“On-demand” HIV prevention method for women being tested in second early phase trial

Phase 1 study of the TAF/EVG fast-dissolving vaginal insert – intended for use at the time of sex – begins at US and African sites

Business Announcement

MATRIX: A USAID PROJECT TO ADVANCE THE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT OF INNOVATIVE HIV PREVENTION PRODUCTS FOR WOMEN

PITTSBURGH – December 6, 2023 – A fast-dissolving vaginal insert that women would use at or around the time of sex as an “on-demand” HIV prevention method is being evaluated in a new early phase study being conducted by MATRIX, a United States Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded project focused on the early research and development of innovative HIV prevention products for women. 

The insert, which resembles a bullet-shaped tablet, contains the antiretroviral (ARV) drugs tenofovir alafenamide (TAF) and elvitegravir (EVG). Once inside the vagina, it would begin to dissolve, and in doing so, release the two drugs. Animal and laboratory studies suggest the insert would provide protection against HIV for up to three days.

The MATRIX study is only the second Phase 1 trial of the TAF/EVG fast-dissolving insert used vaginally and the first to evaluate its use in multiple doses as well as in African women. The TAF/EVG fast-dissolving insert is the only on-demand HIV prevention product for use by women currently being evaluated in clinical trials.

The insert is being developed by CONRAD, a nonprofit research organization affiliated with Eastern Virginia Medical School (EVMS) in Norfolk, Va., U.S.A., for its use both vaginally and rectally. CONRAD-146, a first-in-human study conducted in the U.S. of its use as a vaginal insert, found that single administration was safe and acceptable among 16 women.

In the MATRIX study, known as MATRIX-001, researchers are evaluating the safety of the vaginal insert when used multiple times over several days, as well as user acceptability and how and where the two drugs are taken up in the body. The study, which will enroll 60 women at three sites in Kenya, South Africa and the United States, will help determine whether the product should advance to Phase 2 studies of its safety and acceptability when used as designed, i.e. at or around the time of sex.

Such a method could appeal to women who don’t want or are unable to use oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), which requires taking an ARV tablet every day, or long-acting products like the monthly dapivirine vaginal ring or cabotegravir injections given every two months. It may be especially appealing to women who have infrequent or clustered sex and want only to use a product when needed, with local delivery (in the vagina) and with little drug going elsewhere in the body.

“Existing methods aren’t enough to meet women’s varying needs and lifestyles. A product that’s intended to be used at the time of sex, like the fast-dissolving TAF/EVG vaginal insert, would fill an important gap as alternative approach for women wanting protection only when they feel they need it,” said Nelly Mugo, MBChB, Mmed, MPH, MATRIX-001 protocol co-chair and investigator of record of the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) Centre for Clinical Research Thika clinical research site (CRS), one of the three sites conducting the MATRIX-001study.

“Granted, the TAF/EVG insert is early in development, which is why the MATRIX-001 study is so critically important, especially for African women. This study will help determine the way forward for this product, and potentially get us one step closer to it being a viable option for women in this region,” added Leila Mansoor, PhD, protocol co-chair and the investigator of record at the Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA) eThekwini CRS, also a MATRIX-001 study site.

The TAV/EVG fast-dissolving insert contains 20 mg of TAF and 16 mg of EVG. TAF belongs to a class of ARVs called nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs) that prevent HIV from making copies of itself inside human cells, therefore, preventing the spread of HIV inside the body. TAF has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of chronic hepatitis B and for the treatment and prevention of HIV in men who have sex with men when used in combination with emtricitabine. Similarly, EVG has been approved by the U.S. FDA for the treatment of HIV in combination with other ARVs. EVG belongs to a class of ARV drugs known as integrase inhibitors that block HIV from being able to integrate its genetic code into human cells – a step that occurs later in the HIV lifecycle. Both TAF and EVG are being provided by Gilead Sciences for CONRAD’s development in the insert product.

