Category Biology/Biotechnology

Machine Learning Model builds on Imaging Methods to better Detect Ovarian Lesions

ultrasound images or a benign and a malignant lesion using Zhu's new technique
(From left) The top row shows an ultrasound image of a malignant lesion, the blood oxygen saturation, and hemoglobin concentration. The bottom row is an ultrasound image of a benign lesion, the blood oxygen saturation, and hemoglobin concentration. (Image: Zhu lab)

New research yields a novel method to use ultrasound to enhance machine learning’s ability to accurately diagnose — or rule out — ovarian cancer.

Although ovarian cancer is the deadliest type of cancer for women, only about 20% of cases are found at an early stage, as there are no real screening tests for them and few symptoms to prompt them...

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Mom’s Dietary Fat Rewires Male and Female Brains Differently

A microglia (in magenta) from a male mouse born to a mom on a high-fat diet, which sequesters more brain serotonin (in green) than males with mom’s eating a typical lab diet. (Bilbo Lab)
A microglia (in magenta) from a male mouse born to a mom on a high-fat diet, which sequesters more brain serotonin (in green) than males with mom’s eating a typical lab diet. (Bilbo Lab)

Excess fat triggers immune cells to overeat serotonin in the brain of developing male mice, leading to depression-like behavior. More than half of all women in the United States are overweight or obese when they become pregnant. While being or becoming overweight during pregnancy can have potential health risks for moms, there are also hints that it may tip the scales for their kids to develop psychiatric disorders like autism or depression, which often affects one gender more than the other.

What hasn’t been understood however is how the accumulation of fat tissue in mom might signal through the ...

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Team creates Nano-Magnets that could Restore Damaged Nerve Cells

The nano-magnets that will restore damaged nerve cells
Modular magnetic devices for applying local magnetic fields. Applying magnetic fields using A) 4 mm diameter pinhole parallelly-aligned and beehive-like magnetic devices. B) 1.5 cm diameter ring magnet. i) Illustrations of magnetic devices. In blue: pores are arranged in a beehive-like pattern, in red: pores are arranged in parallel lines. ii) Life-size images of magnetic rod/ring. iii) Simulations of magnetic flux density in COMSOL software. The images present a top view of magnetic flux density generated by a magnetic rod/ring in tesla (T). Intensity is color-coded (low intensity in dark blue, high intensity in red). iv) COMSOL simulations of magnetic field, magnetic flux density, and magnetic force 1 mm above the magnetic rod/ring. The magnetic field is indicated as solid lines...
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Chemotherapy could Increase Disease Susceptibility in Future Generations

An illustration of a cancer cell surrounded by healthy cells.
An illustration of a cancer cell among healthy cells. Image by CIPhotos on iStock.

A common chemotherapy drug could carry a toxic inheritance for children and grandchildren of adolescent cancer survivors, Washington State University-led research indicates. The study, published online in iScience, found that male rats who received the drug ifosfamide during adolescence had offspring and grand-offspring with increased incidence of disease. While other research has shown that cancer treatments can increase patients’ chance of developing disease later in life, this is one of the first-known studies showing that susceptibility can be passed down to a third generation of unexposed offspring.

“The findings suggest that if a patient receives chemotherapy, and then later has children, that t...

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