CDC committee votes to change measles vaccine guidance for young children– www.livescience.com Source Link Excerpt:
An influential Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) committee has announced new recommendations for the combined measles, mumps, rubella and varicella (MMRV) vaccine.
The members of the committee, called the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), was recently changed under the leadership of Department of Health and Human Services Secretary (HHS) Robert F. Kennedy Jr. All 17 previous members were removed and then replaced with a new group, which includes several prominent anti-vaccine advocates.
The Download: AI-designed viruses, and bad news for the hydrogen industry– www.technologyreview.com Source Link Excerpt:
Artificial intelligence can draw cat pictures and write emails. Now the same technology can compose a working genome.
A research team in California says it used AI to propose new genetic codes for viruses—and managed to get several of them to replicate and kill bacteria.
The work, described in a preprint paper, has the potential to create new treatments and accelerate research into artificially engineered cells. But experts believe it is also an “impressive first step” toward AI-designed life forms. Read the full story.
—Antonio Regalado
Clean hydrogen is facing a big reality check
Hydrogen is sometimes held up as a master key for the energy transition. It can be made using several low-emissions methods and could play a role in cleaning up industries ranging from agriculture to aviation to shipping.
This moment is a complicated one for the green fuel, though, as a new report from the International Energy Agency lays out. A number of major projects face cancellations and delays. The US in particular is seeing a slowdown after changes to key tax credits and cuts in support for renewable energy.
Are GMOs Safe? A Molecular Geneticist Speaks Out– www.truthdig.com Source Link Excerpt:
Are genetically engineered foods safe? In an interview with a leading molecular genetics expert, we discuss the scientific evidence behind health concerns tied to genetically modified corn and pesticides, how genetically modified organisms are changing in ways that increase health risks and how regulatory systems have failed to keep pace with modern genetics.
Professor Michael Antoniou, head of the Gene Expression and Therapy Group at King’s College London, has studied for more than 35 years how genes function and how they are disrupted. His decades of rigorous independent research into the risks of GM foods and glyphosate-based herbicides have raised serious concerns about the safety of these technologies.
In a report he prepared for the Mexican government, as the country attempted to restrict GMO corn imports for health reasons, Antoniou cited “a large body of evidence from well-controlled laboratory animal toxicity studies that show evidence of harm to multiple physiological systems” from toxic agents found in GM corn.
New Research Shows Gut Cells Communicate Directly with the Brain– www.scientificamerican.com Source Link Excerpt:
This episode was made possible by the support of Yakult and produced independently by Scientific American’s board of editors.
Rachel Feltman: For Scientific American’s Science Quickly, I’m Rachel Feltman.
People often talk about having “gut feelings,” but new research suggests there may be more to the idiom than we thought. Scientists are finding that specialized cells in our intestines can send signals directly to the brain, potentially influencing appetite and even mood.
Recent studies hint that our microbiomes could play a role in this communication system, though researchers are still trying to understand exactly how these interactions work and what they mean for our health.
Here to walk us through the emerging science of the belly-to-brain connection is Maya Kaelberer, an assistant professor at the University of Arizona in the Department of Physiology.
RFK Jr’s vaccine committee changed its MMRV recommendations– www.latimes.com Source Link Excerpt:
A key committee of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention voted Thursday to alter its recommendation on an early childhood vaccine, after a discussion that at times pitted vaccine skeptics against the CDC’s own data.
After an 8 to 3 vote with one abstention, the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices will no longer recommend that children under the age of 4 receive a single-shot vaccine for mumps, measles, rubella and varicella (better known as chicken pox).
Instead, the CDC will recommend that children between the ages of 12 to 15 months receive two separate shots at the same time: one for mumps, measles and rubella (MMR) and one for varicella.
The first vote of the committee’s two-day meeting represents a relatively small change to current immunization practices. The committee will vote Friday on proposed changes to childhood Hepatitis B and COVID vaccines.
But doctors said the lack of expertise and vaccine skepticism on display during much of the discussion would only further dilute public trust in science and public health guidance.
“I think the primary goal of this meeting has already happened, and that was to sow distrust and instill fear among parents and families,” said Dr. Sean O’Leary, chair of American Academy of Pediatrics’ Committee on Infectious Diseases, during a Zoom press conference Thursday.
Scientists grow synthetic kidneys inside mice– cosmosmagazine.com Source Link Excerpt:
While stem cell-derived kidney organoids promise to provide patient-specific models for disease research, and may even one day produce functional tissue for regenerative medicine, researchers have not yet been able to recreate the immense complexity of the organ’s patterning and functions.
