Super wearable electronics that are lightweight, stretchable and increase sweat permeability by 400-fold have been developed by scientists at City University of Hong Kong (CityUHK), enabling reliable long-term monitoring of biosignals for biomedical devices.
Led by Professor Yu Xinge in CityUHK’s Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME), the research team has recently developed a universal method to creating these super wearable electronics that allow gas and sweat permeability, solving the most critical issue facing wearable biomedical devices.
Wearable electronics play a significant role in promoting health and fitness. Continuous monitoring of physiological signals over a prolonged period is essential for gaining a comprehensive perspective on an individual’s overall health status, early disease prediction, personalised therapeutics and improved management of chronic health conditions.
However, the long-term signal stability could be influenced by sweat or air permeability. Professor Yu and his team have put in significant effort into addressing the need for wearable devices that can provide continuous and stable monitoring of vital signs without causing discomfort or signal disruption brought about by perspiration.
Resolving this challenge, the team has developed a fundamental methodology from materials processing, device architecture and system integration for integrated permeable wearable electronics based on a nature-inspired three-dimensional liquid diode (3D LD) configuration, in which surface structures facilitate the spontaneous flow of liquids in a specific direction.
The findings have recently been published in the journal Nature under the title “A three-dimensional liquid diode for soft, integrated permeable electronics.”
“Incorporating a 3D spatial liquid manipulation technique, we have achieved fully integrated permeable electronics that match the circuitry and functionality to state-of-the-art wearable devices, enabling superb breathability,” said Professor Yu. “The 3D LD does not rely on unique materials but adopts an in-plane liquid transport layer called the horizontal liquid diode.”
In the study, the device that the team created can transport sweat from the skin 4,000 times more effectively than the human body can produce it, ensuring seamless monitoring even in sweating conditions, solving the issue of signal disruption caused by sweat accumulation at the device-skin interface.

And because of its thin, lightweight, soft, and stretchable features, the device demonstrated exceptional compatibility with the human body, effectively adhering to the skin, maintaining a comfortable and stable interface between the device and the skin, providing high-quality signals.
“Our findings provide fluid manipulation and system integration strategies for the soft, permeable wearables. We have successfully applied this technology to both advanced skin-integrated electronics and textile-integrated electronics, achieving reliable health monitoring over a weeklong duration,” said Professor Yu.
Currently, the team is advancing to clinical trials to confirm the effectiveness of their technology in real-world scenarios.
Professor Yu is the corresponding author. Dr Zhang Binbin, Dr Li Jiyu, Zhou Jingkun, and Chow Lung are the paper’s first authors. Dr Zhang and Dr Li are postdoctoral fellows in the BME and Hong Kong Centre for Cerebro-Cardiovascular Health Engineering, an InnoHK centre. Mr Zhou Jingkun and Mr Chow are PhD students under the supervision of Professor Yu.

