Research News

The 2012 EU Bioeconomy Strategy is delivering on key actions and has seen a two-fold increase in EU R&I funding for the bioeconomy under Horizon 2020, today Horizon Europe.

Orthopaedics faculty at LSU Health New Orleans participated in a study comparing two antisepsis aqueous solutions in reducing the risk of infection in patients requiring surgery for open fractures. In the largest known randomized-controlled trial, the research team found that contrary to current international recommendations, chlorhexidine gluconate was not superior to povidone-iodine in an alcohol or aqueous solution in preventing surgical site infection.

Cancer cells use an unusual mechanism to migrate into new tissue and form metastases there. The same process probably also keeps some immune cells on their toes. This is the result of a recent study led by the University of Bonn. According to the study, certain structures, the centrioles, increase in number. This makes it easier for them to maintain their direction and thus migrate more quickly to the lymph nodes, where they activate other immune cells. The results have now been published in the Journal of Cell Biology.

Blocking the action of calcium signals in immune cells suppresses the most common form of asthma, but without compromising the body’s defenses against flu viruses, a new study finds. 

Cambridge scientists have shown that it may be possible to spot signs of brain impairment in patients as early as nine years before they receive a diagnosis for one of a number of dementia-related diseases.

In research published today in Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association, the team analysed data from the UK Biobank and found impairment in several areas, such as problem solving and number recall, across a range of conditions.

Mobile health technology to detect atrial fibrillation generates a high rate of false positives and inconclusive results in some patients with certain cardiac conditions, investigators report in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology.

A research team comprised of members from the Department of Pharmacology and Pharmacy, School of Public Health, Department of Family Medicine and Primary Care, School of Clinical Medicine, LKS Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong (HKUMed), and Laboratory of Data Discovery for Health (D²4H) have conducted one of the first real-world studies to explore the inpatient use of oral antivirals during a pandemic wave dominated by the SARS-CoV-2 omicron variant.

A study group at MedUni Vienna has identified a regulatory loop controlled by leptin, by which this adipocyte-derived hormone regulates hepatic lipid metabolism via the autonomic nervous system. The study provides evidence that this adipose tissue-brain-liver axis, previously identified in animal models, also exists in humans and is opening up new approaches for treating metabolic diseases such as fatty liver disease.

Paediatric encephalopathies of genetic origin cause severe motor and intellectual disabilities from birth. One of these diseases, first identified in 2013, is caused by mutations in the GNAO1 gene. In order to understand the finer details of the resulting disturbances, scientists from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) conducted atomic, molecular and cellular analyses. They discovered that a mutation in GNAO1 leads to the replacement of one amino acid by another in protein sequence.