Feature Channels: All Journal News

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Proteins are finicky molecules. When removed from their native environments, they typically fall apart. To function properly, proteins must fold into a specific structure, often with the help of other proteins. Now a team of researchers at Northwestern University and the University of California at Berkeley have discovered a way to keep proteins active outside of a cell. The discovery could lead to a new class of materials with functions found only in living systems.

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Older patients with colorectal cancer are at an increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease and congestive heart failure, according to a study published in Journal of Clinical Oncology. The study also finds that morbidities such as diabetes and hypertension negatively interact with chemotherapy designated for colorectal cancer, which adds to the patient’s increased risk for cardiovascular morbidity.

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Using multiple screen devices simultaneously while snacking may influence food choices, according to a new Michigan State University study. Specifically, when people engage in media multitasking that makes them feel good, they're more prone to eat healthy, said Anastasia Kononova, assistant professor in the Department of Advertising and Public Relations, who led the study.

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In a new story for the Inside Science News Service, freelance journalist Marcus Woo explores the falling popularity of high-top basketball shoes and how researchers and other experts think the change might affect the frequency of ankle injuries. Read the story for free today.

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Scientists are one step closer to understanding how cells reshape their surfaces to internalize material from their surroundings, thanks to collaboration among researchers from two South Dakota universities and the National Institutes of Health.

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New research reveals that even the highest performing maize crops contain rare harmful mutations that limit crop productivity.

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Researchers at the University of Washington have developed a set of tools to make MRI studies of our central nervous system easier to share.

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Dr. Amy Hunter, a full-time faculty member and a part-time practitioner, is focused on improving the quality of care for older adults.

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The largest and most-devastating earthquakes and volcano eruptions occur where one tectonic plate is shifted underneath another one. A New Mexico State University researcher authored a paper published recently in “Nature Communications” that looks at the so-called subduction zones where the plates become “slabs” and sink into the Earth's mantle.

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Lithium-metal batteries — which can hold up to 10 times more charge than the lithium-ion batteries that currently power our phones, laptops and cars — haven’t been commercialized because of a fatal flaw: as these batteries charge and discharge, lithium is deposited unevenly on the electrodes. This buildup cuts the lives of these batteries too short to make them viable, and more importantly, can cause the batteries to short-circuit and catch fire.

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In a new approach to precision medicine research, scientists used bioinformatics tools to identify common features of genes associated with infantile spasms compared to other forms of early life epilepsy. Their analysis, published in PLOS ONE, reveals that infantile spasms are not only unique clinically, but also biologically. Focus on specific biological mechanisms underlying the genes that cause infantile spasms could help find new targets for treatment.

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Researchers at the University of Washington and the Allen Institute for Brain Science have developed a new method to classify and track the multitude of cells in a tissue sample. In a paper published March 15 in the journal Science, the team reports that this new approach — known as SPLiT-seq — reliably tracks gene activity in a tissue down to the level of single cells.

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Research investigates how social connectedness influences charitable giving, which could help philanthropies target donors more effectively

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Highlight • In a study of Black Americans who participated in focus group sessions, certain participant factors—such as knowledge of kidney disease and spiritual and cultural influences—and logistical factors—such as convenience and awareness of scheduling—were identified as barriers that may prevent Black Americans from being screened for kidney disease.

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It’s well known that a morning cup of joe jolts you awake. But scientists have discovered coffee affects your metabolism in dozens of other ways, including your metabolism of steroids and the neurotransmitters typically linked to cannabis, reports a new study from Northwestern Medicine. In a study of coffee consumption, Northwestern scientists were surprised to discover coffee changed many more metabolites in the blood than previously known.

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Paying rural villagers to cut down fewer trees boosts conservation not only while the payments are being made but even after they’re discontinued, according to a new CU Boulder study.

