Category Archives: Research
Predicting Ebola outbreaks (while my guitar gently weeps)
Making a living as a rock musician can be hard (unless you are a star!): today your band plays here, tomorrow your band plays there… always on tour playing at clubs to earn some money. Animal migrations
Harbinger of increased prostate cancer risk: The effect of decreased prostate cancer screening
Since the introduction of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) as a blood test in 1992, the number of men diagnosed with prostate cancer increased dramatically. Because PSA detects men who are asymptomatic two things occurred. First, many of the
Discovery of new genes in schizophrenia: the importance of rare diseases in psychiatry
Schizophrenia is a major psychiatric illness affecting one percent of the population worldwide. Patients suffering from schizophrenia present delusions, hallucinations, abnormal behavior, impairment in daily life and cognitive deficits. Current treatments are insufficient in addressing all of
Is the color of museum mammal specimens an acceptable representation of the color of live animals?
Existing collections in Natural History Museums are often the basis of numerous studies in taxonomy, systematics, ecology, biogeography, management, conservation, etc., and studies based on biological museum specimens are to a large degree the basis of our
Stigma undermines prevention programs for the opioid crisis
The World Health Organization and the U.S. Commission on Combatting Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis, agree that opioid addiction is an epidemic. In the U.S., the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention framed three approaches to
The power of urine to understand genetic variants in the kidney
Nephronophthisis is a rare genetic disorder of the kidney and the most common genetic cause of end stage kidney failure in children. It can be caused by mutations in more than 20 different genes. In the 50%
The ‘fundamental questions of obesity’: Asked and answered
Scientific progress requires the ability to discover which questions are essential and which are trivial. Yet until recently, there were three fundamental questions that were ignored in nutrition & obesity research: What is the defining characteristic of
On-demand, self-administered fast-dissolving insert for prevention of HIV, HSV, and HPV infections
Microbicides are a potential discreet prevention method for empowering millions of women worldwide to protect themselves against incurable sexually transmitted infections (STIs) including HIV, herpes simplex virus (HSV), and human papillomavirus (HPV). For nearly three decades, much
Excessive postprandial VLDL remnants in plasma cause obesity and insulin resistance
Remnant lipoproteins (RLP) are the TG-rich lipoproteins metabolized by lipoprotein lipase (LPL) and increase in plasma after fat intake (Fig. 1), parallel with the increase of plasma triglycerides (TG). We have long thought that RLP in plasma
Are iron oxide nanoparticles neurotoxic?
Among the different types of nanomaterials, iron oxide nanoparticles (ION) awaken a particular interest due to their unique properties, including superparamagnetism and high biocompatibility. These features make them very suitable for a broad variety of uses, mostly
Stevensite: an efficient clay to retain tetracycline from wastewater
The tetracycline family of antibiotics are widely used for human therapy and animal feed. However, tetracycline (TC) is considered a contaminant of emerging concern in the environment due to its presence in wastewater effluents, surface waters and
Pain cognition in migraine
The evolving concept of pain has led to the reformulation of its biological meaning by placing it in a much broader frame. Currently, we look at pain as a multidimensional sensation, aimed not only to the localization
Rigid calibrated tangled clots of laser light
Spreading of light structures during their propagation significantly limits the possible applications of lasers. This seemingly unavoidable property of waves can be “corrected” either in inhomogeneous media, such as optical fibers, or in nonlinear media in which
African sleeping sickness today
Human African trypanosomiasis (HAT), or African sleeping sickness, is one of 20 neglected tropical diseases listed by the World Health Organization (WHO). HAT can become a severe meningoencephilic disease developing after severe haemo-lymphatic infection. HAT takes two
New psychoactive substances: metabolites of synthetic cathinones induce cytotoxicity in human neuronal cells
Recently, a large number of novel psychoactive substances (NPSs) have appeared on the European market. Their growing diffusion has become matter of worldwide concern and alarm for public health authorities, legislators, and clinical health specialists. They are
The RAS mRNA G-quadruplex: making undruggable cancer targets druggable
In many cancers, RAS proteins are constitutively activated by their oncogenic mutations or activation of their upstream molecules. RAS proteins play a central role in cancer cell malignancy, and drugs that target RAS are therefore believed to
Do people want to participate in decisions concerning their medicines?
Health and medication literacy are important factors linked to the outcomes of medical treatment (Table 1). Health literacy has been assessed in several countries all over the world and has been found to be limited. The level
Biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis: an eye on retinal inflammation
Alzheimer’s disease is one of the most common neurodegenerative disorders. Alzheimer’s disease cases are constantly increasing worldwide due to population aging. Typical symptoms of the disease include memory loss, cognitive deficits, personality and behavior modifications. At the
Do metals in pregnant women have association to preterm births?
Metals are widely distributed in the environment. Recent reports have demonstrated the risk of preterm birth following heavy metal exposure. Preterm births include those occurring before 37 completed weeks of pregnancy, and the rate of preterm births
Modeling epidemics and analyzing Ebola incidence data using Numerus Model Builder
Epidemics are quintessentially dynamic with outbreak, peak-incidence, and fadeout phases. The timings of outbreaks are hard to predict, as happened with the 2014 outbreak of Ebola viral disease in West Africa. To evaluate the risks of outbreaks,
