Feature Channels: All Journal News

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Systemic therapy consisting of corticosteroids and immunosuppressants preserved vision of uveitis patients better – and had fewer adverse outcomes – than a long-lasting corticosteroid intraocular implant, according to a clinical trial funded by the National Eye Institute (NEI). After seven years, visual acuity on average remained stable among participants on systemic therapy but declined by an average of six letters (about one line on an eye chart) among participants who had the implant. NEI is part of the National Institutes of Health.

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Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) has reached a major milestone in bringing personalized treatments to more cancer patients. Michael Berger, PhD, Ahmet Zehir, PhD, and colleagues have reported an in-depth analysis of the first 10,336 patients whose tumors were submitted for clinical genomic sequencing by MSK-IMPACT™, a powerful diagnostic test developed at MSK to provide detailed genetic information about a patient’s cancer.

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Whether you are a researcher who inveterately reads journals or someone who occasionally glides through the realms of science writing, your looking through scientific publications might well feel like a bumpy flight. Some articles require subscriptions, while others are “open access.” This month’s Physics Today should help you understand the turbulence. Journalist David Kramer explains the changes and markets of science publishing in “Steady, strong growth is expected for open-access journals.”

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New research from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and Boston Children’s Hospital shows that chronic sleep loss increases pain sensitivity. It suggests that chronic pain sufferers can get relief by getting more sleep, or, short of that, taking medications to promote wakefulness such as caffeine. Both approaches performed better than standard analgesics in a rigorous study in mice, described in the May 8, 2017 issue of Nature Medicine.

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Nearly one-third of beneficial bacteria in baby’s intestinal tract comes directly from mother’s milk, according to study of 107 mother-baby pairs

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Changing a single base in an organism’s genetic code impact its traits. Subtler changes can and do happen: in eukaryotes, one such modification involves adding a methyl group to base 6 of adenine (6mA). Researchers have now found prevalent 6mA modifications in the earliest fungal lineages.

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Chemists from Italy and Canada specializing in nanotechnology create a molecular slingshot that could shoot drugs at precise locations in the human body once triggered by specific disease markers.

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When it comes to research warning us about the latest health risks or touting the latest cure, a new Michigan State University study indicates that many people won’t trust the findings when an industry partner, even with a good reputation, is involved.

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In 2009, Joan Coates, a veterinary neurologist, along with other researchers at the University of Missouri and the Broad Institute at MIT/Harvard, found a genetic link between degenerative myelopathy (DM) in dogs and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig’s disease in people. Now, MU researchers Coates and Michael Garcia, an associate professor in the Division of Biological Sciences, have found that a biomarker test that helps diagnose ALS also can assist with determining a diagnosis for degenerative myelopathy.

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The fight against skin cancer just got a new weapon. For years, melanoma researchers have studied samples that were considered uniform in size and color, making them easier to examine by more conventional means. But melanomas don’t always come in the same shape and hue; often, melanomas are irregular and dark, making them difficult to investigate. Now, researchers at the University of Missouri have devised a new tool to detect and analyze single melanoma cells that are more representative of the skin cancers developed by most patients. The study, recently reported in Analyst published by the Royal Society of Chemistry, outlines the new techniques that could lead to better and faster diagnoses for the life-threatening disease.

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Researchers have developed a new technique that uses modified insulin and red blood cells to create a glucose-responsive “smart” insulin delivery system. In an animal model study, the new technique effectively reduced blood sugar levels for 48 hours in a strain of mice that had Type 1 diabetes.

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Nationwide, counties with the poorest quality across five domains – air, water, land, the built environment and sociodemographic – had the highest incidence of cancer, according to a new study published in the journal Cancer.

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In an analysis of medical records gathered from more than 300 hospitalized patients, a team of researchers reports that routine imaging scans used to help diagnose heart attacks generated "incidental findings" (IFs) in more than half of these patients. The investigators say only about 7 percent of these IFs were medically significant and urged imaging experts and hospitals to explore ways to safely reduce the added costly -- and potentially risky -- days in the hospital the IFs generate.

