COVID-19 vaccine responses show four patterns, with 'rapid-decliners' at higher infection risk

Musical people find it easier to focus their attention on the right sounds in noisy environments.

New York City offers nearly every type of medical specialist but provides fewer specialty health care providers per capita than smaller cities, according to a new study that challenges conventional assumptions about urban health care advantages and reveals a troubling paradox across America's largest metropolitan areas.

In a pair of studies, investigators from the lab of Huiping Liu, MD, Ph.D., associate professor of Pharmacology and of Medicine in the Division of Hematology and Oncology, have uncovered how specific cellular interactions in the bloodstream may be fueling the spread of breast cancer.

In a study led by Lund University and the Amsterdam University Medical Center, researchers used PET to analyze aggregates of tau pathology in more than 12,000 people from all over the world. The study—the largest ever of its kind—examines the connection between genetic predisposition, gender and age in relation to tau pathology in Alzheimer's disease. The study is published in Nature Neuroscience.

Pancreatic cancer has the highest mortality rate of all major cancers, and its incidence is climbing. Because it is typically asymptomatic at early stages, pancreatic cancer is especially difficult to catch and treat in time. This allows the cancer to spread or metastasize throughout the body—the ultimate cause of death for nearly all patients.

In an analysis by race, sex, age, and geography, alcohol-induced death rates in 2024 are nearly double those in 1999, with a sharp increase at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

People with substance use disorder who participate in recovery running programs have shown improved success in maintaining their sobriety and reducing their risk for relapse. These observations led Panayotis Thanos, a University at Buffalo neuroscientist who studies the brain's reward system, to try to figure out the brain mechanisms behind that phenomenon.

A newly developed molecule brings together two powerful immunotherapy strategies in one treatment. Researchers at the University of Basel and University Hospital Basel, Switzerland, have demonstrated that this fusion protein can both block the "do not attack" signal used by cancer cells and selectively activate tumor-fighting immune cells. This dual action could pave the way for more effective cancer therapies with fewer side effects.

A survey study of families with puppies in the UK has identified multiple mental health challenges alongside benefits of ownership for adults and kids alike, suggesting that a mental health boost should not be the main motivator behind getting a puppy. Rowena Packer of the Royal Veterinary College, UK, and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS One.

An hour of brisk walking in the forest, on the beach, or in a green park reduces stress hormones, improves mood and makes exercise easier to enjoy. These findings from a new study by researchers at the University of Copenhagen and the University of Verona have been published in the journal Psychology of Sport and Exercise.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is on track to become one of the defining public health challenges of our time. Every three seconds, somewhere in the world, someone is diagnosed with dementia, and it's usually Alzheimer's disease.

Lower back pain is the leading cause of disability worldwide, yet most treatments offer limited relief. One of the most divisive is acupuncture—recommended in US guidelines for lower back pain but not in the UK. A new study has now examined whether it truly helps.

Being slightly overweight might not shorten your life, but being very thin might. A large Danish study tracking more than 85,000 adults has found that people with a BMI below 18.5 were nearly three times more likely to die early than those in the middle to upper end of the so-called "healthy" range.

In the march of metastasis, a molecular trail of crumbs guides some cancer cells from the primary tumor to establish new colonies within the body. Blocking the cells' ability to follow the trail might halt metastasis but could also meddle with an intricate cellular signaling system critical to immune response. Purdue University scientists are deciphering this signaling system to better understand how it could be used to address multiple diseases, including cancer.

A project at Lund University in Sweden has trained an AI model to identify breast cancer patients who could be spared from axillary surgery. The model analyzes previously unutilized information in mammograms and pinpoints with high accuracy the individual risk of metastasis in the armpit. A newly completed study shows that the model indicates that just over 40% of today's axillary surgery procedures could be avoided.

A University of Houston researcher found that recording brain activity while a person listens to a story may help diagnose primary progressive aphasia, a rare neurodegenerative syndrome that impairs language skills.

A new study has identified a potential new target for treating triple-negative breast cancer, one of the most aggressive forms of breast cancer, which still has very few therapeutic options available. The study was carried out by the Senology Department at Italy's National Cancer Institute Pascale Foundation, in collaboration with the Sbarro Institute for Cancer Research and Molecular Medicine in Philadelphia.

The relationships we form as adults often echo those we had with our parents. According to attachment theory—one of the most influential frameworks in contemporary psychology—this is no coincidence: The attachment between an infant and a primary caregiver shapes the baby's future social ties. Yet little is known about the biological mechanisms underlying childhood attachment, mainly because it is so difficult to study the young brain in natural conditions.