International Research Chemistry Awards

  Maternal antibodies passed across the placenta can interfere with the response to the malaria vaccine , which would explain its lower efficacy in infants under five months of age, according to research led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), in collaboration with seven African centers (CISM-Mozambique, IHI-Tanzania, CRUN-Burkina Faso, KHRC-Ghana, NNIMR-Ghana, CERMEL-Gabon, KEMRI-Kenya). The findings, published in Lancet Infectious Diseases , suggest that children younger than currently recommended by the WHO may benefit from the RTS,S and R21 malaria vaccines if they live in areas with low malaria transmission, where mothers have less antibodies to the parasite. The world has reached an incredible milestone: the deployment of the first two malaria vaccines -RTS,S/AS01E and the more recent R21/Matrix-M- to protect African children against malaria caused by Plasmodium falciparum. Both vaccines target a portion of the parasite protein called circumsporozoite (...

  Despite the development of numerous cancer treatment technologies, the common goal of current cancer therapies is to eliminate cancer cells. This approach, however, faces fundamental limitations, including cancer cells developing resistance and returning, as well as severe side effects from the destruction of healthy cells. KAIST (represented by President Kwang Hyung Lee) announced on the 20th of December that a research team led by Professor Kwang-Hyun Cho from the Department of Bio and Brain Engineering has developed a groundbreaking technology that can treat colon cancer by converting cancer cells into a state resembling normal colon cells without killing them, thus avoiding side effects. The research team focused on the observation that during the oncogenesis process, normal cells regress along their differentiation trajectory. Building on this insight, they developed a technology to create a digital twin of the gene network associated with the differentiation trajectory of...

  Sepsis, a severe and often fatal complication of infection , is a leading cause of both ALI and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). These conditions, which are associated with high mortality rates, remain challenging to treat due to the lack of effective therapies. NETs play a central role in the progression of sepsis, as they are involved in trapping pathogens but can also trigger excessive inflammation, exacerbating lung injury. The complexity of sepsis-induced ALI, driven by the interplay among inflammation, immune dysregulation, and coagulation, calls for innovative therapeutic strategies to better manage this critical condition. In a study (DOI: 10.7555/JBR.38.20240038) from Nanjing Medical University, researchers have made significant progress in this area. Published in the Journal of Biomedical Researchon November 28, 2024, the study details how medical ozone therapy targets the AMPK/SR-A1 axis to effectively clear NETs, significantly improving survival rates and ...

  Scientists at Queen Mary University of London and Barts Health have developed an innovative tool that simulates blood flow in the aorta, helping heart surgeons plan surgeries more precisely. The digital model, known as TAVR-AID, is unique because it creates a personalized digital twin of each patient's aorta, allowing doctors to test surgical approaches before performing an operation. The simulation predicts how blood will flow after a valve replacement, guiding clinicians in decisions such as which valve to choose the best way to position it, and the potential outcomes of the surgery. This personalized approach can improve surgical planning and help avoid complications. Lead inventor Professor Anthony Mathur, a Queen Mary researcher and Consultant Cardiologist & Co-Director for Research at Barts Health, explains: "TAVR-AID is not designed to replace human decision-making but to enhance it. We use CT scans to build a digital twin of the patient's aorta, and echoc...

  Scientists from RMIT University and the Doherty Institute have developed a new blood test that could screen cancer patients to help make their treatment safer and more effective. About one in two Australians will be diagnosed with cancer by the age of 85. The first-of-its-kind test can rapidly assess how effective different polyethylene glycol (PEG) based nanomedicines are at killing cancer cells and minimizing side effects using just a drop of blood from people with leukemia, a type of blood cancer. Nanomedicines comprise tiny particles, much smaller than a cell, that interact with the body in precise ways. These tiny particles are designed to carry drugs directly to diseased cells, such as cancer cells, with the aim of sparing healthy ones. Nanomedicines including Doxil, Onpattro (patisiran) and Vyxeos have been approved for clinical use in Australia and the United States, while others are emerging but not yet being used in healthcare settings. Dr. Yi (David) Ju, an Australi...

  Cannabidiol (CBD) is known to have an anxiety-relieving effect. Its ability to alleviate anxiety in women with advanced breast cancer before a scan was recently explored in a randomized clinical trial (RCT), the results being published online in JAMA Network Open. Cancer patients on treatment often experience clinical anxiety, at 20-25%, but there are few drugs to treat it. Commonly used medications like benzodiazepines have a host of adverse neuropsychiatric effects, including confusion and amnesia, and may be addictive. This has hindered their use in oncology, with only up to 25% of adult cancer patients receiving these drugs. Some research suggests that CBD safely reduces anxiety levels without adverse effects on mental or neurological health. However, few of these studies dealt with cancer patients, motivating the current study. Scans to assess the tumor burden are known to arouse fear of scan-related pain or discomfort, of progressive disease, and of the unknown, affectin...

