Curated News: Grant Funded News

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A new treatment for a rare and often incurable condition called dermatomyositis (DM) reduced the severity of the disease in patients whose DM was resistant to other therapies. As part of a randomized, double-blind study conducted at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, 22 patients were given either a drug called anabasum or a placebo. The 11 patients who got the drug improved during the trial, with less severe skin disease and better patient-reported quality of life and symptom assessments.

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Researchers have uncovered a surprising process within a key immune cell that may help explain the limitations of immunotherapy as a cancer treatment.

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Egg-based production causes virus to target bird cells, making vaccine less effective.

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Sharing is caring in the fight against cancer with this open source software project to predict cancer drug effectiveness. Georgia Tech researchers have kicked it off with a program they tested to be about 85% effective in making predictions in individual patient treatments.

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Late-breaking research on food allergies being presented at the ACAAI Annual Scientific Meeting. Data shows almost half of all food-allergic adults reported one or more adult-onset food allergies.

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A research advance co-led by Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine’s Kumar Alagramam, PhD, may stop the progression of hearing loss and lead to significant preservation of hearing in people with Usher syndrome type III, a form of hereditary hearing loss linked to defects in the sensory “hair” cells in the inner ear. USH3 is caused by a mutation in the clarin-1 gene.

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For a variety of reasons, medications and devices specifically developed for children have traditionally lagged behind similar products for adults. A new federally funded program intends to address these unmet medical needs by improving quality and efficiency in developing innovative pediatric medicines and devices. The program is launching a new global clinical trials network to strengthen the development of innovative pediatric treatments and devices.

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Disrupting sleep-wake cycles from a predominantly daytime to a delayed eating lifestyle, -- i.e., skipping breakfast and making lunch the first meal of the day, plus eating late dinner, disrupts the body’s natural circadian (24-hour) rhythm, the cycle that tells us when to sleep, wake up, eat, and influences hormones and other functions.

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Researchers found mutations in a master-switch protein called Epithelial Splicing Regulatory Protein 1 in individuals with a type of congenital hearing loss. In general, what connects most of the unexplained hearing-loss cases is that protein building in the cochlea during development goes awry. The cochlea has the all-important job of transforming mechanical energy in the form of sound waves into electrical signals that run along auditory nerves to the brain.

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Seeing junk food distracts people from work nearly twice as much as seeing healthy food, but after a few bites, people find it no more engaging than kale. The study underscores people’s implicit bias for fatty, sugary foods.

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More than 50 million Americans have food allergies and often just trace amounts of allergens can trigger life-threatening reactions. Now, researchers have developed a $40 device that fits on a key chain and can accurately test for allergens, like gluten or nuts, in a restaurant meal in less than 10 minutes.

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A research team from Wayne State University has received a $1.85 million grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health for the project “Mechanisms of Non-Shine-Dalgarno Translation Initiation.” The project will be led by Jared Schrader, Ph.D., assistant professor of biological sciences in Wayne State’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

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Congenital heart valve defects are the most common type of birth defect, the majority of which have no clear genetic cause, suggesting that epigenetic factors play an important role. Now, researchers have found that the shear force of blood flow against the cells lining the early heart valve sends signals for heart “cushion” cells to become fully formed valves.

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A research participant at the University of Louisville with a complete spinal cord injury, who had lost motor function below the level of the injury, has regained the ability to move his legs voluntarily and stand six years after his injury.

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Immune cells are normally associated with fighting infection but in a new study, scientists have discovered how they also help the nervous system clear debris, clearing the way for nerve regeneration after injury. In a study published in the Journal of Neuroscience, researchers from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine showed certain immune cells—neutrophils—can clean up nerve debris, while previous models have attributed nerve cell damage control to other cells entirely.

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James C. Gee, PhD, director of the Penn Image Computing and Science Laboratory in the Department of Radiology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, has received two grants totaling $3.9 million from the National Institutes of Health to help develop a first-ever three-dimensional, cellular-resolution digital atlas of brain cell types in collaboration with national colleagues from the Allen Institute for Brain Science, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and University of California, San Diego.

