“Molecular Rosetta Stone” reveals how our microbiome talks to us

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - SAN DIEGO

 

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THIS RESEARCH WAS COMPLETED BY MEMBERS OF THE DORRESTEIN LAB (FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: HELENA MANNOCHIO-RUSSO, IPSITA MOHANTY, LEE HAGEY, AND PIETER DORRESTEIN).

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CREDIT: UC SAN DIEGO HEALTH SCIENCES

Researchers from Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of California San Diego have uncovered thousands of previously unknown bile acids, a type of molecule used by our gut microbiome to communicate with the rest of the body.

“Bile acids are a key component of the language of the gut microbiome, and finding this many new types radically expands our vocabulary for understanding what our gut microbes do and how they do it,” said senior author Pieter Dorrestein, Ph.D., professor at Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences and professor of pharmacology and pediatrics at UC San Diego School of Medicine. “It’s like going from ‘See Spot Run’ to Shakespeare.”

The results, as described by study co-author and bile acids expert Lee Hagey, Ph.D, are akin to a molecular Rosetta stone, providing previously unknown insight into the biochemical language microbes use to influence distant organ systems.

Bile acids originate in the liver, are stored in the gallbladder and ultimately released into the intestine, where they are deployed to aid in digestion following the consumption of a meal. The microbes in our gut metabolize the bile acids produced by the liver, changing them into a vast array of different molecules called secondary bile acids, which tend to be easier for the body to absorb. Until now, the rich diversity and range of functions of secondary bile acids have been underappreciated by scientists.

“When I started working in the lab, there were about a few hundred known bile acids,” said study co-author Ipsita Mohanty, Ph.D., a postdoctoral researcher in the Dorrestein lab. “Now we’ve discovered thousands more, and we’re also working toward realizing that these bile acids do so much more than just help with digestion.”

In addition to aiding digestion, bile acids are also important signaling molecules that help regulate the immune system and serve important metabolic functions, such as controlling lipid and glucose metabolism. These molecules also help explain how microbes in the gut are able to influence distant organ systems.

“Because of their interaction with our microbiome, the influence of bile acids spreads far beyond the digestive system, and so could the diseases we treat with them – the list of diseases related to bile acids is a mile long, and there are several FDA approvals for these kinds of acids as treatments,” said co-author Helena Mannochio-Russo, Ph.D., also a postdoctoral researcher in the Dorrestein lab.

In order to discover these molecules, the researchers leveraged the unique resources of UC San Diego. Dorrestein is director of the Collaborative Microbial Metabolite Center (CMMC), a first-of-its-kind collaboration between UC San Diego and UC Riverside that seeks to gather and centralize information about the metabolites that microbes produce to help researchers learn more about their impact on human health and the environment.

“In other areas of biology like genomics, sharing data is common, but there hasn’t been an infrastructure in place for microbial metabolomics researchers to share data until now,” said Dorrestein “Ultimately these breakthroughs are the result of a convergence of collaboration and computing power, and we expect many more breakthroughs to come out of the CMMC.”

Earlier this year, the team debuted a new tool that can instantly match microbes to the metabolites they produce. The present study is the first of potentially many studies to utilize the tool for specific types of molecules. The researchers next hope to explore the specific functions of their newly-discovered bile acids as well as use their approach on other types of biomolecules, such as lipids or other kinds of acids.

“We’re rewriting the textbook of human metabolism,” said Dorrestein. “If you’d have spoken to me a few years ago, I would have said we were decades away from solving this puzzle, but now, it could happen within five years. It’s really a remarkable change in our capabilities, and we believe it’s going to revolutionize the way we approach disease.”

Full link to study: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2024.02.019

Additional co-authors on the study include: Joshua V Schweer, Yasin El Abiead, , Robin Schmid, Simone Zuffa, Felipe Vasquez, Jasmine Zemlin and Dionicio Siegel at UC San Diego, Wout Bittremieux at University of Antwerp, Shipei Xing and Tao Huan at University of British Columbia, Valentina B. Muti and Mingxun Wang at University of California Riverside, Omar E Tovar-Herrera, Sarah Moraïs and Itzhak Mizrahi at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Dhimant Desai and Shantu Amin at Penn State University College of Medicine, Imhoi Koo, Andrew D. Patterson, Penny M.  Kris-Etherton, Kristina S. Petersen and Jennifer A Fleming at The Pennsylvania State University, Christoph W. Turck at Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, Proteomics and Biomarkers and Allegra T. Aron at University of Denver.