Women in the study will be randomly assigned to use either the TAF/EVG fast-dissolving insert or a placebo insert with no active drugs. Each participant will use a total of 10 inserts – at first, every day for three consecutive days, and then every other day (every 48 hours) for two weeks. Participants will insert the products themselves, the first time in the clinic, with guidance from study staff. During the two to three months women are in the study, they will undergo different tests and procedures and will be asked questions about product acceptability prior to, during and following insert use. In addition, laboratory tests of tissue samples will be conducted to assess its potential activity against HIV, as well as herpes simplex virus (HSV), because pre-clinical laboratory and animal studies have shown that TAF acts against HSV in addition to HIV.

The study enrolled its first participants this week at the U.S. site, the EVMS CRS in Norfolk, Va, and the CAPRISA eThekwini CRS in South Africa has started screening potential participants. The study should be underway at the KEMRI Thika CRS in Kenya by early January. MATRIX-001 is expected to take approximately one year to conduct, with results anticipated mid-2025.

The TAF/EVG fast-dissolving insert is one of nine HIV prevention products being developed under MATRIX, and the only product to have previously been evaluated in clinical trials. In addition to the CONRAD-146 first-in-human study of its use vaginally, researchers have also conducted the MTN-039 first-in-human study of its use as a rectal insert, which found single use and two inserts used together posing no safety concerns. In both studies, results of laboratory tests of tissue and fluid samples showed drug levels compatible with protection against HIV.

According to UNAIDS, women and girls accounted for 63 percent of all new HIV infections in sub-Saharan Africa in 2022, versus 46 percent globally. In much of Africa, daily oral PrEP is the only biomedical prevention method available, and daily pill-taking has been especially challenging for adolescent girls and young women. Both the monthly dapivirine ring and cabotegravir long-acting injectable (CAB-LA) have been recommended by the World Health Organization and approved for use in several African countries, though neither method is yet to be made widely available. Even so, women have different preferences and needs, and at different times in their lives, which is why additional options are needed.

MATRIX is a five-year program funded by USAID in 2021 that aims to expedite the research and development of HIV prevention products for women – including products designed to protect against both HIV and pregnancy – that in addition to being safe and effective, will be acceptable, affordable, scalable and deliverable in the settings where they are needed most. MATRIX activities are focused on the early research and development of products, which involves both pre-clinical research and the first clinical trials of products. Through its North-South partnerships, MATRIX also aims to strengthen the capacity of African investigators to facilitate full and sustainable ownership of this work into the future. MATRIX is being implemented by Magee-Womens Research Institute (MWRI) in collaboration with partner organizations based in Kenya, South Africa, the United States and Zimbabwe. Leading the project is Sharon Hillier, Ph.D., of MWRI and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, with Thesla Palanee-Phillips, Ph.D., from the Wits RHI and University of Witwatersrand, South Africa, serving as deputy director.

# # #

To learn about MATRIX go to www.matrix4prevention.org.  Click here to read a QA about the TAF/EVG fast-dissolving vaginal insert and MATRIX-001 study.  Additional information about MATRIX-001 can also be found at https://www.matrix4prevention.org/activity-hubs/clinical-trials/matrix-001.

MATRIX was established through the generous support of the American people through the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

(United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Cooperative Agreement Number 7200AA22CA00002)

The content and views in this document are those of MATRIX and its partners and do not necessarily reflect the views of PEPFAR, USAID or the U.S. Government.

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METHOD OF RESEARCH

Randomized controlled/clinical trial

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

Disclaimer: 

 

Having a C-section is related to difficulties with conceiving

Peer-Reviewed Publication

THE UNIVERSITY OF BERGEN

 

IMAGE: 

YENEABEBA SIMA 

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CREDIT: SAGE WYATT

Previous studies shown that women who have had a C-section tend to have more problems conceiving a baby than ones who have had normal, vaginal birth.

“Many of these studies have utilized inter-pregnancy intervals to measure women’s fertility,” researcher Yeneabeba Sima at the University of Bergen, explains. She points out:

“However, a measure of inter-pregnancy interval cannot distinguish between voluntary and involuntary delay in getting pregnant.”

Asking women if they planned their pregnancies.

Using data from The Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study (MoBa) linked to the Medical Birth Registry of Norway (MBRN), Sima and colleagues assessed women’s fertility.

The MoBa questionnaire inquired whether or not women planned their pregnancies.

“For those who actively tried to have a baby, we examined the time it took for them to conceive. If they had tried for a year or more before getting pregnant, they were considered to have reduced fertility,” says Sima.