Published39 minutes agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingImage source, Getty ImagesBy Annabel RackhamCulture reporterKatie Price says there is “nothing worse” than women in their early 20s getting cosmetic procedures and wants to educate them about the risks.The model and TV personality is known for going under the knife herself, but insisted she’s “not a hypocrite”.”I didn’t start doing my face until I was in my 40s. I had a boob job, but I didn’t even have fillers,” she said, warning it is “damaging to your body”.”I didn’t do it all in my 20s. I think everyone looks like aliens these days.”Speaking to the podcast How To Fail With Elizabeth Day, Price, 45, said: “I didn’t have Botox till I was like 27/28. Lips I tried when they didn’t know [how to do it] and I looked like a duck, but then I just relaxed on it.Image source, Getty Images”All the girls look the same now, and I think, what are they going to look like then when they’re my age?”Price, who has five children, said the recovery process from her surgeries had “put them off for life”.”People don’t realise when you have surgery and stuff, you only see before and after, you don’t see in between – when you’ve had it, the pain and the cleaning, the stitches out and the bed rests.”So I would love to educate people about it. It’s damaging to your body. I’ve had so many anaesthetics. I know I still choose to do it, but I’m older now.”Katie Price: The rise and fall of a glamour modelKatie Price declared bankrupt for second timeBankrupt Price to lose 40% of OnlyFans incomeShe said choosing her next plastic surgery was “like going shopping, for me, which is so bad”.”But I could go further than I have done. Sometimes I do look in the mirror and go, ‘Ooh, are people looking because you look plastic, or are they looking because you look good?'”There’s nothing worse than when these young girls now, in their early 20s, who are all getting fillers, all getting lips, all getting the boobs [done].”Image source, Getty ImagesPrice has been sharing more of her personal life in recent years, including life behind the scenes with her disabled son, Harvey.She has made a series of documentaries for the BBC about his life with autism and rare genetic disease Prader-Willi syndrome. In July 2023, Price also said she had been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and said she thinks that explains some of her poor choices.She told the podcast: “I’ve now been diagnosed, not that I believe in labels, but it makes sense that I’ve got severe ADHD. And it would make sense now, because I’ve made the wrong choices, done the wrong things, when really I’m just innocent [and] gullible.”Yet, there’s that side of me where I just can’t help to say something or do something and we’ve worked out in my brain it’s got to be my ADHD.”Price, who now generates some of her income from producing content on subscription website OnlyFans, has continued to attract tabloid interest for her romantic relationships and financial problems in recent years.She was declared bankrupt for a second time earlier this month and said that wouldn’t have happened “if men had not been in my life”.Price has been married three times, to singer Peter Andre from 2005 to 2009, a relationship she says was “real”, but described her subsequent marriages to Alex Reid, from 2010 to 2012, and Kieran Hayler, from 2013 to 2021, as “just rebounds”.She has also been in and out of court a number of times in recent years for driving offences.More on this storyKatie Price: The rise and fall of a glamour modelPublished24 June 2022Katie Price declared bankrupt for second timePublished19 MarchBankrupt Price to lose 40% of OnlyFans incomePublished1 March

Published26 minutes agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingBy Phil Kemp, Jack Fenwick & Alex ForsythBBC NewsCouncil spending on school transport for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) has almost doubled in the last five years, BBC research has found.Spending is set to hit £1.4bn across local authorities in England in 2023-24, a 95% rise from £728m in 2018-19.Councils are required by law to provide free transport to SEND children who are unable to walk to school.The government said it was investing £2.6bn in special school places. It said this would mean fewer children would need to travel long distances, reducing costs. Council leaders say while inflation has pushed up costs, the rise has been fuelled by increased demand and complex cases. Local authorities have seen demand increase by over 40%, with more than 183,000 children using the services this year.Meanwhile, the average annual cost of SEND school transport per child across England has gone up by around a third, from £6,280 to £8,299.The rising cost of providing school transport is a key driver of the current pressure on council budgets.Council leaders have warned overspends in this area will lead to cuts in services elsewhere as they try to balance the books and avoid following other councils who have recently gone bust.The leader of the County Councils Network, Tim Oliver, said the cost of school transport was “unsustainable” and suggested means-testing should be looked at, meaning some parents might have to pay.Cash-strapped councils target arts and parks cutsWhy do councils go bust and what happens when they do?In Surrey, 11-year-old Shakeerah relies on a taxi that is paid for by the council to get her to and from school every day.She was diagnosed with a brain tumour just after her first birthday, and requires constant care.She is deaf and attends a mainstream school, which uses and teaches British Sign Language and is an hour’s drive from her home.Her mum, Yasmeen Crowther, said the transport the council provides is essential. She and her husband work full time, and could not do the two-hour round-trip twice a day.”If Shakeerah didn’t have the transport, she wouldn’t go to school,” she said. “She’s of statutory school age, she’s entitled to an education.” BBC research shows the councils with some of the longest journeys are Herefordshire at 242 miles, which the council said was a weekly trip, and East Sussex at 220 miles.One council, Buckinghamshire, said it was paying £952 per day for “two complex medical passengers” to travel by ambulance with a nurse.Other examples include a £684 per day trip in Trafford and £650 for a trip three times a week for a child in Lincolnshire.Mr Oliver, who is also the Conservative leader of Surrey County Council, said his own local authority’s budget for home-to-school transport was overspent by £10m.”Nobody could argue this system is working as it should do,” he said. “But throwing money at – even if that money was available – isn’t actually the answer.”He said a “grown-up conversation” needs to happen and suggested that some parents might be willing to pay.”It won’t be popular of course because it’s another cost and that’s a challenge, but I think we do need to have that conversation.”Earlier this year three Warwickshire councillors apologised after claiming that some children with a diagnosis that qualifies for support were just badly behaved and that parents had been swapping diagnosis tips on social media.But Mr Oliver does not believe that parents should be having the finger pointed at them. “We all want the best for our children and that is all that these parents are seeking to do,” he said.”I think the system can be quite adversarial… but every parent is simply trying to do the best for their child, I don’t think people are making these things up.”Yasmeen said it has been a constant fight to get Shakeerah the support she needs.”It’s been very hard to try and navigate what she’s entitled to, but also what the local authority can provide as well – there’s a huge disparity between the two,” she said. “Children with SEND are always the ones who see those cuts first, and it has a massive impact on the family unit.”BBC News sent Freedom of Information requests to all 151 councils in England with statutory responsibilities to provide school transport for SEND children.A total of 147 of those came back with responses on spending and 113 came back with responses on demand.These responses have been supplemented by public data included in council submissions to central government and by analysis carried out by the County Councils Network.Due to variations in the way local authorities gather data, some councils may only have provided information relating to under-16 SEND transport.Labour said the whole SEND system was “on its knees”, with a lack of local provision due to cuts to council finances. Louise Gittins, the Labour leader of Cheshire West and Chester Council and chairwoman of the Local Government Association’s Children and Young People’s board, said: “What’s fundamentally at the bottom of that is that children shouldn’t have to be travelling 50 miles or an hour’s journey to get to school. “There should be specialist provision near to where they live so that they can go to their school and really thrive in their educational settings.”The Liberal Democrats said the government had “failed” to plan for the growing number of children with special educational needs and disabilities. Munira Wilson, the party’s education spokeswoman, said: “Two-thirds of our special schools are at capacity or full, which is why councils are having to transport children out of area. “The solution to that is to make sure that we’re building and providing that specialist provision in the local area so they don’t have to send those children out.”A Department for Education spokesperson said: “Every child should have access to a high-quality education, including those with special educational needs, which is why we’re creating around 60,000 special and AP [alternative provision] school places, meeting the current demand for places across the country.”More on this storyCash-strapped councils target arts and parks cutsPublished28 FebruaryWhy do councils go bust and what happens when they do?Published5 MarchCouncils to get extra funds to tackle cash crisisPublished24 January