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In a study that has implications for humans with inflammatory diseases, researchers from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and colleagues have found that, given over a six-week period, the artificial sweetener sucralose, known by the brand name Splenda, worsens gut inflammation in mice with Crohn’s-like disease, but had no substantive effect on those without the condition. Crohn's disease is an inflammatory bowel disease of the digestive tract, which can lead to abdominal pain, severe diarrhea, bloody stools, weight loss, and fatigue. About 10-15 percent of human patients report that sweeteners worsen their disease.

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More than 500 years ago, Leonardo da Vinci sketched what he called “la turbolenza,” comparing chaotic swirls atop flowing water to curly human hair. It turns out those patterns influence myriad phenomena, from the drag on an airplane’s wings and the formation of Jupiter’s red spot to the rustling of tree leaves.

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While there has been an increased focus on person-centered models of care transition for cognitively intact older adults from hospital to home, little is known about the core elements of successful transitions in care specifically for persons with dementia.

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Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center have found a way to search genetic data in electronic health records to identify undiagnosed genetic diseases in large populations so treatments can be tailored to the actual cause of the illness.

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Rutgers doctoral student Didik Prasetyo’s passion is learning more about the endangered apes and trying to conserve their habitats and populations, which face enormous pressure from deforestation from logging, palm oil and paper pulp production, and hunting. He coauthored an alarming recent study in Current Biology on the estimated loss of more than 100,000 Bornean orangutans between 1999 and 2015.

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For the first time, researchers have developed a way to sequence the entire genome of a fetus by modifying the prenatal testing method known as amniocentesis. This groundbreaking finding, published in AACC’s journal Clinical Chemistry, could improve care for genetic diseases in childhood by dramatically increasing the number of these conditions that can be detected during pregnancy.

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A new study, which included experiments at Berkeley Lab, suggests that water may be more common than expected at extreme depths approaching 400 miles and possibly beyond – within Earth’s lower mantle. The study explored microscopic pockets of a trapped form of crystallized water molecules in a sampling of diamonds.

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A method currently used by thousands of laboratories across the country to preserve tissue could render samples useless over time for a common test to assess gene activity, a study led by Johns Hopkins researchers suggests. The findings, published in the November 2, 2017 American Journal of Clinical Pathology, could eventually lead to significant changes in how tissues are stored for clinical and research purposes.

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EVANSTON - A Northwestern University team has leveraged super material graphene to develop a new hair dye that is non-toxic, non-damaging and lasts through many washes without fading.

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Iowa State University researchers found a way to gain new insight into the human immune system by studying material left over after blood donations. The results, published recently in a peer-reviewed journal, illuminate the process of how the human body fights off harmful bacteria.

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A UNLV biologist compared the DNA of fat fruit flies to a control group and found nearly 400 candidate genes potentially associated with obesity and other health problems.

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A 12-week mobile health, or mHealth, program not only kept cardiac rehab patients from losing ground, it appeared to help them maintain and even gain fitness.

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A study from UT Southwestern's Peter O'Donnell Jr. Brain Institute demonstrates that a bird's song can be altered -- to the syllable -- by activating and deactivating a neuronal pathway responsible for helping the brain determine whether a vocalization is performed correctly.

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This week, thousands of graduating medical students around the country will find out where they’ll head next, to start their residency training. But a new study gives the first objective evidence of the heavy toll that the first year of residency can take on their sleep, physical activity and mood.

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In supersonic engines, achieving the right flow speed, producing the right ratio of evaporated fuel and causing ignition at the right time is complex. Vortices are affected by the shock wave, and this changes the way the fuel combusts and multiplies the number of possibilities of how particles can behave. To deepen our understanding, researchers use numerical modeling to calculate the huge variety of possible outcomes. They discuss their work in Physics of Fluids.

