Curated News: Grant Funded News

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers describe the role of a transcription factor called TCF-1 in targeting the condensed chromatin and regulating the availability of genome sequences in T-cell development. The new connection between TCF-1 and chromatin will aid in developing new therapies using epigenetic drugs to alter T-cell fate in cancer, autoimmune disorders, and infectious diseases.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers engineered mice in which the damage caused by a mutant human TDP-43 protein could be reversed by one type of brain immune cell. TDP-43 is a protein that misfolds and accumulates in the motor areas of the brains of ALS patients. They found that microglia, the first and primary immune response cells in the brain and spinal cord, are essential for dealing with TDP-43-associated neuron death.

• share
• favorite_border

Studies have shown that talking with teens about sex-related topics is a positive parenting practice that facilitates important sexual health outcomes with heterosexual adolescents. But for LGBTQ youth, the topic of sexuality and sexual health is often ineffectively addressed at home.

• share
• favorite_border

The Biospecimen Core Resource (BCR) in The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital has received a new $4.5 million federal contract — with the potential of reaching more than $49.9 million over five years — to accept, process, ensure quality, and distribute tumor derivatives for a number of national cancer research projects. The BCR is part of a national processing and analysis pipeline supporting large scale cancer genomic projects.

• share
• favorite_border

African Americans with atrial fibrillation (AF) – a quivering or irregular heartbeat that can lead to a host of dangerous complications – have a significantly higher risk of stroke than Caucasians with the condition, according to new research published today in HeartRhythm by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. The new findings build on previous studies examining the impact of race on the risk of developing atrial fibrillation (AF), which is linked to blood clots, stroke, heart failure and other complications. It’s well reported that African Americans have a lower risk of developing AF as compared to Caucasians, but until now, there was little data on the additional risks that come with AF for each race.

• share
• favorite_border

A new model developed by Michigan Medicine researchers could change treatment guidelines for nearly two-thirds of men with localized prostate cancer.

• share
• favorite_border

Around the clock, cells deep in the brain produces a “grandfather” form of several hormones that help us regulate our appetite and eating. Now, a new discovery sheds new light on how that grandfather molecule gets produced – and more important, what can go wrong and raise the risk of overeating and obesity. The findings could pave the way for new approaches to treating forms of obesity, especially those with genetic roots.

• share
• favorite_border

A new login authentication approach could improve the security of current biometric techniques that rely on video or images of users’ faces. Known as Real-Time Captcha, the technique uses a unique “challenge” that’s easy for humans — but difficult for attackers who may be using machine learning and image generation software to spoof legitimate users.

• share
• favorite_border

The pursuit of the usual suspect in Alzheimer's research may be distracting from a more direct culprit in the disease, according to a study that analyzed data from 51 published experiments. P-tau looked a good bit more culpable than amyloid-beta plaque.

• share
• favorite_border

Computers have helped researchers develop a new phosphor that can make LEDs cheaper and render colors more accurately. An international team led by engineers at UC San Diego first predicted the new phosphor using supercomputers and data mining algorithms, then developed a simple recipe to make it in the lab. Unlike many phosphors, this one is made of inexpensive, earth-abundant elements and can easily be made using industrial methods. As computers predicted, the new phosphor performed well in tests and in LED prototypes.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers have shown for the first time that a key protein called KMT2D involved in the epigenetic regulation of gene expression guides this renewal.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have developed a quick and easy way to simultaneously modify dozens of drugs or molecules to improve their disease-fighting properties.

• share
• favorite_border

Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease driven by the interplay of genetics, environmental factors and a diverse cast of immune cells. In their latest study, researchers at La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology (LJI) identified a subset of T cells, whose frequency serves as early childhood immune signature that predicts the risk of developing asthma later on.

• share
• favorite_border

An antibody used to treat the skin disease psoriasis is also effective at reducing aortic inflammation, a key marker of future risk of major cardiovascular events.

• share
• favorite_border

The researchers will spend the next five years collecting data from Ebola and Lassa survivors to learn how they fought off the virus.

