Feature Channels: All Journal News

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A monthly roundup of research briefs showcasing recent scientific advances led by Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center faculty.

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PET plastic, short for polyethylene terephthalate, is the fourth most-produced plastic, used to make things such as beverage bottles and carpets, most of which are not being recycled. Some scientists are hoping to change that, using supercomputers to engineer an enzyme that breaks down PET. They say it's a step on a long road toward recycling PET and other plastics into commercially valuable materials at industrial scale.

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• Patients with advanced kidney disease described feelings of isolation, abandonment, alienation, mistrust, and even self-blame that would likely be surprising to the clinicians taking care of them.

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Researchers develop a simple and efficient method to induce human pluripotent stem cells to become blood, which could be key in future treatments for blood disorders, immune deficiencies and cancer

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A research team led by Iowa State's Balaji Narasimhan and affiliated with the Nanovcaccine Institute based at Iowa State is studying nanovaccines for treating pancreatic cancer. The study is supported by a $2.67 million grant from the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health.

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A study by a team that includes Amrita Banerjee, assistant professor of pharmaceutical sciences at North Dakota State University, Fargo, shows promise in administering insulin in pill form. Banerjee is listed as first author in the study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Glioma is the most common type of primary malignant brain tumor in the United States; glioblastoma being the most common type of glioma in adults. While sex differences in the incidence and survival rates of glioma were known, researchers had not investigated whether genetic differences based on sex could cast light on potential differences in the risk profile of glioma between men and women. Now, a team from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, together with an international consortium of researchers, have discovered that men and women have different genetic risk factors for developing glioma.

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Emerging CAR-T immunotherapies leverage modified versions of patient’s T-cells to target and kill cancer cells. In a new study, published June 28 online in Cell Stem Cell, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine and University of Minnesota report that similarly modified natural killer (NK) cells derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) also displayed heightened activity against a mouse model of ovarian cancer.

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A new study suggests that when a high-fat, high-sugar diet that leads to obesity is paired with normal aging, it may contribute to the development of Alzheimer’s disease. In addition, researchers discovered that certain areas of the brain respond differently to risk factors associated with Alzheimer’s. The study is published in Physiological Reports.

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To halt climate change in this century, heavy-duty infrastructure undergirding the world’s major economies must be redesigned – starting now – to ensure no increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. According to a UCI-led review due out Friday in the journal Science, that includes long-haul shipping, airline travel, cement and steel production, and a smoothly operating power grid.

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Want to be a good team player? Take a break. It may improve not only your own performance but the chances of your team winning overall, says a new study by a team of USC computer scientists.

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Can a new mouse model provide essential insights into one type of autism spectrum disorder? UC Davis researchers hope their work yields new therapies for children.

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A new study finds that a mysterious component of the inner ear acts as a pressure-relief valve, formed by a thin barrier of cellular projections that opens and closes to regulate the release of inner ear fluid.

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Researchers find gene in artery wall activated by lipids associated with coronary artery disease

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A discovery by scientists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory supports a century-old theory by Albert Einstein that explains how heat moves through everything from travel mugs to engine parts.

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Researchers at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have recorded the most detailed atomic movie of gold melting after being blasted by laser light. The insights they gained into how metals liquefy have potential to aid the development of fusion power reactors, steel processing plants, spacecraft and other applications where materials have to withstand extreme conditions for long periods of time.

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Researchers at Indiana University have found early evidence that tiny snippets of genetic material called microRNA may help with early of conditions such as Alzheimer's disease.

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Special training for teachers may mean big results for students with autism spectrum disorder, according to Florida State University and Emory University researchers.

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Researchers from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, and collaborators at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, have developed image analysis and machine learning tools to detect age-related macular degeneration, and report in Nature Medicine that such tools can be applied to other image-based medical diagnoses.

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A gamified HIV prevention program reduced sexually transmitted infections by 40 percent in America's most at-risk population - men, ages 18-29, who have sex with men.

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The research offers another approach for tackling diseases that have been considered "undruggable," including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), muscular dystrophy, cystic fibrosis and certain cancers.

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For children of lesbian or gay parents, psychological adjustment is about the same as in children of heterosexual parents, reports a study in the Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics, the official journal of the Society for Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics. The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.

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For the first time, scientists have directly visualized real-time structural changes in the surface protein of the influenza virus that may help the virus fuse with and enter target cells before hijacking them. Single molecules of the protein were found to stretch toward target cells, then refold and try again 5 to 10 times per second. The discovery may help develop more effective vaccines and better understand other viruses, including Ebola, HIV, and SARS.

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Mesenchymal stem cells exist in the outer layer of arteries in adult humans, and appear to play a key role in mediating vascular diseases, including coronary artery disease.

