Connecting Research and Experts with Journalists

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Ten years after undergoing bariatric surgery as teens, over half of study participants demonstrated not only sustained weight loss, but also resolution of obesity-related conditions, such as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol, according to the report published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

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The amount of money people pay out-of-pocket for branded drugs to treat neurological diseases like multiple sclerosis (MS), Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s disease continues to rise, especially for MS drugs, according to a study published in the October 30, 2024, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

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The success of the $1 trillion that was recently invested by the U.S. federal government to mitigate climate climate change through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) largely depends on how well state and local governments spend the money, according to new a commentary recently published in Nature.

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A research team exploring how genes and environmental factors interact in psychiatry has discovered that a history of sexual trauma and a genetic tendency to develop mental illness are associated with increased risk for schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depression.

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Researchers at WashU Medicine have found a process by which the brain guards against attack by the immune system. In mice with multiple sclerosis, such "guardian" proteins that train the immune system were drastically depleted, and replenishing them improved symptoms, according to a study in Nature.

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A new study – published in Nursing Research – has found that the COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted patient safety indicators in U.S. hospitals. The study, from Penn Nursing’s Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research (CHOPR), examined data from the National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators to assess trends in nursing-sensitive quality indicators from 2019 to 2022. The prevention of these very distressing, uncomfortable conditions is considered to be under the nurse’s purview and directly influenced by nursing care.

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Superweeds that have developed resistance to common herbicides is jeopardizing weed management in agriculture. Robots for mechanical weeding is an emerging technology that could potentially provide a solution. A new study from the University of Illinois estimates farmer adoption of weeding robots.

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Doctors at Mayo Clinic used a new catheter-based approach to draw out resistant pockets of infection that settle in the heart, known as right-sided infective endocarditis, without surgery. Unless treated quickly, the walled-off infections can grow, severely damaging heart valves and potentially affecting other organs as well. In a recent study, over 90% of the participants had their infection cleared, and they had lower in-hospital mortality compared to those whose infections remained.

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Lifesaving cancer therapies can cause serious side effects, both immediately and later in life. "It is essential to continue to study innovative approaches that will eradicate the disease but won't diminish the quality of life for patients diagnosed with cancer," says Roberto Leon-Ferre, M.D., a breast medical oncologist at Mayo Clinic. With breast cancer rates rising among younger people, the need for treatments that provide excellent outcomes with fewer side effects is only increasing.

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In patients with chronic kidney disease, the loss of podocytes—part of the kidney’s glomerular filtration barrier—causes irreversible disease progression. So far, physicians and researchers have found no way to effectively prevent podocyte damage, loss, and deterioration leading to end-stage kidney disease. Laura Perin, PhD, Co-Director of the GOFARR Laboratory at The Saban Research Institute of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, along with Valter Longo, PhD, Professor at USC Longevity Institute of the Davis School of Gerontology, and international collaborators conducted a study that is offering promising results.