Researchers working to understand the biochemistry of cataract formation have made a surprising finding: A protein that was long believed to be inert actually has an important chemical function that protects the lens of the eye from cataract formation.
ASCB’s highest scientific honor—the E.B. Wilson Medal—goes to Barbara Meyer for 2018. The award recognizes cell biologists who have made far-reaching contributions throughout their lifetime.
This year,12 members have been named Fellows in recognition of their outstanding contributions to the field of cell biology and to the community of cell biologists through their service to ASCB.
The American Society for Cell Biology is pleased to announce the 2018 Women in Cell Biology career awards. Winners will be acknowledged during the ASCB|EMBO Meeting in San Diego in December.
The 2018 recipient of the E.E. Just Award is Guillermina (Gigi) Lozano, professor and chair of the Department of Genetics, Division of Basic Science Research at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Lozano will present the E.E. Just Award Lecture on Sunday, December 9, at 11:00 am at the 2018 ASCB|EMBO Meeting.
Ahna R. Skop, professor of Genetics at the University of Wisconsin, Madison (UW-Madison), has been chosen as the inaugural recipient of the ASCB Prize for Excellence in Inclusivity. Skop will receive a cash award of $5,000 that she can use to advance inclusion activities at her institution. She will be featured in a video at the 2018 ASCB|EMBO Meeting Keynote Address.
ASCB has named the winners of the inaugural Porter Prizes for Research Excellence. The $4,000 prize for outstanding postdoctoral research will go to Melanie White, a research fellow at Institute of Molecular & Cell Biology (IMCB) A*STAR, Singapore. A $2,000 award for outstanding predoctoral research goes to Andrew Moore of the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn). White and Moore were chosen because they exemplify the pioneering spirit and contributions to cell biology of one of ASCB’s founders, Keith R. Porter.
The Myositis Association (TMA), the leading international patient organization dedicated to improving the lives of people affected by myositis, is pleased to announce the appointment of five new members to its Board of Directors.
Ruth Lehmann, chair of the Department of Cell Biology and director of the Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine at New York University, has been chosen to present the Keith Porter Lecture on Sunday, December 9, at 3:15 pm at the 2018 ASCB|EMBO Meeting in San Diego.
The Myositis Association (TMA), the leading international patient organization dedicated to improving the lives of people affected by myositis, is pleased to announce the appointment of three new members to its distinguished Medical Advisory Board.
Exploring objects through touch can generate detailed, durable memories for those objects, even when we don't intend to memorize the object's details, according to findings published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
A coalition of healthcare groups today issued a series of wide-ranging recommendations to address the ongoing shortages of critical medications affecting patient care across the country. The American Hospital Association (AHA), American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA), the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), ASHP (American Society of Health-System Pharmacists), and the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) released the proposals, which provide suggestions for regulatory, legislative, and marketplace solutions to stem drug shortages, in advance of tomorrow’s public meeting hosted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Duke Margolis Center for Public Health Policy.
DHS S&T will host a demonstration of integrating emergency response technologies during a simulated HAZMAT scenario at the Port of Houston on December 5, 2018.
Scientists at the National Eye Institute (NEI) have found that neurons in the superior colliculus, an ancient midbrain structure found in all vertebrates, are key players in allowing us to detect visual objects and events.
The GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences and La Clinica del Pueblo have partnered to launch Project ECHO in Washington, D.C. to increase workforce capacity to provide best practice specialty care and reduce health disparities.
WASHINGTON -- Heterosexual men with sexist attitudes may underestimate how much power they actually have in their romantic relationships, which could lead to increased aggression toward their female partners or wives, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.
The highest honor given by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) for medical support was bestowed upon the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, part of the U.S. Department of Defense, Nov. 21 at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium.
Two U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) National Laboratories were recently awarded the 2018 Association for Computing Machinery’s (ACM’s) Gordon Bell Prize.
DOE researchers have won 32 of the R&D 100 awards given out this year by R&D Magazine. The annual awards are given in recognition of exceptional new products or processes that were developed and introduced into the marketplace during the previous year.
