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Tag: Grant Funded News

  • Researchers ID Protein That May Protect the Heart During Certain Cancer Treatment Regimens

    Researchers ID Protein That May Protect the Heart During Certain Cancer Treatment Regimens

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    Newswise — BOSTON – Anthracyclines are a class of chemotherapies effective in treating many forms of cancer, including leukemias, lymphomas and breast cancer. Anthracyclines — such as doxorubicin, frequently used against breast cancer — kill cancer cells by damaging their DNA. However, these effective chemotherapies also cause toxic effects in the heart in about ten percent of patients that can eventually lead to heart failure, particularly in older patients with pre-existing cardiovascular disease. Currently, physicians lack robust strategies to predict which patients are at risk for this anthracycline-associated heart damage — called cardiac toxicity, a decline in heart function that can lead to heart failure — or to detect it in its earliest stages.

    Now, a team led by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) has identified a protein linked with the onset of anthracycline-associated cardiac toxicity. In two studies conducted in women undergoing treatment for breast cancer, levels of a protein known as hemopexin circulating in the blood were associated with increased cardiac toxicity. Follow up studies in mice revealed the protein has heart-protective properties. These findings, published in Science Advances, suggest the body produces the protein as a protective measure against the therapy-induced cardiac toxicity. If so, clinicians might one day use the protein to monitor patients undergoing anthracycline cancer treatment for signs of abnormal heart function with a simple blood test.

    “Given the increasing burden of both heart failure and cancer in the aging population, the development of new biomarkers and heart-protective strategies is essential to minimizing the impact of cancer therapy-associated cardiac toxicity,” said senior and corresponding author Aarti Asnani, MD, a cardiologist and director of the Cardio-Oncology Program at BIDMC. “This study identifies the induction of circulating hemopexin as a heart-protective mechanism relevant to patients treated with anthracyclines.”

    Asnani and colleagues studied 30 women diagnosed with breast cancer and scheduled to undergo treatment with anthracycline chemotherapies. Participants had bloodwork and other data collected at baseline before receiving the doxorubicin regimen. Questionnaires, blood samples and echocardiograms were obtained every three months during the study period.

    At three months after initiating cancer treatment, the scientists saw an overall decline in heart function across the cohort of participants, with six patients developing symptoms of heart failure within a year. During this time, the researchers monitored 1,317 proteins circulating in participants’ blood plasma. The team observed changes in a total of 39 proteins, with increases in hemopexin being most strongly associated with early heart toxicity. A second study with a cohort of 31 women yielded nearly identical results.

    “Based on these human findings, we used a mouse model that closely mirrored the heart issues observed in patients treated with doxorubicin,” said first author Jing Liu, MD, PhD, a post-doctoral researcher in the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine at BIDMC. “As we saw in patients, plasma hemopexin was elevated in mice within 24 hours after completion of chemotherapy and was strongly associated with subsequent cardiac function.”

    Having established a clear link between anthracycline-induced cardiac toxicity and increased hemopexin levels, the scientists sought to determine hemopexin’s functional role. When researchers treated wild type (normal) lab mice with doxorubicin, they found that administering hemopexin prevented the development of cardiac dysfunction. However, when they performed a similar experiment in genetically altered mice that lack the naturally occurring hemopexin protein, the hemopexin-deficient mice demonstrated increased doxorubicin cardiac toxicity compared to wild type mice. The findings suggest the body may produce hemopexin as a protective response to anthracycline-induced cardiac damage.

    “These findings serve as the basis for future investigations to develop hemopexin as both a biomarker and a protective therapy for patients at risk of chemotherapy-related heart toxicity,” said Asnani, who is also an associate member of the Cancer Research Institute at BIDMC. “We are now working to investigate whether our findings apply to a larger group of patients of different genders and other types of cancer, such as lymphoma.”

    Co-authors included Sarah Lane, Rahul Lall, Laurie Farrell, and Robert E. Gerszten of BIDMC; Michelle Russo, Emanuela Tolosano and Alessandra Ghigo of University of Torino; Melis Debreli Coskun and Jonghan Kim of University of Massachusetts, Lowell; Raquel Araujo-Gutierrez and Barry H. Trachtenberg of Houston Methodist Heart and Vascular Center; and Marielle Scherrer-Crosbie of Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

    This work was supported by the National Institute of Health (grants K08HL145019 and R01HL 163172) and the American Heart Association (#20POST352109680). Asnani has consulted or served on an Advisory Board for Sanofi, AstraZeneca and Cytokinetics and serves as the principal investigator on a sponsored research agreement with Genentech, all unrelated to the current work. Ghigo is a cofounder and board member of Kither Biotech, a pharmaceutical product company developing P13K inhibitors for the treatment of respiratory disease, not in conflict with statements present in this article. The other authors declare that they have no competing interests.

     

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    Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

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  • Rewriting the Textbook on Gene Regulation: It’s the Big Picture That Counts

    Rewriting the Textbook on Gene Regulation: It’s the Big Picture That Counts

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    Newswise — A fundamental principle of molecular biology governs how proteins are made within the cell, which happens in two stages called transcription and translation. During transcription, information stored in DNA is copied into messenger RNA (mRNA). Then during translation, the ribosomes assemble proteins one amino acid at a time based on the instruction specified on the mRNA.

    The understanding of this process is so fundamental that the mere direction of the information flow from DNA to mRNA to protein is called the “central dogma” of molecular biology, a term coined by Nobel laureate Francis Crick. Since the advent of systems biology 20 years ago, researchers have been trying to establish how cells regulate transcription and translation processes based on gene expression data — which mRNAs and proteins are made under what conditions. 

    Deciphering how cells regulate these activities would provide insight into how they process environmental information to modulate their behavior. It would also allow scientists to formulate strategies for the precise manipulation of protein levels — a critical step in synthetic biology, which seeks to solve problems in medicine, manufacturing and agriculture through the redesign and re-engineering of genes and their interactions.

    For the first time, researchers at the University of California San Diego have shown that changes in gene expression for the model bacterium E. coli happen almost entirely during the transcription stage while the cells are growing. The researchers have provided a simple quantitative formula linking regulatory control to mRNA and protein levels. The results and formula were published in a recent issue of Science.

    “Ultimately what we provide is a quantitative relationship that scientists can use to interpret how pathogenic bacteria evade antibiotic treatment and host immunity,” stated Terry Hwa, UC San Diego Distinguished Professor of Physics and Biological Sciences, and principal investigator for the project. “In the synthetic biology context, it will allow bacteria to be redesigned and rewired for uses such as detecting and cleaning up toxic waste, or being sent into the body to kill cancer cells.”

    The central dogma of molecular biology is linear, moving from DNA to mRNA to protein. It’s straightforward on an individual-gene level: turn on a gene, make mRNA, create proteins from the mRNA. Often, biologists think of gene regulation in such a linear fashion because they design experiments that change only a single gene or the few genes specific to their studies without drastically affecting the entire cell system.

    According to this line of thinking, making twice as many mRNAs would yield twice as many proteins; however, when considered at a systems level, with all the genes together, this is not true, and the linear way of thinking about the central dogma doesn’t hold.

    This is because cells must deal with certain global constraints. For example, the total protein concentration in a cell is approximately constant. When the environment changes and cells adapt by regulating the expression of certain genes, these global constraints force additional changes in the expression of not only these genes, but also others that are not directly regulated.

    While systems biologists have not considered these global constraints when writing equations to model gene expression, Hwa’s group looked at the problem from the opposite end. They started with the constraints and then made quantitative statements with absolute measurements, beyond the relative measurements that are commonly used.

    “We invested a lot of time and effort in quantifying these changes so we could filter out the small-magnitude changes that are really just distractions on a global level,” stated Hwa. “Absolute quantitative measurements will allow researchers to quantitatively relate mRNA levels to protein levels and vice versa. One cannot make these kinds of statements based on relative measurements.”

    Hwa believes this research will reframe how gene expression and regulation is taught in biology textbooks and classrooms around the world, saying it already runs contrary to things he currently teaches in his own classroom.

    Controlling gene expression is a complex process. A good design rule is essential so the same genetic circuit can work in multiple conditions. Currently scientists often see circuits they spent much effort developing in one environment fail in another.

    “We were using the wrong framework,” stated Hwa. “Now this work has provided a simple recipe that can be used to decipher gene-gene interactions in bacterial responses and can be used to design genetic circuits more effectively in synthetic biology, helping to solve some of the world’s pressing issues in biotech and health sciences.”

    Co-first authors on this paper were Rohan Balakrishnan and Matteo Mori (both UC San Diego). Other contributors include Igor Segota and Zhongge Zhang (both UC San Diego), Ruedi Aebersold (University of Zurich), and Christina Ludwig (Technical University of Munich).

    This work was supported by NIH grant R01GM109069 and NSF grant MCB1818384.

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    University of California San Diego

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  • Sotorasib shows clinically meaningful activity in KRAS G12C-mutated advanced pancreatic cancer

    Sotorasib shows clinically meaningful activity in KRAS G12C-mutated advanced pancreatic cancer

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    Newswise — In the Phase I/II CodeBreaK 100 trial, the KRAS G12C inhibitor sotorasib achieved meaningful anticancer activity with an acceptable safety profile in heavily pretreated patients with KRAS G12C-mutated metastatic pancreatic cancer, according to researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

    The results of the trial, published today in the The New England Journal of Medicine, indicate an objective response rate of 21.1% and a median time-to-response of 1.5 months, with 84% of patients experiencing disease control. Median progression-free survival was 4 months and overall survival was 6.9 months.

    “These are encouraging early data because they point toward establishing that KRAS inhibitors can work in pancreatic cancers, which have been difficult to crack from a targeted therapy standpoint,” said principal investigator David S. Hong, M.D., professor of Investigational Cancer Therapeutics. “We look forward to data from larger trials as we continue working to bring much-needed new therapies to these patients.”

    The KRAS protein is part of a normal signaling pathway regulating growth and proliferation of cells, but activating mutations in KRAS drives abnormal growth in cancer. KRAS mutations are especially common in pancreatic cancers, occurring in about 90% of patients, while KRAS G12C mutations are present in 1-2% of cases.

    Sotorasib is a small-molecule inhibitor that irreversibly binds the mutant KRAS G12C protein to lock it in an inactive state. In 2021, this targeted therapy was approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of KRAS G12C-mutated metastatic non-small cell lung cancer, based on previous data from another cohort of this study.

    The pancreatic cancer cohort enrolled 38 patients with metastatic disease and a median of two prior lines of therapy. The median age of participants was 65.5, 76.3% were men and 55.3% had stage IV disease at initial diagnosis.

    All patients experienced treatment-emergent adverse events, the most common of which were abdominal pain (36.8%), diarrhea and nausea (23.7% each). Treatment-related adverse events were reported in 42.1% of patients, of which 15.8% were grade 3. The most frequently occurring grade 3 toxicities were diarrhea and fatigue (5.3% each). No adverse events resulted in discontinuation of treatment.

    According to Hong, these results may be a harbinger of success for other drugs in the pipeline targeting mutant KRAS that could potentially benefit far greater numbers of patients.

    “It’s gratifying to see results like this, since targeting mutant KRAS seemed virtually impossible just a few years ago. Still, we must continue our research efforts to make progress against other common KRAS mutations found in pancreatic and other cancer types,” Hong said. “Trials have recently begun on drugs targeting KRAS G12D, a much more common mutation in pancreatic cancer, as well as some pan-RAS therapies, which target multiple mutations.”

    This study was funded by Amgen. The work was also supported in part by the National Institutes of Health (P30 CA008748, P30 CA016672, 1UL1 TR003167), the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (RP150535), and the Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Institute for Personalized Cancer Therapy at MD Anderson. A full list of authors and their disclosures can be found in the paper here.

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    University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center

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  • 2022 Year in Review

    2022 Year in Review

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    Newswise — The University of Northern Colorado has had a lot to celebrate throughout 2022. Listed below are some of the achievements and progress UNC students, faculty, staff and community members have made in 2022: 

    Student Honors and Achievements 

    • UNC students reflected on their experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic, showcasing their resiliency through artwork for University Libraries’ Reflecting Back, Looking Forward student art exhibition. 
       