The researchers examined differences in time spent trying to conceive among 42,379 MoBa participants, all of whom had at least one previously registered birth in the MBRN. The findings indicated that women with a prior C-section had a 10% decreased chance of conceiving their next pregnancy during a given menstrual cycle compared with those who had prior vaginal deliveries.

Women with fertility problems also had more C-sections.  

The researchers also explored the association in the other direction, between reduced fertility and later C-section. Among 74,025 MoBa participants, 11% reported trying for more than one year before getting pregnant. They found that women who took one year or longer to conceive were 21% more likely to be delivered by C-section, as compared with women who spent less than 12 months trying to conceive.    

“In our study, women with difficulty conceiving have a higher prevalence of pregnancy complications. There is also a higher prevalence of chronic health issues like diabetes mellitus and high blood pressure among these women. However, the increased risk of having a C-section still existed for women who didn't have these health issues," said Sima.

The associations between C-section and reduced fertility might not be causal. 

Previous studies concluded that reduced fertility following C-section could be a side effect of the surgical operation. However, Sima and colleagues suggest that common underlying risk factors could contribute to both reduced fertility and C-section:

“Maternal stress might be one reasonable explanation connecting challenges in conceiving and an elevated risk of labor difficulties, ultimately leading to a higher likelihood of C-section,” Sima explains, and adds:

“Our findings suggest that the observed reduced ability to conceive after C-section may be linked to underlying maternal conditions not registered in our data or not yet clinically emerged, and the surgical procedure may not directly influence this pathway.”  

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JOURNAL

American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology

DOI

10.1016/j.ajog.2023.10.029 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Survey

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

The relationship between cesarean delivery and fecundability: a population-based cohort study

 

How ChatGPT could help first responders during natural disasters

UB researchers train AI to accurately recognize addresses and other location descriptions in Hurricane Harvey social media posts

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY AT BUFFALO

BUFFALO, N.Y. — A little over a year since its launch, ChatGPT’s abilities are well known. The machine learning model can write a decent college-level essay and hold a conversation in an almost human-like way. 

But could its language skills also help first responders find those in distress during a natural disaster?

A new University at Buffalo-led study trains ChatGPT to recognize locations, from home addresses to intersections, in disaster victims’ social media posts. 

Supplied with carefully constructed prompts, researchers’ “geoknowledge-guided” GPT models extracted location data from tweets sent during Hurricane Harvey at an accuracy rate 76% better than default GPT models.

“This use of AI technology may be able to help first responders reach victims more quickly and even save more lives,” said Yingjie Hu, associate professor in the UB Department of Geography, within the College of Arts and Sciences, and lead author of the study, which was published in October in the International Journal of Geographical Information Science.

Disaster victims have frequently turned to social media to plead for help when 911 systems become overloaded, including during Harvey’s devastation of the Houston area in 2017.

Yet first responders often don’t have the resources to monitor social media feeds during a disaster, following the various hashtags and deciding which posts are most urgent. 

It is the hope of the UB-led research team, which also includes collaborators from the University of Georgia, Stanford University and Google, that their work could lead to AI systems that automatically process social media data for emergency services. 

“ChatGPT and other large language models have drawn controversy for their potential negative uses, whether it be academic fraud or eliminating jobs, so it is exciting to instead harness their powers for social good,” Hu says.

"While there are a number of significant and valid concerns about the emergence of ChatGPT, our work shows that careful, interdisciplinary work can produce applications of this technology that can provide tangible benefits to society,” adds co-author Kenneth Joseph, assistant professor in the UB Department of Computer Science and Engineering, within the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

Fusing ‘geoknowledge’ into ChatGPT

Imagine a tweet with an urgent but clear message: A family, including a 90-year-old not steady on their feet, needs rescuing at 1280 Grant St., Cypress, Texas, 77249.

A typical model, such as a named entity recognition (NER) tool, would recognize the listed address as three separate entities — Grant Street, Cypress and Texas. If this data was used to geolocate, the model would send first responders not to 1280 Grant St., but into the middle of Grant Street, or even the geographical center of Texas.

