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Smoking during pregnancy affects children’s academic achievement

Smoking harms almost every part of your body. But if you smoke when pregnant, the toxic chemicals in tobacco will also harm your unborn baby, with new research showing that it could lead to reduced academic outcomes at school.

30 Aug 2024

Study reveals how bacteria pass on traits without DNA changes

Bacterial cells can "remember" brief, temporary changes to their bodies and immediate surroundings, a new Northwestern University and University of Texas-Southwestern study has found.

28 Aug 2024

Maternal prenatal smoking linked to poor academic outcomes in children

27 Aug 2024

Prenatal BPA exposure tied to autism risk in boys

Study reveals that prenatal exposure to BPA disrupts aromatase activity in male brains, potentially leading to autism-like symptoms. Treatment with 10-HDA shows promise in reversing these effects.

11 Aug 2024

Increased skin-to-skin time linked to better neurodevelopment

Skin-to-skin cuddling with a parent has lasting cognitive benefits for premature babies, according to a new Stanford Medicine study. Preemies who received more skin-to-skin contact, also known as kangaroo care, while hospitalized as newborns were less likely to be developmentally delayed at 1 year of age, the study found.

8 Aug 2024

Powerful visualization technologies offer new insight into understanding muscle contraction in humans

The connections between the nervous system and muscles develop differently across the kingdom of life.

31 Jul 2024

Maternal immune response to flu linked to fetal brain changes

A bad case of the flu during pregnancy can increase the risk for fetal neurodevelopmental disorders such as schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorder. But it's not the virus itself doing the damage; it's the mother's immune response.

29 Jul 2024

How prenatal cannabis exposure may affect mental health in childhood

Scientists are trying to understand how cannabis may affect long term neurodevelopment when people were exposed to it in the womb.

8 Jul 2024

Baby boys more likely to achieve HIV cure or remission after in-utero infection

Baby girls are more likely to acquire HIV from their mothers during pregnancy or childbirth than infant boys, who are conversely more likely to achieve cure or remission, researchers say in a new study that sheds light on the gender differences in immune systems.

5 Jul 2024

Study reveals the adverse effects of prenatal exposure to ethylene oxide on fetal development

A study led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), a centre supported by the "la Caixa" Foundation, provides new evidence on the adverse effects of prenatal exposure to ethylene oxide (EO) on foetal development.

27 Jun 2024

Mouse studies suggest gestational CBD exposure alters offspring behavior and brain function

Cannabidiol (CBD), one of the active ingredients in cannabis, is thought to be safe as it does not cause a "high".

24 Jun 2024

Eating cheese during pregnancy linked to better neurodevelopmental outcomes in children

Researchers found that higher maternal intake of yogurt and cheese during pregnancy significantly reduces the risk of neurodevelopmental delays in children at age 3.

24 Jun 2024

The hidden genetic switches influencing human height and bone health

In mammals, only 3% of the genome consists of coding genes which, when transcribed into proteins, ensure the biological functions of the organism and the in-utero development of future individuals. But genes do not function alone.

14 Jun 2024

Itgb1 gene found to be crucial in preventing spongy heart disease

Having explored how the heart is formed in utero, a University of Houston pharmacology researcher is reporting how cells and molecules act during that early formation and what might cause the heart disease called left ventricular non-compaction.

10 Jun 2024

In utero brain overgrowth linked to severity of autism

Some children with autism experience profound, lifelong difficulties like developmental delay, social struggles and even the inability to speak.

5 Jun 2024

Progesterone therapy shows mixed results for neurodevelopment in infants with heart defects

A randomized clinical trial published in JAMA Network Open found no significant overall benefit of maternal progesterone therapy on neurodevelopmental outcomes in infants with congenital heart defects, but observed improvements in female children and specific heart conditions.

2 Jun 2024

UN agencies warn of critical malnutrition crisis for children and mothers in war-torn Sudan

Three United Nations agencies today issued a stark warning that all indications point to a significant deterioration of the nutrition situation for children and mothers in war-torn Sudan.

30 May 2024

Researchers develop novel method to 'grow your own' donor skin

Skin grafting is an essential procedure used to treat severe skin wounds. In the case of extensive wounds, however, it can be challenging to harvest enough donor skin, and generating artificial skin substitutes that include hair follicles and sweat glands and can engraft on deep wounds has not been successful.

29 May 2024

UMSOM receives $3.96 million grant for maternal vaccine against neonatal sepsis

University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) researchers at the Center for Vaccine Development and Global Health (CVD) have been awarded $3.96 million to develop a maternal vaccine that prevents sepsis caused by Klebsiella pneumoniae in newborns and infants.

23 May 2024

Maternal cannabis use disorder linked to higher autism risk in children, study finds

A study in Psychiatry Research reveals that maternal cannabis use disorder significantly increases the risk of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in offspring. The risk is 3.5 times higher for children exposed to cannabis during the prenatal period.