Curated News: Grant Funded News

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NIBIB-funded researchers have created a novel, low-cost biosensor to detect HER-2, a breast cancer biomarker in the blood, allowing for a far less invasive diagnostic test than the current practice, a needle biopsy. Scientists at the Universities of Hartford and Connecticut and funded in part by NIBIB, combined microfluidic technology with diagnostics, including electrochemical sensors and biomarkers, into a powerful package that can give results in about 15 minutes.

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Pain after surgery can be effectively managed with minimal or no opioids, according to research conducted at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center and published today in JAMA Network Open. A two-year study by a multidisciplinary team of surgeons and other cancer specialists shows that the amount of opioid medications prescribed after surgery can be drastically reduced without negatively affecting pain scores, postoperative complications or patient requests for additional

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A new study finds 29 percent of veterans who underwent recommended screening colonoscopies were uncomfortable with the idea of stopping these screenings when the benefit was expected to be low for them personally.

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An analysis from Indiana University researchers has found that half the people pursuing scientific careers at institutions of higher education will depart the field after five years -- a sharp contrast compared to 50 years ago.

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Researchers spent two years testing chemical compounds for their ability to inhibit the malaria parasite at an earlier stage in its lifecycle than most current drugs, revealing a new set of chemical starting points for the first drugs to prevent malaria instead of just treating the symptoms.

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In medical chart reviews of 2,430 kidneys transplanted from 1,298 donors—585 (24 percent) of them with AKI—researchers say they found no significant differences in rates of organ rejection among kidneys from deceased donors with or without AKI. They also report they found no evidence that factors such as the amount of time an organ is chilled and left without blood supply before transplantation had any impact on recipient outcomes for those who received AKI kidneys.

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TB meningitis causes life-threatening inflammation of the brain, which is difficult to treat due to the inability of drugs to penetrate the blood brain barrier. Researchers used PET imaging to measure antibiotic concentrations in infected brains with the goal of optimizing TB meningitis treatment.

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Drones make bridge inspections safer and easier to document. A complementary 3-D bridge app developed by the Michigan Tech Research Institute also streamlines defect records.

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Although relatively rare in the United States, and accounting for fewer than 5 percent of tuberculosis cases worldwide, TB of the brain—or tuberculosis meningitis (TBM)—is often deadly, always hard to treat, and a particular threat to young children.

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Meticulous new research from the School of Medicine has changed a well-accepted scientific belief about neurons, the vital nerve cells that allow us to experience the world and record those experiences as memories in our brains.

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The WHO considers Rift Valley fever a potential public health emergency. This study shows just how damaging the virus is during pregnancy and sets the stage for vaccine development.

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Air quality has been associated with numerous adverse health outcomes from asthma to pre-term birth. Researchers at University of Utah Health found women living along the Wasatch Front — the most populous region in the state of Utah — had a higher risk (16 percent) of miscarriage following short-term exposure to elevated air pollution.

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Researchers show that lung-resident memory B cells establish themselves in the lung soon after influenza infection in mice. Those lung memory B cells respond more quickly to produce antibodies against influenza after re-infection, and establishment requires a local antigen encounter in the lung.

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Jonathan Haines, PhD, with Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine will lead a national collaboration to expand big data genetic research into Alzheimer’s disease to include stronger representation from African-American and Hispanic communities. Funding for the research – $14.6 million to be awarded over multiple years – is from the National Institute on Aging at the National Institutes of Health.

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Duke Health researchers have previously shown that introducing bone marrow stem cells to a bone injury can expedite healing, but the exact process was unclear. Now, the same Duke-led team believes it has pinpointed the “youth factor” inside bone marrow stem cells -- it’s the macrophage, a type of white blood cell, and the proteins it secretes that can have a rejuvenating effect on tissue. Nature Communications will publish the findings online on Dec. 5.

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Research shows an immune response to parasitic intestinal worms provides new insights into possible treatments for the deadly disease

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A research team has developed a non-invasive method for detecting bladder cancer that might make screening easier and more accurate than current invasive clinical tests involving visual inspection of bladder. In the first successful use of atomic force microscopy (AFM) for clinical diagnostic purposes, the researchers have been able to identify signature features of cancerous cells found in patients’ urine by developing a nanoscale resolution map of the cells’ surface.

