Thanks to vaccinations against SARS-CoV-2 in the period 2020–2024, 2.533 million deaths were prevented at the global level; one death was avoided for every 5,400 doses of vaccine administered. Some 82% of the lives saved by vaccines involved people vaccinated before encountering the virus, 57% during the omicron period, and 90% involved people aged [...]
Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto researchers are reporting that targeted RNA sequencing can detect clinically actionable alterations in 87% of tumors and provide decisive findings where DNA-seq either fails, returns no variant, or is not informative. Cancer treatments have seen tremendous improvements in recent years, in part due to highly specific targeting and diagnostic [...]
Researchers at the University of California, Irvine have discovered a new state of quantum matter. The state exists within a material that the team reports could lead to a new era of self-charging computers and ones capable of withstanding the challenges of deep space travel. "It's a new phase of matter, similar to how [...]
A new material developed by researchers from University of Toronto Engineering could offer a safer alternative to the nonstick chemicals commonly used in cookware and other applications. The new substance repels both water and grease about as well as standard nonstick coatings—but it contains much lower amounts of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), a [...]
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) - which you may know as the disease that affected Stephen Hawking - is a fatal neurodegenerative disease that causes progressive muscle weakness. A research team at Tohoku University and Keio University has uncovered a unifying mechanism in ALS revolving around the expression of UNC13A (a gene crucial for neuronal [...]
Scientists have developed a DNA nanoflower that delivers chemotherapy and gene therapy directly to breast cancer cells, boosting effectiveness while reducing side effects in early tests. Breast cancer continues to be one of the most prevalent cancers worldwide. Although drugs like Doxorubicin (DOX) are commonly used, their effectiveness is often limited by toxicity, poor targeting, [...]
Mosquitoes kill more people each year than any other animal. In 2023, the blood-sucking insects infected a reported 263 million people with malaria, leading to nearly 600,000 deaths, 80% of which were children. Recent efforts to block the transmission of malaria have been stalled because mosquitoes have adapted resistance to insecticides and the parasites [...]
The Covid pandemic 'significantly' accelerated brain ageing – even among those who were never infected, a study suggests. Scientists say the strain on people's lives, from isolation for weeks on end to the uncertainty surrounding the crisis, was 'detrimental' to the nation's health. The findings emerged from a brain ageing model created using data from [...]
Scientists have developed a simple sonication method to create nanoplastics that closely mimic environmental particles, promising more realistic studies of their ecological impact. Plastics like polyethylene, PET, and polystyrene are used worldwide. Through wear and tear, recycling and chemical disintegration, they eventually break down in nature into tiny fragments. Less than 100 nanometers in [...]
A new Turkish study has raised concerns that Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine may have subtle but serious side effects on the cornea. The research examined changes in the corneas of at least 64 patients before and after receiving both doses of the vaccine. According to the scientists involved in the study published in the journal [...]
