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UGA researchers discover a drug for a tropical disease

Researchers at the University of Georgia are working to find the fastest way possible to treat and cure human African trypanosomiasis, long referred to as sleeping sickness. By working to improve chemical entities already tested in human clinical trials, they hope to have a faster route to field studies to treat the disease using drugs that can be administered orally to patients.

The study, "Discovery of Carbazole-Derived Lead Drug for Human African Trypanosomiasis," was published in Scientific Reports Aug. 26.

UAB biomarker outperforms current gold standard to detect brain shunt infections

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - In a study of children with brain shunts at Children's of Alabama, a University of Alabama at Birmingham investigational biomarker outperformed the current "gold standard" test for detecting bacterial infections in the shunts.

Vegetation matters

In California's Sierra Nevada mountains, as more precipitation falls in the form of rain rather than snow, and the snowpack melts earlier in spring, it's important for water managers to know when and how much water will be available for urban and agricultural needs and for the environment in general.

Stem cell breakthrough unlocks mysteries associated with inherited heart condition

Using advanced stem cell technology, scientists from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have created a model of a heart condition called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) -- an excessive thickening of the heart that is associated with a number of rare and common illnesses, some of which have a strong genetic component.

The pros & cons of supplementary materials in scientific publishing

The ascendance of the Internet has changed academic publishing in ways that scientists are still adjusting to. A new commentary in The Auk: Ornithological Advances examines the costs and benefits of supplementary materials, which are online-only additions to scientific papers that often contain datasets, audio and visual files, and other hard-to-classify resources.

Lowering the cost and environmental footprint of white LEDs

Replacing traditional light bulbs with light-emitting diodes (LEDs) could take a significant bite out of global energy consumption. But making white LEDs isn't completely benign or budget friendly. To help reduce the environmental footprint and cost of these lights, researchers have developed the first white LED with a hybrid, metal-organic framework material. Their report appears in the journal ACS Nano.

Study finds potential new biomarker for cancer patient prognosis

To treat or not to treat? That is the question researchers at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) hope to answer with a new advance that could help doctors and their cancer patients decide if a particular therapy would be worth pursuing.

LJI researchers gain new understanding of how neutrophils

LA JOLLA, CA--As an arm of the innate immune system, white blood cells called neutrophils form the first line of defense against invading pathogens. Neutrophils spend most of their lives racing through the bloodstream, patrolling for bacteria or other foreign particles. Once they arrive at tissues besieged by infectious agents, they halt on a dime and then blast through the vessel wall to reach the inflammatory attack site. They do this by activating integrins, a class of adhesion receptors that can switch on in less than a second.

New population data provide insight on aging, migration

The European Demographic Datasheet 2016, produced by demographers at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) and the Vienna Institute of Demography, provides a comprehensive look at key demographic indicators and main population trends for all European countries, including population projections for 2050. The datasheet will be launched at the European Population Conference on 31 August 2016.

Progress in refining the genetic causes of schizophrenia

The study, published today in Genome Biology and funded by the Medical Research Council, combined genetic sequence information with measures of gene regulation in schizophrenia patients and matched controls.

Schizophrenia is an inherited, neuropsychiatric disorder characterised by episodes of psychosis and altered brain function. Despite previous research successfully identifying genetic variants associated with schizophrenia, scientists remain uncertain about which genes cause the condition and how their function is regulated.

Factors associated with improvement in survival following heart attack

Among nearly 400,000 patients hospitalized with a certain type of heart attack in England and Wales between 2003 and 2013, improvement in survival was significantly associated with use of an invasive coronary strategy (such as coronary angiography) and not entirely related to a decline in baseline clinical risk or increased use of pharmacological therapies, according to a study published online by JAMA. The study is being released to coincide with its presentation at the European Society of Cardiology Congress 2016.

A new animal model to understand metastasis in sarcomas

The Sarcoma research group of Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL), led by Dr. Òscar Martínez-Tirado, has developed a modified version of an orthotopic model that allows researchers to recreate more closely the metastatic steps in Ewing sarcoma (ES), the second most common bone tumor in children and adolescents.

New research finds female mosquitoes can transmit Zika virus to their eggs and offspring

Oakbrook Terrace, Ill. (Aug. 29, 2016) -- As the recent Miami outbreak of Zika virus, transmitted by the bite of female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, prompts an all-out war on the pest, new research reveals that female mosquitoes can pass the virus on to their eggs and offspring, bolstering the need for larvicide use as an integral part of the effort to stop the spread of the virus.

Radiologists detect breast cancer in 'blink of an eye'

A new study by investigators at Brigham and Women's Hospital in collaboration with researchers at the University of York and Leeds in the UK and MD Andersen Cancer Center in Texas puts to the test anecdotes about experienced radiologists' ability to sense when a mammogram is abnormal. In a paper published August 29 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, visual attention researchers showed radiologists mammograms for half a second and found that they could identify abnormal mammograms at better than chance levels.

Fewer cardiovascular drugs being studied in clinical trials

The number of cardiovascular drugs in the research pipeline has declined across all phases of development in the last 20 years even as cardiovascular disease has become the number one cause of death world-wide, according to research published today in JACC: Basic to Translational Science.