NJIT biologist among $10M XPRIZE competition winners for rainforest biodiversity sampling tech

NJIT's Eric Fortune and team “Limelight Rainforest” are grand prize winners of the global XPRIZE Rainforest Competition with their drone-delivered Limelight device, capable of identifying thousands of rainforest species in mere hours.

New Jersey Institute of Technology

 

image: 

Limelight uses telemetry, satellite communications and advanced AI to interpret the hundreds of thousands of images, recordings and samples collected by the platform’s advanced microphones, cameras and capture systems.

view more 

Credit: Limelight Rainforest

NJIT biologist Eric Fortune and a team of scientists called “Limelight Rainforest” have won the five-year XPRIZE Rainforest Competition, securing half of the competition's $10 million prize purse. 

The team's dramatic victory was announced Nov. 15 at the G20 Social Summit in Rio de Janeiro, the culmination of a global competition that began in 2019 when the nonprofit XPRIZE Foundation challenged innovators around the world to “develop technology to capture the true biological diversity of rainforests…and show the value of protecting the natural resources within them.”

Ultimately, Limelight Rainforest and its biodiversity sampling technology, “Limelight”, outshined the competition — topping an initial field of 300 teams from 70 countries, including six finalists that competed in Amazonas in Manaus, Brazil this past July.

“It's amazing. Being part of this crazy adventure over three years has been an enormous learning experience with so many twists and turns. It’s something I'll never forget," said Fortune, a team leader who developed sensor and control systems used in the Limelight data collection platform.

"The real reward is that this work can have a lasting impact on these vital ecosystems and the communities that depend on them. It’s what drew us to this competition in the first place.”

Originally started by Colorado Mesa University biology professor Thomas Walla, Limelight Rainforest forged its drone-based sampling technology under the unique rules of the competition's various stages held in rainforests around the world — teams have been challenged to deploy technologies to remotely survey as much biodiversity as possible across 100 hectares of forest accurately, and in under 24 hours.

VIDEO: XPRIZE Rainforest Finals Competition

The Limelight team of more than 50 engineers, biologists and indigenous scientists developed their system to collect a flurry of data on species that included ultrasound produced by bats and traces of DNA left by primates moving through the forest.

The latest Limelight uses telemetry, satellite communications and advanced AI to interpret the hundreds of thousands of images, recordings and samples collected by the platform’s advanced microphones, cameras and capture systems. The 24-hour sampling period was followed by a 48-hour sprint to produce a final report of species, their movements and deep insights into the forest's biodiversity.

Uncovering Life in the Amazon

On the heels of the semifinals hosted in Singapore, the XPRIZE Rainforest Competition finals were fittingly held in the Amazon — the most biodiverse place on Earth, estimated to be home to over 10% of the known species in the world.

“We were taken by boat to this remote location on the shores of the Rio Negro where they had a hut for us to spend the next 24 hours,” Fortune said. “Our team has a lot of experience in the Amazon, so we were confident, but we didn’t expect it to go so smoothly.

“We sent out 10 Limelight rafts with our drones once they put us on the clock, and from there everything just worked.”

Upon deployment, the team's devices — each equipped with five light trap cameras — lured and imaged an astonishing 250,000 insects that were classified in mere hours.

The Limelight’s new water sampling tool, deployed using custom robotic systems, filtered 45 liters of water from remote streams in narrow canopy gaps to catalog the vast biodiversity of the forest’s aquatic ecosystem. It yielded over 27 million environmental DNA (eDNA) sequencing reads on location.

The team also pioneered a new “Nature Node” acoustic system, capable of identifying bird and other tree-dwelling species by their vocalizations with unprecedented precision.

“For 40 years, people have been trying to track animals based solely on their vocalizations. It was a dream of mine as a grad student and our team made it happen,” Fortune noted.

VIDEO: Finals Testing Insect Timelapse

AI Trained by Indigenous Experts

One of Limelight’s biggest standout features in the finals was the accuracy of their AI in identifying the vast array of forest life.

For that, the team turned to the Quechua and Waorani Indigenous groups native to the rainforests of Ecuador, who reviewed and validated thousands upon thousands of sounds and images of rainforest species. Part of this effort was funded by a Kickstarter campaign to train their AI’s species identification capabilities.