    • Michael Nolting, a 19-year-old business major at UNC, self-published his first novel, The Thorn. A huge accomplishment considering Nolting was diagnosed in the third grade with Dyslexia, a learning disorder that makes reading and writing difficult. The story is a young adult science fiction fantasy about a hostile alien invasion taking over the planet, with a plot that forces the lead character into making challenging decisions. 
       
    • Kennedy Dechant, a sophomore Environmental and Sustainability Studies, never imagined that she would one day be running her own business. Now the owner of the online thrift store, Eclecticism, Dechant participated and was a finalist in UNC’s 2022 Entrepreneurial Challenge, earning $2,000 that she put back into her business. 
       
    • Graduate students Ashley Coburn and Breanna King were awarded a $5,000 grant from the National Council for Mental Wellbeing to support a research project intended to improve mental health first aid training and outcomes in rural mountain west towns. The third-year doctoral students are both in UNC’s School of Psychology program. 
       
    • Students Nikaya Lawson and Ann Adele Blassingame created the collective art movement Black is Punk that opens dialogues about blackness, queerness and other minority issues through art. This initiative not only provides space for students to be represented, but also helps to raise awareness on important diversity matters. 
       
    • UNC GIS students and faculty at UNC put their skills to work spearheading a humanitarian effort that could impact communities across the globe. Sarah Karr, a senior Psychology major with a double minor in Environmental Studies and GIS and Andrade-Schuch, a senior Environmental and Sustainability Studies major, co-led this year’s annual Mapathon — an event where a group of people come together on a particular day to voluntarily work on a collective mapping project. The event was in support of Missing Maps, an open, collaborative project co-founded by the American Red Cross that empowers volunteers to map areas where humanitarian organizations are working. 
       
    • UNC undergraduate honors student Madison Gremillion received national recognition for her research exploring the quality of conversations healthcare professionals have with patients receiving end-of-life care. Her project, titled “Comfort of Healthcare Professionals with End-of-Life Patient Communication: Exploring Comfort, Communication, and Education of Healthcare Professionals for End-of-Life Care,” placed first in the Biological Sciences category poster presentation and won the Sloane Prize for Undergraduate Research at the 57th annual National Collegiate Honors Conference (NCHC) in early November. Shukuru Rushanika, also an undergraduate honors student, was selected to present in the Natural Sciences poster category with a project titled “Utilizing Nurr77 as a Surrogate Biomarker for CD8+ T-Cell Activation to Assess the Immunological Effects of Berberine and Exercise.” His research will provide insights into ways that the medical community can better combat many auto-immune disorders. 
       
    • UNC’s Graduate School hosted two Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) competitions this year, providing graduate students with the opportunity to hone skills critical to the communication of their scholarship with a broad audience. Anne Boris was the winner of UNC’s spring 2022 3MT. Her dissertation project, “Stealth Dyslexia: Cognitive and Achievement Profiles of Gifted Students with Dyslexia,” was one of seven presentations delivered by UNC graduate students. Lea Haverbeck Simon was the winner of UNC’s fall 2022 3MT. Her dissertation project, “Effect of Exercise Training on Circulating Cancer-Associated Immune Cells in. Breast Cancer Patients,” was one of five presentations delivered by UNC graduate students. 

    • Over 2,300 UNC Bears graduated in the spring and fall 2022 commencement ceremonies; their ages, interests, backgrounds and paths forward all unique. Take a deeper look at some of ourspring graduates, including 78-year-old Kent Trompeter who started his first year of teaching secondary history, as read the stories some of our fall graduates were willing to share with us.

    • As of Nov. 18, 927 students were slated to graduate this fall with 526 earning bachelor’s degrees and 401 earning either a master’s, doctoral or specialist degree. The fall 2022 degrees will be conferred in January 2023.

    • There were approximately 1,445 spring and summer graduates in 2022, with around 1,065 earning bachelor’s degrees and 380 earning either a master’s, doctoral or specialist degree.

    • Altogether, UNC celebrated a total of over 2,372 graduates in the combined 2022 ceremonies (1,591 undergraduates and 781 graduates).

    Faculty and Staff Research, Scholarship and Honors 

    • As of Dec. 9, the university has received over $5 million in external grants and contracts through the Office of Research and Special Projects.
    • UNC Professor Deanna Meinke, Ph.D. received the 2022 Jerger Career Award for research in audiology. The Jerger award recognizes individuals whose innovative research contributions in the field of audiology/hearing and balance sciences has had groundbreaking impacts on the field and/or practice of audiology. 
       
    • Meteorology Professor Cindy Shellito, Ph.D., received her second Fulbright scholarship, that took her across the Pacific Ocean to Vietnam for five months to develop climate change driven curricula through international collaboration with University of Dalat’s Department of Chemistry and the Environment.  
       
    • Lyndsey Crum, ‘05, assistant vice president for UNC’s Alumni Relations, received a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program award to participate in an International Education Administrators Seminar in Germany. In October, Crum traveled to Berlin, Germany for a two-week group seminar where she explored Germany’s higher education system, society and culture. The Fulbright Program chose recipients based on their significant involvement in international educational exchange services, career services, alumni affairs or fundraising. 
       
    • School of Teacher Education Professor Suzette Youngs, Ph.D., has been selected as the recipient of the 2022 Sears Helgoth Distinguished Teaching Award. This award is administered by UNC’s College of Education and Behavioral Sciences and recognizes UNC’s commitment to high-quality and innovative teaching along with the historical importance of the teaching mission at UNC by rewarding faculty members (tenured, tenure-track, contract renewable) who have made outstanding contributions to teaching and learning that result in the enhancement of the intellectual development and lives of students. 
       
    • UNC’s School of Art and Design (SOAD) Director Donna Goodwin, Ph.D., was awarded Art Educator of the Year by the Colorado Art Education Association’s fall conference. The award recognizes excellence in contributions, dedicated service and professional achievements in the field of visual arts education. Award recipients “exemplify highly qualified art educators that are leaders, teachers, students, scholars and advocates who give their best to their students and the profession.” 
       
    • Karen Barton, Ph.D., a professor of Geography and GIS in UNC’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences was awarded her eighth and ninth Fulbright awards in 2022 that will have her traveling to separate continents to continue her research in community resilience and adaptation and global environmental change. For four weeks over winter break, Barton is headed to Bangladesh on a Fulbright Specialist award. In collaboration with the Independent University of Bangladesh (IUB) in Dhaka and the Center for Bay of Bengal Studies, she’ll spend her time working to help reduce plastics pollution in the Bay of Bengal, specifically focusing on mitigation and education efforts targeting single-use plastics.

    Strategic Planning 

    • In alignment with UNC’s Empower Inclusivity vision element, the university was recognized with the “Best of the Best” award for being a LGBTQ-friendly campus based on the Campus Pride index. Campus Pride is an organization that works with university communities nationwide “to help support and improve the quality of campus life for LGBTQ people,” as explained on their website. 
       
    • UNC in June concluded the first two-year phase of the Rowing, Not Drifting 2030 strategic plan. Many of the accomplishments achieved during Phase I laid the groundwork that put the right people, processes, technologies and tools in place. A summary of achievements from Phase I can be found on UNC’s strategic planning website. 
       
    • Based on feedback from the UNC community collected in the spring of 2022, five new key actions were identified to guide the second two-year phase of the strategic plan: Develop and implement a Strategic Enrollment Management plan; build on Phase I foundational work to ensure UNC is a Students First university; continue development and implementation of faculty and staff recruitment, engagement and retention plans; create plans, structures and programs that foster an inclusive environment at UNC where individuals feel welcomed and supported; and create and implement an academic portfolio management plan. 
       
    • Continuing work started during the previous year, Provost and Executive Vice President Kirsty Fleming undertook efforts to align UNC’s academic portfolio with the needs of students and the marketplace. This necessary work to secure UNC’s future success was done in partnership with deans, faculty, and other campus leaders. 
       
    • To help UNC achieve and maintain optimum recruitment, retention and graduation rates, efforts were started todevelop a strategic enrollment management plan. This work is being led by Cedric Howard, vice president of the Division of Student Affairs and Enrollment Services. The new division was formed in June when Enrollment Management was realigned under Student Affairs to better provide a transformative student experience that positively impacts student access, academic success, persistence, and graduation. 
       
    • With enrollment of Hispanic and Latinx undergraduate students above 25% for the first time in fall 2022, UNC was able to take the next steps to apply for federal Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) designation on a timeline consistent with the university’s goals. A HSI steering committee, chaired by Tobias Guzmán, vice president of the Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and Fleming, was appointed to help guide UNC’s efforts. 
       
    • In support of the vision element “Innovate and Create,” UNC continued to make progress in establishing a College of Osteopathic Medicine. Thanks to the leadership of founding dean Dr. Beth Longenecker, who joined UNC in June, and the work of many partners, UNC this year started the process of creating a program plan for a facility to house the college; developed a hiring plan and operational budget; and established a college advisory board with representatives from the university, clinical partners, the city and the county. This transformative effort will not only expand UNC’s offerings in the health sciences, but also meet a critical need for physicians in our community and beyond.  
       
    • Over the past year, UNC continued to develop and implement faculty and staff recruitment, engagement and retention plans. This included implementing a multi-year equitable and competitive compensation plan for faculty and staff that builds on efforts from the previous two years. Additionally, after pilots during previous years, UNC again implemented in 2022 half-day Fridays over the summer and an extended winter break at the end of 2022.  

    Academic Programming and Planning 

    • Kirsten Fleming, Ph.D. was selected in February as the new executive vice president and provost. Fleming has over 30 years of higher education experience, including over three years at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) where she served as the associate vice president (AVP) of Faculty Affairs, and six years at California State University, San Bernardino (CSUSB) where she was dean of the College of Natural Sciences and professor of Mathematics. 
       
    • In March, UNC made key progress in its ongoing exploration of creating a not-for-profit college of osteopathic medicine within the university when Governor Jared Polis signed Senate Bill 56 on Thursday, March 17. The legislation, introduced to the Senate on Jan. 18, allows the university to offer specialized degree programs in osteopathic medicine. The bill was passed unanimously through the House and Senate, receiving bipartisan support.   
       
    • The Accounting and Computer Information Systems Department at UNC’s Monfort College of Business was ranked as the number one program in the world for experimental research in Accounting Information Systems. The top recognition, from among more than 630 universities measured, comes from the annual Brigham Young University Accounting rankings. 
       
    • The School of Sport and Exercise Science and the Department of Nutrition and Dietetics combined this year to form the Department of Kinesiology,Nutrition and Dietetics (KiND) under the College of Natural and Health Sciences. Professor and KiND Chair David Hydock, Ph.D., said the merger will facilitate more collaboration and opportunities for students.   
       
    • UNC welcomed 24 new faculty in fall 2022, representing every college across the university. Some of those new faculty members include Vivian Guetler who joined the Criminology and Criminal Justice program; Bonnie Buss who joined the Chemistry and Biochemistry department; Daniel Farr who joined UNC’s School of Music as the new associate director of Bands; and Hye Jeong Park who joined UNC’s School of Art and Design as an assistant professor for Graphic Design and Digital Art. 

    Community, Alumni and Donor Engagement

    • To date in 2022, more than 3,000 donors have made more than 5,500 individual gifts to UNC, contributing more than $16 million in philanthropic support. 
       
    • Alumni and friends made contributions to more than 250 scholarship funds in 2022, directly enabling students to attend UNC and persist in their studies. 
       
    • UNC posted a record fundraising year in fiscal year 2022, thanks to the ongoing generous support of the UNC community, as 3,784 donors commit $22,325,280 and continue to impact lives through higher education.  
       
    • In January, UNC convened a panel of state legislators and local leaders to preview the spring 2022 legislative session. The pressing topics of interest this year included the Joint Budget Committees’ consideration of higher education and preschool through grade 12 funding, prepping students for success, and generating a safer Colorado. 
       
    • UNC alumna Annette Martinez’s appointment to UNC’s Board of Trustees by Governor Jared Polis was confirmed in February. Martinez is a senior vice president with State Farm Insurance Companies where she has worked since 1988. During her career, she served in several leadership roles in both human resources and business operations, gaining considerable experience in leadership development, diversity and inclusion, organizational design and crisis management. 
       