Hu says that NER tools can be trained to recognize complete location descriptions, but it would require a large dataset of accurately labeled location descriptions specific to a given local area, a labor-intensive and time-consuming process.

“Although there’s a lack of labeled datasets, first responders have a lot of knowledge about the way locations are described in their local area, whether it be the name of a restaurant or a popular intersection,” Hu says. “So we asked ourselves: How can we quickly and efficiently infuse this geoknowledge into a machine learning model?”

The answer was OpenAI’s Generative Pretrained Transformers, or GPT, large language models already trained from billions of webpages and able to generate human-like responses. Through simple conversation and the right prompts, Hu’s team thought GPT could quickly learn to accurately interpret location data from social media posts.

First, researchers provided GPT with 22 real tweets from Hurricane Harvey victims, which they’d already collected and labeled in a previous study. They told GPT which words in the post described a location and what kind of location it was describing, whether it be an address, street, intersection, business or landmark.  

Researchers then tested the geoknowledge-guided GPT on another 978 Hurricane Harvey tweets, and asked it to extract the location words and guess the location category by itself.

The results: The geoknowledge-guided GPT models were 76% better at recognizing location descriptions than GPT models not provided with geoknowledge, as well as 40% better than NER tools. The best performers were the geoknowledge-guided GPT-3 and GPT-4, with the geoknowledge-guided ChatGPT only slightly behind. 

“GPT basically combines the vast amount of text it’s already read with the specific geoknowledge examples we provided to form its answers,” Hu says. “GPT has the ability to quickly learn and quickly adapt to a problem.”

However, the human touch, that is, providing a good prompt, is crucial. For example, GPT may not consider a stretch of highway between two specific exits as a location unless specifically prompted to do so.

“This emphasizes the importance of us as researchers instructing GPT as accurately and comprehensively as possible so it can deliver the results that we require,” Hu says.

Letting first responders do what they do best

Hu’s team began their work in early 2022 with GPT-2 and GPT-3, and later included GPT-4 and ChatGPT after those models launched in late 2022 and early 2023, respectively. 

“Our method will likely be applicable to the newer GPT models that may come out in the following years,” Hu says.

Further research will have to be done to use GPT’s extracted location descriptions to actually geolocate victims, and perhaps figure out ways to filter out irrelevant or false posts about a disaster.

Hu hopes their efforts can simplify the use of AI technologies so that emergency managers don’t have to become AI experts themselves in order to use these them, and can focus on saving lives. 

“I think a good way for humans to collaborate with AI is to let each of us focus on what we're really good at,” Hu says. “Let AI models help us complete those more labor-intensive tasks, while we humans focus on gaining knowledge and using such knowledge to guide AI models.”

The work was supported by the National Science Foundation.

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JOURNAL

International Journal of Geographical Information Science

DOI

10.1080/13658816.2023.2266495 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Computational simulation/modeling

ARTICLE TITLE

Geo-knowledge-guided GPT models improve the extraction of location descriptions from disaster-related social media messages

 

Ex-entrepreneurs can thrive in the right employee roles, UCF researcher finds in new study

Assistant Professor Jeff Gish co-authored a study which found that former entrepreneurs can successfully transition into employees, especially in roles that harness their entrepreneurial spirit.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA

 

IMAGE: 

IN THE STUDY, RESEARCHERS EXAMINED THE IDENTITY CONFLICT LEVELS OF FORMER ENTREPRENEURS WHO WENT ON TO WORK FOR AN ORGANIZATION. IMAGE CREDIT: ANTOINE HART

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CREDIT: ANTOINE HART/UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA

ORLANDO, Dec. 7, 2023 — Once an entrepreneur always an entrepreneur? Not necessarily, says a new study by researchers at the University of Central Florida and Purdue University. Former entrepreneurs can transition from being their own boss into successful employees within an organization, especially in roles that harness their entrepreneurial spirit, according to a recent study published in Personnel Psychology.

“With today’s career paths typically spanning multiple roles across a variety of organizations, understanding the transition between someone’s old work self and new work self may be critical to not only the employee’s success but also the company’s,” says Jeff Gish, assistant professor of management and entrepreneurship in UCF’s College of Business and the study’s co-author. 