Models tend to focus on either the kidney’s nephrons – functional units which filter blood and produce urine – or its collecting ducts, which concentrate urine and transport it to the bladder.
Now, researchers have brought these together in ‘assembloids’ which are the most mature and complex kidney structures grown in the lab to date.
Lab grown human kidney assembloid showing the formation of radial nephrons connected to a central collecting system. Credit: Pedro Medina, Li Lab
“This is a revolutionary tool for creating more accurate models for studying kidney disease, which affects one in 7 adults,” says corresponding author Zhongwei Li, associate professor of medicine, and stem cell biology and regenerative medicine at the University of Southern California, US.
“It’s also a milestone towards our long-term goal of building a functional synthetic kidney for the more than 100,000 patients in the US awaiting transplant – the only cure for end-stage kidney disease.”
Li and collaborators grew mouse and human assembloids from kidney progenitor cells in the lab and then transplanted them into the abdomens of living mice. There, the assembloids matured further – growing larger and developing connective tissue and blood vessels.
Traveling across state lines in search of an available shot. Scrambling to get a doctor’s prescription. Showing up for a pharmacy vaccination appointment only to be denied. Those are some of the stories people have been describing to journalists and on social media as they share whether or not they could get the latest COVID-19 vaccine, updated to better match coronavirus strains in circulation.
This reality contradicts Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr.’s testimony in a Sept. 4 congressional hearing that everybody can get the vaccine. In May, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration placed restrictions on who is eligible for the COVID-19 shot. Previously, the Moderna and Pfizer formulations were available for anyone 6 months and older, with Novavax OK’d for those 12 and up. Now, the FDA has stated, those 6 months to 64 years old can receive the vaccine only if they have a medical condition that increases the risk of severe COVID-19 disease.
AI reveals how toughest protein bonds behave– cosmosmagazine.com Source Link Excerpt:
Proteins can form “catch-bonds” that tighten under force, much like a finger trap. Credit: Rafael C. Bernardi, Auburn Physics
Researchers have used artificial intelligence to help uncover how certain protein interactions act like a finger trap, gripping tighter the harder they are pulled.
These interactions, known as catch-bonds, are essential in how the body holds together under stress and how bacteria attach to cells.
The researchers suggest that a better understanding of these bonds could help inform the design of new medications and biomaterials.
Scientists have been unsure as to whether these catch-bonds activate straight away or if they need to be stretched to a certain threshold before they ‘switch on’.
The new study discovered that these bonds activate almost immediately after a force is applied.
Drug shows promise against aggressive cancers in trial– www.futurity.org Source Link Excerpt:
An immunotherapy drug eliminated aggressive cancers in a clinical trial, researchers report.
Over the past 20 years, a class of cancer drugs called CD40 agonist antibodies have shown great promise—and induced great disappointment. While effective at activating the immune system to kill cancer cells in animal models, the drugs had limited impact on patients in clinical trials and caused dangerously systemic inflammatory responses, low platelet counts, and liver toxicity, among other adverse reactions—even at a low dose.
But in 2018, the lab of Rockefeller University’s Jeffrey V. Ravetch demonstrated it could engineer an enhanced CD40 agonist antibody so that it improved its efficacy and could be administered in a manner to limit serious side effects.
The findings came from research on mice, genetically engineered to mimic the pathways relevant in humans. The next step was to have a clinical trial to see the drug’s impact on cancer patients.
Now the results from the phase 1 clinical trial of the drug, dubbed 2141-V11, appear in Cancer Cell. Of 12 patients, six patients saw their tumors shrink, including two who saw them disappear completely.
“Seeing these significant shrinkages and even complete remission in such a small subset of patients is quite remarkable,” says first author Juan Osorio, a visiting assistant professor in Ravetch’s Leonard Wagner Laboratory of Molecular Genetics and Immunology and a medical oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
Trauma focused therapy shows promise for children with PTSD– cosmosmagazine.com Source Link Excerpt:
A new study has demonstrated how a specific form of therapy can help improve symptoms in children living with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a mental health condition that develops after witnessing or experiencing a traumatic event.
Researchers from the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England have examined the effectiveness of trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) for treating young children who have been subjected to abuse, violence or serious accidents.
CBT is a treatment for mental health conditions that helps individuals to identify any negative thoughts they may have and teaches them self-help strategies to challenge and reduce these unhelpful thought patterns.