“Many of our team members have been conducting research in Ecuador and building relationships with the Quechua and Waorani groups for over 20 years,” said Fortune. "Our Indigenous team members are the true masters of this knowledge. They were vital in helping confirm the identifications of these species … in many ways the team was completely reliant on their expertise.

“We were certain our AI was trained well because we had the world's top experts validating the data that we fed into the AI.”

Upon its XPRIZE success, the team is already planning to scale up Limelight production. Fortune is helping lead development of the first generation of Limelight devices for real-world use, partnering with NGOs, Indigenous communities and other organizations invested in rainforest conservation.

The experience is one he will not soon forget, but Fortune says the team’s work toward rainforest conservation has only just begun.

 “We're already identifying projects in South America and Southeast Asia where we could have an impact, redesigning our systems for these real-world needs,” said Fortune. “Once these devices start to be deployed, we will make enormous discoveries and uncover so many hidden organisms unique to these rainforests. It could change how we value and protect them.”

forest forged its drone-based sampling technology under the unique rules of the competition's various stages held in rainforests around the world — teams have been challenged to deploy technologies to remotely survey as much biodiversity as possible across 100 hectares of forest accurately, and in under 24 hours.

Credit

Limelight Rainforest

Florida Museum curator helps team score 1st-place and $5 million in international biodiversity competition

Florida Museum of Natural History

 

image: 

A team of scientists, robotics engineers and naturalists has won first place and $5 million in an international biodiversity competition.

view more 

Credit: Cat Kutz

Robert Guralnick, curator of bioinformatics at the Florida Museum of Natural History, is a member of an international team that won first place in the five-year XPRIZE Rainforest competition. The winners were announced Friday, Nov. 15 at a summit held in Rio de Janeiro. More than $7 million was awarded to the top-ranked teams, with $5 million going to the first-place winner.

XPRIZE is a non-profit, solutions-driven organization that has hosted large-scale competitions to solve humanity’s greatest challenges since it was established in 1994. The XPRIZE Rainforest competition kicked off in 2019, hosting 300 teams across 70 countries. The collective goal of each participant was the acceleration of technological innovation to improve the speed and precision of biodiversity surveys in support of global conservation efforts.

In the final stage of the competition, six finalist teams had 24 hours to deploy their technologies, remotely survey a 100-hectare test plot of tropical rainforest without physically entering the test area, and produce a biodiversity analysis report within 48 hours following the deployment. To win the competition’s grand prize, teams were also tasked with demonstrating scalability to effectively disrupt the often lengthy, laborious and resource-intensive process of data collection and analysis.

“It was such a massive collaborative effort,” Guralnick said. “I have never been involved in such a high-pressure situation, where one team does so much work to produce high-quality data, analytics and insights.”

Guralnick is a member of the Limelight Rainforest team, whose solution to the challenge was to create a monitoring device equipped with lights, audio recorders, cameras, insect traps and collection reservoirs. During the competition, each of ten Limelight devices was transported by drone and deposited in the forest canopy. At sundown, the lights were activated, creating clear beacons that attracted insects within the 100-hectare plot.

This strategy got them through the semifinals hosted last year in Singapore. The team made several tweaks and improvements to the collection apparatus ahead of the finals competition that took place in Amazonas, Brazil this April. The alterations enabled them to create an even more detailed snapshot of the world’s most biodiverse ecosystem.

Team members were brought on at various stages of the competition. Florida Museum researchers Raphael LaFrance and Nick Gardner also joined the Rainforest Limelight ranks, as did former University of Florida Ph.D. student Caitlin Campbell. Niyomi House, a postdoctoral associate at the Florida Museum, and Julie Allen, former Florida Museum Ph.D. student and current professor of biology at Virginia Tech, played equally indispensable roles.

During finals, the onboard camera systems photographed and automatically classified 250,000 insects in just 24 hours. Team members also used canopy mapping software to identify thousands of trees and piloted drones to collect water samples from the forest floor. Because organisms are constantly shedding genetic material into their environment, team members running an onsite genetic lab were able to sequence isolated strands of DNA suspended in the water samples and use it to identify many of the organisms that lived nearby.

