International Conference on Science, Health and Engineering

A new study from MIT suggests that the dozens of mutations in the spike protein of the Omicron variant help it to evade all four of the classes of antibodies that can target the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes Covid-19. This includes antibodies generated by vaccinated or previously infected people, as well as most of the monoclonal antibody treatments that have been developed, says Ram Sasisekharan, the Alfred H. Caspary Professor of Biological Engineering and Health Sciences and Technology (HST) at MIT. Using a computational approach that allowed them to determine how mutated amino acids of the viral spike protein influence nearby amino acids, the researchers were able to get a multidimensional view of how the virus evades antibodies. According to Sasisekharan, the traditional approach of only examining changes in the virus’ genetic sequence reduces the complexity of the spike protein’s three-dimensional surface and doesn’t describe the multidimensional complexity of the protein su...

Antibodies, small proteins produced by the immune system, can attach to specific parts of a virus to neutralize it. As scientists continue to battle SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, one possible weapon is a synthetic antibody that binds with the virus’ spike proteins to prevent the virus from entering a human cell. To develop a successful synthetic antibody, researchers must understand exactly how that attachment will happen. Proteins, with lumpy 3D structures containing many folds, can stick together in millions of combinations, so finding the right protein complex among almost countless candidates is extremely time-consuming. To streamline the process, MIT researchers created a machine-learning model that can directly predict the complex that will form when two proteins bind together. Their technique is between 80 and 500 times faster than state-of-the-art software methods, and often predicts protein structures that are closer to actual structures that have been obse...

University of Maryland School of Medicine researchers developed a technique in laboratory animals to consistently and reproducibly open the blood-brain barrier. This barrier serves as a barricade securing the brain from the external world blocking out certain environmental toxins, but also prevents drug therapies from reaching their intended targets. The new technique is based on a routine procedure for removing clots from the brain’s arteries in patients. This advancement was conducted by  Piotr Walczak, MD, PhD,  Professor of Diagnostic Radiology and Nuclear Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, and  Miroslaw Janowski, MD, PhD,  Associate Professor of Diagnostic Radiology and Nuclear Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. The team published their detailed procedure on December 13, 2021, in  Nature Protocols .  Their paper essentially provides a roadmap for other researchers to develop and test new therapies for ...

With consumer prices rising at the fastest pace in almost four decades, older adults face the risk of having their retirement income and savings eaten away by inflation.  Richard L. Kaplan  is the Guy Raymond Jones Chair in Law at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and an internationally recognized expert on U.S. tax policy and retirement issues. Kaplan spoke with  News Bureau business and law editor Phil Ciciora  about the harmful effects of inflation on senior citizens’ pocketbooks. Are retirees adequately protected from inflation through Social Security’s annual cost-of-living adjustment – 5.9% for 2022 – or is the COLA insufficient to offset the inflationary pressures? Social Security’s cost-of-living adjustment takes some of the sting out of inflation, but not all of it. This adjustment is based on the government’s widely followed Consumer Price Index, but the CPI does not replicate the basket of goods and services that older adults in particular p...

Like most vaccines, RNA vaccines have to be injected, which can be an obstacle for people who fear needles. Now, a team of MIT researchers has developed a way to deliver RNA in a capsule that can be swallowed, which they hope could help make people more receptive to them. In addition to making vaccines easier to tolerate, this approach could also be used to deliver other kinds of therapeutic RNA or DNA directly to the digestive tract, which could make it easier to treat gastrointestinal disorders such as ulcers. “Nucleic acids, in particular RNA, can be extremely sensitive to degradation particularly in the digestive tract. Overcoming this challenge opens up multiple approaches to therapy, including potential vaccination through the oral route,” says Giovanni Traverso, the Karl van Tassel Career Development Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT and a gastroenterologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. In a new study, Traverso and his colleagues showed that they co...

Most farm managers in Europe are nearing retirement. There is a need to revitalise rural areas in Europe and crate opportunities for younger people. Social scientists are scrutinising the problem of rural decline, highlighting success stories and policy actions and tracking paths back to a more prosperous countryside.  Farming is an ancient profession. But a problem in Europe is that the farmers themselves are getting old. From the more than ten million farm managers, one-third were over the age of 65 in 2016. Another one-quarter were 55 and over, while only 11% were under 40 years of age. It is clear that rural areas need to halt population declines and attract new generations. To turn back the tide and regenerate rural areas, social scientists are unearthing how and why some rural areas are growing and performing better than others. This will reveal how farming can seed a new crop of young farmers, as well as encourage green shoots in rural communities, and transform them in...

