Deep brain stimulation (DBS) has shown promise as a treatment for some symptoms of Parkinson’s disease (PD). However, not all symptoms improve equally well with DBS. A better understanding of how different sites of electrical stimulation impact the wide range of motor symptoms associated with PD could help finetune treatment. By studying PD patients at five different centers treated with DBS, investigators from Mass General Brigham created an “atlas” that mapped four major symptoms of PD onto different regions of the brain. Based on these findings, the team created an algorithm capable of generating personalized, symptom-specific DBS treatment plans, which they preliminarily tested in five patients. Findings, published in Nature Communications, demonstrate the algorithm’s potential to improve patients’ symptoms beyond standard-of-care approaches.
“There is already strong evidence of improved quality of life for PD patients treated with DBS, but currently we still use a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to treatment,” said senior author Andreas Horn, MD, PhD, a Mass General Brigham neurologist who holds titles at the Center for Brain Circuit Therapeutics in the Department of Neurology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Center for Neurotechnology and Neurorecovery at Massachusetts General Hospital. “The techniques we have developed will help us readily tailor DBS to what each patient specifically needs and improve DBS even further.”
The researchers from Mass General Brigham studied a total of 237 patients with PD who were treated with DBS to identify tracts associated with four major PD symptoms: tremor (uncontrolled movement), bradykinesia (slow movement), rigidity (freezing), and axial symptoms (such as gait and posture irregularity or instability). With software developed by Horn’s team, the researchers pinpointed the precise location of DBS electrodes in each patient and created a common map of the circuits associated with patients’ symptom improvement. Tremor was shown to improve with stimulation of tracts connected to the primary motor cortex and cerebellum, while bradykinesia was associated with the supplementary motor cortex. Rigidity was shown to improve with stimulation of the premotor cortex.
Axial symptoms, which have not received extensive study in relation to DBS, improved with stimulation of tracts connected to the supplementary motor cortex and brainstem. This finding may be especially important given that axial symptoms, such as gait or postural stability problems, typically do not respond well to DBS and existing dopaminergic therapies, such as levodopa.
Based on their findings, the investigators created Cleartune, an algorithm that suggests optimal stimulation parameters for DBS stimulation. The researchers applied Cleartune to inform treatment for five PD patients in Germany undergoing DBS. In four of the five patients, Cleartune settings led to greater improvements in PD symptoms than standard-of-care protocols. The fifth patient showed comparable improvements with Cleartune versus standard treatments.
The researchers are continuing to refine personalized, symptom-specific treatment for PD and other diseases, such as OCD, in partnership with Mass General Brigham researchers awarded major National Institutes of Health funding to map the brain’s circuitry more completely using advanced imaging technologies.
“This was an interdisciplinary effort to create the most precise atlas of symptom-specific pathways that we could,” said first and corresponding author Nanditha Rajamani, PhD, of Mass General Brigham. “We went a long way to use anatomical information from many different sources and worked with highly skilled neuroanatomists to produce and validate this research. Going forward, this approach can be a framework for improving DBS treatments for other disorders as well.”

TREX1 is a gene that is supposed to direct the maintenance of the entire body’s DNA, but new research shows that when people are born with mutated TREX1, it causes catastrophic damage to the DNA over time, resulting in a deadly rare disease called retinal vasculopathy with cerebral leukoencephalopathy (RVCL). Published in Nature Communications, the research was led by teams at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and the Brain Research Institute at Niigata University in Japan.
While it was already known that a mutation in TREX1 was behind RVCL, the mechanism by which it did its damage was not known. In discovering that TREX1 speeds up the typical process of DNA damage — a process some theorize is tied to every animal’s aging process — the researchers may not have only discovered the weapon TREX1 uses on RVCL patients, but also offered insight beyond this rare disease population.
“It seems that accelerated DNA damage in RVCL causes the premature aging of certain cells, including the cells in the blood vessel wall,” said the study’s lead author Jonathan Miner, MD, PhD, an associate professor of Rheumatology at the Perelman School of Medicine. “If this is the case, then targeting TREX1 could have very broad implications for the treatment of many human diseases linked to aging, including cardiovascular diseases, autoimmune disorders, and cancer.”
RVCL impacts about 200 people worldwide and is often misdiagnosed as lupus, multiple sclerosis, or cancer. The disease causes the breakdown of small blood vessels in the body, which can affect many organs, including the brain, eyes, kidneys, liver, and bones. Patients with the condition typically do not begin to have symptoms — such as memory loss, partial loss of vision, and small strokes — until their 40s or 50s. Eventually, the breakdowns can cause organ damage and failure, including brain atrophy and blindness. There is no cure or treatment, and many patients die within five to ten years of symptoms beginning.
“We’re hopeful that our work will put us on the path toward improving the lives of patients with RVCL,” said the other lead author of this study Taisuke Kato, PhD, an associate professor of Molecular Neuroscience at Niigata University. “With our discoveries, we feel we will be much better equipped to address what is happening within their bodies.”
Studying RVCL models in animal and human cells, Miner and his colleagues explored their hypothesis that the TREX1 mutation, which shortens the gene, was causing instability within cells and damage that appears similar to breakdowns seen in radiation injuries.
They found that the mutation was interfering with a DNA repair process , which occurs when there is a break in both strands of DNA. This interruption of the process allowed DNA to be deleted, and cells prematurely aged and stopped dividing, which leads to overall premature aging and organ damage.