The team used the Limelights’ audio recorders to automatically identify birds, using a birdsong database created in partnership with Indigenous bird guides in Ecuador.

Though the express goal was to measure as much biodiversity as possible, Guralnick said devices like the Limelight and others developed for the rainforest competition have the potential to go far beyond static inventories.

“One of the questions we want to answer is not so much what’s out there, but what services the forest is providing to animals,” he said. “For example, we can detect buzz feeding of bats in and around the site, which is an indication that it’s a high-quality area.”

By mapping the position of each monitoring device, the team could also triangulate the movement of birds and track bats as they searched for food.

The rainforest competition was developed to address the critical need for rapid biodiversity inventories in areas that remain poorly studied or are threatened by development. Devices like the Limelight will improve the accuracy of environmental assessments, make it easier to identify the ecosystem services provided within a plot of land and monitor ecosystem health in even the most remote areas.

“Our ability to deploy monitoring devices to explore the world is just in its infancy,” Guralnick said. “We’ve never before had the ability to get this type of dense, real-time, on-the-ground information on what’s happening in our ecosystems at this scale. When it comes to automated monitoring, we're learning to walk after crawling for a decade. I wonder what's going to happen when we can run.”

Visit the Limelight Rainforest’s website to learn more about the team and the technologies they’ve developed.

 

Despite federal warnings, kratom still readily available across US

Researchers find kratom available at 72% of tobacco specialty stores across U.S.

University of Mississippi

 

image: 

A recent study published in the American Journal of Public Health shows that tobacco and vape shops across America are still selling kratom -- even in states where the substance is illegal. 

view more 

Credit: Graphic by John McCustion/University of Mississippi Marketing and Communications.

OXFORD, Miss. – Nearly three-fourths of tobacco and vape stores in the United States sell an addictive, dangerous substance with connections to liver toxicity, seizures and death, according to a new study from the University of Mississippi. 

That's a key finding of a recent study on the availability of kratom published in the American Journal of Public Health.  

Kratom is a tree native to Southeast Asia and its leaves have been used as a stimulant and for pain management for hundreds of years. More than 2 million people in the United States use kratom annually. 

The Drug Enforcement Administration briefly classified kratom as a Schedule I drug in 2016, but withdrew that action after public backlash. Several states have taken up the issue in local laws since, but there has been no federal action. 

In Mississippi, more than 30 counties and cities have restricted or banned the product. The state legislature has debated several bills restricting the sale of kratom since 2021 but has yet to pass any legislation on the product.   

“This product, it’s being marketed as being a mood stabilizer and painkiller, but then we also have several warnings from federal agencies and people who have died from overdoses,” said Andrew Yockey, UM assistant professor of public health.  

“That is the disconnect, right? There are people who think this is a fantastic product and mood stabilizer that can help people who are withdrawing from opioids, but it’s also linked to these poisonings and hospitalizations.  

“So why are people using it? Because it’s so widely available. Ease of access is one of the biggest risk factors for substance use besides peer pressure.”  

Matthew Rossheim, associate professor at the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth, is leading the team of researchers on the project. He spoke with tellers and attendants at 520 tobacco and vape shops across the nation – 10 from each state and territory. He found that even in states where kratom is banned, many stores still sold it.  

“I spent my nights and weekends for about three, four weeks making these calls and just asking,” Rossheim said. “What we found is that these products are widely available.”  

In states where kratom is legal, more than 80% of tobacco and vape specialty stores reported selling it. In states where it is illegal – Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Vermont, Wisconsin and Rhode Island – most stores reported not selling the substance.  

But in Rhode Island, some 40% of the surveyed establishments reported selling the illegal supplement, the researchers said. 

Concentrated extracts of the plant are marketed as remedies for a range of conditions. 

“Kratom products are marketed or advertised as having various benefits from use, from therapeutic benefits to being stimulants or depressants, to pain relieving, to even being a substitute for opioids,” Rossheim said. “Because of the lack of scientific evidence, those are potentially deceptive claims.”  

Researchers have linked kratom to liver toxicity, seizures, salmonella and other life-threatening conditions. The product is also highly addictive and has withdrawal symptoms. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that at least 91 people died from kratom overdose between 2016 and 2017, the most recent period for which data is available.  

