A new study sheds light on an understudied aspect of today’s opioid crisis: What happens to the cardiovascular health of babies exposed to opioids in the womb.
An international coalition of biomedical researchers co-led by Alexander Bick, MD, PhD, at Vanderbilt University Medical Center has determined a new way to measure the growth rate of precancerous clones of blood stem cells that one day could help doctors lower their patients’ risk of blood cancer. The technique, called PACER, led to the identification of a gene that, when activated, drives clonal expansion.
While legal cannabis products in the United States are required to report THC potency levels on their packaging those levels aren't necessarily accurate, which can have important implications for cannabis consumers. According to a new study from the University of Northern Colorado’s Department of Biological Sciences, researchers Mitchell McGlaughlin and Anna Schwabe found that the THC potency values reported on the packaging of cannabis samples from dispensaries across Colorado’s Front Range are substantially over-reported.
A researcher at the University of Kentucky is helping solve a mystery on the coast of North Carolina: Where did coal found on the shipwrecked Queen Anne’s Revenge come from? About 300 years ago, a band of pirates captured a French slave ship. Among those pirates was a man named Edward Thatch (also spelled as Teach) who would be better known as Blackbeard.
New technologies that can capture subtle changes in a patient’s voice may help physicians diagnose cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease before symptoms begin to show, according to a UT Southwestern Medical Center researcher who led a study published in the Alzheimer’s Association publication Diagnosis, Assessment & Disease Monitoring.
A type of cell usually characterized as the brain’s support system appears to play an important role in OCD, providing a surprising new clue about potential therapeutic strategies for the disorder.
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found a creative way to make a vaccine for norovirus, the leading cause of foodborne infections, by piggybacking on rotavirus, an unrelated virus for which there are already several highly effective vaccines.
Sleep is one of the most essential human activities — so essential, in fact, that if we don’t get enough sleep for even one night, we may struggle to think, react, and otherwise make it through the day. Yet, despite its importance for function and survival, scientists still don’t fully understand how sleep works.
A new groundbreaking image from one of the world’s most powerful telescopes that reveals the most detailed map of dark matter distributed across one quarter of the sky, and deep into the cosmos, offers scientists a perspective that may lead to new methods to demystify dark matter. The research that led to the image, completed by the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) collaboration, also provides further support to Einstein’s theory of general relativity, which has been the foundation of the standard model of cosmology for more than a century.
Aerosols particles in the atmosphere are an important factor in the Earth’s climate, but researchers lack information on these aerosols’ molecular composition, especially for aerosols during the day and night above agricultural fields. In this research, scientists examined secondary organic aerosols over agricultural fields in the Southern Great Plains in Oklahoma. They found that the aerosols’ composition and structure differ from day to night and that some aerosols are ultimately from urban sources.
Research led by scientists at UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center found that responses to a type of immunotherapy called PD-1 checkpoint blockade in patients with advanced melanoma depended on whether or not they had previously received another immunotherapy – CTLA-4 blockade – as well as other factors.
A potential drug successfully treats the severe form of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in non-human primates — bringing scientists one step closer to the first human treatment for the condition that is rapidly increasing around the world, a study suggests. Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) causes scarring and inflammation in the liver and is estimated to affect up to 6.5% of the global population.
Andrea Delgado, a Eugene P. Wigner Fellow at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, is using quantum computing to help investigate the fundamental building blocks of the universe and to see whether there are particles yet to be found.
For more than 100 million Americans who are obese, bariatric surgery may reverse complications related to diabetes, including regenerating damaged nerves, a Michigan Medicine study shows. Researchers say the findings suggest that bariatric surgery likely enables the regeneration of the peripheral nerves and, therefore, may be an effective treatment for millions of individuals with obesity who are at risk of developing diabetes and peripheral neuropathy.
The explosion of a star is a dramatic event, but the remains that the star leaves behind can be even more dramatic. A new mid-infrared image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope provides one stunning example. It shows the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A (Cas A), created by a stellar explosion 340 years ago from Earth's perspective. The image displays vivid colors and intricate structures begging to be examined more closely. Cas A is the youngest known remnant from an exploding, massive star in our galaxy, offering astronomers an opportunity to perform stellar forensics to understand the star’s death.
A community-based, evidence-based intervention system developed at the University of Washington has been linked to reduced handgun carrying rates among youth growing up in rural areas.
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope recently observed Uranus, and the resulting image highlights a complex system of rings as well as a bright polar cap and likely storm clouds.
Hubble observed a curious linear feature that was first dismissed as an imaging artifact from the telescope’s cameras. But follow-up observations indicate it is a 200,000-light-year-long chain of young blue stars created in the wake of a runaway black hole.
A new study from UCLA researchers finds sex-specific brain signals that appear to confirm that different drivers lead men and women to develop obesity.
