A wave of new breakthrough tech could detect the disease years – even decades – before major symptoms strike
Get the latest international news and world events from around the world.
Magnetic sculpting transforms single-source fields into predetermined shapes with mathematical precision
Magnetic fields are invisible yet essential components in technologies ranging from MRI scanners and particle accelerators to atomic clocks and future quantum computers. Each of these applications requires magnetic fields with specific shapes and properties. Today, creating such tailored magnetic fields requires researchers and engineers to design specialized, carefully optimized magnets or large systems of coils for each individual application—a complex and resource-intensive process.
Now, a team of physicists from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) and Chalmers University of Technology has developed a method that makes it possible to transform the magnetic field from a single source, such as a coil or a permanent magnet, into a broad class of predetermined magnetic fields with exact mathematical precision.
Known as magnetic omniconversion, the method enables simple magnetic sources to be used for a wide range of important applications. The research is published in the journal Science Advances.
The human gut microbiome primes fever after vaccination
Fever is a common adverse reaction to vaccination, contributing to vaccine hesitancy and reduced uptake. To understand variation in fever risk, we longitudinally profiled fecal microbiota, oral temperature, and serological markers in 171 healthy adults receiving Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 mRNA vaccines. Fever risk correlated with low-grade intestinal inflammation, increased abundance of flagellated Lachnospiraceae bacteria, and increased flagellin expression prevaccine. Microbiomes from fever-high donors triggered stronger inflammation in human intestinal organoids and drove flagellin-dependent vaccine reactions in gnotobiotic mice. Moreover, microbiome flagellin phenotypes and murine vaccine reactions were modifiable by diet. Consistent with this, human fever risk was associated with self-reported diet and metabolic markers.
Disease Stage and Efficacy Interpretation in Gene Therapy for Arrhythmogenic Cardiomyopathy
Department of Molecular Medicine University of Pavia Pavia Italy Department of Cardiology IRCCS ICS Maugeri Pavia Italy View all articles by Andrea Mazzanti*Correspondence to: Andrea Mazzanti, MD, PhD, Department of Molecular Medicine, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy. Department of Cardiology, IRCCS ICS Maugeri, Pavia, Italy. Email: [email protected]
Tumor-derived Ilp8 and Upd3 contribute to intestinal progenitor cells depletion during cachexia in Drosophila larvae
Falconi et al. show that neoplastic tumors in Drosophila wing discs trigger cachexia-like distant organ wasting, and alter larval midgut development by depleting adult midgut precursors and inducing premature differentiation of peripheral niche cells. These early defects define a previously unrecognized paraneoplastic phenotype controlled by tumor-derived Ilp8 and Upd3.
A planetarium for the brain
An important innovation for communication of neuroscience to the public! “Sloan’s planetarium film premiered during the weeklong BrainFest event in Seattle in March… Sloan says he plans to make the film freely available and hopes it will eventually be shown at planetariums around the world.”
Neuroscientists should take a cue from astrophysicists and use planetariums to inspire awe, argues Tyler Sloan. His new film takes a first step.
Clinical outcomes in a large pediatric cohort of patients with ependymoma treated with proton radiotherapy
Ependymoma accounts for 6.7% of all pediatric brain tumors, the majority of which occur in patients under 5 years of age.1 Though chemotherapeutic regimens have been employed with some benefit,2–6 the general frontline treatment strategy for localized disease includes maximal safe surgical resection followed by adjuvant focal radiotherapy (RT). Ependymomas can arise anywhere in the brain or spine, but the majority occur in the posterior fossa near the brainstem and other important cranial nerves and structures.7 Tumor location and the young age of patients pose technical challenges in achieving local control while minimizing late effects of treatment.
Proton radiotherapy (PRT) is a form of particle radiation that has unique properties which allow for conformal delivery of radiation dose to the target with reduced dose to surrounding normal structures. This reduced radiation exposure to healthy tissues should minimize the incidence and severity of late adverse side effects, which can negatively impact the quality of life of childhood cancer survivors.8,9 We have previously published early clinical outcomes of 70 pediatric patients with ependymoma who were treated with PRT at our institution.10 In this study, we report mature clinical outcomes in a large proton treated cohort—including disease control outcomes, patterns of failure, the incidence of neurologic injury and secondary malignancies, and the effects of clinical variables on outcomes.