May 26th, 2022 - A new study led by Ophir Klein, MD, PhD, executive director of Cedars-Sinai Guerin Children's, identified a gene that plays an important role in a biological pathway involved in embryo development. The findings could explain why some babies are born with physical abnormalities and why some adults develop diseases such as cancer. The study is published in Nature Communications. Read more> Gettin...

May 26th, 2022 - A therapeutic method for harnessing the body’s immune system to protect against brain damage is published today by researchers from the Babraham Institute’s Immunology research programme. The collaboration between Professor Adrian Liston (Babraham Institute) and Professor Matthew Holt (VIB and KU Leuven; i3S-University of Porto) has produced a targeted delivery system for boosting the numbers o...

May 26th, 2022 - Getting the COVID-19 vaccination strengthened one type of immune response to the SARS-CoV-2 virus in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients even though they were taking immunosuppressant medication, according to investigators at Cedars-Sinai. The findings of two studies focused on this topic have been published in the journals IBD, of the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation, and Frontiers in Immuno...

May 26th, 2022 - Based on studies published through July 2021, most SARS-CoV-2 infections were not persistently asymptomatic, and asymptomatic infections were less infectious than symptomatic infections. These are the conclusions of an update of a systematic review and meta-analysis publishing May 26th in the open access journal PLOS Medicine by Diana Buitrago-Garcia of the University of Bern, Switzerland, and ...

May 26th, 2022 - In a proof-of-concept study that aims to address the unmet need for minimally invasive cardiac control and monitoring devices, researchers have developed a network of wireless devices, including a bioresorbable pacemaker, that can temporarily monitor and control heart rate. As their technology is wireless, it could circumvent common shortcomings of implanted devices, such as drive-line infectio...

May 26th, 2022 - Through bioinformatic prospecting, researchers discovered and synthesized a novel, naturally inspired bifunctional lipopeptide antibiotic with a low resistance potential. The antibiotic compound, which the authors named cilagicin, demonstrated potent and broad antimicrobial activity against several Gram-positive bacteria in laboratory tests, including difficult-to-treat resistant strains like C...

May 26th, 2022 - Initial study results show that an experimental drug, called nemvaleukin alfa, when used alone or in combination with another anticancer drug (pembrolizumab) may be effective in treating several types of late-stage cancers in some patients. Both drugs are immunotherapies, medications designed to help the body’s immune defense system detect and kill cancer cells, much like it would an invading v...

May 26th, 2022 - ITHACA, N.Y. -- CRISPR has ushered in the era of genomic medicine. A line of powerful tools has been developed from the popular CRISPR-Cas9 to cure genetic diseases. However, there is a last-mile problem – these tools need to be effectively delivered into every cell of the patient, and most Cas9s are too big to be fitted into popular genome therapy vectors, such as the adenovirus-associated vir...

May 26th, 2022 - The 25th SpaceX cargo resupply services mission (SpaceX CRS-25) carrying scientific research and technology demonstrations to the International Space Station is scheduled for launch June 9 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Experiments aboard the Dragon capsule include studies of the immune system, wound healing, soil communities, and cell-free biomarkers, along with mapping the compo...

May 26th, 2022 - A team of researchers from SWOG Cancer Research Network, a cancer clinical trials group funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), have shown that they can use methylation patterns in cell-free DNA (cfDNA) extracted from blood samples to predict which patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer are likely to benefit from chemotherapy before their surgery. In the future, such a biomarker fr...

May 26th, 2022 - OAKLAND, CA – MAY 26, 2022 – Kaiser Permanente, which cares for more than 500,000 cancer patients every year, will present 10 studies at the 2022 ASCO Annual Meeting (June 3-7, 2022 in Chicago) that offer new insights into how to improve the delivery of cancer care so that more patients benefit. Kaiser Permanente researchers contributed to an additional 12 studies focused on novel treatment adv...

May 26th, 2022 - BOSTON - Children with high-risk neuroblastoma had worse outcomes if they were from certain racial/ethnic groups or were on public rather than private insurance, despite being treated in clinical trials with standardized protocols, according to a study led by investigators from Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Center. The study shows that young patients from historically...

May 26th, 2022 - A new antibiotic, synthesized at The Rockefeller University and derived from computer models of bacterial gene products, appears to neutralize even drug-resistant bacteria. The compound, named cilagicin, works well in mice and employs a novel mechanism to attack MRSA, C. diff, and several other deadly pathogens, according to a study published in Science. The results suggest that a new generatio...

May 26th, 2022 - Data from 44 hospitals in 26 states show that suicide or self-injury and depressive disorders were the primary mental health reasons children received emergency department (ED) or hospital inpatient care after statewide school closures were enacted during the first part of the COVID-19 pandemic. A study published in the May 25 issue of the journal Psychiatric Services validates findings from ea...

May 26th, 2022 - NEW YORK, NY -- Nurse expertise includes the ability to pick up cues about patients’ health from subtle changes in behavior and appearance, but these observations often get missed or under-analyzed within the electronic health record (EHR). The CONCERN initiative, a multi-hospital system effort led by Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC), will leverage that expertise with artificia...

May 26th, 2022 - Practice-changing research from Cedars-Sinai Cancer shows that a combination of androgen deprivation therapy—a commonly used hormone injection—plus pelvic lymph node radiation, kept nearly 90% of clinical trial patients’ prostate cancer at bay for five years. The findings were published in the peer-reviewed journal The Lancet. The study also shows that patients with prostate cancer who didn’t r...

May 26th, 2022 - Drinking a small amount of whey protein before meals has been shown to help people with type 2 diabetes control their blood sugars. In a study, which holds potential for dietary management of the condition, people with type 2 diabetes drank a pre-made shot before meals which contained a low dose of whey protein. They were monitored for a week as they went about normal daily life. To compare the...

May 26th, 2022 - The Covid-19 pandemic has caused a prolonged increase in workload and stress among specialists in many healthcare sectors, but this has been particularly noticeable in emergency medicine (EM). A survey carried out by the European Society for Emergency Medicine (EUSEM) among EM professionals in 89 countries showed that 62% of the responders had at least one symptom of burnout syndrome1, and 31.2...

May 26th, 2022 - Tumors from desmoplastic melanoma, a rare cancer most commonly found on the head or neck, can often be shrunk significantly before surgery by an immunotherapy known as PD-1 blockade, a result that may reduce the need for disfiguring surgery and radiation. These are the findings of a small clinical trial in this disease by researchers from SWOG Cancer Research Network, a cancer clinical trials g...

May 26th, 2022 - For tens of thousands of years, Aboriginal Australians have created some of the world’s most striking artworks. Today their work continues long lines of ancestral traditions, stories of the past and connections to current cultural landscapes, which is why researchers are keen on better understanding and preserving the cultural heritage within. In particular, knowing the chemical composition of ...