Tag: Academic research

Posted on

AACR Warns Congress of Cancer Care Setbacks from Proposed NIH Cuts, Again

Cancer researchers in the United States are once again bracing for a high-stakes funding battle in Washington, as a proposed $6 billion cut to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for fiscal year 2027 threatens to derail years of scientific progress.

For advocates like Jon Retzlaff, Chief Policy Officer and Vice President for Science Policy and Government Affairs at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), the situation feels strikingly familiar and deeply consequential. That sense of déjà vu is shaping the response from the cancer research community, which is now urging Congress to once again reject the administration’s proposal just as it did last year.

To understand the urgency of the current moment, Retzlaff points back to the turmoil of the previous budget cycle. “A year ago, the president had proposed a 40% cut to NIH,” Retzlaff told Inside Precision Medicine. “Things looked pretty bleak.” The consequences were immediate and unsettling: grants were stuck and there were cutbacks on committees and staff.

But Congress ultimately intervened decisively. “We engaged with Congress, who has the power of the purse,” Retzlaff said. “They summarily rejected the president’s proposal for the 40% cuts and instead provided a $450 million increase for NIH.” Lawmakers also delivered a significant boost to the National Cancer Institute (NCI), reinforcing what Retzlaff described as a clear signal of bipartisan support for biomedical research. “What we saw for the current fiscal year… is they summarily rejected the president’s proposal,” Retzlaff said. “So now we are going through the exercise all over again.”

Despite the renewed threat, Retzlaff sees reasons for hope rooted in last year’s outcome. “People asked, ‘How can you be so optimistic?’” He recalled the earlier funding fight. “At least this year, I’m going to be able to tell them why I can be optimistic,” he said. “Because it was Congress that stood up.”

Still, he cautioned against complacency. “We can’t rest on our laurels. We can’t take it for granted,” Retzlaff said. “We will be continuing to press the issue.”

Holding down the precision oncology fort

For AACR, the renewed funding fight underscores a central truth: cancer research depends on long-term, uninterrupted investment. “You need this sustained funding over time,” Retzlaff said. “You go where the science is showing opportunities and also where there might not be opportunities right now.”

He emphasized that scientific progress is rarely linear or predictable. “Even though people can’t necessarily say it’s clear-cut that if we do research in this, we’re going to make some progress,” he said, “for some of the cancers, we just need to do research to try to have that knowledge discovery going on.”

Retzlaff added, “Basic biology is so important,” stressing that foundational science underpins every future breakthrough and the continued growth of precision medicine as the new standard of healthcare. “It’s about identifying the biomarkers that are important,” Retzlaff explained.

Meanwhile, emerging areas such as cancer vaccines are generating both excitement and urgency. “Cancer vaccines are now a big issue,” he said. “AACR is very interested in pushing that kind of research forward.”

Yet all of this progress depends on stable funding. Without it, Retzlaff warned, research priorities could narrow dangerously. “If you start cutting back, the next thing you know, we’re just funding breast cancer and lung cancer,” he said, “whereas the rare cancers need to be investigated. We need to give those people hope.”

Sustained national commitment to health

Funding cuts would also ripple through the clinical research pipeline. Retzlaff, who has become more involved in clinical trials in recent years, noted their complexity and cost.

While pharmaceutical companies often support later-stage development, early and exploratory studies depend heavily on NIH funding. “We rely on pharmaceutical companies… once you get into the translational part,” he explained, but without federal investment at the front end, fewer discoveries will ever reach that stage.

For AACR, protecting NIH funding is about more than preserving scientific momentum; it’s about sustaining a national commitment to health. “We’ve got 50,000 members,” Retzlaff said. “Two-thirds of them are from the U.S., and probably two-thirds of them are completely reliant in many ways on NIH funding.” That dependence drives the organization’s advocacy efforts. “Our number one priority is inspiring excitement on Capitol Hill and from lawmakers for robust, sustained and predictable funding for the NIH,” he said.

AACR’s outreach spans everything from congressional briefings to large-scale advocacy events. “It’s working with the entire community,” Retzlaff said, noting collaborations with hundreds of organizations and initiatives, such as Medical Research Hill Day. “We’re constantly looking at drum[ming] up conversations with the media,” he added. “It’s things like that—briefings, reports, letters—you name it.”