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A new study from Northwestern University and the Chicago Botanic Garden has found that climate change may drive local extinction of mason bees in Arizona and other naturally warm climates.

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Infection with the hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a contagious liver disease with symptoms that range from mild illness for a few weeks to serious, lifelong liver problems. Veterans with HCV infection are almost three times as likely to have an alcohol use disorder (AUD) than veterans without HCV. It is not well understood how the dual occurrence of HCV infection and an AUD impacts a person’s immune system, mood, and brain function. This study investigated how a co-existing AUD contributes to inflammation and psychiatric problems in adults with HCV.

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A multicolor laser pointer you can use to change the color of the laser with a button click — similar to a multicolor ballpoint pen — is one step closer to reality thanks to a new tiny synthetic material made at Sandia National Laboratories. Research on the new light-mixing metamaterial was published in Nature Communications earlier today.

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With applications for asylum in the United States increasing sharply, a new paper from a team of asylum medicine and law experts is highlighting physicians’ important role in evaluating refugees’ claims of torture and persecution.

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Police officers who endorse an empathetic approach to criminal justice do not perform as well when they sense they are underappreciated, according to new research from The University of Texas at Austin

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Georgetown-led investigators have found that a fairly simple test significantly improves the identification of bladder tumors that will likely become invasive.

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An international team reported on the results of a large-scale field study to identify the core microbial community for the maize rhizosphere. The work partially replicates earlier trials to identify soil microbes that colonize plants and which can be associated with particular traits.

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Liquid water sustains life on earth, but its physical properties remain mysterious among scientific researchers. Recently, a team of Swiss researchers used existing THz spectroscopy techniques to measure liquid water’s hydrogen bonding. Future efforts with this technique could one day help explain water’s peculiar properties. The team reports their findings in The Journal of Chemical Physics.

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A study of home health care nurses in the United States has found that attitudes and organizational policies, rather than knowledge base was much more likely to lead to greater compliance with infection control.

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In-game purchasing systems, such as ‘loot boxes’, in popular online games resemble gambling and may pose financial risks for vulnerable players, according to gambling psychology researchers at the University of Adelaide.

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Using ancient dog DNA and DNA from modern village dogs, University of Michigan researchers find new genetic sites that may be responsible for important domestication traits--sites that are also connected to rare genetic syndromes in people.

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Scientists at the University of Washington have announced that, for a Galápagos penguin, beak size is nearly a perfect indicator of whether a bird is male or female.

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Evidence from rocks in Yosemite National Park suggests that granite stored in the Earth’s crust is partially molten at 500 degrees Celsius, nearly 200 degrees lower than had previously been believed.

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While it has been known that estrogen plays a role in migraine for women, new research shows that the female sex hormone may also play a role in migraine for men, according to a small study published in the June 27, 2018, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

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Study Could Lead to Better Diagnosis and Treatment of Diseases Affecting the Larynx

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Studies of breast cancer risk and treatment outcomes are not taking sufficient account of race/ethnicity, economic status, education level, health insurance status and other social factors, according to scientists at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

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A study published in Nature Communications has found that the female bladder not only contains bacteria, but the microbes are similar to those found in the vagina. The finding could lead to improved diagnostic tests and treatments for urinary tract infections and other urinary tract disorders.

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Drs. Kenneth Shroyer and Luisa Escobar-Hoyos receive $500,000 from PanCAN to advance research

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Chemical messengers in the brain regulate sleep, opiate craving

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As national regulators work to develop mandatory GMO food labels, new research by UVM’s Jane Kolodinsky finds that consumer opposition to GMOs dropped significantly after Vermont adopted mandatory labels.

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Researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago have identified a protein that is crucial for activating inflammation — both the good kind of inflammation that leads to healing wounds and fighting infection, as well as excessive inflammation where the immune system can damage tissues and organs. The protein — an ion channel that spans the membrane of immune cells — presents a new target for the development of drugs that can restrain overblown inflammatory responses.

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UT Southwestern researchers today published the first atomic structure of a brain receptor bound to a drug used to reverse anesthesia and to treat sedative overdoses.

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In a new pilot study, a team led by researchers from Tufts University School of Medicine conducted the first full comparison of gonococcal gene expression and regulation in both men and women, identifying gender-specific signatures in infection and in antibiotic resistance genes.

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Exercise may be just as crucial to a depression patient’s good health as finding an effective antidepressant.

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When researchers compared what study participants reported they were willing to spend on goods with what they actually shelled out in experiments designed to mimic a real-world shopping experience, there was a big gap.

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A recent study by University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) and Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System (CAVHS) researchers shows that a type of blood protein we are all born with protects against osteoporosis, illuminating the potential for a novel approach to treatment.