Predicting side effects

A multi-institutional group of researchers led by Harvard Medical School and the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research has created an open-source machine learning tool that identifies proteins associated with drug side effects. The work, published June 18 in the Lancet journal EBioMedicine, offers a new method for developing safer medicines by identifying potential adverse reactions…

Less sleep reduces positive feelings

Sleeping less than normal impacts how we feel the next morning. “Not in the sense that we have more negative feelings, like being down or depressed. But participants in our study experienced a flattening of emotions when they slept less than normal. They felt less joy, enthusiasm, attention and fulfilment,” says Associate Professor Ingvild Saksvik-Lehouillier…

No disadvantages to having kids early

When some species are heavily hunted, animal mortality increases and they have fewer offspring in the course of their lives. To compensate for this, animals that are hunted often respond by becoming sexually mature and bearing young earlier than species that are not hunted. In other words, animals being hunted have a “faster” life history.…

DFG establishes interdisciplinary commission for pandemic research

Against the background of the current coronavirus pandemic, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) is to establish an interdisciplinary commission for pandemic research. The commission will be made up of 18 members representing all research disciplines, and its task will be to strengthen the knowledge-driven research which is essential to pandemic and epidemic research…

Mutations linked to intellectual disability point to overly active ion channe

Two mutations identified in individuals with developmental and epileptic brain disease can be traced back to the same ion channel. Researchers have now elucidated how both independent mutations affect the channel’s function: by making it overly active and highly sensitive to stimulation. The findings are an important step towards unraveling what causes the patients’ symptoms.…