At the same time, AACR is navigating broader policy and public health challenges. Retzlaff highlighted ongoing engagement with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on issues ranging from clinical trial efficiency to tobacco regulation.

Backing cancer vaccines

Prevention, too, remains a critical priority. “HPV prevention is very important,” he said, though he acknowledged that misinformation has slowed progress. “The anti-vaccine movement is a huge concern.”

Retzlaff said that the cancer vaccine issue is rooted in communication and not the regulators. According to Retzlaff, the director of the National Cancer Institute has had some meetings with Secretary Kennedy, who was supportive of moving cancer vaccines forward. “We have to figure out what it is that people will accept about cancer vaccines that they’re not accepting about vaccines overall,” Retzlaff said. “That’s a communication issue… trying to combat the misinformation out there.”

AACR has even debated trying new names for the modality. Retzlaff elaborated, “There was some discussion about whether we can change the name of this from ‘cancer vaccines’ to something else.”

As Congress weighs the proposed cuts, AACR is calling on researchers, patients, and advocates to speak out once again. The message, Retzlaff said, is simple but urgent: “We definitely want to get the information out… about the importance of NIH medical research… and inspire people to take action.”

The outcome will determine not only the trajectory of cancer research but also the pace at which new discoveries can translate into treatments and, ultimately, save lives.

The post AACR Warns Congress of Cancer Care Setbacks from Proposed NIH Cuts, Again appeared first on Inside Precision Medicine.

Posted on

Ultrasensitive Molecular Test Identifies Substantial TB Underdiagnosis in Boston

While developing an ultrasensitive test for the detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis DNA (TB-DNA), researchers from Boston University have unexpectedly found a high prevalence of the molecular marker in U.S.-born patients hospitalized in Boston.

“We began this research with the intent of sourcing respiratory samples to support the ongoing development of a new molecular assay for TB,” said Guillermo Madico, MD, PhD, scientist at Boston University’s National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories (NEIDL) and co-inventor of the TOP TB assay. “What we found was completely unexpected. Our ultrasensitive test is detecting Mycobacterium tuberculosis DNA in patients who are unlikely to be diagnosed with TB using current methods. This opens the possibility that there could be thousands of Americans infected with forms of tuberculosis disease that remain hidden from our current diagnostic tools—putting them at risk of developing more serious complications or potentially transmitting the disease to others.”

In 2022, there were over 8000 reported cases of TB in the United States, over 600 TB-related deaths, and an estimated 13 million people with Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection. Although incidence has steadily decreased in the U.S., the rate of decline is too slow to meet the ambitious World Health Organization strategy to end the global TB epidemic by 2035.

One threat to the global elimination goal is a gap in the detection of paucibacillary TB disease—a type of TB characterized by a low concentration of M. tuberculosis bacilli in samples that often results in false negative test results.

To improve detection, Madico and colleagues developed an ultrasensitive molecular assay developed at Boston University called the Totally Optimized PCR (TOP) TB assay, which targets a gene involved in M. tuberculosis cell wall assembly.

During the development process, the researchers conducted three separate clinical studies involving 297 patients from Boston hospitals.

Across the studies, the TOP TB assay detected TB DNA in 12–16% of samples—a rate far higher than expected given Boston’s low TB incidence rate. Of note, most TB DNA-positive patients tested negative on standard TB infection tests (tuberculin skin tests or interferon-gamma release assays), and the researchers hypothesize that the findings “indicate the existence of a paucibacillary form of TB that remains unrecognized and is not detectable using current diagnostic tools.”

During the study, there were three patients diagnosed with acute chest syndrome, a life-threatening complication of sickle cell disease, all of whom tested positive for TB DNA.

The researchers point out in Nature Communications that this “previously unrecognized association” has potential implications for clinical care in the U.S. and many other settings.

“These findings suggest we may be missing a significant burden of TB disease, particularly in older Americans and in patients with certain underlying conditions,” said Edward Jones-López, MD, who co-led the study while at Boston Medical Center and Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine. “Most concerning is the potential association with acute chest syndrome in sickle cell patients. If confirmed and expanded upon in larger studies, this finding could lead to better health outcomes for patients with this potentially life-threatening condition.”

The researchers emphasize that their preliminary findings require confirmation in larger, prospective multicenter studies that include comprehensive clinical, radiological, immunological, and microbiological correlation. However, they argue the evidence warrants immediate dissemination given potential implications for medical care and public health.