  The devastating news of a cancer diagnosis understandably makes doctors and patients focus on the cancer itself. However, experts in cardio-oncology from the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) emphasize that heart and cardiovascular health must be included as early as possible in the patient's cancer treatment plan to ensure the best possible outcomes. Due to an aging population, and a growing number of cancer diagnoses there is also an increasing number of patients with cardiovascular side effects of cancer treatment. To tackle this growing problem, the ESC is launching a new conference on cardio-oncology to specifically target this increasingly important area that overlaps cancer treatment and its associated cardiovascular disease (CVD) side effects. ESC Cardio-Oncology 2025 will take place in Florence, Italy, from Friday, 20 June - Saturday, 21 June 2025. Previous research from prospective registries published in the European Heart Journal estimate that approximately one-t...

  A large study found that greater exposure to long-term air pollution was linked with increased risks for blood clots that can occur in deep veins, which, if untreated, can block blood flow and cause serious complications, even death. These findings came from a longitudinal study funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that included 6,651 U.S. adults who were followed for an average of 17 years between 2000 and 2018. Participants lived in or near one of six major metropolitan areas: New York, Baltimore, Chicago, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, and Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Throughout the study, 248 adults, 3.7% of the study sample, developed blood clots in deep veins that required hospital care. The likelihood of this outcome was linked to anywhere from a 39% to a more than two-fold increased risk based on long-term exposure to three different types of air pollutants. Blood clots in deep veins, collectively known as venous thromboembolism (VTE) , include deep vein thrombo...

  A recent study conducted at University Hospitals Connor Whole Health has evaluated a Reiki program designed for outpatients with cancer and receiving infusion treatments at two University Hospitals infusion centers. The study, entitled "Evaluation of a Reiki Volunteer Program within Two Cancer Infusion Centers," was recently published in the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, a peer-reviewed journal that serves as an interdisciplinary audience of professionals. This retrospective review, conducted between March 2022 and February 2024, evaluated the effects of Reiki on outpatients receiving infusion treatments such as chemotherapy . During Reiki sessions, a trained practitioner generates relaxation and healing responses in the body by placing their hands on or above the body of the receiver or themselves. Participants at the infusion clinics completed the Edmonton Symptom Assessment System (ESAS) measures for pain, fatigue, anxiety, nausea, and well-being before and af...

  New research by a team of Indiana University School of Medicine scientists and their collaborators has uncovered a novel vulnerability in prostate cancer animal models that starves prostate tumors of critical nutrients and stunts their growth, which could lead to the development of new treatments for the deadly disease . Led by IU School of Medicine's Kirk Staschke, PhD, assistant research professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, and Ronald C. Wek, PhD, Showalter Professor of Biochemistry, the study was recently published in Science Signaling. Prostate cancer is a leading cause of cancer deaths in American men. Current treatments target the hormone testosterone, which prostate cancer cells need to grow. Unfortunately, prostate tumors frequently become resistant to these treatments, leaving doctors with few options to stop the disease. The research team discovered a promising new way to target prostate tumors by starving them of critical nutrients called amino acids. Li...

  Prostate cancer hijacks the normal prostate's growth regulation program to release the brakes and grow freely, according to Weill Cornell Medicine researchers. The discovery, published Dec. 13 in Nature Communications, paves the way for new diagnostic tests to guide treatment and could also help drug developers identify novel ways to stop the disease. A protein called the androgen receptor normally functions to guide the development of the prostate—signaling the cells to stop growing, act as normal prostate cells and maintain a healthy state. The receptor is activated by androgens or sex hormones like testosterone, which triggers the receptor to bind to DNA, causing the expression of some genes and suppression of others. But in cancer, the androgen receptor is reprogrammed to tell the cells to continue growing, driving tumor development. This study showed that androgen receptors in prostate cells can work as either an accelerator speeding cell growth or a brake inhibiting it. Tum...

  The future of breast cancer screening and risk-reducing strategies is being shaped by artificial intelligence (AI), according to a review article published by Cell Press on December 12 in the journal Trends in Cancer. "We discuss recent advances in AI-assisted breast cancer risk prediction, what this means for the future of breast cancer screening and prevention, and the key research needed to progress mammographic features from research into clinical practice," says senior study author Erik Thompson of the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia. Breast tissue that appears white on a mammogram is radiologically dense, while breast tissue that appears dark is considered non-dense. It is widely accepted that women with higher mammographic density for their age and body-mass index have a greater risk of breast cancer. In addition, higher density makes breast cancer harder to detect by mammography, known as the "masking effect." Advocacy moveme...