According to the World Health Organisation, roughly 3.9% of the world’s population has experienced PTSD at some stage in their life. While trauma-focused CBT is already used to help treat the disorder in adults, children who experience multiple traumas are often considered harder to treat.
“Recent research has shown that more than 7% of young people in the UK will have developed PTSD at some point by the age of 18,” says Richard Meiser-Stedman, the lead researcher of the study from the University of East Anglia, UK.
Blood proteins tied to Alzheimer’s disease– www.futurity.org Source Link Excerpt:
Researchers have found new clues in the blood that could help explain why Alzheimer’s disease develops and how it affects memory.
The study in Nature Aging examined blood samples from more than 2,100 individuals across four large research cohorts. Using advanced tools, scientists measured thousands of proteins in the blood and linked them to changes in the brain and thinking ability.
Traditionally, doctors have focused on sticky amyloid plaques in the brain as a hallmark of Alzheimer’s.
But the new research shows that many other processes are also at play. The team found that proteins related to the immune system, protein disposal, energy use, and the body’s support structure (called the extracellular matrix) were tied to memory and thinking problems.
Importantly, not all of these changes could be explained by known Alzheimer’s brain changes, suggesting that factors outside the brain—like processes in blood and other organs—may contribute to the disease.
“Many of the proteins we found in blood are not directly tied to what we see in the brain after death,” says Erik Johnson, senior author, physician, and researcher at Emory University’s Goizueta Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center.
MAHA takes on Big Pharma to restore trust in American health– www.theblaze.com Source Link Excerpt:
… Now, a growing number of Americans are speaking out decisively against the quartet of Big Pharma, Big Ag, Big Food, and Big Health. This coalition of “Make America Healthy Again” voters is targeting a crisis of institutional credibility and a growing unease with an industry that is no longer trusted and seems more focused on profits than on people’s health.
As a psychiatric nurse practitioner, I see these problems firsthand. With the MAHA coalition powering Republican victories up and down the ballot, we as Republicans have a generational opportunity to take back our health system. We can make changes and save American lives, but we need to agree on the problems to start.
More than two-thirds of all Missouri adults are overweight. Synthetic opioid overdoses claimed nearly 850 lives last year, with local St. Louis and St. Charles Counties ranking at or near the worst in the state. And should we forget the COVID mandates that caused overdoses to spike, caused childhood anxiety and depression to rise, and kept healthy toddlers in masks? Such measures stunted their development for years, as dissenting scientists and members of the public were told to “trust the experts” and shut up.
Dismissing people is the quickest way to continue to diminish what little trust remains. In my practice, I encounter this lack of trust in our medical establishment every day with my patients. After years of being told to trust “the science” — meaning “don’t question us” — many people no longer trust anything the medical establishment has to say.
RFK Jr. wants to overhaul the country’s ‘vaccine court.’ Here’s what stands in his way.– www.livescience.com Source Link Excerpt:
For almost 40 years, people who suspect they’ve been harmed by a vaccine have been able to turn to a little-known system called the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program — often simply called the vaccine court.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has long been a critic of the vaccine court, calling it “biased” against compensating people, slow and unfair. He has said that he wants to “revolutionize” or “fix” this system.
Fixing broken bones with a 3D-printing glue gun– cosmosmagazine.com Source Link Excerpt:
A new bone repair solution that could reduce surgery times might soon find its way onto the operating table, with researchers testing out a 3D-printing glue gun on rabbit bone fractures in a new study published in the journal Device.
They showed the glue gun device can print bone grafts directly onto fractures and breaks during surgery by quickly designing the graft on the spot.
Graphical abstract. Credit: Jeon et al. / Device (CC BY-SA)
Bone grafts and implants have historically been made from metal or donor bone, while some recent studies have also used 3D-printed material. When a bone has broken in irregular ways, these implants need to be carefully designed and produced prior to the surgery which can potentially extend waiting and surgery times.
This is not the case for the newly developed device.
Researchers Criticize Putting Preschoolers on Stimulant Drugs– www.madinamerica.com Source Link Excerpt:
In a new study, researchers found that preschoolers are not receiving appropriate guideline-directed care for ADHD.
Clinical practice guidelines for this age group recommend beginning with family/behavioral therapy. Drugs are recommended by the guidelines only after therapy has failed to improve the situation or in very severe cases. But the researchers found that 42.2% of these 3- to 5-year-olds were given stimulant drugs before therapy could even be attempted.