This study was funded, in part, by the National Institutes of Health (grants U24DK133658, R01GM107550, U19AG063744, U01DK119702, S10OD021750), the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and National Science Foundation (grant BBSRC/NSF 2152526), the Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (grant RGPIN-2020-04895).

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JOURNAL

Cell Reports

DOI

10.1016/j.cell.2024.02.019 

COI STATEMENT

Pieter Dorrestein is an advisor and holds equity in Cybele and Sirenas and a scientific co-founder, advisor and holds equity to Ometa, Enveda, and Arome with prior approval by UC-San Diego. He also consulted for DSM animal health in 2023.

 

The liver immune system eats up ‘bad cholesterol’

Peer-Reviewed Publication

KAROLINSKA INSTITUTET

A new study from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden reveals that immune cells in the liver react to high cholesterol levels and eat up excess cholesterol that can otherwise cause damage to arteries. The findings, published in Nature Cardiovascular Research, suggest that the response to the onset of atherosclerosis begins in the liver.

Cholesterol is a type of fat that is essential for many functions in the body, such as making hormones and cell membranes. However, too much cholesterol in the blood can be harmful, as it can stick to the walls of the arteries and form plaques that narrow or block the blood flow. This results in atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, the primary underlying cause of heart attacks and strokes, and the leading cause of death worldwide.

The liver responded immediately

In the current study, researchers wanted to understand how different tissues in the body react to high levels of LDL, also called ‘bad cholesterol’, in the blood. To test this, they created a system where they could quickly increase the cholesterol in the blood of mice.

“Essentially, we wanted to detonate a cholesterol bomb and see what happened next,” says Stephen Malin, lead author of the study and principal researcher at the Department of Medicine, Solna, Karolinska Institutet. “We found that the liver responded almost immediately and removed some of the excess cholesterol.”

However, it wasn’t the typical liver cells that responded, but a type of immune cell called Kupffer cells that are known for recognising foreign or harmful substances and eating them up. The discovery made in mice was also validated in human tissue samples.

“We were surprised to see that the liver seems to be the first line of defence against excess cholesterol and that the Kupffer cells were the ones doing the job,” says Stephen Malin. “This shows that the liver immune system is an active player in regulating cholesterol levels, and suggests that atherosclerosis is a systemic disease that affects multiple organs and not just the arteries.”

Several organs could be involved

The researchers hope that by understanding how the liver and other tissues communicate with each other after being exposed to high cholesterol, they can find new ways to prevent or treat cardiovascular and liver diseases.

“Our next step is to look at how other organs respond to excess cholesterol, and how they interact with the liver and the blood vessels in atherosclerosis,” says Stephen Malin. “This could help us develop more holistic and effective strategies to combat this common and deadly disease.”

The research was supported by grants from the Swedish Heart-Lung Foundation, Leducq Foundation Networks of Excellence Program B cells in Cardiovascular Disease, EU’s Seventh Framework Program FP7, The Swedish Research Council and the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Award. There are no reported conflicts of interest.

Publication: “Kupffer cells dictate hepatic responses to the atherogenic dyslipidemic insult”, Giada Di Nunzio, Sanna Hellberg, Yuyang Zhang, Osman Ahmed, Jiawen Wang, Xueming Zhang, Hanna M. Björck, Veronika Chizh, Ruby Schipper, Hanna Aulin, Roy Francis, Linn Fagerberg, Anton Gisterå, Jari Metso, Valentina Manfé, Anders Franco-Cereceda, Per Eriksson, Matti Jauhiainen, Carolina E. Hagberg, Peder S. Olofsson & Stephen G. Malin, Nature Cardiovascular Research, online 11 March 2024, doi: 10.1038/s44161-024-00448-6.

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JOURNAL

Nature Cardiovascular Research

DOI

10.1038/s44161-024-00448-6 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

ARTICLE TITLE

Kupffer cells dictate hepatic responses to the atherogenic dyslipidemic insult

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

11-Mar-2024

 

New study finds female entrepreneurs do better with guidance from female mentors

Peer-Reviewed Publication

INSTITUTE FOR OPERATIONS RESEARCH AND THE MANAGEMENT SCIENCES

INFORMS Journal Marketing Science Study Key Takeaways:

• Female entrepreneurs increase their chances of success and improved performance with female mentors.
• One of the key benefits to female entrepreneurs is a mentoring style characterized as “positive engagement.”

