An interdisciplinary team of clinicians and scientists has published a consensus paper recommending appropriate quantitative imaging techniques for coronary artery stenosis and atherosclerosis related treatment and procedural planning. Quantitative imaging has become increasingly important for the diagnosis of coronary artery disease (CAD) over the past five years. This is because new quantitative techniques can detect narrowed coronary arteries (coronary artery stenoses) and atherosclerosis, which play a major role in CHD patients. It is important to correctly diagnose and accurately assess…

An interdisciplinary team of researchers at the Otto-von-Guericke University in Magdeburg has gained new insights into how inflammatory mediators of pathogen defense can remotely drive cancer cells into death – an important contribution to improving cancer immunotherapies. Modern immunotherapies boost the body’s own defenses against cancer. They activate killer T cells of the immune system that can specifically recognize and destroy cancer cells. In many patients, however, cancer cells adapt and become invisible to killer T cells so that the…

Better living through machine learning. A groundbreaking machine-learning study has unmasked the best drug combinations to prevent COVID-19 from coming back after an initial infection. It turns out these combos are not the same for every patient. Using real-world data from a hospital in China, the UC Riverside-led study found that individual characteristics, including age, weight, and additional illness determine which drug combinations most effectively reduce recurrence rates. This finding has been published in the journal Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence. …

Reactivating Damaged Motor Neurons Using Magnetic Fields. Motor neurons in healthy individuals send signals to the skeletal muscles. ALS, however, is currently an incurable, neurodegenerative disease in which motor neurons are severely damaged and can therefore no longer transmit these signals. An interdisciplinary team at HZDR has proven in cell experiments that magnetic fields can restore impaired motor neurons. This could serve as the groundwork for an entirely new therapeutic approach in curing neurodegenerative diseases, as currently reported in Cells,…

A simple sponge has improved how robots grasp, scientists from the University of Bristol have found.     This easy-to-make sponge-jamming device can help stiff robots handle delicate items carefully by mimicking the nuanced touch, or variable stiffness, of a human. Robots can skip, jump and do somersaults, but they’re too rigid to hold an egg easily.  Variable-stiffness devices are potential solutions for contact compliance on hard robots to reduce damage, or for improving the load capacity of soft robots. This…

So far, it has not been possible to explain the causes of around half of all rare hereditary diseases. A Munich research team has developed an algorithm that predicts the effects of genetic mutations on RNA formation six times more precisely than previous models. As a result, the genetic causes of rare hereditary diseases and cancer can be identified more precisely. Variations of genetic sequence occur relatively frequently – on average, one in a thousand nucleotide of a person’s genome…

Stephanie Lacour’s specialty is the development of flexible electrodes that adapt to a moving body, providing more reliable connections with the nervous system. Her work is inherently interdisciplinary. So when a neurosurgeon asked Lacour and her team to come up with minimally invasive electrodes for inserting through a human skull, they came up with an elegant solution that takes full advantage of their expertise in compliant electrodes, and inspired by soft robotics actuation.  The results are published in Science Robotics….

Interdisciplinary research team unlocks the mechanism for inhibiting inflammation of the joints. Immunoglobulin G antibodies (IgB) play an important role as drivers of inflammation in infectious diseases and autoimmune diseases. However, if the same immunoglobulin antibodies from the blood plasma of healthy donors are cleansed and injected into a patient’s bloodstream, they exhibit anti-inflammatory effects and have a positive effect on the immune system. The cause of this was unknown to a large extent up to now. An interdisciplinary team…

Increasing heat and drought are changing forests faster than expected. Researchers at the University of Würzburg want to keep a better eye on these dynamics. The Bavarian Research Institute for Digital Transformation (bidt) of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities is funding their project with 1.2 million euros. “Alarming data: Five percent of the forest area is gone.” This news made its way through the German media landscape in February 2022. The basis of the news was a satellite-based…

Researchers from Dresden and Bangalore discover a unique two-component molecular motor that uses a kind of renewable chemical energy to pull vesicles toward membrane-bound organelles. Cells have a fascinating feature to neatly organize their interior by using tiny protein machines called molecular motors that generate directed movements. Most of them use a common type of fuel, a kind of chemical energy, called ATP to operate. Now researchers from the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG), the…

… that can traverse difficult landscapes. Centipedes are known for their wiggly walk. With tens to hundreds of legs, they can traverse any terrain without stopping. “When you see a scurrying centipede, you’re basically seeing an animal that inhabits a world that is very different than our world of movement,” said Daniel Goldman, the Dunn Family Professor in the School of Physics. “Our movement is largely dominated by inertia. If I swing my leg, I land on my foot and…

Scientists Design New Bio-Inspired Molecules to Promote Bone Regeneration. An interdisciplinary team of scientists in Dresden developed novel bio-inspired sugar-based molecules that show potential to improve bone regeneration. People’s ability to regenerate bones declines with age and is further decreased by diseases such as osteoporosis. To help the aging population, researchers are looking for new therapies that improve bone regeneration. Now, an interdisciplinary team of researchers from the Biotechnology Center (BIOTEC) and the Medical Faculty of TU Dresden along with…

People with autism spectrum disorder can be classified into four distinct subtypes based on their brain activity and behavior, according to a study from Weill Cornell Medicine investigators. The study, published March 9 in Nature Neuroscience, leveraged machine learning to analyze newly available neuroimaging data from 299 people with autism and 907 neurotypical people. They found patterns of brain connections linked with behavioral traits in people with autism, such as verbal ability, social affect, and repetitive or stereotypic behaviors. They confirmed…

A leaking mitral valve can be repaired surgically or with catheter-based techniques. A so-called mitral valve prolapse is particularly common, in which part of the valve protrudes (prolapses) into the left atrium. The American PRIMARY study investigates which method is most suitable for repairing mitral valves in patients with degenerative mitral valve insufficiency who are at low surgical risk. The German arm of the study, with 113 patients, is led by Prof. Volkmar Falk of the German Heart Institute at…

Predicting extinction vulnerability during a modern-day biodiversity crisis is a key objective for scientists. One approach is to use evidence from the past to make forecasts for the future. A team of researchers led by William Foster from Hamburg University used fossils from past mass extinctions to see if AI-generated models can accurately predict extinction vulnerability. Despite expectations, this research found that mass extinctions could not be used to generate predictive models for other biodiversity crises, indicating a lack of…

EMBL-EBI researchers use UK Biobank data to uncover new information about rare diseases of the eye. Researchers have analysed image and genomic data from the UK Biobank to find insights into rare diseases of the human eye. These include retinal dystrophies – a group of inherited disorders affecting the retina – which are also the leading cause of blindness certification in working-age adults. The retina is found at the back of the eye. It’s a layered tissue that receives light…