    • Neyla Pekarek ‘09 Grammy-nominated vocalist, cellist, and pianist former member of The Lumineers premiered her musicalRattlesnake Kate at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts (DCPA) on Feb. 4  
       
    • Kenneth W. Monfort College of Business named two new chairs thanks to donor support. Additionally, the Monfort Family Foundation renewed its support and naming of the Kenneth W. Monfort College of Business, supporting scholarships, faculty excellence and the college’s greatest needs. 
       
    • The Empower Center – a training facility for UNC’s student athletes — opened its doors after donor support made the university’s first fully donor-funded facility possible.  
       
    • Funding from several corporate donors to support UNC’s diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, including our first-ever Juneteenth celebration and campus-wide UNITE trainings.  
       
    • More than 300 people attended UNC’s inaugural Juneteenth celebration, which hosted over 25 community and campus vendors and partners, helping to contribute material goods and money directly to Black makers, doers and creators through the event.   
       
    • Nearly 300 students and alumni participated in 10 virtual career panels to build their network and gain industry insight. Topics included exploring careers in K-12 education, alumni of color working in business, alumni working in sustainability and other industry and identity-focused areas.   
       
    • UNC presented its Honored Alumni Award to Robby Aguilar ’03; Natalie Lindeberg ’06; John ’84 and Angela ’89 Schmidt; Tom Severtson ’70, ’71; and Armando Silva, ‘10 in celebration of their service, commitment and dedication to the university. 
       
    • UNC received a $2 million award through the Colorado Opportunity Scholarship Initiative’s (COSI) “Finish What You Started” program, which provides UNC students with $1.5 million 
      in scholarships for eligible students who started college but did not graduate before leaving. 
       
    • More than 300 participants in UNC’s annual Women’s Walk raised over $36,000 in support of UNC’s female student-athletes. 
       
    • Alumni Jennifer (McHugh) Taylor ’87 and Dan Taylor ’86 established the Daniel and Jennifer Taylor Family Scholarship Endowment through an estate gift currently valued at $375,000, in hopes that others will be able to experience UNC and Bear life.  
       
    • SCHEELS extended its generous support of outdoor recreation, not only providing UNC students, faculty and staff with more than 3,500 pieces of equipment they can borrow free of charge, but also providing resources for intramural and club sports as well as other campus recreation opportunities.  
       
    • Alumni Mark Berven ‘94 and Tammy Berven ’94 established the Berven Athletic Leadership Scholarship, which supports one football student-athlete and one female student-athlete who are in their third or fourth seasons and who are active leaders on the Student-Athlete Advisory Council.  
       
    • During UNC’s Bearnanza event Nov. 29 to Dec. 6, generous alumni, friends, parents, faculty, staff and community members raised more than twice the funds as the prior year’s campaign, and gave nearly $8,000 to UNC’s feature fund, the Student Emergency Support Fund. This fund provides financial awards to students facing unforeseen crises and had been depleted prior to this year’s campaign. Thanks to donor support, UNC will be able to begin awarding these funds to students again immediately.

    Athletics 

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    University of Northern Colorado

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  • Tackling Crowd Management in Subways during Pandemics

    Tackling Crowd Management in Subways during Pandemics

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    Newswise — Mass transit, and subways in particular, are essential to the economic viability and environmental sustainability of cities across the globe. But public transit was hit hard during the COVID pandemic and subways especially experienced substantial drops in ridership. Spurred on by a Columbia Engineering Transit Design Challenge in 2020, researchers from across the University have been collaborating on a project to strengthen both the preparedness and resilience of transit communities facing public health disasters.

    The team, led by Civil Engineering Professor Sharon Di, recently won a $2,500,000 four-year grant from the National Science Foundation to tackle crowd management in subways. The project–”Preparing for Future Pandemics: Subway Crowd Management to Minimize Airborne Transmission of Respiratory Viruses”–is focused on developing a system for public transit communities, including riders, workers, and agencies, that will help transit riders to make informed decisions and adapt travel behavior accordingly and provide transit agencies engaged in planning and policymaking with recommendations for mitigating virus transmission risks to riders and workers. 

    “We think our system, which we’re calling Way-CARE, will be transformative, especially for people in low-income communities who are among the most impacted by reduced accessibility to safer travel modes,” said Di, who is a leader in transportation management. “We expect our project to improve the social, economic, and environmental well-being of those who live, work, and travel within cities.” 

    The team, which includes Co-PIs Jeffrey Shaman (Columbia Climate School; Mailman School of Public Health); Marco Giometto, Xiaofan Jiang, and Faye McNeill (Columbia Engineering); Ester Fuchs (School of International and Public Affairs); and Kai Ruggeri (Columbia University Irving Medical Center), is working with New York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority and local rider communities in Harlem and at Columbia on the Way-CARE project. They hope that their system will enable smart city transit operators to access real-time sensing information collected from subway stations and/or trains for crowd management.

    The researchers are integrating sensing and crowd and airflow modeling with public health expertise on a microscale applied to subway crowd management. They are developing coupled airborne dispersion and epidemiological models that account for microscale processes–the transport of droplets and aerosols–that affect respiratory virus transmission. In addition, they are integrating behavioral science data that will help inform travel choices and policy making. 

    “This is an important interdisciplinary collaboration,” said Shaman, an epidemiologist who is a leader in infectious disease modeling. “The transmission of respiratory viruses is not directly observed, and the microscale processes influencing infection risk are not well known. Our project will address these shortcomings by advancing understanding of the physical, biological, and behavioral features that enable transmission of respiratory viruses in subway settings, and equip transit officials and the public with real-time information that improves worker and rider safety.”

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    Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science

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  • SLU Researcher Receives NEH Grant to Create Platform to Share Medieval Interpretations of Culture-Shaping Text

    SLU Researcher Receives NEH Grant to Create Platform to Share Medieval Interpretations of Culture-Shaping Text

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    Newswise — ST. LOUIS – Atria Larson, Ph.D., associate professor of Medieval Christianity at Saint Louis University, has been awarded a Digital Humanities Advancement Grant through the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). The two-year grant totals $149,835 and will fund the prototyping and testing of a web platform for sharing medieval interpretations of culture-shaping texts.

    The “Gallery of Glosses” project will allow users to identify and transcribe annotations and marginalia in medieval manuscripts. A gloss is a word, phrase, or extended commentary inserted in a text’s margin to explain a part of the original text.

    “A gloss can include a legal or cultural interpretation of the original text,” Larson said.

    Typically, medieval scholars must study the original manuscripts in the libraries where they are currently housed when working with annotations. The web application Larson is creating will allow that work to be done by various scholars from anywhere in the world.

    “This will allow a broader approach to medieval studies,” Larson said.

    Original texts authored during the Middle Ages (generally defined as the time between the collapse of the western Roman Empire in the 5th century to the 15th century) are held in libraries and museums across Europe. Studying the glosses provides a deeper understanding of the text and the meaning it held for people when they read it.

    “Glosses aren’t just scribbling in a margin – these are updates and interpretations of the text,” Larson said. “We continue to uncover voices that we have not heard for centuries as we unearth and share these glosses.”

    She likened working in medieval glosses to detective work.

    “By reading the glosses in these works, we are not just getting the historical context of the work and the value given to it at the time of its writing,” she said. “By seeing which glosses are copied where, we can see how the original written works traveled across Europe, who worked on them and how they formed their interpretations. There are clues in the manuscripts if we can find them.”

    Larson said writings by Thomas Aquinas and Aristotle in addition to the Bible and major law collections contain glosses by many different readers of their works.

    “By connecting the dots on how the work traveled, you can see learned culture move throughout Europe,” she said.

    Larson’s project is one of 226 humanities projects funded in the NEH’s third round of grants for the fiscal year 2022. The NEH supports vital humanities research, education, preservation, and public programs. 

    The Digital Humanities Advancement Grants program (DHAG) supports innovative, experimental, and/or computationally challenging digital projects, leading to work that can scale to enhance scholarly research, teaching, and public programming in the humanities. The program also supports research that examines the history, criticism, ethics, and philosophy of digital culture or technology and its impact on society.

    National Endowment for the Humanities

    Created in 1965 as an independent federal agency, the National Endowment for the Humanities supports research and learning in history, literature, philosophy, and other areas of the humanities by funding selected, peer-reviewed proposals from around the nation. Additional information about the National Endowment for the Humanities and its grant programs is available at www.neh.gov.

    Saint Louis University

    Founded in 1818, Saint Louis University is one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious Catholic institutions. Rooted in Jesuit values and its pioneering history as the first university west of the Mississippi River, SLU offers more than 13,500 students a rigorous, transformative education of the whole person. At the core of the University’s diverse community of scholars is SLU’s service-focused mission, which challenges and prepares students to make the world a better, more just place.

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  • Plant ecologist awarded NSF grant for restoring the culturally important Emory oak

    Plant ecologist awarded NSF grant for restoring the culturally important Emory oak

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    Newswise — Assistant professor Sara Souther of Northern Arizona University’s School of Earth and Sustainability (SES) is the principal investigator on a major new project focused on restoring a tree species important to the cultural heritage of tribal communities in the Southwest. 

    Acorns from the Emory oak tree are a critically important resource for the Western Apache tribal nations—including the Yavapai-Apache, Tonto Apache, San Carlos Apache and White Mountain Apache in east and central Arizona—who use it both for food and cultural and ceremonial purposes. Groves of Emory oak have been declining in health and yielding fewer acorns with each harvest for several decades due to loss of habitat, fire suppression, livestock grazing, groundwater reductions, species competition and climate change. 

    With $1.5 million in funding from the National Science Foundation, Souther will launch a five-year project starting in March entitled “DISES: Restoration of a southwestern cultural keystone species: Integrating socio‐ecological systems to predict resilience of traditional acorn harvest by western Apache communities.” Co-PIs on the multidisciplinary conservation project, representing SES and NAU’s School of Forestry as well as the departments of biology, sociology and geography, planning & recreation, are associate professor Clare Aslan, Regents’ professor Peter Fulé, assistant professor Alark Saxena, associate teaching professor Amanda Stan, associate professor Diana Stuart, professor Andi Thode and associate professor Amy Whipple. 

    “I am extremely excited to have the resources to explore this amazing social-ecological system. For a long time, I’ve felt that wild harvest and traditional ecological practices and traditions have been viewed as niche issues within the world of conservation. It is thrilling to see this work elevated by the NSF,” Souther said.  

    “We are taking a holistic landscape-level approach to understand the threats to these woodlands. Emory oaks are a cultural keystone species for western Apache tribes and the dominant oak in the Madrean oak woodlands, which cover around 80,000 km2 across the Southwest and US-Mexico borderlands,” she said. “Despite this, the Madrean oak system is understudied. In order to conserve Emory oak, we need to quickly learn a lot about this ecosystem, and in particular, we must understand what constrains population growth and viability.” 

    Souther’s work has always focused on understanding ecocultural interactions, supporting communities connected to these landscapes and conserving land and traditions. This funding will support these goals, providing the opportunity to rapidly learn about the Madrean oak woodlands as a coupled human and natural system, she said. 

    This project builds on work done through the Emory Oak Collaborative Tribal Restoration Initiative  (EOCTRI), a collaborative partnership between NAU, the U.S. Forest Service and five different Apache tribes. Their goal is to restore and protect Emory oak stands to ensure the long-term persistence of Emory oak using tribal traditional ecological knowledge to guide goals and activities. Since 2018, the partners have worked together to identify and assess important Emory oak stands, complete clearances and begin implementing restoration and protection activities for several groves. With this new project, the team’s goals are to expand their knowledge of the Emory oak system, support the goals of EOCTRI—to conserve Emory oak trees and the traditional acorn harvest by Western Apache tribes—and provide knowledge to the EOCTRI group according to the ethics of the Chi’Chil Advisory Committee. Watch this video to learn more about EOCTRI’s efforts. 

    Souther’s project also is related to an initiative that was launched to better understand how to manage ecocultural resources on public lands—the Tribal Nations Botanical Research Collaborative (TNBRC), a U.S. Forest Service Citizen Science program in which volunteers collect information on traditionally used plants that have cultural, medicinal or economic values important to tribal communities. They record observations of these plants using the iNaturalist app on their cell phones. Scientists gather and analyze the data and use it to shape conservation and land management goals for increased sustainability. 

