chemical stability of glass, many new fields of application are opening up, especially in the area of chemistry on-a-chip synthesis.\"</p>','2022-04-19 18:59:22.842864','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Freiburg','Scientists combine materials science invention with newly developed 3D printing technology. Components made of highly transparent glass can be manufactured in just a few minutes and with great geometric freedom. Possible applications of the new process technology are micro-optical components of sensors, microscopes or lab-on-a-chip systems\n',1,25,'<li>Joseph T. Toombs, Manuel Luitz, Caitlyn C. Cook, Sophie Jenne, Chi Chung Li, Bastian E. Rapp, Frederik Kotz-Helmer, Hayden K. Taylor. <strong>Volumetric additive manufacturing of silica glass with microscale computed axial lithography</strong>. <em>Science</em>, 2022; 376 (6590): 308 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.abm6459\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1126/science.abm6459</a>\n</li>'),(2255,'Most vital strategies for successfully implementing changes in industry','most-vital-strategies-for-successfully-implementing-changes-in-industry','2022-04-19 18:59:25.811546',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Organizations regularly need to implement change initiatives to stay current, update technology, improve efficiency, enter new markets or make other improvements. However, research has suggested that more than half of change initiatives attempted in the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry fail. A new study from the University of Kansas has found that six change strategies are key to successful implementation and two of them are vital for highly successful, sustained change.</p><p>The study also found that the type of change is not as important to its success as key management strategies. In surveying AEC firms across North America about an attempted change initiative, researchers found that effective change agents and a realistic timeline for the change were the two most important factors for an initiative to be deemed very successful and to last.</p><p>In their survey, researchers asked 633 firms to describe a change initiative they had attempted to install. They then implemented a scale to determine if the effort was unsuccessful, somewhat successful or very successful. The scale evaluated if the initiative was successful by three key metrics: if it was implemented into operations, benefits achieved and long-term sustainability.</p><p>\"We analyzed data from across the entire industry. With organizational change, it\'s something that starts with management and reaches all levels,\" said Omar Maali, a doctoral candidate in engineering at KU and the study\'s lead author. \"They are attempted to improve efficiency, have better outcomes or make some update to the work environment. The worst thing that could happen is you lose your investment, or people try the change and revert back to what they used to do. There are a lot of recommendations in the professional literature about how to implement change. We found six key organizational change management practices.\"</p><p>The six key practices authors identified, in order of importance to achieve successful implementation of change:</p><p>Maali co-wrote the study with Nancy Kepple, associate professor of social welfare, and Brian Lines, associate professor of civil, environmental &amp; architectural engineering, all at KU. Their work, titled \"Strategies to Achieve High Adoption of Organizational Change Initiatives within the AEC Industry,\" was published in the <em>Journal of Management in Engineering</em>, part of a special issue on rethinking the benefits of adopting digital technologies in the AEC industry.</p><p>Effective change agents are defined as those working within a company who are affected by or need to accommodate a change. Maali used an example of someone required to use a new technology or software who adopts it before a deadline, advocates for its benefits with colleagues, answers questions they may have and demonstrates the value of making the change to their peers. That importance of establishing the value of change among equals instead of through mandates from management -- coupled with a realistic timeframe for making the change -- were the most vital practices, according to the analysis. However, the authors said management could not only focus on those two practices and realistically expect success.</p><p>\"To avoid unsuccessful change efforts, you needed to use at least five organizational change management strategies to get a return on investment and make it successful,\" Maali said. \"To move to very successful, it was vital to have effective change agents and a realistic timeframe.\"</p><p>The one strategy that didn\'t prove critical to avoiding unsuccessful change was training resources, which the authors said was surprising, as previous research has suggested otherwise, especially in adopting digital technologies. And while adopting digital technologies has been a traditionally difficult change, it was not shown to be different than other types of change initiatives in that all six strategies were necessary to make it successful.</p><p>The value of the findings lies both in the large data set with information from firms across the architecture, engineering and construction industry in different regions attempting many types of changes with varying levels of success. Understanding which management strategies are most important can help firms successfully reach their goals when implementing necessary changes. Maali said future research will further explore what constitutes a realistic timeframe, and if it is not possible to achieve one, what other factors become most important. In the meantime, better understanding how to successfully implement change initiatives can help avoid unsuccessful or unsustained efforts, a major barrier in the industry.</p>','2022-04-19 18:59:25.811546','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Kansas','Researchers have conducted a study in which they studied change initiatives at more than 600 architecture, engineering and construction firms in North America. They found those that were very successful and sustainable used six key strategies, and that effective change agents and a realistic timeline were vital to making an initiative a lasting success.\n',1,27,'<li>Omar Maali, Nancy Kepple, Brian Lines. <strong>Strategies to Achieve High Adoption of Organizational Change Initiatives within the AEC Industry</strong>. <em>Journal of Management in Engineering</em>, 2022; 38 (4) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)ME.1943-5479.0001051\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1061/(ASCE)ME.1943-5479.0001051</a>\n</li>'),(2256,'New approach against chronic inflammation: Treating mice with so-called \'nanobodies\'','new-approach-against-chronic-inflammation:-treating-mice-with-so-called-\'nanobodies\'','2022-04-19 18:59:39.061249',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Not only the villas of the rich and famous have a direct line to the police. The cells in our body also have a sophisticated alarm system, the inflammasome. Its central component is the so-called ASC protein. In the event of danger, such as an attack by a pathogen, many of these molecules join together to form a large complex, the ASC speck. This ensures two things: First, its activity causes the cell to accumulate large quantities of messenger substances, which can be used to summon the help of the immune system. And secondly, numerous pores are formed in the cell membrane through which these alarm molecules can reach the outside and fulfill their task.</p><p><strong>Last cry for help from the dying cell</strong></p><p>These holes ultimately lead to the demise of the cell: \"At some point, the cell basically explodes and empties its entire contents into the tissue,\" explains Prof. Dr. Bernardo Franklin of the Institute of Innate Immunity at the University Hospital Bonn. \"The messenger substances that are now abruptly released then act like a last great cry for help. This triggers the immune system to mount a strong inflammatory response that contains the infection.\" That is why this mechanism of innate immune defense is hugely important.</p><p>However, in this process, ASC specks also accumulate in the tissue and may persist there for a long time. \"We have now been able to show in mice that their activity activates the immune system even after the threat has been averted,\" Franklin says. \"This can result in chronic inflammation, which severely damages the tissue.\" Together with researchers from the University of Sao Paulo, Franklin\'s team has succeeded in preventing this undesirable effect. They used so-called nanobodies for this purpose.</p><p>These agents are antibody fragments with a very simple structure. \"In collaboration with Prof. Dr. Florian Schmidt from the Institute of Innate Immunity, we generated nanobodies that specifically target ASC and can dissolve the specks,\" explains Franklin\'s collaborator Dr. Damien Bertheloot. The researchers got help from an alpaca: They injected the animal with the ASC protein so that it developed matching antibodies. Some of the alpaca antibodies have a very simple structure. This makes it possible to produce and test fragments of these antibodies as so-called nanobodies.</p><p><strong>Rheumatism and gout symptoms alleviated in mice</strong></p><p>The researchers were able to obtain the genetic information for the ASC nanobodies from blood samples of the animal using a complex technique. \"We then incorporated this genetic makeup into bacteria so that we could have them produce the nanobody in large quantities,\" Bertheloot explains. The team demonstrated that the compound can dissolve ASC specks using human cell cultures as well as mice. \"The mice in our experiments have rheumatoid and gout-like symptoms,\" Bertheloot explains. \"After administration of the nanobody, the inflammation and also the general health of the rodents improved significantly.\"</p><p>Nanobodies are very small compared to normal antibodies. They are therefore excellent for breaking up such molecular complexes. This is because they can still reach sites that would be too cramped for large agents. Moreover, normal antibodies provide additional stimulation to the immune system and can therefore exacerbate inflammation -- a property that nanobodies lack.</p><p>The results are also interesting for another reason: Studies indicate that ASC specks can also cause significant damage to the brain. There, they seem to serve as a kind of \"crystallization nucleus\" for the Aß protein. In the brains of Alzheimer\'s patients, Aß clumps together to form large protein complexes called plaques. Presumably, ASC specks can trigger this clumping. \"So perhaps it\'s possible to slow down this process with the help of our nanobodies,\" Franklin hopes. \"We now plan to investigate this possibility in a follow-up study.\" Bernardo Franklin is a member of the ImmunoSensation2 Cluster of Excellence at the University of Bonn.</p><p>At the same time, however, he warns against overly high expectations: Even in the ideal case, it will be years before the results might translate into new drugs.</p><p>The Institute of Innate Immunity and the Nanobody Core Facility at the University Hospital Bonn were involved in the study. Partners on the part of the University of Sao Paulo were the Center for the Study of Inflammatory Diseases and the Department of Pharmacology.</p>','2022-04-19 18:59:39.061249','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Bonn','Researchers have succeeded in mitigating chronic inflammation in mice using customized \'mini-antibodies.\' These nanobodies enabled them to dissolve molecular complexes in tissue that normally activate the immune system. The nanobodies produced may in future help to slow down unwanted inflammatory reactions that cause diseases such as arthritis or neurodegeneration.\n',1,91,'<li>Damien Bertheloot, Carlos WS Wanderley, Ayda H Schneider, Lisa DJ Schiffelers, Jennifer D Wuerth, Jan MP Tödtmann, Salie Maasewerd, Ibrahim Hawwari, Fraser Duthie, Cornelia Rohland, Lucas S Ribeiro, Lea‐Marie Jenster, Nathalia Rosero, Yonas M Tesfamariam, Fernando Q Cunha, Florian I Schmidt, Bernardo S Franklin. <strong>Nanobodies dismantle post‐pyroptotic ASC specks and counteract inflammation            in vivo</strong>. <em>EMBO Molecular Medicine</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.15252/emmm.202115415\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.15252/emmm.202115415</a>\n</li>'),(2257,'How air pollution alters lung tissue, increasing cancer susceptibility','how-air-pollution-alters-lung-tissue,-increasing-cancer-susceptibility','2022-04-19 19:00:21.048697',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Scientists have identified a mechanism that explains how fine air pollution particles might cause lung cancer, according to a study published today in <em>eLife.</em></p><p>The findings could lead to new approaches for preventing or treating the initial lung changes that lead to the disease.</p><p>Tiny, inhalable fine particulate matter (FPM) found in air pollutants has been recognised as a Group 1 carcinogen and a substantial threat to global health. However, the cancer-causing mechanism of FPM remains unclear.</p><p>\"Despite its potential to cause mutations, recent research suggests that FPM does not directly promote -- and may even inhibit -- the growth of lung cancer cells,\" explains first author Zhenzhen Wang, an associate researcher at Nanjing University (NJU), Nanjing, China, who carried out the study between labs at NJU and the University of Macau where she was sponsored by a University of Macau Fellowship. \"This suggests that FPM might lead to cancer through indirect means that support tumour growth. For example, some studies suggest FPM can prevent immune cells from moving to where they are needed.\"</p><p>To explore this possibility, Wang and the team collected FPM from seven locations in China and studied its effects on the main immune cells that defend against tumour growth -- called cytotoxic T-cells (CTLs). In mice administered with lung cancer cells that were not exposed to FPM, CTLs were recruited to the lung to destroy the tumour cells. By contrast, in the mice whose lungs were exposed to FPM, the infiltration of CTLs was delayed -- potentially allowing the tumour cells to establish in lung tissue.</p><p>To investigate why the CTLs did not enter the lung as quickly in the FPM-exposed lungs, the team studied both the CTLs themselves and the lung tissue structure. They found that CTLs exposed to FPM still retained their migratory ability, but that FPM exposure dramatically compressed the lung tissue structure and the spaces that immune cells move between. There were also much higher levels of collagen -- a protein that provides biomechanical support for cells and tissues. When the team studied the movement of CTLs in the mice, in lung tissue exposed to FPM, CTLs struggled to move, whereas those in the untreated tissue were able to move freely.</p><p>Further analysis of the tissue showed that the structural changes were caused by increases in a collagen subtype called collagen IV, but the team still did not know how FPM triggered this. They found the answer when they looked more closely at the structural changes to collagen IV and the enzyme responsible for making them -- called peroxidasin. This enzyme drives a specific type of cross-linking that exposure to FPM was found to cause and aggravate in the lung tissue.</p><p>\"The most surprising find was the mechanism by which this process occurred,\" Wang says. \"The peroxidasin enzyme stuck to the FPM in the lung, which increased its activity. Taken together, this means that wherever FPM lands in the lung, increased peroxidasin activity leads to structural changes in the lung tissue that can keep immune cells out and away from growing tumour cells.\"</p><p>\"Our study reveals a completely new mechanism by which inhaled fine particles promote lung tumour development,\" concludes senior author Lei Dong, Professor at the School of Life Sciences, Nanjing University. \"We provide direct evidence that proteins that stick to fine particulate matter can cause a significant and adverse effect, giving rise to pathogenic activity. Our discovery that peroxidasin is the mediator of this effect in lung tissue identifies it as a specific and unexpected target for preventing lung disease caused by air pollution.\"</p>','2022-04-19 19:00:21.048697','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'eLife','Scientists have identified a mechanism that explains how fine air pollution particles might cause lung cancer, according to a new study.\n',1,41,'<li>Zhenzhen Wang, Ziyu Zhai, Chunyu Chen, Xuejiao Tian, Zhen Xing, Panfei Xing, Yushun Yang, Junfeng Zhang, Chunming Wang, Lei Dong. <strong>Air pollution particles hijack peroxidasin to disrupt immunosurveillance and promote lung cancer</strong>. <em>eLife</em>, 2022; 11 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.75345\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.7554/eLife.75345</a>\n</li>'),(2258,'Engineers introduce the Oreometer','engineers-introduce-the-oreometer','2022-04-19 20:15:37.106009',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">When you twist open an Oreo cookie to get to the creamy center, you\'re mimicking a standard test in rheology -- the study of how a non-Newtonian material flows when twisted, pressed, or otherwise stressed. MIT engineers have now subjected the sandwich cookie to rigorous materials tests to get to the center of a tantalizing question: Why does the cookie\'s cream stick to just one wafer when twisted apart?</p><p>\"There\'s the fascinating problem of trying to get the cream to distribute evenly between the two wafers, which turns out to be really hard,\" says Max Fan, an undergraduate in MIT\'s Department of Mechanical Engineering.</p><p>In pursuit of an answer, the team subjected cookies to standard rheology tests in the lab and found that no matter the flavor or amount of stuffing, the cream at the center of an Oreo almost always sticks to one wafer when twisted open. Only for older boxes of cookies does the cream sometimes separate more evenly between both wafers.</p><p>The researchers also measured the torque required to twist open an Oreo, and found it to be similar to the torque required to turn a doorknob and about 1/10th what\'s needed to twist open a bottlecap. The cream\'s failure stress -- i.e. the force per area required to get the cream to flow, or deform -- is twice that of cream cheese and peanut butter, and about the same magnitude as mozzarella cheese. Judging from the cream\'s response to stress, the team classifies its texture as \"mushy,\" rather than brittle, tough, or rubbery.</p><p>So, why does the cookie\'s cream glom to one side rather than splitting evenly between both? The manufacturing process may be to blame.</p><p>\"Videos of the manufacturing process show that they put the first wafer down, then dispense a ball of cream onto that wafer before putting the second wafer on top,\" says Crystal Owens, an MIT mechanical engineering PhD candidate who studies the properties of complex fluids. \"Apparently that little time delay may make the cream stick better to the first wafer.\"</p><p>The team\'s study isn\'t simply a sweet diversion from bread-and-butter research; it\'s also an opportunity to make the science of rheology accessible to others. To that end, the researchers have designed a 3D-printable \"Oreometer\" -- a simple device that firmly grasps an Oreo cookie and uses pennies and rubber bands to control the twisting force that progressively twists the cookie open. Instructions for the tabletop device can be found here: <a href=\"https://github.com/crystalowens/oreometer/\">https://github.com/crystalowens/oreometer/</a></p><p>The new study, \"On Oreology, the fracture and flow of \'milk\'s favorite cookie,\'\" appears today in <em>Kitchen Flows</em>, a special issue of the journal <em>Physics of Fluids</em>. It was conceived of early in the Covid-19 pandemic, when many scientists\' labs were closed or difficult to access. In addition to Owens and Fan, co-authors are mechanical engineering professors Gareth McKinley and A. John Hart.</p><p><strong>Confection connection</strong></p><p>A standard test in rheology places a fluid, slurry, or other flowable material onto the base of an instrument known as a rheometer. A parallel plate above the base can be lowered onto the test material. The plate is then twisted as sensors track the applied rotation and torque.</p><p>Owens, who regularly uses a laboratory rheometer to test fluid materials such as 3D-printable inks, couldn\'t help noting a similarity with sandwich cookies. As she writes in the new study:</p><p>\"Scientifically, sandwich cookies present a paradigmatic model of parallel plate rheometry in which a fluid sample, the cream, is held between two parallel plates, the wafers. When the wafers are counter-rotated, the cream deforms, flows, and ultimately fractures, leading to separation of the cookie into two pieces.\"</p><p>While Oreo cream may not appear to possess fluid-like properties, it is considered a \"yield stress fluid\" -- a soft solid when unperturbed that can start to flow under enough stress, the way toothpaste, frosting, certain cosmetics, and concrete do.</p><p>Curious as to whether others had explored the connection between Oreos and rheology, Owens found mention of a 2016 Princeton University study in which physicists first reported that indeed, when twisting Oreos by hand, the cream almost always came off on one wafer.</p><p>\"We wanted to build on this to see what actually causes this effect and if we could control it if we mounted the Oreos carefully onto our rheometer,\" she says.</p><p><strong>Cookie twist</strong></p><p>In an experiment that they would repeat for multiple cookies of various fillings and flavors, the researchers glued an Oreo to both the top and bottom plates of a rheometer and applied varying degrees of torque and angular rotation, noting the values that successfully twisted each cookie apart. They plugged the measurements into equations to calculate the cream\'s viscoelasticity, or flowability. For each experiment, they also noted the cream\'s \"post-mortem distribution,\" or where the cream ended up after twisting open.</p><p>In all, the team went through about 20 boxes of Oreos, including regular, Double Stuf, and Mega Stuf levels of filling, and regular, dark chocolate, and \"golden\" wafer flavors. Surprisingly, they found that no matter the amount of cream filling or flavor, the cream almost always separated onto one wafer.</p><p>\"We had expected an effect based on size,\" Owens says. \"If there was more cream between layers, it should be easier to deform. But that\'s not actually the case.\"</p><p>Curiously, when they mapped each cookie\'s result to its original position in the box, they noticed the cream tended to stick to the inward-facing wafer: Cookies on the left side of the box twisted such that the cream ended up on the right wafer, whereas cookies on the right side separated with cream mostly on the left wafer. They suspect this box distribution may be a result of post-manufacturing environmental effects, such as heating or jostling that may cause cream to peel slightly away from the outer wafers, even before twisting.</p><p>The understanding gained from the properties of Oreo cream could potentially be applied to the design of other complex fluid materials.</p><p>\"My 3D printing fluids are in the same class of materials as Oreo cream,\" she says. \"So, this new understanding can help me better design ink when I\'m trying to print flexible electronics from a slurry of carbon nanotubes, because they deform in almost exactly the same way.\"</p><p>As for the cookie itself, she suggests that if the inside of Oreo wafers were more textured, the cream might grip better onto both sides and split more evenly when twisted.</p><p>\"As they are now, we found there\'s no trick to twisting that would split the cream evenly,\" Owens concludes.