A group of physicians and scientists with the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine are releasing an important study that will be published in the journal Pediatrics on Thursday, showing that COVID-19 can cross into the placenta of pregnant women and cause brain injury in newborns, as evidenced with 2 cases they treated here in Miami. One of the infants also died at about 13 months old. Further testing of the infant’s brain specimen showed that the virus was still present in the brain at the time of death—which was over a year after birth.
People who have sleep problems may be more likely to have a stroke, according to a study published in the April 5, 2023, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Sleep problems included getting too much or too little sleep, taking long naps, having poor quality sleep, snoring, snorting and sleep apnea. In addition, those who had five or more of these symptoms had an even greater risk of stroke. The study does not show that sleeping problems cause stroke. It only shows an association.
Hubble has found a rare pair of quasars inside two merging galaxies. These brilliant beacons are powered by supermassive black holes. The galaxies will eventually merge—and so will the quasars. This will result in an even more powerful black hole.
Lonely individuals’ neural responses differ from those of other people, suggesting that seeing the world differently may be a risk factor for loneliness regardless of friendships.
The dynamics and availability of soil nutrients affects the growth of plants and microbes and how ecosystems respond to changing environmental conditions. Researchers investigated climate impacts on peat nutrient availability as part of the large-scale Spruce and Peatland Responses Under Changing Environments (SPRUCE). The experiment found that above- and below-ground warming exponentially increased the availability of nutrients throughout below-ground peat layers. However, elevated carbon dioxide did not affect the availability of nutrients.
As more consumers turn to the newly available ChatGPT for health advice, researchers are eager to see whether the information provided by the artificial intelligence chatbot is reliable and accurate. A new study conducted by researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) indicates that the answers generated provide correct information the vast majority of the time; sometimes, though, the information is inaccurate or even fictitious. Findings were published today in the journal Radiology.
A majority of Canadians who require medical cannabis are obtaining their products through the recreational market rather than the medical system, raising health and safety concerns, according to a massive new study led by a UM researcher.
Patients with low sodium levels before or after total knee or hip arthroplasty are more likely to experience complications and other adverse outcomes, reports a study in The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery. The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio in partnership with Wolters Kluwer.
The key to insect success may be their wings. That’s what West Virginia University researcher Terry Gullion, professor of chemistry in the WVU Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, has learned by studying the chemical composition of insect wings — something that has not been examined in detail until now.
A new analysis has found rapidly increasing emissions between 2010 and 2020 of five ozone-depleting chemicals whose production for most uses had been banned under the Montreal Protocol.
New research from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis suggests that transposable elements in various cancers potentially may be used to direct novel immunotherapies to tumors that don’t typically respond to immune-based treatments.
A study by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis shows that vaccinating people with updated boosters as new variants of the virus that cause COVID-19 emerge could shore up population immunity even as the virus mutates, and thereby prevent another deadly COVID-19 wave.
A new study by Cedars-Sinai investigators describes how ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot, may help improve health outcomes for patients with cirrhosis and liver cancer by providing easy-to-understand information about basic knowledge, lifestyle and treatments for these conditions.
Pregnant women whose household tap water had higher levels of lithium had a moderately higher risk of their offspring being diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, researchers reported in JAMA Pediatrics.
The number of prostate cancer patients in the U.S. choosing active surveillance over surgery or radiation has rapidly increased since 2010, rising from 16% to 60% for low-risk patients and from 8% to 22% for patients with favorable-intermediate-risk cancers, according to a study published today in JAMA Internal Medicine.
A new study from a Washington University researcher offers fresh insights into how the brain goes to great lengths to processes and remember everyday events.
A new nano-optical bioimaging technology in development at PNNL enables researchers to watch climate-bellwether microbes exchange metabolites and other essential signals.
Both cluster headache and migraine have strong links to the circadian system, the internal clock that regulates body processes, according to a meta-analysis published in the March 29, 2023, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Particles in the atmosphere such as black carbon affect global climate by absorbing and radiating light and heat. To calculate the effects of aerosols on climate, scientists rely on simulated aerosol fields, but these models represent mixtures of aerosol particles in simplified ways that can introduce errors. This study quantified the resulting errors in simulated aerosol optical properties, finding errors great enough to warrant more attention.
In an analysis of over 65,000 infants from Japan, children exposed to pet cats or indoor dogs during fetal development or early infancy tended to have fewer food allergies compared to other children.
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The largest-yet analysis of ancient DNA in Africa, which includes the first ancient DNA recovered from members of the medieval Swahili civilization, has now broken the stalemate about the extent to which people from outside Africa contributed to Swahili culture and ancestry.
Overdose mortality among people age 65 and older quadrupled over 20 years, suggesting the need for greater mental health and substance use disorder policies addressed at curbing the trend.
Intrigued by reports of recent volcanic eruptions on Venus? WashU planetary scientists Paul Byrne and Rebecca Hahn want you to use their new map of 85,000 volcanoes on Venus to help locate the next active lava flow.
Children born to mothers who had COVID-19 during pregnancy may be more likely to develop obesity, according to a new study published in the Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.