• share
• favorite_border

Children who have heart surgery as infants are at risk for hearing loss, coupled with associated risks for language, attention and cognitive problems, by age four. In a single-center group of 348 preschoolers who survived cardiac surgery, researchers found hearing loss in about 21 percent, a rate 20 times higher than is found in the general population.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers at The University of Alabama hope to better understand how bacteria and viruses battle each other and, in the process, devise new strategies to combat antibiotic-resistant infections.

• share
• favorite_border

A study from scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) explains why the risk of osteoarthritis increases as we age and offers a potential avenue for developing new therapies to maintain healthy joints.

• share
• favorite_border

A team of researchers from the Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute have found that gradually depleting an enzyme called BACE1 completely reverses the formation of amyloid plaques in the brains of mice with Alzheimer’s disease, thereby improving the animals’ cognitive function. The study, which will be published February 14 in the Journal of Experimental Medicine, raises hopes that drugs targeting this enzyme will be able to successfully treat Alzheimer’s disease in humans.

• share
• favorite_border

NIH-supported researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital are studying an alternative to current contrast agents used for magnetic resonance imaging. In a recent study, they showed that the experimental alternative, which is a manganese-based compound, performs as well as approved contrast agents. Their study appeared online Nov. 15, 2017, in Radiology.

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have achieved a major milestone toward designing a safe and effective vaccine to both treat heroin addiction and block lethal overdose of the drug.

• share
• favorite_border

People with a mutated ATF6 gene have a malformed or missing fovea, severely limiting vision. UC San Diego School of Medicine researchers first linked ATF6 to this type of vision impairment. Now the team discovered that a chemical that activates ATF6 converts patient stem cells into blood vessels.

• share
• favorite_border

LJI researchers report mechanisms used by a subgroup of ILCs, known as ILC2 cells, to undergo maturation required for them to mount an effective immune response. These discoveries suggest a novel approach to treat inflammatory disease caused by overactive ILC2s.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers build a robot that moves more like a cockroach.

• share
• favorite_border

Exercise has numerous, well-documented health benefits. Could it also play a role in preventing and reducing substance misuse and abuse in adolescents? This is the intriguing question that a team of investigators from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and Cleveland Clinic seeks to answer. In a review article recently published in Birth Defects Research, the trio of researchers supplies a rationale for the use of exercise, particularly assisted exercise, in the prevention and adjunctive treatment of substance-use disorders – including alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, opioids, and heroin.

• share
• favorite_border

Although it has been known that alterations in the connections between neurons in the brain likely play a role in alcohol dependence and other addictions, the cause-and-effect between these brain alterations and behavior has been less clear.

• share
• favorite_border

Indiana University researchers scanned the brains of individuals with alcohol abuse disorder to find the neurotransmitter glutamate may play a role in some addition cravings.

• share
• favorite_border

Patients with Huntington’s disease, a fatal genetic illness that causes the breakdown of nerve cells in the brain, have up to 80 percent less cancer than the general population.Northwestern Medicine scientists have discovered why Huntington’s is so toxic to cancer cells and harnessed it for a novel approach to treat cancer, a new study reports.

• share
• favorite_border

Johns Hopkins researchers report successful use of heart imaging to predict the benefit or futility of catheter ablation, an increasingly popular way to treat atrial fibrillation, a common heart rhythm disorder.

• share
• favorite_border

Understanding how the dynein-dynactin complex is assembled and organized provides a critical foundation to explain the underlying causes of several dynein-related neurodegenerative diseases.

• share
• favorite_border

It’s well known that the human body functions on a 24-hour, or circadian, schedule. The up-and-down daily cycles of a long-studied clock protein called Rev-erb coordinates the ebb and flow of gene expression by tightening and loosening loops in chromosomes, according to new research.

• share
• favorite_border

Although understanding the wide-ranging effects of disasters is vital for an effective public health response, a lack of baseline data has made it difficult to attribute post-disaster changes in environmental conditions to the impacts of disasters.