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A new study sequences the genomes of 80 silver birch trees, a tree that has not been studied much by scientists despite its commercial value for papermaking, construction, furniture-building and more. Researchers identified genetic mutations including mutations that may affect how well birch trees grow and respond to light at different latitudes and longitudes and under different environmental conditions. The research could help breed trees that better meet the needs of various industries.

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Power grid vulnerabilities are one of the most prevalent national security threats. The technical community calls for building up grid resiliency using distributed energy and microgrids for stabilization as multiple sources increases the difficulty of triggering cascading blackouts, and following an attack or natural disaster, microgrids can provide localized energy security.

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Taxpayers benefit most when job satisfaction among federal employees is high, according to a recent study conducted by a team of 14 researchers. The team identified specific strategies policymakers can implement in order to improve agency efficiency and effectiveness and increase the return on tax dollars.

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Graphene is considered as one of the most promising new materials. However, the systematic insertion of chemically bound atoms and molecules to control its properties is still a major challenge. Now, for the first time, scientists of the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, the University of Vienna, the Freie Universität Berlin and the University Yachay Tech in Ecuador succeeded in precisely verifying the spectral fingerprint of such compounds in both theory and experiment. Their results are published in the scientific journal "Nature Communications".

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A study conducted by Nationwide Children’s Hospital researchers found that over a 21-year period from 1990 through 2010, an estimated 263,000 children younger than 18 years of age were treated in U.S. hospital emergency departments for cotton tip applicator related ear injuries – that’s about 12,500 annually, or about 34 injuries every day.

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Argonne researchers have developed a new approach for studying piezoelectric materials using ultrafast 3-D X-ray imaging and computer modeling. Their integrated approach, reported in Nano Letters, can help us better understand material behavior and engineer more powerful and energy-efficient technologies.

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The third annual Cardiovascular Tissue Engineering Symposium met at the University of Alabama at Birmingham last month, a gathering of noted physicians and scientists who share the goal of creating new tissues and new knowledge that can prevent or repair heart disease and heart attacks.

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Despite having higher rates of preeclampsia, a dangerous high-blood pressure disorder of late pregnancy, obese women may be less than half as likely to suffer strokes, seizures, and other serious complications of the disorder. The findings are among those from two new studies of preeclampsia by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at University of Pennsylvania showing how obesity may help clinicians identify risk for the condition or other complications.

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UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have identified the cells that directly give rise to hair as well as the mechanism that causes hair to turn gray – findings that could one day help identify possible treatments for balding and hair graying.

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The Sopranos’ Tony Soprano and Walter White from Breaking Bad rank among recent television drama’s most notorious protagonists, each of questionable morality. So, here’s the question: Do you like them?

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Research shows for the first time an association between the gut microbiota and the brain regions involved in the processing of sensory information from their bodies. Also, the researchers gained insight into the connections among childhood trauma, brain development and gut microbiome composition.

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A new meta-analysis by a team from Roswell Park Cancer Institute demonstrates that Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) programs are effective in patients requiring many abdominal and pelvic operations, not just those undergoing colorectal surgeries.

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Research at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, conducted in a Pennsylvania Amish community where virtually no women smoke, finds effects of secondhand smoke differ between men and women.

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Texas A&M researchers are working to develop drugs to enhance the function of these receptors in the brain, which could have three very different applications: easing pain, slowing the cognitive decline associated with Alzheimer’s and making it easier for people to stop smoking.

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Machine learning (or coding) could help reduce false positives from mammography screening, according to an article study published online in the May 4, 2017 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Oncology. The national coding competition known as the DREAM Challenge, launched during the inauguration of Vice President Biden’s Cancer Moonshot Challenge, may help mitigate this harm associated with routine screening.

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Notre Dame Researchers have discovered a way to make influenza visible to the naked eye, by engineering dye molecules to target a specific enzyme of the virus.

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• Chronic fluid overload was linked with an increased risk of early death in patients undergoing hemodialysis. • The magnitude of this risk was comparable to that of coronary artery disease or congestive heart failure.

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Vocalization plays a significant role in social communication across species such as speech by humans and song by birds. Male mice produce ultrasonic vocalizations in the presence of females and both sexes sing during friendly social encounters.