In addition to uncovering RVCL’s primary mechanism of damage, the researchers also found that the TREX1 mutation also displayed a cell-level vulnerability that mirrors those seen in people with mutations to the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, which cause breast cancer. Sure enough, the authors found similar elevated rates of risk of breast cancer in patients with TREX1 mutations as in patients with mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes.
But on top of that, the TREX1 mutation’s effect on DNA damage also makes people with it more susceptible to damage from chemotherapy, the team found.
“I do worry that certain treatments may have accelerated the progression of disease in some patients,” Miner said. “In many cases, chemotherapy was prescribed as a way of treating suspected ‘autoimmunity’ since certain chemotherapeutic agents can also be used to treat patients with systemic lupus. This was frequently employed in the treatment of RVCL in the past, and even recently by some, and we are concerned that this would actually make the disease worse.”
The study’s findings provide a clearer picture for the types of treatments and medicines that could be pursued for people with RVCL. They could involve lowering levels of TREX1 in the body, correcting the mutation, or just blocking the gene’s DNA-damaging effects.
“Until those therapies are developed, we are working to figure out whether certain mediations already FDA-approved for the treatment of other diseases might be repurposed for RVCL or potentially impact TREX1 levels in the body overall,” Miner said. “TREX1 levels increase with age in multiple tissues in all humans — even in healthy individuals without RVCL — and we need to understand the processes linked to this.”
To that end, the study’s findings extend well beyond the population of patients with RVCL because of what it may add to the DNA damage theory of aging.
“One hope is that understanding the role of TREX1 in RVCL might help us uncover mechanisms that could link the TREX1 gene to a wide variety of human conditions that could also include normal aging,” Miner said.
This study was funded by the National Institutes of Health (K08AR070918, R01AI143982, R01NS131480, T32 GM007170), the Rheumatology Research Foundation, the Colton Center for Autoimmunity, the Clayco Foundation, the Penn RVCL Sisters Fund, the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (22ek0109424h0003), the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (22H00466), and the Japan MHLW for Research on Intractable Disease (JP21FC1007).

Feelings of loneliness and social isolation during the pandemic left many people confused about the order of events and struggling to remember what day of the week it was, a new study reveals.
The research, from the University of York, looked at the psychological impact of the pandemic, which spread to the UK in March 2020, through the lens of disorientation.
The researchers asked more than 3,300 French participants nearly 60 questions analysing the psychological effects of lockdowns. The survey took place during an acute phase of restrictions when there was a lockdown followed by a strict curfew.
The findings reveal both social and temporal disorientation — a sensation of disarray in social interactions and sense of time — was common.
Many participants in the study described feeling out of place and unsure how to behave in social situations.They also reported experiencing a blurring of time and feeling adrift as they struggled to keep track of events prior to the pandemic as well as what day of the week it was. The difficulty also extended onwards in time. Participants found it harder to imagine what lay ahead, and they felt more anxious and less in control of their future.
The researchers found that people who felt disconnected socially were highly likely to also experience temporal disorientation. Their analysis of the study data suggested a causal relationship between the two, with social isolation leading to disruptions in the experience of time.
Dr Pablo Fernandez Velasco, a British Academy postdoctoral fellow at the University of York, and the lead author of the study, said: “We found that social disorientation was a strong predictor of temporal disorientation and it looks likely that there was a causal relationship between the two. Feeling lonely and isolated from others seems to warp our perception of time, with a sense of feeling lost and confused spanning the past, present and future.

“Many people in our society, across all groups and demographics, suffer from loneliness. The findings of our study reinforce the importance for public authorities to address the compounding effect of feeling isolated both during crises and in day to day life.”
The researchers found that young people under 25 were the age group most affected by feelings of disorientation.
The researchers suggest their findings point to a new phenomenon which they call “temporal rupture” which is like a fault line in our minds separating the “before” and “after” of the pandemic.
Dr Fernandez Velasco added: “Our study shows that the sense of a rift separating time before and time after the pandemic was a common experience during the Covid-19 crisis.
“The larger the experienced rift between pre-pandemic and pandemic times, the more disorientated people felt.
“The personal accounts collected in our study help advance the understanding of the potential impacts of feelings of loneliness and isolation via the extraordinary experiences of the pandemic.”

Ret. Command Sgt. Maj. Gretchen Evans served in the United States Army for 27 years until a rocket blast in Afghanistan brought her career to an abrupt end in 2006. At just 46 years old, Evans was left with near-total hearing loss, a traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder.
After more than a year of rehabilitation, she struggled to find a new identity.
“It was a devastating shock to me,” Evans said. “I lost my career, my passion and purpose. In the beginning, it was a very rough transition, not just from the military to civilian world, but overcoming these injuries. I struggled with employment. I struggled connecting with other people. I fell into a very lonely depressive state.”
Relief finally came in the form of a service dog named Aura, a black labrador retriever with “lovable brown eyes” with whom Evans was paired in 2015. Evans retired her four-legged friend to a more domestic life in her home five years later — at which time she was paired with her second dog, a golden retriever and black lab mix she likes to call “Rambunctious Rusty.”
Whether at home or on the road, Aura and Rusty alert Evans to people behind her and different noises such as doorbells, alarms or family members trying to get her attention. The dogs even allowed Evans to get back behind the wheel of a car, as they can alert and point in the direction of sounds like emergency vehicles.
“As soon as I got Aura and had her by my side, that really took away the fear of engaging with people and day-to-day life,” Evans said. “I didn’t feel like a Deaf person anymore. I had working ears; they just so happened to have four legs and black fur. Aura opened so many doors and gave me my confidence back. And I was never lonely, because those dogs are your best battle buddy in the world.”
Improved patient outcomes
The benefits of service dogs for veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder are well documented in personal stories like Evans’, but there is a lack of empirical research on the use of the animals as a medical intervention.

