New research led by scientists at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health and published today in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology is beginning to establish evidence-based guidelines for maternal weight gain while pregnant with twins.
The Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research at University of California San Diego School of Medicine announces $3 million in research grants to explore new applications of cannabis for a number of novel medical applications.
Quantum computers with the ability to perform complex calculations, encrypt data more securely and more quickly predict the spread of viruses, may be within closer reach thanks to a new discovery by Johns Hopkins researchers.
A study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has found that microglia drive neurodegeneration in diseases, including Alzheimer's disease, that are linked to tau protein. Targeting microglia may help treat such diseases.
The 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to M. Stanley Whittingham, distinguished professor of chemistry and materials science at Binghamton University, State University of New York.
Biologists looked at the European corn borer moth and pinpointed variation in two circadian clock genes – per and Pdfr – that enable different populations of the moth to adapt their seasonal transitions to climate change
The stereotype that associates being “brilliant” with White men more than White women is shared by children regardless of their own race, finds a team of psychology researchers. By contrast, its study shows, children do not apply this stereotype to Black men and women.
Contrary to popular belief, cartilage in human joints can repair itself through a process similar to that used by creatures such as salamanders and zebrafish to regenerate limbs, researchers at Duke Health found.
Surgery can mend congenital heart defects shortly after birth, but those babies will carry a higher risk of heart failure for the rest of their lives. UPMC Children’s Hospital researchers found that β-blockers could supplement surgery to mitigate the lasting effects of congenital heart disease.
Premature babies have delicate brain tissue that is prone to bleeding and can result in post-hemorrhagic hydrocephalus, a dangerous condition that leads to excess fluid accumulation and brain dysfunction. Now, scientists from Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute have identified a new disease mechanism and potential molecular drug target that may protect premature newborns from developing the brain disorder. The study was published in Science Advances.
A team of researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology has developed a new process that could help gain new insights into individual high-entropy alloys and help characterize their properties.
New brain imaging research debunks a controversial theory about dyslexia that can impact how it is sometimes treated. The cerebellum, a brain structure traditionally considered to be involved in motor function, has been implicated in the reading disability, developmental dyslexia, however, this “cerebellar deficit hypothesis” has always been controversial. The new research shows that the cerebellum is not engaged during reading in typical readers and does not differ in children who have dyslexia.
As tumor cells multiply, they often spawn tens of thousands of genetic mutations. Figuring out which ones are the most promising to target with immunotherapy is like finding a few needles in a haystack. Now a new model hand-picks those needles so they can be leveraged in more effective, customized cancer vaccines.
The award will allow the New Jersey Minority Aging Collaborative (NJMAC), led by the Rutgers Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research, to build the infrastructure necessary to enable minority older adults across the state to participate in clinical studies. This will provide researchers and the community with more relevant information and ultimately serve to improve health equity in New Jersey.
Scientists have made genetic data publicly available for bacteria that might be lurking inside the gut walls of patients chronically affected with severe Crohn’s disease.
By studying a surgically removed, damaged bowel from a patient, researchers were able to culture bacteria from a special form of microscopic lesions that they earlier discovered and that can be present within the gut wall of the inflamed bowel in Crohn’s disease. After growing the bacteria in their laboratory, they chose one representative species, and performed a complete genome sequence analysis that could hold clues into how the slow and damaging microlesions form.
Scientists have revealed how the electrical patterns formed within an embryo initiate a cascade of molecular changes that culminate in the development of cartilage and bone. The study demonstrates that voltage gated calcium channels ‘read’ the electrical pattern, setting off the expression of genes that guide differentiation to mature cells
Engineers developed silk materials that can wrinkle into nanotextured patterns – including words, textures and images as intricate as a QR code or a fingerprint. The patterns are stable, but can be erased by flooding the surface of the silk with vapor, allowing the it to be printed again. Researchers see many applications in optical electronics
Engineers from the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University have shown that the length of collagen fibers has a roll to play in the ability of normal cells to become invasive.
Researchers in Japan have identified a genetic mutation that causes a severe lung disease called idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) by killing the cells lining the lung’s airways. The study, which will be published October 10 in the Journal of Experimental Medicine (JEM), suggests that protecting these cells by inhibiting a cell death pathway called necroptosis could be a new therapeutic approach to treating IPF.
Researchers, using a method called genome-wide association study, have illuminated the genetic underpinnings of high serum urate, the blood condition that brings on gout.
The Sanders-Brown Center on Aging at the University of Kentucky has received a five-year, $2.8 million grant to underwrite preclinical efficacy studies of a potential new treatment for dementia.
The particles emitted from 3D printers can negatively impact indoor air quality and have the potential to harm respiratory health, according to a study from researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology and UL Chemical Safety.
Penn Medicine has been awarded five grants from the NIH HEAL Initiative, totaling more than $22 million to apply scientific solutions to reverse the national opioid crisis.
University of California, Irvine researcher Kevin Beier, PhD, assistant professor of physiology and biophysics in the School of Medicine, received a 2019 NIH Director’s New Innovator Award to study learning and memory in an effort to discover new treatments for behavioral symptoms of chronic stress and depression. Beier will receive $1.5M in funding over five years.
An immune cell that helps set the daily rhythms of the digestive system has been identified by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The findings open the door to new treatments for digestive ailments targeting such cells.