 

BALTIMORE, MD, March 11, 2024 – In business and in life, the power of mentorship has long been understood, but how important is it that your mentor look like you? This question was at the center of a new study, which specifically found that mentor gender has a powerful impact on female entrepreneurs.

More to the point, in a randomized controlled experiment, researchers found that when a female entrepreneur is guided by a female mentor, her sales increased by an average of 32%.

The study, published in the INFORMS peer-reviewed journal Marketing Science, is called “Breaking the Glass Ceiling: Empowering Female Entrepreneurs Through Female Mentors.” The authors of the study are Frank Germann of the University of Notre Dame, Stephen Anderson of Texas A&M University, Pradeep Chintagunta of the University of Chicago and Naufel Vilcassim of the London School of Economics and Political Science.

The study authors conducted a randomized controlled field experiment with 930 Ugandan entrepreneurs.

“The participants in our study operated from a physical building and were part of a business support program,” says Anderson. “We conducted one-on-one interviews with the participants between July and August 2015, and we also conducted a business audit and baseline survey the same year.”

The researchers said that 40% of the entrepreneurs were female, and 54% were married. The typical entrepreneur was 31 years old, had two children and had completed high school or higher education.

“At baseline, the entrepreneurs’ firms, on average, were in operation for about four years and employed a very small staff,” says Germann. “Participants were randomly assigned to a Control (i.e., Comparison) group or a Treatment group. Those in the Treatment group were then randomly matched with a unique mentor.”

“The mentors had a post-graduate degree and at least five years of work experience, and were located in various parts of the world,” added Vilcassim.

The researchers conducted follow-up business audits and surveys in May 2017. What they found was that female entrepreneurs do in fact benefit more from female mentors, because the female mentor- mentee arrangement was said to involve more positive and supportive engagement.

Generally, the researchers found that while the female-to-female mentorship dynamic yielded promising results, female entrepreneurs who were guided by male mentors did not significantly improve their performance relative to those in the Comparison group.

“In the end, we found that to increase the likelihood of female entrepreneurship success, gender matching with female entrepreneurs is a promising strategy,” says Chintagunta. “Just as important, in cases where female mentors may not be available, male mentors could be more effective by adopting a style characterized by more positive engagement, which is akin to female mentors.”

 

Link to Study.

 

About INFORMS and Marketing Science

Marketing Science is a premier peer-reviewed scholarly marketing journal focused on research using quantitative approaches to study all aspects of the interface between consumers and firms. It is published by INFORMS, the leading international association for operations research and analytics professionals. More information is available at www.informs.org or @informs.

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JOURNAL

Marketing Science

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Case study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

“Breaking the Glass Ceiling: Empowering Female Entrepreneurs Through Female Mentors”

 

AI-generated food images look tastier than real ones

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD

With the Global Nutrition and Hydration Week 2024 starting today, researchers have announced an intriguing discovery – consumers generally prefer AI-generated images of food over real food images, especially when they are unaware of their true nature. The new findings have been published in Food Quality and Preference.

According to the researchers, the results suggest that AI-generated food visuals excel at enhancing the appeal of depicted foods by leveraging key features such as symmetry, shape, glossiness, and overall lighting and colour. All of these are known to contribute significantly to the attractiveness of food imagery.

Even subtle tweaks in positioning may enhance the appeal of AI-generated food images. Lead author Giovanbattista Califano (Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Naples Federico II) explained: ‘As humans, we tend to feel uneasy with objects pointing towards us, interpreting them as threats, even when it’s just food. When tasked with replicating food photos featuring items pointing at the viewer, such as a bunch of carrots or a piece of cake, the AI often positions the food so that it doesn’t directly point at the viewer. This warrants further studies, but it's plausible that this approach enhances the perceived attractiveness of the depicted food.’

In the study, the researchers asked 297 participants to rate real or AI-generated food images on a scale from “Not at all appetizing” to “Extremely appetizing.” The images depicted a range of natural, processed, and ultra-processed foods, from apples and carrots to chocolate milkshakes and potato fries. When participants were told how each image had been created—whether through photography or AI—they tended to rate real and AI-generated versions equally appealing. However, when participants were unaware of the image creation process, the AI-generated version was consistently rated as significantly more appetizing than the real food image.