Researchers at the University of Arizona College of Veterinary Medicine have taken a step toward improving better understanding the relationship, which they believe could lead to life-changing improvements in health care for veterans.
When compared to the control group, veterans in the study who worked with service dogs experienced significantly lower self-reported and clinician-rated PTSD symptom severity, lower anxiety and depression, a significantly higher quality of life and fewer feelings of isolation. Veterans working with service dogs also had a 66% lower odds of receiving a PTSD diagnosis from a mental health professional after three months with a dog.
The researchers, whose work is published in the medical journal JAMA Network Open, wanted to better understand how living and working with service dogs impacts PTSD symptoms, depression, anxiety and psychosocial functioning among veterans already receiving traditional medical care.
The lack of data on service dogs as medical care leads to a series of challenges for veterans seeking treatment, said lead study author Sarah Leighton, a graduate student studying psychology and a member of the OHAIRE research group in the College of Veterinary Medicine.
Those challenges include limited funding for service dog nonprofits that rely on donations, medical insurance companies that do not fund service dog intervention, and legislative gaps in terms of protecting the civil rights of people with disabilities partnered with service dogs.
“We know that veterans with PTSD are struggling,” Leighton said. “Rates of death by suicide among veterans with PTSD are about one-and-a half times higher than civilian adults, and they also have very high rates of other conditions like depression and anxiety. We’re really seeking to identify complementary interventions that can support veterans with PTSD, and hopefully improve their outcomes.”
According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, post-traumatic stress disorder is a mental health problem some people develop “after experiencing or witnessing a life-threatening or traumatic event” and is slightly more common in veterans than in the general population. The number of veterans with PTSD varies by demographic, service era and available data, but The National Library of Medicine concludes that upwards of 23% of veterans experience PTSD during their lifetime. Symptoms can include flashbacks, nightmares and panic attacks. Suicide and suicidal ideations are also closely linked to PTSD. A 2020 study by the Department of Veterans Affairs found the rate of suicide among veterans is nearly double that of the civilian population.

Service dogs are trained to perform tasks that help those with disabilities, and their training can be tailored to different circumstances. For a veteran with PTSD, a service dog may retrieve medication or perform anxiety-relieving actions like nuzzling or leaning against a person when the dog senses a heightened state of anxiety.
To find out whether working with a service dog can impact medical outcomes, Leighton and her colleagues recruited 156 veterans on a waiting list for a service dog through K9s For Warriors, a national nonprofit that specializes in service dog care, training and interaction. Of that group, 81 participants were partnered with service dogs at no cost while the rest remained on a waiting list.
All participants had regular access to any previous medical treatment, which could range from mainstream interventions like therapy or medication to complementary and integrative health interventions such as acupuncture or meditation. The veterans partnered with service dogs took a three-week, in-person course that included 40 hours per week of instruction in service dog care, training and interaction, as well as written and hands-on testing. Service dogs in the study received an average of six months of expert training and socialization to prepare them for their working role.
Participant wellness was measured at the start of the study and after three months. Participants filled out the PTSD Checklist based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, which measures symptom severity. At the same time, medical professionals with no knowledge of the experiment conditions conducted the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale, also known as CAPS-5, which is used to make a PTSD diagnosis.
Leighton said the results are clear evidence that partnership with a service dog may be a highly effective complementary medical intervention.
“We are already seeing these significant changes in nearly every area we measured after just three months of service dog partnership,” she said. “In some ways this is remarkable given that, on average, service dog partnerships can last eight or more years. We are seeing that the veterans in the service dog group are having a better quality of life and lower severity of their symptoms. I think that is really powerful.”
The study was led by principal investigator Maggie O’Haire, College of Veterinary Medicine associate dean of research and professor, and founder of the OHAIRE group. O’Haire and Leighton worked alongside Evan Maclean, associate professor and founder and director of the Arizona Canine Cognition Center; Kerri Rodriguez, assistant professor of human-animal interaction and the founder and director of the Human-Animal Bond Lab; Clare Jensen, a research scientist with the OHAIRE group; Erin Asbeck, a biostatistician with the university’s BIO5 Institute; and Edward John Bedrick, a professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health.
‘Pawsitive’ healing
While the result of the study supports veterans partnering with service dogs to reduce PTSD symptoms, the researchers say more work must be done to better understand exactly how working with a service dog impacts other treatments for PTSD.
The OHAIRE group is developing a clinical trial that will help with that. O’Haire and her colleagues were recently awarded funding from the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs and the Department of Defense for the study, “Psychiatric Service Dogs and Prolonged Exposure Therapy for Military-Connected PTSD.” The researchers were awarded more than $750,000 for a one-year planning phase, with an option to initiate a $7.6 million clinical trial once planning is complete. The study will analyze how service dogs impact the effectiveness of prolonged exposure therapy, which O’Haire called “gold-standard” therapy recommended to treat post-traumatic stress disorder. In prolonged exposure therapy, individuals gradually approach trauma-related issues and feelings, confront fear-inducing stimuli, and learn to cope with negative emotions.
“The impact of service dogs on existing PTSD care is unknown,” O’Haire said. “We have amazing, frontline, evidence-based treatments that can and will help veterans with their PTSD. The issue is that many of these treatments — including the best ones — are difficult and veterans often drop out or do not complete them because they are stressful and challenging. The idea inspiring this project is that a service dog could help alleviate some of these challenges, increase retention and motivation, and get people through a treatment that can work.”
During the planning phase, researchers will work with experts in PTSD research, both at the VA and UArizona, to understand how to integrate service dogs into prolonged exposure therapy in the most safe and efficient way possible and to design a large-scale, randomized trial. The year-long planning phase is expected to begin this fall. If approved, the study would begin in 2025 and enroll 216 veterans — half of whom would work with a service dog.
Specifically, researchers hope to discover if working with a service dog during therapy leads to fewer trauma symptoms and less severe PTSD, less suicidal thinking, better biological, physiological and social well-being and an easier time completing prolonged exposure therapy.
“We are expanding our studies to learn from a broader group and to obtain more detailed information that can improve this practice for both humans and dogs,” O’Haire said. “Veterans have told us directly that our research is changing their lives for the better. Service dog partnerships deserve to be researched, and our findings will help increase access for people who could benefit.”

