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Study shows how brain synapses change over the course of life

Why do children think and behave differently from adults? Why do we become forgetful in old age? Researchers have shown for the first time how the connections between the brain's nerve cells, the synapses, change over the course of life, and likely affect our processing of information.

15 Jun 2020

COVID-19 linked to drop in pediatric asthma emergency department utilization

The number of patients visiting the emergency department for asthma treatment dropped by 76% in the first month of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new study by researchers at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

15 Jun 2020

People born small for gestational age have lower IQ from infancy to adulthood

People born small for gestational age (SGA) have a lower IQ throughout development from infancy to adulthood The effects of SGA tend to reduce by adulthood

15 Jun 2020

Arts-based methodology helps reveal bullying in schools

Co-authors Daria Khanolainen from the University of Jyväskylä and Elena Semenova from Kazan Federal University developed and piloted an innovative arts-based methodology for sensitive research. The method is called graphic vignettes, and it looks like a set of incomplete comic strips which participants complete in a creative way. The researchers have just published two articles about the new method.

15 Jun 2020

A teen’s death from COVID

It started as a normal day. Dawn Guest, 54, got up and headed out to her job as a nurse around 5 a.m. She heard her 16-year-old son, Andre, stirring in his room, but he had always been an earlier riser, even when his school was shut for COVID-19.

15 Jun 2020

American Thoracic Society calls for moratorium on tear gas use during COVID-19 pandemic

The American Thoracic Society calls for a moratorium on the use of tear gas and other chemical agents deployed by law enforcement against protestors participating in demonstrations, including current campaigns sparked by the death of George Floyd.

15 Jun 2020

Study shows 1 in 15 parents is hesitant about routine childhood vaccines

A national study measuring parental attitudes toward vaccinations found 6.1% were hesitant about routine childhood immunizations while nearly 26% were hesitant about the influenza vaccine.

15 Jun 2020

Experts recommend tweezers to protect children from ticks

Not all bloodsuckers are created equal in parents' eyes. When it comes to bug bites, parents are twice as likely to be concerned about ticks as they are about mosquitoes transmitting disease, a new national poll finds.

15 Jun 2020

Earlier treatment of maternal depression can improve outcomes for the child

The children of mothers with long-term depression have been found to be at higher risk of behavioural problems and poor development.

15 Jun 2020

Tuberculosis and polio vaccines may offer temporary protection against SARS-CoV-2

As the world grapples with the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, scientists race to develop an effective vaccine to protect against the deadly SARS-CoV-2 virus. While potential vaccines are still being developed and tested, researchers propose that existing vaccines could give the immune system a temporary boost to ward off infection.

14 Jun 2020

Factors that determine COVID-19 mortality

A potentially important new study by MIT researchers and published on the preprint server medRxiv* in June 2020 shows that COVID-19 death rates in U.S. states correlate with several factors like commuting to work, temperatures, and geographical location, but not with ICU beds, obesity or poverty. This work, if validated, could help identify the actual contributing factors that shape mortality rates across the USA.

14 Jun 2020

An entire trimeric S-protein of SARS-CoV-2 is necessary for protective immune response

Researchers from Seattle Children's Research Institute and the University of Washington described a high-throughput and rapid technique to quantify circulating levels of functional antibodies against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), suggesting that the entire viral spike protein should be used to characterize the immune response. Their paper is currently available on the medRxiv* preprint server.

14 Jun 2020

Early respiratory distress syndrome caused by SARS-CoV-2 in a newborn

A recent case report from the researchers at the University of São Paulo, published in the journal CLINICS, shows how newborns can also be infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and develop serious symptoms, even though the most likely route of infection in such cases is still not completely clear.

14 Jun 2020

Study: Parasite infection closely linked to the make-up of gastrointestinal microbiome

Parasite infections are a constant presence for many people who live in tropical regions, particularly in less industrialized areas.

14 Jun 2020

Study shows how combining two drugs may be an effective treatment for HLH

Scientists at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, UCSF Benioff Children's Hospitals and Baylor College of Medicine are investigating how to best treat hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH), a rare immune disorder.

12 Jun 2020

Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation awards $3.2 million to early-career physician-scientists

The Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation has named four new Damon Runyon Clinical Investigators.

12 Jun 2020

University students have high levels of food insecurity due to COVID-19 pandemic

Four out of ten university students have reported they are worried that they will run out of food as they deal with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new report.

12 Jun 2020

Study finds self-swabbing tests for COVID-19 to be accurate and safe

Test samples collected by people who swabbed their own nasal passages yielded results for the COVID-19 virus that were as accurate as samples collected by a health care worker, according to a small study by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine.

12 Jun 2020

School initiatives can help children in social care perform better

Children in social care have poorer mental health and perform worse in school than other children. But they have trust in the school staff and perform better after individual assessment at school.

12 Jun 2020