</p><p>This research was supported, in part, by the MIT UROP program and by the National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship Program.</p>','2022-04-19 20:15:37.106009','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Massachusetts Institute of Technology','Engineers subjected Oreo cookies to rigorous materials tests to get to the center of a tantalizing question: Why does the cookie\'s cream stick to just one wafer when twisted apart?\n',1,49,'<li>Crystal E. Owens, Max R. Fan, A. John Hart, Gareth H. McKinley. <strong>On Oreology, the fracture and flow of \'milk\'s favorite cookie®\'</strong>. <em>Physics of Fluids</em>, 2022; 34 (4): 043107 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/5.0085362\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1063/5.0085362</a>\n</li>'),(2259,'Cancer burden facing Asian Americans partly caused by racism, experts say','cancer-burden-facing-asian-americans-partly-caused-by-racism,-experts-say','2022-04-19 20:16:28.270567',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">The <em>Journal of the National Cancer Institute</em> (JNCI) published a commentary today on the significant cancer disparities facing Asian Americans. The article is authored by seven researchers from across the country who participated in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Oncology Center of Excellence \"Conversations on Cancer\" held on July 29, 2021. The virtual \"conversation,\" the first by the FDA, focused on the unfair cancer burden impacting Asian Americans. The lead author of the commentary is Moon Chen, associate director for community outreach and engagement with the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center.</p><p>In percentage terms, Asian Americans are the fastest-growing U.S. racial group for the past three censuses, yet data aggregation obscure distinctions within subgroups of the more than 24 million Asians living in the United States. The JNCI commentary illustrates the harmful impacts this is having on Asian American communities.</p><p>Chen said the neglect of Asian American cancer inequities stems from multiple factors. They include historical prejudices against Asian Americans and the myth of Asian Americans as the model healthy minority, compounded by language and cultural barriers as well as racism.</p><p>\"Asian Americans are unique as the first U.S. population to experience cancer as the leading cause of death,\" said Chen. \"Bigotry against Asian Americans, pervasive since the 19<sup>th</sup> century, but especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, is only exacerbating the cancer disparities that are costing Asian Americans their lives.\"</p><p><strong>High rates of certain cancer in Asian Americans</strong></p><p>The authors cite a disproportionate rate of certain cancers affecting Asian Americans including:</p><p>The authors note an \"infinitesimal proportion\" of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) budget funded Asian American research even though the population is experiencing the highest percentage increases of any U.S. racial population for the past three decades. Between 1992 and 2018, only 0.17% of the total budget of the NIH funded research on Asian Americans. A portfolio analysis of grants funded by the National Cancer Institute\'s Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences showed a very limited number of studies focused on Asian Americans, with none at the time addressing the causes of cancer.</p><p>Asian Americans are also underrepresented in clinical trials. According to the commentary, only 1% of clinical trials emphasize racial and ethnic minority participation as a primary focus. Only 5 such trials focus on Asian Americans as compared with 83 for African Americans and 32 for Hispanics.</p><p>\"Classifying Black Americans and Hispanic Americans as underrepresented minorities in clinical trials is helpful, but it is regrettable that our national policy excludes designating Asian Americans as underrepresented minorities, as documented by data in this commentary,\" said Chen. \"There is a myth that Asian Americans don\'t get cancer, but that is far from the truth.\"</p><p><strong>What needs to happen to equalize cancer inequities</strong></p><p>To rectify inequities, the authors recommend a call to action:</p><p>\"It is also important to focus on the impact of racism on cancer disparities and prioritize funding resources. Otherwise, we will not take the necessary steps forward for achieving health equity for Asian Americans,\" Chen added.</p><p>The other authors on this commentary include: Richard J. Lee, Ravi A. Madan, Van Ta Park, Susan M. Shinagawa, Tracy Sun, Scarlett L. Gomez.</p><p>The Oncology Center of Excellence at the FDA sponsored<em>Conversations on Cancer: Advancing Equity in Asian American and Pacific Islander Communities: Racism and Injustice</em>, which was the virtual panel discussion upon which the commentary is based. The work was supported by the National Institute on Aging (R24AG063718) and the National Cancer Institute (P30CA093373).</p>','2022-04-19 20:16:28.270567','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of California - Davis Health','Racism facing Asian Americans is compounding existing cancer inequities. They are the first U.S. population group to experience cancer as the leading cause of death. A commentary outlines the factors contributing to this.\n',1,35,'<li>Moon S Chen, Richard J Lee, Ravi A Madan, Van Ta Park, Susan M Shinagawa, Tracy Sun, Scarlett L Gomez. <strong>Charting a Path Towards Asian American Cancer Health Equity: A Way Forward</strong>. <em>JNCI: Journal of the National Cancer Institute</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jnci/djac055\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1093/jnci/djac055</a>\n</li>'),(2260,'Portable, point-of-care COVID-19 test discerns alpha variant from earlier strains','portable,-point-of-care-covid-19-test-discerns-alpha-variant-from-earlier-strains','2022-04-19 20:44:11.349913',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">A point-of-care COVID-19 test developed by researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign can now detect and differentiate the alpha variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus from earlier strains in saliva samples.</p><p>The new test builds on the group\'s previous developments, which allowed samples to bypass the laboratory -- first using nasopharyngeal swabs, then with saliva samples. The point-of-care amplification and testing process, called LAMP, is more efficient than PCR because it does not require expensive thermal cycling machines. The researchers said the assay does not need RNA extraction and purification steps, similar to the Illinois saliva test.</p><p>The results of the study, co-led by Rashid Bashir, a professor of bioengineering and the dean of the Grainger College of Engineering at Illinois, mechanical science and engineering professor Bill King and bioengineering professor Enrique Valera, are published in the journal<em> Lab on a Chip</em>.</p><p>\"Our study shows that it is possible to test for variants of the same coronavirus strain in a single point-of-care test that takes 30 minutes using a portable handheld device,\" Bashir said. \"The new test is scalable to suit future pandemics, COVID-19 or otherwise, and could be used at home or other settings.\"</p><p>The updated process takes advantage of a genetic phenomenon called S-gene target failure -- which is present in the alpha variant but not in the SARS-CoV-2 virus early strains -- to differentiate between the two alpha variants, the researchers said.</p><p>\"The new omicron variant also exhibits S-gene target failure and could be tested for by adapting the approach developed in this study,\" Valera said.</p><p>During the new testing process, specially selected genetic primers are placed onto additively manufactured cartridges and dried before adding the patient samples. The chosen primers are set against the S-gene and are specific for detecting the S-gene target failure against 69-70 deletion in the alpha variant, the study reports.</p><p>The study confirmed the device\'s effectiveness by testing 38 clinical saliva samples, including 20 samples positive for alpha variant.</p><p>The researchers said they would like to refine their method to test up to five different viruses, viral strains and variants in a single test, compatible with nasal swab and saliva mediums.</p><p>Co-authors of the paper were graduate students Jongwon Lim and Robert Stavins, and Karen White and James Kumar from Carle Foundation Hospital.</p><p>The Foxconn Interconnect Technology-sponsored Center for Networked</p><p>Intelligent Components and Environments at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health supported this study. Clinical samples were obtained from Carle Foundation Hospital and the U. of I. COVID-19 detect study.</p><p>The authors are also affiliated with electrical and computer engineering, the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, the Carle Illinois College of Medicine, the Holonyak Micro and Nanotechnology Lab, the Cancer Center at Illinois, the Materials Research Laboratory and the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology.</p>','2022-04-19 20:44:11.349913','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign','A point-of-care COVID-19 test developed by researchers can now detect and differentiate the alpha variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus from earlier strains in saliva samples.\n',1,65,'<li>Jongwon Lim, Robert Stavins, Victoria Kindratenko, Janice Baek, Leyi Wang, Karen White, James Kumar, Enrique Valera, William Paul King, Rashid Bashir. <strong>Microfluidic point-of-care device for detection of early strains and B.1.1.7 variant of SARS-CoV-2 virus</strong>. <em>Lab on a Chip</em>, 2022; 22 (7): 1297 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/d2lc00021k\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1039/d2lc00021k</a>\n</li>'),(2261,'New research predicts the disappearance of Olympic Peninsula glaciers','new-research-predicts-the-disappearance-of-olympic-peninsula-glaciers','2022-04-19 20:58:26.291476',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">By 2070, the glaciers on the Olympic Peninsula, in Washington State, will have largely disappeared, said Andrew G. Fountain, professor of geology and geography at Portland State University, who led a team of researchers on the subject. Although some glaciers will probably remain -- albeit as tiny shells of their former selves.</p><p>Fountain\'s study was recently published in the Journal of Geophysical Research, Earth Surface in an article titled \"Glaciers of the Olympic Mountains, Washington -- the past and future 100 years.\" Since about 1900 the region has lost half of its glacier area and since 1980, 35 glaciers and 16 perennial snowfields have disappeared.</p><p>\"There\'s little we can do to prevent the disappearance of these glaciers,\" Fountain said. \"We\'re on this global warming train right now. Even if we\'re super good citizens and stop adding carbon dioxide in the atmosphere immediately, it will still be 100 years or so before the climate responds.\"</p><p>Even though preventing glacier melt at the hand of global warming isn\'t in the cards, ensuring things don\'t get worse is a critical goal, Fountain said.</p><p>\"This is yet another tangible call out for us to take climate change seriously and take actions to minimize our climate impact,\" he added.</p><p>Dan Cayan, research meteorologist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, said this research reveals that glaciers are a \"hydroclimate finger on the pulse of Pacific decadal climate.\" The long-term loss of glacial mass found in the Olympic Peninsula is a strong indication of a warming global climate, he added.</p><p>\"This is a clear and compelling signal of changes that are rolling out across many North American landscapes,\" Cayan said. \"It is regrettable that the Olympic glaciers are very likely to melt away as climate warming over the coming decades runs its course.\"</p><p>Glacier disappearance will trigger a chain of impacts, beginning with diminishing alpine streams and species like bull trout that have adapted to the cold water streams.</p><p>\"Once you lose your seasonal snow, the only source of water in these alpine areas is glacier melt. And without the glaciers, you\'re not going to have that melt contributing to the stream flow, and therefore impacting the ecology in alpine areas,\" Fountain said. \"That\'s a big deal with disastrous fallout.\"</p><p>U.S. Geological Survey data shows a similar decline of glacier ice in the North Cascades of Washington, farther inland in Glacier National Park, Montana and further north in Alaska, according to USGS Research Physical Scientist Caitlyn Florentine.</p><p>\"This assessment of glaciers in the Olympic Mountains underscores two key elements of glacier vulnerability. The first is warming summer temperatures, which affect the persistence of glacier ice throughout the summer melt season,\" Florentine said. \"The second, less obvious, is warming winter temperatures, which affect the replenishment of glacier ice during the winter snow accumulation season. This double whammy has downstream implications for glacier-adapted ecosystems in the U.S. Pacific Northwest.\"</p><p>The Olympic glaciers are particularly vulnerable because of their lower elevation as compared to glaciers elsewhere at higher elevations where temperatures are significantly cooler such as the Cascade Mountains of Oregon and Washington.</p><p>\"As the temperatures warm, not only will the glaciers melt more in summer, which you\'d expect, but in the wintertime, it changes the phase of the precipitation from snow to rain,\" Fountain said. \"So the glaciers get less nourished in the winter, more melt in the summer, and then they just fall off the map.\"</p><p>With this research completed, Fountain will turn next to the entire Western U.S. to develop a comprehensive view of glaciers in Washington, Oregon, California, Montana, Wyoming and Colorado.</p><p><strong>Story Source:</strong></p>','2022-04-19 20:58:26.291476','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Portland State University','By 2070, the glaciers on the Olympic Peninsula, in Washington State, will have largely disappeared, according to a new study. Although some glaciers will probably remain -- albeit as tiny shells of their former selves. Since about 1900 the region has lost half of its glacier area and since 1980, 35 glaciers and 16 perennial snowfields have disappeared.\n',1,27,'<li>Andrew G. Fountain, Christina Gray, Bryce Glenn, Brian Menounos, Justin Pflug, Jon L. Riedel. <strong>Glaciers of the Olympic Mountains, Washington—The Past and Future 100 Years</strong>. <em>JGR Earth Surface</em>, 19 April 2022 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2022JF006670\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1029/2022JF006670</a>\n</li>'),(2262,'Mental illness associated with increased death from cardiovascular disease','mental-illness-associated-with-increased-death-from-cardiovascular-disease','2022-04-19 21:42:32.399858',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Compared to the general population, people with severe mental illness, including schizophrenia, have higher levels of cardiovascular-related mortality, and that association has become stronger over recent decades, according to a new study publishing April 19 in <em>PLOS Medicine </em>by Amanda Lambert of the University of Birmingham, UK, and colleagues.</p><p>Previous research has identified higher incidence and mortality from cardiovascular disease in people with severe mental illness, but it was not known whether that association has changed over time. The new study involved a systemic review and meta-analysis of 108 previous studies including over 30 million participants in high-income countries, all aged 16 to 65 years of age at onset of psychiatric disorder.</p><p>The study found that, overall, the cardiovascular-related mortality rate for people with severe mental illness is about twice that of the general population (SMR 1.96, 95% CI: 1.61-2.39, p&lt;0.001 for schizophrenia). People with schizophrenia are at greater risk than those with bipolar disorder, but the disparity exists across all types of severe mental illness and both cerebrovascular and cardiac mortality. For people with schizophrenia, the pooled hazard ratio/rate ratio for coronary heart disease was 1.8 (95% CI: 1.44-2.24, p&lt;0.001) compared to controls and the pooled standardized mortality ratio for cerebrovascular accidents was 1.93 (95% CI: 1.63-2.28, p&lt;0.001). For both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, the association with cardiovascular-related mortality grew stronger between the 1970s and the 2000s. For instance, the hazard ratio/rate ratio for mortality from coronary heart disease in people with schizophrenia in the 1990s compared with the 1980s was 1.61 (95% CI: 1.14-2.28, p=0.014).</p><p>It was not possible to explore all possible confounders, such as smoking and obesity, and there was also considerable heterogeneity between the studies included in the meta-analysis. More research is needed to understand the reasons for the higher morbidity risk and to assess why it may have been worsening in recent decades.</p><p>\"The increased relative risk of CVD diagnosis in more recent decades may be a result of disparity in smoking prevalence between people with SMI and the general population or increased use of antipsychotics. The changes since the 1990s approximately coincide with the release of newer, second-generation antipsychotics which are known to have worse metabolic effects,\" the authors say.</p><p>Lambert adds, \"Our systematic review and meta-analysis of over 100 studies has confirmed a strong association between severe mental illness and cardiovascular disease which became stronger in the 1990s and 2000s.\"</p>','2022-04-19 21:42:32.399858','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'PLOS','Compared to the general population, people with severe mental illness, including schizophrenia, have higher levels of cardiovascular-related mortality, and that association has become stronger over recent decades, according to a new study.\n',1,39,'<li>Amanda M Lambert, Helen M Parretti, Emma Pearce, Malcolm J Price, Mark Riley, Ronan Ryan, Natalie Tyldesley-Marshall, Tuba Saygın Avşar, Gemma Matthewman, Alexandra Lee, Khaled Ahmed, Maria Lisa Odland, Christoph U. Correll, Marco Solmi, Tom Marshall. <strong>Temporal trends in associations between severe mental illness and risk of cardiovascular disease: A systematic review and meta-analysis</strong>. <em>PLOS Medicine</em>, 2022; 19 (4): e1003960 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003960\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1371/journal.pmed.1003960</a>\n</li>'),(2263,'Bioengineers visualize fat storage in fruit flies','bioengineers-visualize-fat-storage-in-fruit-flies','2022-04-19 21:42:36.118518',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">For the first time, researchers have visually monitored, in high resolution, the timing and location of fat storage within the intact cells of fruit flies. The new optical imaging tool from the lab of bioengineering professor Lingyan Shi at the University of California San Diego is already being used to untangle often discussed, yet mysterious, links between diet and things like obesity, diabetes and aging.The work from bioengineers at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering is published in the journal <em>Aging Cell</em>.</p><p>The optical microscopy platform developed by the UC San Diego bioengineers is unique. It allows the researchers to visually track, in high resolution within fat cells, how specific dietary changes affect the way flies turn the energy from their food into fat. The tool also allows the researchers to monitor the reverse process of changing fat back into energy. In addition, the researchers can now visually monitor changes in size in individual fat-storage \"containers\" within the class of fruit fly cells that is analogous to mammalian fat (adipose) cells.</p><p>In the new paper in <em>Aging Cell</em>, the researchers demonstrated the ability to visually track changes in fat (lipid) metabolism in flies after they were put on a wide range of different diets. The diets included calorie-restricted diets, high protein diets, and diets with twice, four-times, and ten-times the sugar of a standard diet.</p><p>\"With our new optical microscopy system, we can see both where and when fats are being put into storage and taken out of storage,\" said Shi, the bioengineering professor at UC San Diego who is the corresponding senior author on the new paper. \"This is the first imaging technology that can visualize fat metabolism at high resolution in both space and time within individual fat cells. We have demonstrated that we can see both where and when lipid metabolism changes within individual fruit fly fat body cells in response to dietary changes.\"</p><p>\"Interest in optimizing the human diet is intense,\" Shi continued. \"People want answers to questions like, \'What are the best diets to slow aging? What are the best diets for losing weight? What are the best diets for extending health span?\' I don\'t yet have answers to these questions, but in my lab, we develop new technologies that are getting us closer to answering some of the big dietary questions out there.\"</p><p>In the new work in <em>Aging Cell</em>, for example, the researchers report a new way to answer questions like:</p><p>How much does a specific diet, such as a high-protein diet, or a high-sugar diet, or a calorie-restricted diet, alter a fruit fly\'s process of turning energy from food into fat? And how much do these same diets affect a fruit fly\'s process of turning fat back into energy?</p><p>\"We developed this tool to help us untangle the relationships between diet and phenomena like obesity, diabetes, aging, and longevity,\" said Shi.</p><p>Tracking the size of fat droplets within intact fruit fly cells is one example of what\'s possible with the new visualization platform.</p><p>\"Droplet size is a way to track how much of the stored fat is \'turning over\' or getting converted back into energy. This is an important aspect of lipid metabolism, and we now have a tool that allows us to track changes in the size of specific lipid droplets within individual cells of fruit flies,\" said Yajuan Li, MD. PhD, who is a postdoctoral researcher in the Shi lab at UC San Diego and the first author on the paper in <em>Aging Cell</em>.</p><p><strong>Heavy water </strong></p><p>The new visualization platform builds on some of Shi\'s earlier work using a variation on regular water, called heavy water or (D<sub>2</sub>O). Heavy water is, literally, heavier than regular water. Heavy water molecules contain one oxygen atom like regular water. But in place of the pair of hydrogen atoms -- the \"H2\" in \"H20\" -- heavy water contains a pair of heavier deuterium atoms.</p><p>Like \"regular\" water, heavy water is freely incorporated into cells in living organisms. So when the researchers provide heavy water to a fruit fly, and then that fruit fly begins to convert energy from its food into fat molecules to be stored, some of those fat molecules contain deuterium. In this way, the prevalence of deuterium atoms in lipids stored within the fat cells of fruit flies provides a way to measure how much fat that fly has stored.</p><p>By changing a fly\'s diet at the same time that you introduce heavy water, you have a way to monitor how the diet changes lipid turnover. More details on how the system works are in this 2021 profile, in which Shi said, \"When we are developing a new technology, a new tool, it will definitely inspire us to ask new biological questions.\"</p><p>When it comes to understanding the connections between diet composition and lipid metabolism, the new biological questions are bringing researchers back to some of the oldest and most intriguing questions about links between diet and obesity, diabetes, aging and longevity.