A new study to be presented at the SLEEP 2024 annual meeting found that drowsy driving by teenagers is a common threat to public safety on U.S. roadways.
Results of the National Sleep Foundation study show that approximately one in six adolescent drivers reported having driven drowsy. Based on these responses, the authors project that 1.7 million teenage drivers have driven drowsy, and more than 400,000 teens drive drowsy at least once per week. The majority of teens pointed to work or school schedules as factors preventing them from getting the sleep they need to drive alert, and teen drivers with jobs were more than twice as likely to have driven drowsy than teens without jobs.
“This is a troubling rate, especially given that teens are new drivers with relatively low opportunity to have engaged in drowsy driving when compared to the lifetime of driving opportunities in adults,” said principal investigator Joseph Dzierzewski, who has a doctorate in clinical psychology and is the vice president of research and scientific affairs at the National Sleep Foundation in Washington, D.C.
Additional findings reveal that when asked about the risks associated with drowsy driving, 95% of teens said drowsy driving is extremely or very risky. However, when asked about the likelihood of drunk, drugged, distracted and drowsy driving leading to death or serious injury, drowsy driving was seen as having the lowest risk of death or serious harm.
Formally, the National Sleep Foundation developed and has produced Drowsy Driving Prevention Week® since 2007 and recently published a new drowsy driving position statement. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine identifies drowsy driving as a pervasive threat to public health and recommends that states mandate instruction in drowsy driving education as a requirement for driver’s education programs, provide comprehensive information about drowsy driving in state curricula and driver’s manuals, and include questions related to drowsy driving on driver’s license exams. Additionally, the AASM encourages every driver to take responsibility for staying “Awake at the Wheel” by making it a daily priority to get sufficient sleep, refusing to drive when sleep-deprived, recognizing the signs of drowsiness, and pulling off the road to a safe location when sleepy.
The study involved a nationally-representative, probability-based survey of 1,124 U.S. participants aged 13 to 17 years to assess drowsy driving prevalence, frequency and beliefs. Survey respondents reported whether they have ever driven while so tired they had a hard time keeping their eyes open, how often they did so, what kept them from getting the sleep needed to drive alert, and the perceived risks associated with drowsy driving.
With motor vehicle crashes being a leading cause of death among U.S. teenagers, this research sheds light on the increased attention needed for this preventable public health concern.
“Drowsy driving represents an immediate, and potentially tragic, consequence of poor sleep health, residing at the literal intersection of sleep health and public safety,” Dzierzewski said.
The research abstract was published recently in an online supplement of the journal Sleep and will be presented Wednesday, June 5, during SLEEP 2024 in Houston. 

A new study to be presented at the SLEEP 2024 annual meeting offers a framework for an objective, non-invasive and zero-effort sleep monitoring system utilizing smart thermostats equipped with motion sensors.
Results show that smart thermostats identified three distinct sleep quality clusters, with clear variations in sleep duration, disturbances and efficiency. Comparative analysis underscored the heterogeneity in sleep quality, highlighting the potential of smart devices and NextGen IoT data sources in identifying sleep patterns and contributing to sleep research without invasive monitoring.
“Even though these smart thermostats were not originally intended for health monitoring, their capability to accurately differentiate between complex sleep patterns and disturbances were the most surprising part of this study,” said Jasleen Kaur, who has a doctorate in computer science and engineering and is a postdoctoral researcher at the UbiLab, University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada.
The researchers analyzed eight terabytes of data collected from smart thermostats in 178,706 households. Sensor activations were translated into signals that modeled sleep features, and machine learning models were used to discern sleep quality indicators.
The American Academy of Sleep Medicine recognizes that consumer sleep technology may be utilized to enhance the patient-clinician interaction when presented in the context of an appropriate clinical evaluation. However, these tools are not substitutes for medical evaluation.
According to Kaur, the study highlights the potential for smart devices to collect meaningful, long-term behavioral health data in the home for near-real time public health surveillance.
“Quality sleep is critical to people’s health and well-being,” said Kaur. “However, collecting reliable data is difficult as it often relies on recall bias and subjective interpretation; this offers potential for integrating environmental and behavioral health data to improve sleep health.”
The research abstract was published recently in an online supplement of the journal Sleep and will be presented Tuesday and Wednesday, June 4 and 5, during SLEEP 2024 in Houston.