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Researchers have discovered a molecular mechanism that reprograms tumor cells in patients with advanced prostate cancer, reducing their response to anti-androgen therapy. The findings, based on a study in mice, could help to determine which patients should avoid anti-androgen therapy and identify new treatments for people with advanced prostate cancer.

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Researchers investigating a form of adult-onset diabetes that shares features with the two better-known types of diabetes have discovered genetic influences that may offer clues to more accurate diagnosis and treatment. The study team found that latent autoimmune diabetes in adults (LADA) is genetically closer to type 1 diabetes than to type 2 diabetes.

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Researchers from Queen’s University Belfast have found that almost half of baby rice food products contain illegal levels of inorganic arsenic despite new regulations set by the EU.

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Engineers at the University of Maryland have developed a new use for wood: to filter water. Liangbing Hu of the Energy Research Center and his colleagues added nanoparticles to wood, then used it to filter toxic dyes from water.

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Even objective, automated vision testing—using a device called an autorefractor—gives variable results in patients with Down syndrome, reports a study in the May issue of Optometry and Vision Science, the official journal of the American Academy of Optometry. The journal is published by Wolters Kluwer.

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A recent discovery by Sandia National Laboratories researchers may unlock the potential of biofuel waste — and ultimately make biofuels competitive with petroleum.

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A basin in the Falkland Islands exhibits traits of a large impact crater, according to a new analysis by a team of scientists.

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Neuroscientists at Tufts have discovered a new signaling pathway that directly connects the brain’s NMDA and a7nACh receptors – both associated with learning and memory –– which has significance for development of drugs to treat schizophrenia. Astrocytes are the key elements that link the receptors.

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A team of University of Iowa researches has discovered a new connection between two regions of the brain that may help explain how motor skills develop. Working with infant rats, the scientists found that the hippocampus and the red nucleus, part of the brain stem, synchronize during REM sleep. Findings published in the journal Current Biology.

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Immunotherapy, which has achieved remarkable results in late-stage lung cancer patients, can also hold great hope for newly diagnosed patients, cutting the deadly disease off before it has the chance to take hold and offering a potential cure, according to a new Mount Sinai study published today in Cell.

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Economists have found that the most widely used model for predicting how U.S. government spending affects gross domestic product (GDP) can be rigged using theoretical assumptions to control forecasts.

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The National Eye Institute (NEI), part of the National Institutes of Health, has opened the first stage of a federal prize competition designed to generate miniature, lab-grown human retinas. The retina is the light- sensitive tissue in the back of the eye. Over the next three years pending availability of funds, NEI plans to offer more than $1 million in prize money to spur development of human retina organoids.

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Although the odds of developing breast cancer are nearly identical for black and white women, black women are 42 percent more likely to die from the disease. A large, multi-institutional study, published on-line May 4, 2017, in JAMA Oncology, explores the germline genetic variations and tumor biological differences between black and white women with breast cancer.

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The study examined language concordance visits--duty calls where the provider spoke the same language as the patient or an interpreter accompanied the provider--for registered nurses (RN) and physical therapists (PT) from home health care services in the New York City area. Korean speakers had the highest percentage of language-concordant visits, while Spanish speaking patients had the least.

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Working with mouse, fly and human cells and tissue, Johns Hopkins researchers report new evidence that disruptions in the movement of cellular materials in and out of a cell's control center -- the nucleus -- appear to be a direct cause of brain cell death in Huntington's disease, an inherited adult neurodegenerative disorder.

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An international team of scientists has developed a new way to produce single-layer graphene from a simple precursor: ethene – also known as ethylene – the smallest alkene molecule, which contains just two atoms of carbon.

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Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified a biomarker that appears linked to damage to cells in the retina of the eye. The marker may make it possible to better monitor the progression of glaucoma, as well as the effectiveness of treatment for the blinding disease.

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Scientists have completed the first outdoor field trial sanctioned by the EPA for genetically engineered algae. A genetically engineered strain of algae tested in outdoor ponds demonstrated that genetically engineered algae can be successfully cultivated outdoors without adversely impacting native algae populations.

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New research published May 4 in the New England Journal of Medicine demonstrated that a buprenorphine can safely cut the duration of therapy nearly in half for infants withdrawing from opioids.