</p><p>NIH, Grant/Award Number: U54 pilot grant 2U54CA132378; Jacobs School of Engineering, University of California San Diego; Hellman Fellow Award from UC San Diego</p>','2022-04-19 21:42:36.118518','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of California - San Diego','A new visualization technique is being used to untangle often discussed, yet mysterious, links between diet and things like obesity, diabetes and aging.\n',1,139,'<li>Yajuan Li, Wenxu Zhang, Anthony A. Fung, Lingyan Shi. <strong>DO‐SRS imaging of diet regulated metabolic activities in Drosophila during aging processes</strong>. <em>Aging Cell</em>, 2022; 21 (4) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/acel.13586\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1111/acel.13586</a>\n</li>'),(2264,'Almost ready for prime time: Deep UV photodetectors head to real-world testing','almost-ready-for-prime-time:-deep-uv-photodetectors-head-to-real-world-testing','2022-04-19 22:47:10.279534',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Numerous devices and detectors sense and catalog deep ultraviolet frequencies that the Earth\'s ozone layer otherwise absorbs. Most solar-blind space-borne imaging platforms still rely on photomultiplier tubes and/or microchannel plates working with silicon photodiodes that increase the systems\' complexity and weight.</p><p>In <em>Journal of Applied Physics</em>, by AIP Publishing, researchers in India are asking why, after decades of development and promising results, ultrawide bandgap (UWBG) photodetectors with deep UV capabilities haven\'t enjoyed widespread adoption, and are taking stock of advancements and challenges in the field.</p><p>\"From the device and materials point of view, enough advances have been made,\" said author Digbijoy Nath, from the Indian Institute of Science. \"Now, it\'s time to bring systems and imaging experts and device and materials engineers together to study and qualify UWBG detectors under actual conditions for real-world applications.\"</p><p>Unlike their silicon-based counterparts, UWBG photodetectors made from aluminum gallium nitride and gallium (III) oxide are more efficient, can tailor cutoff wavelengths, and do not need optical filters to reject visible or infrared wavelengths for solar-blind applications.</p><p>The ability to image with UV is of strategic and astrophysical interest as well as important for industrial and biomedical applications.</p><p>In addition to determining how rugged and reliable devices are in real-world applications, the scientists said further work is needed to optimize how the materials are assembled over large area substrates, in a process of depositing crystalline materials into a thin film called epitaxy.</p><p>On the nanoscale, Nath said a better understanding can show how these devices can achieve superior performance by optimizing the arrangement of the atoms in the lattice of the semiconductors.</p><p>The researchers introduce a new benchmark for comparing photodetectors by accounting for gain, noise, and bandwidth, rather than the oft-cited parameters of photo-to-dark current ratio, responsivity, transient responses, and others.</p><p>\"Further improvement in these device performance parameters isn\'t going to help mature this technology for real-world applications,\" Nath said.</p><p>\"It\'s high time now for the community to have a pull from the industry and strategic sector so that device and material engineers can start working with imaging and systems groups to actually develop focal plane arrays and to integrate these with front-end electronics for real-life testing and applications.\"</p>','2022-04-19 22:47:10.279534','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'American Institute of Physics','Researchers are asking why, after decades of development and promising results, ultrawide bandgap photodetectors with deep UV capabilities haven\'t enjoyed widespread adoption, and are taking stock of advancements and challenges in the field. Unlike their silicon-based counterparts, UWBG photodetectors made from aluminum gallium nitride and gallium (III) oxide are more efficient, can tailor cutoff wavelengths, and do not need optical filters to reject visible or infrared wavelengths for solar-blind applications.\n',1,147,'<li>Anisha Kalra, Usman Ul Muazzam, R. Muralidharan, Srinivasan Raghavan, Digbijoy N. Nath. <strong>The road ahead for ultrawide bandgap solar-blind UV photodetectors</strong>. <em>Journal of Applied Physics</em>, 2022; 131 (15): 150901 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/5.0082348\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1063/5.0082348</a>\n</li>'),(2265,'Wearables can track COVID symptoms, other diseases','wearables-can-track-covid-symptoms,-other-diseases','2022-04-19 22:47:13.498188',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">If you become ill with COVID-19, your smartwatch can track the progression of your symptoms, and could even show how sick you become.</p><p>That\'s according to a University of Michigan study that examined the effects of COVID-19 with six factors derived from heart rate data. The same method could be used to detect other diseases such as influenza, and the researchers say the approach could be used to track disease at home or when medical resources are scarce, such as during a pandemic or in developing countries. Their results are published in the journal <em>Cell Reports Medicine</em>.</p><p>Following U-M students and medical interns throughout the country, the researchers discovered new signals embedded in heart rate indicating when individuals were infected with COVID and how sick they became. The researchers found that individuals with COVID experienced an increase in heart rate per step after symptom onset, and those with a cough had a much higher heart rate per step than those without a cough.</p><p>\"We found that COVID dampened biological timekeeping signals, changed how your heart rate responds to activity, altered basal heart rate and caused stress signals,\" said Daniel Forger, professor of mathematics and research professor of computational medicine and bioinformatics. \"What we realized was knowledge of physiology, how the body works and mathematics can help us get more information from these wearables.\"</p><p>The researchers found that these measures were significantly altered and could show symptomatic vs. healthy periods in the wearers\' lives.</p><p>\"There\'s been some previous work on understanding disease through wearable heart rate data, but I think we really take a different approach by focusing on decomposing the heart rate signal into multiple different components to take a multidimensional view of heart rate,\" said Caleb Mayer, a doctoral student in mathematics.</p><p>\"All of these components are based on different physiological systems. This really gives us additional information about disease progression and understanding how disease impacts these different physiological systems over time.\"</p><p>Participants were drawn from the 2019 and 2020 cohorts of the Intern Health Study, a multisite cohort study that follows physicians across several institutes in their first year of residency. Researchers also used information from the Roadmap College Student Data Set, a study that examined student health and well-being during the 2020-21 academic year using wearable data from Fitbits, self-reported COVID-19 diagnoses and symptom information, and publicly available data.</p><p>For this analysis, the researchers included individuals who reported a COVID-positive test, symptoms and had wearable data from 50 days before symptom onset to 14 days after. In all, the researchers used data from 43 medical interns and 72 undergraduate and graduate students.</p><p>Specifically, the researchers found:</p><p>The researchers used an algorithm that was originally developed to estimate daily circadian phase from wearable heart rate and step data. They looked at a baseline period of 8-35 days before COVID symptom onset and an analysis period defined as 7-14 days around COVID symptom onset. The researchers hope that with further testing, the same methods could enhance the pre-detection of COVID with wearables.</p><p>\"The global outbreak of the SARS-CoV-2 virus imposed important public health measures, which impacted our daily lives,\" said Sung Won Choi, associate professor of pediatrics. \"However, during this historical event in time, mobile technology offered enormous capabilities -- the ability to monitor and collect physiological data longitudinally from individuals noninvasively and remotely.</p><p>\"We were amazed at the U-M students\' willingness and desire to participate in this study, which was all done remotely, from recruitment to enrollment and onboarding. The work reported by Mayer and our team was really made possible not only through wearables sensors themselves, but the convergence of novel data analytics, remarkable advances in technology and computing power, and \'team science\' intersection across research teams.\"</p><p>This \"team science\" approach coalesced as a side product of the 2019 U-M Ideas lab, which included the team\'s senior investigators.</p><p>The researchers say this work establishes algorithms that can be used to understand illnesses\' impact on heart rate physiology, which can form the basis for medical professionals might deploy the use of wearables in health care.</p><p>\"Identifying the varying patterns of different heart rate parameters derived from wearables across the course of COVID-19 infection is a substantial advance for the field,\" said Srijan Sen, professor of psychiatry and director of the Frances and Kenneth Eisenberg and Family Depression Center at U-M. \"This work can help us more meaningfully follow populations in future COVID-19 waves. The study also demonstrates following cohorts with mobile technology and robust data sharing can facilitate unanticipated and valuable discoveries.\"</p><p>Limitations for the study include that the work does not consider influenza-like illnesses, according to the researchers. Future work should focus on whether the findings reflect the effects of COVID-19 or whether these effects will persist in other illnesses. The researchers were also not able to account for the effects of factors such as age, gender or BMI, nor the seasonality effects in the data -- that is, whether the data was taken during a period of time where flu or other disease transmission is high.</p><p>Co-authors of the study also include U-M researchers Jonathan Tyler, Yu Fang, Christopher Flora, Elena Frank and Muneesh Tewari. The work was supported by the National Institutes of Health, Human Frontier Science Program, National Science Foundation and a Taubman Institute Innovation Project grant.</p>','2022-04-19 22:47:13.498188','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Michigan','If you become ill with COVID-19, your smartwatch can track the progression of your symptoms, and could even show how sick you become.\n',1,108,'<li>Caleb Mayer, Jonathan Tyler, Yu Fang, Christopher Flora, Elena Frank, Muneesh Tewari, Sung Won Choi, Srijan Sen, Daniel B. Forger. <strong>Consumer-grade wearables identify changes in multiple physiological systems during COVID-19 disease progression</strong>. <em>Cell Reports Medicine</em>, 2022; 3 (4): 100601 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.xcrm.2022.100601\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.xcrm.2022.100601</a>\n</li>'),(2266,'Cross-racial study of 1.87m vets shows wide disparities in dementia','cross-racial-study-of-1.87m-vets-shows-wide-disparities-in-dementia','2022-04-19 22:47:19.513699',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">In what is believed to be the largest study to date on race and dementia, researchers from UCSF and the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Health Care System tracked health and demographic data from close to two million veterans. It compared rates of dementia across five racial groups and showed significant race-based variations in the incidence of the condition.</p><p>This study is also believed to be the first to report the rate of dementia in Native Americans using a nationwide sample, the researchers stated in their paper, publishing in <em>JAMA</em> on April 19, 2022.</p><p>Of the 1.87 million veterans, whose average age was 69, 88.6% were white, 9.5% were Black, 1% Hispanic, 0.5% Asian and 0.4% Native American. Just 2.3% were female, consistent with the gender distribution of the older veteran population. All received their health care at medical centers of the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) located throughout the continental United States.</p><p>Among the 13% of participants who were diagnosed with dementia over the course of the 10-year study, the researchers found that rates were markedly higher for Hispanic and Black veterans than they were for whites: 99% and 55% respectively. These results reinforce previous research that showed elevated rates for both groups.</p><p>Rates for Asian veterans have not been as widely documented and in this study were 24% higher than for whites. Among Native Americans, the rate was 8% higher than for whites, a finding that enhances prior research that has focused on smaller, geographically limited populations and has shown conflicting results, according to the researchers.</p><p>When adjusting for sex, education, and underlying medical and psychiatric conditions, differences in dementia rates for all four groups were narrowed slightly in relation to whites: 92% higher for Hispanics, 54% for Blacks, 20% for Asians and 5% for Native Americans. This finding for Native Americans shows no significant difference with whites, the researchers noted.</p><p>Senior author Kristine Yaffe, MD, of the UCSF Departments of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Neurology, Epidemiology and the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Health Care System, said she had been surprised by the relatively low risk for Native Americans. \"There may be genetic or resilience factors that we just don\'t know about yet,\" she said, \"or maybe even a survival bias. Those who are old enough to get dementia may have a survival advantage.\"</p><p><strong>Vets at Higher Risk for Dementia, Due to TBI, PTSD, Poor Cardiovascular Health</strong></p><p>Yaffe said the study was unique in that it evaluated racial differences among five groups, versus two or three in previous studies, and that the cohort received their health care at the VHA, the largest integrated care system in the United States.</p><p>\"U.S. veterans are at high risk of dementia because of exposure to military-related risk factors, like traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder, and high prevalence of cardiovascular and other non-military risk factors,\" she said.</p><p>As expected, health and education disparities associated with dementia were more apparent in some groups. Native Americans were least likely to live in zip codes where more than 25% of residents were college-educated (26.9%), and had the highest rate of obesity (16.4%), post-traumatic stress disorder (11.2%) and alcohol use disorder (9.1%). Hispanics had the highest rate of diabetes (36.1%) and stroke (8.2%), and Blacks had the highest rate of hypertension (73.7%).</p><p>The researchers found regional variations in dementia incidence, but Black and Hispanic veterans were consistently identified as having higher risk than the other groups.</p><p>These racial and ethnic differences are concerning, said first author Erica Kornblith, PhD, of the UCSF Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, and the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Health Care System, \"but they underscore the need to explore the cause of these differences with the ultimate goal of ameliorating them.\"</p><p><strong>Differences in Dementia Diagnosis May Reflect Biases of Doctors</strong></p><p>Differences in dementia diagnosis may also reflect \"the biases of doctors who make the diagnosis or biases in our cognitive tests, as well as the impact of education, and medical and psychiatric variables,\" Kornblith said.</p><p>Since most veterans serve as young adults and remain eligible for health care for the rest of their lives, it is likely that the participants had more equitable access than that of the general population, the researchers noted.</p><p>\"This implies other mechanisms may be at play, such as early life circumstances, or that there were differences in quality of health care, despite better access,\" said Yaffe, who is also affiliated with the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences and the Northern California Institute for Research and Education. \"In future studies, we hope to have a better understanding of the mechanisms that are driving the differences in dementia incidence across these five groups,\" she said.</p><p><strong>Funding:</strong> This study was supported by Department of Veterans Affairs Rehabilitation Research and Development Career Development Award (CDA-2) 1 IK2 RX003073-01A2 (Kornblith) and NIA grant K24 AG031155, R35 AG071916 (Yaffe).</p>','2022-04-19 22:47:19.513699','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of California - San Francisco','In what is believed to be the largest study to date on race and dementia, researchers tracked health and demographic data from close to two million veterans. It compared rates of dementia across five racial groups and showed significant race-based variations in the incidence of the condition.\n',1,179,'<li>Erica Kornblith, Amber Bahorik, W. John Boscardin, Feng Xia, Deborah E. Barnes, Kristine Yaffe. <strong>Association of Race and Ethnicity With Incidence of Dementia Among Older Adults</strong>. <em>JAMA</em>, 2022; 327 (15): 1488 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.2022.3550\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1001/jama.2022.3550</a>\n</li>'),(2267,'Sending out bacteria-carrying mosquitoes to protect people from dengue','sending-out-bacteria-carrying-mosquitoes-to-protect-people-from-dengue','2022-04-19 22:48:14.530260',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Dengue is the most widespread mosquito-borne disease in the world, and to date, there are no medical treatments for people suffering from this disease. The virus causes symptoms ranging from high fevers to severe bleeding and shock, can be life-threatening, and presents an enormous burden on health systems.</p><p>In <em>Chaos</em>, by AIP Publishing, researchers from Spain, Portugal, and Colombia developed a model the virus. In 2009, researchers discovered mosquitoes carrying Wolbachia bacteria lessen the chances for the dengue virus to impact humans.</p><p>Mosquitoes do not acquire Wolbachia bacteria in their natural environment, however. This bacterium must be introduced in vitro in mosquitoes\' eggs, which are later released in areas affected by dengue transmission. Mosquitoes infected with Wolbachia naturally take over the local mosquito population.</p><p>The researchers use real data on human and vector activity in a framework that can be analyzed from a mathematical point of view, allowing them to re-create and understand the epidemiological situation. In this way, they can identify those geographical areas with the greatest vulnerability, creating a ranking of areas that prioritizes those where Wolbachia-carrying mosquitoes can have the strongest and most beneficial impact on the spread of the dengue virus.</p><p>\"One might think that the most populated areas are those in which Wolbachia release would be most beneficial. However, this is not always true,\" said co-author Jesus Gomez-Gardenes, from Universidad del Valle in Colombia.</p><p>The authors found once they immunize the most vulnerable geographical area, the ranking of the remaining areas is affected, giving rise to a new scenario that tells them where they should concentrate resources in the second instance and beyond.</p><p>The findings from this research will be beneficial to many groups, such as the World Mosquito Program, which is currently releasing Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes to protect the global community from diseases such as dengue, chikungunya, yellow fever, and Zika.</p><p>In these kinds of initiatives, the information about the most vulnerable areas within cities or regions proved the researchers\' model could complement field studies to find targets that maximize the benefit for the whole community.</p><p>\"Data-driven models have also proven useful to tackle the evolution and mitigation of other diseases such as COVID-19,\" said Gomez-Gardenes. \"Hopefully, the framework developed for dengue can be further generalized for tackling the control of other vector-borne diseases.\"</p>','2022-04-19 22:48:14.530260','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'American Institute of Physics','Researchers developed a model to spatially distribute mosquitoes infected with Wolbachia bacteria, which reduce the transmission of the dengue virus. The researchers use real data on human and vector activity in a framework that can be analyzed from a mathematical point of view, allowing them to re-create and understand the epidemiological situation and identify those geographical areas with the greatest vulnerability, creating a ranking of areas that prioritizes those where Wolbachia-carrying mosquitoes can have the strongest and most beneficial impact on the spread of the virus.\n',1,27,'<li>A. Reyna-Lara, D. Soriano-Paños, J. H. Arias-Castro, H. J. Martínez, J. Gómez-Gardeñes. <strong>A metapopulation approach to identify targets for Wolbachia-based dengue control</strong>. <em>Chaos: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Nonlinear Science</em>, 2022; 32 (4): 041105 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/5.0087435\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1063/5.0087435</a>\n</li>'),(2268,'A new understanding of how the immune system deals with malaria','a-new-understanding-of-how-the-immune-system-deals-with-malaria','2022-04-19 22:48:16.389636',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">By analysing samples from patients who have been treated for malaria in Sweden, researchers at Karolinska Institutet can now describe how the immune system acts to protect the body after a malaria infection. The results, published in the journal <em>Cell Reports</em>, provide knowledge that can aid in the development of more effective vaccines against the disease.</p><p>\"Our results contribute to a better understanding of how humans fight this serious disease and may help in the development of better vaccines,\" says Christopher Sundling, principal researcher at the Department of Medicine, Solna, at Karolinska Institutet, and last author of the study. \"This sheds new light on the question of how the body\'s immunse system deals with malaria.\"</p><p>Malaria is caused by parasites that are spread to humans by mosquitoes. The disease caused more than 600,000 deaths in 2020, mainly among young children in sub-Saharan Africa.</p><p>People who contract malaria repeatedly may gradually become immune to the disease. But even before that, the body can build up a so-called tolerance, which provides protection against severe disease.</p><p>To find out more about how disease tolerance develops, KI researchers have investigated immune cells and proteins in blood samples from patients who have been treated for acute malaria infection at Karolinska University Hospital in Solna, Sweden and have recovered.</p><p>This patient group was monitored by being tested on six occasions during one year following the onset of the disease. A total of 53 patients were included, 17 of whom had contracted malaria for the first time, while 36 had grown up in malaria endemic areas, had had malaria many times before and now contracted the disease again after travel.</p><p>\"Since we have followed the patients here in Sweden, we can study the natural course of the immune response after a malaria infection, without the risk of a new infection interfering with the results. This cohort has proved to be very valuable for studying the immunology of malaria,\" says Anna Färnert, Professor of Infectious Diseases at the Department of Medicine, Solna, Karolinska Institutet and Senior infectious diseases physician at Karolinska University Hospital, Sweden in whose research group the study was conducted.