Aerogels, known for their porosity and low density, are solid materials that offer versatile functionality — from gobbling up fat globules in weight-management supplements to facilitating more sustainable metal-recycling processes. Traditionally used to provide thermal insulation in the aerospace industry, scientists from the National University of Singapore (NUS) have taken the material to the next level — harnessing its unique properties to provide value to numerous applications in building and construction, environmental remediation, drug delivery, and even clothing and textiles.
In a pioneering effort, a research team led by Associate Professor DUONG Hai-Minh from the Department of Mechanical Engineering under the NUS College of Design and Engineering, has developed aerogels for two new applications: radiative cooling and electromagnetic wave (EMW) absorption.
Utilising plastic waste, the team engineered thin-film aerogels that function as thermal insulators and radiative coolers. These aerogels can be applied to any surface, such as building roofs, to reduce internal temperatures, offering a scalable and sustainable solution for energy-free thermal management. The team’s findings were published in the journal Solar Energy on 15 May 2024.
In another study, published in the journal Carbon on 10 January 2024, the NUS researchers devised a simple, scalable method to produce aerogels that absorb EMWs in the X-band, characteristic of those used in weather monitoring and air traffic control. These lightweight, durable aerogels protect against electromagnetic pollution, shielding both humans and sensitive equipment in our increasingly digital world.
The researchers’ work builds on their prior successes in developing aerogels from a variety of waste materials, from plastics and paper to agricultural by-products such as pineapple leaves.
Aerogels for radiative cooling
Traditional cooling systems, such as air conditioners, have a ravenous appetite for energy, accounting for approximately 20% of electricity used in buildings worldwide. The new aerogels developed by the NUS team present a passive cooling alternative, leveraging the natural process of radiative cooling to dissipate heat into space without consuming energy.

“This process involves using specially engineered aerogels to emit infrared radiation through the atmospheric ‘sky window’, effectively cooling surface temperatures below ambient levels,” said Assoc Prof Duong. “We are excited to be able to upcycle fibres from disposable polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles for the new aerogels designed for this purpose, to help address the global plastic waste crisis.”
Previously the team had worked with PET fibres to produce aerogels, but this latest method is significantly more energy-efficient, consuming about 97 per cent less energy and reducing production time by 96 per cent. When tested in Singapore’s warm climate, conducted in collaboration with Dr Jaesuk HWANG from the Centre for Quantum Technologies at NUS, 0.5 centimetres of the material produced a cooling effect of 2 degrees Celcius, achieved by emitting infrared heat into the surroundings while exhibiting good heat insulation, preventing heat absorption from the surrounding environment.
“These aerogels could reduce energy consumption in both residential and commercial buildings, especially in tropical climates where cooling is now a necessity,” added Assoc Prof Duong.
Future research will focus on adapting these aerogels for diverse climatic conditions and expanding their applications beyond building insulation, such as in industrial processes where the efficient thermal management of liquid circulation pipes is crucial.
Aerogels for electromagnetic wave absorption
Modern electronic devices emit EMWs that can disrupt nearby equipment and pose health risks, including DNA damage and cancer. It is critical, therefore, to develop materials that can effectively absorb EMWs to shield both humans and infrastructure from these adverse effects. Applications include enhancing the privacy and security of buildings as well as protecting sensitive medical equipment.

To address this need, Assoc Prof Duong’s team has developed a scalable and eco-friendly procedure to produce novel aerogels that are effective at EMW absorption. The process involves blending three main components — carbon nanotubes, polyvinyl alcohol and carboxymethyl cellulose — followed by freeze-drying.
The aerogel, with a thickness of about 3 millimetres — roughly the width of 40 strands of human hair — demonstrated an impressive performance of absorbing 99.99 per cent of EMW energy. Across the entire X-band (8.2-12.4 GHz) of the electromagnetic spectrum, used primarily for radar systems, weather monitoring and air traffic control, the aerogel consistently showed its ability to absorb 90 per cent of EMW energy.
“In addition to offering a wide absorption bandwidth of 1.2-2.2 GHz in the X-band, our aerogel is also about 10 times lighter than existing composites used for EMW absorption,” added Assoc Prof Duong. “Unlike other composites, our aerogel requires no mixing with heavy polymer fillers before use.”
The researchers have estimated that producing one square metre of the aerogel, with a thickness of one centimetre, costs less than US$74. This cost is substantially lower than the price of other similar commercial materials, which could range from US$133 to above US$738.
Looking ahead, the team plans to refine the aerogel’s mechanical properties, such as flexibility, to broaden their applicability across various building and infrastructure projects. The researchers also aim to conduct real-world tests to fully assess the EMW absorption capabilities of the aerogels in practical scenarios.