Gish and co-author Jordan Nielsen, an assistant professor of management organizational behavior/human resources at Purdue, examined the identity conflict levels of former entrepreneurs who went on to work for an organization.

Research has shown that former entrepreneurs frequently experience a “founder penalty” when applying for jobs, losing out to applicants who have never been self-employed. Employers assume former entrepreneurs may be more difficult to manage or will jump ship to start another company and be their own boss again. This new research suggests that this need not be the case for all jobs or for all ex-entrepreneurs.

They surveyed ex-entrepreneurs about their current work identity and whether they felt they could act like an entrepreneur in their current work role or if they had to suppress their entrepreneurial spirit. They also surveyed the ex-entrepreneurs’ romantic partners about whether the employee spoke highly of their current organization, engaging in boosterism or experienced burnout in the role.  

Gish and Nielsen found that identity conflict between the old entrepreneurial self and the new employee self was associated with higher levels of burnout and lower levels of boosterism.

“Ex-entrepreneurs who felt a strong nostalgia for being their own boss tended to be the ones who were the most negatively affected, with the highest levels of burnout and lowest levels of boosterism,” Nielsen says. “To mitigate this, organizations could use interview questions to help identify those who may be more likely to suffer negative consequences or develop positions and onboarding practices that minimize this source of conflict and lay a stronger foundation for success.”

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JOURNAL

Personnel Psychology

DOI

10.1111/peps.12626 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Survey

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

When old and new selves collide: Identity conflict and entrepreneurial nostalgia among ex-entrepreneurs

 Petty Bourgeoisie and Middle Class.  The lower middle class or the petty (petite) bourgeoisie (the bourgeoisie was sometimes called the middle class in this era), “are smallowners who still work their own means of production, or owner-workers” (Adams and Sydie, p. 134).  The characteristic of this class is that it does own some property, but not sufficient to have all work done by employees or workers.  Members of this class must also work in order to survive, so they have a dual existence – as (small scale) property owners and as workers.  Because of this dual role, members of this class have divided interests, usually wishing to preserve private property and property rights, but with interests often opposed to those of the capitalist class.  This class is split internally as well, being geographically, industrially, and politically dispersed, so that it is difficult for it to act as a class.  Marx expected that this class would disappear as capitalism developed, with members moving into the bourgeoisie or into the working class, depending on whether or not they were successful.  Many in this class have done this, but at the same time, this class seems to keep recreating itself in different forms.

 

Marx considers the petite bourgeoisie to be politically conservative or reactionary, preferring to return to an older order.  This class has been considered by some Marxists to have been the base of fascism in the 1920s and 1930s.  At other times, when the petty bourgeoisie is acting in opposition to the interests of large capital, it may have a more radical or reformist bent to it – for example, small employers may express opposition to large monopolies that may be attempting to eliminate small businesses. 

 

Note on the Middle Class.  The issue of the middle class or classes appears to be a major issue within Marxian theory, one often addressed by later Marxists.  Many Marxists attempt to show that the middle class is declining, and polarization of society into two classes is a strong tendency within capitalism.  Marx's view was that the successful members of the middle class would become members of the bourgeoisie, while the unsuccessful would be forced into the proletariat.  In the last few years, many have argued that in North America, and perhaps on a world scale, there is an increasing gap between rich and poor and there is a declining middle.

 

While there have been tendencies in this direction, especially among the farmers and peasantry, there has been no clear long run trend toward decline of the middle class.  At the same time as there has been polarization of classes, there have been new middle groupings created.  Some of these are small business people, shopkeepers, and small producers while others are professional and managerial personnel, and some intellectual personnel.  Well paid working class members and independent trades people might consider themselves to be members of the middle class.  Some segments of this grouping have expanded in number in recent years.  While it is not clear that these groups hold together and constitute a class in any Marxian sense of being combined in opposition to other classes, they do form a middle grouping.  Since Marx's prediction has not come true, sociologists and other writers have devoted much attention to explaining this middle grouping – what is its basis, what are the causes of its stability or growth, how it fits into the class structure, and what are the effects of its existence on proletariat and bourgeoisie.

Marx on Social Class

University of Regina

https://uregina.ca › ~gingrich

Jan 31, 2003 — Marx considers the petite bourgeoisie to be politically conservative or reactionary, preferring to return to an older order. This class has ...