Published9 minutes agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingImage source, Getty ImagesBy Nick TriggleHealth correspondentPublic satisfaction with the NHS has dropped again, setting a new low recorded by the long-running British Social Attitudes survey.Just 24% said they were satisfied with the NHS in 2023, with waiting times and staff shortages the biggest concerns.That is five percentage points down on last year and a drop from the 2010 high of 70% satisfaction.The poll – the gold-standard measure of the public’s view of the health service – has been running since 1983.The key NHS targets that have never been metCancer waiting times in 2023 worst on record12-hour A&E waits in winter ‘becoming normalised’More than 3,000 people were polled by the National Centre for Social Research across England, Wales and Scotland in the autumn.The findings on the NHS, published by the Nuffield Trust and King’s Fund think tanks, show once again that performance has deteriorated after a new record low was seen last year.In total, since 2020, satisfaction has fallen by 29 percentage points. Of the core services, the public was least satisfied with A&E and dentistry.The survey also showed satisfaction with social care had fallen to 13% – again the lowest since the survey began.The major reasons for dissatisfaction were long waiting times, staffing shortages and lack of funding.When asked about government choices on tax and spending on the NHS, 48% backed increasing taxes and spending more on the NHS, but 42% preferred to keep taxes and spending the same and 6% backed reducing taxes and spending less.Those with the highest incomes were more likely to want to increase taxes and spend more.’I feel let down’Samuel Wilson, 45, who lives in Worthing, West Sussex, has been left unable to work due to mobility and pain problems following two hip replacements. He is now awaiting further treatment. “I can’t walk very far without excruciating pain,” he says. “I feel let down. The NHS is there to help you, not make things worse. I feel they have treated me disdainfully. The nurses are polite, I’ve found, and even my surgeon. “But they are not providing the level of care required. And they know they are not providing the level of care required but trying to deal with them is like banging your head against a brick wall.” Jessica Morris, from the Nuffield Trust, said the findings were worrying. “As we approach a general election, political parties should be frank and realistic about the challenges ahead of them if they are to turn this situation around.     “Despite such low levels of satisfaction, the public continue to back the principles underpinning the NHS. “The public has not fallen out of love with the idea of a publicly funded, free-at-the-point-of-use NHS, but they are losing confidence that it will support them and their loved ones in the best possible way when they need it.” The Patients Association said it was “dismayed” by the survey results.And Royal College of Nursing general secretary Prof Pat Cullen said: “Enough is enough”.”Voters must now make NHS and care services the central issue of the general election,” she said. “An NHS that was once a world-leader is now treating patients in corridors, doorways, and store cupboards. The status quo has become intolerable.” But a Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said progress was being made, with some signs that the waiting list was falling, while investment was being made in key areas, such as GPs.”We are fully committed to a faster, simpler and fairer NHS, free at the point of need,” he said.A Scottish government spokesperson said other research showed people in Scotland were more satisfied with the way the NHS was run than this survey suggested.What’s your recent experience of the NHS? Email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:WhatsApp: +44 7756 165803Tweet: @BBC_HaveYourSayUpload pictures or videoPlease read our terms & conditions and privacy policy