</p><p>Within this cohort, the researchers recently described the kinetics of antibody responses after infection.</p><p>In the case of malaria, the disease itself is partly a result of the inflammation created in the body by the immune system\'s reaction to the infection. In their comparisons, the researchers noted a strong inflammatory response from the so-called innate immune system in people who were infected for the first time. In contrast, the people who were re-infected had an ability to suppress the inflammation, Christopher Sundling explains.</p><p>\"In those who have had malaria before, we saw that the early presence of parasite-specific antibodies interrupt the first stages of the inflammation and prevent a certain type of inflammatory T-cell from expanding,\" Sundling continues.</p><p>In October 2021, the World Health Organization recommended the use of the world\'s first, and so far, only vaccine against malaria, Mosquirix. However, Mosquirix targets only one form of the malaria parasite -- the form the parasite has when it first moves from the mosquito into the liver. Once it enters the bloodstream and gives symptoms, the pathogen is at a different stage against which the vaccine does not work.</p><p>\"This is a weakness of the current vaccine. Understanding how tolerance develops and what happens in the blood stage can help us develop other types of vaccines, which may not fully protect against infection but will lessen the chances of becoming seriously ill. If such a vaccine can enable people to survive the first infections that kill so many, we could save many lives,\" says Sundling.</p><p>Over the last decades, the incidence of malaria decreased globally. Efforts to distribute mosquito nets, spray insecticides indoors, as well as diagnostics and new treatments are believed to have contributed to the positive trend, Anna Färnert notes. But in recent years, the rate of decline has levelled off and in 2020 the covid pandemic contributed to increased mortality.</p><p>\"We now need to continue to ensure that people are protected from being bitten by infected mosquitoes and have access to rapid and effective treatment. But to further reduce the burden of disease and eventually eradicate malaria, new tools are required. An effective vaccine is really needed; that is how we have been able to manage other infections, also in poor countries,\" says Anna Färnert.</p><p>The research has been funded by the Swedish Research Council, Magnus Bergvall Foundation, the Åke Wiberg Foundation, Region Stockholm, and the Marianne and Marcus Wallenberg Foundation, as well as doctoral grants from Karolinska Institutet.</p>','2022-04-19 22:48:16.389636','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Karolinska Institutet','By analysing samples from patients who have been treated for malaria in Sweden, researchers can now describe how the immune system acts to protect the body after a malaria infection. The results provide knowledge that can aid in the development of more effective vaccines against the disease.\n',1,27,'<li>Maximilian Julius Lautenbach, Victor Yman, Carolina Sousa Silva, Nadir Kadri, Ioanna Broumou, Sherwin Chan, Sina Angenendt, Klara Sondén, David Fernando Plaza, Anna Färnert, Christopher Sundling. <strong>Systems analysis shows a role of cytophilic antibodies in shaping innate tolerance to malaria</strong>. <em>Cell Reports</em>, 2022; 39 (3): 110709 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2022.110709\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.celrep.2022.110709</a>\n</li>'),(2269,'Regulating the regulators of the immune system','regulating-the-regulators-of-the-immune-system','2022-04-20 00:42:49.161376',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Checkpoint inhibitors have become important tools in the cancer-fighting arsenal. By blocking proteins that normally restrain the immune response, these drugs can help the immune system destroy cancer cells.</p><p>But they don\'t work in all patients. And now a new study in <em>Nature Immunology </em>led by researchers from Penn\'s School of Veterinary Medicine suggests a possible reason why: Not only can these drugs encourage the activity of cancer killing T cells, but they can, in some cases, also activate a population of regulatory T cells that serve the opposing function -- to rein in that attack.</p><p>In the study, immunologists led by Penn Vet professor Christopher Hunter and doctoral student Joseph Perry discovered that blocking the activity of the checkpoint protein PD-L1, which interacts with a T cell receptor PD-1, enhanced the activity of a subset of T cells known as effector regulatory T cells, or effector Tregs. This intervention unexpectedly reduced the ability of mice to control a parasite infection.</p><p>The findings reveal a complexity to how the body \"regulates the regulators\" of the immune system, says Hunter. \"Once you have those Tregs to control your T cell response, you also need to control them,\" he says. \"It\'s like with a car. You have the ignition, the accelerator, and you also need a brake. PD-1 is a brake not only on killer T cells but also on Tregs.\"</p><p>T cells may be best known for their roles in fighting infections and killing cancer cells. But the immune system also has several mechanisms in place to counterbalance those responses to prevent out-of-control inflammation that could damage healthy tissue. Tregs are one aspect of this balancing act.</p><p>\"You can think of Tregs as the health and safety inspectors of the immune system,\" Hunter says. \"They\'re really important, but sometimes, when you need to mount an immune response against a pathogen, you need them to take a back seat. When an infection is present, we see Treg levels crash so that an effector response can emerge. But we never understood what causes that crash.\"</p><p>The researchers began to understand more after exploring an unanticipated finding. They discovered that, when the checkpoint protein PD-L1 was blocked, mice infected with <em>Toxoplasma gondii</em> were less effective at fighting off the parasite than mice with an uninhibited PD-L1. \"That was the opposite of what we expected,\" Hunter says, as the dogma would have suggested that blocking this checkpoint inhibitor would allow for a better effector T cell response against infection.</p><p>Digging into the surprising result, Perry, Hunter, and colleagues realized that it aligned with what some cancer researchers had recently reported. In certain cancers, the other groups had found, blocking PD-L1 led to worse outcomes, seemingly because of an increase in a population of Tregs that restrained killing of cancer cells.</p><p>When the Penn-led team looked in the context of a <em>T. gondii</em> infection, they discovered the signaling molecule interferon gamma turned on PD-L1, which precipitated a rapid decline in Treg numbers. A PD-L1 inhibitor mitigated this effect and stopped the Treg crash. This treatment alleviated the harmful effects of inflammation on mice but also impaired the ability of T cells to fight infection. Similarly, Tregs altered to lack PD-1, the receptor which with PD-L1 interacts, also led to increases in Treg activity.</p><p>\"It seems that the effector T cell versus Treg ratio is really important,\" says Hunter.</p><p>As the researchers began to learn more about how Tregs were activated and operated during an infection, they were curious about whether this pathway worked when animals were in a normal, healthy state. Just as there are different types of \"regular\" T cells, including CD8 and CD4 T cells and many more subdivisions besides, the new work underscores that there are subpopulations of Tregs as well, which have different roles in the body. In healthy, uninfected animals, the team found differences between the proteins expressed by different Treg populations, including some that expressed PD-1, which the researchers termed \"effector Tregs.\"</p><p>\"These results taught us that there\'s a large population of activated PD-1-positive Treg cells present as a normal part of everyday life that help limit the immune system,\" Perry says.</p><p>\"We think these PD-1 high cells are the most active Tregs,\" says Hunter. \"It\'s a complex landscape, and it\'s possible that some checkpoint inhibitor treatments have been inadvertently targeting these Tregs and not others, leading to unexpected outcomes.\"</p><p>In ongoing investigations, Hunter, Perry, and colleagues continue to examine this pathway, as well as those involved in other immune checkpoints. The findings could have implications not only in refining cancer checkpoint inhibitor therapies but also in conceiving new strategies for treating autoimmune disease. \"In that case you would want to increase the number of Tregs,\" Hunter says. \"Maybe we could think about ways to augment that arm of the immune system to treat inflammatory diseases.\"</p><p><em>Christopher A. Hunter is the Mindy Halikman Heyer Distinguished Professor of Pathobiology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine.</em></p><p><em>Hunter\'s coauthors are Penn Vet\'s Joseph A. Perry, Lindsey Shallberg, Joseph T. Clark, Jodie Gullicksrud, Jonathan H. DeLong, Bonnie B. Douglas, Zachary Lanzar, Keenan O\'Dea, Christoph Konradt, Jeongho Park, Daniel Grubaugh, Arielle Glatman Zaretsky, Igor E. Brodsky, and David A. Christian; Penn\'s Perelman School of Medicine\'s Andrew P. Hart; Merck &amp; Co.\'s Renee de Waal Malefyt; and Harvard Medical School\'s Juhi R. Kuchroo and Arlene H. Sharpe.</em></p><p><em>The study was supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (grants AI125563 and AI41158).</em></p>','2022-04-20 00:42:49.161376','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Pennsylvania','Scientists reveal a new layer of complexity with which the immune system finds a balance between controlling pathogens and protecting healthy tissue.\n',1,91,'<li>Joseph A. Perry, Lindsey Shallberg, Joseph T. Clark, Jodi A. Gullicksrud, Jonathan H. DeLong, Bonnie B. Douglas, Andrew P. Hart, Zachary Lanzar, Keenan O’Dea, Christoph Konradt, Jeongho Park, Juhi R. Kuchroo, Daniel Grubaugh, Arielle Glatman Zaretsky, Igor E. Brodsky, Rene de Waal Malefyt, David A. Christian, Arlene H. Sharpe, Christopher A. Hunter. <strong>PD-L1–PD-1 interactions limit effector regulatory T cell populations at homeostasis and during infection</strong>. <em>Nature Immunology</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41590-022-01170-w\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41590-022-01170-w</a>\n</li>'),(2270,'Revising the lifecycle of an important human parasite','revising-the-lifecycle-of-an-important-human-parasite','2022-04-20 00:42:53.067527',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">\"We have been interested in the romantic life of the parasite<em> Cryptosporidium </em>for some time,\" says Boris Striepen, a scientist in Penn\'s School of Veterinary Medicine.</p><p><em>Cryptosporodium </em>is a leading cause of diarrheal disease in young children around the world. The intestinal parasite contributes to childhood mortality and causes malnutrition and stunting. How a parasite like this one reproduces and completes its life cycle has significant impact on child health.</p><p>\"It\'s the product of parasite sex, that is infectious agent here, a spore, that is transmitted by contaminated water,\" Striepen says. \"So, if you break its ability to have sex, you would break the cycle of transmission and infection.\"</p><p>In a new paper in <em>PLOS Biology</em>, Striepen and colleagues in his lab tread new ground in understanding how <em>Cryptosporidium </em>reproduces inside a host. Using an advanced imaging technique allowed the scientists to observe the entire lifecycle in the laboratory. They found the parasite completes three cycles of asexual replication and then directly switches to male and female sexual forms. Their observations refute an intermediate stage that was introduced in the 1970s and align well with the original description of physician and parasitologist Edward Tyzzer who discovered this pathogen more than a century ago.</p><p>\"What we have shown contradicts what you see in most textbooks today, including the description at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website,\" Striepen says. \"It\'s really a super simple lifecycle that is completed in a single host in three days and only has three characters: asexual cells, male cells, and female cells.\"</p><p>Other parasites, such as the malaria parasite <em>Plasmodium</em>, a \"cousin\" of <em>Cryptosporidium, </em>have more complicated and lengthy paths to follow an overall similar life cycle. While <em>Crypto</em> completes its lifecycle in one host, most malaria parasites move between two: a mosquito, where the parasite\'s sexual reproduction occurs, and a human, where its asexual replication occurs.</p><p>\"<em>Cryptosporidium </em>is a great model to study parasite development; you can see analogous steps to what happens with the malarial parasite, but it\'s much simpler because it all happens over only three days in one host, and we can observe it in simple cell cultures,\" Striepen says.</p><p>In earlier work on <em>Cryptosporidium</em>, Striepen and colleagues had found that sexual reproduction appeared necessary for the parasite to move from one host to infect another but also to sustain itself in a host during chronic infection. Blocking developmental progression and parasite sex thus presents itself as a strategy to cure or prevent infection.</p><p><em>Cryptosporidium</em> is a minuscule single-cell parasite that invades and reproduces within the cells of the intestine of its hosts. To get a closer look at what was happening, the researchers developed a live-cell microscopic imaging technique to track the progression of the parasite through multiple days in cell cultures. Using genetic engineering they added a fluorescent label to the nucleus of each parasite, allowing them to observe the replication of the parasite in real time and to distinguish its different lifecycle stages.</p><p>What they saw was the parasites \"count to three,\" says Striepen. Rather than responding to environmental cues, the parasites followed a rigid built-in plan. After infecting a culture, the parasite underwent three cycles of asexual reproduction. Each cycle took about 12 hours, during which the parasite established a home within the host cell and replicated itself resulting in eight new infectious parasites. Those were then released to infect surrounding host cells.</p><p>After these three waves of amplification, their fate changes abruptly, and they turn into either male or female gametes, or sex cells, in a process that also took about 12 hours. Tracking individual parasites and their offspring the researchers found no evidence for a specialized intermediate form assumed by many textbooks, demonstrating direct development.</p><p>Interestingly, the parasite appeared pre-committed to their future fate and carried that plan from one host cell into the next in a way not yet understood.</p><p>The researchers were intrigued to see that male and females arise from the infectious forms released from the same asexual parasites. \"One of the really interesting aspects of sexual identity here is that it is not inherited and hard-wired in the genome but much more fluid,\" Striepen says. \"There\'s an asexual cell that divides itself into genetically identical clones, and then those clones somehow become male or female on the fly, resulting in dramatically different cell shape and behavior.\"</p><p>Future research will focus on the molecular mechanism of commitment to understand how this life cycle is programmed into the parasite\'s biology. Understanding the life cycle of <em>Cryptosporidium </em>is critical in thinking about how to create a vaccine or therapy for the disease, Striepen says.</p><p>\"How cells make decisions and execute developmental plans is one of the most fundamental questions in biology. <em>Cryptosporidium</em> offers a tractable system to better understand this mechanism in parasites. Hopefully we can gain insights that contribute to the understanding of cryptosporidiosis and malaria and lead the way to new urgently needed interventions for these important diseases.\"</p><p><em>Boris Striepen is the Mark Whittier and Lila Griswold Allam Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine.</em></p><p><em>Striepen\'s coauthors were lab members Elizabeth D. English, Amandine Guérin, and Jayesh Tandel. </em></p><p><em>The study was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health to Striepen and a postdoctoral fellowship from the European Molecular Biology Organisation to Guérin. </em></p>','2022-04-20 00:42:53.067527','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Pennsylvania','Researchers have tracked Cryptosporidium in real time, creating a new paradigm for how the widespread parasite reproduces in a host.\n',1,107,'<li>Elizabeth D. English, Amandine Guérin, Jayesh Tandel, Boris Striepen. <strong>Live imaging of the Cryptosporidium parvum life cycle reveals direct development of male and female gametes from type I meronts</strong>. <em>PLOS Biology</em>, 2022; 20 (4): e3001604 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001604\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1371/journal.pbio.3001604</a>\n</li>'),(2271,'Smartwatches and fitness bands reveal individual physiological responses to COVID-19 vaccine','smartwatches-and-fitness-bands-reveal-individual-physiological-responses-to-covid-19-vaccine','2022-04-20 00:42:57.411171',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">A new digital health study by researchers at Scripps Research shows how data from wearable sensors, such as smartwatches and fitness bands, can track a person\'s physiological response to the COVID-19 vaccination.</p><p>The study, published in <em>npj Digital Medicine</em>, analyzed sensor data on sleep, activity and heart rate from over 5,600 individuals. Among the findings, the team showed that the average resting heart rate of participants significantly increased the day following vaccination. The effect appeared to be stronger after the second dose of the Moderna vaccine, compared to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, and more pronounced in younger individuals.</p><p>According to lead author Giorgio Quer, PhD, director of Artificial Intelligence at the Scripps Research Translational Institute, this study is a first step toward quantifying the physiological response to vaccination in individuals using commercial sensors.</p><p>\"Investigating the physiological signals in the period around vaccination can help us better understand the variability of vaccine response between people, as well as the changes from an individual norm due to vaccination,\" Quer says. \"As these individual changes are due to a person\'s initial immune response to the vaccine, they can potentially help guide future vaccine development to optimize their efficacy and safety, and allow for more precise, individualized vaccine regimens.\"</p><p>The researchers drew their data from a larger project, called Digital Engagement and Tracking for Early Control and Treatment (DETECT) launched in March 2020, in response to the emergence and rapid spread of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. DETECT is a mobile-app research platform that allows participants to share physiological and behavioral data gathered through a fitness band or smartwatch, as well as manually entered symptoms, test results and vaccination status.</p><p>To determine whether consumer wearables could unearth digital biomarkers of vaccine-induced immune response, the scientists analyzed DETECT sensor data from two weeks before and after each vaccination dose. They compared post-vaccination changes to the participants\' resting heart rate, sleep and activity levels, to their baselines.</p><p>The analysis showed that the average resting heart rate of study participants increased significantly the day following vaccination, peaking two days post-vaccination, and returning to normal four days after the first dose and six days after the second. In addition to increases in resting heart rate being higher after the second dose of the Moderna versus the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, the study suggests that prior COVID-19 infection was linked with a significantly higher resting heart rate increase after the first vaccine dose relative to those without prior infection. This increase is consistent with an expected greater immune response for these individuals.</p><p>Findings also show that women experienced greater changes than men in resting heart rate in the five days following vaccination after the first dose, and that individuals under the age of 40 had higher changes in resting heart rate than older individuals, but only after the second dose.</p><p>Activity and sleep patterns appeared to be minimally affected by the first dose, but a significant decrease in activity and an increase in sleep relative to baseline were observed immediately after the second vaccine dose.</p><p>\"While the link between physiological response and immune response still requires further investigation, digital tracking could provide a novel way to identify individuals who may not be responding optimally to the vaccine,\" says Steven Steinhubl, MD, associate professor at Scripps Research and senior author of the study.</p><p>\"DETECT really shows the power of wearable sensor data in furthering our understanding of multiple facets of COVID-19,\" Quer says. \"We hope to continue to expand this research by growing our study cohort further, which will allow us to delve into important questions regarding breakthrough infections and other areas that are currently poorly understood.\"</p><p>The npj Digital Medicine article, \"Inter-individual variation in objective measure of reactogenicity following COVID-19 vaccination via smartwatches and fitness bands\" is authored by Giorgio Quer, Matteo Gadaleta, Jennifer Radin, Kristian Andersen, Katie-Baca-Motes, Edward Ramos, Eric Topol and Steven Steinhubl.</p><p>Funding for the research was provided by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences at the National Institutes of Health [UL1TR002550] and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases [U19AI135995].</p><p><strong>About DETECT</strong></p><p>Since its launch, the DETECT (Digital Engagement and Tracking for Early Control and Treatment) study has enrolled over 40,000 participants nationwide. The data that has been shared has enabled scientists to gain valuable insights into various aspects of COVID-19 infection. Already, DETECT has led to several peer-reviewed publications that: show how wearable devices are capable of detecting COVID-19 infection; give valuable insights into long COVID; demonstrate how machine learning techniques can predict COVID-19 infection; and more. The team aims to develop tools to complement traditional public health interventions and bolster the ability to prevent and contain future pandemics. The DETECT study is ongoing. Visit <a href=\"http://detect.scripps.edu\">detect.scripps.edu</a> to learn more.</p>','2022-04-20 00:42:57.411171','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Scripps Research Institute','A new digital health study shows how data from wearable sensors, such as smartwatches and fitness bands, can track a person\'s physiological response to the COVID-19 vaccination.\n',1,74,'<li>Giorgio Quer, Matteo Gadaleta, Jennifer M. Radin, Kristian G. Andersen, Katie Baca-Motes, Edward Ramos, Eric J. Topol, Steven R. Steinhubl. <strong>Inter-individual variation in objective measure of reactogenicity following COVID-19 vaccination via smartwatches and fitness bands</strong>. <em>npj Digital Medicine</em>, 2022; 5 (1) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41746-022-00591-z\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41746-022-00591-z</a>\n</li>'),(2272,'COVID-19 pneumonia increases dementia risk','covid-19-pneumonia-increases-dementia-risk','2022-04-20 14:16:25.224979',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">A new study from the from the University of Missouri School of Medicine and MU Health Care shows patients hospitalized with COVID-19 pneumonia have a higher risk of developing dementia than those with other types of pneumonia.