The post Ultrasensitive Molecular Test Identifies Substantial TB Underdiagnosis in Boston appeared first on Inside Precision Medicine.

Posted on

A calibration-aware hierarchical CNN-SWIN fusion framework for robust Cross-Dataset brain MRI analysis

IntroductionDeep learning approaches have become central to brain MRI analysis; however, their reliability under dataset shift remains a critical barrier to safe and scalable deployment in neuroscience and clinical research. While convolutional neural networks (CNNs) provide strong locality-driven inductive biases for robust feature extraction, they lack global contextual awareness. Conversely, transformer-based architectures capture long-range dependencies but often exhibit reduced robustness and miscalibrated confidence when applied to heterogeneous medical imaging data, particularly in Cross-Dataset settings.MethodsIn this work, we propose a calibration-aware hierarchical CNN-Transformer fusion framework designed for robust brain MRI analysis under dataset shift. The architecture integrates a pretrained multi-scale CNN backbone with a hierarchical transformer branch and performs scale-aligned fusion through cross-attention mechanisms. By allowing local convolutional features to selectively query global contextual representations, the proposed design maintains stable feature contributions during fusion and mitigates overconfident reliance on transformer features when generalization degrades across datasets. The framework is evaluated using a strict Cross-Dataset protocol, where models are trained on one dataset and tested on a distinct dataset.ResultsExperimental results demonstrate that the proposed fusion model achieves competitive classification performance while substantially improving probabilistic calibration relative to both CNN-only and transformer-only baselines. Specifically, the model attains an average accuracy of 99.20% and achieves lower Expected Calibration Error (ECE = 0.0041), Brier score (0.0028), and Negative Log-Likelihood (NLL = 0.0277) compared to a standalone Swin Transformer and a strong ResNet50 baseline.DiscussionThese findings demonstrate that calibration-aware hierarchical CNN-Transformer fusion enhances both predictive reliability and robustness under Cross-Dataset evaluation. By improving the alignment between predictive confidence and empirical correctness, the proposed method supports safer large-scale analysis of heterogeneous brain MRI data, with important implications for multi-center neuroscience studies and trustworthy clinical decision support.
Posted on

Immersive virtual reality as a novel approach to improve social cognition in multiple sclerosis: an EEG-based pilot study

IntroductionMultiple sclerosis (MS) affects different cognitive domains, including social cognition. Immersive Virtual Reality (VR) may provide a novel rehabilitative approach to treat motor and cognitive symptoms of MS. This exploratory pilot study evaluated the effects of immersive VR rehabilitation on social cognition in MS patients and explored related cortical neurophysiological signatures.MethodsSeven MS patients underwent immersive VR rehabilitation with the CAREN system (3 sessions/week, approximately 45 min of active training per session, about 1 h including preparation, 8 weeks), while seven healthy controls (HC) did not undergo any intervention. Patients were evaluated at baseline (T0) and post-treatment (T1) with standardized measures of cognitive, emotional, and motor functioning. EEG data were acquired from all participants, and, after artifact removal, spectral parameterization decomposed signals into aperiodic (exponent, offset) and periodic oscillatory components (alpha and beta power). Power spectral density was analyzed using group comparisons and Pearson correlations with neuropsychological measures.ResultsCompared with HC, MS patients showed reduced alpha-band power, mainly over frontal and parieto-occipital regions, whereas aperiodic parameters did not differ between groups. In patients, alpha and beta power correlated with the Positive Emotions Self-Efficacy Scale (alpha: r = 0.92, p = 0.003; beta: r = 0.83, p = 0.020). Alpha power is also correlated with RAO SRT–LTS (r = 0.85, p = 0.016), and beta with EQ-CE (r = 0.82, p = 0.023). Overall, alpha and beta power were correlated with emotional self-efficacy, balance, memory, and empathy, suggesting that oscillatory markers are potential indicators of clinical outcomes.DiscussionRehabilitation via immersive VR has shown promising clinically significant effects in the cognitive, emotional, and motor domains, supported by convergent EEG spectral signatures. Future studies employing predictive modeling approaches will be required to assess their prognostic value.
Posted on

Retrospective longitudinal analysis of blood microRNA-7-5p as a possible progression biomarker in people with Parkinson’s disease

