Publisher Health

A Yale-led research team has picked a side in the “Snowball Earth” debate over the possible cause of planet-wide deep freeze events that occurred in the distant past.
According to a new study, these so-called “Snowball” Earth periods, in which the planet’s surface was covered in ice for thousands or even millions of years, could have been triggered abruptly by large asteroids that slammed into the Earth.
The findings, detailed in the journal Science Advances, may answer a question that has stumped scientists for decades about some of the most dramatic known climate shifts in Earth’s history. In addition to Yale, the study included researchers from the University of Chicago and the University of Vienna.
Climate modelers have known since the 1960s that if the Earth became sufficiently cold, the high reflectivity of its snow and ice could create a “runaway” feedback loop that would create more sea ice and colder temperatures until the planet was covered in ice. Such conditions occurred at least twice during Earth’s Neoproterozoic era, 720 to 635 million years ago.
Yet efforts to explain what initiated these periods of global glaciation, which have come to be known as “Snowball Earth” events, have been inconclusive. Most theories have centered on the notion that greenhouse gases in the atmosphere somehow declined to a point where “snowballing” began.
“We decided to explore an alternative possibility,” said lead author Minmin Fu, the Richard Foster Flint Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences in Yale’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences. “What if an extraterrestrial impact caused this climate change transition very abruptly?”
For the study, the researchers used a sophisticated climate model that represents atmospheric and ocean circulation, as well as the formation of sea ice, under different conditions. It is the same type of climate model that is used to predict future climate scenarios.

In this instance, the researchers applied their model to the aftermath of a hypothetical asteroid strike in four distinct periods of the past: preindustrial (150 years ago), Last Glacial Maximum (21,000 years ago), Cretaceous (145 to 66 million years ago), and Neoproterozoic (1 billion to 542 million years ago).
For two of the warmer climate scenarios (Cretaceous and preindustrial), the researchers found that it was unlikely that an asteroid strike could trigger global glaciation. But for the Last Glacial Maximum and Neoproterozoic scenarios, when the Earth’s temperature may have been already cold enough to be considered an ice age — an asteroid strike could have tipped Earth into a “Snowball” state.
“What surprised me most in our results is that, given sufficiently cold initial climate conditions, a ‘Snowball’ state after an asteroid impact can develop over the global ocean in a matter of just one decade,” said co-author Alexey Fedorov, a professor of ocean and atmospheric sciences in Yale’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences. “By then the thickness of sea ice at the Equator would reach about 10 meters. This should be compared to a typical sea ice thickness of one to three meters in the modern Arctic.”
As for the chances of an asteroid-induced “Snowball Earth” period in the years to come, the researchers said it was unlikely — due in part to human-caused warming that has heated the planet — even though other impacts could be as devastating.
The research was supported by the Flint Postdoctoral Fellowship at Yale and the ARCHANGE project. Co-authors of the study are Dorian Abbot of the University of Chicago and Christian Koeberl of the University of Vienna.

Researchers have developed a sensor made from ‘frozen smoke’ that uses artificial intelligence techniques to detect formaldehyde in real time at concentrations as low as eight parts per billion, far beyond the sensitivity of most indoor air quality sensors.
The researchers, from the University of Cambridge, developed sensors made from highly porous materials known as aerogels. By precisely engineering the shape of the holes in the aerogels, the sensors were able to detect the fingerprint of formaldehyde, a common indoor air pollutant, at room temperature.
The proof-of-concept sensors, which require minimal power, could be adapted to detect a wide range of hazardous gases, and could also be miniaturised for wearable and healthcare applications. The results are reported in the journal Science Advances.
Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are a major source of indoor air pollution, causing watery eyes, burning in the eyes and throat, and difficulty breathing at elevated levels. High concentrations can trigger attacks in people with asthma, and prolonged exposure may cause certain cancers.
Formaldehyde is a common VOC and is emitted by household items including pressed wood products (such as MDF), wallpapers and paints, and some synthetic fabrics. For the most part, the levels of formaldehyde emitted by these items are low, but levels can build up over time, especially in garages where paints and other formaldehyde-emitting products are more likely to be stored.
According to a 2019 report from the campaign group Clean Air Day, a fifth of households in the UK showed notable concentrations of formaldehyde, with 13% of residences surpassing the recommended limit set by the World Health Organization (WHO).
“VOCs such as formaldehyde can lead to serious health problems with prolonged exposure even at low concentrations, but current sensors don’t have the sensitivity or selectivity to distinguish between VOCs that have different impacts on health,” said Professor Tawfique Hasan from the Cambridge Graphene Centre, who led the research.