    Research related to Souther’s roots in rural Appalachia 

    “My work with the Emory oak builds on my past research on traditional use plant conservation in Appalachia,” Souther said. “I grew up in West Virginia, which has a rich heritage of harvesting wild plants for food, medicine and other essentials. It wasn’t until I went to Paraguay, as a Peace Corps volunteer, that I realized how much of this traditional knowledge had been lost in Appalachian culture. In Paraguay, small children knew the names and uses of all the plants growing in forests and fields nearby—which meant that most children had a working knowledge of hundreds of plants. Meanwhile, in West Virginia, most of this ecological knowledge was held by the elderly and was not actively passed down to youth. I could see our Appalachian culture disappearing, and for me, this ecocultural erosion was devastating. Harvest expeditions in Appalachia, whether to pick ramps (wild onions), blueberries or pawpaw (a fruit related to custard-apples), were part of the experience growing up in West Virginia and important for connecting with family and the land. More broadly, I feel that maintaining human connections to the land is key to human health and well-being and critical to inspire conservation of our wild spaces.” 

    Project designed to involve students from underrepresented groups  

    Souther is dedicated to outreach, mentorship and training to promote the participation of underrepresented groups in STEM, and she is using this project as an opportunity to hire several students. Souther is also a co-PI with Amy Whipple on another project designed to increase diversity in STEM targeting post-baccalaureate training for underrepresented groups, principally Indigenous communities.  

    “Coming from rural Appalachia, I connect with students who may feel like outsiders in STEM fields. It is extremely important to me to support underrepresented groups as they navigate graduate school and academia. My commitment to increasing diversity in STEM fields is personal, since support from NSF and university faculty launched my career, and also practical, because I believe that the sciences will be strengthened by diverse opinions and thinkers.” 

    The team will recruit four graduate students for this project as well as undergraduate students to support field work in the summer. Applications are available on the lab website. 

    “The broader impacts of this project will be to advance understanding and predictive modeling of stochastic drought events, which will likely drive ecological change in the Southwest and other arid regions,” Souther said. “Integrating information from Native American tribal collaborators, we will contribute to diversity and inclusion in environmental resource management, ensuring that Indigenous perspectives and needs are incorporated into decision-making.” 

    She is also working on a two-year project funded through a $538,203 award from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration entitled, “Projecting socio-ecological impacts of drought in southwestern ecosystems to prioritize restoration initiatives.” Stuart and Steven Chischilly from the Navajo Technical Institute are co-PIs on this project. 

    About Northern Arizona University 

    Founded in 1899, Northern Arizona University is a community-engaged, high-research university that delivers an exceptional student-centered experience to its nearly 28,000 students in Flagstaff, at 22 statewide campuses and online. Building on a 123-year history of distinctive excellence, NAU aims to be the nation’s preeminent engine of opportunity, vehicle of economic mobility and driver of social impact by delivering equitable postsecondary value in Arizona and beyond. NAU is committed to meeting talent with access and excellence through its impactful academic programs and enriching experiences, paving the way to a better future for the diverse students it serves and the communities they represent.  

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  • Wildlife disease ecologist launches project to help DoD monitor quality of bird habitats on military installations

    Wildlife disease ecologist launches project to help DoD monitor quality of bird habitats on military installations

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    Newswise — The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) owns military installations on nearly 27 million acres all over the country—roughly equivalent in size to Virginia—and oversees these lands through a network of natural resource managers. According to the DoD, the program supports “the military’s testing and training mission by protecting its biological resources… and working to ensure the long-term sustainability of our nation’s priceless natural heritage.” One of the program’s top priorities is monitoring and maintaining populations of threatened and endangered species (TES) of birds—especially those that eat insects and other arthropods like spiders, which have been particularly hard hit.  

    Monitoring the quality of the birds’ habitats, including their typical diets of insects, is one of the most critical ways scientists investigate declining bird populations. The tools the military land managers use to assess diets and habitats are crucial, but the current methods of measuring habitat quality related to the birds’ food resources are time consuming, expensive and require specific biological expertise. 

    To this end, associate professor Jeff Foster of Northern Arizona University’s Department of Biological Sciences and the Pathogen and Microbiome Institute (PMI) was recently awarded a grant by the DoD for a new study, “Demonstration of Metabarcoding for Monitoring Bird Species Habitat Quality on DoD Installations.” This three-year, $900,000 project will focus on five insectivorous species on four military sites: 

    • Golden-cheeked Warbler (Setophaga chrysoparia) and Black-capped Vireo (Vireo atricapilla) at Fort Hood, Texas 
    • Least Bell’s Vireo (Vireo bellii pusillus) at Camp Pendleton, California 
    • Golden-winged Warbler (Vermivora chrysoptera) at Fort McCoy, Wisconsin 
    • Oahu Elepaio (Chasiempis ibidis) at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii  

    Advanced approach focuses on bioinformatics, metabarcoding 

    Metabarcoding is a technique that enables scientists to identify multiple species of plants or animals on a large scale based on rapid, high-throughput environmental DNA sequencing, which represents a huge technological step forward.  

    “We’ll assess habitat quality by using advanced genetic approaches to measure arthropod food resources in bird diets and from the vegetation on which these birds forage,” Foster said. “Our three primary objectives are to demonstrate the effectiveness of metabarcoding of bird diets and food resources; compare this genetic approach to conventional approaches that employ visual identification of arthropods using microscopes; provide user-friendly guidance to military land managers so they can understand the process and use this approach for monitoring in the future. 

    “The bioinformatics can be challenging and daunting if you’re first getting into DNA metabarcoding, so we’ll provide an established workflow that we can share with the land managers.” 

    The team will collect fecal samples from the birds (bird poop) and arthropod samples, perform bioinformatic and chemical composition analyses, validate the technology by comparing it to conventional methods, develop guidance documents and lead hands-on technical workshops for the military land managers. This will be the most in-depth diet analysis of birds on military installations done to date. 

    Foster brings his expertise as well as that of PMI to the project. “There’s much more to metabarcoding work than simply sequencing a gene. And here’s where our team excels. We use tools developed over the past 13 years for analyzing the human microbiome. NAU professor Greg Caporaso and his team at PMI have developed many of these tools, so we have considerable technical expertise in analyses, including understanding reference libraries of sequences and developing the analytical software.” 

    Collaborators include military scientists and undergraduate researcher 

    Foster will work closely with co-principal investigators Jinelle Sperry and Aron Katz from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Engineer Research and Development Center’s Construction Engineer Research Laboratory, as well as with collaborators at each of the installations. 

    NAU undergraduate researcher Hannah Brosius is working on the project with Foster and PMI researcher Alexandra Gibson. Brosius, who will be assisting with the lab work and analyses, said, “I’m excited about this project because the analysis of bird diets from feces will help us figure out why these endangered birds might be at risk. It’s fun to be able to take a fecal sample from a species; you can learn a lot using DNA to understand how an animal lives.”  

    She is looking forward to her future as a veterinarian. “I’m interested in lab work, which allows me to focus on a project and have results quickly. This research experience will be important for veterinary school and will expand my understanding of biology.” 

    Project to benefit TES monitoring across DoD sites 

    The project’s outcomes will have multiple benefits that will help DoD land managers monitor threatened and endangered species.  

    “It’s an effective and cost-efficient way to measure habitat quality, particularly as it relates to a key factor regulating insectivorous bird abundance—arthropod food resources,” Foster said. “The technology can be deployed at any DoD site where understanding diet or habitat quality is necessary for TES monitoring of vertebrate taxa. Population surveys can assess the current abundance and distribution of TES but determining the specific factors limiting their populations adds additional complexity. This method will not only give DoD natural resource managers the ability to distinguish poor versus high-quality habitat, but will provide critical information about restoration, habitat recovery from disturbance and a baseline of prey availability should arthropod populations decline regionally in the future.”  

    In addition, numerous other bird species are on the list of DoD Priority Species and could benefit from this technology as well as other taxa such as amphibians, reptiles and small mammals. 

    About Northern Arizona University 

    Founded in 1899, Northern Arizona University is a community-engaged, high-research university that delivers an exceptional student-centered experience to its nearly 28,000 students in Flagstaff, at 22 statewide campuses and online. Building on a 123-year history of distinctive excellence, NAU aims to be the nation’s preeminent engine of opportunity, vehicle of economic mobility and driver of social impact by delivering equitable postsecondary value in Arizona and beyond. NAU is committed to meeting talent with access and excellence through its impactful academic programs and enriching experiences, paving the way to a better future for the diverse students it serves and the communities they represent.  

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  • Michigan Medicine receives $50M; will name new hospital after philanthropists D. Dan and Betty Kahn

    Michigan Medicine receives $50M; will name new hospital after philanthropists D. Dan and Betty Kahn

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    Newswise — ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Celebrating one of the largest gifts ever to Michigan Medicine of $50 million, the health system will name its new hospital for longtime philanthropists D. Dan and Betty Kahn.

    On Dec. 8, the University of Michigan Board of Regents approved a new name for University of Michigan Health’s 264-bed, 690,000-square-foot hospital — The D. Dan and Betty Kahn Health Care Pavilion — to honor Betty and Dan’s dedication to the University of Michigan and the public good.

    “Patients and families who come to Michigan Medicine see their lives changed,” said U-M President Santa J. Ono. “We are deeply grateful to the D. Dan and Betty Kahn Foundation for its extraordinary generosity, which will enable us to further develop and advance the highly specialized care, innovative research and comprehensive medical training that make our health system so exceptional.”

    The D. Dan and Betty Kahn Health Care Pavilion is scheduled to open in fall 2025. The $920 million facility will include 264 private inpatient rooms capable of converting into intensive care, a top-notch neurosciences center, and specialty services for cardiovascular and thoracic care. It will also feature 20 surgical and three interventional radiology suites.

    “This hospital is so important to the legacy of Betty and Dan Kahn and their focus on improving lives through advancements in health and science,” said Larry Wolfe, president and trustee of the D. Dan and Betty Kahn Foundation and son-in-law of the Kahns.

    “This gift is aligned perfectly with the Kahns’ vision and dedication to improving lives. This transformational gift will enhance the ability of Michigan Medicine to provide increased services to the people of the state of Michigan, as well as a wide cross section of our country,” Wolfe said. “The pandemic amplified the need for increased high-quality medical care, training, research and innovation — this is exactly what Michigan Medicine will do. To give to the University of Michigan is based on the trust and confidence that we at the Foundation have in the university and its leadership. The Kahn Foundation is proud to make this impactful gift based on need, proper stewardship and management.”

    The new hospital will allow for the relocation of beds currently in semi-private rooms at University Hospital, improving patient safety and experience while offering more space for family members. When all is complete, a total of 154 new beds will be added to the medical campus in Ann Arbor.

    “The generosity of the D. Dan and Betty Kahn Foundation will allow Michigan Medicine to provide essential increased access for patients to receive the highest quality medical care from our world-class providers,” said Marschall Runge, M.D., Ph.D., CEO of Michigan Medicine, dean of the U-M Medical School and executive vice president of medical affairs for the University of Michigan.

    “By relieving high capacity at University Hospital and having more ICU-capable beds, the facility will improve the patient experience for so many,” Runge said. “This will be yet another distinction that strengthens our academic medical center.”

    The D. Dan and Betty Kahn Foundation has a near-20-year history of transformational giving to the University of Michigan.

    In 2011, Dan Kahn created the Kahn Symposium, a collaboration between U-M and the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. In 2018, the foundation established and expanded the Michigan-Israel Partnership for Research and Education, an alliance among U-M, Technion and the Weizmann Institute of Science that was envisioned by Dan Kahn and facilitates collaboration in medicine, science and engineering among these institutions.  

    The foundation also has supported cardiovascular research and care at Michigan Medicine, with gifts in 2009 and 2004, the latter made by Dan in memory of his beloved wife, Betty. The auditorium at U-M’s A. Alfred Taubman Biomedical Science Research Building and the Patient and Family Reception Area at the Frankel Cardiovascular Center are named in the Kahns’ honor.