Kratom is not an FDA-approved drug, nor is it recognized as a supplement. That means there is little or no oversight in its production, Yockey said.  

“One of the biggest health things that we're seeing is that these products are hitting the market without supervision,” he said. “And if there’s no supervision, do you really know what you’re putting in your system?” 

---

Journal

American Journal of Public Health

DOI

10.2105/AJPH.2024.307824 

Article Title

Kratom Products Are Widely Available Throughout the United States

 

SLU study explores the pandemic’s impact on breastfeeding practices in historically marginalized communities

COVID-19 provided the elements for an organic experiment, researchers say

Saint Louis University

ST. LOUIS — A Saint Louis University study explored the impact of COVID-19 stay-at-home orders on breastfeeding practices in the U.S.

The study, recently published in the Maternal and Child Health Journal, provides critical insights into how pandemic-induced changes affected breastfeeding habits. Thirty-four percent of mothers said stay-at-home orders facilitated easier breastfeeding at home, stronger mother-child bonding, and extended breastfeeding duration for many women. However, the pandemic also presented significant barriers, including limited access to lactation support and heightened maternal stress.

Earlier studies on mothers' breastfeeding habits yielded samples of a majority of White, non-Hispanic, well-educated, partnered, and employed respondents. This study surveyed the breastfeeding practices of a large and diverse sample of U.S. mothers across various regions, income levels, and racial/ethnic backgrounds.

María José Romo-Palafox, Ph.D., assistant professor of nutrition and dietetics at SLU, is the paper’s senior author. Romo-Palafox is a registered dietitian and researcher focusing on maternal-child health in historically marginalized communities.

“As a Mexican immigrant, I am dedicated to addressing the systemic barriers that disproportionately affect breastfeeding and maternal health. Observing the pandemic's impact on breastfeeding illuminated the urgent need for holistic, supportive work policies,” she said. “I am passionate about contributing to solutions that support breastfeeding and provide mental health and financial stability resources for mothers, creating healthier outcomes for both mothers and children across diverse backgrounds.”

Breastfeeding is one of the best investments in a child’s health, laying a solid nutritional foundation early in life. The World Health Organization recommends exclusively breastfeeding infants up to six months of age; however, in the U.S., only 26% of infants met this recommendation in 2020. 

Returning to work has emerged as one of the main barriers to exclusive and continued breastfeeding. Women attempting to continue breastfeeding by pumping at work often find it challenging to meet their goals due to incomplete support from their management and organization, such as the lack of a designated lactation space and limited time to pump.

The U.S. Senate passed the Providing Urgent Maternal Protections (PUMP) for Nursing Mothers Act in December 2022 and the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act.

While valuable, Romo-Palafox and her team argue that existing policies like the PUMP Act and Pregnant Workers Fairness Act may not adequately meet the needs of low-income, racially diverse mothers who often return to work early out of financial necessity. The COVID-19 stay-at-home orders provided a unique natural experiment where many women found that working from home allowed for more sustained breastfeeding and promoted stronger mother-infant bonding—this period highlighted that even with current policies, many mothers particularly those from historically marginalized backgrounds—require more comprehensive support beyond the lactation accommodation alone.

Romo-Palafox and her team propose policies that go beyond current mandates by ensuring flexibility in work location, especially for roles that typically require in-person attendance. Additionally, policies should include expanded financial stability and mental health resources alongside telehealth lactation services.

“For instance, offering telehealth options for lactation consultants through programs like WIC, which proved effective during the pandemic, is essential to maintain. Although many programs temporarily offered these flexible services, they have since reduced access, leaving gaps in support,” she said. “Reinstating and standardizing telehealth lactation services for breastfeeding mothers, particularly through WIC, would enhance breastfeeding success, reduce stress, and better address the unique challenges faced by low-income and diverse populations.”

Other authors include Valerie Graham, Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Saint Louis University; Haley Pritz, Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Saint Louis University; and Zoe Henkes, Saint Louis University School of Medicine.

###

About Saint Louis University

Founded in 1818, Saint Louis University is one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious Catholic institutions. Rooted in Jesuit values and its pioneering history as the first university west of the Mississippi River, SLU offers more than 15,200 students a rigorous, transformative education of the whole person. At the core of the University’s diverse community of scholars is SLU’s service-focused mission, which challenges and prepares students to make the world a better, more just place.