“We wanted to develop a sensor that is small and doesn’t use much power, but can selectively detect formaldehyde at low concentrations,” said Zhuo Chen, the paper’s first author.
The researchers based their sensors on aerogels: ultra-light materials sometimes referred to as ‘liquid smoke’, since they are more than 99% air by volume. The open structure of aerogels allows gases to easily move in and out. By precisely engineering the shape, or morphology, of the holes, the aerogels can act as highly effective sensors.
Working with colleagues at Warwick University, the Cambridge researchers optimised the composition and structure of the aerogels to increase their sensitivity to formaldehyde, making them into filaments about three times the width of a human hair. The researchers 3D printed lines of a paste made from graphene, a two-dimensional form of carbon, and then freeze-dried the graphene paste to form the holes in the final aerogel structure. The aerogels also incorporate tiny semiconductors known as quantum dots.
The sensors they developed were able to detect formaldehyde at concentrations as low as eight parts per billion, which is 0.4 percent of the level deemed safe in UK workplaces. The sensors also work at room temperature, consuming very low power.
“Traditional gas sensors need to be heated up, but because of the way we’ve engineered the materials, our sensors work incredibly well at room temperature, so they use between 10 and 100 times less power than other sensors,” said Chen.
To improve selectivity, the researchers then incorporated machine learning algorithms into the sensors. The algorithms were trained to detect the ‘fingerprint’ of different gases, so that the sensor was able to distinguish the fingerprint of formaldehyde from other VOCs.

“Existing VOC detectors are blunt instruments — you only get one number for the overall concentration in the air,” said Hasan. “By building a sensor that is able to detect specific VOCs at very low concentrations in real time, it can give home and business owners a more accurate picture of air quality and any potential health risks.”
The researchers say that the same technique could be used to develop sensors to detect other VOCs. In theory, a device the size of a standard household carbon monoxide detector could incorporate multiple different sensors within it, providing real-time information about a range of different hazardous gases. The team at Warwick are developing a low-cost multi-sensor platform that will incorporate these new aerogel materials and, coupled with AI algorithms, detect different VOCs.
“By using highly porous materials as the sensing element, we’re opening up whole new ways of detecting hazardous materials in our environment,” said Chen.
The research was supported in part by the Henry Royce Institute, and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). Tawfique Hasan is a Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge.