    “My parents placed immense value on the power of education and continual learning,” said Patti Aaron, daughter of Dan and Betty Kahn, and vice president and trustee of the Kahn Foundation. “My father was especially inspired by scientific discovery and the possibilities for humankind, and he encouraged the same in his children and grandchildren. My parents’ philanthropy, in part, reflected those interests through support for world-class health science research institutions, such as Michigan Medicine.”

    The new hospital is being constructed adjacent to the Frankel Cardiovascular Center, and the two are set to be linked with bridge and tunnel connections. The facility is designed for sustainability to meet LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum Building Certification, the highest possible rating.

    “With the Pavilion, Michigan will have one of the most state-of-the-art hospitals in the country — that also demonstrates environmental and social responsibility,” said David Miller, M.D., president of U-M Health. “The D. Dan and Betty Kahn Health Care Pavilion will be a game changer for Michigan and our patients, as well as the faculty, staff and learners who are committed to caring for them.”

    “Michigan Medicine is all about people — their faculty and staff are outstanding, and the care is patient-centered,” said Arthur Weiss, secretary/treasurer and trustee of the Kahn Foundation. “This gift will ensure that they have the tools to continue the transformative work they do here and assist in the retention of high-quality medical professionals at Michigan Medicine. Having had the privilege to represent Betty and Dan, this gift falls perfectly in line with their legacy.”

    About the Pavilion:  

    The D. Dan and Betty Kahn Health Care Pavilion is a 12-floor, 264-bed inpatient facility being built on the University of Michigan Health, Michigan Medicine, medical campus in Ann Arbor. The $920 million, 690,000-square-foot hospital was approved for construction by University of Michigan Board of Regents in September 2019.

    Work on the project was paused due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 but resumed in spring 2021. Construction crews will work to enclose the building’s exterior in winter 2023, and the hospital is scheduled to open fall 2025.

    About Michigan Medicine:

    At Michigan Medicine, we advance health to serve Michigan and the world. We pursue excellence every day in our five hospitals, 125 clinics and home care operations that handle more than 2.3 million outpatient visits a year, as well as educate the next generation of physicians, health professionals and scientists in our U-M Medical School.

    Michigan Medicine includes the top ranked U-M Medical School and University of Michigan Health, which includes the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital, Von Voigtlander Women’s Hospital, University Hospital, the Frankel Cardiovascular Center, Kellogg Eye Center, University of Michigan Health West and the Rogel Cancer Center. The U-M Medical School is one of the nation’s biomedical research powerhouses, with total research funding of more than $500 million.

     

    More information is available at www.med.umich.edu 

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  • Understanding How the Perception of Risks and Benefits Influence Cancer Clinical Trial Withdrawal Outcomes

    Understanding How the Perception of Risks and Benefits Influence Cancer Clinical Trial Withdrawal Outcomes

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    Newswise — PHILADELPHIA (December 7, 2022) – While people with cancer have options to participate in cancer clinical trials (CCTs), it can be challenging when they encounter difficulties enrolling and remaining in the trial. Trial withdrawal, although every participant’s right, can thwart study goals and hamper advancing novel treatments.

    Until now, little attention has focused on what influences retention after participants are enrolled in the trial, especially the role of perceived benefits and burdens. A new investigation from the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing (Penn Nursing) has examined the association between patients’ perceived benefits and burdens of research participation and CCT retention. It found that patients perceived important benefits from CCT participation, which was associated with trial retention, even among those who also perceived substantial burdens. 

    “The findings of how perceptions of benefits and burdens were associated with CCT withdrawal outcomes provide novel and foundational evidence of the importance of understanding these perceptions for trial retention,” explains Connie M. Ulrich, PhD, RN, FAAN, Lillian S. Brunner Chair in Medical and Surgical Nursing, Professor of Nursing and Professor of Medical Ethics and Health Policy at Penn Nursing. Ulrich is the lead investigator of the study.

    The study found that when perceived benefits were equal to or greater than perceived burdens, participants were less likely to withdraw than those who perceived the burdens to be greater than the benefits. How participants think about benefits and burdens in a research trial may differ from how researchers and IRBs discern the trial’s acceptability.

    “Protection of human participants is critical, but more research is needed on how participants perceive benefits, the different types and categories of benefits, and implications of perceived benefits for retention to elucidate the role of benefits compared with the risks and burdens that participants are asked to bear,” says Ulrich.

    The results of the study have been published in the article “Association of Perceived Benefit or Burden of Research Participation With Participants’ Withdrawal From Cancer Clinical Trials,” available online on JAMA Network. Coauthors of the article include: Mary D. Naylor, PhD, RN, FAAN, Marian S. Ware Professor in Gerontology Director of the NewCourtland Center for Transitions and Health, Therese S. Richmond, PhD, RN, FAAN, Andrea B. Laporte Professor of Nursing and Associate Dean for Research & Innovation, and Liming Huang, all of Penn Nursing;  Sarah J. Ratcliffe of the University of Virginia; Qiuping Zhou of the George Washington University; Camille Hochheimer of the Colorado School of Public Health; Thomas Gordon of the University of Massachusetts; Kathleen Knafl of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Marilyn M. Schapira of the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and the Veterans Affairs Medical Center; Christine Grady of the National Institutes of Health; and Jun J. Mao of Memorial Sloan Kettering.  

    Ulrich was supported in part by grant R01CA196131 from the National Cancer Institute of the NIH (NCI/NIH). Ratcliffe was supported in part by grant R01-NR014865 from the NCI/NIH. Richmond was supported in part by grant R01CA196131 from the NCI/NIH. Mao was supported in part by grants P30CA008748 and R01CA240417 from the NCI/NIH. 

    # # #

    About the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing

    The University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing is one of the world’s leading schools of nursing. For the seventh year in a row, it is ranked the #1 nursing school in the world by QS University. In a first for any undergraduate Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) program in the country, our BSN program is ranked # 1 in the 2022 U.S. News & World Report’s Best Colleges rankings. Penn Nursing is also consistently ranked highly in the U.S. News & World Report annual list of best graduate schools and is ranked as one of the top schools of nursing in funding from the National Institutes of Health. Penn Nursing prepares nurse scientists and nurse leaders to meet the health needs of a global society through innovation in research, education, and practice. Follow Penn Nursing on: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, & Instagram.  

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  • LJI scientists confirm smallpox vaccine also teaches T cells to fight mpox

    LJI scientists confirm smallpox vaccine also teaches T cells to fight mpox

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    Newswise — LA JOLLA, CA—There’s even more reason to think a vaccine developed against smallpox can help the body fight against mpox (monkeypox virus disease) as well, according to researchers at La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI). Their new study, published in Cell Host & Microbe, is the first to provide evidence that the vaccinia vaccine MVA-BN (brand name JYNNEOS) should also train virus-fighting T cells to recognize mpox sequences.

    “This study gives us confidence that T cell response induced by the JYNNEOS vaccine should be able to also recognize mpox virus,” says LJI Professor Alessandro Sette, Dr.Biol.Sci., who co-led the new study with LJI Instructor Alba Grifoni, Ph.D.

    The study comes as more than 100 countries reported unprecedented mpox outbreaks. In the United States, there have been more than 28,000 reported cases and 11 deaths attributed to mpox since May 2022.

    Why we need mpox vaccine data

    Although the JYNNEOS vaccine, based on a non-live attenuated orthopox virus called modified vaccine ankara (MVA), is approved to prevent mpox infection and severe disease, researchers don’t yet have clinical efficacy data from human trials. Still, researchers know that mpox virus is similar enough to other orthopoxviruses that immunization against an orthopoxvirus called vaccinia (VACV) can also train the immune system to fight mpox.

    Mpox (termed “monkeypox” until recently) is a member of the orthopox family of viruses. The deadliest, of course, was variola virus,causing the disease known as smallpox. Smallpox was eradicated worldwide in 1980 thanks to a massive and successful vaccination campaign to administer the Dryvax vaccine, based on VACV.

    VACV and variola virus have a lot of immune system targets (called antigens), in common. This means training the body to recognize VACV also taught immune cells to recognize variola virus. But there was a downside—Dryvax (and a newer version called Acambis 2000) had harmful side effects, especially in immunocompromised people.

    JYNNEOS was designed to have a better safety profile. While the vaccine performed well in pre-clinical tests, the eradication of smallpox meant scientists couldn’t see how JYNNEOS performed in human patients in real-world infection scenarios, such as a smallpox outbreak or possible case of smallpox-based biological warfare (a concern in the early days of the Iraq War).

    How a smallpox vaccine protects against mpox

    For the new study, the LJI team set out to study if the viral proteins known to be targeted by T cells induced by VACV vaccination, would also be conserved in JYNNEOS and in mpox. As Grifoni explains, while antibodies are key for vaccine efficacy and preventing reinfections, T cells are essential for both preventing severe infections and “remembering” past infections.

    “By recognizing infected cells, T cells are able to limit how much viruses can spread inside the body modulate disease severity, and ultimately terminate the infection” says Grifoni. “T cell responses also tend to be long lasting, and resilient to viral mutations to escape immune recognition. What we have seen in the context of SARS-CoV-2 is that even if the virus mutates somewhat, T cells reactivity is still largely preserved.”

    The researchers demonstrated that the known targets of T cell responses seen in the VACV proven -efficacy vaccine, are also found in JYNNEOS and mpox, suggesting that the JYNNEOS vaccine can indeed trigger an effective T cell response against mpox infection.  The initial test of their hypothesis was based on developing viral peptide “megapools,” or reagents designed to detect T cell reactivity to mpox antigens. The experiments further showed that these megapools can be used to accurately detect specific T cells.

    “Vaccines such as JYNNEOS should be able to induce T cells that also recognize mpox and can provide protection from severe disease,” says Grifoni.

    Could the vaccine work in immunocompromised patients?

    “The majority of mpox cases have been in men who have sex with men,” Sette explains. “In that community, a significant fraction of the people that have been infected with mpox also happened to be HIV-positive. So it is important to learn how people who are HIV-positive respond to infection and vaccination compared to HIV-negative individuals. The present study enables future study to establish this key point”

    Sette emphasizes that most HIV-positive individuals are not necessarily at greater risk of mpox infection or severe disease. “We do not expect that HIV-positive individuals will respond differently to infection and vaccination, because in most cases, people who live with HIV live with a controlled HIV because of the available therapies,” he says. “Nevertheless, it’s important to provide these data to the community affected by this outbreak and to the general scientific community.”

    Whether the JYNNEOS vaccine sparks a similar immune response in people with and without HIV—and the role of T cells—will have to be determined in future studies. “We also expect to see no difference in the duration of protection between HIV positive and HIV negative individuals, but that still all needs to be proven and evaluated experimentally. We are actively engaging the community most affected by the outbreak and the scientific community at large ” says Sette.

    Next steps for the LJI team

    The researchers are now working to characterize the T cell response to mpox in more detail. They are especially interested in how T cell responses differ after vaccination versus natural infection. Sette and Grifoni would also like to compare T cell responses following JYNNEOS vaccination with the older Dryvax vaccination.

    Just as they’ve done throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Sette and his colleagues hope to share their reagents freely to and spur more life-saving studies around the globe. “We want to make these reagents widely available to whoever asks,” says Sette.

    Additional authors of the study, “Defining antigen targets to dissect vaccinia virus (VACV) and Monkeypox virus (MPXV)-specific T cell responses in humans,” include Yun Zhang, Alison Tarke, John Sidney, Paul Rubiro, Maria Reina-Campos, Gilberto Filaci, Jennifer Dan, and Richard H. Scheuermann.

    This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (Contract No. 75N93019C00001, 75N9301900065, and HHS75N93019C00076) and through a Ph.D. student fellowship from the Clinical and Experimental Immunology Course at the University of Genoa, Italy, and with support from other private foundations.

    DOI: 10.1016/j.chom.2022.11.003

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    La Jolla Institute for Immunology

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  • NREF Announces New Grant Program for Early Career Neurosurgeons

    NREF Announces New Grant Program for Early Career Neurosurgeons

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    Newswise — December 5, 2022 (Rolling Meadows, Ill.) – The Neurosurgery Research & Education Foundation (NREF) is pleased to announce a new grant program – the NREF Early Career Neurosurgeon Fellowship. Applications will be available through the NREF website beginning December 1, 2022.