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About a quarter of adults whose marijuana use is problematic in early adulthood have anxiety disorders in childhood and late adolescence, according to new data from Duke Health researchers.

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Researchers combined the immune response created by injection of potato virus nanoparticles with doxorubicin to halt melanoma progression in a mouse model. It is the first demonstration of an anti-tumor response using potato virus nanoparticle vaccination—a novel treatment further enhanced with doxorubicin chemotherapy.

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UCSF Benioff's Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute (CHORI) researcher Dr. Deborah Dean is the recipient of a new award from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that will support the development and evaluation of new diagnostics tools that can determine the antibiotics to which a patient’s strain of gonorrhea is susceptible. Dean is among the 25 investigators that the CDC awarded more than $9 million in total to pilot innovative solutions and explore knowledge gaps about antibiotic resistance related to the human microbiome, healthcare settings, and surface water and soil.

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Researchers at University of Utah Health have identified a protein (ARF6) that when inhibited reduces diabetic retinopathy, a condition that results when blood vessels at the back of the eye leak fluid into the eye, impairing vision.

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A team of researchers from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine have discovered how uncontrolled vitamin A metabolism in the gut can cause harmful inflammation. The discovery links diet to inflammatory diseases, like Crohn’s disease and inflammatory bowel syndromes, and could inform nutritional interventions.

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Researchers found that in B cell tumors, mutated overactive versions of the Notch protein directly drive the expression of the Myc gene and many other genes that participate in B cell signaling pathways. Myc is a critical gene in governing cell proliferation and survival.

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Imagine a tiny donut-shaped droplet, covered with wriggling worms. The worms are packed so tightly together that they locally line up, forming a nematic liquid crystal similar to those found in flat panel displays. In the journal Nature Physics, scientists are reporting on an examination of such an active nematic – but with flexible filaments and microscopic engines rather than worms.

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Penn Medicine study illuminates how seniors cope with Alzheimer’s-risk biomarker results

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Over a Quarter of Teens Taking Adderall On Their Own Do Not Report Taking Amphetamine

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Some scientists have suspected that the most common form of ovarian cancer may originate in the fallopian tubes, the thin fibrous tunnels that connect the ovaries to the uterus. Now, results of a study of nine women suggest that the genomic roots of many ovarian tumors may indeed arise in the fallopian tubes, potentially providing insights into the origin of ovarian cancer and suggesting new ways for prevention and intervention of this disease.

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Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, in partnership with the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center, was awarded a five-year grant, totaling $2.5 million to engage underrepresented minorities in Cleveland-area schools in cancer research.

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A protein shaped like a "Y" makes scientists do a double-take and may change the way they think about a protein sometimes implicated in glaucoma. The Y is a centerpiece in myocilin, binding four other components nicknamed propellers together like balloons on strings.

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In a study in today’s issue of Science, researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, part of Montefiore Medicine, report that certain nerves sustain prostate cancer growth by triggering a switch that causes tumor vessels to proliferate. Their earlier research—which first implicated nerves in fueling prostate cancer—has prompted Montefiore-Einstein to conduct a pilot study testing whether beta blockers (commonly used for treating hypertension) can kill cancer cells in tumors of men diagnosed with prostate cancer.

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A new study published online this week in the American Journal of Human Genetics from Penn researchers uncovers the mechanisms of the genetic mutations, or variants, associated with the TMEM106B gene.

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For many people with hearing challenges, trying to follow a conversation in a crowded restaurant or other noisy venue is a major struggle, even with hearing aids. Now, Mass. Eye and Ear researchers reporting in Current Biology on October 19th have some good news: time spent playing a specially designed, brain-training audiogame could help.

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Researchers have solved the last unknown protein structure of HIV-1, the retrovirus that can cause AIDS. This will further explain how the virus infects human cells and how progeny viruses are assembled and released from infected cells.