 

Magnetization by laser pulse

Research team identifies new details of a promising phenomenon

Peer-Reviewed Publication

HELMHOLTZ-ZENTRUM DRESDEN-ROSSENDORF

 

IMAGE: 

IF A STRONG LASER PULSE HITS AN IRON ALLOY, THE MATERIAL MELTS BRIEFLY AT THE IRRADIATED POINT AND A TINY MAGNETIC AREA FORMS.

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CREDIT: HZDR / SANDER MÜNSTER

To magnetize an iron nail, one simply has to stroke its surface several times with a bar magnet. Yet, there is a much more unusual method: A team led by the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) discovered some time ago that a certain iron alloy can be magnetized with ultrashort laser pulses. The researchers have now teamed up with the Laserinstitut Hochschule Mittweida (LHM) to investigate this process further. They discovered that the phenomenon also occurs with a different class of materials – which significantly broadens potential application prospects. The working group presents its findings in the scientific journal Advanced Functional Materials (DOI: 10.1002/adfm.202311951).

The unexpected discovery was made back in 2018. When the HZDR team irradiated a thin layer of an iron-aluminum alloy with ultrashort laser pulses, the non-magnetic material suddenly became magnetic. The explanation: The laser pulses rearrange the atoms in the crystal in such a way that the iron atoms move closer together, and thus forming a magnet. The researchers were then able to demagnetize the layer again with a series of weaker laser pulses. This enabled them to discover a way of creating and erasing tiny "magnetic spots" on a surface.

However, the pilot experiment still left some questions unanswered. "It was unclear whether the effect only occurs in the iron-aluminum alloy or also in other materials," explains HZDR physicist Dr. Rantej Bali. "We also wanted to try tracking the time progression of the process." For further investigation, he teamed up with Dr. Theo Pflug from the LHM and colleagues from the University of Zaragoza in Spain.

Flip book with laser pulses

The experts focused specifically on an iron-vanadium alloy. Unlike the iron-aluminum alloy with its regular crystal lattice, the atoms in the iron-vanadium alloy are arranged more chaotically, forming an amorphous, glass-like structure. In order to observe what happens upon laser irradiation, the physicists used a special method: The pump-probe method.

"First, we irradiate the alloy with a strong laser pulse, which magnetizes the material," explains Theo Pflug. "Simultaneously, we use a second, weaker pulse that is reflected on the material surface."

The analysis of the reflected laser pulse provides an indication of the material's physical properties. This process is repeated several times, whereby the time interval between the first "pump" pulse and the subsequent "probe" pulse is continually extended.

As a result, a time series of reflection data is obtained, which allows to characterize the processes being triggered by the laser excitation. "The whole procedure is similar to generating a flip book," says Pflug. "Likewise, a series of individual images that animate when viewed in quick succession."

Rapid melting

The result: Although it has a different atomic structure than the iron-aluminum compound, the iron-vanadium alloy can also be magnetized via laser. "In both cases, the material melts briefly at the irradiation point", explains Rantej Bali. "This causes the laser to erase the previous structure so that a small magnetic area is generated in both alloys."

An encouraging result: Apparently, the phenomenon is not limited to a specific material structure but can be observed in diverse atomic arrangements.

The team is also keeping track of the temporal dynamics of the process: "At least we now know in which time scales something happens," explains Theo Pflug. "Within femtoseconds, the laser pulse excites the electrons in the material. Several picoseconds later, the excited electrons transfer their energy to the atomic nuclei."

Consequently, this energy transfer causes the rearrangement into a magnetic structure, which is stabilized by the subsequent rapid cooling. In follow-up experiments, the researchers aim to observe exactly how the atoms rearrange themselves by examining the magnetization process with intense X-rays.

Sights set on applications

Although still in the early stages, this work already provides initial ideas for possible applications: For example, placing tiny magnets on a chip surface via laser is conceivable. "This could be useful for the production of sensitive magnetic sensors, such as those used in vehicles," speculates Rantej Bali. "It could also find possible applications in magnetic data storage."

Additionally, the phenomenon appears relevant for a new type of electronics, namely spintronics. Here, magnetic signals should be used for digital computing processes instead of electrons passing through transistors as usual – offering a possible approach to computer technology of the future.

