The word ‘synbiotic’ appears on a growing number of food and supplement products, with synbiotic ingredients showing promise for modulating the community of microbes living in the human gut, while providing a health benefit. Synbiotics are generally understood to be a combination of a probiotic and a prebiotic–but experts have deemed this description too limiting…
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BOSTON – A new bioluminescent reporter that tracks DNA double stranded break (DSB) repair in cells has been developed by researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and the Academia Sinica in Taiwan. The international team’s novel bioluminescent repair reporter (BLRR)-based system can be used to monitor DNA repair pathways directly in animals as well as…
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A new study of 27 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 has provided a detailed map of natural killer (NK) cell responses to SARS-CoV-2 infection, revealing that specific characteristics of NK cell activation associate with different levels of disease severity. The findings are consistent with previous reports that NK cells exist in lower frequencies in the blood…
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Programmable DNA nanoswitches that bind to viral RNA in human body fluids may provide an inexpensive platform to rapidly detect a wide variety of emerging viruses, including SARS-CoV-2, according to a new study. This approach may make testing more manageable in resource-limited areas, since it does not require enzymes or significant laboratory infrastructure, only costs…
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Boston – A new study shows that nephrologists do not always agree on their interpretation of images from urine sediment tests, which are frequently ordered to evaluate a variety of kidney diseases. Led by researchers at Boston Medical Center and published in JAMA Network Open, the findings indicate the need to standardize education and training…
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BEER-SHEVA, Israel, August 21, 2020 – A new peer-reviewed study published in Science Advances confirms the success of a new COVID-19 pooling test that identifies all positive subjects, including asymptomatic carriers, in a single round of testing. P-BEST, an algorithmic method for pooling-based efficient SARS-CoV-2 testing, was developed by a group of researchers from Ben-Gurion…
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The James Beard Foundation, which honors outstanding American chefs, restaurants and bars each year in a gala ceremony, said Thursday that it would not announce any more winners for its awards in 2020 and 2021, citing the pandemic that has closed restaurants and continues to ravage the economy. The foundation had already released its list…
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The great thing about summer, besides holidays and sunshine, is undoubtedly the wonderful invention that is the barbecue. Is it the alfresco dining, the novelty cooking method, or the abundance of juicy meat that we love most? Maybe all three. No matter what your BBQ preferences are, you have to go all out and prepare…
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Here’s what you need to know: ImageThe Department of Health and Human Services is giving permission to pharmacists nationwide to administer all scheduled shots, including the flu vaccine, to children as young as 3.Credit…LM Otero/Associated Press U.S. health agencies announce moves to confront the flu season and plummeting child vaccination rates. Two top U.S. health agencies…
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The Food and Drug Administration is investigating bagged peaches as a likely source of a salmonella outbreak that has sickened 68 people across nine states, 14 of whom were hospitalized. The peaches were packaged by Wawona Packing Company and sold in two-pound, clear plastic bags starting June 1. Aldi, the retailer where many of the…
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