“Clinical practice guidelines recommend medications as second-line treatment in cases with substantial dysfunction or lack of response to behavioral treatment,” the researchers write. Yet, they add, “more than one-third of patients lacked sufficient time for an evidence-based behavioral treatment before starting medications.”
The study was led by Yair Bannett at Stanford University and published in JAMA Network Open.
Strange new bacteria found in Amazon sand flies. Could it spread to humans?– www.sciencedaily.com Source Link Excerpt:
A new species of bacteria of the genus Bartonella has been found in the Amazon National Park in the state of Pará, Brazil, in phlebotomine insects, also known as sand flies. This type of insect is generally associated with transmitting leishmaniasis, but according to the researchers, the DNA of the newly discovered microorganism is similar to that of two other Andean species of bacteria, B. bacilliformis and B. ancashensis. These bacteria cause Carrión’s disease (also known as Peruvian wart and Oroya fever) and are both transmitted by phlebotomine sand flies.
There is currently no evidence in Brazil that this new species of bacteria can cause disease. However, since species of the genus Bartonella are responsible for several diseases in other countries, further studies are needed.
The research was conducted by Marcos Rogério André in partnership with Eunice Aparecida Bianchi Galati. Both researchers are affiliated with Brazilian institutions: the Faculty of Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences of São Paulo State University (FCAV-UNESP) in Jaboticabal campus and the School of Public Health of the University of São Paulo (FSP-USP). The study was supported by FAPESP through two projects (22/08543-2 and 22/16085-4).
Senate Hearing Turns Into Proxy War › American Greatness– amgreatness.com Source Link Excerpt:
The issue is never the issue.
The appearance of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Secretary of Health and Human Services, before the Pfizer Tribunal at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Thursday reminded me of the truth of that famous saying of Saul Alinsky.
The issue is never the issue. What is always the issue, according to that community organizer nonpareil, is power.
Ostensibly, Secretary Kennedy came to answer questions about COVID (remember that scam?) and the performance of people at—or, rather, recently at—the Centers for Disease Control. He recently fired the new, freshly confirmed director, Susan Monarez, for being “untrustworthy,” and some 1000 staffers walked out in solidarity or—what’s that other word beginning with an “s”?—Oh, right: in a snit.
One by one, the senators, mostly Democrats but also a few Republicans, screamed and gesticulated at Kennedy, accused him of being a “charlatan” and worse, and demanded that he resign or be fired.
RFK Jr. EXPOSES Former CDC Vaccine Chief Dr. Demetre Daskalakis — BLOCKED Him for 7 MONTHS from Accessing Vaccine Safety Data and Withheld Funds from Texas Measles Response | The Gateway Pundit– www.thegatewaypundit.com Source Link Excerpt:
The corruption at the CDC just got blown wide open.
During a bombshell appearance on Fox & Friends Sunday, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. revealed that former CDC vaccine chief Demetre Daskalakis actively stonewalled life-saving funds meant for Texas during a dangerous measles outbreak, and then blocked RFK Jr. himself from accessing critical vaccine safety data for seven straight months.
As The Gateway Pundit previously reported, Daskalakis bolted from his role as Director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases just hours after CDC Director Susan Monarez was unceremoniously ousted.
His exit came the very same day RFK Jr. announced sweeping reforms to dismantle the failed vaccine mandates that crushed our economy and stripped away Americans’ freedoms.
Breakthrough lung cancer treatment supercharges immune cells with mitochondria– www.sciencedaily.com Source Link Excerpt:
While chemotherapy remains a cornerstone of lung cancer treatment, it often weakens the immune system it relies on for long-term control. Now, researchers have found a way to turn this weakness into strength — by transplanting healthy mitochondria into the tumor environment. In advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), combining mitochondrial transplantation with cisplatin not only enhanced immune cell infiltration but also reversed tumor metabolism and improved the drug’s effectiveness. This innovative approach transforms mitochondria from mere energy suppliers into active allies in cancer therapy, showing potential to reshape how we treat aggressive lung tumors.