</p><p>A team of MU researchers pulled Cerner Real World Data from 1.4 billion medical encounters prior to July 31, 2021. They selected patients hospitalized with pneumonia for more than 24 hours. Among 10,403 patients with COVID-19 pneumonia, 312 (3%) developed new onset dementia after recovering, compared to 263 (2.5%) of the 10,403 patients with other types of pneumonia diagnosed with dementia.</p><p>\"The risk of new onset dementia was more common in COVID-19 pneumonia patients over the age of 70 in our study,\" said lead researcher Adnan I. Qureshi, MD, a professor of clinical neurology at the MU School of Medicine. \"The type of dementia seen in survivors of COVID-19 infection mainly affects memory, ability to perform everyday tasks and self-regulation. Language and awareness of time and location remained relatively preserved.\"</p><p>The median time interval between infection and dementia diagnosis was 182 days for COVID-19 patients. The study only included new onset dementia associated with hospital admission during a short follow-up period. Qureshi said further study over longer periods of time would provide a more complete picture and may help to determine the underlying reasons why COVID-19 pneumonia might increase dementia risk.</p><p>\"The findings suggest a role for screening for cognitive deficits among COVID-19 survivors,\" Qureshi said. \"If there is evidence of impairment during screening and if the patient continues to report cognitive symptoms, a referral for comprehensive assessment may be necessary.\"</p><p>In addition to Qureshi, the study authors include fellow MU School of Medicine collaborators S. Hasan Naqvi, MD, associate professor of clinical medicine; William Baskett, graduate student; Wei Huang, graduate student; and Chi-Ren Shyu, PhD, director, MO Informatics Institute.</p><p>Their study, \"New Onset Dementia Among Survivors of Pneumonia Associated with Sevre Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Infection,\" was recently published in the journal <em>Open Forum Infectious Diseases</em>. Part of the support for this study was provided by the National Institutes of Health. The content does not necessarily represent the official views of the funding agency. Qureshi has received consultation fees from AstraZeneca. The authors declare no other potential conflicts of interest.</p>','2022-04-20 14:16:25.224979','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Missouri-Columbia','A new study shows patients hospitalized with COVID-19 pneumonia have a higher risk of developing dementia than those with other types of pneumonia.\n',1,27,'<li>Adnan I Qureshi, William I Baskett, Wei Huang, S Hasan Naqvi, Chi-Ren Shyu. <strong>New-Onset Dementia Among Survivors of Pneumonia Associated With Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Infection</strong>. <em>Open Forum Infectious Diseases</em>, 2022; 9 (4) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ofid/ofac115\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1093/ofid/ofac115</a>\n</li>'),(2273,'Jupiter\'s moon has splendid dunes','jupiter\'s-moon-has-splendid-dunes','2022-04-20 14:16:31.842736',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Scientists have long wondered how Jupiter\'s innermost moon, Io, has meandering ridges as grand as any that can be seen in movies like \"Dune.\" Now, a Rutgers research study has provided a new explanation of how dunes can form even on a surface as icy and roiling as Io\'s.</p><p>The study, published in the journal <em>Nature Communications</em>, is based on a study of the physical processes controlling grain motion coupled with an analysis of images from the 14-year mission of NASA\'s Galileo spacecraft, which allowed the creation of the first detailed maps of Jupiter\'s moons. The new study is expected to expand our scientific understanding of the geological features on these planet-like worlds.</p><p>\"Our studies point to the possibility of Io as a new \'dune world,\'\" said first author George McDonald, a postdoctoral researcher in Rutgers\' Earth and Planetary Sciences Department. \"We have proposed, and quantitatively tested, a mechanism by which sand grains can move, and in turn dunes could be forming there.\"</p><p>Current scientific understanding dictates that dunes, by their nature, are hills or ridges of sand piled up by the wind. And scientists in previous studies of Io, while describing its surface as containing some dune-like features, concluded the ridges could not be dunes since the forces from winds on Io are weak due to the moon\'s low-density atmosphere.</p><p>\"This work tells us that the environments in which dunes are found are considerably more varied than the classical, endless desert landscapes on parts of Earth or on the fictional planet Arrakis in \'Dune,\'\" McDonald said.</p><p>The Galileo mission, which lasted from 1989 -- 2003, logged so many scientific firsts that researchers to this day are still studying the data it collected. One of the major insights gleaned from the data was the high extent of volcanic activity on Io -- so much so that its volcanoes repeatedly and rapidly resurface the little world.</p><p>Io\'s surface is a mix of black solidified lava flows and sand, flowing \"effusive\" lava streams, and \"snows\" of sulfur dioxide. The scientists used mathematical equations to simulate the forces on a single grain of basalt or frost and calculate its path. When lava flows into sulfur dioxide beneath the moon\'s surface, its venting is \"dense and fast moving enough to move grains on Io and possibly enable the formation of large-scale features like dunes,\" McDonald said.</p><p>Once the researchers devised a mechanism by which the dunes could form, they looked to photos of Io\'s surface taken by the Galileo spacecraft for more proof. The spacing of the crests and the height-to-width ratios they observed were consistent with trends for dunes seen on Earth and other planets.</p><p>\"Work like this really allows us to understand how the cosmos works,\" said Lujendra Ojha, a co-author and an assistant professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences. \"In the end, in planetary science, that is what we are trying to do.\"</p><p>The paper also included authors from the University of Oregon, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Texas A&amp;M University and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology.</p><p><strong>Story Source:</strong></p>','2022-04-20 14:16:31.842736','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Rutgers University','Scientists have long wondered how Jupiter\'s innermost moon, Io, has meandering ridges as grand as any that can be seen in movies like \'Dune.\' Now, a research study has provided a new explanation of how dunes can form even on a surface as icy and roiling as Io\'s.\n',1,27,'<li>George D. McDonald, Joshua Méndez Harper, Lujendra Ojha, Paul Corlies, Josef Dufek, Ryan C. Ewing, Laura Kerber. <strong>Aeolian sediment transport on Io from lava–frost interactions</strong>. <em>Nature Communications</em>, 2022; 13 (1) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29682-x\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41467-022-29682-x</a>\n</li>'),(2274,'Disasters could disrupt care for opioid use disorder in most vulnerable communities','disasters-could-disrupt-care-for-opioid-use-disorder-in-most-vulnerable-communities','2022-04-20 15:42:37.495216',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">The COVID-19 pandemic has spiked the overdose death rate from opioid use. For people who rely on medications (buprenorphine, methadone, and extended-release naltrexone) to treat opioid use disorders, the pandemic and such natural disasters as tornados, hurricanes, and wildfires can disrupt access to medications. And new Yale-led research published April 19 in <em>JAMA Network Open</em> finds that the location of medication treatment services makes treatment interruption likely where those disruptions exist.</p><p>The research team, led by Paul Joudrey, MD, MPH, assistant professor of medicine (general medicine); and Yale Drug Use, Addiction, and HIV Research (DAHRS) scholar, correlated Centers for Disease Control (CDC) data on community vulnerability to natural disasters and pandemics with the locations of medications and opioid use disorder services across the continental United States. Reasons people within a community could be more vulnerable to disasters and pandemics include their age, minority race, poverty, housing, and access to transportation.</p><p>They found the availability of medication services was not matched with community vulnerability. \"In plain terms, we are not placing enough services in communities that are more vulnerable to disasters and pandemics. If a disaster disrupts medication services, people living within these communities are less likely to receive treatment.\" This mismatch between community vulnerability during disaster and the availability of services was the worst for vulnerable suburban communities. This was a particularly unique finding. \"We also found that in rural communities, because the availability of services was just bad all around, there was no association between vulnerability and access to medications,\" added Joudrey.</p><p>These findings confirm what has been reported in recent natural disasters. \"Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Sandy, and Hurricane Maria showed that part of the deaths that occur following disasters such as those are because people\'s health services were disrupted. Our results show that preparedness has too long been only a practice for the middle and upper class. We need to think more deliberately about how preparedness for hurricanes and for COVID-19 includes those placed at highest risk,\" said Emily Wang, MD, professor of medicine (general medicine) and of public health (social and behavioral sciences); and director, SEICHE Center for Health and Justice at Yale.</p><p>The research is a collaboration among Yale\'s Program in Addiction Medicine and SEICHE Center for Health and Justice, and the Healthy Regions &amp; Policies Lab, Center for Spatial Data Science at the University of Chicago.</p><p>Joudrey praised the partnership with the Healthy Regions &amp; Policies Lab. \"One of my primary mentors, Dr. Emily Wang, connected me with the lab through her National Institutes of Drug Abuse\'s JCOIN (Justice Community Opioid Innovation Network) work. Dr. Marynia Kolak, one of the key authors on this paper, is a wonderful health geographer and has similar interests to my own. When Emily connected us, it was really that collaboration and connection that allowed this project to come together. Her health geography lab at University of Chicago has just been a wonderful group to work with.\"</p><p>Along with Joudrey and Wang from Yale School of Medicine, additional contributors include Kolak; Qinyun Lin; Susan Paykin; and Vidal Anguiano Jr. from the University of Chicago.</p>','2022-04-20 15:42:37.495216','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Yale University','The COVID-19 pandemic has spiked the overdose death rate from opioid use. For people who rely on medications (buprenorphine, methadone, and extended-release naltrexone) to treat opioid use disorders, the pandemic and such natural disasters as tornados, hurricanes, and wildfires can disrupt access to medications. And new research finds that the location of medication treatment services makes treatment interruption likely where those disruptions exist.\n',1,48,'<li>Paul J. Joudrey, Marynia Kolak, Qinyun Lin, Susan Paykin, Vidal Anguiano, Emily A. Wang. <strong>Assessment of Community-Level Vulnerability and Access to Medications for Opioid Use Disorder</strong>. <em>JAMA Network Open</em>, 2022; 5 (4): e227028 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.7028\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.7028</a>\n</li>'),(2275,'Impact of family background on children\'s education unchanged in a century, research reveals','impact-of-family-background-on-children\'s-education-unchanged-in-a-century,-research-reveals','2022-04-20 16:56:24.857801',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">The family background of UK children still influences their educational achievements at primary school as much as it did nearly one hundred years ago, a major new study has revealed.</p><p>The study, by the University of York, looked at data from 92,000 individuals born between 1921 and 2011 and revealed that the achievement gap between children from impoverished family backgrounds and their more privileged peers has remained stagnant.</p><p>This gap accounted for half a grade difference at primary school level, but the impact of family background persists and increases throughout the school years. Previous research suggests that by GCSE year, the effect of family background on school performance is more than three times worse, accounting for a 1.75 grade difference.</p><p>The enduring impact of family background on success in education perpetuates social and economic inequalities across generations, the researchers say. They are calling for educational policies which prioritise equality in learning outcomes for children over equality in opportunities.</p><p>Lead author of the study, Professor Sophie von Stumm from the Department of Education at the University of York, said: \"Our study shows for the first time that despite the efforts of policy makers and educators, children from impoverished backgrounds, whether born in 1921 or the modern day, face the same prospect of earning lower grades and obtaining fewer educational opportunities than children from wealthier backgrounds.</p><p>\"We are calling for educational interventions that ensure the weakest students get the most support, as policies promoting equal learning opportunities only work if all children are equally well prepared to take advantage of them.</p><p>\"For example, we know that children from low socioeconomic family backgrounds tend to start school with poorer language skills than their better-off peers. This early disadvantage makes it more difficult for them to utilise the learning opportunities that that school offers. In turn, children from impoverished families earn lower grades in primary and secondary school, and ultimately, they earn fewer educational qualifications than children from wealthier backgrounds.\"</p><p>The study looked at data provided by large cohort studies up until 2016. The researchers caution that the pandemic is likely to have intensified the link between family socioeconomic status and children\'s school performance because it increased inequality in families\' access to resources.</p><p>Co-author of the study, Professor Paul Wakeling from the Department of Education at the University of York said: \"There was rightly much public scrutiny of inequalities in GCSE grades during the pandemic. However, our findings highlight how important it is to consider inequalities in earlier years of schooling. The impacts could be felt for years to come \"</p><p>Professor von Stumm added: \"Children growing up in low socioeconomic family homes during the pandemic were disproportionately affected by school closures, with a lack of access to online learning and suitable learning environments.</p><p>\"Educational interventions that boost early-years and primary school learning for these children have never been more important. Even if such interventions have initially small effects, their long-term benefits are sizable. Tackling the persistent achievement gap highlighted by our study will be instrumental in reducing overall inequality and therefore hugely beneficial to society as a whole.\"</p>','2022-04-20 16:56:24.857801','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of York','A study which looked at data from 92,000 individuals born between 1921 and 2011, has revealed the achievement gap between children from impoverished family backgrounds and their more privileged peers has remained stagnant in the UK.\n',1,27,'<li>Sophie von Stumm, Sophie Nicole Cave, Paul Wakeling. <strong>Persistent association between family socioeconomic status and primary school performance in Britain over 95 years</strong>. <em>npj Science of Learning</em>, 2022; 7 (1) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41539-022-00120-3\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41539-022-00120-3</a>\n</li>'),(2276,'Geoengineering could return risk of malaria for one billion people','geoengineering-could-return-risk-of-malaria-for-one-billion-people','2022-04-20 16:56:26.373416',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Geoengineering the climate would have massive repercussions for the health of billions of people at risk of malaria who live in tropical countries, according to a new finding by scientists at Georgetown University Medical Center and colleagues. The study appeared April 20, 2022, in <em>Nature Communications. </em></p><p>This is the first assessment of how geoengineering the climate could impact the burden of infectious diseases. The study focuses on solar radiation management (SRM), an intervention that hypothesizes emergency actions aimed at reducing dangerous impacts of climate change. One action that has been proposed is injecting aerosols into the stratosphere that reflect incoming sunlight, thereby temporarily \"pausing\" global warming. Though SRM is often discussed as a way to reduce climate injustice, its potential impacts on health have seldom been studied.</p><p>\"The implications of the study for decision-making are significant,\" says Colin Carlson, PhD, an assistant research professor at the Center for Global Health Science and Security at Georgetown University Medical Center and lead author of the study. \"Geoengineering might save lives, but the assumption that it will do so equally for everyone might leave some countries at a disadvantage when it comes time to make decisions. If geoengineering is about protecting populations on the frontlines of climate change, we should be able to add up the risks and benefits -- especially in terms of neglected health burdens, such as mosquito-borne disease.\"</p><p>A team of eight researchers from the United States, Bangladesh, South Africa, and Germany used climate models to simulate what malaria transmission could look like in two future scenarios, with medium or high levels of global warming, with and without geoengineering. The models identify which temperatures are most conducive for transmission by the <em>Anopheles </em>mosquito and identify how many people live in areas where transmission is possible.</p><p>In both medium- and high-warming scenarios, malaria risk was predicted to shift significantly between regions; but in the high warming scenario, simulations found that a billion extra people were at risk of malaria in the geoengineered world.</p><p>\"On a planet that\'s too hot for humans, it also gets too hot for the malaria parasite,\" says Carlson. \"Cooling the planet might be an emergency option to save lives, but it would also reverse course on those declines.\"</p><p>The study follows a 2018 commentary in <em>Nature Climate Change </em>by Carlson and the study\'s senior author, Christopher Trisos, PhD, a senior researcher at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. In the commentary, the researchers proposed a hypothesis now confirmed in the new study: because malaria transmission peaks at 25°C, cooling the tropics using geoengineering might ultimately increase malaria risk in some places relative to an alternative future, but might also increase risk in the present day.</p><p>\"The potential for geoengineering to reduce risks from climate change remains poorly understood, and it could introduce a range of new risks to people and ecosystems,\" says Trisos.</p><p>Carlson says that one of the most surprising findings was the scale of potential trade-offs between regions. For example, in both scenarios, the authors found that geoengineering might substantially reduce malaria risk in the Indian subcontinent even compared to the present day. However, that protective effect would be offset with an increase in risk in southeast Asia. For decision-makers, this might complicate the geopolitical reality of climate intervention.</p><p>\"We\'re so early in this process that the conversation is still about increasing Global South leadership in geoengineering research. Our study highlights that the frontlines of climate injustice aren\'t one monolithic bloc, especially when it comes to health,\" says Carlson.</p><p>Additional study authors also included collaborators from the University of Maryland, College Park; the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh; the University of Florida, Gainesville; the Cologne University of Applied Sciences, Germany; and Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey.</p><p>The authors report having no personal financial interests related to the study. Funding for the study was provided by the Solar Radiation Management Governance Initiative (SRMGI) Developing Country Impacts Modeling Analysis for Solar Radiation Management (DECIMALS) grant program.</p>','2022-04-20 16:56:26.373416','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Georgetown University Medical Center','Geoengineering the climate would have massive repercussions for the health of billions of people at risk of malaria who live in tropical countries, according to a new finding. This is the first assessment of how geoengineering the climate could impact the burden of infectious diseases.\n',1,27,'<li>Colin J. Carlson, Rita Colwell, Mohammad Sharif Hossain, Mohammed Mofizur Rahman, Alan Robock, Sadie J. Ryan, Mohammad Shafiul Alam, Christopher H. Trisos. <strong>Solar geoengineering could redistribute malaria risk in developing countries</strong>. <em>Nature Communications</em>, 2022; 13 (1) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29613-w\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41467-022-29613-w</a>\n</li>'),(2277,'Following a Mediterranean-style diet during pregnancy may reduce the risk of preeclampsia','following-a-mediterranean-style-diet-during-pregnancy-may-reduce-the-risk-of-preeclampsia','2022-04-20 16:56:29.350923',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Following a Mediterranean-style diet during pregnancy was associated with a reduced risk of developing preeclampsia, and Black women appeared to have the greatest reduction of risk, according to new research published today in the <em>Journal of the American Heart Association</em>, an open access, peer-reviewed journal of the American Heart Association.</p><p>Previous studies have found that following a Mediterranean diet, which consists primarily of vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts, olive oil, whole grains, and fish, reduces heart disease risk in adults.</p><p>Preeclampsia, a condition during pregnancy characterized by severe high blood pressure and liver or kidney damage, is a major cause of complications and death for the mother and her unborn child. Preeclampsia also increases a woman\'s risk of heart diseases, such as high blood pressure, heart attack, stroke or heart failure, by more than two times later in life. Women with preeclampsia have a higher risk of preterm delivery (giving birth before 37 weeks gestation) or low birth weight babies, and children born to mothers with preeclampsia are also at higher risk of developing high blood pressure and heart disease.</p><p>Black women are at higher risk of developing preeclampsia, yet research on potential treatments for high-risk women are limited, according to the study researchers. The researchers investigated the potential association of a Mediterranean-style diet among a large group of racially and ethnically diverse women who have a high risk of preeclampsia.