NIH awards Marshall University professor $1.8 million for nicotine addiction research

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – Brandon J. Henderson, Ph.D., an assistant professor of biomedical sciences at the Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine, has been awarded a Research Project Grant (R01), one of the most competitive grants issued by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Henderson was awarded the $1.86 million five-year grant (R01DA050717) from…

Controlling cholesterol in microglia alleviates chronic pain, opioid-free

Chemotherapy can induce a painful peripheral neuropathy (CIPN), a chronic condition and common adverse effect for cancer patients undergoing treatment. Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine, with colleagues elsewhere, have used a mouse model to demonstrate the pivotal role of cholesterol in CIPN, and proposed a novel therapeutic approach to reverse…

How MDMA and Psilocybin Became Hot Investments

Even some Republicans, a group that has traditionally opposed the liberalization of drug laws, are starting to come around. Last month, the former Texas governor Rick Perry, citing the high rates of suicide among war veterans, called on his state’s legislators to support a Democratic-sponsored bill that would establish a psilocybin study for patients with…

What to Do If Your Car is Recalled

Millions of cars are recalled each year, and roughly eight million already have been in 2021, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Getting a notice from the automaker that your vehicle is among them and has a safety deficiency is not only alarming, it can also lead to a flood of questions. What…

How to Draw Nature

If you enjoy watching birds floating by or chipmunks scampering across your lawn, why not have a go at drawing them to remember what gave you some cheer? With a few basic tips, you can begin making simple drawings. Don’t worry about how good they are. Enjoy that you are learning to see nature. As…

Smartphone breath alcohol testing devices vary widely in accuracy

PHILADELPHIA– Alcohol-impaired driving kills 29 people a day and costs $121 billion a year in the U.S. After years of progress in reducing alcohol-impaired driving fatalities, efforts began to stall in 2009, and fatalities started increasing again in 2015. With several studies demonstrating that drinkers cannot accurately estimate their own blood alcohol concentration (BAC), handheld…

New Strep A human challenge model paves the way to test vaccines against the deadly bacteria

Researchers have successfully developed a new Strep A human challenge model, paving the way to test vaccines against the common deadly bacteria that causes sore throats, scarlet fever and skin sores. The collaborative research effort, led by the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) and published in The Lancet Microbe, found the model, which deliberately infected…