If you are reading this page and can’t see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission. More on this storyHow’s the NHS coping in your area?Published14 MarchNeed an op? The hospitals with the worst waitsPublished14 MarchHealth workers will get promised paymentsPublished1 day agoGP explains viral online post on ‘stretched’ NHSPublished18 hours ago

A new study suggests that two killer whale populations in the North Pacific are distinct enough to be considered separate species.Killer whales are some of the most cosmopolitan creatures on the planet, swimming through every one of the world’s oceans. They patrol the frigid waters near both poles and periodically pop up in the tropics, in locations from western Africa to Hawaii.Although their habitats and habits vary widely, all killer whales are considered part of a single, global species: Orcinus orca. (Despite their common name, killer whales are actually part of a family of marine mammals known as oceanic dolphins.)Now, scientists have drawn upon decades of research to suggest that two killer whale populations often observed off the Pacific Coast of the United States and Canada are actually so different from each other — and from other orcas — that they should be considered separate species.In a paper published in the journal Royal Society Open Science on Tuesday, the scientists proposed giving new species designations to two groups of animals, one known as resident killer whales and the other often called Bigg’s killer whales. Although both types live in the eastern North Pacific, they have different diets: the resident orcas eat fish, with a particular predilection for salmon, while the Bigg’s orcas hunt marine mammals such as seals and sea lions.The proposal documents numerous other behavioral, physical and genetic differences between the two orca populations, which have been evolving away from each other for hundreds of thousands of years, the scientists noted.“These two types are genetically two of the most distantly related types in the whole world,” said Phillip Morin, a geneticist at the Southwest Fisheries Science Center at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, and an author of the study. “They’re not just behaving differently. They really are on these evolutionary trajectories which we consider to be different species.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe.

Researchers at the New England Regional Center of Vector-Borne Diseases at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have come up with a new, more accurate method for detecting in ticks the emerging Powassan virus, which can cause life-threatening neuroinvasive disease, including encephalitis and meningitis.
This robust, real-time approach reduces the incidence of false positive test results, the NEWVEC researchers found. The team describes the study in a special issue of the journal Viruses, titled “Tick-borne Viruses: Transmission and Surveillance.”
“Powassan has been a growing concern in New England for the past several years and false positives can confound efforts to surveil,” says vector-borne disease expert Stephen Rich, professor of microbiology at UMass Amherst and principal investigator and executive director of NEWVEC. “The development of sensitive detection methods for diagnostics and surveillance is critical.”
Named after the town in Ontario, Canada, where it was first identified in 1958 in a 5-year-old boy who died from encephalitis, Powassan virus is a flavivirus related to West Nile and other mosquito-borne viruses.
Though still rare, Powassan virus is drastically increasing in incidence in the U.S., predominantly in the Northeast and Great Lakes region. More than 10% of the record 290 U.S. cases reported in 2022 (compared to only one case per year from 2004 to 2006) resulted in death, and half of the survivors suffered long-term neurological damage. The virus is transmitted to humans primarily by Ixodes scapularis, the same blood-sucking deer ticks that transmit Lyme disease, babesiosis and other tick-borne illnesses.
The team at NEWVEC — which brings together academic communities, public health practitioners and residents and visitors across the Northeast in an effort to reduce diseases spread by ticks and mosquitoes — developed a triplex real-time PCR test for the simultaneous and quantitative detection of the Powassan virus and Powassan virus lineage II (deer tick virus) in Ixodes scapularis, or deer ticks. (The prototype Powassan virus is found mostly inIxodes cookei and Ixodes marxi ticks that feed almost exclusively on woodchucks in their burrows and rarely bite humans or human pets.)
The NEWVEC team conducted a tick survey in coastal and offshore Massachusetts, focusing on 13 sites from the highly endemic regions of tick-borne diseases in Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard. They tested the ticks for Powassan virus, comparing their new triplex PCR method to the standard, commercially available Luminex xMap technology.