</p><p>\"The U.S. has the highest maternal mortality rate among developed countries, and preeclampsia contributes to it,\" said Anum S. Minhas, M.D., M.H.S., chief cardiology fellow and a cardio-obstetrics and advanced imaging fellow at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. \"Given these health hazards to both mothers and their children, it is important to identify modifiable factors to prevent the development of preeclampsia, especially among Black women who are at the highest risk of this serious pregnancy complication.\"</p><p>This study included data for more than 8,500 women enrolled between 1998 and 2016 in the Boston Birth Cohort. Participants\' median age was 25 years old, and they were recruited from Boston Medical Center, which serves a predominantly urban, low-income, under-represented racial and ethnic population. Nearly half of the participants were Black women (47%), about a quarter were Hispanic women(28%) and the remaining were white women or \"other\" race, according to self-reported information on a postpartum questionnaire. Researchers created a Mediterranean-style diet score based on participants\' responses to food frequency interviews and questionnaires, which were conducted within three days of giving birth.</p><p>The analysis found:</p><p>\"We were surprised that women who more frequently ate foods in the Mediterranean-style diet were significantly less likely to develop preeclampsia, with Black women experiencing the greatest reduction in risk,\" Minhas said. \"This is remarkable because there are very few interventions during pregnancy that are found to produce any meaningful benefit, and medical treatments during pregnancy must be approached cautiously to ensure the benefits outweigh the potential risks to the mother and the unborn child.\"</p><p>Minhas added, \"Women should be encouraged to follow a healthy lifestyle, including a nutritious diet and regular exercise, at all stages in life. Eating healthy foods regularly, including vegetables, fruits and legumes, is especially important for women during pregnancy. Their health during pregnancy affects their future cardiovascular health and also impacts their baby\'s health.\"</p><p>The study\'s limitations are related to the food frequency interviews: they were conducted once after the pregnancy, and they relied on self-reported information about which foods were eaten and how frequently they were eaten.</p><p>Co-authors are Xiumei Hong, M.D., Ph.D.; Guoying Wang, M.D., Ph.D.; Dong Keun Rhee, R.D., M.S.P.H.; Tiange Liu, M.H.S., M.B.B.S.; Mingyu Zhang, M.H.S.; Erin D. Michos, M.D., M.H.S.; Xiaobin Wang, M.D., Sc.D.; and Noel T. Mueller, Ph.D. Authors\' disclosures are listed in the manuscript.</p><p>The Boston Birth Cohort Study was supported in part by the March of Dimes; the National Institutes of Health; and the Health Resources and Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Additional funding to authors is listed in the manuscript.</p>','2022-04-20 16:56:29.350923','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'American Heart Association','An analysis of health and dietary data for more than 8,500 pregnant women found that greater adherence to a Mediterranean-style eating plan was associated with a lower risk of preeclampsia, which is a pregnancy complication characterized by severe high blood pressure that can be serious or even fatal for both mother and child. The reduction in risk of preeclampsia was greatest among Black women -- a population at high risk for preeclampsia.\n',1,27,'<li>Anum S. Minhas, Xiumei Hong, Guoying Wang, Dong Keun Rhee, Tiange Liu, Mingyu Zhang, Erin D. Michos, Xiaobin Wang, Noel T. Mueller. <strong>Mediterranean‐Style Diet and Risk of Preeclampsia by Race in the Boston Birth Cohort</strong>. <em>Journal of the American Heart Association</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1161/JAHA.121.022589\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1161/JAHA.121.022589</a>\n</li>'),(2278,'Nanostructures with improved stability for the development of more effective cancer nanomedicine','nanostructures-with-improved-stability-for-the-development-of-more-effective-cancer-nanomedicine','2022-04-20 16:56:32.288363',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Most drugs used today have only one mechanism of action and it is both difficult and expensive to manufacture drugs with multiple functions. Researchers at Aarhus University have recently found a way to create more stable nanostructures that can assemble biomolecules with different functions, which in combination e.g., can provide more effective cancer medicine.</p><p>For millennia, DNA has played a central role in storing each cell\'s genetic information and consists of strands with a specific sequence of four different building blocks. These DNA strands are copied by the cell at each cell division in an extremely well-orchestrated way, but amazingly, this sophisticated machinery is governed by very simple rules.</p><p>In recent years, it has been found to utilize these simple rules not only in the context of genetic engineering, but also to construct useful DNA nanostructures by designing DNA strands. These DNA nanostructures have been shown to have a number of useful biomedical functions such as to be able to transport cancer drugs to exact places in the body where they are needed. This can increase the effect of the medication as well as provide fewer side effects compared to conventional cancer treatment.</p><p>DNA nanostructures are also increasingly used as a tool to bind and assemble biomolecules, into multifunctional structures. One of these DNA nanostructures used forms a branched structure with four ends (see illustration), called 4-way junctions (4WJ), which are also found naturally.</p><p>With specially designed versions of these 4WJ structures, for example, Harvard Medical School in Boston has managed to bind and collect various antibodies, which in combination ensured that T cells attacked aggressive cancer cells more intensively and thus killed tumors.</p><p><strong>Enhanced DNA nanostructures with artificial building blocks</strong></p><p>Researchers who are part of the Center for Multifunctional Biomolecular Drug Design (CEMBID) at Aarhus University are also working on finding new ways to link different drugs to achieve more and more effective mechanisms of action. The research group, led by Professor Kurt Gothelf, has just published an article in the acclaimed journal Angewandte Chemie Int. Ed. with results involving above mentioned 4WJ structures, but in an improved version. The work was performed in collaboration with the groups of Jørgen Kjems and Ken Howard who are also part of CEMBID.</p><p>Admittedly, these DNA nanostructures (4WJ) are smart, but there is the disadvantage of DNA structures that DNA is <em>de facto</em> a biodegradable polymer. This means that the structures are broken down faster in the blood than desired. In addition, the structures can be so large that they themselves activate the immune system. In order for the structures to be used for diagnostics or in medicine, it is crucial that the structures are very stable, non-toxic and do not themselves trigger an immune reaction in the patient.</p><p>Anders Märcher, a postdoc in Kurt Gothelf\'s research group and part of CEMBID, has, together with his research colleagues, now found a way to increase the stability of these nanostructures. They have achieved this by using small chains, called oligonucleotides, of artificial and modified building blocks to form the nanostructure. The artificial oligonucleotides, Märcher <em>et al</em>. use is called acyclic L-threoninol nucleic acid (aTNA) and work in the same way and just as well as the natural building blocks of DNA. Here, the sugar molecule (deoxyribose) in the natural building blocks is replaced with an artificial sugar molecule (acyclic L-threoninol), which strengthens the overall structure.</p><p>The positive results showed that 4WJ structures with the artificial building block, aTNA, are very stable, do not degrade in the blood, have been shown to be non-toxic to cells, and do not elicit a nonspecific immune response. When the researchers coupled a particular type of biomolecule, which is known to bind to a biomarker in high-specificity breast cancer cells, to the new 4WJ structure, it turned out that the 4WJ structure may prove effective in directing cancer drugs to the desired cells. In addition, by making further modifications to the new 4WJ structure, they could extend its lifetime in the bloodstream and thus also the effect of the drug that may be coupled to the DNA nanostructure.</p><p>The researchers imagine that their 4WJ structure built with artificial building blocks can both be used as a tool to transport drugs to the right position in a patient\'s body. In addition, they see that it can serve as a valuable tool in research. For example, researchers imagine that the effects of different combinations of cancer-degrading biomolecules can be screened faster and more efficiently, so that the most effective cancer treatment can be found more quickly.</p><p><strong>Center for Multifunctional Biomolecular Drug Design (CEMBID)</strong></p><p>The Center for Multifunctional Biomolecular Drug Design (CEMBID) was funded by the Novo Nordisk Foundation with DKK 60 million in 2018 and runs until 2024. Professor Kurt V. Gothelf heads the center with a background in organic chemistry, bioconjugation and DNA nanotechnology, but the interdisciplinary team of researchers at CEMBID works in the fields of chemistry, molecular biology, pharmacology and medicine. The colleagues from iNANO: Professor Jørgen Kjems and Associate Professor Ken Howard help lead the center, where Jørgen Kjems has great expertise in nucleic acid nanotechnology and drug delivery, while Associate Professor Ken Howard is an expert in drug delivery and pharmacokinetics. Also, from Vrije Universiteit in Brussels is Professor Tony LaHoutte, who through his extensive experience with clinical trials of bioconjugates contributes in connection with testing of the new coupled drugs.</p>','2022-04-20 16:56:32.288363','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Aarhus University','Most drugs used today have only one mechanism of action and it is both difficult and expensive to manufacture drugs with multiple functions. Researchers have recently found a way to create more stable nanostructures that can assemble biomolecules with different functions, which in combination e.g., can provide more effective cancer medicine.\n',1,123,'<li>Anders Märcher, Vipin Kumar, Veronica L. Andersen, Kassem El‐Chami, Thuy J. D. Nguyen, Mads K. Skaanning, Imke Rudnik‐Jansen, Jesper S. Nielsen, Kenneth A. Howard, Jørgen Kjems, Kurt V. Gothelf. <strong>Functionalized Acyclic (            l            )‐Threoninol Nucleic Acid Four‐Way Junction with High Stability In Vitro and In Vivo</strong>. <em>Angewandte Chemie International Edition</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/anie.202115275\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1002/anie.202115275</a>\n</li>'),(2279,'Enzyme prevents brain activity from getting out of control','enzyme-prevents-brain-activity-from-getting-out-of-control','2022-04-20 16:56:35.007061',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">The brain has the ability to modify the contacts between neurons. Among other things, that is how it prevents brain activity from getting out of control. Researchers from the University Hospital Bonn, together with a team from Australia, have identified a mechanism that plays an important role in this. In cultured cells, this mechanism alters the synaptic coupling of neurons and thus stimulus transmission and processing. If it is disrupted, disorders such as epilepsy, schizophrenia or autism may be the result. The findings are published in the journal <em>Cell Reports.</em></p><p>Almost 100 billion nerve cells perform their service in the human brain. Each of these has an average of 1,000 contacts with other neurons. At these so-called synapses, information is passed on between the nerve cells.</p><p>However, synapses are much more than simple wiring. This can already be seen in their structure: They consist of a kind of transmitter device, the presynapse, and a receiver structure, the postsynapse. Between them lies the synaptic cleft. This is actually very narrow. Nevertheless, it prevents the electrical impulses from being easily transmitted. Instead, the neurons in a sense shout their information to each other across the gap.</p><p>For this purpose, the presynapse is triggered by incoming voltage pulses to release certain neurotransmitters. These cross the synaptic cleft and dock to specific \"antennae\" on the postsynaptic side. This causes them to also trigger electrical pulses in the receiver cell. \"However, the amount of neurotransmitter released by the presynapse and the extent to which the postsynapse responds to it are strictly regulated in the brain,\" explains Prof. Dr. Susanne Schoch McGovern of the Department of Neuropathology at University Hospital Bonn.</p><p><strong>Sophisticated control mechanisms</strong></p><p>For instance, certain synapses are strengthened during learning: Even a weak electrical stimulus from the transmitter neuron is then sufficient to trigger a strong response in the receiver cell. In contrast, little-used synapses atrophy. Furthermore, sophisticated control mechanisms prevent the electrical activity in the brain from spreading too far -- or, conversely, from fading away too quickly. \"We also speak of synaptic homeostasis,\" explains Prof. Dr. Dirk Dietrich from the Department of Neurosurgery at the University Hospital. \"It ensures that brain activity is always within a healthy range.\"</p><p>However, the processes that maintain this balance are only partially understood. One mechanism by which the brain responds to long-lasting changes in neuronal activity is known as homeostatic plasticity. \"We have now shown that a protein called RIM1 plays a key role in this process,\" says Schoch McGovern. RIM1 is clustered in the so-called \"active zone\" of the presynapse -- the area where neurotransmitters are released.</p><p>Like any protein, RIM1 consists of a large number of contiguous amino acids. The researchers have now shown that some of these amino acids are linked by an enzyme to a chemical compound, a phosphate group. Depending on which amino acid is modified in this way, the presynapse can subsequently release more or less neurotransmitter. The phosphate groups form the \"memory\" of the synapses, so to speak, with which they remember the current activity level. \"In the presynapse, transmitter-filled vesicles stand ready to be fired like the arrows of a taut bow,\" Dietrich says. \"As soon as a voltage pulse comes in, they are released at lightning speed. Phosphorylation changes the number of these vesicles.\"</p><p><strong>Synapse calls with louder voice</strong></p><p>If the presynapse can \"fire\" more vesicles as a result, its call across the synaptic cleft becomes louder, figuratively speaking. If, on the other hand, the number of vesicles decreases sharply due to changes in the phosphorylation status of RIM1, the call is barely audible. \"Which effect occurs depends on the phosphorylated amino acid,\" says Dr. Johannes Alexander Müller of Schoch McGovern\'s research group. He shares lead authorship of the study with his colleague Dr. Julia Betzin.</p><p>This means that the brain can presumably adjust the activity of individual synapses very precisely via RIM1. Another key role is played by the enzyme SRPK2: It attaches the phosphate groups to the amino acids of RIM1. However, there are also other players, such as enzymes that remove the phosphate groups again if necessary. \"We assume that there is a whole network of enzymes that act on RIM1 and that these enzymes also control each other\'s activity,\" Dietrich explains.</p><p>The synaptic balance is immensely important; if it is disrupted, disorders such as epilepsy, but possibly also schizophrenia or autism can be the result. Interestingly, the genetic information for RIM1 is often altered in people with these psychiatric disorders. This may mean that the RIM1 protein is less effective in them. \"We now want to further elucidate these relationships,\" says Schoch McGovern, who is also a member of the Transdisciplinary Research Area \"Life and Health.\" \"Perhaps new therapeutic options for these diseases will emerge from our findings in the long term, although there is certainly a long way to go before that happens.\"</p><p><strong>Participating institutions and funding</strong></p><p>The study was supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG), the BONFOR program of the University Hospital Bonn, the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), and the Cancer Research Foundation and Cancer Institute New South Wales. In addition to the University and the University Hospital Bonn, the University of Sydney and the Australian company i-Synapse were involved in the work.</p>','2022-04-20 16:56:35.007061','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Bonn','The brain has the ability to modify the contacts between neurons. Among other things, that is how it prevents brain activity from getting out of control. Researchers have now identified a mechanism that plays an important role in this.\n',1,14,'<li>Johannes Alexander Müller, Julia Betzin, Jorge Santos-Tejedor, Annika Mayer, Ana-Maria Oprişoreanu, Kasper Engholm-Keller, Isabelle Paulußen, Polina Gulakova, Terrence Daniel McGovern, Lena Johanna Gschossman, Eva Schönhense, Jesse R. Wark, Alf Lamprecht, Albert J. Becker, Ashley J. Waardenberg, Mark E. Graham, Dirk Dietrich, Susanne Schoch. <strong>A presynaptic phosphosignaling hub for lasting homeostatic plasticity</strong>. <em>Cell Reports</em>, 2022; 39 (3): 110696 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2022.110696\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.celrep.2022.110696</a>\n</li>'),(2280,'Balancing lipids and recycling to prevent mitochondrial meltdown','balancing-lipids-and-recycling-to-prevent-mitochondrial-meltdown','2022-04-20 16:56:37.600751',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Mitochondria release chemical energy and influence metabolic pathways that keep our cells and tissues healthy. Damage to these multifunctional powerhouses promotes cell death and disease.</p><p>To prevent \"mitochondrial meltdown,\" our cells destroy defective mitochondria using a specialised recycling process termed \"mitophagy.\" Mitophagy is implicated in many diseases and is a major pharmaceutical target for neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson\'s disease.</p><p><strong>Unexpected insights into metabolism, mitophagy and movement</strong></p><p>An international team of researchers studied a therapeutic molecule used to promote high levels of mitophagy and found that many metabolic pathways involving lipids were rapidly \"rewired\" before mitochondrial recycling took place. The results are now published in <em>the EMBO Journal</em>.</p><p>\"Surprisingly, the activity of a protein called DGAT1 is switched on to generate specialised structures known as lipid droplets, typically used to store fat. By impairing DGAT activity, we observed the disappearance of lipid droplets and reduced mitochondrial recycling, and cells were more vulnerable to stress and death,\" says Assistant Professor <strong>Thomas McWilliams</strong>, who led the study.</p><p>Remarkably, when the DGAT1 gene was switched off in the brains of reporter flies, both mitophagy and motor function of the animals were severely impacted.</p><p><strong>A discovery forged from iron</strong></p><p>The study also makes unexpected insights into iron, an essential cofactor for life. The therapeutic molecule used to induce mitophagy is a chelator, a potent drug that depletes cellular iron and researchers found surprisingly rapid effects of its depletion on cellular metabolism. McWilliams says:</p><p>\"Iron homeostasis represents an ancient function of the mitochondrial network, and iron depletion after many hours promotes mitochondrial recycling. Postdoctoral researcher Maeve Long performed a series of ambitious experiments in my lab, profiling human cells after mere minutes of deferiprone exposure. Our collaborators then mapped very dynamic changes in metabolism in advance of mitophagy. This led us to study lipid crosstalk in further detail, with our Cambridge collaborators highlighting the significance of this synergy <em>in vivo</em>.\"</p><p>Little is known about the factors that regulate physiological mitophagy, and this work opens new avenues for targeting this process. Commenting further, McWilliams adds:</p><p>\"Defective mitochondrial recycling is problematic for cell types that are very long-lived, such as nerve cells in the brain. Neurodegenerative pathology is often progressive, taking place over many years. When mitophagy is defective, it\'s reasonable that cells might adapt and utilise additional strategies to stay alive. Much more work is needed, but this is an unexpected and exciting find.\"</p><p><em>The study was led by Assistant Professor Thomas McWilliams at the University of Helsinki in collaboration with Academy Professor Elina Ikonen and researchers at the Swedish Metabolomics Centre (Umeå, SE), Dr Alex Whitworth at the MRC Mitochondrial Biology Unit (Cambridge, UK) and Dr Ian Ganley at the MRC Protein Phosphorylation and Ubiquitylation Unit (Dundee, Scotland). </em></p>','2022-04-20 16:56:37.600751','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Helsinki','An international team has discovered that the cellular balance of lipid droplets can impact the recycling of damaged mitochondria. These results have importance for cell survival and nervous system dysfunction.\n',1,29,'<li>Maeve Long, Alvaro Sanchez‐Martinez, Marianna Longo, Fumi Suomi, Hans Stenlund, Annika I Johansson, Homa Ehsan, Veijo T Salo, Lambert Montava‐Garriga, Seyedehshima Naddafi, Elina Ikonen, Ian G Ganley, Alexander J Whitworth, Thomas G McWilliams. <strong>DGAT1 activity synchronises with mitophagy to protect cells from metabolic rewiring by iron depletion</strong>. <em>The EMBO Journal</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.15252/embj.2021109390\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.15252/embj.2021109390</a>\n</li>'),(2281,'Nanoparticles can cross the placenta during pregnancy, potentially exposing fetus','nanoparticles-can-cross-the-placenta-during-pregnancy,-potentially-exposing-fetus','2022-04-20 16:56:45.528244',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Inhaled nanoparticles -- human-made specks so minuscule they can\'t be seen in conventional microscopes, found in thousands of common products -- can cross a natural, protective barrier that normally protects fetuses, according to Rutgers University scientists studying factors that produce low-birth-weight babies.</p><p>The scientists reported in the medical journal <em>Placenta</em> they were able to track the movement of nanoparticles made of metal titanium dioxide through the bodies of pregnant rats. After the nanoparticles were inhaled into the lungs of the rodents, some of them escaped this initial barrier. From there, the particles flowed through the placentas, which generally filter out foreign substances to protect the fetus.</p><p>\"The particles are small and really hard to find,\" said Phoebe Stapleton, an author and an assistant professor at Rutgers Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy and a faculty member at Rutgers Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute. \"But, using some specialized techniques, we found evidence that the particles can migrate from the lung to the placenta and possibly the fetal tissues after maternal exposure throughout pregnancy. The placenta does not act as a barrier to these particles. Nor do the lungs.\"</p><p>Most nanoparticles are engineered, with few produced naturally. These particles are used in thousands of products, from sunscreens to pharmaceuticals to sports equipment. They are highly valued because they can enhance the effectiveness of drugs and produce sturdy-though-lightweight products.</p><p>Nanoparticles are so named because they are less than 100 nanometers wide, meaning they are tens of thousands of times smaller than the diameter of a single human hair. Despite their usefulness, nanoscale materials are poorly understood, with \"very little known about the potential effects on human health and the environment,\" according to the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.