Published39 minutes agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingImage source, Amber Jean ShopBy Sofia Ferreira SantosBBC NewsGail Porter has been praised by campaigners and people living with alopecia after she posed for a photoshoot with a wig for the first time this week.In a photoshoot for the Sun, the Scottish TV presenter said she loves being bald – but her new wig will give her an opportunity to do different things. For many people who have alopecia like Gail, choosing whether to wear a wig and other accessories can be a tough call to make.Sue Schilling, the chief executive of Alopecia UK, says it is key to give people the freedom to explore different options – and choose to look however they want to.Gail Porter: ‘Has anyone here been sectioned?”How my daughter made it okay to be bald’Sue, who has alopecia herself, says she applauds Gail’s choice to “mix it up”. Although Sue has not worn a wig in over seven years, she says she is now considering buying a new one.Despite its visible impact, she says, hair loss is far from being just a cosmetic issue.”The process of losing your hair can be really traumatic and lead to lasting effects on your quality of life,” she adds.Speaking to BBC Access All Podcast in August last year, Gail said losing her hair in 2005 led to her TV career ending overnight.”It was so quick,” she said. “I had long blonde hair, and then four weeks later I was completely bald. People didn’t want to go near me for television or anything because I looked different.”‘My wig made me feel like me again’Image source, Stephanie Plastow/ICONIC FCKIN HAIRFor Lillie Goldie, 19, getting diagnosed with alopecia as a child had a huge impact on her life.She grew up with long, blonde hair and up until she was 17, she says her alopecia had been “manageable” – showing up as little bald patches the size of a 50p coin.But just before her 18th birthday, Lillie, lost all of the hair on the top of her head.”I completely shut myself off from the world,” she says.Lillie, who is a dancer from east London, had contemplated dropping out of performing arts college because of it. “Dancing is what I loved most, but alopecia made me hate it,” she says.”Losing my hair not only brought down my appearance, but my whole confidence.”Once some of her hair grew back, she was able to get a mesh integration – a permanent hairpiece system similar to a wig that can last up to a year.A video of Lillie getting her first mesh integration went viral on social media, with Lillie, her mother and the stylist seen in tears at the end.”I just felt like me again,” she says.After finishing her performing arts course, she started a TikTok account to share her experience with hair loss.”If performing arts doesn’t work, I know in one way or another I can help people who’ve been through what I’ve been through,” she says.”That’s what I want to do with my life. So they don’t feel as alone as I felt.”‘Alopecia changed the course of my life’Image source, Laura MathiasLaura Mathias, 32, says Gail Porter is a role model to those experiencing hair loss.”People knew what alopecia was because of Gail Porter showing that bald is beautiful,” she says. Despite rocking the bald look herself, she says Gail’s new wig looks amazing.Laura, who is a campaigner for alopecia awareness from Suffolk, says losing her hair at 13 entirely changed the course of her life.”I never went out in public again without a wig for 17 years,” she says.But when the Covid pandemic hit, Laura began to embrace her baldness, partly because she often developed small cuts on her scalp from wearing wigs so much.”I was putting other people’s social comfort above my own physical discomfort, and I’m not willing to do that anymore,” she says.Laura says she would never say never to wearing wigs again.”I can embrace my alopecia now, but that doesn’t mean I hate wigs or resent anyone who wears wigs,” she says.”There’s no right or wrong way to have alopecia, the whole point is to have a choice.”‘I opened a salon to help black women feel heard’Image source, Ebuni AjiduahEbuni Ajiduah opened a salon in 2022 to help black women manage hair loss and have a safe space to talk about black hair.”The aim was to give black women a really good salon experience and make women with hair loss feel more comfortable,” she says.”Losing your hair can feel isolating and women often don’t want to visit salons.”Many of her clients had tried to seek help for hair loss before but felt unheard and not taken seriously, Ebuni says.She now runs a hair loss support group where women can talk freely about issues with their hair, and runs classes on protective styling.’Men struggle to open up about hair loss’Image source, Tom SpencerTom Spencer, from Huddersfield, lost of all of his hair over the course of four to six weeks as a 17-year-old teenager – and initially turned to wearing caps and hats to hide his sudden hair loss from the world.He says: “In general, men find it quite difficult to open up about things like this, and there is an added stigma around it.”For men, wearing hats, wigs or getting micropigmentation tattoos can make them feel more comfortable and feel good about themselves.”But going to alopecia support groups and meeting other men who struggle with hair loss empowered him to now bare his bald head whenever he wants to.Tom says that finding others who understand is key for anyone – man or woman – who experiences hair loss.”Everyone has days they don’t feel good or confident about themselves, but meeting other people who experience hair loss has been really fulfilling to me and it has made me a stronger person.”‘Speaking about it on TV was important’Image source, Jenna RobinsonJenna Robinson, from Blackpool, decided to be open about her alopecia as a participant on Channel 4’s Married at First Sight UK in 2022.”Being able to speak about it on a TV show was really important because we don’t get a lot of representation on TV,” she says.She often receives messages from people who have watched the show and have alopecia, thanking her for being open about it and asking for advice.For Jenna, who has had alopecia since she was twelve years old, trying on wigs was the only thing that would make her feel better growing up.She hopes that she will one day have the confidence to go outside without a wig.”I look up to, and wish I could have the confidence of people like Gail Porter, to bare all – and have people accept them as they are.”More on this story’Alopecia made me feel evicted from dating scene’Published12 JanuaryGail Porter: ‘Has anyone here been sectioned?’Published4 September 2023’How my daughter made it okay to be bald’Published22 August 2018Sharing my alopecia online is ‘liberating’Published12 September 2020US congresswoman reveals she has alopeciaPublished17 January 2020