Northwestern University engineers have developed a new smart sensor platform for face masks that they are calling a “Fitbit for the face.” Dubbed “FaceBit,” the lightweight, quarter-sized sensor uses a tiny magnet to attach to any N95, cloth or surgical face mask. Not only can it sense the user’s real-time respiration rate, heart rate and mask wear time, it also may be able to replace cumbersome tests by measuring mask fit. All this information is then wirelessly transmitted to a smartphone app, which contains a dashboard for real-time health monitoring. The app can immediately alert the user when issues — such as elevated heart rate or a leak in the mask — unexpectedly arise. The physiological data also could be used to predict fatigue, physical health status and emotional state. Although a tiny battery powers the device, FaceBit is designed to harvest energy from any variety of ambient sources — including the force of the user’s breathing, motion and heat from a user’s breath a...

Researchers have explored the cellular changes that occur in human mammary tissue in lactating and non-lactating women, offering insight into the relationship between pregnancy, lactation, and breast cancer. The study was led by researchers from the Wellcome-MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute (CSCI) and the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Cambridge. Breast tissue is dynamic, changing over time during puberty, pregnancy, breastfeeding, and aging. The paper,  published today  in the journal  Nature Communications , focuses on the changes that take place during lactation by investigating cells found in human milk. This research, led by Dr Alecia-Jane Twigger of CSCI, found that the cells in milk, once thought to be dead or dying, are in fact very much alive. These living cells provide researchers with the chance to study not only the changes that occur in mammary tissues during lactation, but also insight into a potential early indicator of future brea...

To get through a long winter without food, hibernating animals — like the 13-lined ground squirrel — can slow their metabolism by as much as 99 percent, but they still need important nutrients like proteins to maintain muscles while they hibernate. A new study from the University of Wisconsin–Madison shows that hibernating ground squirrels get help from microbes in their guts. The discovery could help people with muscle-wasting disorders and even astronauts on extended space voyages. “The longer any animal doesn’t exercise, bones and muscles start to atrophy and lose mass and function,” says Hannah Carey, an emeritus professor in the UW–Madison School of Veterinary Medicine and co-author of the new study, published today (Jan. 27) in the journal Science. “Without any dietary protein coming in, hibernators need another way to get what their muscles need.” One source of nitrogen, a vital building block for amino acids and proteins, accumulates in the bodies of all animals (including...

UCF is developing new technology that is expected to make airplane engines emission free, potentially revolutionizing the aviation industry. UCF put together a team of experts and stakeholders to evaluate their innovation, which aims to not only make aviation fuel green, but also create engines and fueling systems that easily integrate into current airport infrastructure thus saving airports and aircraft manufacturers millions of dollars as they look to retrofit. “We don’t want to create something that will be too cumbersome and expensive to implement,” says lead investigator and UCF Engineering Professor Jay Kapat. “If we want people to adopt this green tech, it needs to be scalable. To adopt hydrogen, for example, we can’t expect every airport to set up large cryogenic liquid hydrogen systems like Kennedy Space Center. That’s unreasonable.” With this practical approach, Kapat put together a team of experts from UCF, Georgia Tech and Purdue and with industry experts from Boeing, ...

Humans have cooked with fire for millennia, but it may be time for a change. Natural gas appliances warm the planet in two ways: generating carbon dioxide by burning natural gas as a fuel and leaking unburned methane into the air. A new Stanford-led study reveals that the methane leaking from natural gas-burning stoves inside U.S. homes has a climate impact comparable to the carbon dioxide emissions from about 500,000 gasoline-powered cars. This extra warming from home methane leaks contributes about a third as much warming as the carbon dioxide generated by combustion of the stove’s natural gas, and sometimes exposes users to respiratory disease-triggering pollutants. The  findings , published in  Environmental Science & Technology,  come as legislators in numerous U.S. municipalities and at least one state – New York – weigh banning natural gas hookups from new construction. “Surprisingly, there are very few measurements of how much natural gas escapes into the...

In adults who had previously received a full regimen of any of three COVID-19 vaccines granted Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) or approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, an additional booster dose of any of these vaccines was safe and prompted an immune response, according to preliminary clinical trial results reported in  The New England Journal of Medicine . The findings served as the basis for recommendations by the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in late fall 2021 to permit mix-and-match COVID-19 booster vaccinations in the United States. Additional data from the ongoing Phase 1/2 trial, sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, are expected in the coming months. The new report describes findings from 458 adults who had been fully vaccinated with any of three EUA COVID-19 vaccines at least 12 weeks prior to enrollment and who had no reported history of SARS-Co...

Adolescence can be a time filled with anxiety and insecurity about body shape and size, but a new Penn State study found that for Black youth, having a strong racial identity may help stave off these worries. The researchers found that among Black youth between the ages of 11 and 19 with high body mass indexes (BMI), those who reported a strong sense of racial identity also reported fewer weight concerns. This was true for both girls and boys. The participants’ sense of racial identity was measured by how much they agreed with statements like “I am happy that I am Black/African American/ part Black/African American.” Anna Hochgraf, graduate student in the department of Human Development and Family Studies (HDFS) at Penn State, said the findings provide insights into how race may affect body image. “Compared to individuals from other racial groups in the U.S., some evidence suggests that Black girls and women have an ideal of beauty that features curvy body shapes and larger body ...