---

Journal

Maternal and Child Health Journal

DOI

10.1007/s10995-024-03990-8 

Article Title

Breastfeeding During COVID-19 Stay-at-Home Orders: Implications for Future Maternal Work Policies and Health Equity

 

Plant roots change their growth pattern during ‘puberty’

Research by Prof. Bert De Rybel’s team (VIB-UGent), in collaboration with the VIB Screening Core and Ghent University, uncovers how roots go through a puberty phase, which could have important implications for developing climate-resilient agriculture

Vlaams Instituut voor Biotechnologie

Ghent, November 15, 2024 – Understanding how roots grow can help us develop plants that, for example, are more resistant to drought. Research by Prof. Bert De Rybel’s team (VIB-UGent), in collaboration with the VIB Screening Core and Ghent University, uncovers how roots go through a puberty phase, which could have important implications for developing climate-resilient agriculture. Their work appears in Science.  

Plant puberty 

Plants, like all living organisms, transition through various developmental stages, starting as a seed, becoming a shoot, and eventually a full-grown, fertile plant. They even go through a sort of ‘puberty’ during which a young shoot changes its growth patterns, which is vital for survival and adaptation to the environment. By altering the direction in which cells divide, plants can grow more in width than in height, or vice versa.  

But what happens below the ground? Do the roots go through puberty too?  

Between the first and third week of development, roots undergo a lot of changes. Researchers from the team of Prof. Bert De Rybel (VIB-UGent Center for Plant Systems Biology) and the VIB Screening Core, together with the Department of Chemistry of the University of Ghent, now provide molecular details on 'root puberty’. Their findings highlight the crucial role of SQUAMOSA PROMOTER BINDING-LIKE 13 (SPL13) in regulating oriented cell divisions, a process essential for proper root growth and morphology. 

"Our research provides molecular insights into the age-dependent changes occurring in the root during this crucial phase," says Prof. De Rybel. "We discovered that a change in gene expression of SPL transcription factors, particularly SPL13, is crucial for this transition by regulating the orientation of cell division." 

Complexities of growth  

The transition that results from SPL13 activity is characterized by distinct changes in the morphology and molecular profile of the roots, which are critical for the plant's overall development. 

Dr. Dominique Audenaert, head of the VIB Screening Core (part of VIB Technologies), explains, “We provided advanced microscopy-based screening technology that allowed to screen for molecules that alter cell division orientation in cell cultures. By assessing the mode-of-action of the identified compounds, we could demonstrate that altering SPL13 production in the cells makes the root systems grow steeper and deeper.”  

Changing expression levels of SPL13 even allowed the scientists to speed up or slow down root aging.  

“Our research,” explains Prof. De Rybel, “not only presents a previously unknown fundamental mechanism of plant development, but it also opens new avenues for improved crop yields and plant resilience in changing environmental conditions.”  

As the global population continues to grow, optimizing plant growth and development will be crucial for food security. The importance of SPL transcription factors in plant biology highlights their potential applications in agriculture through changing root growth patterns, which may make crops more resilient to drought, for example.  

By revealing the previously hidden complexity of root development, this study also identifies a gap in current plant research. Most studies use root samples that are one week old, but it is now clear that roots go through significant changes in morphology and gene expression, which means the way we look at root growth in lab conditions will have to be reconsidered.  

---

Journal

Science

DOI

10.1126/science.ado4298 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Cells

Article Title

SPL13 controls a root apical meristem phase change by triggering oriented cell divisions

Article Publication Date

15-Nov-2024

 

New insights reveal how house dust mites trigger allergic asthma by activating the immune system

University of Pittsburgh

 

image: 

Mouse lymph node with hotspots of IL2 activity circled

view more 

Credit: Kun He

New research from the University of Pittsburgh uncovers how inhaled house dust mites, a common trigger of allergic asthma, activate the immune system and drive this disease in mice.

The findings, published recently in Nature Immunology, offer important insights into how seemingly harmless substances such as dust mites, pet dander and pollen can overcome the immune system to trigger allergic reactions and could eventually pave the way for identifying new therapeutics to treat and manage allergic asthma.

