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COVID-19 PCR tests can withstand freeze-drying process

In fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, it's not just the vaccines that require complicated cold supply chains and refrigerated storage. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests -- often considered the "gold standard" of testing -- also have enzymes and reagents that need to be frozen.

14 Jun 2021

High proportion of people with diabetes have chronic kidney disease, research reveals

Some 42% of patients attending a dedicated diabetes clinic have signs of established chronic kidney disease, the first detailed research of its kind in Ireland has revealed.

14 Jun 2021

New study pushes the memory clock back over a year

On average the earliest memories that people can recall point back to when they were just two-and-a-half years old, a new study suggests.

14 Jun 2021

Researchers examine the importance of time after COVID-19 vaccination

A new study has been published on the medRxiv* preprint server, which deals with the importance of time post-vaccination based on the quantification of VOC immune evasion. The current study developed a toy model to estimate the effectiveness of the vaccines against VOC over time. Researchers have shown that the estimated value is highly dependent on time post-vaccination. Additionally, this model can describe the implications of changes in vaccine efficacy against VOC.

14 Jun 2021

Emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants contain mutations that interfere with genomic sequencing

A recent study by researchers in Canada shows how mutations in newly emerging lineages of SARS-CoV-2 may disrupt the sequencing process and thus interfere with this important area of research.

14 Jun 2021

Study suggests COVID-19 in children is milder than the flu

Researchers retrospectively analyzed the medical records of children in Turkey hospitalized because of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) or influenza and found COVID-19 to be milder than influenza in this group.

14 Jun 2021

PhoreMost appoints Christian Dillon as Vice President of Biology

PhoreMost Ltd today announced it has appointed Dr Christian Dillon as Vice President of Biology.

From PhoreMost 14 Jun 2021

Joint ICMRA and WHO statement explains how COVID-19 vaccines are regulated for safety, effectiveness

Healthcare professionals and public health authorities have a central role in discussing vaccination against COVID-19 with their patients.

13 Jun 2021

Philippines poorly prepared to deal with COVID-19, report says

In a recent study published in the WHO WPSAR journal, researchers described the challenges and early response of the Philippines to COVID-19.

13 Jun 2021

Researchers identify brain regions involved in seeking information about negative events

The term "doomscrolling" describes the act of endlessly scrolling through bad news on social media and reading every worrisome tidbit that pops up, a habit that unfortunately seems to have become common during the COVID-19 pandemic.

11 Jun 2021

Study: cis P-tau is an early marker of vascular dementia, Alzheimer's disease

Researchers remain perplexed as to what causes dementia and how to treat and reverse the cognitive decline seen in patients.

11 Jun 2021

AMP’s new consensus can promote standardization of PGx gene/allele testing, improve patient care

The Association for Molecular Pathology (AMP), the premier global, molecular diagnostic professional society, today published consensus recommendations to aid in the design and validation of clinical CYP2D6 assays, promote standardization of testing across different laboratories and improve patient care

11 Jun 2021

Macrophages can aid tumor growth by distracting cancer-killing CD8+ T cells

A Ludwig Cancer Research study adds to growing evidence that immune cells known as macrophages inhabiting the body cavities that house our vital organs can aid tumor growth by distracting the immune system's cancer-killing CD8+ T cells.

11 Jun 2021

Facemasks impair children's ability to read people's emotions

The U-Vip (Unit for Visually Impaired People) research team led by Monica Gori at the IIT- Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia has recently published a study which shows for the first time how children aged from 3 to 5 years old have problems in recognizing the emotions of people wearing surgical masks.

10 Jun 2021

Bedtime music may affect sleep patterns

Most people listen to music throughout their day and often near bedtime to wind down. But can that actually cause your sleep to suffer? When sleep researcher Michael Scullin, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology and neuroscience at Baylor University, realized he was waking in the middle of the night with a song stuck in his head, he saw an opportunity to study how music -- and particularly stuck songs -- might affect sleep patterns.

10 Jun 2021

New X-ray scanner could revolutionize cancer surgery, pathology, drug inspection

Engineers at Duke University have demonstrated a prototype X-ray scanning machine that reveals not just the shape of an object but its molecular composition. With unprecedented resolution and accuracy, the technology could revolutionize a wide range of fields such as cancer surgery, pathology, drug inspection and geology.

9 Jun 2021