Study supervisor and co-author Professor Charles Spence (Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford) said: ‘While AI-generated visuals may offer cost-saving opportunities for marketers and the industry by reducing the cost of commissioning food photoshoots, these findings highlight potential risks associated with exacerbating ‘visual hunger’ amongst consumers—the phenomenon where viewing images of food triggers appetite and cravings. This could potentially influence unhealthy eating behaviours or foster unrealistic expectations about food among consumers.’

Additionally, the researchers also found that AI-generated images tend to depict foods to appear more energy-dense compared to the originals, particularly in the abundance portrayed. For instance, AI may increase the number of fries in the image or add more whipped cream to a dessert. Given that humans have an evolutionary drive to pay more attention to energy-dense foods, this raises concerns that widespread dissemination of such idealized food images could promote cue-induced eating of unhealthy foods.

Furthermore, with the global movement towards more sustainable consumption patterns, including the promotion of ‘ugly’ fruits and vegetables, there is a concern that constant production of AI-enhanced food images might nudge consumers towards an unrealistic standard of how natural foods should look, potentially harming sustainability efforts.

 

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This article, “Assessing the visual appeal of real/AI-generated food images”, by Giovanbattista Califano and Charles Spence, has been published online in Food Quality and Preference: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodqual.2024.105149

Images

All images used in the study are accessible in Appendix A. Supplementary data through the following link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodqual.2024.105149

 

‘Study drugs’ set the stage for other drug use and mental health decline

Adderall abuse primes college students for alcohol, cannabis and more

Peer-Reviewed Publication

BINGHAMTON UNIVERSITY

 

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TAKING “STUDY DRUGS” LIKE ADDERALL WITHOUT A DIAGNOSIS IS NOT ONLY DANGEROUS IN ITSELF, BUT CAN LEAD TO OTHER DRUG USE AND A DECLINE IN MENTAL HEALTH, ACCORDING TO NEW RESEARCH FROM BINGHAMTON UNIVERSITY, STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK. 

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CREDIT: "FILE:LISDEXAMFETAMINE CAPS.JPG" BY CHAMPLAX IS LICENSED UNDER CC BY-SA 3.0.

BINGHAMTON, N.Y. -- Taking “study drugs” like Adderall without a diagnosis is not only dangerous in itself, but can lead to other drug use and a decline in mental health, according to new research from Binghamton University, State University of New York. 

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) medications are frequently used illicitly by college students as a study aid, but it’s unknown what psychoactive substances are likely to be abused along with these drugs. To explore this issue, a team of Binghamton researchers led by Associate Professor of Health and Wellness Studies Lina Begdache, conducted a study of 702 undergraduate college students from across the U.S., asking about the most commonly used drugs used by students – including ADHD medications, cannabis, nicotine, alcohol, MDMA, and ecstasy – as well as questions on academic performance and physical and mental distress.

The researchers found several associations indicating that using one substance may lead to using others – as if the brain becomes primed for further substance use. 

“Substance use promotes the release of the neurotransmitter dopamine, which is responsible for the initial euphoria and feelings of pleasure. These sensations act as a positive reinforcement for further substance use,” said Begdache. “The continuous activation of the limbic system through drug use leads to dependence, in a sense that this substance is no longer producing pleasurable feelings. Individuals have to either increase the dose or resort to something more potent.”

The researchers found that using one substance was associated with generally poorer mental health and lower resilience to stress. Also, low frequency of use was negatively associated with mental distress, which potentially becomes a positive reinforcement for further use. 

“Since the human brain continues developing into a person’s mid/late 20s, substance use during young adulthood may have a strong negative impact on the quality of brain maturity and cognitive function,” said Begdache. “Additionally, those individuals are likely to continue using substances later in life, which means they are at risk of mental health decline as well. Our findings also indicated that substance use is linked to lower resilience to adversity. So we can speculate that the rise in mental health ailments may be mediated by a lower resilience to adversity, which impacts mood.”

Begdache said that these findings are important because many students may use study drugs not knowing their detrimental effects on the brain. 