Linda Hennis was checking her Medicare statement in January when she noticed something strange: It said a company she had never heard of had been paid about $12,000 for sending her 2,000 urinary catheters.But she had never needed, or received, any catheters.Ms. Hennis, a retired nurse who lives in a suburb of Chicago, noticed that the company selling the plastic tubes was called Pretty in Pink Boutique, and it was based in Texas. “There’s a mistake here,” Ms. Hennis recalled thinking.She is among more than 450,000 Medicare beneficiaries whose accounts were billed for urinary catheters in 2023, up from about 50,000 in previous years, according to a new report produced by the National Association of Accountable Care Organizations, an advocacy group that represents hundreds of health care systems across the country. The report used a federal database of Medicare claims that is available to researchers.The massive uptick in billing for catheters included $2 billion charged by seven high-volume suppliers, according to that analysis, potentially accounting for nearly one-fifth of all Medicare spending on medical supplies in 2023. Doctors, state insurance departments and health care groups around the country said the spike in claims for catheters that were never delivered suggested a far-reaching Medicare scam.“We think it’s outrageous,” said Clif Gaus, executive director of the group that conducted the analysis.Medicare Spending on Catheters Soared in 2023

Note: Data is quarterly.Source: Institute for Accountable Care analysis of Medicare claims By The New York TimesWe 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.

Immigrants living with dementia were more likely to present with agitation and aggression compared with their non-immigrant counterparts, a new study by Edith Cowan University (ECU) in collaboration with The Dementia Centre, HammondCare, found.
Researchers from ECU’s Centre for Research in Aged Care and HammondCare’s The Dementia Centre noted that behaviours and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD), such as agitation and aggression, are common; however, its presentation may be influenced by the cultural background of the person.
A study investigated differences in clinical and demographics characteristics and BPSD between immigrants and non-immigrants living with dementia in residential aged care homes who were referred to Dementia Support Australia (DSA) programs. The study found that immigrants were more likely to present with agitation or aggression, while non-immigrants were more likely to present with hallucinations and delusions.
DSA, a free, Australian Government-funded dementia behaviour support program, has supported over 60,000 clients and 98 percent of aged care homes in every state and territory since 2016.
BPSD were common between the groups, with language barriers and cultural considerations frequently observed for immigrants, adding to the contributing factors.
“In Australia, over 400,000 people are living with dementia, a number projected to double by 2058, At least 54% of people living in residential aged care homes (RACHs) in 2019 — 2020 had a dementia diagnosis,” said lead researcher Pelden Chejor.
“Over 31% of aged care residents were also born overseas, and 9.2% of people using aged care preferred a language other than English. In 2019 — 2020, 21% of people living with dementia in RACHs were immigrants from non-English speaking countries. International studies have reported that immigrants experience a higher prevalence of dementia due to differing life experiences including those related to trauma, low literacy, and socioeconomic status.”
Chejor and his colleagues noted that loneliness, boredom, language barriers, and cultural considerations significantly contributed to BPSD for non-English-speaking immigrants compared with non-immigrants, with the largest significant differences being for language barriers and cultural considerations. There were no differences in the prevalence of contributing factors between English-speaking immigrants and non-immigrants.