BackgroundMicroRNA-7-5p (miR-7-5p) may play a neuroprotective role in people with Parkinson’s disease (PwP), as it has been found to regulate α-synuclein (α-syn) and the NLRP3 inflammasome in animal models of Parkinson’s disease (PD).ObjectiveThe study aimed to investigate the use of miR-7-5p as a potential biomarker for disease progression in PwP by correlating it with time, clinical measures, and neurofilament light chain (NfL).MethodsWe performed a longitudinal retrospective analysis of blood miR-7-5p levels in 303 de novo PwP and 159 healthy controls (HCs) from the Parkinson’s Progression Markers Initiative (PPMI) cohort. In PwP, a linear mixed-effects model was used to examine the association between miR-7-5p levels and time in the study. In addition, linear mixed-effects models were used to examine the associations between longitudinal changes in miR-7-5p and scores on the Movement Disorder Society Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (MDS-UPDRS), both for motor and total scores, as well as serum NfL levels. These models were also used to compare the associations between changes in miR-7-5p, time in the study, and NfL levels in both PwP and HCs.ResultsmiR-7-5p levels decreased more rapidly in PwP compared to HCs (p = 0.02). In PwP, miR-7-5p levels correlated with time in the study (p < 0.001) and with changes in the MDS-UPDRS motor (p = 0.007) and total scores (p = 0.01). However, when time in study was taken into account, the correlations were no longer significant. Additionally, miR-7-5p levels decreased longitudinally as NfL levels increased in PwP (p = 0.03), but this did not remain significant when time in the study was considered.ConclusionThis pattern suggests that miR-7-5p may reflect both upstream pathogenic mechanisms and downstream neuroaxonal damage. However, the loss of significance when time in the study was included in the model indicates that the changes may reflect parallel degenerative processes involving NfL and miR-7-5p. This study is novel in that it demonstrates a correlation between miR-7-5p levels, clinical severity, and NfL levels.
Posted on

Self images: an empirical enquiry into Rembrandt’s self-portraits

Many have speculated that events of personal and financial loss in the life of Rembrandt van Rijn (Rembrandt) caused depression and that this is revealed by examination of his work particularly self-portraits painted in old age. Some report detecting various physiological diseases associated with aging, including vision impairment, which may have affected his mood and work. Aging and neurodegenerative disease which often accompanies it, are both associated with depression. Depression is characterised by visual deficits including perception of reduced contrast and colour. Age-related neurological disorders are associated in artists with reduced complexity. Recent advances in imaging and computer technology make it possible to empirically examine changes in artistic style which can contribute to understanding artists’ physical and mental health. Previous studies have identified associations between adverse events in artists’ lives and altered contrast and colour in their self-portraits. In the current study changes in contrast, colour and fractal dimension were measured in the entire corpus of Rembrandt’s painted self-portraits and portraits to determine whether changes in style indicate depression, cognitive decline, or neurological disease and whether differences in style can be detected between self-portraits and portraits of related and unrelated others. Productivity was also examined as an indirect indicator. The results suggest that it is unlikely that Rembrandt suffered from unipolar or bipolar depression, age-related cognitive decline, or neurodegenerative disease. The data are consistent with someone experiencing episodes of low mood associated with normal grieving and adversity followed by resilient recovery. There is evidence of a gradient in saliency and complexity between self-portraits and related and unrelated portraits and of a ‘late’ style identified by leading art historians consistent with macular degeneration.
Posted on

Medical evaluation of first presentation of psychotic symptoms in children and adolescents

IntroductionPsychotic symptoms in children and adolescents may represent either normative developmental phenomena or severe psychiatric and medical conditions, requiring careful differential diagnosis.MethodsThis retrospective study aimed to evaluate the medical workup of children and adolescents admitted for a first presentation of psychotic symptoms at a tertiary pediatric center over a 10-year period. The sample included 68 patients (mean age 13.7 ± 3.7 years) who underwent clinician-directed evaluations including physical exams, laboratory tests, toxicology screens, neuroimaging, and lumbar puncture when indicated.ResultsSixteen patients (23.5%) were diagnosed with substance-/medication-induced or medically-associated psychosis. In this cohort, younger age, very early onset psychosis (<13 years), and catatonia at first presentation were more frequently observed among patients with secondary etiologies, whereas documented prior subthreshold symptoms were more frequently documented among those diagnosed with primary psychiatric disorders. Most investigations did not identify a secondary cause, reflecting clinician-directed evaluation in routine practice; however, selected cases (e.g., autoimmune encephalitis, multiple sclerosis) illustrate the clinical importance of careful assessment when specific suspicion is present.ConclusionThese findings suggest that targeted medical evaluation may be useful in pediatric psychosis, particularly when clinical features raise suspicion for secondary etiologies, and may help inform clinical decision-making in tertiary pediatric settings.
Posted on