Beta(β)-type titanium (Ti) alloys are renowned for their strength, formability and resistance to harsh environments. This, along with their excellent biocompatibility, has made them adequately suited for implants and prosthetics, from joint replacement to stents.
However, under certain conditions a brittle omega phase can form, making the material prone to breaking. Whilst it is known that adding tin (Sn) negates this, and makes β-type Ti alloys stronger, the exact mechanics behind this has continued to puzzle scientists. That is until now.
A research team led by Norihiko Okamoto and Tetsu Ichitsubo from Tohoku University’s Institute for Materials Research (IMR) has revealed how this occurs. Their revelation came via a systematic investigation using model titanium-vanadium (Ti-V) alloys, which included a combination of experiments and theoretical analyses.
“Our findings reveal that the multi-element interaction between Ti, V, and Sn, coupled with the anchoring effect of Sn atoms, work together to completely suppress the formation of the detrimental omega phase, exemplifying the so-called cocktail effect,” explained Ichitsubo.
Just like skillfully blending various drinks often results in a cocktail that is more delicious than imagined, the cocktail effect in the metallurgical field refers to the phenomenon where mixing multiple elemental components in a well-balanced ratio can lead to superior properties beyond expectations.
“This cocktail effect is a prime example of the phenomena observed in high-entropy materials, highlighting the importance of considering multi-element interactions in alloy design,” adds Okamoto. “This discovery underscores the significance of accounting for multi-element interactions not just for biomaterials but also in the broader context of alloy design.”
Understanding the finite details of strengthening β-type Ti alloys will help improve biomedical titanium implants, which provide invaluable support for people suffering from degenerative bone condition or aging populations.

Scientists should focus on the interactions between T and B cells to find better treatments for autoimmune disorders, such as rheumatoid arthritis, according to a new study from the University of Surrey.
Systems Biology researchers have found that our metabolism could play an outsized role in the delicate balancing act between T and B cells, leading to autoimmune diseases. The study also found evidence that changes in metabolism caused by aging add further risks.
Dr Matteo Barberis, lead author of the study from the School of Biosciences, said:
“We have proposed a new way to treat autoimmune diseases by focusing on the metabolism of immune cells, like T and B cells. We can find more effective treatments by understanding how these cells interact to change their behaviour due to shifts in our body’s energy processing.
“This approach brings together different areas, such as inflammation and immunometabolism, how our immune system uses energy and the effects of aging.”
T and B cells are specialised white blood cells that play crucial roles in our immune system. T cells help identify and attack infected cells, while B cells create antibodies to neutralise harmful invaders like viruses and bacteria. Through mutual regulation, T and B cells can meet the metabolic demand required in each stage of their development.
The team conducted a thorough critical analysis of the current literature in different areas, such as inflammation and immunometabolism, to comprehensively understand the processes involved, where metabolic, signalling and epigenetic routes integrate.
Dr Matteo Barberis added: “This approach envisions therapeutic treatments of autoimmune disorders through a strategy of repurposing drugs capable of simultaneously targeting the immune system and the metabolism. It’s a promising direction that could lead to better ways to manage conditions such as lupus or multiple sclerosis.”

Driven by an older, more diverse population, along with a significant increase in risk factors including high blood pressure and obesity, total costs related to cardiovascular disease (CVD) conditions are likely to triple by 2050, according to projections from the American Heart Association, observing 100 years of lifesaving service as the world’s leading nonprofit organization focused on heart and brain health for all. At least 6 in 10 U.S. adults (61%), more than 184 million people, are expected to have some type of CVD within the next 30 years, reflecting a disease prevalence that will have a $1.8 trillion price tag in direct and indirect costs.
The new data comes from two new presidential advisories published today in the Association’s flagship peer-reviewed journal, Circulation — Forecasting the Burden of Cardiovascular Disease and Stroke in the United States Through 2050: Prevalence of Risk Factors and Disease and Forecasting the Economic Burden of Cardiovascular Disease and Stroke in the United States through 2050. The companion papers build upon prior work by the Association to assess projections of the future cardiovascular disease prevalence and subsequent economic burden based on the current landscape.
“As we mark the American Heart Association’s centennial, we recognize monumental accomplishments in the fight against cardiovascular disease which includes all types of heart and vascular disease, along with stroke. Supported by efforts led by the Association, death rates from heart disease have been cut in half in the past 100 years. Deaths from stroke have been cut by a third since the creation of the American Stroke Association in 1998,” said the volunteer chair of the advisories’ writing groups, Karen E. Joynt Maddox, M.D., M.P.H., FAHA. “Yet, these are still leading causes of death and disability in the U.S. So, in analyzing the data for these advisories, we set out to learn just what we may expect over the next 30 years, and to identify specific issues that need to be addressed to ensure that we continue our forward progress. Armed with these findings, we can take steps to turn the tide on this dire forecast.”
Heart disease has been the leading cause of death in the U.S. since the inception of the American Heart Association in 1924. Stroke is currently the fifth leading cause of death in the U.S. Together, they kill more people than all forms of cancers and chronic respiratory illnesses combined, with annual deaths from cardiovascular disease now approaching 1 million nationwide.
“As the American Heart Association enters its second century, our future is about improving yours,” said American Heart Association Chief Executive Officer Nancy Brown. “It is crucial to quantify the full burden of cardiovascular disease so we can better inform the policies and community-level and health system interventions needed to change this current path. We recognize that the landscape of cardiovascular health will change over the next three decades because of the coming tsunami of rising health care costs, an older population living longer and increasing numbers of people from under-resourced populations. The findings of these important advisories predict a dire human and economic toll from heart disease and stroke if changes are not made. However, this does not have to be the reality of our future.”
Increases in high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity will drive CVD prevalence.
Clinically, cardiovascular disease refers to a number of specific conditions, including coronary heart disease (including heart attack), heart failure, heart arrhythmias (including atrial fibrillation), vascular disease, congenital heart defects, stroke and hypertension (high blood pressure). However, while high blood pressure is considered a type of cardiovascular disease, it is also a major risk factor contributing to nearly all types of heart disease and stroke, so for the purposes of these analyses, high blood pressure was predicted separately from all CVD. This aligns with the American Heart Association’s Life’s Essential 8™ — key measures of health factors and health behaviors identified for improving and maintaining cardiovascular health.