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A new study shows that higher doses of radiation do not improve survival for many patients with prostate cancer, compared with the standard radiation treatment. The analysis, which included 104 radiation therapy oncology groups across North America, was led by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

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•The ability of the “cold sore” herpes simplex virus to establish quiet infections and reawaken periodically has long mystified scientists. •A new study in mice reveals that a key host protein acts as a critical regulator of the virus’s sleep-wake cycle. •Disabling two viral binding sites for the protein weakened the virus’s ability to come out of hiding.

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When noble metals are treated with an aliphatic thiol, a uniform monolayer self-assembles on the surface; this phenomenon is interesting because the conducting molecules produce unique quantum properties that could be useful in electronics. Attempts to measure the current across this thin skim have yielded varied results, but researchers in France developed a stable mechanical setup to measure conductance across individual molecules with greater success. The results are in this week’s Journal of Applied Physics.

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Adults who have undergone successful cancer treatment years or decades previously become fatigued more quickly than their peers who don’t have cancer histories, according to a new study in the journal Cancer from scientists at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

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An international team explored the use of platinum- and gold-based molecular complexes to design potential new anticancer drugs.

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In the journal Clinical Cancer Research, researchers reported that by forcing cancer cells to slow down and developing stronger molecular traps for them, they could identify large numbers of the cells in cancer patients undergoing radiation therapy.

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As missions with human crews are planned for deep-space, new research from the University of New Hampshire’s Space Science Center cautions that radiation exposure is much higher than previously thought and could have serious implications on both satellites and future astronauts.

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WASHINGTON -- Teens who are old for their grade appear to feel more confident about their academic abilities and are more likely to enroll in college than their younger peers, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.

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New research by University of Wisconsin-Madison Professor of Pharmacy Seungpyo Hong and his collaborators builds on several years of work in isolating circulating tumor cells, or CTCs, by demonstrating improved methods for their capture on clinical samples for the first time.

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Nearly half of adolescents aren’t receiving a pair of vaccines to prevent a virus many of them will get.

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Chemical compounds carry distinctive absorption “fingerprints,” within the mid-infrared spectral region; this offers an opportunity to measure and study chemicals at extremely sensitive levels, but researchers currently lack the tools required. In a breakthrough, NIST researchers developed an on-silicon-chip laser source with outputs that consist of precisely defined and equally spaced optical lines within the mid-infrared spectral region. They report their findings in APL Photonics.

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UCLA scientists have developed a new method that utilizes microscopic splinter-like structures called “nanospears” for the targeted delivery of biomolecules such as genes straight to patient cells. These magnetically guided nanostructures could enable gene therapies that are safer, faster and more cost-effective.

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High-performance computing reveals the relationship between DNA and phosphorous uptake.

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Working with lab-grown human brain cells, Johns Hopkins researchers report they have uncovered a much sought-after connection between one of the most common genetic mutations in Parkinson’s disease and the formation of fatty plaques in the brain thought to contribute to the destruction of motor neurons that characterize the disease.

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Supercomputer simulations predict how E. coli adapts to environmental stresses.

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Spin caloritronics explores how heat currents transport electron spin, and researchers are particularly interested in how waste heat could be used to power next-generation spintronic devices. The thermally driven transport application of spin caloritronics is based on the Seebeck effect; researchers in China have theoretically exposed the fundamental aspects of this thermal transport along double-stranded DNA molecules. They reported their findings in the Journal of Applied Physics.

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A Ludwig Cancer Research study shows that ovarian cancer, which has proved resistant to currently available immunotherapies, could be susceptible to personalized immunotherapy. Led by Ludwig Lausanne investigator Alexandre Harari and George Coukos, director of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, Lausanne, the study shows that ovarian tumors harbor highly reactive killer T cells—which kill infected and cancerous cells—and demonstrates how they can be identified and selectively grown for use in personalized, cell-based immunotherapies.

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UAlberta researchers first to observe red squirrels killing other males’ pups when females produce two litters.

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In a new Johns Hopkins study, researchers have added to evidence that Trichomonas vaginalis (TV), the world’s most common curable sexually transmitted infection (STI), disproportionately affects the black community.