A Rutgers-led team may have found the key to treating inflammatory diseases like asthma, allergies, chronic fibrosis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

In a study published in the journal Nature Immunology, researchers discovered that neuromedin B (NMB), a protein produced by the nervous system, was responsible for preventing overactive immune responses and damaging inflammation. An immune response refers to the body’s ability to recognize and defend itself against harmful substances. Although beneficial to help clear infections, an immune response can also promote damaging inflammation if not properly restricted...

An international team of physicists including Jennifer Cano, PhD, of Stony Brook University, has created a new material layered by two structures, forming a superlattice, that at a high temperature is a super-efficient insulator conducting current without dissipation and lost energy. The finding, detailed in a paper published in Nature Physics, could be the basis of research leading to new, better energy efficient electrical conductors.

The material is created and developed in a laboratory chamber. Over time atoms attach to it and the material appears to grow — similar to the way rock candy is formed...

Findings could shed light on creating new materials on Earth. For the first time, researchers have found a way to describe conditions deep in the convection zone of “white dwarf” stars, which are home to some of the densest collections of matter in the Universe.

In a project conducted at the National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the research team, including University of Rochester engineering profess...

Doctors can predict patients’ risk for ischemic stroke based on the severity of their metabolic syndrome, a conglomeration of conditions that includes high blood pressure, abnormal cholesterol levels and excess body fat around the abdomen and waist, a new study finds.

The study found that stroke risk increased consistently with metabolic syndrome severity even in patients without diabetes. Doctors can use this information — and a scoring tool developed by a UVA Children’s pediatrician and his collaborator at the University of Florida — to identify patients at risk and help them reduce that risk.

“We had previously shown that the severity of metabolic syndrome was linked to future coronary heart disease and type 2 diabetes,” said UVA’s Mark DeBoer, MD...