From 2020 (the most recent data available) to 2050, projected increases of CVD and risk factors contributing to it in the U.S. include: High blood pressure will increase from 51.2% to 61.0%, and since high blood pressure is a type of CVD, that means more than 184 million people will have a clinical diagnosis of CVD by 2050, compared to 128 million in 2020. Cardiovascular disease, including stroke, (but not including high blood pressure) will increase from 11.3% to 15.0%, from 28 million to 45 million adults. Stroke prevalence will nearly double from 10 million to almost 20 million adults. Obesity will increase from 43.1% to 60.6%, impacting more than 180 million people. Diabetes will increase from 16.3% to 26.8%, impacting more than 80 million people. High blood pressure will be most prevalent in individuals 80 years and older, however, the number of people with hypertension will be highest — and rising — in younger and middle-aged adults (20-64 years of age). People aged 20-64 years also will have the highest prevalence and highest growth for obesity, with more than 70 million young adults having a poor diet.Good news: People are choosing to live healthier.
Despite the predicted increase for cardiovascular disease prevalence and costs, there are some positive trends to report. More adults in the U.S. are embracing the healthy behaviors of the American Heart Association’s Life’s Essential 8, as prevalence rates for most are expected to improve: Inadequate physical inactivity rates will improve from 33.5% to 24.2%. Cigarette smoking rates will drop nearly by half, from 15.8% to 8.4%. While more than 150 million people will have a poor diet, that is at least a slight improvement from 52.5% to 51.1%.”It is extremely promising to see these health behaviors improve, as it indicates a movement by individuals taking control of their health and making positive change. I’m especially pleased to see smoking rates drop substantially, as tobacco addiction is one of the deadliest factors impacting cardiovascular disease over the past century,” said Joseph C. Wu, M.D., Ph.D., FAHA, the current volunteer president of the American Heart Association, director of the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute and the Simon H. Stertzer Professor of Medicine and Radiology at Stanford School of Medicine. “Yet, even as we can celebrate these wins, we must realize that new challenges continue to threaten many decades of progress. Findings from these advisories identify a disturbing trend that many of these increases are projected to occur among our younger population — setting up a formidable future.”
Future generation at risk: Concerns CVD risk factor trends in kids
The analysis also looked at projections for children, with concerning trends among key risk factors that were also notable in the adult population. Obesity among children (age 2-19 years of age) is estimated to rise from 20.6% in 2020 to 33.0% in 2050, increasing from 15 million to 26 million children with obesity; highest increases will be seen among children 2 to 5 years of age and 12 to 19 years of age. The prevalence of inadequate physical activity and poor diet among children is projected to remain high at nearly 60% each, exceeding 45 million children by 2050.

