Curated News: Grant Funded News

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In a breakthrough study of sickle cell disease, biomedical engineers in the University of Minnesota College of Science and Engineering have revealed that the building blocks of the disease are much less efficient at organizing than previously thought. The findings open the door to new treatments, including new medicines that could be prescribed at lower doses, for the approximately 20 million people worldwide who suffer from the lifelong disease.

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Scientists from UC San Diego have confined a long-contemplated diatomic molecule by isolating a metal compound containing the elusive “BF.”

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Researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology are looking at bee "glue" as a potential bioinspired adhesive because of its unique adhesive properties and ability to remain sticky through a range of conditions.

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Imagine wounds that heal without scars. It’s possible with electrospun nanofibers. A team from Michigan Tech streamlined the tissue scaffold production process, cutting out time spent removing toxic solvents and chemicals. Using a unique blend of polymers, they hope to speed up biomedical engineering prototyping using identical materials for a range of tests.

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Using graphics processing chips designed for gaming applications and software that runs on ordinary web browsers, researchers are modeling deadly spiral wave heart arrhythmias on less costly computers, and even high-end smartphones. The move could advance treatment options.

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Experimenting with mice, Johns Hopkins researchers report they have successfully used positron emission tomography (PET) scans to calculate in real time how much of an immunotherapy drug reaches a tumor and what parts of a cancer remain unaffected.

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Researchers in Spain have discovered that a hormone secreted by fat cells that is present at higher levels in women can stop liver cells from becoming cancerous. The study, which will be published April 3 in the ournal of Experimental Medicine, helps explain why hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is more common in men, and could lead to new treatments for the disease, which is the fourth leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide.

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The Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), an affiliate of City of Hope, along with Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) and the Norton Thoracic Institute at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Arizona, have received a $3.5 million federal grant from the National Institutes of Health to study the cause of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF) the nation’s most common and severe form of fibrotic lung disease.

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Working with mice, a team of Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers has developed a relatively inexpensive, portable mini microscope that could improve scientists’ ability to image the effects of cancer, stroke, Alzheimer’s disease and other conditions in the brains of living and active mice over time. The device, which measures less than 5 cubic centimeters, is docked onto animals’ heads and gathers real-time images from the active brains of mice moving naturally around their environments.

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Choroid plexus carcinoma (CPC) is a particularly challenging type of brain cancer. The tumor most commonly arises in infants under the age of one—who are too young to undergo radiation treatment. Only 40 percent of children remain alive five years after diagnosis, and those who do survive often suffer devastating long-term damage from the treatment. Progress in developing effective therapies has been hindered by the lack of models that could help researchers better understand the cancer. Now, scientists from Sanford Burnham Prebys have developed a novel mouse model of CPC and have used it to identify multiple potential drug compounds with biological activity that may be therapeutically useful. The study was published in Cancer Research.

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Researchers funded by NIBIB have designed neuron-like probes that can be implanted and remain viable for long-term use to study and treat the brain.

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Nurses play critical roles in patient safety and are often the last line of defense against medical errors and unsafe practices. Considerable research has explored the relationship between the nurse work environment and a variety of patient and nurse quality and safety outcomes. But until now, no synthesis of this body of research has been made to clearly articulate the association between nurse work environments and health care quality, safety and patient and clinician well-being.

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Probiotics – which are living bacteria taken to promote digestive health – evolve once inside the body and have the potential to become less effective and sometimes even harmful, according to a new study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The findings suggest that developers of probiotic-based therapeutics must consider how the probiotics might change after administration.

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Family planning for women might one day be as simple as putting on an earring. A report published recently in the Journal of Controlled Release describes a technique for administering contraceptive hormones through special backings on jewelry such as earrings, wristwatches, rings or necklaces.

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A research team at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia has developed an innovative computational tool offering researchers an efficient method for detecting the different ways RNA is pieced together (spliced) when copied from DNA.

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In the largest study of its kind, involving more than 100,000 people, researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have applied a novel machine learning method to identify 413 genetic associations with schizophrenia across 13 brain regions.

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The Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU), along with Profectus Biosciences, Inc., the Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Mapp Biopharmaceutical, Inc., and the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB), have been awarded up to $24.5 million to advance treatments for the highly lethal henipaviruses, Nipah and Hendra.