“Our findings indicated a significantly lower rate of hallucinations for immigrants and non-English-speaking immigrants compared to non-immigrants. Additionally, non-English-speaking immigrants were significantly lower on delusions and disinhibition than non-immigrants.
“The higher severity of agitation or aggression is likely driven by communication difficulties as there was no difference for the English-speaking immigrants. Cognitive decline can impair both the ability to express and comprehend spoken language and people living with dementia who have English as their additional language may lose their ability to communicate in English and subsequently use their first language as the primary language of communication,” said Chejor.
“Our study calls for increased awareness and education on the impact of culture and language for people receiving residential care and exhibiting BPSD. Future research should explore related factors such as length of stay in Australia and English language proficiency to learn more about BPSD presentations for different immigrant groups. By doing so, we can better manage these symptoms.”
Head of DSA Marie Alford said the study reinforced the importance of understanding the person living with dementia, including their cultural background and experiences, likes, dislikes and routines when responding to BPSD.
“Communicating effectively with the person living with dementia, and taking the time to know them, including their language background and culture, is essential,” Alford said. “In many cases this can mean responding with support without the need for a pharmacological intervention.”

It might look like a comet or a shooting star, but this time-lapse video is actually a tiny plant root, not much thicker than a human hair, magnified hundreds of times as it grows under the microscope.
Researchers at Duke University have been making such movies by peering at stem cells near the root’s tip and taking snapshots as they divide and multiply over time, using a technique called light sheet microscopy.
The work offers more than a front row seat to the drama of growing roots. By watching how the cells divide in response to certain chemical signals, the team is finding new clues to how stem cells choose one developmental path over another.
The research could also point to new ways to prevent stem cell division from going awry, as happens in cancer and other diseases.
The team’s latest results appeared Jan. 31 in the journal Nature.
The work touches on a fundamental question in biology, said associate research professor Cara Winter: “How do cells acquire their identities?” In other words, “how do you get all of the various cell types that make up an organism?”
Just as the human body is made up of many different kinds of cells — in the brain, muscles, bones and elsewhere — plants, too, contain various cell types specialized for different tasks.

Whether in the roots, branches, flowers or leaves, virtually all tissues of a plant descend from small groups of unspecialized stem cells that produce new cells by dividing.
Each time a stem cell divides, it faces a choice: it can either produce two new stem cells like itself, or it can make one copy of itself plus one cell that will branch off to become something new.
It’s the latter process, known as asymmetric division, that generates the myriad cell types needed to form a complex organism like a plant, or a human being.
An obvious question then is: How do dividing stem cells choose one path over the other?
This was the question driving Winter and co-first author Pablo Szekely, both researchers in the lab of late biologist Philip Benfey of Duke, as they watched days of root growth in Arabidopsis thaliana, a spindly member of the mustard family.
The researchers focused on two key regulators of cell division in Arabidopsis — proteins called short-root and scarecrow that, together, prompt dividing root cells to make the switch.

By labeling these proteins with glowing fluorescent tags, they were able to track the activity of the proteins and their effects on dividing stem cells in real time. Light-sheet microscopy allowed them to peer inside the roots’ translucent tissues for up to 50 hours without harming them.
Counter to previous predictions, the researchers showed that even low levels of these proteins, present early in the process of one cell becoming two, are enough to trigger a switch to asymmetric division.
“All they have to do is reach a certain threshold,” said Szekely, who joined the Benfey lab as a postdoctoral researcher in 2020.
The findings have implications for humans and other animals too, the researchers said.
That’s because, although plants and animals diverged more than a billion years ago, they inherited much of the same basic molecular tool kit — including many of the same “housekeeping” genes that are necessary for cells to function.
The same genes that regulate cell division in plants like Arabidopsis perform similar jobs in animals, including humans. Previous research shows that when asymmetric division is disrupted, cells can multiply out of control and form tumors.
“Cells need to have a program during development: first divide like this, then divide like that,” Szekely said. “It has to be tightly regulated in order for everything to work.”
This work was funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NRSA 5F32GM106690-02 and MIRA 1R35GM131725), the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and the University of Southern California.

