ResearchPod

Until now, a great deal has remained unknown about the relationship between programmed cell death and bacterial infections. However, recent work by Dr CJ Anderson and Professor Kodi Ravichandran from VIB-UGent, Belgium, has shed new light on this topic and introduced a new layer to the complex host–pathogen interaction.

Read more in Research Outreach

Read the original article:  https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03785-9

How should we design a new monetary tool that can cope with external shocks which might affect our economy in the Anthropocene?

 The Tao of Finance initiative from the World Academy of Arts and Sciences proposes a Monetary Inflation Brake: a targeted,  upstream, resilient intervention that could save billions of dollars world wide.

Read more about the Tao of Finance at the WAAS website, or read the book ‘Financing Our Future: Unveiling a Parallel Digital Currency System to Fund the SDGs and the Common Good’.

Dr Henry Heng’s Genome Architecture Theory is a new paradigm questioning the status quo of genomic and evolutionary theories. He proposes that cancerous cells are so different in their genome architectures they’re akin to a different cellular species in the host, meaning a total rethink in how those cells are targeted and destroyed. 

Read the original article:  doi.org/10.3390/genes13010101

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Today's cartoons a different experience from past generations, in which gratuitous violence was the primary concern of worried parents. But what if what they showed was more surreptitious in its influence on child behaviour, such as what cartoon characters ate?

Dr Milia Tzoutzou and colleagues have catalogued cartoon characters interact with their food and how they judge each other - and themselves – based on their physical appearance. What they've discovered should concern nutritionists, lawmakers, and parents worldwide.

Read the original article: https://doi.org/10.3390/sexes2010007

Consciousness and self awareness are tricky things to define in an all-encompassing way, and new research on the intricacies of cellular cognition is reshaping how we think about microorganisms and ourselves.

Professor Nicholas Money of Miami University in Oxford, Ohio has argued for a new philosophy of cellular consciousness and suggests that, based on their ability to respond to external stimuli,  fungi have minds.

Read the original article: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.funbio.2021.02.001

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By leveraging your personal health data  with Artificial Intelligence, from blood samples to psychological surveys, it is possible to make accurate predictions on biological age and interventions to keep you at your best. 

Fedor Galkin and Deepankar Nayak of DeepLongevity, a health data platform that looks to transform approaches to ageing and longevity, discuss the upcoming launch of their mental health support site ‘FuturSelf.ai',  models of psychological wellbeing and the importance of data throughout healthcare systems and patients lives.

Find more about Self Organising Maps in the original article: https://dx.doi.org/10.18632/aging.204061 , and sign up to learn more at Futurself.ai 

A state-of-the-art research and development centre in Daegu, Korea – K-MEDI hub – is creating a medical industry ecosystem for the research and development of new drugs and medical devices.

At its Preclinical Research Centre, one strong research focus is evaluating the impact of stress on the welfare of laboratory animals in the context of preclinical research. The aim is to improve international standards and guidelines for experimental conditions in the future, improving both the welfare of laboratory animals and the quality of research results.

Read their original research: http://doi.org/10.1101/2021.08.27.457934

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An estimated 130 million adults are living with diabetes or prediabetes in the United States right now. So it might come as a shock that a fundamental concept of diabetes - that the condition is rooted in the role of the pancreas on blood sugar levels - might not be the whole truth.

 Dr Michael Schwartz of the University of Washington researches the role of the brain in hunger, metabolism and homeostasis. His work opens new questions around obesity and health, and new treatment prospects for all those affected by diabetes. 

 Read the original article: https://doi.org/10.1038/s42255-021-00408-5

Is theism conducive to humility in thought? Can deeply religious people also be intellectually humble? 

Dr Peter C Hill, professor of psychology at the Rosemead School of Psychology based at Biola University, and a team of colleagues challenge the idea that people who hold strong religious beliefs are low in intellectual humility.

Read the original article: https://doi.org/10.1080/10508619.2021.1916242

Read more in Research Outreach

The move to from a reactive approach in medicine, when diseases or disturbances are treated once they are serious enough to present a problem, to a proactive, patient-centric attitude could be a paradigm shift in health care.

Dr. Jürgen Riedel, and Prof Kourosh Saeb-Parsy of Oxford Immune Algorithmics join us to talk about a more precise, personalised, and preventative approach for immune health monitoring when coupled with AI and machine learning technologies.

Read the original paper: http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/2020.02.09.941096