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A new combination of three drugs that harness the body’s immune system is safe and effective, destroying most cancer cells in 95 percent of patients with recurrent Hodgkin lymphoma, according to the results of an early-phase study.

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New drugs that harness the body’s immune system to destroy cancer cells appear to increase the effectiveness of later drug therapies for non-Hodgkin and Hodgkin lymphoma patients, new research suggests. This happens, scientists say, even for repeat drug therapies whose initial attempts failed to stop or reverse the disease.

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Large international study confirms measuring bone microarchitecture with new imaging technology accurately predicts risk of fracture in older women and men

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Preclinical experiments by University of Alabama at Birmingham researchers suggest the cancer drugs vorinostat, belinostat and panobinostat might be repurposed to treat infections caused by human papillomaviruses, or HPVs.

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A team of NIH-funded researchers at the University of Arkansas have demonstrated the novel use of multiphoton microscopy to monitor wound healing in live animals. The scientists measured metabolic changes that occur during healing at the wounds’ surface using autofluorescence imaging. In the future, doctors could use the images to non-invasively diagnose the type of chronic wound and determine the best treatment strategy.

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NIBIB-funded researchers recently validated a rapid STD test that delivered accurate results in about 30 minutes for chlamydia, allowing patients to receive treatment immediately, thereby stemming the further spread of disease. Other analyses showed most women preferred the easy self-collection method the test offers.

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In a recent issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Lin Mei, MD, PhD, asked, does all the tinkering in young mice hamper their brain development, causing schizophrenia-like symptoms? Or, do their brain cells develop normally, but in adulthood struggle to communicate? Researchers need to know whether to focus their efforts on brain cell development or communication, or both, because the answer to these questions implies different therapeutic approaches.

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Researchers have found that genetic mutations affecting the capsid, the structure surrounding the HIV genome, make it possible for a protein called TRIM5α to trigger the immune system of elite controllers.

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The constant movement of fish that seems random is actually precisely deployed to provide them at any moment with the best sensory feedback they need to navigate the world.

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In a proof-of-principle study, researchers at Johns Hopkins revealed that certain immune system cells found in the human liver, called liver macrophages, contain only inert HIV and aren’t likely to reproduce infection on their own in HIV-infected people on long-term antiretroviral therapy (ART). ART is a regimen containing combinations of HIV-targeting drugs that prevents the growth of the virus but does not eradicate it.

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No one knows what drives people with obsessive-compulsive disorder to do what they do, even when they’re aware that they shouldn’t do it, and when it interferes with normal life. That lack of understanding means about half can’t find effective treatment. But a new analysis of brain scans from hundreds of people with OCD, and people without it, may help. Larger than previous studies, it pinpoints brain areas and processes linked to OCD’s repetitive behaviors.

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Bioengineers have developed a 3D bioprinting technique that works with natural materials and is easy to use, allowing researchers of varying levels of technical expertise to create lifelike tissues, such as blood vessels and a vascularized gut. The goal is to make human organ models that can be studied outside the body or used to test new drugs ex vivo.

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The fish killer and the fish live in harmony: But how the clownfish thrive in the poisonous tentacles of the anemone remains a mystery. A new study tackles the iconic conundrum from the microbial side.

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Why do humans have hair on our arms and legs but not on the palms of our hands and the soles of our feet? It’s a fundamental question in human evolution that researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania say they’ve found clues to in a new study.

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Black patients with atrial fibrillation are significantly less likely to receive oral anticoagulants--particularly newer, more effective versions-- than white and Hispanic patients.

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A $2 million grant from the National Cancer Institute will support the expansion of Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey research focused on sun protective behaviors among young melanoma survivors -- an intervention delivered through social media.

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Every year, three to five million people around the world suffer from severe illness caused by influenza, primarily during the months of November through March. Now a new study by researchers from several universities including UC San Diego, published earlier this month in ACS Central Science, suggests a novel approach for combatting this sometimes deadly virus.