“We often think of the immune system as an army that fights the bad guys,” said senior author Amanda C. Poholek, Ph.D., director of the Health Sciences Sequencing Core and assistant professor in the Department of Immunology at Pitt’s School of Medicine. “And while that’s true, most of the time your immune system is not encountering pathogens but dealing with dust and pollen that you breathe in, plants and animals that you eat, and things that you touch in the environment. A big question that motivates my research is: How does our immune system know to respond to pathogens and not to self and the environment?”

When the immune system does this job correctly, it’s known as immune tolerance. But when tolerance breaks down, typically harmless environmental allergens can activate T Helper 2 (Th2) cells, which are a type of immune cell that drives inflammation in allergic asthma and other allergic diseases.

Allergic asthma is the most common form of asthma, characterized by symptoms such as coughing, chest tightness, shortness of breath and wheezing. This debilitating condition is on the rise worldwide and places a substantial burden on the health care system, according to Poholek.

To learn more about how allergens activate Th2 cells and cause allergic asthma, Poholek and her team used a mouse model of the disease triggered by inhalation of house dust mites. This model is a more accurate representation of how humans encounter allergens compared to studies that used under-the-skin or systemic injections of allergen.

Using new tools that allowed them to track Th2 cells and see exactly when they get activated and where they went, the researchers found that in response to inhaled house dust mite, a specific molecular pathway involving a protein called BLIMP1 was needed to generate Th2 cells in the lymph node. These cells then move to the lung and drive disease. In contrast, when house dust mite is injected, that molecular pathway is not needed.

They also found that two signaling molecules, or cytokines, called IL2 and IL10 were required for expression of BLIMP1.

“IL10 is normally thought of as an anti-inflammatory cytokine, which dampens immune responses, so we were really surprised to find that it was actually promoting inflammation,” said Poholek. “This finding opens that door to therapeutic options targeting IL10, which hadn’t previously been considered, particularly for newly diagnosed patients.”

According to Poholek, most patients with allergic asthma receive steroids, which treat the symptoms but not the root of the disease. There is a huge need for new treatments that allow early intervention before allergic asthma causes long-term damage to the airways.

When the researchers mapped the location of Th2 activation in the lymph node, they were also surprised to find hotspots of IL2 activity.

“IL2 is a very prominent cytokine, so we expected that it would be dispersed throughout the lymph node,” said Poholek. “Instead, we discovered that IL2 was localized to certain regions. Now, we have a lot more work to figure out how these regions form and whether disrupting these regions could disrupt the formation of Th2 cells, halting allergic asthma.”

In collaboration with colleagues in the Pitt Division of Pulmonology, Allergy, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, Poholek is also planning to look at lung tissue samples to investigate whether IL2 and IL10 could also be important drivers of Th2 cells in patients with allergic asthma and explore potential avenues for developing new therapeutic options.

Other authors are listed in the Nature Immunology paper.

This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (DP2AI164325, AI153104 and AI156093), the American Lung Association Innovation Award, the Research Advisory Committee at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and the Clinical and Translational Science Institute Pilot Award.

 

---

Journal

Nature Immunology

DOI

10.1038/s41590-024-01986-8 

Article Title

Spatial microniches of IL-2 combine with IL-10 to drive lung migratory TH2 cells in response to inhaled allergen

 

Fewer than 1 in 5 know the 988 suicide lifeline

Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania

 

image: 

US adults who know that 988 is the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. From the Annenberg Public Policy Center's Annenberg Science and Public Health (ASAPH) knowledge surveys from January 2023-September 2024.

view more 

Credit: Annenberg Public Policy Center

PHILADELPHIA – Annenberg Public Policy Center survey data show that public recall of the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline number has grown slowly since the three-digit phone number was introduced in July 2022. Just 15% of U.S. adults are familiar with it, as of September 2024.

Survey respondents who accurately report awareness of the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline number increased significantly from August 2023 (11%) to September 2024 (15%). Those 15% of respondents reported both that they knew the number and, when asked in an open-ended format, said the number was 988. The number who inaccurately reported that the number was 911 (the nationwide emergency phone number) decreased to 1% in September 2024 from 4% in August 2023.