Racial and ethnic disparities persist
“We found larger increases in the prevalence of CVD and risk factors, and in the number of people with these conditions, among people from racially and ethnically diverse backgrounds,” said Joynt Maddox, who is an associate professor of medicine at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. “Some of this is due to demographic shifts in the U.S., with projections suggesting that Asian and Hispanic populations will nearly double by 2060. However, much of the inequity we see in CVD and risk factors remains attributed to systemic racism, as well as socioeconomic factors and access to care.”
Among adults aged 20 and older, projections note: Black adults have the highest prevalence of hypertension, diabetes, and obesity, along with the highest projected prevalence of inadequate sleep and poor diet. The total numbers of people with CVD will rise most among Hispanic adults with higher numbers also seen among Asian populations. Asian adults have the highest projected prevalence of inadequate physical activity. The aggregated group of American Indians/Alaskan Natives (AI/AN)/multiracial adults will have the highest projected prevalence of smoking.Among children, the projections found: Black children will have the highest prevalence of hypertension and diabetes. Hispanic children will have the highest prevalence of obesity and the greatest projected growth in hypertension, diabetes, and obesity. Asian children and Hispanic children had the highest prevalence of inadequate physical activity. AI/AN/multiracial children will have the highest prevalence of smoking. Black children and white children will have the highest prevalence of poor diet. The absolute increase in each risk factor will be greatest for Hispanic children, reflecting broader trends in population growth.Cardiovascular disease carries a high price tag
“It is not surprising that an enormous increase in cardiovascular risk factors and diseases will produce a substantial economic burden — to the tune of a $1.8 trillion price tag for cardiovascular disease projected by 2050,” said volunteer vice-chair of the advisory writing groups Dhruv S. Kazi, M.D., M.Sc., M.S., FAHA. “This is a near tripling of the total direct and indirect costs of cardiovascular disease over the coming three decades, and almost doubles the economic impact of CVD as a proportion of the U.S. gross domestic product, increasing from 2.7% in 2020 to 4.6% in 2050.”
Total CVD costs include “direct costs,” which include the actual cost of health care, as well as “indirect costs,” including premature death and lost economic productivity that may include time taken off work to seek care or the inability to work due to a disability. The writing committee analyzed these costs in relation to individual health conditions and risk factors, paired with projected inflation and the rising cost of overall health and medical care.
Key economic projections include: The increase in total costs for CVD is primarily driven by a projected near quadrupling of direct health care costs, expected to increase from $393 billion in 2020 to $1.4 trillion in 2050. Because health care costs are projected to rise much faster than productivity losses, health care costs will constitute a larger proportion of total cost of CVD in the future, from 63% in 2020 to 80% in 2050. Stroke will be a major driver in the increased health costs, jumping to 535%, from $67 billion to $423 billion. This is due to the aging of the population, since strokes tend to occur on average ten years later than coronary events, and increases in hypertension, which is a major risk factor for stroke.Aging population and changing demographics driving CVD burden
“The landscape of cardiovascular disease in the U.S. is seeing the arrival of a near-perfect storm. The last decade has seen a surge of cardiovascular risk factors such as uncontrolled high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity, each of which raises the risks of developing heart disease and stroke,” said Kazi, who is head of health economics and associate director of the Richard A. and Susan F. Smith Center for Outcomes Research in Cardiology and director of the cardiac critical care unit at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.
Kazi notes that these risk factors are rising even among children and young adults. And this is happening at a time of pivotal demographic shifts.
“The last of the Baby Boomers will hit 65 in 2030, so about 1 in 5 people in the U.S. will be over 65, outnumbering children for the first time in U.S. history. Since cardiovascular risk increases with age, the aging population increases the total burden of cardiovascular disease in the country. And finally, we anticipate that Hispanic, Asian and multiracial populations will more than double in the coming decades,” Kazi said. “By 2060, more than two-thirds of children will belong to underserved, disenfranchised populations which traditionally have higher rates of cardiovascular disease and risk factors. Even after adjusting out the effect of inflation, we project a quadrupling specific to the health care costs related to cardiovascular disease, along with an extensive cost of lost productivity due to early death and disability.”
As with prevalence, the projected increases in CVD costs vary across demographics: The greatest increases are seen in the youngest and oldest U.S. adults. While women are projected to have lower health spending than men in both 2020 and 2050, the increase in costs over this time frame is greater in women than men. Spending for the Asian and Hispanic populations is projected to increase by nearly 500% for each group. Costs for people with Medicare will increase the most, from $384 billion to $1.2 trillion, a 214% increase.Health and hope for all: It’s not too late for change
In presenting the 30-year projected increases in prevalence and costs related to CVD, the writing group noted that these estimates are not set in stone. Appropriate interventions and aggressive approaches to reducing risk factors could change the course, and the group offered two scenarios in which this could happen: The first scenario anticipated that reducing the prevalence of high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes and obesity by about 10% and improving the control of blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol by about 20%, would result in a 17% to 23% reduction in cases of heart disease and stroke and in cardiovascular deaths. These interventions could equate to 1.2 million fewer CVD and stroke events and 240,000 fewer CVD and stroke deaths annually by 2050. A second scenario predicted that further reductions in risk factors, in particular reducing obesity by half and doubling risk factor control, could achieve even greater reductions of up to 30% to 40% in event and death rates in 2050. These reductions could result in 2.3 million fewer CVD and stroke events and more than 450,000 lives saved annually by 2050. Both scenarios assumed that interventions began in 2025 and took 5 years to reach full implementation.”We can bend the cost curve on cardiovascular disease, but this will require strategic investments in cardiovascular prevention and treatment,” Kazi said. “Some of this work is in the health care system — ensuring effective therapies reach patients most likely to benefit from them — but some of the work is upstream of the health system: ensuring that people have access to the resources they need to live healthful lives, to achieve the Life’s Essential 8 factors that are the core of cardiovascular health. It will take all of us working together to make this happen.”
Wu noted that many of these adverse trends can be reversed, as the American Heart Association has helped pioneer breakthroughs in science, policy and health care over the past century, making significant impacts to prevent CVD events and deaths and help people live longer, healthier lives even after having a heart attack or stroke.
“Scientific discovery is paramount to our success. While our forecast analysis was not able to take it into account, the recent approval of glucagon-like peptide 1 agonists and related drugs to treat diabetes and obesity may lead to a sea change in our medical approach to these conditions,” he said. “The next life-changing, life-saving treatment may be developing in a petri dish right now. We must redouble our efforts and support for funding cutting-edge research that may lead to approaches so innovative they don’t yet exist even in our imagination.”
“We must also ensure these approaches are available to all. If poverty, structural racism or negative social factors keep even one person from living their healthiest life, we haven’t fulfilled our mission. Broader public policy and systems changes are needed to address the root causes of these persistent inequities,” Brown said. “Our aging population calls for an enhanced cardiovascular workforce and infrastructure, including access to long-term care facilities and resources. We must better support our children and their families to recognize the impact that health choices made today will influence our health for years to come. Most importantly, we must ensure every person in the U.S. has access to quality, affordable health care.”
She said the clinical and public health interventions urgently need to reverse the trends identified in the presidential advisories must be among the highest priority with major investments on a national level.
“As we enter our second century of saving lives, the American Heart Association is encouraging every individual, company, school and community to unite to change the future of health — for ourselves, our loved ones and the many places in which we live, work and play,” Brown said. “At nearly 40 million-strong, our volunteers, donors, advocates, staff and other supporters will lead the charge to identify and implement real solutions to these very real problems, as we advance health and hope for everyone, everywhere.”