    The NREF Early Career Neurosurgeon Traveling Fellowship is designed for neurosurgical residents, fellows and early-career neurosurgeons interested in a subspecialty experience away from their home neurosurgery program.

    The fellowships consist of a rotation away from one’s home institution for periods of one week up to one month in duration, focused on a subspecialty experience with a Board-certified Neurosurgeon(s) or subspecialty surgeon(s) from another primary specialty. The supervising surgeon(s) will provide supervision to awardees and structured feedback to the awardee’s home program. The fellowship will include hands-on clinical exposure to the subspecialty in the operating room and clinic environment.

    The fellowship has received enthusiastic support from the corporate community for providing support that will establish the program. “Neurosurgery has benefited greatly from technological advances. The NREF is grateful to Medtronic – our industry partner in launching this program – for their commitment to the NREF mission to ensure that tomorrow’s neurosurgical leaders continue to receive cutting-edge experience to expand their knowledge and improve patient care,” sates NREF Fellowship Committee chair, Charles L. Branch, Jr., MD, FAANS.

    “The application of technology to medicine has yielded tremendous advances in the diagnosis and treatment of disease, and Medtronic is delighted to partner with the NREF to introduce innovative technology into neurosurgical training for early career neurosurgeons,” says Ashley M. Owens, sr. director, Global Physician Relations, Medtronic Cranial & Spinal Technologies.

    To qualify, applicants must be neurosurgical residents (PGY-4 and above) or fellows in ACGME-accredited neurosurgery programs or neurosurgeons in their first five years of practice.

    Applications will be accepted on a year-round basis with fellowships being awarded based on available funding. In addition to a CV, budget and support letters, applicants will submit a one-page statement describing the proposed fellowship experience and what they will accomplish during the away rotation, including including any relevant information regarding specific products to be used, techniques to be studied and what they hope to learn. Proposals will be screened for appropriateness as well as for feasibility of completion within the time frame and budget.

    The grant award will depending on the size, scope and budget of the project.

    To apply or for more information about the NREF Early Career Neurosurgeon Traveling Fellowship, please click here.

    For more information about other NREF grant programs, visit the NREF online at www.nref.org or contact NREF at 847.378.0500 or [email protected].

     

    About the NREF The NREF is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization created in 1980 by the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) to support research and education efforts that enhance and confirm the critical role neurosurgeons play in improving lives.

    The NREF is dedicated to providing education to neurosurgeons at all stages of their careers, as well as funding research into new and existing neurosurgical treatments, in order to identify links between best practices and improved outcomes in patient care. Through voluntary public donations, corporate support and donations from allied groups, the NREF supports endeavors that impact the lives of those suffering from epilepsy, stroke, brain tumors, spinal disorders, sports-related head injuries, lower back pain and Parkinson’s disease.

    For more information about NREF, visit www.nref.org.

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    Neurosurgery Research and Education Foundation (NREF)

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  • The TuFF Age

    The TuFF Age

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    Newswise — TuFF — Tailored Universal Feedstock for Forming — is a strong, highly aligned, short-fiber composite material that can be made from many fiber and resin combinations. Created at the University of Delaware’s Center for Composite Materials (CCM), it can be stamped into complex shapes, just like sheet metal, and features high-performance and stretchability up to 40%.

    Since its introduction, CCM researchers have explored applications for TuFF, from materials for repairing our nation’s pipelines to uses in flying taxis of the future.

    Now, armed with $13.5 million in funding from the U.S. Air Force, UD mechanical engineers and co-principal investigators Suresh Advani and Erik Thostenson along with industry collaborators Composites Automation and Maher and Associates are working on ways to improve manufacturing methods for TuFF. 

    “I am really excited at the opportunity to mature the TuFF pre-pregging process and demonstrate high-throughput composite thermoforming for Air Force relevant components,” said David Simone of the U.S. Air Force.

    The goal is to enable lighter-weight composites to become cost-competitive with aluminum for creating small parts found in air vehicles.

    Advani explained that when it comes to making aircraft materials more cost-efficient, reducing a material’s weight even a mere kilogram, just 2.2. pounds, will reduce fuel consumption and emissions and can result in thousands of dollars in savings over time. 

    This is because aircraft are heavy. A Boeing 747, for example, weighs a whopping 404,600 pounds. A B2 Stealth Bomber in the U.S. Air Force, meanwhile, tips the scale at over 43,000 pounds.

    “In general, the aerospace industry wants to reduce weight and replace metals,” said Advani, George W. Laird Professor of Mechanical Engineering. TuFF is a good option because the material can achieve properties equivalent to the best continuous fiber composites used in aerospace applications. 

    Advancing TuFF thermosets

    Until now, most of the work around TuFF has focused on thermoplastic composite materials that melt when heated, becoming soft and pliable, which is useful for forming. By contrast, TuFF thermosets have a higher temperature threshold, making them useful for aerospace applications. But TuFF thermosets have manufacturing challenges, too, including the long manufacturing times necessary to make a part. 

    In this new project, Thostenson and Advani will work on ways to improve the viability of thermoset TuFF composites. To start, the researchers will characterize the starting materials’ mechanical properties to understand how to make TuFF thermosets reliably and consistently. The research team will explore whether they can make the material in a new way, using thin resin films and liquid resins. They will test the limits of how the material forms and behaves under pressure and temperature, too.

    “How does it stretch during forming in a mold? What shapes can we make? When does it tear or thin or develop voids that can compromise material integrity?” said Advani.

    Having a database for such properties and behaviors will be useful in understanding TuFF material capabilities and limits, and to inform efforts to model and design parts with TuFF.

    Thostenson, professor of mechanical engineering, is an expert in structural health monitoring of materials. He will advance ways to embed sensor technology into TuFF thermosets. This would allow the researchers to see from the inside how the material is forming and curing during its manufacture, in hopes of being able to gauge—and improve— the material’s damage tolerance. 

    It’s intricate work. To give an idea of scale, a single layer of TuFF material is approximately 100 microns thick, about the diameter of the average human hair. The carbon-nanotube sensors Thostenson plans to integrate into the material are smaller still—one billionth the width of a human hair. 

    “This would allow us to do health monitoring for the materials and parts during service life, but you could also imagine using sensor technology to detect a defect during manufacturing,” said Thostenson. 

    While it remains to be seen whether this is possible, Thostenson said having this ability could result in real cost savings for manufacturing methods, where real-time knowledge of how a material is curing could help the researchers speed up production. Additionally, if there is a material failure, such as a tear, the sensors could point the researchers where to look in the process.

    The research team also plans to develop a virtual modeling system to refine the material-forming process through computer simulation instead of by trial and error. In this way, the team will better understand each step in the material-forming process, enhancing the team’s ability to make TuFF materials consistently and reliably — a must for aerospace applications.

    “I am hoping this work will allow us finally to make composites cost competitive with the metal industry,” said Advani.

    In addition to Thostenson and Advani, the team includes, from CCM, Jack Gillespie, Dirk Heider, Shridhar Yarlagadda, Thomas Cender, John Tierney and Pavel Simacek, along with four to five graduate students.

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    University of Delaware

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  • Kidneycure Grant Applications Now Open to Support Investigators Committed to Advancing Kidney Health

    Kidneycure Grant Applications Now Open to Support Investigators Committed to Advancing Kidney Health

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    Newswise — Washington, DC (December 1, 2022) —KidneyCure, the grants program supported by the American Society of Nephrology (ASN) Foundation, today announced that applications for its 2023 grants programs are now open. KidneyCure grants support clinical and basic research and kidney health investigators at key professional development milestones. The submission deadline is Wednesday, December 7, 2022, at 2:00 p.m. EST.  Grant applications and guidelines can be found at https://www.kidneycure.org/

    The newly added KidneyCure Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice Research Scholar Grant, part of the Transition to Independence Grants Program, will fund an ASN member who identifies as underrepresented in medicine or is conducting research focused on diversity, equity, inclusion, or justice.

    More than 37 million Americans suffer from chronic kidney conditions and acute diseases that impact virtually every aspect of their lives as well as their families and communities. Kidney diseases are the ninth leading cause of death in the United States and yet 90% of people with kidney diseases are unaware that they are affected. Dialysis, a therapy for those with kidney failure, has a 5-year mortality rate, which is worse than nearly all forms of cancer and requires billions of dollars annually to manage and treat.

    Investigators funded by KidneyCure are making a difference in key areas that impact kidney health and kidney care for millions of people with kidney diseases. To date, more than 300 grants across its four program categories:   The Pre-Doctoral Fellowship Program fosters early career-stage  PhD students, under the direction of a sponsor, who are highly motivated to make contributions  to the understanding of kidney biology and disease. Grant recipients receive $30,000 per year for up to two years.

    The Ben J. Lipps Fellowship Program helps fellows conduct original, meritorious research projects, conducted under the guidance of a sponsor. This Fellowship serves to establish the beginnings of an independent career and provides $50,000 per year for up to two years.

    The William and Sandra Bennett Clinical Scholars Program supports clinician educators conducting a project that advances all facets of nephrology education and teaching. Recipients are encouraged to complete a formal or educational program during the KidneyCure funded years. Grant recipients receive $50,000 per year for up to two years.

    The newest addition to the program, the KidneyCure Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice Research Scholar Grant, will fund an ASN member who identifies as underrepresented in medicine or is conducting research focused on diversity, equity, inclusion, or justice. All Transition to Independence Grants provide $100,000 for up to two years to help young faculty become independent researchers.

     

    About KidneyCure

    Established in 2012, KidneyCure funds the Ben J. Lipps Research Fellowship Program, the Transition to Independence Grants Program, the William and Sandra Bennett Clinical Scholars Program, the American Society of Nephrology-Harold Amos Medical Faculty Development Program, and the ASN Pre-Doctoral Fellowship Award Program. For more information, visit www.kidneycure.org, contact [email protected], or call (202) 640-4660.

    About ASN

    Since 1966, ASN has been leading the fight to prevent, treat, and cure kidney diseases throughout the world by educating health professionals and scientists, advancing research and innovation, communicating new knowledge and advocating for the highest quality care for patients. ASN has

    more than 20,000 members representing 132 countries. For more information, visit www.asn-online.org and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

     

    # # #

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    American Society of Nephrology (ASN)

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  • Mangroves: environmental guardians of our coastline

    Mangroves: environmental guardians of our coastline

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    Newswise — They are the salt-tolerant shrubs that thrive in the toughest of conditions, but according to new UniSA research, mangroves are also avid coastal protectors, capable of surviving in heavy metal contaminated environments.

    The researchers found that grey mangroves (Avicennia marina) can tolerate high lead, zinc, arsenic, cadmium and copper in contaminated sediment – without sustaining adverse health impacts themselves.

    The study tested the health of grey mangroves living around the Port Pirie smelter. Using leaf chlorophyll content as a proxy to plant health, mangroves were found to be unaffected by metallic contaminants, despite lead and zinc levels being 60 and 151-fold higher than regulatory guidance values.

    The findings highlight the vital role of mangroves in stabilising polluted regions, and the importance of protecting these ‘coastal guardians’ around the world.

    The study also coincides with a $3 million federal government initiative to restore mangrove forests in Adelaide’s north.

     Dr Farzana Kastury from UniSA’s Future Industries Institute says that ability of mangroves to withstand high metal concentrations make them invaluable in managing polluted environments.

    “Mangroves are the ideal eco-defender: they protect our coastlines from erosion and sustain biodiversity, but they also have an incredible ability to trap toxic contaminants in their sediments,” Dr Farzana says.

    “Grey mangroves are known for their tolerance of potentially toxic elements, but until now, little has been known about the health of these plants in the Upper Spencer Gulf.

    “Our research found that grey mangroves were able to adapt and survive exposure to very high levels of lead and zinc – without adverse health effects in their chlorophyll content – demonstrating how valuable they are to coastal ecosystems.”

    Other, ongoing work being done at Port Pirie by UniSA’s Associate Professor Craig Styan suggests there may be 4-7 times more metals stored in the sediments in mangroves than in adjacent unvegetated mudflats.  Assoc Prof Styan said that, generally, a greater concentration of metals found in sediments means greater contamination risk for the animals and plants living on/in them.