“Since these are prescribed medications to promote focus in individuals who actually have ADHD, students may think that they are safe to use and that the drug may give them an academic edge,” she said.

Begdache leads the Binghamton Student Managed Adderall Research Team (B-SMART), which investigates the harmful effects of Adderall abuse on college students and is conducting further studies. She believes that college campuses need to take a stranger stance on educating their students about the dangers of drug use on the developing brain. 

“The repeated feedback we receive from students is that they wish they knew this information earlier. Lack of education and peer pressure are the main drivers,” said Begdache. “College campuses are struggling to deal with the mental health decline of their students. A preventative approach is more cost-effective and may likely improve the quality of life of their students in the future.”

The paper, “Association between ADHD Medication, Cannabis, and Nicotine Use, Mental Distress, and Other Psychoactive Substances,” was published in the International Journal of Psychological and Behavioral Sciences.

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METHOD OF RESEARCH

Survey

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Association between ADHD Medication, Cannabis, and Nicotine Use, Mental Distress, and Other Psychoactive Substances

 

Implantable brain-computer interface collaborative community (iBCI-CC) to drive innovation in neurotechnology

Business Announcement

MASS GENERAL BRIGHAM

BOSTON – (March 11, 2024) Mass General Brigham is establishing the Implantable Brain-Computer Interface Collaborative Community (iBCI-CC). This is the first Collaborative Community in the clinical neurosciences that has participation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

BCIs are devices that interface with the nervous system and use software to interpret neural activity. Commonly, they are designed for improved access to communication or other technologies for people with physical disability. Implantable BCIs are investigational devices that hold the promise of unlocking new frontiers in restorative neurotechnology, offering potential breakthroughs in neurorehabilitation and in restoring function for people living with neurologic disease or injury.

The iBCI-CC (https://www.ibci-cc.org/) is a groundbreaking initiative aimed at fostering collaboration among diverse stakeholders to accelerate the development, safety and accessibility of iBCI technologies. The iBCI-CC brings together researchers, clinicians, medical device manufacturers, patient advocacy groups and individuals with lived experience of neurological conditions. This collaborative effort aims to propel the field of iBCIs forward by employing harmonized approaches that drive continuous innovation and ensure equitable access to these transformative technologies.

One of the first milestones for the iBCI-CC was to engage the participation of the FDA. “Brain-computer interfaces have the potential to restore lost function for patients suffering from a variety of neurological conditions. However, there are clinical, regulatory, coverage and payment questions that remain, which may impede patient access to this novel technology,” said David McMullen, M.D., Director of the Office of Neurological and Physical Medicine Devices in the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH), and FDA member of the iBCI-CC. “The IBCI-CC will serve as an open venue to identify, discuss and develop approaches for overcoming these hurdles.”

The iBCI-CC will hold regular meetings open both to its members and the public to ensure inclusivity and transparency. Mass General Brigham will serve as the convener of the iBCI-CC, providing administrative support and ensuring alignment with the community’s objectives.

Over the past year, the iBCI-CC was organized by the interdisciplinary collaboration of leaders including Leigh Hochberg, MD, PhD, an internationally respected leader in BCI development and clinical testing and director of the Center for Neurotechnology and Neurorecovery at Massachusetts General Hospital; Jennifer French, MBA, executive director of the Neurotech Network and a Paralympic silver medalist; and Joe Lennerz, MD, PhD, a regulatory science expert and director of the Pathology Innovation Collaborative Community. These three organizers lead a distinguished group of Charter Signatories representing a diverse range of expertise and organizations.

“As a neurointensive care physician, I know how many patients with neurologic disorders could benefit from these devices,” said Dr. Hochberg. “Increasing discoveries in academia and the launch of multiple iBCI and related neurotech companies means that the time is right to identify common goals and metrics so that iBCIs are not only safe and effective, but also have thoroughly considered the design and function preferences of the people who hope to use them”.

Jennifer French, said, “Bringing diverse perspectives together, including those with lived experience, is a critical component to help address complex issues facing this field.” French has decades of experience working in the neurotech and patient advocacy fields. Living with a spinal cord injury, she also uses an implanted neurotech device for daily functions. “This ecosystem of neuroscience is on the cusp to collectively move the field forward by addressing access to the latest groundbreaking technology, in an equitable and ethical way. We can’t wait to engage and recruit the broader BCI community.”