UNC School of Medicine researcher Sarah Cohen, PhD, and Ian Windham, a former PhD student from the Cohen lab, have made a new discovery about apolipoprotein E (APOE) — the biggest genetic risk factor for late-onset Alzheimer’s disease.
Older people who inherited a genetic variant called APOE4 from their parents have a two- or three-times greater risk of developing the late-onset neurodegenerative disease. If researchers can better understand how APOE4 is affecting brain cells, it may help them design effective therapeutics and target the mechanisms causing the enhanced disease risk.
Cohen and Windham performed an exceptionally thorough, five-year long study to better understand and visualize the relationship between APOE4, Alzheimer’s Disease, and fat molecules called lipids in the brain.
“We discovered that brain cells known as astrocytes are more vulnerable to damage and may even go dysfunctional when APOE4 surrounds their lipid storage centers,” said Cohen, assistant professor of cell biology and physiology and senior author on the paper published in the Journal of Cell Biology. “This mechanism could explain why exactly APOE4 increases one’s risk of Alzheimer’s on the cellular level.”
The Role of Lipids in the Brain
Sixty percent of the brain’s dry mass is composed of lipids, which play important roles in the brain, such as storing cellular energy and forming myelin, the substance that surrounds and insulates neurons. Lipids can be found in specialized fat storage compartments known as lipid droplets within astrocytes.
As helpful as they may be, lipids can also become toxic if the conditions are right. When excited or stressed, neurons release toxic lipids into the environment. Astrocytes are tasked with cleaning up the free-floating toxic lipids and preventing them from accumulating in the brain.

If astrocytes were to become damaged or dysfunctional in any way, they cannot perform their cleaning duties. As a result, other brain cells, called microglia, cannot clean up amyloid beta plaques in the brain either, another driving factor for Alzheimer’s disease.
Seeing APOE in Real Time
APOE is produced by astrocytes. Much like a taxi or Uber, the protein oversees the releasing and transporting lipids between cell types in the brain. Windham and Cohen wanted to see what exactly happens with the lipids in the astrocytes. Windham led the charge, creating a labelling and tagging system that would allow them to see the innards of astrocytes in action under the microscope.
“Tagging APOE with green fluorescent protein allowed us to see the different places APOE goes while inside living cells,” said Windham, now a postdoctoral fellow at The Rockefeller University and first author on the paper.
The team first fed astrocytes oleic acid, an omega-9 fatty acid naturally produced in the body. Using a microscope, the team observed the usual formation of lipid droplets. APOE4, surprisingly, zipped over to the lipid droplets like a magnet and changed the shape and size of the droplets.
It became abundantly clear to the researchers that APOE4 can escape secretion, lock itself inside astrocytes, and migrate to lipid droplets within astrocytes. Windham and Cohen hypothesize that the altered composition of the lipid droplets could be causing astrocyte dysfunction and affecting the microglia’s ability to clear amyloid beta.

Lipids: The Next Frontier
However, more research needs to be done to know the specifics. Cohen hopes their findings will further emphasize the role of lipid droplets in Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative diseases.
“In Alois Alzheimer’s first paper, he described three characteristics of neurodegenerative disease: amyloid beta plaques, tau tangles, and accumulations of lipids,” said Cohen. “The first two have gotten a lot of attention. The next frontier is lipids. With APOE being the biggest genetic risk factor, we think it holds the clues for how lipids fit into the story.”
About UNC School of Medicine
The UNC School of Medicine (SOM) is the state’s largest medical school, graduating more than 180 new physicians each year. It is consistently ranked among the top medical schools in the US, including 5th overall for primary care by US News & World Report, and 6th for research among public universities. More than half of the school’s 1,700 faculty members served as principal investigators on active research awards in 2021. Two UNC SOM faculty members have earned Nobel Prize awards.

Scientists have developed a new AI tool that maps the function of proteins in a cancerous tumour, enabling clinicians to decide how to target treatment in a more precise way.
In cancers such as clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC), responses to existing treatments are different for each patient, making it difficult to identify the right drug treatment regime for each patient.
For example, cancer therapeutic Belzutifan has recently been approved to treat ccRCC, but only has a response rate of 49% in patients with the most common form of the condition.
To understand better why some patients respond better than others, researchers from the Universities of Bath and Nottingham studied the function of Hypoxia-Induced Factor Alpha (HIF2α), a key target of ccRCC that is blocked by Belzutifan.
Previous studies have shown that levels of HIF2α don’t necessarily correspond to the aggressiveness of the tumour, and that counterintuitively when there were greater levels of the protein present, the HIF2α was less active.
This means that administering higher doses of Belzutifan potentially exposes the patient to costly, toxic therapeutics that may not work and could even make the tumour more drug-resistant.
The cross-disciplinary team of biophysicists, biologists and computational scientists has devised a new tool, called FuncOmap, which maps the functional state of target oncoproteins onto the tumour images.

