Further TOSYMA analysis underpins advantages of DBT+SM use. Early detection of disease is considered positive – but what if it finds “too much”? While early diagnosis can improve the chances of recovery, early detection can also have unwanted side effects. After all, not everything that is found would have become life-threatening in the course of the disease. TOSYMA, the world’s largest randomized diagnostic superiority study on early breast cancer detection, has now investigated whether the innovative DBT+SM method for early…

A team led by Saranya Balachandran, Prof. Dr. Malte Spielmann and Dr. Varuun Sreenivasan, Institute of Human Genetics at the University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein, Kiel University and the University of Lübeck, has developed the AI-based algorithm STIGMA, which enables better diagnoses of congenital diseases. Several new disease genes have already been identified. A team from the Institute of Human Genetics at the University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein (UKSH), the Faculty of Medicine at Kiel University and the University of Lübeck has developed an…

Long Covid patients suffer from chronic symptoms such as fatigue or shortness of breath. As researchers at the University of Zurich and University Hospital Zurich have discovered, this is to some extent due to a part of our immune system called the complement system. The study identified a pattern in the blood proteins that will improve the diagnosis and perhaps also the targeted treatment of Long Covid. Most people infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus recover after the acute illness. However,…

Pitt Engineer receives $557K NIH funding for world’s first in vivo trials of metamaterial orthopedic implants. A civil engineer at the University of Pittsburgh is applying his expertise in bridges and infrastructure to develop new materials that better treat spinal injury, repair, and recovery. Amir Alavi’s proposal received a $557,000 boost from the National Institutes of Health to test the first “metamaterial” orthopedic implants. With an estimated 342,000 procedures per year in the U.S.1, interbody spinal fusion is a popular procedure to treat…

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women. The development of breast cancer often originates from epithelial cells in the mammary gland – the very cells that specialise in milk production during and after pregnancy. A team of researchers from Friedrich Schiller University Jena (Germany), the university in Shenzhen (China) and Jena University Hospital (Germany) has taken a closer look at this specialisation process and deciphered a molecular mechanism that also appears to play an important role in cancer…

Researchers at the Leibniz Institute for Immunotherapy (LIT) have demonstrated that killer T cells of the immune system not only eliminate pathologically altered cells, but also promote the subsequent tissue wound healing process. One of the main functions of the immune system is to defend the body against infections or cancer. This task is efficiently carried out by immune cells known as killer T cells. These cells possess the ability to destroy body cells that are, for example, infected by…

The layered crystal, CeSiI, with heavier-than-normal electrons is a new platform to explore quantum phenomena. Researchers at Columbia University have successfully synthesized the first 2D heavy fermion material. They introduce the new material, a layered intermetallic crystal composed of cerium, silicon, and iodine (CeSiI), in a research article published today in Nature. Heavy fermion compounds are a class of materials with electrons that are up to 1000x heavier than usual. In these materials, electrons get tangled up with magnetic spins…

Water electrolysis is a promising approach to generate hydrogen by the means of transforming electric energy powered by sustainable energy into chemical energy stored in hydrogen bonds. Due to the lower operation temperature, higher voltage efficiency, higher current densities, and better compatibility over traditional alkaline electrolyzers, proton exchange membrane water electrolyzer (PEMWE) has emerged as a promising technology for green hydrogen generation. However, the anode oxygen evolution reaction (OER) with sluggish reaction kinetics usually requires excessive energy consumption, which significantly…

New insights into how proton-coupled electron transfers occur at an electrode could help researchers design more efficient fuel cells and electrolyzers. A key chemical reaction — in which the movement of protons between the surface of an electrode and an electrolyte drives an electric current — is a critical step in many energy technologies, including fuel cells and the electrolyzers used to produce hydrogen gas. For the first time, MIT chemists have mapped out in detail how these proton-coupled electron…

In recent years, ultrasmall metal nanoclusters have unlocked advances in fields ranging from bioimaging and biosensing to biotherapy thanks to their unique molecular-like properties. In a study published in the journal Polyoxometalates on December 11, 2023, a research team from Qingdao University of Science and Technology proposed a design to synthesize atomically precise, water-soluble alloy nanoclusters. “The novelty of this study is in a new strategy for the synthesis of water-soluble alloy nanoclusters and a further contribution to the fundamental…

The research, which was conducted on mice, demonstrates how these tiny nanomachines are propelled by urea present in urine and precisely target the tumour, attacking it with a radioisotope carried on their surface. Bladder cancer has one of the highest incidence rates in the world and ranks as the fourth most common tumour in men. Despite its relatively low mortality rate, nearly half of bladder tumours resurface within 5 years, requiring ongoing patient monitoring. Frequent hospital visits and the need…

List group publishes their results with “Nature”. Aliphatic molecules are important for industry, but usually not very reactive. A new catalyst from Mülheim has changed that. The research group of Prof. Benjamin List has published their results with “Nature”. So-called aliphatic hydrocarbons play a major role in the chemical industry, but are not easy to handle from a scientific point of view. These special molecules form precursors of desired substances in many important reactions – for example in the production…

German Researcher at the Leibniz Institute DSMZ in Braunschweig develops new method for the derivatization of antibiotics. Professor Dr Yvonne Mast, Head of the Department of Bioresources for Bioeconomy and Health Research, and her working group at the Leibniz Institute DSMZ-German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures have developed a new method for the derivatization of antibiotics. Antibiotics are medicinally important compounds often produced by microorganisms. Such natural substances often have a chemically complex structure and hence can be difficult…

New discovery contradicts textbook models. Many important reactions related to climate and environmental processes take place where water molecules interface with air. For example, the evaporation of ocean water plays an important role in atmospheric chemistry and climate science. Understanding these reactions is crucial to efforts to mitigate the human effect on our planet. Textbook models will now need to be re-drawn after a team of researchers has found that water molecules at the surface of salt water are organized…

…enhances effectiveness of experimental cancer therapy. Did smokers do better than non-smokers in a clinical trial for an experimental cancer treatment? That was the intriguing question that led University of Iowa researchers and their colleagues to develop a drinkable, carbon monoxide-infused foam that boosted the effectiveness of the therapy, known as autophagy inhibition, in mice and human cells. The findings were recently published in the journal Advanced Science.  Looking for ways to exploit biological differences between cancer cells and healthy…

… providing insights into evolution, biofuels, cellular aging. You may be familiar with yeast as the organism content to turn carbs into products like bread and beer when left to ferment in the dark. In these cases, exposure to light can hinder or even spoil the process. In a new study published in Current Biology, researchers in Georgia Tech’s School of Biological Sciences have engineered one of the world’s first strains of yeast that may be happier with the lights…