“The good news is that ours works as well as the other one. So, in other words, everything that the other one could detect, we could detect,” Rich explains. “The great news is that we also overcame the problem of false negatives, which is what happens when a sample is not of sufficient quality that any test would ever be able to detect the virus in it.”
The new triplex method accomplishes a reduction in false negatives by using a “clever” quality control. Both tests seek to detect the presence of Powassan virus RNA. “But we also had a paired search for the RNA from the tick, which is present in every tick regardless of whether it has the virus or not,” Rich says. “And what that tells us is, if we can amplify tick RNA, then we have some hope of being able to detect the virus RNA. If we don’t detect the tick DNA, then we have no hope of being able to detect the virus RNA.
“And before we developed that method, people would be left to wonder — if they were inquisitive — whether a negative result meant that the virus wasn’t there or that the sample wasn’t testable. So, we’ve ruled out that latter possibility. And now we know with some assurance that when a tick tests negative, it’s a true negative. It’s not that the sample just isn’t good enough.”
In the areas surveyed, “We found pockets of high incidence of this virus,” Rich says.
Powassan virus was detected at four of six sites in Cape Code and two of seven sites in Martha’s Vineyard. Of 819 ticks collected, 33 (4.03%) tested positive for Powassan virus and 752 tested as Powassan negative, using the new triplex method. Thirty-four ticks (4.15%) failed the quality control tick RNA test. That showed that the standard Luminex method underestimated the overall prevalence of Powassan virus because those 34 ticks were found Powassan negative. And only 30 ticks tested positive using the Luminex method, demonstrating that the triplex technique has a higher sensitivity to detect the virus RNA.
Infection rates reached as high as 10.43% at one site in Truro on Cape Cod, and were completely absent at seven other sites. All the ticks that tested positive for the Powassan virus also were positive for the lineage II deer tick virus.
The researchers say they hope this improved triplex PCR test will be useful in transmission studies and as a tool to monitor and prevent Powassan virus infections in Massachusetts and other areas where the virus has been reported.
“Powassan virus is only a threat to people through the bite of tick,” Rich says. “That’s why these highly accurate and sensitive tests of the tick are so valuable in assessing where and when risk of exposure is highest.”

A new analysis involving over 13,000 people has found changes to blood vessels in the brain that can increase the risk of stroke and dementia are common in people with a range of heart conditions, regardless of whether they have experienced a stroke.
The new research, published today in Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology, is the most comprehensive systematic review of ‘hidden’ brain changes in people with a range of heart conditions to date.
Lead author Dr Zien Zhou from The George Institute for Global Health said that identifying these changes could play an important role in choosing treatments for these patients.
“Although people with heart disease are two to three times more likely than the general population to have changes in their brain’s vascular system, they’re often overlooked, because these patients don’t routinely undergo brain imaging unless they have suffered a stroke,” he said.
“But it can make them more susceptible to the risk of brain bleeds from medications commonly used to treat or prevent blood clots — intracranial hemorrhage is a life-threatening complication with no proven treatment and a survival rate of less than 50 percent.”
Changes to blood vessels in the brain that can only be detected by brain imaging such as silent brain infarction (SBI) and cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD) are known to occur more commonly in older people or those who have hypertension. While not sufficient to cause obvious neurological symptoms, they can result in subtle neurological deficits and increase the longer-term risk of stroke or dementia.
To determine the prevalence of these hidden or covert cerebrovascular changes in adults with atrial fibrillation, coronary artery disease, heart failure or cardiomyopathy, heart valve disease, and patent foramen ovale (a hole in the heart), George Institute researchers conducted a meta-analysis of 221 observational studies published between 1988 and 2022.