Lung cancer causes more deaths than any other cancer worldwide, with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) accounting for 85% of cases. Chemotherapy is the first-line treatment for advanced NSCLC, yet its effectiveness is hampered by toxic side effects and emerging resistance. Moreover, chemotherapy damages immune cells and reduces their presence in the tumor microenvironment, limiting long-term control. Adding to this challenge, tumors can hijack immune cell mitochondria through nanotube-like structures, further dampening immunity. Immunotherapy has improved outcomes for some, but many patients still fail to respond. Due to these limitations, there is a pressing need for strategies that restore immune power and metabolic balance during chemotherapy.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has rescinded the emergency use authorizations for Covid-19 vaccines and tightened eligibility requirements to exclude most healthy adults and children. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the decision was based on “science, safety, and common sense.”
Under the new policy, people over the age of 65 will still be eligible, while younger adults and children must show they have an underlying health condition such as asthma or obesity that places them at higher risk for serious illness.
“I promised 4 things,” Kennedy wrote on X. “1. to end covid vaccine mandates. 2. to keep vaccines available to people who want them, especially the vulnerable. 3. to demand placebo-controlled trials from companies. 4. to end the emergency.”
“In a series of FDA actions today we accomplished all four goals,” he continued. “The emergency use authorizations for Covid vaccines, once used to justify broad mandates on the general public during the Biden administration, are now rescinded.”
While the Trump administration and many state legislatures are showing it is possible to ban transgender child mutilation procedures, the top contributing factors to children adopting a transgender identity haven’t gone away. Those include family breakdown, psychological abuse, and leftist-controlled mass media. Government can affect these factors, but not quickly.
This means the transgender social contagion will last some time, especially in culturally leftist locales. How can compassionate friends help these sufferers among us?
Embracing God’s Design, a magazine-like, easy-to-read new book by Dr. Jennifer Bauwens and Walt Heyer, gives some evidence-based ideas. The book details where transgenderism comes from historically, psychologically, and politically, and how to respond in a way that expresses genuine love for those who suffer from it. It is a how-to manual for parents, teachers, pastors, churchgoers, and anyone else who interacts with a sexually confused person — which at this point is most Americans.
Ever wondered if life itself shines, even if just a little? A fascinating 2024 study published in The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters by researchers at the University of Calgary and the National Research Council of Canada reveals that all living organisms emit an ultraweak light, scientifically called ultraweak photon emission (UPE), which mysteriously disappears the moment life ends.This glow is so faint that our eyes cannot see it, but advanced EMCCD cameras detect it clearly in mice, plants, and potentially other living beings. Unlike bioluminescence in fireflies or jellyfish, UPE is a natural byproduct of cellular processes such as oxidative metabolism and stress responses.Remarkably, injured plant leaves glow brighter, indicating that cellular stress amplifies this faint light. The discovery not only gives scientific evidence to ideas like “auras” but also opens possibilities for real-world applications in medicine, agriculture, and biological research. Life literally leaves a subtle light signature, and death quietly turns it off, shedding new light on the invisible glow that accompanies vitality.
This is one of the most tragic stories I have covered in a long time.
According to reports, a 14-year-old boy seemingly fell in love with an AI chatbot styled after Game of Thrones and then took his own life due to comments from the bot asking him to “come home” after he clearly displayed suicidal thoughts:
A 14 year old boy took his own life after falling in love with ‘Game of Thrones’ AI chatbot pic.twitter.com/JhsmZOfGlJ
The development tackles two challenges at once. Untreated human waste threatens waterways by flooding them with excess nutrients. At the same time, demand for biocompatible implant materials continues to grow, with the market expected to hit $3.5 billion by 2030.
Scientists at the University of California, Irvine, and partner institutions have engineered “osteoyeast,” a modified organism that mimics the cells responsible for building bones naturally. The yeast processes urea, adjusting pH levels to trigger calcium and phosphate collection. These minerals crystallize into hydroxyapatite, the same substance found in human bones and teeth.
Imagine the brain’s blood vessels as a bustling highway system, twisting, turning, and pulsing with life. Now picture a traffic jam in one of the most critical intersections: that’s what happens in cerebrovascular diseases, especially when stenosis (narrowing of blood vessels) blocks the flow.
Doctors have tools to clear the jam, like surgical rerouting, balloon angioplasty, and stents. These can help restore blood flow, but here’s the catch: they don’t rebuild the real complexity of the brain’s vascular network. It’s like fixing a highway with straight pipes when the brain needs winding mountain roads.
Traditional lab models? They’re often too simple. Static cultures and microfluidic chips can’t mimic the brain’s dynamic flow, flexible vessel walls, or biological responses. That’s like studying traffic patterns using toy cars on a flat board.
Breakthrough lung cancer treatment supercharges immune cells with mitochondria– www.sciencedaily.com