Joe Lennerz, MD, PhD, emphasized, "Engaging in pre-competitive initiatives offers an often-overlooked avenue to drive meaningful progress. The collaboration of numerous thought leaders plays a pivotal role, with a crucial emphasis on regulatory engagement to unlock benefits for patients."

The iBCI-CC is supported by key stakeholders within the Mass General Brigham system. Merit Cudkowicz, MD, MSc, chair of the Neurology Department, director of the Sean M. Healey and AMG Center for ALS at Massachusetts General Hospital, and Julianne Dorn Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School, said, “There is tremendous excitement in the ALS [amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s disease] community for new devices that could ease and improve the ability of people with advanced ALS to communicate with their family, friends, and care partners. This important collaborative community will help to speed the development of a new class of neurologic devices to help our patients.”

Bailey McGuire, program manager of strategy and operations at Mass General Brigham’s Data Science Office, said, “We are thrilled to convene the iBCI-CC at Mass General Brigham’s DSO. By providing an administrative infrastructure, we want to help the iBCI-CC advance regulatory science and accelerate the availability of iBCI solutions that incorporate novel hardware and software that can benefit individuals with neurological conditions. We’re excited to help in this incredible space.”

For more information about the iBCI-CC, please visit https://www.ibci-cc.org/.

 

About Mass General Brigham

Mass General Brigham is an integrated academic health care system, uniting great minds to solve the hardest problems in medicine for our communities and the world. Mass General Brigham connects a full continuum of care across a system of academic medical centers, community and specialty hospitals, a health insurance plan, physician networks, community health centers, home care, and long-term care services. Mass General Brigham is a nonprofit organization committed to patient care, research, teaching, and service to the community. In addition, Mass General Brigham is one of the nation’s leading biomedical research organizations with several Harvard Medical School teaching hospitals. For more information, please visit massgeneralbrigham.org.

 

About the iBCI-CC Organizers:

Leigh Hochberg, MD, PhD is a neurointensivist at Massachusetts General Hospital’s Department of Neurology, where he directs the MGH Center for Neurotechnology and Neurorecovery. He is also the IDE Sponsor-Investigator and Director of the BrainGate clinical trials, conducted by a consortium of scientists and clinicians at Brown, Emory, MGH, VA Providence, Stanford, and UC-Davis; the L. Herbert Ballou University Professor of Engineering and Professor of Brain Science at Brown University; Senior Lecturer on Neurology at Harvard Medical School; and Associate Director, VA RR&D Center for Neurorestoration and Neurotechnology in Providence.

Jennifer French, MBA, is the Executive Director of Neurotech Network, a nonprofit organization that focuses on education and advocacy of neurotechnologies. She serves on several Boards including the IEEE Neuroethics Initiative, Institute of Neuroethics, OpenMind platform, BRAIN Initiative Multi-Council and Neuroethics Working Groups, and the American Brain Coalition. She is the author of On My Feet Again (Neurotech Press, 2013) and is co-author of Bionic Pioneers (Neurotech Press, 2014). French lives with tetraplegia due to a spinal cord injury. She is an early user of an experimental implanted neural prosthesis for paralysis and is the Past-President and Founding member of the North American SCI Consortium.

Joe Lennerz, MD PhD, serves as the Chief Scientific Officer at BostonGene, an AI analytics and genomics startup based in Boston. Dr. Lennerz obtained a PhD in neurosciences, specializing in electrophysiology. He works on biomarker development and migraine research. Additionally, he is the co-founder and leader of the Pathology Innovation Collaborative Community, a regulatory science initiative focusing on diagnostics and software as a medical device (SaMD), convened by the Medical Device Innovation Consortium. He also serves as the co-chair of the federal Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule (CLFS) advisory panel to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

 

Political rage on social media is making us cynical

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

Political anger and cynicism are rising in the United States and in many democracies worldwide, and both are associated with exposure to political attacks on social media, a new University of Michigan study shows.

 

Americans use social media to find information and news about politics, but much of the content they see in their feeds is hostile, uncivil and attacking, said lead author Ariel Hasell, assistant professor of communication and media and an affiliate of the Center for Political Studies at the U-M Institute for Social Research. 

 

Hasell and colleagues investigated whether exposure to political attacks on social media is associated with political cynicism, and if so, whether emotions like anger and anxiety play a role in this process. 