• share
• favorite_border

A new Mississippi State research project will study a wetland restoration approach along the Gulf of Mexico, and findings will help improve future environmental restoration efforts.

• share
• favorite_border

Creating an artificial implantable kidney would be an epic advance in medicine and could address a chronic shortage of donor kidneys needed for transplant. Researchers who have been at this quest for the past 15 years face the challenge of how to keep the blood flowing smoothly through the artificial device without clotting. They are combining expertise in artificial kidney development and in computer simulation of blood flow to surmount the problem.

• share
• favorite_border

Cleveland Clinic researchers have published findings in Nature Communications on a new stem cell pathway that allows a highly aggressive form of breast cancer - triple-negative breast cancer - to thrive.

• share
• favorite_border

TSRI scientists identify molecule that fuels cancer metastasis.

• share
• favorite_border

As is true in humans, chimpanzees' general intelligence is correlated to their ability to exert self-control and delay gratification, according to new research at Georgia State University.

• share
• favorite_border

Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center-led research teams have identified a direct association between physical inactivity and two different types of cancer: lung cancer and head/neck cancer — adding to a growing list of cancers linked to sedentary lifestyles.

• share
• favorite_border

Johns Hopkins researchers report they have developed two new endoscopic probes that significantly sharpen the technology’s imaging resolution and permit direct observation of fine tissue structures and cell activity in small organs in sheep, rats and mice.

• share
• favorite_border

The International Society of Neurogastronomy Symposium will feature experts in basic science, food science, clinical science and culinary arts discussing brain and behavior in the context of food.

• share
• favorite_border

New collaborative research signals a potential breakthrough for adults with autism spectrum disorder.

• share
• favorite_border

For the first time researchers have identified recurrent ESR1 fusion proteins in human breast cancer, to understand how they function and help lead to improved treatments for the disease.

• share
• favorite_border

In a new Johns Hopkins study of patient and graft survival trends for pediatric liver transplant recipients between 2002 and 2015, researchers found that outcomes for alternatives to whole liver transplantation (WLT), such as splitting a liver for two recipients or using a part of a liver from a living donor, have improved significantly.

• share
• favorite_border

Indiana University researchers have found that certain molecules -- several of which are currently under clinical trial -- are able to "crack" the protective shell of the hepatitis B virus, suggesting it may be possible to attack the virus after its already taken hold in the body. There is currently no cure for the virus, which can cause liver failure and cancer.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers have detailed, for the first time, the normal human transcriptome of the blood-nerve barrier. This barrier — a tight covering of endothelial cells — maintains the microenvironment of peripheral nerves. Knowledge of the transcriptome will aid research in peripheral nerve disease.

• share
• favorite_border

If the targeted incentives prove successful, the research team will explore how large organizations — from health insurers to corporate wellness programs — could incorporate healthy food choice incentives and improve the dietary habits and health outcomes of large numbers of consumers.

• share
• favorite_border

A new Johns Hopkins study of mice with the rodent equivalent of metabolic syndrome has added to evidence that the intestinal microbiome — a “garden” of bacterial, viral and fungal genes — plays a substantial role in the development of obesity and insulin resistance in mammals, including humans.

• share
• favorite_border

A team of researchers from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine have used Nobel prize-winning microscope technology to see full length serotonin receptors for the first time. The tiny proteins—approximately a billionth of a meter long—are common drug targets, despite limited available information about their structure. Now, new images published in Nature Communications provide snapshots of the receptors, including details about molecular binding sites that could lead to more precise drug design.

• share
• favorite_border

The five-year grant will support five individual research projects and three core resources at the TSRI Alcohol Research Center.

• share
• favorite_border

Near-infrared cyanine dyes are go-to tools for studying the inner workings of cells and investigating the biochemistry of disease, including cancer. But even though they have low toxicity and plenty of applications, these fluorescent dyes have a weakness: Put them in water and they quit working. A new dye overcomes this problem.