The findings showed that in people with heart disease: approximately one third had any form of SBI a quarter had lacune (small cavities where neural tissue has died after a previous blockage or leakage from small arteries) two-thirds had white matter lesions (damage to the protective coating around nerve fibres) a quarter had evidence of asymptomatic microbleeds in the brain tissue, and over one half had brain atrophy (a shrinking of the brain due to loss of neurons or connections between neurons).The prevalence of these brain changes was generally the same between those with and without a recent stroke and there were no apparent sex differences in the results.
Dr Zhou said the study also confirmed that heart disease is one of the main causes of these changes that reflect brain ‘frailty’.
“While several potential mechanisms of the association between heart disease and hidden cerebrovascular injury have been proposed, the two conditions share common risk factors such as ageing, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, hyperlipidaemia, and smoking,” said Dr Zhou.
“It’s possible that a gradual decline in cardiac output in some patients with heart disease might affect how much blood is reaching the brain tissue, contributing to vascular changes and cognitive dysfunction in these patients,” he added.
“It’s also possible that hidden brain changes and cognitive dysfunction are a consequence of tiny blood clots traveling to the brain through the arterial circulation after forming in the heart.”
Dr Zhou said that more research was needed to look at the exact causes of these brain changes and the implications for managing these patients.
“We need to know whether performing an additional MRI in those considered for anticoagulation therapy — which is required for most people with heart disease — would be cost-effective in terms of preventing unwanted side effects,” he said.
“But refining the risks of brain clots and bleeds from anticoagulants and using this information to make the best treatment choice could improve treatment safety for people with heart disease.”

Since its breakthrough development more than a decade ago, CRISPR has revolutionized DNA editing across a broad range of fields. Now scientists are applying the technology’s immense potential to human health and disease, targeting new therapies for an array of disorders spanning cancers, blood conditions and diabetes.
In some designed treatments, patients are injected with CRISPR-treated cells or with packaged CRISPR components with a goal of repairing diseased cells with precision gene edits. Yet, while CRISPR has shown immense promise as a next-generation therapeutic tool, the technology’s edits are still imperfect. CRISPR-based gene therapies can cause unintended but harmful “bystander” edits to parts of the genome, at times leading to new cancers or other diseases.
Next-generation solutions are needed to help scientists unravel the complex biological dynamics behind both on- and off-target CRISPR edits. But the landscape for such novel tools is daunting, since intricate bodily tissues feature thousands of different cell types and CRISPR edits can depend on many different biological pathways.
University of California San Diego researchers have developed a new genetic system to test and analyze the underlying mechanisms of CRISPR-based DNA repair outcomes. As described in Nature Communications, Postdoctoral Scholar Zhiqian Li, Professor Ethan Bier and their colleagues developed a sequence analyzer to help track on- and off-target mutational edits and the ways they are inherited from one generation to the next. Based on a concept proposed by former UC San Diego researcher David Kosman, the Integrated Classifier Pipeline (ICP) tool can reveal specific categories of mutations resulting from CRISPR editing.
Developed in flies and mosquitoes, the ICP provides a “fingerprint” of how genetic material is being inherited, which allows scientists to follow the source of mutational edits and related risks emerging from potentially problematic edits.
“The ICP system can cleanly establish whether a given individual insect has inherited specific genetic components of the CRISPR machinery from either their mothers or fathers since maternal versus paternal transmission result in totally different fingerprints,” said Bier, a professor in the UC San Diego School of Biological Sciences.
The ICP can help untangle complex biological issues that arise in determining the mechanisms behind CRISPR. While developed in insects, ICP carries vast potential for human applications.

“There are many parallel applications of ICP for analyzing and following CRISPR editing outcomes in humans following gene therapy or during tumor progression,” said study first author Li. “This transformative flexible analysis platform has many possible impactful uses to ensure safe application of cutting-edge next-generation health technologies.”
ICP also offers help in tracking inheritance across generations in gene drive systems, which are new technologies designed to spread CRISPR edits in applications such as stopping the transmission of malaria and protecting agricultural crops against pest destruction. For example, researchers could select a single mosquito from the field where a gene-drive test is being conducted and use ICP analysis to determine whether that individual had inherited the genetic construct from its mother or its father, and whether it had inherited a defective element lacking the defining visible markers of that genetic element.
“The CRISPR editing system can be more than 90 percent accurate,” said Bier, “but since it edits over and over again it will eventually make a mistake. The bottom line is that the ICP system can give you a very high-resolution picture of what can go wrong.”
In addition to Li and Bier, coauthors included Lang You and Anita Hermann. Prior Bier lab member Kosman also made important intellectual contributions to this project.