    “The levels of bioavailable metals we measured in the surface sediments in mangrove stands are the same as adjacent mudflats, meaning that although mangroves storing significantly more metals this doesn’t appear to increase the risk of contamination for the many animals that use mangrove habitats,” Prof Styan says.

    “People should nonetheless still refer to the SA Department of Health’s advice if they are considering eating fish caught near the smelter.”

    Mangroves (along with tidal marshes and seagrasses) are part of the blue carbon ecosystem; when protected or restored, they sequester and store carbon, but when degraded or destroyed, they emit stored carbon into the atmosphere as greenhouse gases.

    Dr Kastury says understanding the role of mangrove forests in safely stabilising metallic contaminants in highly polluted areas is imperative – not only for South Australian communities, but also around the world.

    “Globally, over a third of mangrove forests have disappeared, mostly due to human impact such as reclaiming land for agriculture and industrial development and infrastructure projects,” Dr Kastury says.

    “We must protect our mangrove forests so that they can continue their job in protecting our environment.”

     

    Notes for editors:

    • Globally, mangrove forest, tidal marshes and seagrass meadows store more than 30,000 teragrams (or 30 trillion kilograms) of carbon across 185 million hectares, potentially reducing around three per cent of global carbon emissions.
    • In 1992, an oil spill from the Era, at Port Bonython, released 300 tonnes of bunker fuel was released into Spencer Gulf, with a small slick of condensate getting into the mangroves south of Port Pirie. Mangroves do very badly in oil spills, and you can still see the scars of where the oil landed to this day.

    …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

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    University of South Australia

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  • Diagnostic marker found for deadly brain disease marked by dementia, movement problems

    Diagnostic marker found for deadly brain disease marked by dementia, movement problems

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    Newswise — Zooming in on a single disease and studying it intensely is often the most productive route to finding treatments. But there’s no easy way to distinguish among people living with any of the primary tauopathies — a group of rare brain diseases marked by rapidly worsening problems with thinking and movement — because the symptoms are too similar. As a result, most studies on primary tauopathies have included a mix of such diseases, even though researchers know that the diseases differ in important ways and probably require different treatments.

    Now, however, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found a biomarker that identifies, with up to 89% accuracy, people with a primary tauopathy called corticobasal degeneration (CBD). Traditional diagnostic methods for CBD are only 25% to 50% accurate, the researchers said.

    The biomarker could be developed into a tool to screen potential volunteers for CBD-specific research studies and clinical trials and, eventually, to identify people who could benefit from CBD-specific treatments, the scientists said.

    The study is published Nov. 24 in Nature Medicine.

    “Before, the only way to find out which primary tauopathy a person had was to wait until they died and then examine the person’s brain under a microscope,” said co-senior author Chihiro Sato, PhD, an assistant professor of neurology. “A patient comes in with stiffness, balance problems, slurred speech and memory issues, and it could be CBD, but it also could be progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) or Alzheimer’s or other diseases. This biomarker can reliably identify people with CBD, which means we can use it to enroll people in clinical trials. And, down the road, it may be key to initiating therapies.”

    CBD is one of about two dozen brain diseases that are considered tauopathies because they share one critical feature: toxic tau aggregates in the brain. Individual tauopathies involve different subtypes of tau and exhibit different patterns of damage to brain cells and tissues. The collections of symptoms of the various tauopathies overlap, making it difficult for doctors to tell one from another. This complicates efforts to study them and find treatments.

    Tauopathies are classed as either primary or secondary, depending on when tau tangles appear in the course of the disease. In primary tauopathies, tau tangles form in the beginning, seemingly on their own. In secondary tauopathies, tangles form only after other changes have taken place in the brain. For example, in Alzheimer’s disease, the most common secondary tauopathy, the brain protein amyloid beta builds up for years before tau tangles appear.

    In 2020, Kanta Horie, PhD, a research associate professor of neurology and the first author on the current paper, developed a highly sensitive technique to detect specific fragments of tau in the cerebrospinal fluid that surrounds the brain and spinal cord. Horie and colleagues used the technique to identify a novel form of tau in Alzheimer’s patients, and showed that the level of the novel tau in the cerebrospinal fluid indicates the stage of the disease, and tracks with the amount of tau tangles in the brain.

    As part of this study, Horie, Sato and colleagues — including co-senior author Randall J. Bateman, MD, the Charles F. and Joanne Knight Distinguished Professor of Neurology — used the technique to search for distinctive forms of tau linked to primary tauopathies. To ensure that the study subjects were classified accurately, Horie, Sato and Bateman collaborated with co-authors Adam Boxer, MD, PhD, Salvatore Spina, MD, PhD, and Lawren VandeVrede, MD, PhD, all in the Department of Neurology at the University of California, San Francisco. The team examined brain tissues and cerebrospinal fluid from people who had died with dementia and movement disorders, and whose specific diseases had been confirmed at autopsy. The study population included people with one of five primary tauopathies — CBD; PSP; frontotemporal lobar degeneration with microtubule association protein tau mutations (FTLD-MAPT); agyrophilic grain disease; and Pick’s disease — as well as Alzheimer’s, and dementia not related to tau. For comparison, they also examined samples from people without dementia.

    Two particular forms of tau — microtubule binding region (MTBR)-tau 275 and MTBR-tau 282 — were unusually high in the brains and low in the cerebrospinal fluid of patients with CBD and a subset of FTLD-MAPT. Further investigation showed that these forms of tau distinguish people with CBD from those with other primary tauopathies with 84% to 89% accuracy, depending on the disease.

    “Even if there’s an experimental drug available that specifically targets the kind of tau in CBD, it is very challenging to test it without a biomarker,” Horie said. “The trial might fail even when the drug works if the population is heterogenous. Drug trials that specifically target the kind of tau in CBD can be improved by enrolling correctly diagnosed patients. Having a biomarker opens up a pathway for pharmaceutical companies to improve clinical trials and accelerate research toward therapies for CBD.”

    Several experimental drugs targeting tau are in the pipeline. Most were designed with Alzheimer’s patients in mind, but they may be effective as therapies for primary tauopathies. Horie’s technique could be used to find biomarkers for other primary tauopathies, opening the door to more clinical trials, the researchers said.

    “CBD patients and families are desperate for effective therapies, but it has been challenging to organize clinical trials for this fatal disease,” Boxer said. “Until now, we did not have a specific biomarker to accurately diagnose patients. This new biomarker also opens the door to testing many new tau-directed therapies for CBD, because it may allow us to directly measure the ability of these treatments to lower toxic tau protein levels in patients’ brains.”

     

    Horie K, Barthélemy NR, Spina S, VandeVrede L, He Y, Paterson RW, Wright BA, Day GS, Davis AA, Karch CM, Seeley WW, Perrin RJ, Koppisetti RK, Shaikh F, Lario Lago A, Heuer HW, Ghoshal N, Gabelle A, Miller BL, Boxer AL, Bateman RJ, Sato C. CSF tau microtubule binding region identifies pathological changes in primary tauopathies. Nature Medicine. Nov. 24, 2022. DOI: 10.1038/s41591-022-02075-9

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    Washington University in St. Louis

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  • Gene that guides earliest social behaviors could be key to understanding autism

    Gene that guides earliest social behaviors could be key to understanding autism

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    Newswise — Little is known about how social behavior develops in the earliest stages of life. But most animals––including humans––are born with an innate ability to interact socially or form bonds with others. And that contributes to success throughout life.

    Now, a new animal study points to a gene that is important for the earliest development of basic social behaviors.

    The work also suggests that exposure to certain drugs and environmental risk factors during embryonic development can cause changes to this gene, leading to alterations in social behavior that are similar to those found in individuals who have autism. Much to their surprise, the researchers also found they could reverse some of the effects using an experimental drug.

    “This study helps us understand at the molecular level why sociability is disrupted during the very earliest stages of life,” says Randall T. Peterson, Ph.D., the corresponding author of the study and dean of the University of Utah College of Pharmacy. “It also gives us an opportunity to explore potential treatments that could restore sociability in these animals and, perhaps in time, eventually in humans as well.”

    More broadly, their findings suggest that the gene—TOP2a—controls a large network of genes that are known to increase the risk of autism. It also may serve as a link between genetic and environmental factors that contribute to onset of disorder, Peterson adds.

    The study, conducted by University of Utah Health researchers and colleagues nationwide, appears in the Nov. 23 issue of Science Advances.

    Anti-social animals

    Scientists suspect many social traits are determined before birth. But the precise mechanisms involved in this process remain murky. One promising area of research suggests that social behavior and other characteristics and traits are influenced not only by our genetic makeup but also how and where we live. 

    To test this model, the scientists evaluated whether environmental exposures during embryonic development could influence social behavior. Peterson and his colleagues exposed zebrafish embryos to more than 1,100 known drugs––one drug per 20 embryos––for 72 hours beginning three days after conception.

    The researchers determined that four of the 1,120 tested drugs significantly reduced sociability among the zebrafish. Fish exposed to these drugs were less likely to interact with other fish. It turned out that the four medications all belonged to the same class of antibiotics, called fluoroquinolones. These drugs are used to treat upper and lower respiratory tract infections in people.

    When the scientists gave a related drug to pregnant mice, the offspring behaved differently when they became adults. Even though they appeared normal, they communicated less with other mice and engaged in more repetitive acts—like repeatedly poking their head in the same hole—than other rodents.

    A basis for sociability

    Digging deeper, the researchers found that the drugs suppressed a gene called TOP2a, which, in turn, acted on a cluster of genes that are known to be involved in autism in humans.

    They also found that the cluster of autism-associated genes shared another thing in common—a higher than usual tendency to bind a group of proteins called the PRC2.  The researchers hypothesized that Top2a and the PRC2 work together to control the production of many autism-associated genes.

    To determine whether the anti-social behaviors could be reversed, the research team gave embryonic and young zebrafish an experimental drug called UNC1999, which is known to inhibit the PRC2. After treatment with the drug, fish exposed to fluoroquinolones were more likely to swim closer to other fish, demonstrating that the drug helped restore sociability. They saw similar results with other drugs known to inhibit the same key gene, TOP2a. 

    “That really surprised me because I would’ve thought disrupting brain development when you’re an embryo would be irreversible,” Peterson says. “If you don’t develop sociality as an embryo, you’ve missed the window. But this study suggests that even in those individuals later in life, you can still come in and inhibit this pathway and restore sociality.”

    Moving forward, the researchers plan to explore how and why this drug had this effect.

    Although the scientists only found four compounds that are Top2a inhibitors, evidence suggests hundreds of other drugs and naturally occurring compounds in our environment can inhibit its activity.

    “It’s possible that these four compounds are just the tip of the iceberg in terms of substances that could be problematic for embryonic exposure,” Peterson says.

    However, Peterson notes that this study was conducted in animals, and more research needs to be done before any of its results can be confirmed in humans. Therefore, he cautions against drawing conclusions about real-world applications.

    “We have no evidence that fluroquinolones or any other antibiotic causes autism in humans,” Peterson says. “So, there is no reason to stop using antibiotics. What this paper does identify is a new molecular pathway that appears to control social development and is worthy of further exploration.”

                                                    ###

    In addition to Dr. Peterson, U of U Health scientists Yijie Geng, Tejia Zhang, Ivy G. Alonzo, Sean C. Godar, Christopher Yates, Brock Plummer, and Marco Bortolato contributed to this study. Other participating institutions include the University of Chicago; Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston; Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School; the Broad Institute, Cambridge, Massachusetts; and MDI Biological Laboratory, Bar Harbor, Maine.

    The study, “Top2a promotes the development of social behavior via PRC2 and H3K27me3,” appears in the Nov. 23, 2022, issue of Science Advances. This research was supported by the L. S. Skaggs Presidential Endowed Chair and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences at the National Institutes of Health.

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    University of Utah Health

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  • Tufts University Researchers Find Link Between Foods Scored Higher By New Nutrient Profiling System and Better Long-Term Health Outcomes

    Tufts University Researchers Find Link Between Foods Scored Higher By New Nutrient Profiling System and Better Long-Term Health Outcomes

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    Newswise — The idea that what we eat directly affects our health is ancient; Hippocrates recognized this as far back as 400 B.C. But, identifying healthier foods in the supermarket aisle and on restaurant menus is increasingly challenging. Now, researchers at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts have shown that a holistic food profiling system, Food Compass, identifies better overall health and lower risk for mortality.  