“The help that can be found at the 988 helpline can only save lives if those in need and their loved ones and friends know the number,” said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania. “When 988 is as readily recalled as 911, the nation will have cause to celebrate.”

Although the survey found a year-over-year increase, it did not detect an increase in accurate responses between October 2023 and September 2024, a period that included the launch of an eight-month 988 awareness ad campaign by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) in June 2024. The SAMHSA media campaign targets especially vulnerable subsets of the population, which may be too small to impact the overall awareness estimates in our nationally representative, general population sample.

APPC’s Annenberg Science and Public Health knowledge survey

The survey data come from the 21st wave of a nationally representative panel of 1,744 U.S. adults conducted for the Annenberg Public Policy Center by SSRS, an independent market research company. Most have been empaneled since April 2021. To account for attrition, small replenishment samples have been added over time using a random probability sampling design. The most recent replenishment, in September 2024, added 360 respondents to the sample. This wave of the Annenberg Science and Public Health Knowledge (ASAPH) survey was fielded Sept. 13-22 and Sept. 26-30, 2024. The margin of sampling error (MOE) is ± 3.5 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. All figures are rounded to the nearest whole number and may not add to 100%. Combined subcategories may not add to totals in the topline and text due to rounding.

Download the topline and the methods report.

The policy center has been tracking the American public’s knowledge, beliefs, and behaviors regarding vaccination, Covid-19, flu, RSV, and other consequential health issues through this survey panel over the past two-and-a-half years. In addition to Jamieson and Gibson, APPC’s team on the survey includes research analyst Shawn Patterson Jr., Patrick E. Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Health and Risk Communication Institute, and Ken Winneg, managing director of survey research.

The Annenberg Public Policy Center was established in 1993 to educate the public and policy makers about communication’s role in advancing public understanding of political, science, and health issues at the local, state, and federal levels.

---

Method of Research

Survey

Germany’s first-ever professorship in suicide studies and suicide prevention established at Goethe University Frankfurt

Ute Lewitzka appointed – Heightened focus on suicide prevention within the Faculty of Medicine

Goethe University Frankfurt

 

image: 

Prof. Dr. Ute Lewitzka, Goethe University Frankfurt (Photo: Maria Schlotte)

view more 

Credit: Photo: Maria Schlotte

FRANKFURT. More than 10,000 people took their own lives in Germany last year, a figure that is more than three times as great as the number of traffic accident fatalities. The number of attempted suicides is significantly higher, affecting people across all age groups. Suicide studies focus on the factors that lead to suicide and its prevention. This important field is now receiving special attention in Frankfurt, where the first-ever German professorship for suicide studies and suicide prevention has been set up at Goethe University’s Faculty of Medicine.

Dr. Ute Lewitzka, who has been researching and working in this field for more than 25 years and currently serves as chair of the German Society for Suicide Prevention [Deutsche Gesellschaft für Suizidprävention], has been appointed to the position. “I’m very pleased to see suicide studies, which unfortunately still remain a niche topic, gain this level of recognition,” says Lewitzka, who transitions to Frankfurt from Dresden University Hospital, adding that a professorship can help further destigmatize mental illnesses. Her goals include the systematic tracking and analysis of suicide attempts and suicides to further develop effective preventive measures and potentially also implement these at the political level.

The professorship is based at University Hospital Frankfurt's Department of Psychiatry, Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, headed by Prof. Andreas Reif, which has long specialized in treating mood disorders, such as depression. The goal is to establish a German Center for Suicide Prevention in collaboration with the German Foundation for Depression Relief and Suicide Prevention [Stiftung Deutsche Depressionshilfe und Suizidprävention] and the European Alliance against Depression. A well-developed regional network already exists, uniting various stakeholders who drive research and treatment of suicidality and engage in prevention work, including school-based programs. Alongside research, specialist education and training are set to play a central role.

The project has secured funding for the next five years, thanks to the support of Crespo Foundation, Henryk Sznap Stiftung, and Dr. Elmar und Ellis Reiss Stiftung, with the latter contributing the majority of funds. Dr. Elmar Reiss, who set up the foundation with his wife in 2018, explained that the professorship’s goals align closely with the foundation’s mission: “Our main goal in establishing the foundation was to help people with depression and alleviate their suffering. Depression is a condition that can increase suicide risk. Our foundation aims to help those affected find other paths and once again see light at the end of the tunnel.”