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A breakthrough study published in Nature Communications has demonstrated, in animal models of chronic injury, that long-term, devastating effects of spinal cord trauma on breathing and limb function may be reversible. The new study describes a treatment regimen that helps reawaken certain special types of nerve cells that can regenerate extensions, called axons, within the damaged spinal cord.

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Researchers at Johns Hopkins have identified two patients with HIV whose immune cells behave differently than others with the virus and actually appear to help control viral load even years after infection. Moreover, both patients carry large amounts of virus in infected cells, but show no viral load in blood tests. While based on small numbers, the data suggest that long-term viral remission might be possible for more people.

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In a study tracking the severe crisis pain of sickle cell disease and its management in 73 adults over a period of a year, Johns Hopkins researchers found that even among those on high doses of daily at-home opioids, a persistent subset was more likely to seek emergency hospital care for crisis pain and was less likely to have the pain controlled by intensive treatment.

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Are there changes that affect genes and fuel a person’s propensity to develop obesity? That’s a question under study at Texas Biomedical Research Institute. Associate Scientist Melanie Carless, Ph.D., is Principal Investigator of a $3 million, four-year grant from the National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Diseases to research this hypothesis.

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Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center say they have added to evidence that measuring and monitoring tumor DNA that naturally circulates in the blood of melanoma patients can not only reliably help reveal the early stages of cancer growth and spread but also uncover new treatment options that tumor genetic analysis alone may not.

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A study including health data for more than 500,000 children in the U.S. suggests obesity might be to blame for about a quarter (23 to 27 percent) of asthma in children who are obese. This could mean about 10 percent of all kids ages 2 to 17 with asthma -- almost 1 million children in the U.S. -- might have avoided the illness by maintaining a healthy weight, according to researchers at Duke University and collaborators with the National Pediatric Learning Health System (PEDSnet).

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Researchers in Israel have discovered that breast tumors can boost their growth by recruiting stromal cells originally formed in the bone marrow. The study, which will be published November 23 in the Journal of Experimental Medicine, reveals that the recruitment of bone marrow–derived fibroblasts lowers the odds of surviving breast cancer, but suggests that targeting these cells could be an effective way of treating the disease.

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Hantaviruses cause severe and sometimes fatal respiratory infections, but how they infect lung cells has been a mystery. In today’s issue of Nature, an international team including researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine reports that hantaviruses gain entry to lung cells by “unlocking” a cell-surface receptor called protocadherin-1 (PCDH1). Deleting this receptor made lab animals highly resistant to infection. The findings show that targeting PCDH1 could be a useful strategy against deadly hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS).

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Scientists from Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute (SBP) have identified gene recombination in neurons that produces thousands of new gene variants within Alzheimer’s disease brains. The study, published today in Nature, reveals for the first time how the Alzheimer’s-linked gene, APP, is recombined by using the same type of enzyme found in HIV.

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A protein found in healing muscles of younger mice helps older animals bounce back from injury.

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Cigarette smoking dramatically decreased between 2013 and 2017 just as e-cigarette use became more popular, according to a comprehensive analysis examining the relationship between vaping and smoking among youth and young adults led by a Georgetown University investigator.

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Researchers in the School of Engineering & Applied Science have discovered a new, natural law that sheds light on the fundamental relationship between coated black carbon and light absorption.

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For the past 17 years, most scientists around the globe have been using the nucleic acid sequence, or genome, an assembly of DNA information, from primarily a single individual as a kind of “baseline” reference and human species representation for comparing genetic variety among groups of people.

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Iowa State engineers are turning to game theory to help quantify threats of cyberattacks on the power grid. They're also developing cybersecurity tools that could help protect the grid and could be adapted to other cyber-physical infrastructure such as oil, natural gas and transportation systems.

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Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the United States, claiming more than 44,000 people in the country every year, similar to the number of deaths caused by the opioid epidemic. Previous studies show that suicide tracks in families independent of the effects from a shared environment. Researchers at the University of Utah Health are using resources unique to the state to identify underlying genetic factors that may increase the risk for suicide.

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In 2017, the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association released new blood pressure guidelines, lowering hypertension threshold to 130/80 mm Hg from the previous 140/90 mm Hg. A new study predicts that achieving and maintaining the 2017 guideline blood pressure goals could prevent more than 3 million cardiovascular disease events over ten years.