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Mitochondria manufacture energy in every cell of the body, including heart muscle cells. A new study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis shows that cardiac mitochondria are abnormal in the offspring of mouse mothers that become obese due to a high-fat, high sugar diet. Those offspring then pass on the mitochondrial defects at least two more generations.

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Roughly a quarter of patients overdue for colorectal cancer screening mailed completed screening kits back within two months, whether or not they were given a financial incentive to do so.

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In a surprising finding, researchers at the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center showed the protein NLRP6 aggravated the difficult symptoms of gastrointestinal graft-vs.-host disease. Knocking out this protein in mice led to significantly better survival and less severe GVHD.

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In what is believed to be a first-of-its-kind systematic look at pregnancy frequency and outcomes among imprisoned U.S. women, researchers from Johns Hopkins Medicine say almost 1,400 pregnant women were admitted to 22 U.S. state and all federal prisons in a recent year. They also found that most of the prison pregnancies — over 90 percent — ended in live births with no maternal deaths.

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In a first, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and the Magee-Womens Research Institute have reported in a non-human primate model that immature testicular tissue can be cryopreserved, and later be used to restore fertility to the same animal.

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Spontaneous preterm birth (sPTB), defined as birth before 37 weeks of gestation, and the related complications, are the largest contributors to infant death in the United States and worldwide, according to the World Health Organization. Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) have discovered that bacteria and innate immune factors in a woman’s birth canal and cervix may increase the risk of spontaneous preterm birth or provide protection against such births.

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A new study, published this month in Lancet HIV by Penn Medicine researchers, shows that a naltrexone implant placed under the skin was more effective at helping HIV-positive patients with an opioid addiction reduce relapse and have better HIV-related outcomes compared to the oral drug.

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Scientists have harnessed powerful data analysis tools and three-dimensional studies of genomic geography to implicate new risk genes for osteoporosis, the chronic bone-weakening condition that affects millions of people. Knowing the causative genes may later open the door to more effective treatments.

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While chronic myelogenous leukemia is in remission, ‘sleeper cell,’ quiescent leukemic stem cells persist in the bone marrow. Researchers find that niche-specific expression of chemokine CXCL12 by mesenchymal stromal cells controls quiescence of these treatment-resistant leukemic stem cells.

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A combination of two topical creams already shown to clear precancerous skin lesions from sun-damaged skin also lowers the risk that patients will later develop squamous cell carcinoma of the skin, according to a new study.

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Scientists challenge textbook conception of how chemistry happens by theoretically, computationally designing a novel quantum device that supports ultrafast tuning of chemical reactions between physically separate catalysts and reactants.

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A new study led by researchers from Tufts and Harvard modeled the health and economic effects of healthy food prescriptions in Medicare and Medicaid, finding that offsetting the cost of healthy food through insurance could improve health outcomes and be highly cost effective after five years.

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Androgens stimulate prostate cancer cells to grow. Researchers have discovered a new function of the AR in prostate cells — the AR is imported into and localizes to mitochondria of the cell, where it plays a novel role in regulating multiple mitochondrial processes.

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The University of Minnesota announced that it will lead a $9.7 million grant over the next five years from the National Institutes for Health (NIH) BRAIN Initiative to develop a new implantable device and surgical procedure with the goal of restoring more natural hearing to people who are deaf or severely hard-of-hearing.

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Using strong and targeted but noninvasive magnets at specific sites in the brains of people with and without mild learning and memory problems, Johns Hopkins researchers report they were able to detect differences in the concentrations of brain chemicals that transmit messages between neurons. The strength of these magnetic fields allows the researchers to measure tiny amounts and compare multiple brain metabolite levels at the same time. These studies may ultimately help to reveal what initiates memory decline and may, perhaps, even predict dementia risk. The researchers believe that measuring such data over time will allow them to more accurately detect and describe changes in metabolism in the brain as a person progresses from healthy to mild cognitive impairment and to dementia.

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British researchers have discovered that an epigenetic protein called EZH2 delays the development of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) but then switches sides once the disease is established to help maintain tumor growth. The study, which will be published March 19 in the Journal of Experimental Medicine, suggests that targeting EZH2 could therefore be an effective treatment for AML, an aggressive blood cancer expected to kill over 10,000 people in the US alone this year.