 

They found that people who were exposed to more political attacks on social media were more politically cynical, and that perceived exposure to these attacks was associated with more anger about the state of the U.S., which was subsequently related to greater levels of political cynicism. 

 

Their results, based on a panel survey of 1,800 American adults fielded during the 2020 election, were recently published in the International Journal of Press/Politics.

 

"It's important to understand how feelings of cynicism emerge because we're seeing many democratic governments facing crises of legitimacy," Hasell said. "Our findings provide some of the first evidence of how exposure to political attacks on social media might relate to political cynicism in the context of a U.S. presidential election." 

 

Cynicism in a democracy

 

Hasell and colleagues define political cynicism as an attitude that's rooted in distrust of political actors' motivations. It goes further than healthy skepticism, they say, because it involves wholesale rejection of people and processes in democracy, and an underlying belief that politicians are guided by corrupt, self-serving, personal interests, rather than service to the public good. 

 

"Cynicism can be a rational response to actual corruption and breaches of trust by those in power," said Audrey Halversen, doctoral student in the Department of Communication and Media. "But it is a matter of concern among scholars of democracy because of its potential to delegitimize democratic processes, reinforce negative attitudes, distort people's interpretations of political information, and cause some citizens to withdraw from politics."

 

Pew Research Center polls show the American public's confidence in government has reached its lowest point in decades, and perceptions that self-interest and corruption are guiding government action have bred cynicism across the political spectrum. The U-M study tested the theory that this increase in cynicism might be linked to political social media use.

 

Social media influence

 

Political content on social media is often toxic, and we can expect to see political hostility surge online this summer and fall as we approach the presidential election, Hasell said.

 

Prior research has shown that political attacks communicated by independent actors (rather than candidates) can be especially influential in shaping political beliefs. Social media algorithms reward and amplify attacks precisely because they're engaging. Studies show this makes outrage more potent and visible, giving users a warped view of what the public believes. 

 

"If your main source of news is social media, you are more likely to perceive politics as hostile and angry," Hasell said. "And beyond the feelings that political attacks provoke, it matters how people perceive and read the temperature of 'public emotions' because this can impact assessments about the country's well-being and its ability to solve problems and accomplish goals."

 

The panel survey in the U-M study asked participants about their social media usage and whether they had been exposed to political attacks against Trump and Republicans, or against Biden and Democrats, on social media. It included a set of questions to measure political cynicism among respondents, and asked about their feelings about the state of the U.S. as a country. 

 

Anger and anxiety

 

Public anger in American politics has reached a fevered pitch in the last decade, and data show it is rising among American voters heading into the first presidential election since the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. 

 

An 2019 NBC/Wall Street Journal poll found nearly 7 in 10 Americans reported being angry about the political establishment and a 2023 survey by the Public Religion Research Institute showed that about a quarter of Americans agree that "true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country.” This is up from 15% in 2021.

 

Anxiety is another negative emotion, which can be elicited by uncertainty, risk aversion and threats, especially if they are vague, unknown or perceived to be beyond one's control, the researchers said. Political fearmongering and social media toxicity can drive anxiety during a presidential election by creating uncertainty about political outcomes and by creating a generalized sense of political hostility that is beyond an individual's control.

 

"Negative emotions are not necessarily bad for democracy," Hasell said. "Emotions like anxiety and anger can drive people to the polls, motivate advocacy, and get people to seek and think more deeply about political information. But relentless negativity about the state of a country 'under threat' can also make people frustrated, disgruntled and disengaged. Anger can affect our ability to see things as they are, and make measured decisions that are important in a democracy."

 

A 'concerning' cycle 

 

The study found evidence that exposure to political attacks on social media contributes to anxiety, anger and political cynicism, but that anger is the emotion that relates to cynicism.

 

"As more people turn to social media for news and information, it's likely that they'll be more repeatedly exposed to political attacks, which may further promote political cynicism," Hasell said. "This is concerning because cynicism can make it harder for people to make sense of political information. It can lead people down a road of apathy and disengagement, or toward fringe parties and antidemocratic forms of participation."

 

Can citizens who use social media do anything to break that pattern?
 