When consumers turn on a faucet, they expect the drinking water that gushes out to be safe. A new report in ACS’ journal Environmental Science & Technology found that U.S. public-supply tap water generally meets all enforceable standards. However, routine testing for most prospective contaminants is carried out before water is distributed, not where it’s used, and the report indicates some consumers are exposed to contaminant mixtures that aren’t commonly monitored.
Cigarette smoking dramatically decreased between 2013 and 2017 just as e-cigarette use became more popular, according to a comprehensive analysis examining the relationship between vaping and smoking among youth and young adults led by a Georgetown University investigator.
Two days after Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico, 70,000 residents in the vicinity of the Guajataca Dam were urged to evacuate as a precaution. Heavy rains were rapidly filling up the island’s 36 dams.
Researchers are exploring how irregular filling mechanics may contribute to defects in developing fetal hearts because inefficient filling leads to energy losses that alter the heart’s structure and performance, and studying how filling mechanics and flow structure change over the course of gestation. During the American Physical Society’s Division of Fluid Dynamics 71st Annual Meeting, Nov. 18-20, they will discuss the team’s findings on human fetal cardiac flow measurements collected from normal and abnormal fetal echocardiogram exams.
In aquaponics, the hydroponic crops use the nutrients from fish waste as fertilizer while the fish benefit from the plants’ nutrient uptake capability to improve water quality. The treated water is then recirculated to the plant grow beds and fish culture tanks via a pipe system. Researchers at the University of New Hampshire, who are studying ways to improve water flow for more efficient aquaponic systems, will present their work at the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics 71st Annual Meeting, Nov. 18-20.
Through a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA), DHS S&T is partnering with industry to evaluate first responder technologies. DHS, industry partners and 13 local Houston-area public safety agencies will integrate existing first responder technology with DHS-developed and commercial technology during a HAZMAT scenario.
Ever watch aquatic animals jump out of the water and wonder how they manage to do it in such a streamlined and graceful way? Researchers who specialize in water entry and exit in nature had the same question. During the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics 71st Annual Meeting, Nov. 18-20, they will present their work designing a robotic system inspired by jumping copepods and frogs to illuminate some of the fluid dynamics at play when aquatic animals jump.
As professional divers complete what’s known as a rip dive, their hands remove water in front of the body, creating a cavity that reduces the initial impact force. The rest of the body is aligned to shoot through the same cavity created by the hands. Using the hands to create cavities in the water's surface is similar to the concept behind the fluid-structure studies that researchers at Utah State University are conducting using spheres. They’ll present their work at the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics 71st Annual Meeting, Nov. 18-20.
Wok tossing is essential for making a good fried rice -- or so claim a group of researchers presenting new work at the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics 71st Annual Meeting, Nov. 18-20. The researchers became interested in the physics of cooking and, seeking to satiate their curiosity, they focused on stir-fry, which lies at the heart of Chinese cuisine. The team set out to isolate the key elements of this venerable cooking technique.
Some animals explore, interpret and understand the world with such sensitivity in their noses that people have enlisted canines to help solve crime and detect cancer on the breath. Scientists at Georgia Tech are now homing in on the secrets behind animals’ super sniffers to develop an artificial chemical sensor that could be used for a variety of tasks, from food safety to national security. Thomas Spencer will present the group’s latest design for an electronic nose that concentrates odors for improved chemical sensing at the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics 71st Annual Meeting, Nov. 18-20.
Physiatrists and pain management experts call for an expansion of the national focus beyond safer opioid prescribing and addiction management to include a functional approach to both the diagnosis and treatment of pain. A report recently published in the American Journal of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation (AJPM&R) calls for a comprehensive national strategy to include physical medicine: the expert diagnosis of musculoskeletal and other acute and chronic pain conditions, increased attention to non-pharmacological rehabilitation-based treatments, enhanced funding of pain research that includes functional outcomes, and an expansion in graduate medical education targeted to physiatry.