University of Wyoming researchers have gained further insight into how tardigrades survive extreme conditions and shown that proteins from the microscopic creatures expressed in human cells can slow down molecular processes.
This makes the tardigrade proteins potential candidates in technologies centered on slowing the aging process and in long-term storage of human cells.
The new study, published in the journal Protein Science, examines the mechanisms used by tardigrades to enter and exit from suspended animation when faced by environmental stress. Led by Senior Research Scientist Silvia Sanchez-Martinez in the lab of UW Department of Molecular Biology Assistant Professor Thomas Boothby, the research provides additional evidence that tardigrade proteins eventually could be used to make life-saving treatments available to people where refrigeration is not possible — and enhance storage of cell-based therapies, such as stem cells.
Measuring less than half a millimeter long, tardigrades — also known as water bears — can survive being completely dried out; being frozen to just above absolute zero (about minus 458 degrees Fahrenheit, when all molecular motion stops); heated to more than 300 degrees Fahrenheit; irradiated several thousand times beyond what a human could withstand; and even survive the vacuum of outer space.
They survive by entering a state of suspended animation called biostasis, using proteins that form gels inside of cells and slow down life processes, according to the new UW-led research. Co-authors of the study are from institutions including the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom, Washington University in St. Louis, the University of California-Merced, the University of Bologna in Italy and the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands.
Sanchez-Martinez, who came from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute to join Boothby’s UW lab, was the lead author of the paper.
“Amazingly, when we introduce these proteins into human cells, they gel and slow down metabolism, just like in tardigrades,” Sanchez-Martinez says. “Furthermore, just like tardigrades, when you put human cells that have these proteins into biostasis, they become more resistant to stresses, conferring some of the tardigrades’ abilities to the human cells.”
Importantly, the research shows that the whole process is reversible: “When the stress is relieved, the tardigrade gels dissolve, and the human cells return to their normal metabolism,” Boothby says.

“Our findings provide an avenue for pursuing technologies centered on the induction of biostasis in cells and even whole organisms to slow aging and enhance storage and stability,” the researchers concluded.
Previous research by Boothby’s team showed that natural and engineered versions of tardigrade proteins can be used to stabilize an important pharmaceutical used to treat people with hemophilia and other conditions without the need for refrigeration.
Tardigrades’ ability to survive being dried out has puzzled scientists, as the creatures do so in a manner that appears to differ from a number of other organisms with the ability to enter suspended animation.

In a study published in the Annals of Family Medicine, researchers at the Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine identify transformative effects of electronic health record (EHR) optimization on departmental productivity. With the universal implementation of EHR systems, the study sheds light on the importance of collaborative efforts between clinicians and information technology (IT) experts in maximizing the potential of these digital tools.
The study, led by a team of health care professionals in a family medicine department, embarked on a department-wide EHR optimization initiative in collaboration with IT specialists over a four-month period. Unlike previous efforts that primarily focused on institutional-level successes, this study delved deep into the intricacies of EHR interface development and its impact on clinical workflow.
“There has been a longstanding disconnect between EHR developers and end-users, resulting in interfaces that often fail to capture the intricacies of clinical workflows,” said Adam M. Franks, M.D., interim chair of family and community health at the Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine and lead researcher on the study. “Our study aimed to bridge this gap and demonstrate the tangible benefits of collaborative optimization efforts.”
The methodology involved an intensive quality improvement process engaging clinicians and clinical staff at all levels. Four categories of optimizations emerged: accommodations (adjustments made by the department to fit EHR workflows); creations (novel workflows developed by IT); discoveries (previously unnoticed workflows within the EHR); and modifications (changes made by IT to existing workflows).
Key findings from the study showed significant improvements in productivity: The optimization efforts led to remarkable enhancements in departmental productivity. Monthly charges increased from 0.74 to 1.28, while payments surged from 0.83 to 1.58. Although monthly visit ratios also increased from 0.65 to 0.98, the change was not statistically significant.
The study also revealed that a significant number of solutions to EHR usability issues were already embedded within the system, emphasizing the need for thorough exploration and understanding of existing workflows.
Finally, accommodation optimizations underscored the necessity for better collaboration between EHR developers and end-users before implementation, highlighting the potential for more user-centric design approaches.
“Our study not only demonstrates the efficacy of departmental collaboration with IT for EHR optimization but also underscores the importance of detailed workflow analysis in enhancing productivity,” Franks said.
The research provides valuable insights for health care institutions aiming to maximize the potential of their EHR systems, with implications for improving patient care, efficiency and overall organizational performance.