Research News

Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE announced that the companies have initiated a randomized, active-controlled, observer-blind, Phase 2 study to evaluate the safety, tolerability, and immune response of an enhanced COVID-19 mRNA-based vaccine candidate at a 30 µg dose level. This next-generation bivalent COVID-19 vaccine candidate, BNT162b5, consists of RNAs encoding enhanced prefusion spike proteins for the SARS-CoV-2 ancestral strain (wild-type) and an Omicron variant.

Colorectal tumors are swarming with white blood cells, but whether these cells help or hinder the cancer is hotly debated. While some studies have shown that white blood cells heroically restrict tumor growth and combat colorectal cancer, equally compelling evidence casts the white blood cells as malignant co-conspirators bolstering the tumor and helping it spread.

The current wave of COVID-19 highlights a particularly high risk of reinfection by the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2. Why is this? A team from the Centre for Emerging Viral Diseases of the University of Geneva (UNIGE) and of the Geneva University Hospital (HUG) analysed the antibody neutralisation capacity of 120 people infected with the original SARS-CoV-2 strain, or with one of its Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Zeta or Omicron (sub-variant BA.1) variants.

A team of researchers at the Bengaluru-based Indian Institute of Science (IISc) has developed a GPU-based machine learning algorithm that promises to help identify early signs of aging or deterioration of brain function before they manifest behaviourally in Alzheimers patients.

Eating a larger proportion of protein while dieting leads to better food choices and helps avoid the loss of lean body mass, according to a Rutgers study.

An analysis of pooled data from multiple weight-loss trials conducted at Rutgers shows that increasing the amount of protein even slightly, from 18 percent of a person’s food intake to 20 percent, has a substantial impact on the quality of the food choices made by the person. The study was published in the medical journal Obesity.

A study of 10,775 high-risk adult patients during the COVID-19 delta variant surge in late 2021 finds that treatment with one of three anti-spike neutralizing monoclonal antibodies for mild to moderate symptoms led to low rates of severe disease, hospitalization, ICU admission and mortality, according to Mayo Clinic researchers.

New study published in Lancet Infectious Diseases suggests that Bharat Biotech COVID19 vaccine, COVAXIN induces higher neutralising antibody response in children aged 2-18 years. The company had conducted an age de-escalation study to assess the safety, reactogenicity, and immunogenicity of an inactivated COVID-19 vaccine, COVAXIN.

Seven out of 10 pregnant women were cured of their multidrug-resistant tuberculosis and delivered healthy babies after taking a medication that had previously been considered unsafe in pregnancy, a new Curtin and Telethon Kids Institute study has found.

Published in JAMA Network Open, the study examined the experiences of 275 pregnant women with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis living in South Africa, Peru, Brazil, Iran and Uganda.

An estimated one-quarter of adults in the U.S. have nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), an excess of fat in liver cells that can cause chronic inflammation and liver damage, increasing the risk of liver cancer. Now, UT Southwestern researchers have developed a simple blood test to predict which NAFLD patients are most likely to develop liver cancer.