"An easy way to avoid getting angry and cynical is to be mindful about focusing on nonhostile, civil dialogue," Hasell said. "If you are seeing a lot of hostility in your social media, you can think about re-curating and unfollowing people who are fomenting this kind of hostility. We don't find that social media use in itself is making people angry and cynical, it has to do with how we decide to use it."

 

Brian Weeks of the U-M Department of Communication and Media and Center for Political Studies at the Institute for Social Research was also a co-author on the Michigan study.

 

Study: When social media attack: How exposure to political attacks on social media promotes anger and political cynicism

 

Written by Tevah Platt, Institute for Social Research

 

Emergency room culture may deter medical students from selecting specialty

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - LOS ANGELES HEALTH SCIENCES

FINDINGS  

In a new UCLA Health study, 25 medical students pursuing emergency medicine were interviewed about their experiences working in an emergency room during clinical rotations. Four themes were identified in their answers: watching difficult interactions between patient and care team and among the care team was distressing; women participants found that culture to be exclusionary; traits – like assertiveness and self-advocacy – were favored; and access to mentors, representation, and exposure to environment influenced interest towards the specialty.  Most of the medical students interviewed -- 21 of the 25 -- planned on applying to an emergency medicine residency. However, they said it remains a challenge to adopt emergency medicine norms based on the type of environment they experienced.  

BACKGROUND  

Emergency medicine is experiencing a decline in interest among graduating medical students, and women continue to be underrepresented in the field.   

Part of joining a medical specialty is assimilating to the established culture of characteristics and norms. The researchers aimed to assess students’ experiences working in the emergency room and how those experiences influenced the selection of specialty.   

METHOD  

The study authors interviewed 25 medical students about their experiences in the emergency room. They used a constructivist grounded theory approach, meaning they gathered and synthesized answers instead of testing a preconceived idea.   

The students needed to have completed an emergency medicine rotation and considered pursuing emergency medicine. They were selected from across the country.   

IMPACT  

The emergency room environment may dissuade students from pursuing that specialty which would impact diversifying the specialty.    

JOURNAL 

The study, “Understanding clerkship experiences in emergency medicine and their potential influence on specialty selection: A qualitative study” is published in Academic Emergency Medicine Education.  

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JOURNAL

Academic Emergency Medicine

DOI

10.1002/aet2.10932 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Survey

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Understanding clerkship experiences in emergency medicine and their potential influence on specialty selection: A qualitative study

 

Researchers solve crucial cold-induced sweetening problem in potato production

The potato industry benefits from new tuber research published in The Plant Cell

Peer-Reviewed Publication

AMERICAN SOCIETY OF PLANT BIOLOGISTS

Researchers have discovered a game changer for the potato industry.

According to a new study published in a leading international society journal published by the American Society of Plant Biologists, a small genetic element is the cause of a major production problem in potatoes.

“Our manuscript reveals the mystery of “cold-induced sweetening” (CIS), the most troublesome and expensive problem for the potato processing industry,” explained Jiming Jiang, Corresponding Author of “Molecular dissection of an intronic enhancer governing cold-induced expression of the vacuolar invertase gene in potato” published February 20 in The Plant Cell. “Interestingly, it is controlled by a 200-bp sequence hidden in an intron of the potato vacuolar invertase gene.”

Potatoes, one of the most widely consumed and produced food crops worldwide, are typically stored for many months after the harvesting season. Farmers use cold temperatures to mitigate diseases, sprouting and softening.

However, another physiological process occurs when potatoes are exposed to cold. Cold temperatures encourage tubers to turn starch into sugar. When those potatoes are removed from storage and fried, accumulated sugars cause them to produce acrylamide and turn an undesirable dark brown-black color.

In the study, Jiang and co-authors identified several DNA motifs in the 200-bp sequence that bind transcription factors involved in the plant cold stress response. The researchers found mutating these small, specific sequences significantly decreased the cold-stress response in the potatoes.

This discovery solves a long-standing agricultural problem and sets the groundwork for easily improving it with gene editing.

“I was hired as a potato breeder by the Department of Horticulture, University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1995,” added Jiang. ”Improving the CIS trait, based on traditional breeding as well as biotech approach, was one of the top goals for the breeding program.”

 

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JOURNAL

The Plant Cell

DOI

10.1093/plcell/koae050 

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Molecular dissection of an intronic enhancer governing cold-induced expression of the vacuolar invertase gene in potato