Developing effective prevention methods requires an extensive amount of data. As part of a pilot project in Saxony, Lewitzka demonstrated that the prompt recording and evaluation of suicide attempts by specially trained emergency dispatchers enables the creation of “heat maps” that visually represent the locations and frequencies of incidents. Combined with targeted monitoring of the methods used in suicide (and suicide attempts), this approach can prevent many suicides. Frequently chosen methods of self-harm can be regulated — for instance, by controlling access to specific buildings or sites. “Restricting methods is one of the most effective prevention measures,” Lewitzka explains.

About Prof. Dr. Ute Lewitzka
Born in 1972, Prof. Dr. med. Ute Lewitzka studied medicine in Berlin and Dresden and trained as a specialist in psychiatry and psychotherapy at Dresden’s Carl Gustav Carus University Hospital. Her doctoral thesis in 2004 and her habilitation in 2018 both focused on suicide studies. In 2017, she founded the Werner Felber Institute for Suicide Prevention and Interdisciplinary Research in Healthcare [Werner Felber Institut für Suizidprävention und interdisziplinäre Forschung im Gesundheitswesen], of which she remains the chair. Since 2018, she has also served as volunteer chair of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Suizidprävention (DGS) and the Suicide Studies Committee of the German Association for Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics [Deutsche Gesellschaft für Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie, Psychosomatik und Nervenheilkunde, DGPPN].

 

New nasal vaccine shows promise in curbing whooping cough spread

With whooping cough cases on the rise new nasal vaccine aims to stop transmission

Tulane University

As whooping cough cases rise in the U.S., a new nasal vaccine developed by Tulane University may hold the key to reducing the spread of the highly contagious respiratory disease.

Current pertussis vaccines are widely used and effective at preventing whooping cough, caused by the Bordetella pertussis bacteria.  However, the vaccines fail to clear bacteria from the upper respiratory tract, allowing even vaccinated individuals to spread the disease.

The new vaccine combines the traditional pertussis antigens with an innovative adjuvant called T-vant, which boosts the body’s immune response specifically in the respiratory tract. In a study published in npj Vaccines, mice immunized intranasally with the new T-vant vaccine showed no signs of the bacteria in the lungs and nasopharynx – the upper throat area behind the nose – three weeks after infection. The bacteria remained prevalent in upper respiratory tract of mice that received the traditional vaccine intramuscularly.

“By developing a vaccine that can not only protect individuals but also prevent transmission, we hope to improve on existing vaccines and limit the spread of whooping cough in communities,” said lead study author Lisa Morici, professor of microbiology and immunology at Tulane University School of Medicine.

The T-vant adjuvant is derived from bacterial outer membrane vesicles, tiny particles that naturally stimulate the immune system. The study found that the adjuvant encouraged a mucosal immune response, spurring the activation of immune cells in the respiratory tract critical for halting the bacteria’s ability to colonize.

The study also found no adverse effects on lung tissue following immunization, highlighting the vaccine’s safety.

The findings are significant and come at a time when whooping cough cases are surging. Recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed a five-fold increase in U.S. cases over last year. The disease affects roughly 24 million people a year worldwide and primarily impacts infants and those with weakened immune systems.

A vaccine that can successfully prevent infection and transmission of whooping cough in humans could lay the groundwork for eliminating the disease altogether, said James McLachlan, co-author of the study and associate professor of microbiology and immunology at Tulane School of Medicine.

“These findings underscore the need for enhanced vaccines that can do more than just protect the individual,” McLachlan said. “We need vaccines that can effectively stop the bacteria from spreading within communities, and this new approach offers an encouraging step in that direction.”

T-vant was developed through support from the NIH Adjuvant Development Program. More information on T-vant can be found at https://vac.niaid.nih.gov/view?id=61.

---

Journal

npj Vaccines

DOI

10.1038/s41541-024-00990-1 

Subject of Research

Animals

Article Title

A novel outer membrane vesicle adjuvant improves vaccine protection against Bordetella pertussis