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Aging immigrants’ risk for cardiovascular disease may be heightened by their lack of health insurance, particularly among those who recently arrived in the United States, finds a study led by researchers at NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing.

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An interface system that uses augmented reality technology could help individuals with profound motor impairments operate a humanoid robot to feed themselves and perform routine personal care tasks such as scratching an itch and applying skin lotion. The web-based interface displays a “robot’s eye view” of surroundings to help users interact with the world through the machine.

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The game isn’t about talking robots or colorful books. It’s about getting seniors in the early stages of dementia out of their rooms, moving their bodies and, most importantly, working together.

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Results of a first-of-its-kind prospective study with a family planning app find it to be as effective as other modern methods for avoiding an unplanned pregnancy, according to Georgetown researchers.

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Johns Hopkins researchers have discovered that use of the synthetic psychedelic 5-methocy-N,-N-dimethyltryptamine (5-MeO-DMT) appears to be associated with unintended improvements in self-reported depression and anxiety when given in a ceremonial group setting. 5-MeO-DMT is a psychedelic that is found in the venom of Bufo Alvarius toads, in a variety of plants species, and can be produced synthetically.

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With the aid of $2.5 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Vanderbilt researchers are on a quest to develop early biomarkers of treatment outcomes for patients with temporal lobe epilepsy based on their individual brain networks.

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New research from scientists at the University of California San Diego and the University of Michigan has opened a new chapter in the story about what happens between two key metabolic enzymes, setting chemical biologists on their own path to a new understanding of fatty acid biosynthesis.

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In a first-of-its-kind study, Penn Nursing’s Center for Health Outcomes & Policy Research (CHOPR) has examined nurse satisfaction with EHR systems and the concurrent effects of EHR adoption level and the hospital work environment on usability and quality outcomes. Data from more than 12,000 nurses at 353 hospitals in four states show that the work environment is associated with all EHR usability outcomes, with nurses in hospitals with better environments being less likely than nurses in less favorable environments to report dissatisfaction with EHR systems.

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A biomedical engineer at Washington University in St. Louis is developing a therapeutic option that would prevent opiates from crossing the blood-brain barrier, preventing the high abusers seek.

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Dr. Heng Pan, assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Missouri University of Science and Technology, has received a big boost from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support his efforts to create large-scale nanostructures from very small nanocrystals. Pan received the NSF Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award for his project, “Laser Direct Writing of Three-Dimensional Functional Nanostructures."

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Doubling the low amount of total body radiation delivered to patients undergoing bone marrow transplants with donor cells that are only “half-matched” increased the rate of engraftment from only about 50 percent to nearly 100 percent, according to a new study by Johns Hopkins researchers. The findings, published online Mar. 13 in The Lancet Haematology, could offer a significantly higher chance of a cure for patients with severe and deadly inherited blood disorders including sickle cell anemia and beta thalassemia.

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Researchers have discovered an ingredient vital for proper blood vessel formation that explains why numerous promising treatments have failed. The discovery offers important direction for efforts to better treat a host of serious conditions ranging from diabetes to heart attacks and strokes.

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The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases awarded a grant to researchers at New York University College of Dentistry to study HIV latency. The grant provides nearly $2 million over five years to support research led by David N. Levy, PhD, associate professor of basic science and craniofacial biology at NYU Dentistry.

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After a heart attack, exosomes in the bloodstream carry greatly increased amounts of heart-specific microRNAs. The exosomes go to bone marrow progenitor cells, where the microRNAs turn off a gene that allows progenitor cells to leave the bone marrow and travel to the heart to attempt repairs.

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The Detroit Cardiovascular Training Program at Wayne State University received notice that funding from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will continue for the next five years with additional funding of $1.29 million. In addition, NIH has approved raising the trainee slots from four to six, strengthening the university’s ability to attract the most talented candidates searching for a cardiovascular graduate program.

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A new drug takes out the "seeds" that cause ovarian cancer to come back after chemo

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Researchers have discovered a new potential contributor to age-related hearing loss, a finding that could eventually help doctors identify people at risk and better manage the condition.