Curated News: Grant Funded News

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Researchers at The University of Chicago have demonstrated that the type of bacteria living in the gut can influence the development of Alzheimer’s disease symptoms in mice. The study, which will be published May 16 in the Journal of Experimental Medicine, shows that, by altering the gut microbiome, long-term antibiotic treatment reduces inflammation and slows the growth of amyloid plaques in the brains of male mice, though the same treatment has no effect on female animals.

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Chlamydia is the most prevalent bacterial STI in the world. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill researchers, in partnership with colleagues at sites in the US, Europe and Australia, will receive up to $10.7 million over five years from the NIH to move closer to identifying a vaccine.

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A new HIV vaccine delivery strategy appears to enhance the protective immune response in a preclinical model. Scientists at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) have discovered that delivering an HIV vaccine in small doses over a series of days leads to a stronger immune response than when the same vaccine is given all at once.

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A study led by Indiana University researchers reports the first evidence of bacteria stealing genetic material from their own worst enemy, bacteriophages, and transforming it to survive.

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When a child has cancer, what kind of information do parents seek out? Analyzing their online searches to obtain health-related information offers one window into their concerns, and provides insight into how healthcare providers may offer family education and support.

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Researchers have identified a previously unknown viral family, which turns out to be the second-most common DNA virus in human lung and mouth specimens, where it is associated with severe critical illness and gum disease.

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Researchers in New York have found that treating human prostate cancer cells with a drug that targets a protein called PHLPP2 may prevent the cancer cells from spreading to other organs in the body. The study, which will be published May 15 in the Journal of Cell Biology, reveals that inhibiting PHLPP2 lowered the levels of MYC, an oncogenic protein that causes many different types of cancer that cannot be targeted by conventional drug therapies.

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In a series of recently published studies using animals and people, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers say they have further characterized a set of chemical imbalances in the brains of people with schizophrenia related to the chemical glutamate. And they figured out how to tweak the level using a compound derived from broccoli sprouts.

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New research published in Cell Immunity has defined the chain of molecular events that goes awry in sepsis, opening up opportunities for new treatments.

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Bioimpedance spectroscopy (BIS) is better than a tape measure for assessing a woman’s risk for developing lymphedema, painful swelling in the arm after breast cancer surgery.

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Work and his collaborators tested seven different cars from two manufacturers on a remote, rural roadway in Arizona. They simulated various driving conditions with a pace car changing its speed, followed by a vehicle using adaptive cruise control. The team measured how quickly and aggressively the ACC system responded to the pace car speed changes.

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A new technique to rehabilitate lungs that are too damaged to be considered for transplant could benefit an increasing population of patients with end-stage lung disease.

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Researchers have detailed the role of a key controlling factor in the transformation of B cells into antibody-secreting cells, cells that make antibodies to fight invading pathogens like viruses. The factor also is needed for memory B cells to respond to a second, subsequent infection by a pathogen.

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Johns Hopkins scientists report that adult cells reprogrammed to become primitive stem cells, called induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), make tiny “cargo packets” able to deliver potentially restorative or repairing proteins, antibodies or other therapies to aged cells. They say the human iPSCs they studied produced much more of the packets, formally known as extracellular vesicles, than other kinds of adult stem cells commonly used for this purpose in research.

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Checkpoint inhibitor drugs that stimulate the immune system have become a growing success story in the treatment of some cancers. But about half of patients whose tumors are marked by a large number of mutations from so-called mismatch repair genetic deficiency fail to respond to the drugs.

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The National Science Foundation has awarded a grant to faculty at Binghamton University, State University of New York for research to generate power from human sweat.

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A new grant will allow Michigan Medicine researchers to explore personalized approaches to treating autoimmune diseases such as scleroderma, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and others.

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Tree and shrub genetics can be used to produce more accurate predictions of when leaves will burst bud in the spring, according to a Canada-US study.

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Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers say they have developed something akin to a “Google Maps” approach for more accurately computing and visualizing the structural and functional blood vessel changes needed for tumor growth. By pairing high-quality 3D imaging data of tumor specimens from animal models with sophisticated mathematical formulas, the researchers say they now have a model that accurately represents blood traffic inside tumors, including the complex blood flow, oxygenation and structural changes that occur.

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In experiments with pregnant mice infected with the Zika virus, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers report they have successfully used a long-standing immunosuppressive drug to diminish the rate of fetal deaths and birth defects in the mice’s offspring.

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In a large international clinical study presented at the 99th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery, Dr. Moishe Liberman and his team showed that thoracoscopic lobectomy—video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS)—combined with pulmonary artery sealing using an ultrasonic energy device reduced the risk of post-operative bleeding, complications and pain.

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Funds from the National Institutes of Health will accelerate the chase for one of medicine’s most elusive goals: a universal influenza vaccine.

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Researchers discovered that the practice of subsurface fluid injection often used in oil and gas exploration could cause significant, rapidly spreading earthquake activity beyond the fluid diffusion zone. The results account for the observation that human-induced earthquake activity often surpasses natural earthquake hotspots.

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A team of plastic surgeons and material scientists has made an important advance in treating the common clinical problem of soft tissue loss. They have invented a synthetic soft tissue substitute that is well tolerated and encourages the growth of soft tissue and blood vessels. This new material retains its shape without being too dense, overcoming challenges with current tissue fillers that tend to be either too soft or not porous enough to let cells move in and start regrowing tissue. A report on this work appears today in Science Translational Medicine.

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Researchers found more than 100 new genes that could lead to the development of cleft lip and palate. The team discovered that genetic variants near these genes are in regions of the genome called “enhancers,” which regulate expression of genes to maintain proper cell identity.

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Children with HIV are much more susceptible to TB and also much more likely to die from it. This grant will fund international research to investigate why, both in the lab and in the field.