    In a paper published in Nature Communications on November 22, researchers assessed whether adults who ate more foods with higher Food Compass scores had better long-term health outcomes and found that they did.

    Introduced in 2021, Food Compass provides a holistic measure of the overall nutritional value of a food, beverage, or mixed meal. It measures 9 domains of each item, such as nutrient ratios, food-based ingredients, vitamins, minerals, extent of processing, and additives. Based on scores of 10,000 commonly consumed products in the U.S., researchers recommend foods with scores of 70 or above as foods to encourage; foods with scores of 31-69 to be eaten in moderation; and anything that scores 30 or below to be consumed sparingly. For this new study, Food Compass was used to score a person’s entire diet, based on the Food Compass scores of all the foods and beverages they regularly consume.

    “A nutrient profiling system is intended to be an objective measure of how healthy a food is. If it’s achieving its purpose, then individuals who eat more foods with higher scores should have better health,” said Meghan O’Hearn, a doctoral candidate at the Friedman School and the study’s lead author.

    For this validation study, researchers used nationally representative dietary records and health data from 47,999 U.S. adults aged 20-85 who were enrolled between 1999-2018 in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Deaths were determined through linkage with the National Death Index (NDI).

    Overall, researchers found that the mean Food Compass score for the diets of the nearly 50,000 subjects was only 35.5 out of 100, well below ideal. “One of the most alarming discoveries was just how poor the national average diet is,” said O’Hearn. “This is a call for actions to improve diet quality in the United States.”

    When people’s Food Compass diet scores were assessed against health outcomes, multiple significant relationships were seen, even adjusting for other risk factors like age, sex, race, ethnicity, education, income, smoking, alcohol intake, physical activity, and diabetes status. A higher Food Compass diet score was associated with lower blood pressure, blood sugar, blood cholesterol, body mass index, and hemoglobin A1c levels; and lower prevalence of metabolic syndrome and cancer. A higher Food Compass diet score was also associated with lower risk of mortality: for each 10-point increase, there was a 7 percent lower risk of death from all causes.

    “When searching for healthy foods and drinks, it can be a bit of a wild west,” said Dariush Mozaffarian, Jean Mayer Professor of Nutrition and dean for policy at the Friedman School. “Our findings support the validity of Food Compass as a tool to guide consumer decisions, as well as industry reformulations and public health strategies to identify and encourage healthier foods and beverages.”

    Compared to existing nutrient profiling systems, Food Compass provides a more innovative and comprehensive assessment of nutritional quality, researchers say. For example, rather than measuring levels of dietary fats, sodium, or fiber in isolation, it takes a more nuanced and holistic view, evaluating the ratio of saturated to unsaturated fat; sodium to potassium; and carbohydrate to fiber. 

    Food Compass also boosts scores for ingredients shown to have protective effects on health, like fruits, non-starchy vegetables, beans and legumes, whole grains, nuts and seeds, seafood, yogurt, and plant oils; and lowers scores for less healthful ingredients like refined grains, red and processed meat, and ultra-processed foods and additives.

    Researchers designed Food Compass with the ever-evolving field of nutrition science in mind, and their multidisciplinary team—comprised of researchers with expertise in epidemiology, medicine, economics, and biomolecular nutrition—will continue to evaluate and adapt the tool based on the most cutting-edge nutrition research.

    “We know Food Compass is not perfect,” said Mozaffarian. “But, it provides a more comprehensive, holistic rating of a food’s nutritional value than existing systems, and these new findings support its validity by showing it predicts better health.”

    These findings are timely given the release of the new U.S. National Strategy on Hunger, Nutrition and Health. One pillar of this strategy is to “empower all consumers to make and have access to healthy choices” through measures such as updating food labeling and making it easier to interpret, creating healthier food environments, and creating a healthier food supply.

    “This study further validates Food Compass as a useful tool for defining healthy foods. We hope the Food Compass algorithm—publicly available to all—can help guide front-of-pack labeling; procurement choices in workplace, hospital, and school cafeterias; incentive programs for healthier eating in healthcare and federal nutrition programs; industry reformulations; and government policies around food,” said O’Hearn.  

    Researchers plan to work on a simplified version that requires fewer nutrient inputs, as well as versions tailored to specific conditions such as diabetes and pregnancy or to other nations’ populations. The research team is also interested in adding Food Compass domains based on other aspects of foods, such as environmental sustainability, social justice, or animal welfare.

    “We look forward to continuing to find ways to improve the Food Compass system, and to get it to more users to help clear up confusion about healthier choices,” said Mozaffarian.

    Research reported in this article was supported by the National Institutes of Health’s National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute under award number 2R01HL115189 and Vail Innovative Global Research. Complete information on authors, funders, and conflicts of interest is available in the published paper.

    The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the funders.

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    Tufts University

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  • UC San Diego Awarded $8M to Expand Stem Cell Therapy Clinical Trials

    UC San Diego Awarded $8M to Expand Stem Cell Therapy Clinical Trials

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    Newswise — Stem cells show particular promise in treating diseases for which few other effective treatments exist. In these therapies, stem cells are introduced into the body where they develop into specialized cells that repair, restore, replace or regenerate cells that have been damaged by the disease.

    As part of a state-wide effort to advance stem cell therapies, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) has awarded $8 million to the UC San Diego Alpha Stem Cell Clinic. The funding will support the clinic’s mission of bringing new stem cell-based therapies to patients with difficult-to-treat diseases.

    The Alpha Clinics — named for being the first of their kind — are a network of clinics spanning the state of California, designed to bridge the gap between stem cell research and clinical application. The system brings together clinical, research, regulatory and administrative teams in order to expedite clinical trials and streamline the patient experience.

    “We’re trying to change the way we do medicine,” said Catriona Jamieson, MD, PhD, director of the UC San Diego Alpha Stem Cell Clinic and chief of the Division of Regenerative Medicine at UC San Diego School of Medicine. “The Alpha Clinic helps academic and industry experts join forces to bring world-class technologies directly to the patients.”

    The grant is part of a series of recent CIRM awards totaling $72 million to expand the Alpha Clinics network. UC San Diego was one of three founding institutions when the project launched in 2015. The new funding will expand the program to nine sites across the state.

    In the seven years since its inception, the UC San Diego Alpha Stem Cell Clinic has launched 59 clinical trials and treated 277 patients with new therapies for neurodegeneration, diabetes and various forms of cancer. The trials largely test cell, gene and immunotherapies developed through growing partnerships between UC San Diego and local biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies.

    Recent milestones include the completion of a Phase I trial using neural stem cells to treat spinal cord injury, in which patients showed improved motor function after the treatment, as well as approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for a Phase III registration trial of a blood cancer stem cell-targeting monoclonal antibody.

    The latest funding will help expand clinical trials at both La Jolla and Hillcrest Medical Centers and create a Clinical Fellowship Program to educate additional physicians in advanced regenerative medicine therapies.

    Another major goal of the clinic is to improve accessibility and awareness of stem cell science. A portion of the funding will go towards new patient education programs and efforts to make treatments more accessible to historically underserved communities in San Diego and Imperial Counties.

    “Patients come to us when nothing else has worked, so we are thrilled to be able to provide new treatments to our community that are not available in other parts of the country,” said Jamieson. “The Alpha Clinics’ highly collaborative infrastructure will help us develop and validate high-quality stem cell therapies at an unprecedented speed, and the effects will be seen across California and beyond.”

    Funding for the UC San Diego Alpha Stem Cell Clinic comes from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (grant INFR4-13597).

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    University of California San Diego

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  • Albert Einstein College of Medicine Receives $6.6M in NIH Grants to Lead New York Consortium for Kidney, Urological, and Hematological Research and Training

    Albert Einstein College of Medicine Receives $6.6M in NIH Grants to Lead New York Consortium for Kidney, Urological, and Hematological Research and Training

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    Newswise — November 16, 2022—(BRONX, NY)—The National Institutes of Health has awarded Albert Einstein College of Medicine a five-year, $6.6 million grant to lead a New York-based consortium of medical schools to train young scientists in kidney, urology, and hematology research.

    The grant establishes the New York Consortium for Interdisciplinary Training in Kidney, Urological, and Hematological Research, or NYC Train KUHR (pronounced “cure”), bringing together experts in research and education from Einstein, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University.

    “With NYC Train KUHR, more than 100 scientists skilled in kidney, urologic, and hematologic (KUH) disease research will work together to mentor pre- and post-doctoral fellows in interdisciplinary research involving these specialties,” said Michal Melamed, M.D., M.S., the grant’s lead principal investigator and professor of medicine, of pediatrics, and of epidemiology & population health at Einstein and a nephrologist at Montefiore Health System. “These specialties are deeply intertwined and it’s critical to train a new generation of investigators who can comfortably navigate these fields and lead research to improve the care and quality of life for people with KUH diseases.”

    “Many of the diseases the trainees will focus on—such as sickle cell disease and kidney disease—disproportionately affect Black and Hispanic people, and other marginalized groups,” continued Dr. Melamed. “We are particularly hopeful that advancing this interdisciplinary training will benefit our Bronx community.”  

    NYC Train KUHR is the only NIH-funded consortium focused on KUH disease research and training in the Northeast and one of only seven nationally. Trainees selected to participate in the program will have at least two mentors, who will help guide and inform their research.

    “Many of the diseases of these three body systems result in complications that impact how the others function, so it’s imperative to reach across disciplines to effectively treat disease,” said co-principal investigator Jonathan Barasch, M.D., professor of medicine, of pathology, and of cell biology at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. “While this program is focused on training early career physicians and scientists, we expect that the participating faculty members will also benefit from increased collaborations across institutions.”

    The new grant builds on decades of established training programs at some of the participating institutions. “Individually, our institutions have impressive track records in basic science, translational, and clinical research achievements within these conditions. Together our strengths are magnified, and we can share our collective expertise with new trainees who will continue to make advances in the field,” said Kirk Campbell, M.D., professor of medicine and co-principal investigator at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

    NYC Train KUHR will recruit up to 10 trainees each year who will have opportunities to work under mentors from various institutions, access data and scientific models from past and current studies, and attend regular networking and professional development presentations.

    The grant also will enable the creation of an undergraduate summer program for students from groups historically underrepresented in medicine who are interested in kidney, urology, or hematology research. “A key priority is enriching the diversity of physicians and researchers in our fields,” said co-principal investigator Sandeep Mallipattu, M.D., chief of the division of nephrology and hypertension at Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University.

    Other co-principal investigators and project leaders on the grant include Frederick Kaskel, M.D., Ph.D., and Kelvin Davies, Ph.D., at Einstein; Wadie Bahou, M.D., at Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University; Nancy Green, M.D., at Columbia University Irving Medical Center; and Margaret Baron, M.D., Ph.D., at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

    The grant, titled “New York Consortium for Interdisciplinary Training in Kidney, Urological and Hematological Research (NYC Train KUHR),” was provided by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), part of the NIH. (1U2CDK129502 and 1TL1DK136048)

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    About Albert Einstein College of Medicine 
    Albert Einstein College of Medicine is one of the nation’s premier centers for research, medical education and clinical investigation. During the 2022-23 academic year, Einstein is home to 740 M.D. students, 194 Ph.D. students, 118 students in the combined M.D./Ph.D. program, and approximately 225 postdoctoral research fellows. The College of Medicine has more than 1,900 full-time faculty members located on the main campus and at its clinical affiliates. In 2022, Einstein received more than $202 million in awards from the National Institutes of Health. This includes the funding of major research centers at Einstein in cancer, aging, intellectual development disorders, diabetes, clinical and translational research, liver disease, and AIDS. Other areas where the College of Medicine is concentrating its efforts include developmental brain research, neuroscience, cardiac disease, and initiatives to reduce and eliminate ethnic and racial health disparities. Its partnership with Montefiore, the University Hospital and academic medical center for Einstein, advances clinical and translational research to accelerate the pace at which new discoveries become the treatments and therapies that benefit patients. For more information, please visit einsteinmed.edu, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and view us on YouTube. 

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    Albert Einstein College of Medicine

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