A team of researchers at Baylor College of Medicine, Louisiana State University and collaborating institutions has discovered that abnormal activity in a particular brain circuit underlies anorexia in an animal model of the condition. Genetically and pharmacologically restoring the normal activity of the brain circuit improved the condition, opening the possibility of developing a treatment […]

An evolutionary biologist at The University of Texas at Arlington is studying seasonal weight gain in male squirrel monkeys to determine its relationship to the species’ potential to sire offspring. The National Science Foundation has awarded JC Buckner, assistant professor of biology, a four-year grant to study the Brazilian primates’ genetic traits and how they […]

Adults who failed to pay down student debt, or took on new educational debt, between young adulthood and early mid-life face an elevated risk of cardiovascular illness, researchers report in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, published by Elsevier. Adults who repaid their student debt had better or equivalent health than individuals who never faced student debt, suggesting […]

Converting agroindustrial waste into molecules of interest to society, such as biofuels and biochemicals, is one of the ways to mitigate dependence on oil and other fossil fuels. As one of the world’s largest producers of plant biomass, Brazil is well-placed to lead this transition, but lignocellulosic raw materials (containing lignin, hemicellulose and cellulose) are […]

New UCLA-led research finds that in states with bans on affirmative action programs, the proportion of students from underrepresented racial and ethnic minority groups in U.S. public medical schools fell by more than one-third by five years after those bans went into effect. The findings are particularly timely given medical schools’ increasing emphasis on health […]

In a study published May 02, 2022 in Nature Communications, scientists at University of California San Diego School of Medicine used human brain organoids to reveal how a genetic mutation associated with a profound form of autism disrupts neural development. Using gene therapy tools to recover the gene’s function effectively rescued neural structure and function. Several […]

When scientists announced the complete sequence of the human genome in 2003, they were fudging a bit. In fact, nearly 20 years later, about 8% of the genome has never been fully sequenced, largely because it consists of highly repetitive chunks of DNA that are hard to align with the rest. But a three-year-old consortium has […]

A study of the Russian propaganda that flooded Donbas for years reveals a failure to build pro-Russian “in-group” identities in region, despite Putin’s claims of support. A study of thousands of stories from media outlets churning out propaganda in Ukraine’s Donbas in the years after Russia’s first invasion suggests that the Kremlin’s disinformation campaign has […]

Cognitive impairment as a result of severe COVID-19 is similar to that sustained between 50 and 70 years of age and is the equivalent to losing 10 IQ points, say a team of scientists from the University of Cambridge and Imperial College London. The findings, published in the journal eClinicalMedicine, emerge from the NIHR COVID-19 BioResource. […]

For thousands of years, silk has been treasured for its qualities as a beautiful material for elegant garments. But scientists are harnessing the less obvious qualities of silk to develop versatile replacement parts for human eyes and knees. The first word that comes to mind when you think of silk is probably not “strength”, yet […]