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Researchers at the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center looked at a little-understood type of cell death called ferroptosis. They found ferroptosis occurs in tumor cells and plays a role in cancer immunity, suggesting the potential of targeting this pathway to improve immunotherapy treatments.

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Researchers demonstrated the role that plays the Boc receptor in the the formation of the nervous system. This breakthrough could, for example, contribute to the creation of tools in regenerative medicine to reconstitute nervous circuits, which would have otherwise been damaged by an accident, causing paralysis.

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A study in mice shows that selectively removing cells that are no longer dividing from the brains of mice with a form of Alzheimer’s disease can reduce brain damage and inflammation, and slow the pace of cognitive decline. These findings, say researchers, add to evidence that such senescent cells contribute to the damage caused by Alzheimer’s disease in people.

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When TET2 and TET3 proteins are genetically deleted from T-regs in mice, their suppressive function is lost over time and animals develop inflammatory disease. More importantly, because these TET2 and TET3 mutant cells had once 'experienced' being a normal T-reg, they behaved very differently.

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Alzheimer's is dementia, but not all dementias are Alzheimer's (which may explain why so many Alzheimer's drugs have failed in clinical trials). A study published in Brain provides a framework for a newly characterized form of dementia called LATE.

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Neuroscientists at Tufts prevented the development of epileptic activity in mice after traumatic brain injury by using a drug that mimics the metabolic effects of the ketogenic diet.

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A Saint Louis University researcher has received a grant to study the pathways from chronic prescription opioid use to new onset mood disorder. Jeffrey Scherrer, Ph.D., a professor in Family and Community Medicine, received $3,254,485 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

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Those who were enrolled in both Medicare and Medicaid were sicker, had more cognitive impairments and difficulty functioning, and needed more social support than those who were not enrolled in both government programs, Saint Louis University research found. These patients also had significantly higher healthcare costs.

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Mary Jo Gilmer studies the impact animals can have on children with life-threatening conditions. She recently received a grant from nonprofit Human Animal Bond Research Institute (HABRI) for a pilot program investigating the health benefits of human-animal interactions (HAIs) in reducing suffering of children with cancer undergoing debilitating treatments.

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A new report by researchers at La Jolla Institute found that a genetic deletion, or mutation, of TET2 and TET3 in mouse B cells damps down the generation of functional IgG antibodies, decreasing the effectiveness of immune responses.

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A computational model of flatworm regeneration starts to answer the question – what signals determine the rebuilding of specific anatomical structures in regeneration? The model predicts and confirms factors determining body pattern formation, and the critical role nerve fibers play in determining polarity in regeneration.

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NIBIB-funded researchers have designed a new class of two-dimensional (2D) nanomaterials that are disc-shaped and flat on the surface, similar to a coin, to aid in treatments for cartilage repair.

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Scientists have taken one of the most in-depth looks ever at the riot of protein activity that underlies colon cancer and have identified potential new molecular targets to try to stop the disease.

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A Michigan Tech engineer has created a method to fill in the gaps of available connected vehicle data, which will give transportation planners a more accurate picture of traffic in their cities. It is also a more cost-effective data gathering system than what is currently available.

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Arsenic-based therapy can reverse drug tolerance in acute myeloid leukemia, Cancer Center researchers at BIDMC show.

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A new chemical synthesis strategy to harvest rich information found in natural products has led to identifying simpler derivatives with potential to selectively protect neurons -- important for such diseases as Alzheimer’s -- or to prevent the immune system from rejecting organ transplants.

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Using human cancer cells, tumor and blood samples from cancer patients, researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine have uncovered the role of a neurotransmitter in the spread of aggressive cancers. Neurotransmitters are chemical “messengers” that transmit impulses from neurons to other target cells.

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A new study suggests that Oncotype DX-guided treatment could reduce the cost for the first year of breast cancer care in the U.S. by about $50 million (about 2 percent of the overall costs in the first year). The study by Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center and National Cancer Institute researchers was published April 24, in JNCI.

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Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, the state’s only Comprehensive Cancer Center as recognized by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), has been awarded a $15.1 million grant (P30CA072720) as part of its successful 2019 redesignation.

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People over the millennia have reported having deeply moving religious experiences either spontaneously or while under the influence of psychedelic substances such as psilocybin-containing mushrooms or the Amazonian brew ayahuasca, and a portion of those experiences have been encounters with what the person regards as “God” or “ultimate reality.” In a survey of thousands of people who reported having experienced personal encounters with God, Johns Hopkins researchers report that more than two-thirds of self-identified atheists shed that label after their encounter, regardless of whether it was spontaneous or while taking a psychedelic.

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A mutation in the ORAI1 gene—studied in a human patient and mice—leads to a loss of calcium in enamel cells and results in defective dental enamel mineralization, finds a study led by researchers at NYU College of Dentistry.

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Atomic beams conjure fantasies of gigantic Space Force canons. But there are real tiny atomic beams that shoot out of newly engineered collimators, a kind of tiny silicon peashooter, that could land in handheld devices. The beams streaming out of them create precise inertia much better than a gyroscope's that could help spacecraft navigate the solar system. The atomic beams from the new collimators could also let physicist cheaply and easily produce exotic quantum mechanical states.

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A new study reveals the surprising way that family quarrels in seeds drive rapid evolution. Researchers in Arts & Sciences discovered that conflict over the amount of resources an offspring receives from its parent seems to play a special role in the development of certain seed tissues. The study is published the week of April 22 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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The immune system occasionally makes mistakes that require correction. For example, in autoimmunity, T-cells lose "immune tolerance" of self and can destroy one's very own tissues. Conversely, in cancer, the immune system can rapidly exhaust itself in the face of tumor antigens and become unresponsive, allowing tumors to thrive.