This will enable clinicians to visualise directly the locations in the tumour where oncoproteins are interacting, allowing for more accurate diagnosis and informing the best treatment for each patient.
Professor Banafshé Larijani, Director of the Centre for Therapeutic Innovation at the University of Bath co-led the study. She said: “People respond to drugs very differently.
So it is crucial to be able to predict how patients will respond to drugs individually so a therapy can be tailored to be effective whilst giving the lowest dose to minimise side effects.
“Our new computational analysis tool uses precision to directly map the functional states of oncoproteins in patients’ tumour sections, so that clinicians can improve patient stratification, enabling personalised medicine.”
The team is now collaborating with Dr Amanda Kirane’s Laboratory, as well as other surgeons and clinicians, at Stanford University School of Medicine (USA) to develop and optimise the tool further in the clinical arena.
Professor Eamonn O’Neill, Head of Bath’s Department of Computer Science and Director of UKRI Centre for Doctoral Training in Accountable, Responsible and Transparent AI (ART-AI), said: “This study describes the kind of novel and impactful research that is the essence of working across disciplines.

“It brings together computer science, biology and physics, under the umbrella of the UKRI Centre for Doctoral Training in Accountable Responsible and Transparent Artificial Intelligence, to deliver image analysis that has the capacity to directly inform clinical decision-making and personalised clinical outcomes in cancer treatment as well as other diseases.”
Professor Jonathan Knight FRS, Vice-President (Enterprise) at the University of Bath, said: “The excitement of this paper lies not just in the work being reported, but in its illustration of how linking the research areas of biophysics and translational medicine with modern computational science promises to accelerate the translation of research into valuable tools for the clinical environment. This really amplifies the value to be gained from transdisciplinary studies.”
The study was funded by UKRI Centre for Doctoral Training in Accountable Responsible
and Transparent Artificial Intelligence (ART-AI) [grant number EP/S023437/, Medical Research Council and University of Bath Alumni Fund, and is published in the journal BJC Reports.

An innovative breast imaging technique provides high sensitivity for detecting cancer while significantly reducing the likelihood of false positive results, according to a study published today in Radiology: Imaging Cancer, a journal of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). Researchers said the technique has the potential to offer more reliable breast cancer screening for a broader range of patients.
Mammography is an effective screening tool for early detection of breast cancer, but its sensitivity is reduced in dense breast tissue. This is due to the masking effect of overlying dense fibroglandular tissue. Since almost half of the screening population has dense breasts, many of these patients require additional breast imaging, often with MRI, after mammography.
Low-dose positron emission mammography (PEM) is a novel molecular imaging technique that provides improved diagnostic performance at a radiation dose comparable to that of mammography.
For the study, 25 women, median age 52, recently diagnosed with breast cancer, underwent low-dose PEM with the radiotracer fluorine 18-labeled fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG). Two breast radiologists reviewed PEM images taken one and four hours post 18F-FDG injection and correlated the findings with lab results.
PEM displayed comparable performance to MRI, identifying 24 of the 25 invasive cancers (96%). Its false positive rate was only 16%, compared with 62% for MRI.
Along with its strong sensitivity and low false-positive rate, PEM could potentially decrease downstream healthcare costs as this study shows it may prevent further unnecessary work up compared to MRI. Additionally, the technology is designed to deliver a radiation dose comparable to that of traditional mammography without the need for breast compression, which can often be uncomfortable for patients.
“The integration of these features — high sensitivity, lower false-positive rates, cost-efficiency, acceptable radiation levels without compression, and independence from breast density — positions this emerging imaging modality as a potential groundbreaking advancement in the early detection of breast cancer,” said study lead author Vivianne Freitas, M.D., M.Sc., assistant professor at the University of Toronto. “As such, it holds the promise of transforming breast cancer diagnostics and screening in the near future, complementing or even improving current imaging methods, marking a significant step forward in breast cancer care.”
Low-dose PEM offers potential clinical uses in both screening and diagnostic settings, according to Dr. Freitas.