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JOURNAL

Advanced Functional Materials

DOI

10.1002/adfm.202311951 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Laser-Induced Positional and Chemical Lattice Reordering Generating Ferromagnetism

 

Growing biofilms actively alter host environment, new study reveals

The findings may offer insight into disease growth and the mechanics of antibiotic resistance

Peer-Reviewed Publication

PENN STATE

 

IMAGE: 

THREE-DIMENSIONAL RECONSTRUCTION OF A BIOFILM GROWN UNDER A 0.5% AGAROSE GEL. THE SCALE BAR IS 10 ΜM.  

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CREDIT: PROVIDED BY JING YAN

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Dental plaque, gut bacteria and the slippery sheen on river rocks are all examples of biofilms, organized communities of microorganisms that colonize our bodies and the world around us. A new study led by Penn State researchers reveals exactly how growing biofilms shape their environments and fine-tune their internal architecture to fit their surroundings. The findings may have implications for a wide variety of applications, from fighting disease to engineering new types of living active materials.

“In the case of bacteria, they grow, divide, and apply forces to each other and their surroundings,” said Sulin Zhang, professor of engineering science and mechanics and of biomedical engineering at Penn State and corresponding author on a paper about the discovery, recently published in the journal Nature Physics. “As such, growing bacteria have the potential to shape the environment, changing the environment they live in, so we were interested in understanding the reciprocal interactions between the growing biofilm and environment where it grows.”

Zhang collaborated with an interdisciplinary team of researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Yale to study that interaction on all fronts: theoretically, experimentally and computationally. The researchers used biofilms made by Vibrio cholerae, which can cause cholera, as a model system to demonstrate the self-shaping and self-organizing capability of a 3D growing system.

In nature, biofilms tend to grow in tight, confined spaces, Zhang explained, so the team grew the biofilm between a soft hydrogel and a stiff glass substrate. They analyzed the growing biofilm using single-cell imaging, agent-based simulations and continuum mechanics theory. The researchers found that the biofilms shape both themselves and their boundary into an efficient formation known as “active nematics,” the arrangement of self-propelled molecules in parallel lines instead of layers.

“We found that biofilms take advantage of growth-induced stresses to shape their environment and create a nematic structure,” said Jing Yan, assistant professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology at Yale University and co-corresponding author on the paper. “This takes us a lot closer to being able to control the morphology, the packing and ordering of the biofilm.”

Zhang explained that understanding the feedback loop between biofilm growth, growth generated stress, and its environment could pave the way for controlled growth of beneficial biofilms, the elimination of harmful ones and even the potential development of new classes of active growing materials that can respond to — and actively alter — their environment.”

Yan added that this is especially valuable information in the field of health care. Biofilms play a substantial role in disease growth in humans and animals, as they can evade the immune response. The coordinated nature of bacterial biofilms makes them highly resistant to conventional antibiotics, so they are extremely difficult to treat. In fact, the majority of chronic antibiotic resistant-infections are caused by biofilms, according to the American Society for Microbiology.  

“When a bacteria enter into the body, they grow into an infection as biofilms — and they’re in a confined environment: your gut,” Yan said.

A better understanding of how biofilm-driven disease can grow in such an environment will allow researchers to develop new ways to disrupt such growth, he added.

“What we’ve learned will aid in developing strategies to tackle these infections,” said Changhao Li, a doctoral candidate in computational mechanics at Penn State and co-author on the paper. “The phenomena discovered here could lead to new strategies to suppress the growth of harmful biofilms and give us the ability to design and program beneficial ones.”

The other authors on the paper are Japinder Nijjer, Qiuting Zhang and Jung-Shen B. Tai of Yale University; Mrityunjay Kothari, Thomas Henzel and Tal Cohen of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and Shuang Zhou of the University of New Hampshire. The National Institutes of Health and the Charles H. Revson Foundation funded this work.