Motivated by observations of desert flora and fauna, researchers in Arizona began experimenting in the laboratory to characterize cactuses' microscopic 3D epidermal structure at dry and wet times of the year. They apply the lessons in wettability -- the study of how droplets interact with solids -- to engineering surfaces for industrial applications, and will present the discoveries from this Sonoran wettability research at the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics 71st Annual Meeting, Nov. 18-20.
The 2018 American College of Radiology (ACR) Digital Mammography Quality Control Manual with Digital Breast Tomosynthesis is now available in electronic format.
The Council on Undergraduate Research will present its 2018 Campus-Wide Award for Undergraduate Research Accomplishments to Union College and University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. This annual award recognizes institutions with exemplary programs that provide high-quality research experiences for undergraduates.
Nature is full of examples of large-scale collective behavior; humans also exhibit this behavior, most notably in pelotons, the mass of riders in bicycle races. Using aerial video footage of bicycle races, researchers analyzed peloton motion to determine what causes changes in the group’s large-scale collective behavior and found that riders move through the peloton in a manner similar to circulation in a fluid. During the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics 71st Annual Meeting, Nov. 18-20, they will describe their work on collective behavior in pelotons.
Urinating into a cup may be a medical necessity at times, but it's often uncomfortable, embarrassing and messy -- especially for women. But what if there were a way to comfortably provide a sample without the splashback? Researchers have created a set of experiments using an anatomically correct female urethra that produced a jet of water with a pressure and flow equivalent to a human bladder. During the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics 71st Annual Meeting, Nov. 18-20, they’ll describe the findings and potential implications.
Wombats are central to a biological mystery in the animal kingdom: How do they produce cube-shaped poop? Patricia Yang at Georgia Tech set out to investigate. Yang studies the hydrodynamics of fluids, including blood, processed food and urine, in the bodies of animals. She was curious how the differences in wombats’ digestive processes and soft tissue structures might explain their oddly shaped scat. During the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics 71st Annual Meeting, Nov. 18-20, Yang will explain findings from dissecting the alimentary systems of wombats.
Marvel comics superheroes Ant-Man and the Wasp possess the ability to temporarily shrink down to the size of insects, while retaining the mass and strength of their normal human bodies. But a new study suggests that, when bug-sized, Ant-Man and the Wasp would face serious challenges, including oxygen deprivation. Those challenges, along with their solution-microfluidic technologies, will be described at the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics 71st Annual Meeting, Nov. 18-20.
An unexpected twist from fastball can make the difference in winning or losing the World Series. However, “some explanations regarding the different pitches are flat-out wrong,” said Barton Smith, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Utah State University who considers himself a big fan of the game. He and Nazmus Sakib are conducting experiments to explain how baseballs move. Sakib and Smith will present their findings at the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics 71st Annual Meeting, Nov. 18-20.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) and FEMA awarded funding to the not-for-profit National Center for Disaster Medicine and Public Health (NCDMPH) to deliver free, lifesaving trauma training to high school age students.
DHS S&T and its counterparts in the Netherlands jointly announced today a total of $2.5 million in collaborative cybersecurity research and development (R&D) across five U.S-Dutch research teams.
American University’s international student population increased by 39 percent over last year, adding 903 new students, according to a new report on the impact of international education on the U.S. higher education sector.
• A pilot program delivered by community health representatives in the homes of patients with chronic kidney disease in Zuni Pueblo in rural New Mexico promoted patients’ active involvement in their own care.
• The program also led to modest improvements in several clinical measures, including decreases in body mass index, blood glucose levels, and inflammation, and improved mental health quality of life.
The Mathematics and Computer Sciences Division of the Council on Undergraduate Research has selected recipients of its 2018 Faculty Mentor Award: Liz Bouzarth (Furman University), Gabriela Marcu (University of Michigan), and Karl Schmitt (Valparaiso University)
Killer whales display personality traits similar to those of humans and chimpanzees, such as playfulness, cheerfulness and affection, according to new research published by the American Psychological Association.