</p><p>During the experiment, scientists were surprised to also detect titanium dioxide in the \"control\" group of rats that hadn\'t been given nanoparticles to inhale. It turns out the food given to the animals contained titanium dioxide. As a result, the researchers were able to observe the path the metal took through a rat\'s body.</p><p>The research emerged from investigations into the causes of low birth weight in human infants. Newborns weighing less than 5.5 pounds can suffer adverse health effects as infants and throughout their lives.</p><p>According to Stapleton, one theory is mothers who give birth to babies with low birth weights may have inhaled harmful particulates. The resulting inflammation may affect bodily systems, such as blood flow in the uterus, that could inhibit growth of the fetus.</p><p>\"Now that we know that the nanoparticles migrate -- from the mother\'s lungs to the placenta and fetal tissues -- we can work on answering other questions,\" Stapleton said. \"This detail of transfer will help inform future studies of exposure during pregnancy, fetal health, and the developmental onset of disease.\"</p><p>Other Rutgers authors on the paper included Brian Buckley and Cathleen Doherty at the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute, and Jeanine D\'Errico and Jarett Reyes George at the Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy.</p>','2022-04-20 16:56:45.528244','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Rutgers University','Inhaled nanoparticles -- human-made specks so minuscule they can\'t be seen in conventional microscopes, found in thousands of common products -- can cross a natural, protective barrier that normally protects fetuses, according to scientists studying factors that produce low-birth-weight babies.\n',1,13,'<li>J.N. D\'Errico, C. Doherty, J.J. Reyes George, B. Buckley, P.A. Stapleton. <strong>Maternal, placental, and fetal distribution of titanium after repeated titanium dioxide nanoparticle inhalation through pregnancy</strong>. <em>Placenta</em>, 2022; 121: 99 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.placenta.2022.03.008\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.placenta.2022.03.008</a>\n</li>'),(2282,'Windows to the soul: Pupils reveal \'aphantasia\' -- the absence of visual imagination','windows-to-the-soul:-pupils-reveal-\'aphantasia\'----the-absence-of-visual-imagination','2022-04-20 16:56:50.887483',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Visual imagination -- or rather, the lack of it -- can be verified by measuring pupil dilation, thereby providing the first physiological evidence of aphantasia, new research shows.</p><p>The study, led by researchers from UNSW Sydney and published in <em>eLife</em>, found that the pupils of people with aphantasia did not respond when asked to imagine dark and light objects, while those <em>without </em>aphantasia <em>did</em>.</p><p>To first gauge the pupillary reflex of non-aphantasic people, the researchers sought 42 study participants, self-reported as having a visual imagination, and fitted them with glasses to track their eye movements and pupil sizes.</p><p>Participants were then exposed to bright or dark shapes against a grey background, which predictably evoked pupillary constriction in response to bright shapes (comparable to looking up at a bright sky) and pupillary dilation in response to dark shapes (after switching a light off).</p><p>Next, to test visual imagery -- the mind\'s capacity to visualise objects -- participants were asked to simply imagine those same light or dark shapes (with their eyes open, for their pupils to be tracked) and subsequently report the \'vividness\' of that imagery.</p><p>The researchers found that even in response to <em>imagined</em> bright and dark shapes, the participants\' pupils still constricted and dilated appropriately, a pupillary response that was larger in those reporting greater imagery vividness.</p><p>\"The pupillary reflex is an adaption that optimises the amount of light hitting the retina,\" says Professor Joel Pearson, senior author on the paper. \"And while it was already known that imagined objects can evoke so-called \'endogenous\' changes in pupil size, we were surprised to see more dramatic changes in those reporting more vivid imagery. This really is the first biological, objective test for imagery vividness.\"</p><p><strong>Testing for a lack of imagination</strong></p><p>Finally, with the link between visual imagery and pupillary response established, the researchers sought to test the effect in aphantasic individuals. The researchers repeated the study with 18 participants self-reporting aphantasia.</p><p>Exposing participants to bright and dark shapes, the researchers found that aphantasic individuals exhibited the same pupillary response as the general population: constriction to bright, dilation to dark.</p><p>However, during the study\'s second component where participants were asked to visualise those same shapes, the pupillary response of aphantasic individuals did not significantly differ in response to imagined dark versus imagined bright objects.</p><p>\"One of the problems with many existing methods to measure imagery is that they are subjective, that is to say they rely on people being able to accurately assess their own imagery. Our results show an exciting new objective method to measure visual imagery,\" says Prof Pearson, \"and the first physiological evidence of aphantasia. With over 1.3 million Australians thought to have aphantasia, and 400 million more internationally, we are now close to an objective physiological test, like a blood test, to see if someone truly has it.\"</p><p>To ensure the aphantasic participants were really attempting imagery, the researchers included a further experimental condition, requesting aphantasic individuals to visualise four shapes, instead of one.</p><p>While the pupils of those with aphantasia showed no difference when imagining light versus dark objects, they did show a difference imagining one versus four objects, suggesting more mental effort, thereby negating an explanation of non-participation by aphantasic individuals.</p><p>\"Our pupils are known to get larger when we are doing a more difficult task,\" says Lachlan Kay, PhD candidate in the Future Minds Lab, UNSW. \"Imagining four objects simultaneously is more difficult than imagining just one. The pupils of those with aphantasia dilated when they imagined four shapes compared to one, but did not change based on the whether the shapes were bright or dark. This indicated that the participants with aphantasia were indeed trying to imagine in this experiment, just not in a visual way.\"</p><p>\"The aphantasic pupil response to the four objects condition is also a really exciting finding,\" adds Prof Pearson, \"because for the first time we have strong biological evidence that those with aphantasia are really trying to create a mental image, putting to rest claims that they may simply not be attempting to create a mental image.\"</p><p>\"These findings are also really interesting in regard to memory and aphantasia,\" said Dr Rebecca Keogh, Postdoctoral research fellow based at Macquarie University and another author of the study. \"Our previous work has shown that aphantasic individuals are able to perform visual working memory tasks, remembering many images for a short period of time, without using visual imagery.</p><p>\"These findings further highlight the wide variability of the human mind that can often remain hidden until we ask someone about their internal experiences or invent new ways to measure the mind. It reminds us that just because I remember or visualise something one way, doesn\'t mean everyone does.\"</p><p><strong>What\'s next for aphantasia research? A look into the future…</strong></p><p>Next, Prof Pearson and his team at the Future Minds Lab plan to investigate how this new method could be scaled up and run online to allow a global, efficient and objective measurement of imagery and aphantasia.</p><p>\"This really is an exciting time. We are very close to having objective, reliable tests for extreme imagery, aphantasia and hyperphantasia (extremely strong visual imagery) that could be scaled up to run online for millions of people everywhere,\" says Prof Pearson.</p><p>\"We know that thinking in pictures or not affects the number of details in lifelong memories, how emotional we get when reading, and how we hold things in short term memory. This new method will allow us to understand the brain mechanisms of extreme imagery and the global implications for how we think, make decisions and feel.\"</p>','2022-04-20 16:56:50.887483','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of New South Wales','Picture this, if you will: Aphantasia can be detected with an eye-opening look into our pupils.\n',1,27,'<li>Rebecca Keogh, Lachlan Kay, Thomas Andrillon, Joel Pearson. <strong>The pupillary light response as a physiological index of aphantasia, sensory and phenomenological imagery strength</strong>. <em>eLife</em>, 2022; 11 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.72484\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.7554/eLife.72484</a>\n</li>'),(2283,'When severe infection causes long-term mood disorders: A promising avenue to prevent mental illness following a transient infection','when-severe-infection-causes-long-term-mood-disorders:-a-promising-avenue-to-prevent-mental-illness-following-a-transient-infection','2022-04-20 16:56:53.496813',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">The brain is able to detect and regulate localized or systemic inflammation by using two communication pathways. The first, humoral, makes use of specific brain structures that enable circulating inflammatory mediators to enter the brain. The second, neural, involves nerves whose sensory afferents transmit the inflammatory signal detected at local level.</p><p>The vagus nerve therefore uses identified receptors to detect a digestive or lung inflammation. Specific brain structures and networks perceive and integrate these humoral and neural messages and orchestrate a regulatory response involving neuroendocrine, neurovegetative and behavioral elements. These corrective interventions are controlled respectively by the hypothalamus and the hypophysis -- the autonomic nervous system and the limbic system. Neuroendocrine activation is characterized by the release of cortisol, the main stress hormone. The autonomic response involves the combined activation of the sympathetic and vagal systems, with the latter believed to induce a local anti-inflammatory response. Behavioral changes affect mood, attention, sleep and appetite. The aim of the overall response is to control inflammation so as to preserve bodily integrity, or homeostasis. But in some circumstances, it can be ill adapted and can lead to immunological and/or psychological disorders.</p><p>A severe infection known as sepsis is the most common condition capable of inducing this defense strategy against inflammatory stress. Sepsis is the leading cause of death worldwide and represents a major public health challenge. What makes the situation worse is that sepsis is also associated with chronic psychological disorders such as anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. These conditions significantly increase suicide risk and have a lasting impact on the personal, social and professional lives of patients. \"No preventive treatments have so far been demonstrated to be effective, probably because of a lack of understanding of the pathophysiology of these disorders, especially the neural networks implicated in their onset,\" explains Professor Tarek Sharshar, Head of the Sainte-Anne Neurology Department.</p><p>In an experimental study published in the journal <em>Brain</em>, a team of scientists from the Institut Pasteur (Perception and Memory laboratory) and clinicians from the Paris Psychiatry and Neurosciences University Hospital Group (GHU) (Neurological Resuscitation Department) used pharmacogenetic techniques to identify a dedicated neural circuit comprising the central nucleus of the amygdala and the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis. The activation of this circuit in the first few hours of sepsis induces anxious behavior two weeks after the infection has cleared. This behavior observed in mice mimics the post-traumatic stress disorder observed in patients recovering from sepsis.</p><p>\"This discovery paves the way for new therapeutic strategies for sepsis: we observed that administering an agent capable of preventing the hyperactivation of this circuit reduces the risks of developing anxiety disorders,\" explains Professor Pierre-Marie Lledo, Institut Pasteur and CNRS. This effect is thought to be partly linked with reduced activation of the vagal afferent integration center.</p><p>This study is of particular interest because it identifies both a dedicated circuit for post-sepsis anxiety and a potential pharmacological treatment. The latter will soon be tested in a multicenter randomized therapeutic trial. By revealing the link between neuroinflammation and psychiatric disorders, this research resonates with the current context of the COVID-19 pandemic and long COVID.</p>','2022-04-20 16:56:53.496813','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Institut Pasteur','Scientists used pharmacogenetic techniques to identify a dedicated neural circuit comprising the central nucleus of the amygdala and the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis. The activation of this circuit in the first few hours of sepsis induces anxious behavior two weeks after the infection has cleared. This behavior observed in mice mimics the post-traumatic stress disorder observed in patients recovering from sepsis.\n',1,39,'<li>Lena Bourhy, Aurélien Mazeraud, Luis H. A. Costa, Jarod Levy, Damien Rei, Estéban Hecquet, Ilana Gabanyi, Fernando A. Bozza, Fabrice Chrétien, Pierre-Marie Lledo, Tarek Sharshar, Gabriel Lepousez. <strong>Silencing of amygdala circuits during sepsis prevents the development of anxiety-related behaviours</strong>. <em>Brain</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/brain/awab475\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1093/brain/awab475</a>\n</li>'),(2284,'Unexpected protein could play role in common brain disorder','unexpected-protein-could-play-role-in-common-brain-disorder','2022-04-20 16:56:56.856095',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Scientists have known for years that amyloid fibrils -- fibrous, ropelike structures formed by closely linked protein molecules -- are present in the brains of patients with Alzheimer\'s and Parkinson\'s diseases and likely play a role in the progression of these disorders.</p><p>Now, UCLA biochemists have discovered such fibrils in the brains of people with a form of frontotemporal lobar degeneration, or FTLD, the most common neurodegenerative disorder after Alzheimer\'s and Parkinson\'s. But surprisingly, the type of protein they expected to find in these potentially harmful fibrils wasn\'t there at all; instead, a little-known protein called TMEM106B was identified as the culprit.</p><p>The findings, published in the journal <em>Nature</em>, are likely to lead to a new focus on TMEM106B in FTLD and similar brain diseases, the researchers said.</p><p>FTLD, which involves damage to the brain\'s frontal and temporal lobes, strikes people earlier in life than Alzheimer\'s and Parkinson\'s, causing dementia in 80 out of 100,000 people between the ages of 45 and 64. Symptoms can include acute changes in behavior and a decline in language skills. The form of the disease studied by the researchers is characterized molecularly by dense, spherical aggregates in brain cells, which are made up of the protein TDP-43.</p><p>The UCLA team presumed that if there were amyloid fibrils in the brains of people with FTLD, these fibrils would be composed of TDP-43.</p><p>The study\'s lead authors, UCLA molecular biology graduate student Yi Xiao (Sean) Jiang and UCLA postdoctoral fellow Qin Cao, both working in laboratory of UCLA professor David Eisenberg, were indeed able to extract amyloid fibrils from frozen brain tissues provided by the Mayo Clinic from four deceased patients who had been diagnosed with FTLD-TDP.</p><p>However, using a technique called cryogenic electron microscopy, or cryo-EM -- which allowed them to image large biomolecules in extraordinary detail -- they, along with UCLA bioinformatics researcher Michael Sawaya, determined that the fibrils were composed solely of TMEM106B, or transmembrane protein 106B.</p><p>Not much is known about TMEM106B, although genetic scientists found evidence a decade ago that a mutation of the protein is a risk factor for FTLD, said senior author Eisenberg, the Paul D. Boyer Professor of Molecular Biology at UCLA and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator.</p><p><strong>Like a golf course: The structure of amyloid fibrils in FTLD</strong></p><p>Pathological deposits of amyloid proteins are associated with more than 50 degenerative and potentially fatal diseases, according to Eisenberg, who has studied amyloid fibrils for years.</p><p>In a 2005 <em>Nature </em>paper, Eisenberg and an international team of chemists and molecular biologists reported that these fibrils are made up of proteins that interlock like the teeth of a zipper -- an observation that has been supported by recent studies. TMEM106B, he said, forms multiple molecular zippers.</p><p>The team\'s structural analysis of TMEM106B fibrils shows that they share features with the pathogenic fibrils seen in Alzheimer\'s and Parkinson\'s but are more complex, Eisenberg noted. Like those other fibrils, they are made of stacks of thousands of layers, each layer formed by single protein molecules with straight segments and bent corners, folding into a complex shape.</p><p>In TMEM106B, the folded protein chain has 18 straight segments, which the researchers liken to the 18 fairways of a golf course -- and like a golf course, the first and 18th fairways are near each other. \"So we say TMEM106B has a golf course-like fold,\" Eisenberg said.</p><p>Whether the TMEM106B amyloid fibrils contribute to causing FTLD-TDP remains to be seen. It is also unclear what, if any, role may be played by the TDP-43 proteins, whose normal function is to shepherd RNA molecules carrying DNA blueprints for proteins from the nucleus of brain cells to the cytoplasm.</p><p>\"TMEM106B may be found to be a cause of FTLD. In that case, our knowledge of the structure will aid in the design of therapeutics,\" Eisenberg said. \"Further research may also discover a connection between the actions of TMEM106B and TDP-43. It\'s too early to tell.</p><p>\"But at the least, the present paper will alert the community of researchers studying neurodegeneration that a new protein may potentially play a role,\" he said.</p><p>UCLA co-authors of the paper are Romany Abskharon, Peng Ge, Janine Fu, Rachel Ogorzalek and Joseph Loo. Michael DeTure and Dennis Dickson of the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, provided patient tissues and contributed neuropathological analyses.</p><p>Lead author Cao now heads his own lab at China\'s Shanghai Jiao Tong University.</p><p>Funding sources included the National Institute on Aging, part of the National Institutes of Health, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.</p>','2022-04-20 16:56:56.856095','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of California - Los Angeles','Scientists report that amyloid fibrils found in people with frontotemporal degeneration contain the little-known protein TMEM106B.\n',1,179,'<li>Yi Xiao Jiang, Qin Cao, Michael R. Sawaya, Romany Abskharon, Peng Ge, Michael DeTure, Dennis W. Dickson, Janine Y. Fu, Rachel R. Ogorzalek Loo, Joseph A. Loo, David S. Eisenberg. <strong>Amyloid fibrils in disease FTLD-TDP are composed of TMEM106B not TDP-43</strong>. <em>Nature</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04670-9\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41586-022-04670-9</a>\n</li>'),(2285,'Fetal exposure to meds may affect infants\' brain development','fetal-exposure-to-meds-may-affect-infants\'-brain-development','2022-04-20 16:57:03.480956',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">New study demonstrates that in utero exposure to mother\'s antiepileptic or antidepressant medication may affect development of the newborn brain networks. In the study, novel mathematical methods were developed to allow future research on how commonly used drugs or other environmental conditions affect the newborn brain.</p><p>Pregnant mothers may need treatment for their medical conditions, such as mood disorder or epilepsy. The effects of such drug treatment on newborn brain network functions was examined in a study conducted at the BABA Center, a research unit in University of Helsinki and New Children\'s Hospital of HUS Helsinki University Hospital. The study used electroencephalography (EEG) to measure electrical brain activity during sleep, and cortical network properties were calculated using advanced mathematical techniques.</p><p>\"In prior studies, we have shown that changes in cortical activity across sleep states may provide important information on infants\' neurological condition,\" Senior Researcher Anton Tokariev says.</p><p>The study demonstrated that exposure to antiepileptics and antidepressants during the fetal period leads to widespread changes in the cortical networks, and these effects may be specific to the type of drug exposure. In the case of antidepressants, the effect was more pronounced in local cortical networks. In contrast, exposure to antiepileptics had drug-specific effects on brain wide networks. Both drug types affected brain networks that are reactive to changes in sleep stages.</p><p>\"What was clinically significant in the findings was that, some EEG findings linked to children\'s subsequent neuropsychological development. Stronger changes in neural networks predicted a greater deviation in development at two years of age,\" says Mari Videman, specialist in paediatric neurology at HUS Helsinki University Hospital.</p><p><strong>Shedding new light on early brain development</strong></p><p>The studies offer an entirely new way of assessing the effects of pharmaceutical agents on the development of child\'s brain function.</p><p>\"The EEG measurement technique developed at the BABA Center and its associated state-of-the-art mathematical assessment of the brain\'s neural networks constitute breakthroughs in clinical research on early neurodevelopment,\" Professor Sampsa Vanhatalo says.</p><p>Vanhatalo considers it particularly important that these EEG -based measures open a window into mechanisms that operate between neuronal cell. This leads to an opportunitity to compare results observed in human children with research conducted using laboratory-animal models. Such translational work is needed to understand the mechanistic underpinnings of the drug effects. For instance, identical animal work is required to study how the amount or timing of maternal drug treatment would affect brain function of the offspring.</p><p>\"Our novel methods provide a general analytical framework to support extensive future research on the questions how fetal brain development is affected by changes in intrauterine environment. Such studies may go far beyond maternal drug treatment, including also mother\'s nutrition and overall physical condition, as well as myriad of further environmental factors,\" Vanhatalo summarises.</p>','2022-04-20 16:57:03.480956','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Helsinki','A new study demonstrates that in utero exposure to mother\'s antiepileptic or antidepressant medication may affect development of the newborn brain networks. In the study, novel mathematical methods were developed to allow future research on how commonly used drugs or other environmental conditions affect the newborn brain.