Researchers found that aggressive breast cancers store glycogen in very large amounts, offering an explanation of how cells can change their function to evade treatment, grow and spread. Targeting an enzyme involved in this process could potentially treat or prevent metastases.
Researchers developed 3D human tissue culture models of pediatric and adult brain cancers in a brain-mimicking microenvironment, that includes brain-derived extracellular matrix – providing support for surrounding neural tissue. The development is a significant advancement for the study of brain tumor biology and pharmacological response.
A new nationwide clinical trial hopes to discover if patients that experience cardiac arrest survive more often and have a better recovery based on how long they have their body temperature cooled.
A new test to determine whether antibiotics will be effective against certain bacterial infections is helping physicians make faster and better prescription treatment choices.
A new study finds that even when patients understand the overall benefit to society, they still want to be able to give consent at least once before their de-identified data is used for research. The feeling was especially strong among racial and ethnic minorities.
UC San Diego researchers investigated how a type of immune cell called a macrophage becomes specialized to the liver. Their study, published October 3, 2019 in Immunity, sets the stage for understanding how macrophage specialization gets disrupted by — or contributes to — liver disease.
As research involving the transplantation of human “mini-brains”—known as brain organoids—into animals to study disease continues to expand, so do the ethical debates around the practice. A new paper published in Cell Stem Cell by researchers from Penn Medicine and the Department of Veterans Affairs sought to clarify the abilities of brain organoids and suggests an ethical framework that better defines and contextualizes these organoids and establishes thresholds for their use.
A research team from the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center reports it has discovered a metabolic vulnerability in multiple types of cancer cells that bear a common genetic mutation affecting cellular machines called spliceosomes. In test tube and mouse experiments, the researchers learned that the resulting spliceosome malfunction cripples the cells’ chemical process for generating the amino acid serine, making the cancer cells dependent on external (dietary) sources of the amino acid. When mice were fed a serine-restricted diet, their tumors (myeloid sarcomas, the solid tumor version of acute myeloid leukemia) shrank, suggesting that a similar dietary intervention might be helpful for patients bearing the mutation, the researchers say. Among foods high in serine are soybeans, nuts, eggs, lentils, meat and shellfish.
Newly discovered chemical-sensing cells in the gums protect the mouth by standing guard against infections that damage soft tissue and destroy the bone that supports the teeth. With the help of bitter taste receptors that also detect byproducts from harmful bacteria, these special gum cells trigger the immune system to control the amount and type of bacteria in the mouth and could one day lead to personalized dental treatments against gum disease.
Corals exude chemical defenses against bacteria, but when heated in the lab, those defenses lost much potency against a pathogen common in coral bleaching. A key coral's defense was heartier when that coral was taken from an area where fishing was banned and plenty of fish were left to eat away seaweed that was overgrowing corals elsewhere.
Roswell Park's Dr. Clare Twist led an effort to develop and validate a new treatment algorithm for infants and children with neuroblastoma. In a new study in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, the team reports that many patients can safely receive less extensive therapy.
Heather Pua, MD, PhD, assistant professor of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, has received a 2019 National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director’s New Innovator Award. The award, part of the High-Risk, High-Reward Research Program, is designed to support “unusually innovative research from early career investigators,” according to the NIH.
Although cure rates for children with cancer are increasing, cancer treatments can cause permanent deterioration of brain functions leading to impairments in attention, concentration, memory and learning. With the aid of a $3.4 million NIH grant, a Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey investigator and others are exploring an approach that would detect these changes among children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia early during treatment. The goal is to identify a subset of patients who would benefit from a behavioral intervention or treatment clinical trial.
Researchers at Texas Biomedical Research Institute are zeroing in on a new way to target tuberculosis (TB) infection. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded a four-year, $2.8 million grant for scientists to study the role of lung macrophages (immune cells) in metabolic and inflammation responses to TB.
The IU-led center is one of only two multi-institution teams in the nation selected as part of a new federal program intended to improve, diversify and reinvigorate the Alzheimer's disease drug development pipeline.
The Great Alaskan Earthquake of 1964 and the tsunamis it spawned may have washed a tropical fungus ashore, leading to a subsequent outbreak of often-fatal infections among people in coastal regions of the Pacific Northwest, according to a paper co-authored by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the nonprofit Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), an affiliate of City of Hope.
A UC Davis research team, led by Vladimir Yarov-Yarovoy and Heike Wulff, will receive a $1.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to develop a novel class of peptides that are better at treating pain and don’t have the side effects of opioids. The grant is part of the NIH initiative Helping to End Addiction Long-Term (HEAL Initiative).
A program developed to encourage healthy relationships and reduce dating violence was effective among early middle school students, according to results of a study published in the American Journal of Public Health by researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth).
A National Institute on Aging grant will support Penn’s Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research to study the underlying genetic connections between Alzheimer's Disease, Parkinson's Disease, and Dementia.
University of Texas at Dallas researchers have demonstrated that imaging technology used to map the universe shows promise for more accurately and quickly identifying cancer cells in the operating room.
In a proof-of-concept experiment, researchers from Johns Hopkins Medicine say they have successfully used microscopic man-made particles to predict the severity of patients’ chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) by measuring how quickly the particles move through mucus samples. The technique, say the researchers, could eventually help doctors deliver more effective treatments sooner.
Scientists from the UCLA Integrated Substance Abuse Programs will lead a $25 million National Institutes of Health study testing treatments, including the use of telemedicine, to help fight the opioid epidemic in rural America.