New technique predicts which melanoma patients are at risk for cancer recurrence, spread

For most patients, melanoma begins with a small, pigmented spot on their skin that they notice starts to change. Many primary melanomas can be cured by having this lesion removed, but melanoma can also recur and spread; an analysis of the removed lesion can offer some information on the likelihood that the cancer will come back. Today, lesions are analyzed […]

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Neuroscientists have gained new insight into how the brain predicts missing visual information

Neuroscientists at the University of Glasgow have gained new insight into how the brain predicts missing visual information when perceiving the outside world. The researchers, from the University’s Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology, discovered that our brains “sketch out” portions of scenes that are not visible—much like how an artist sketches out a scene before filling the remaining details. The […]

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Brain reorganization predicts language production

The right hemisphere of the brain can take over language functions when the left hemisphere is damaged early in development, according to research in four-year-old children published in eNeuro. These findings offer insight into typical language development in children and the flexibility of the brain in response to injury. Language functions are typically localized in the left hemisphere of the […]

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Model predicts bat species with the potential to spread deadly Nipah virus in India

Since its discovery in 1999, Nipah virus has been reported almost yearly in Southeast Asia, with Bangladesh and India being the hardest hit. In a new study, published today in PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, scientists used machine learning to identify bat species with the potential to host Nipah virus, with a focus on India—the site of a 2018 outbreak. Four […]

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Parent-child bond predicts depression, anxiety in teens attending high-achieving schools

What causes some adolescents to thrive while other teenagers struggle with substance abuse and mental health? Through years of research, the scientists who study development and the clinicians who treat troubled teenagers have developed a list of risk factors that predict the problems faced by adolescents. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, an influential philanthropic organization that focuses on health, recently […]

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Brain-heart activity predicts post-malaria epilepsy in mice

Animals that develop epilepsy after an infection can be identified as early as three months prior to their first seizure by measuring interactions between the brain and the heart, according to new research using a mouse model of post-cerebral malaria epilepsy. Published in JNeurosci, this finding could inform efforts to diagnose and treat acquired epilepsy. Cerebral malaria afflicts more than […]

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Blood test predicts spastic cerebral palsy

A Delaware team including Erin Crowgey, Ph.D., associate director of Bioinformatics with Nemours Biomedical Research, has published a study in the peer-reviewed journal BMC Bioinformatics, showing that DNA patterns in circulating blood cells can be used to help identify spastic cerebral palsy (CP) patients (Crowgey et al.). The work represents a collaboration among researchers at Nemours, the University of Delaware […]

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New algorithm more accurately predicts life expectancy after heart failure

A new algorithm developed by UCLA researchers more accurately predicts which people will survive heart failure, and for how long, whether or not they receive a heart transplant. The algorithm would allow doctors to make more personalized assessments of people who are awaiting heart transplants, which in turn could enable health care providers to make better use of limited life-saving […]

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T cell biomarker predicts which CLL patients will respond to CAR T cell therapy

Penn Medicine researchers may have found the reason why some patients with advanced chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) don’t respond to chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy, and the answer is tied to how primed patients’ immune systems are before the therapy is administered. While 80 percent of patients with advanced acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) treated with the CAR T […]

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