“For screening, its ability to perform effectively regardless of breast density potentially addresses a significant shortcoming of mammography, particularly in detecting cancers in dense breasts where lesions may be obscured,” she said. “It also presents a viable option for patients at high risk who are claustrophobic or have contraindications for MRI.”
The technology could also play a crucial role in interpreting uncertain mammogram results, evaluating the response to chemotherapy and ascertaining the extent of disease in newly diagnosed breast cancer, including involvement of the other breast.
Dr. Freitas, who is also staff radiologist of the Breast Imaging Division of the Toronto Joint Department of Medical Imaging, University Health Network, Sinai Health System and Women’s College Hospital, is currently researching PEM’s ability to reduce the high rates of false positives typically associated with MRI scans. Should PEM successfully lower these rates, it could significantly lessen the emotional distress and anxiety linked to false positives, Dr. Freitas said. Additionally, it might lead to a decrease in unnecessary biopsies and treatments.
More studies are needed to determine low-dose PEM’s exact role and efficacy in the clinical setting.
“While the full integration of this imaging method into clinical practice is yet to be confirmed, the preliminary findings of this research are promising, particularly in demonstrating the capability of detecting invasive breast cancer with low doses of fluorine-18-labeled FDG,” Dr. Freitas said. “This marks a critical first step in its potential future implementation in clinical practice.”

Multiple myeloma remains challenging to treat. New therapeutic advances have improved outcomes, but selecting the right treatment for a patient can be complex because the disease can vary drastically from person to person. In a new article published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Moffitt Cancer Center researchers in collaboration with Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center and groups around the world share results from a novel model that can provide tailored predictions of how individual patients respond to different therapies.
Multiple myeloma is a rare blood cancer affecting a type of white blood cells known as plasma cells. There is no cure for the disease, which is why therapeutic management is critical. To help determine the appropriate course of therapy, clinicians utilize prognostic tools including fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), which maps out cell genomic changes and gene expression profiling models. But as lead study author Ken Shain, Ph.D., M.D., explained, those tests are limited.
“The FISH and gene expression tests are important, but they don’t account for patient-to-patient variability and ignore several prognostically relevant genomic and time-dependent features that could help physicians determine the best treatment strategy to boost overall patient survival,” said Shain, co-leader of the Pentecost Family Myeloma Research Center at Moffitt.
A team of Moffitt researchers and collaborators in the U.S., United Kingdom, Germany and Italy developed a novel genomic classification system for multiple myeloma that categorized patients into 12 distinct groups based on their underlying genomic profiles. First, they assembled a clinical, demographic, genomic and therapeutic dataset from nearly 2,000 newly diagnosed multiple myeloma patients.
The researchers then performed extensive genomic profiling using advanced sequencing techniques, allowing them to identify recurrent genomic features and mutations associated with the disease. The result was the individualized risk model in multiple myeloma or IRMMa. The predictive model uses advanced statistical methodologies such as deep neural networks to generate individualized overall survival and event-free survival predictions for multiple myeloma patients.
Rigorous validation of the IRMMa model using independent datasets was performed to ensure its accuracy and reliability in diverse patient populations. Additionally, the researchers analyzed treatment outcomes and variance among different therapeutic regimens, aiming to identify optimal treatment approaches tailored to individual patient characteristics.
“To our knowledge this is the first individualized prediction model able to incorporate heterogeneous clinical and genomic information to predict an individual patient’s response to given treatment options,” Shain said.
The researchers note IRMMa has limitations, but it is a flexible, knowledge-driven model that can be adapted over time to add new genomic drivers and therapies.
This work was supported by the National Cancer Institute (P30-CA076292, P30-CA240139, P30-CA008748, P30-CA016087), Myeloma Solutions Fund, the Paula and Rodger Riney Multiple Myeloma Research Program Fund, the Tow Foundation, the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (6020-20), International Myeloma Society, American Society of Hematology, and the Italian Association for Cancer Research.