\n',1,13,'<li>Anton Tokariev, Victoria C. Oberlander, Mari Videman, Sampsa Vanhatalo. <strong>Cortical Cross-Frequency Coupling Is Affected by in utero Exposure to Antidepressant Medication</strong>. <em>Frontiers in Neuroscience</em>, 2022; 16 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2022.803708\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.3389/fnins.2022.803708</a>\n</li>'),(2286,'Ubiquitous nutrients suppress appetite and promote movement','ubiquitous-nutrients-suppress-appetite-and-promote-movement','2022-04-20 17:54:03.364939',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">In experiments on mice, researchers at ETH Zurich show that non-​essential amino acids act as appetite suppressants and promote the urge to move. Their research provides insight into the neural mechanism that controls this behaviour.</p><p>Proteins can suppress appetite, so a protein-​rich diet can help people lose weight. That\'s just one of the reasons why this kind of diet has become increasingly popular in recent years. Working with mice, researchers at ETH Zurich have now demonstrated a new mechanism by which the building blocks of proteins -- the amino acids -- curb appetite. Specifically, it involves what are known as non-​essential amino acids.</p><p>Of the 21 amino acids our bodies require, there are 9 they are unable to produce on their own. They are called essential amino acids. Because we must obtain these through our diet, they have far been the focus of nutrition research. The other 12 amino acids are considered non-​essential. The body can produce them itself by altering other molecules.</p><p><strong>Shown in mice</strong></p><p>It has been known that both essential and non-​essential amino acids can suppress appetite. For the non-​essential amino acids, the mode of action had not yet been demonstrated in living organisms, however. Now, a group of researchers led by Denis Burdakov, Professor of Neuroscience at ETH Zurich, have shown for the first time in a living organism that the non-​essential amino acids influence the brain in a way that curbs appetite and promotes exercise.</p><p>The researchers first fed mice either a mixture of various non-​essential amino acids or a sugar solution with the same amount of calories (control group). Both groups of mice were then allowed to drink a milkshake, which they normally love. While the control group drank copious amounts of it, the mice that had been fed non-​essential amino acids avoided theirs. Instead, they went around their enclosure in search of alternative sustenance.</p><p><strong>Rooted in evolutionary history</strong></p><p>With additional experiments, the researchers were able to decode the underlying mechanism, in which specialised nerve cells in the brain -- orexin neurons -- play the main role. Proteins that the mice take in through food are broken down in the gut into their amino acids, which then enter the bloodstream. From there, the blood transports them to the brain. The orexin neurons in the hypothalamus have receptors that specifically recognise the non-​essential amino acids. In response, they initiate a neural circuit that produces the described behavioural changes.</p><p>This mechanism is likely rooted in evolutionary history. \"Today, we have sufficient access to all nutrients, and we have plenty of time for eating. In prehistoric times, when this mechanism developed, that was likely not the case,\" says Paulius Viskaitis, a postdoc in Burdakov\'s group and lead author of the study. \"Back then, it was advantageous for individuals to spend only a short amount of time at a food source that consisted primarily of non-​essential amino acids.\" If eating non-​essential amino acids promotes the urge to move, the animal will go in search of other sources of food -- which potentially contain more essential nutrients and are more important for the individual.</p><p>Viskaitis stresses that the results are transferable to humans and other animals, as this mechanism affects a region of the brain that is very old in terms of evolutionary history and occurs equally in all mammals and many other vertebrates. Still, for people who want to lose weight, a diet that includes especially many non-​essential amino acids cannot be recommended across the board, Viskaitis says. Nutritional recommendations should be made on an individual basis, and they should also take health aspects into account.</p>','2022-04-20 17:54:03.364939','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'ETH Zurich','In experiments on mice, researchers show that non-essential amino acids act as appetite suppressants and promote the urge to move. Their research provides insight into the neural mechanism that controls this behavior.\n',1,27,'<li>Paulius Viskaitis, Myrtha Arnold, Celia Garau, Lise T. Jensen, Lars Fugger, Daria Peleg-Raibstein, Denis Burdakov. <strong>Ingested non-essential amino acids recruit brain orexin cells to suppress eating in mice</strong>. <em>Current Biology</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2022.02.067\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.cub.2022.02.067</a>\n</li>'),(2287,'No rest for new elephant mothers','no-rest-for-new-elephant-mothers','2022-04-20 17:54:12.387557',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">New study reveals elephant babies are able to keep up with the herd straight after birth.</p><p>Elephant herds do not slow down for mothers who\'ve just given birth, according to new research from an international team led by researchers from the University of Oxford, in collaboration with Save the Elephants.</p><p>Elephants need to keep moving in order to find the amount of food and water they need to survive, but how do families manage with new babies? The secret lies with the 22-month gestation period, that sees mature baby elephants emerge from the womb able to keep up with the family from the day they\'re born.</p><p>The findings, published today in Animal Behaviour, show the average daily speed of the mother did not significantly change during pregnancy, birth and when moving with a newborn calf, except for a small dip in daily speed on the day of birth itself. In fact, the speed on the day before the elephant gave birth and the day after (i.e. the first complete day of the calf\'s life) were not different from the yearly average speed.</p><p>Researchers from the University of Oxford, who conducted the study in collaboration with Save the Elephants, describe the findings as \'remarkable\'. The study -- the first of its kind -- gives rare insight into how pregnancy, birth and newborn calves impact the movements of African savannah elephants (<em>Loxodonta africana</em>) and further demonstrates the strength and resilience of female elephants.</p><p>Elephants live in strongly bonded, female-led (matriarchal) herds. Alongside the mother, other elephants (usually aunts) help to rear and protect calves. However, different elephants in a herd can be pregnant and give birth at different times. This asynchrony means elephants have to balance different needs and pressures between members of the herd.</p><p>To find out how these factors affect a herd\'s movements, Save the Elephants fitted GPS tracking collars to pregnant elephants. The tracking technology, pioneered by Save the Elephants, is an important tool for monitoring elephant movement and behaviour, and works in a similar way to a smartwatch tracking a walk or a run. The age of baby elephants was estimated by size and appearance.</p><p>The scientists then brought all this data together to calculate whether the speed of the mother changed before, during, and after birth.</p><p>\'We speculate that this ability \'to keep up\' may underpin why elephants have the longest gestation period [pregnancy] of any mammal in order to facilitate an advanced state of fetal physical development, and may have evolved to help elephant herds stay together,\' says the lead author, Dr Lucy Taylor from the University of Oxford.</p><p>\'I find it remarkable that female elephants are pregnant for 22 months, give birth and then are capable of carrying on almost straight away. Even the oldest female in a family herd, the matriarch, can still give birth and lead the group, which I consider to be another demonstration of the strength and resilience of female elephants,\' says Dr Taylor.</p><p>\'Elephants of various species once roamed every continent on earth. Sociability and shared experience are likely major factors that allow African savannah elephants to thrive in such a wide range of habitats. Keeping up with the herd from the moment of birth also allows the babies to benefit from protection against predators at a vulnerable stage,\' says Dr Iain Douglas-Hamilton, founder of Save the Elephants.</p><p>* This data set only contains elephants born in or near the relative safety of a national reserve and none of the elephant families recorded were travelling at speed for any length of time. While neonatal calves are capable of keeping up with normal herd movements, moving at high speed has a considerable energetic cost and thus could impact calf survival.</p>','2022-04-20 17:54:12.387557','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Oxford','Elephant herds do not slow down for mothers who\'ve just given birth, according to new research.\n',1,27,'<li>Lucy A. Taylor, George Wittemyer, Ben Lambert, Iain Douglas-Hamilton, Fritz Vollrath. <strong>Movement behaviour after birth demonstrates precocial abilities of African savannah elephant, Loxodonta africana, calves</strong>. <em>Animal Behaviour</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2022.03.002\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.anbehav.2022.03.002</a>\n</li>'),(2288,'Genetic changes differed, increased in people with Alzheimer\'s disease','genetic-changes-differed,-increased-in-people-with-alzheimer\'s-disease','2022-04-20 19:04:13.046582',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Inside brain cells, errors in DNA can accumulate as we age. But in patients with Alzheimer\'s disease, these errors -- known as somatic mutations -- may build up at a faster rate. A new study by investigators from Brigham and Women\'s Hospital and Boston Children\'s Hospital found that patients with Alzheimer\'s disease (AD) have a greater number of somatic mutations in their brain cells and that these mutations differed from people without Alzheimer\'s disease. The team\'s results are published in <em>Nature.</em></p><p>\"As we age, neurons are known to accumulate somatic mutations. In AD neurons, however, we see more mutations and DNA alterations,\" said lead author Michael B. Miller, MD, PhD, of the Department of Pathology at the Brigham. \"Our results suggest that AD neurons experience genomic damage that causes immense stress on cells and creates dysfunction among them. These findings may explain why many brain cells die during AD.\"</p><p>The team conducted its study using single-cell whole genome sequencing of 319 hippocampal and prefrontal cortex neurons of patients with or without AD to determine the link between the number and type of somatic mutations and AD. To better understand the genomic changes that occur in AD neurons, researchers sequenced tissue DNA and discovered a greater number of mutations termed somatic single-nucleotide variants (sSNVs) in patients with AD. Theorizing that the large number of mutations is the result of increased DNA oxidation, researchers then measured 8-Oxoguanine, an indicator of oxidative stress and DNA damage, and found that AD neurons were in fact more oxidized.</p><p>Ultimately, the discovery of accumulating DNA alterations in AD neurons provides researchers with a window into molecular and cellular events in AD pathogenesis. \"Our findings suggest that the sheer number of oxidative lesions and somatic mutations we observed in AD neurons may contribute to its pathology,\" said Miller.</p><p>The authors acknowledge two main study limitations. First, two groups were primarily studied: patients with no neurologic disease and those with advanced AD based on the Braak staging system. In the future, researchers are eager to study the neurons of individuals with intermediate-stage AD. Second, while single-cell, whole-genome sequencing was feasible for the preliminary studies, the authors note that there are advanced methods that allow for an in-depth analysis of each strand of DNA that should be explored in the future.</p><p>\"In the future, we are eager to elucidate how the observed mutations in AD neurons cause neuronal cell death and are dedicated to aiding in the discovery of novel treatments that target these pathways,\" Miller said.</p><p><strong>Disclosures: </strong>Christopher A. Walsh is a paid consultant (cash, no equity) to Third Rock Ventures and Flagship Pioneering (cash, no equity) and is on the Clinical Advisory Board (cash and equity) of Maze Therapeutics. No research support is received. These companies did not fund and had no role in the conception or performance of this research project.</p><p><strong>Funding: </strong>This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (K08 AG065502,T32 HL007627, T32 GM007753, T15 LM007098, R00 AG054748, K01 AG051791, R01 NS032457-20S1, R01 AG070921, DP2 AG072437), the Brigham and Women\'s Hospital Program for Interdisciplinary Neuroscience through a gift from Lawrence and Tiina Rand, the donors of the Alzheimer\'s Disease Research program of the BrightFocus Foundation (A20201292F), the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Clinical Scientist Development Award (2021183), Suh Kyungbae Foundation, the F616 Prime Foundation, and the Allen Discovery Center program, a Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group advised program of the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation.</p><p><strong>Paper cited:</strong> Miller MB <em>et al</em>. \"Somatic genomic changes in single Alzheimer\'s disease neurons\" <em>Nature 2022</em> DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-04640-1</p>','2022-04-20 19:04:13.046582','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Brigham and Women\'s Hospital','Researchers found that changes accumulated in the brain cells of patients with Alzheimer\'s disease at a faster rate, potentially explaining why brain cells die and revealing new pathways to target for treatment.\n',1,14,'<li>Miller, M.B., Huang, A.Y., Kim, J. et al. <strong>Somatic genomic changes in single Alzheimer’s disease neurons</strong>. <em>Nature</em>, 2022 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04640-1\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41586-022-04640-1</a>\n</li>'),(2289,'Air pollution linked to higher risk of COVID-19 in young adults','air-pollution-linked-to-higher-risk-of-covid-19-in-young-adults','2022-04-20 19:04:58.953060',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Residential exposure to ambient air pollutants is linked to an elevated risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection, an observational study of young adults in Stockholm, Sweden shows. The study was conducted by researchers from Karolinska Institutet and is published in<em> JAMA Network Open.</em></p><p>Since pollutants in outdoor air can increase the risk of respiratory infections such as influenza and SARS, the COVID-19 pandemic aroused fears that they could also contribute to the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Studies have also shown that areas of poor air quality have more cases of COVID-19.</p><p>Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have now studied this more closely by examining the link between estimated exposure to air pollutants at home addresses and positive PCR tests for SARS-CoV-2 in young adults in Stockholm, Sweden.</p><p>The results show that exposure to certain traffic-related air pollutants is associated with a greater likelihood of testing positive.</p><p>\"Our results add to the growing body of evidence that air pollution has a part to play in COVID-19 and support the potential benefit of improving air quality,\" says Olena Gruzieva, associate professor at the Institute of Environmental Medicine at Karolinska Institutet and one of the study\'s last authors.</p><p>The study draws on the population-based BAMSE project, which has regularly followed over 4,000 participants in Stockholm from birth. By linking these data to the national communicable disease registry (SmiNet), the researchers identified 425 individuals who had tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 (PCR test) between May 2020 and the end of March 2021. The average age of the participants was 26, and 54 per cent were women.</p><p>Daily outdoor concentrations of different air pollutants at the participants\' home addresses were estimated using dispersion models. The pollutants were particles with a diameter less than 10 micrometers (PM10) and 2.5 micrometers (PM2.5), black carbon and nitrogen oxides.</p><p>The researchers studied the associations between infection and exposure to air pollutants in the days before the positive PCR test, on the day of the test and on later control days. Each participant served as his or her own control on these different occasions.</p><p>The results show associations between infection risk and exposure to PM10 and PM2.5 two days before a positive test and exposure to black carbon one day before. They found no link between the risk of infection and nitrogen oxides.</p><p>The increase in risk was of an order of magnitude around seven per cent per particle exposure increase equivalent to the interquartile range, i.e. between the first quartile (25%) and the third quartile (75%) of the estimated particle concentrations.</p><p>\"Seven per cent doesn\'t sound much, but given that everyone is more or less exposed to air pollutants, the association may be of great significance to public health,\" says Erik Melén, professor of paediatrics at the Department of Clinical Science and Education, Södersjukhuset, Karolinska Institutet, BAMSE project leader and the study\'s joint last author.</p><p>The observed association was not influenced by gender, smoking, overweight or asthma.</p><p>The researchers note that the results might be affected by the willingness to take a PCR test and the fact that many of the young adults were asymptomatic or had only mild symptoms following infection. The study can also not rule out the possibility that time-varying confounding factors also influenced the results.</p><p>The researchers are now examining the link between air pollutants and post-COVID symptoms in young adults.</p><p>The first author of the paper is Zhebin Yu, postdoctoral researcher in Olena Gruzieva\'s group. The study was financed by Forte, the Swedish Research Council, the Swedish Heart-Lung Foundation and Region Stockholm. The authors have reported no conflicts of interest.</p>','2022-04-20 19:04:58.953060','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Karolinska Institutet','Residential exposure to ambient air pollutants is linked to an elevated risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection, an observational study of young adults in Stockholm, Sweden shows.\n',1,84,'<li>Zhebin Yu, Tom Bellander, Anna Bergström, Joakim Dillner, Kristina Eneroth, Magnuz Engardt, Antonios Georgelis, Inger Kull, Petter Ljungman, Göran Pershagen, Massimo Stafoggia, Erik Melén, Olena Gruzieva, Catarina Almqvist, Niklas Andersson, Natalia Ballardini, Anna Bergström, Sophia Björkander, Petter Brodin, Anna Castel, Sandra Ekström, Antonios Georgelis, Lennart Hammarström, Qiang Pan-Hammarström, Jenny Hallberg, Christer Jansson, Maura Kere, Inger Kull, André Lauber, Alexandra Lövquist, Erik Melén, Jenny Mjösberg, Ida Mogensen, Lena Palmberg, Göran Pershagen, Niclas Roxhed, Jochen Schwenk. <strong>Association of Short-term Air Pollution Exposure With SARS-CoV-2 Infection Among Young Adults in Sweden</strong>. <em>JAMA Network Open</em>, 2022; 5 (4): e228109 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.8109\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.8109</a>\n</li>'),(2290,'How do our eyes stay focused on what we reach for?','how-do-our-eyes-stay-focused-on-what-we-reach-for?','2022-04-20 19:05:02.265488',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Keeping our eyes focused on what we reach for, whether it be an item at the grocery store or a ground ball on the baseball field, may appear seamless, but, in fact, is due to a complex neurological process involving intricate timing and coordination. In a newly published study in the journal <em>Nature</em>, a team of researchers sheds additional light on the machinations that ensure we don\'t look away from where we are reaching.</p><p>The work centers on a form of coordinated looking and reach called \"gaze anchoring\" -- the temporary stoppage of eye movements in order to coordinate reaches.</p><p>\"Our results show that we anchor our gaze to the target of the reach movement, thereby looking at that target for longer periods,\" explains Bijan Pesaran, a professor at NYU\'s Center for Neural Science and one of the paper\'s authors. \"This is what makes our reaches much more accurate. The big question has been: How does the brain orchestrate this kind of natural behavior?\"</p><p>The study, conducted with Maureen Hagan, a neuroscientist at Australia\'s Monash University, explores the frequently studied but not well understood process of gaze anchoring -- in particular, how different regions of the brain communicate with each other.</p><p>To examine this phenomenon, the scientists studied brain activity in the arm and eye movement regions of the brain at the same time as non-human primates performed a sequence of eye and arm movements. The first movement was a coordinated look-and-reach to a target. Then, as little as 10 milliseconds later, a second target was presented that subjects needed to look at as quickly as possible. This second eye movement revealed the gaze anchoring effect. These movements are similar to those made when changing the radio while driving and attending to a traffic light -- if you quickly look away from the radio to the traffic light, you might not select the right channel.</p><p>Their results showed that, during gaze anchoring, neurons in the part of the brain -- the parietal reach region -- used for reaching work to inhibit neuron activity in the part of the brain -- the parietal saccade region -- used for eye movements. This suppression of neuron firing serves to inhibit eye movement, keeping our eyes centered on the target of our reach, which then enhances the accuracy of what we\'re grasping for. Importantly, the scientists note, the effects were tied to patterns of brain waves at 15-25 Hz, called beta waves, that organize neural firing across the different regions of the brain.</p><p>\"Beta waves have been previously linked to attention and cognition, and this study reveals how beta activity may control inhibitory brain mechanisms to coordinate our natural behavior,\" explains Pesaran.</p><p>By further illuminating the neurological processes of coordinated looking and reaching, tying them to inhibitory beta waves, this study offers the potential to better understand afflictions of attention and executive control that orchestrate natural behaviors like coordinated looking and reaching.</p><p>The research was supported by the National Institutes of Health (T32 EY007136), Australian Research Council (DE180100344), the National Science Foundation (BCS-0955701), the National Eye Institute (R01-EY024067), the Army Research Office, the Simons Foundation, a McKnight Scholar Award, and a Sloan Research Fellowship.</p>','2022-04-20 19:05:02.265488','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'New York University','Keeping our eyes focused on what we reach for, whether it be an item at the grocery store or a ground ball on the baseball field, may appear seamless, but, in fact, is due to a complex neurological process involving intricate timing and coordination. Researchers now shed additional light on the machinations that ensure we don\'t look away from where we are reaching.\n',1,162,'<li>Maureen A. Hagan, Bijan Pesaran. <strong>Modulation of inhibitory communication coordinates looking and reaching</strong>. <em>Nature</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04631-2\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41586-022-04631-2</a>\n</li>'),