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University of Pittsburgh scientists are unlocking the complexities of a recently discovered cell death process that plays a key role in health and disease, and new findings link their discovery to asthma, kidney injury and brain trauma. The results, reported today in the journal Cell, are the early steps toward drug development that could transform emergency and critical care treatment.

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A new animal study shows how insulin controls the movement and storage of fat molecules in the liver and how a breakdown in this system could lead to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and changes in circulating lipid levels associated with cardiovascular disease.

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A Wayne State University research team recently received a $1.9 million grant from the National Eye Institute of the National Institutes of Health to develop new treatment approaches for Endophthalmitis, a severe inflammation of the interior of the eye caused by contaminating microorganisms that enter the eye following trauma or surgery.

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Breast cancer cells recycle ammonia, a waste byproduct of cell metabolism, and use it as a source of nitrogen to fuel tumor growth. The insights shed light on the biological role of ammonia in cancer and may inform the design of new therapeutic strategies to slow tumor growth.

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This week’s landmark discovery of gravitational and light waves generated by the collision of two neutron stars eons ago was made possible by analyses and signal verification performed by Comet, an advanced supercomputer based at the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at UC San Diego.

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Investigator at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles is awarded $1.7 million by the NIH to study the impact of prematurity on brain development. The goal of the study is to develop biomarkers for early detection of risk for cognitive problems and behavioral disorders in premature infants.

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Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh and UPMC analyzed existing evidence and found that patients living with heart failure receive palliative care significantly less often than patients with other illnesses, despite evidence that such care improves symptom management and quality of life.

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New University of Washington research finds that for a budget of roughly $1000, it is possible for someone to track your location and app use by purchasing and targeting mobile ads. The team hopes to raise industry awareness about the potential privacy threat.

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A new study on two specially bred strains of mice has illuminated how abnormal addition of the chemical phosphate to a specific heart muscle protein may sabotage the way the protein behaves in a cell, and may damage the way the heart pumps blood around the body.

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The results of a national cancer survey find a significant number of childhood cancer survivors are worried about keeping their health insurance, to the point of letting it affect their career decisions. The findings were published today in JAMA Oncology.

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UW and UCLA engineers have developed a flexible sensor “skin” that can be stretched over any part of a robot’s body or prosthetic to accurately convey information about shear forces and vibration, which are critical to tasks ranging from cooking an egg to dismantling a bomb.

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Scientists have for the first time shown that a novel compound effectively suppresses production of the virus in chronically infected cells.

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Imagine Google Earth with only the street view and a far-away satellite view but not much of a map view. Brain imaging, for the most part, has been missing just that, and a lot of research on how the brain computes happens on that level. New imaging tackles this special view of the brain with the highest-energy X-rays in the country, generated at a synchrotron, that illuminate thick sections of a mouse brain.

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A team of neuroscientists has uncovered a neural network that can restore diaphragm function after spinal cord injury. The network allows the diaphragm to contract without input from the brain, which could help paralyzed spinal cord injury patients breathe without a respirator.

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One of the two brain-training methods most scientists use in research is significantly better in improving memory and attention. It also results in more significant changes in brain activity.

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Biomedical engineers report significant in repairing a damaged heart after a heart attack, using grafted heart-muscle cells to create a repair patch. The key was overexpressing a gene that activates the cell-cycle of the grafted muscle cells, so they grow and divide more than control grafted cells.

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A new study led by researchers at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute (SBP) identifies potential new therapeutic avenues for patients with Alagille syndrome.

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Researchers examined exposure to high-magnitude head impacts (accelerations greater than 40g) in young athletes, 9 to 12 years of age, during football games and practice drills to determine under what circumstances these impacts occur and how representative practice activities are of game activities with respect to the impacts. This type of information can help coaches and league officials make informed decisions in structuring both practices and games to reduce risks in these young athletes.