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JOURNAL

Nature Physics

DOI

10.1038/s41567-023-02221-1 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Cells

ARTICLE TITLE

Biofilms as self-shaping growing nematics

 

Pennington Biomedical’s Dr. Robert Newton Jr. to study African American fathers as proponents of children’s health

Dr. Newton secures a $214,000 grant from the NIH’s National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities division for this study

Grant and Award Announcement

PENNINGTON BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH CENTER

 

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​DR. ROBERT NEWTON JR. IS PROFESSOR OF PHYSICAL ACTIVITY & ETHNIC MINORITY HEALTH AT THE LSU PENNINGTON BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH CENTER IN BATON ROUGE, LA.

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CREDIT: MADISON PAGE, PBRC

Dr. Robert Newton Jr., Professor of Physical Activity & Ethnic Minority Health for Pennington Biomedical Research Center, was recently awarded a $214,000 grant to study the health of African American families, particularly exploring if fathers can serve as catalysts for their children’s health. The grant, which was awarded by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities division of the National Institutes of Health, will be used for Dr. Newton’s proof of concept study Fathers and Children Exercising Together, or FACEiT. 

The study will analyze the degree to which fathers can influence their children’s health by incorporating exercise into family activities. In the first phase of development of the study, a focus group of African American fathers will be gathered to gauge interest in intervention to increase physical activity in their kids, what activities they feel would be most effective, and what time of day would work best with their families’ schedules. In particular, the study will target those fathers with children in the age range of 6 to 10 years old. In the second phase, the feedback gathered from the focus group will be incorporated into and inform a pre-developed intervention plan. 

“Fathers play a unique role in their children’s physical activity,” Dr. Newton said. “FACEiT will help us learn more about what these specific roles are, especially as they relate to African American fathers and the barriers they face to engaging in activity with their children. The study will also allow us to assess how social determinants of health factors influence African American father’s ability to engage in this type of intervention. I’m honored that the NIMHHD felt this study was worth their investment.” 

The third phase will be the intervention stage, which will compare three different groups. The first group will be a control, the second will include fathers who are given exercise instructions and then engage with their children and lead exercise regimens. The third group will mirror the second, with the inclusion of a community component. Dr. Newton has recruited the community group Fathers on a Mission, which will lead events where fathers and their children can participate in physical activities, such as bowling events or kayaking.  

“With the FACEiT study, Dr. Newton’s laboratory is the broader community, and his research is the health and wellbeing of our Baton Rouge neighbors,” said Dr. John Kirwan, Executive Director of Pennington Biomedical. “This study will ideally address the health disparities that exist among African Americans and will encourage health behaviors simultaneously across two generations. Pennington Biomedical is proud to have Dr. Newton on our team, as he helps us fulfill our mission of putting science to work for a healthier Louisiana and a healthier world.” 

Statistics show that African American adolescents do not meet the recommended levels of physical activity. By understanding the barriers that prevent children from reaching optimal physical activities, fathers can help remove those barriers and engage in movement and exercise as well.  

"Fathers on a Mission is excited about the partnership with Pennington Biomedical Research Center as we strive to bring awareness to the importance of physical activity,” said Levar Robison, Founder and CEO of Fathers on a Mission. “Through the FACEiT study, we will offer and deliver physical activity interventions that will reduce the risk of health disparities around heart disease, hypertension, stroke, diabetes, and obesity in ourselves and most of all in our children. This is a process that is needed, and this is a process that Fathers need to lead." 

FACEiT is structured to test health and exercise interventions in children because physical activity levels in African American children begin to drop off between the ages of 6 and 10. Establishing physical activity habits at an early age can ultimately reduce the risk of chronic diseases later in life.  

About the Pennington Biomedical Research Center
The Pennington Biomedical Research Center is at the forefront of medical discovery as it relates to understanding the triggers of obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer and dementia. Pennington Biomedical has the vision to lead the world in promoting metabolic health and eliminating metabolic disease through scientific discoveries that create solutions from cells to society.  The Center conducts basic, clinical, and population research, and is affiliated with LSU.

The research enterprise at Pennington Biomedical includes over 480 employees within a network of 40 clinics and research laboratories, and 13 highly specialized core service facilities. Its scientists and physician/scientists are supported by research trainees, lab technicians, nurses, dietitians, and other support personnel. Pennington Biomedical a state-of-the-art research facility on a 222-acre campus in Baton Rouge.

For more information, see www.pbrc.edu.