Curated News: Grant Funded News

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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A unified approach may benefit water quality, environment more than piecemeal

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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).

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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).

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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A team of researchers led by Wayne State University this week received one of 375 grant awards across 41 states made by the National Institutes of Health in fiscal year 2019 to apply scientific solutions to reverse the national opioid crisis.

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In mid-August 2019, human clinical trials were halted in the current Ebola epidemic that has claimed more than 2,100 lives in Africa. The findings resulted in the discontinuation of two of the drugs in the trial. Future patients will be randomly assigned to receive either REGN-EB3 (Regeneron) or mAb114 (Ridgeback Biotherapeutics) in an extension phase of the study. Texas Biomedical Research Institute scientists in the Institute’s Biosafety Level 4 contract research program conducted preclinical testing of several of the compounds in the trial, working with Regeneron and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA).

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In a recent article in Annals of the American Association of Geographers, geographers from the State University of New York (SUNY) found that Native American land use—in particular, the use of fire—was critical in shaping the distribution of oak savannas in Western New York at the end of the 1700s.

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There’s no question that as body weight increases, so too does blood pressure. Now, in a study of mice, Johns Hopkins researchers have revealed exactly which molecules are likely responsible for the link between obesity and blood pressure. Blocking one of these molecules — a signaling channel that’s found in a tiny organ on the side of your neck — effectively lowers blood pressure in obese mice, the researchers reported recently in the journal Circulation Research.

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An innovative strategy called Teens Against Tobacco Use showed promise as an effective strategy to deter tobacco use in middle and high school students, according to a research study by The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) School of Public Health.

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A pocket-sized zinc deficiency test could be taken to remote regions and evaluated on the spot - no complex transport or conserving necessary. It could lead to comprehensive micronutrient field tests that tell aid agencies just what nutritional deficits are killing people.

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A metabolic imbalance in some cancer patients following treatment with a checkpoint inhibitor drug, nivolumab, is associated with resistance to the immunotherapy agent and shorter survival, report scientists from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

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Teenagers got 43 more minutes of sleep a night after a four-week intervention that reset their body clocks and helped them go to bed earlier, a study from the Stanford University School of Medicine has shown.

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Funding from the National Cancer Institute will help a team of researchers from Wayne State University and the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute to investigate the combined role that community, interpersonal and individual influences have on the health-related quality of life for African American cancer survivors, and how those influences create racial health disparities between African Americans and white survivors.

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Using a small noncoding RNA, microRNA 211, and tools that track the stability and decay of the protein-coding and noncoding RNAs in lab-grown melanoma cells, a team led by a Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center researcher identified highly unstable RNA molecules in human melanomas, including a novel miR-211 target gene DUSP3.

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Fungal bloodstream infections are responsible for the deaths of more than 10,000 people every year. New research from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis shows that the death rate can be reduced by 20% if infectious disease specialists oversee care of such patients.

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Among the 30 million U.S. adults with Type 2 diabetes, 20% have impaired kidney function. In patients like this, metformin, the recommended first-line drug therapy for Type 2 diabetes, is associated in the new study with 20 percent decreased risk of major adverse cardiovascular events when compared to a class of common diabetes drugs called sulfonylureas.

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A study largely validates that immunoglobulin IgG is a crucial part of the pathogenic immunodeposits in kidneys of patients with IgA nephropathy. The routine clinical test that identifies the presence of IgA in all cases of IgA nephropathy fails to show IgG in 50 to 80 percent of biopsies.

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Everyone is a mutant but some are prone to diverge more than others, report scientists at University of Utah Health. A new study published in eLife shows the number of mutations a child has compared to her parents varies dramatically with some people being born with twice as many as others, and that characteristic runs in families.

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An 18-year ‘report card’ on the American diet shows adults are eating too many low-quality carbohydrates and more than the recommended daily amount of saturated fat. The study of dietary trends, from researchers at Tufts and Harvard, is published today in JAMA.

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A research group led by Iowa State's Hui Hu will use the university's Icing Research Tunnel to study icing of wind turbine blades. Studies have shown that ice accumulation on turbine blades can reduce power production by up to 50%. The team will also study ways to prevent or delay ice formation on the blades.

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Survey results of a national sample of elderly people with type 2 diabetes suggest that many long-time patients downplay medical and social factors that underpin professional recommendations for fewer medications and less aggressive treatment of high blood sugar.

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In a study published online today by the journal Cancer, investigators at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute report that a single-session sleep education program for survivors can cure insomnia in many participants, and that those who don’t benefit from this approach are often helped by a more extensive, but still modest, three-session program.

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Researchers investigated the safety and efficacy of deep brain stimulation in the treatment of refractory severe tinnitus in a small group of patients. They found the procedure to be safe and the results to be encouraging.

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Missouri University of Science and Technology has received a $1.96 million grant from the National Science Foundation to purchase and install a new supercomputing system on its campus in Rolla.

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Disrupting a metabolic pathway in the liver in a way that creates a more “cancer-like” metabolism actually reduces tumor formation in a mouse model of liver cancer. This surprising finding from a Univ. of Iowa study identifies the mitochondrial pyruvate carrier as a potential target for preventing liver cancer.

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Two University of Arkansas at Little Rock researchers have used a novel approach to quantitatively portray legislative change in Ukraine to provide a view into the larger political dynamics of the country.

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For the second time in five years, Wake Forest Baptist Health has been recognized for its expertise in conducting innovative cancer care research by the National Cancer Institute’s Community Oncology Research Program (NCORP) with a multimillion-dollar grant.

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Michigan's two comprehensive cancer center, the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer and the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute, have received a prestigious $9.2 million grant from the National Cancer Institute for prostate cancer research.

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Versions of an antibiotic drug called DON first isolated from soil bacteria more than 60 years ago have shown promising signs of extending survival in mice models of especially lethal pediatric brain tumors marked by the high expression of a cancer-causing gene known as the MYC oncogene, according to results of two studies from researchers at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center.

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UC San Diego research supplies a blueprint for a future generation of electrode sensors—notably microscopically slender diamond needles—that utilizes existing yet nontraditional materials and fabrication procedures for recording electrical signals from every neuron in the cortex at the same time.

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In March 2016, the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network revised its criteria for prioritizing children awaiting heart transplantation in the U.S. with the intention of reducing the number of deaths on the waitlist, but a new study suggests unintended consequences.

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A team of researchers, led by Philip V. Bayly in the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University, plans to use MRI to study the brains of healthy, uninjured individuals to create models of brain motion to enable the researchers to predict the chronic effects of repeated head impacts in both men and women.

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The UM School of Medicine's Contract awarded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases could fund up to $201 Million in influenza research over seven years.

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Millions of heart failure patients are readmitted to hospital every few months to adjust medications. It sends medical costs sky-high and burdens patients' lives. A new bathroom scale could give clinicians health data they need to preempt hospitalizations and treat patients remotely.

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A study led by Indiana University is the first to reveal key similarities between chromosomes in humans and archaea. The work could advance use of the single-celled organism in research on cancer.

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University of California San Diego has been awarded $4.6 million from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) to create the Neuroelectromagnetic Data Archive and Tools Resource (NEMAR).

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Films of platinum only two atoms thick supported by graphene could enable fuel cell catalysts with unprecedented catalytic activity and longevity, according to a study published recently by researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

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Building conventional robots typically requires carefully combining components like motors, batteries, actuators, body segments, legs and wheels. Now, researchers have taken a new approach, building a robot entirely from smaller robots known as “smarticles” to unlock the principles of a potentially new locomotion technique.