A longitudinal analysis of the prevalence of restrictive interventions involving women with mental health conditions, learning disabilities or autism in mental health services in England

IntroductionRestrictive interventions, including physical restraint, seclusion, chemical restraint, and segregation, continue to be used within mental health services, despite sustained policy efforts to promote least-restrictive and trauma-informed care. However, little is known about national trends affecting women, for whom restrictive interventions often carry heightened risks of re-traumatisation and stigma.MethodsWe conducted a longitudinal secondary analysis of publicly available administrative data from the Mental Health Bulletin covering NHS-funded mental health services in England between 2017 and 2025. Annual counts of restrictive interventions involving women were examined relative to the number of women detained under the Mental Health Act to estimate annual rates per 1,000 detained. Regression modelling was used to assess temporal trends overall, by age group and type of restrictive intervention, and interrupted time-series analyses to examine changes following implementation of the Mental Health Units (Use of Force) Act 2018 (“Seni’s Law”). Trends were also examined alongside available national data on restrictive interventions involving men.ResultsRates of restrictive interventions involving women increased by approximately 12 percent per year over the study period, with no evidence of a reduction following the introduction of Seni’s Law. Increases were most pronounced for chemical restraint, seclusion, and segregation, while physical and mechanical restraint remained stable. Restrictive interventions declined among women under 18 but increased consistently across all adult age groups, indicating a widening age-related divergence. Although overall trends broadly mirrored those observed among men, the types of restrictive interventions used and their potential impact may differ, highlighting gendered dimensions in how restrictive practices are experienced and applied.DiscussionDespite extensive national initiatives, restrictive interventions involving women have continued to rise in England, highlighting a persistent gap between policy intent and practice. The findings suggest that legislative frameworks alone are insufficient to achieve meaningful reductions without operational changes in clinical practice, organisational culture, and monitoring systems. Internationally, the study contributes rare gender-disaggregated longitudinal evidence and highlights the need for comparable monitoring systems and coordinated research to inform rights-based, trauma-informed strategies to reduce restrictive interventions in mental health services.
Posted on

How stressful life events are associated with depression: the mediating pathway of security in a clinical adolescent sample

BackgroundStressful life events are well-established risk factors for adolescent depression; however, the psychological mechanisms underlying this association remain insufficiently understood, particularly regarding which types of stress and which dimensions of security are most closely linked to depression. This study aimed to investigate whether security and its two sub-dimensions statistically mediated the association between stressful life events and depression among clinically diagnosed adolescents, while also examining the relative strength of indirect associations across specific stress types.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted with 284 adolescents (70.1% female; mean age = 15.82 ± 1.86 years) diagnosed with major depressive disorder according to the DSM-5 criteria at a tertiary psychiatric hospital in Western China. Participants completed the Adolescent Self-Rating Life Events Checklist (ASLEC), Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS), and Security Questionnaire (SQ) questionnaires. Simple mediation, parallel mediation, and dimension-specific analyses were performed using the PROCESS macro (Model 4) with 5,000 bootstrap resamples, controlling for gender and parental marital status.Resultsstressful life events were significantly positively correlated with depression (r = 0.491, p < 0.001) and negatively correlated with security (r = −0.464, p < 0.001). Simple mediation analysis revealed that security demonstrated a significant indirect association through security (indirect effect = 0.176, 95% CI [0.126, 0.232]), accounting for 53.8% of the total association. Parallel mediation analysis further indicated a dual-pathway model: both Interpersonal Security (indirect effect = 0.083, 95% CI [0.037, 0.133]) and Certainty in Control (indirect effect = 0.093, 95% CI [0.043, 0.152]) functioned as significant statistical mediators of comparable magnitude, with no significant difference between them (Contrast = −0.010, 95% CI [−0.065, 0.042]). Furthermore, dimension-specific analyses revealed that Interpersonal Stress (standardized indirect effect = 0.266) and Academic Stress (standardized indirect effect = 0.231) showed the strongest indirect associations with depression through the security pathway. Exploratory subgroup analyses revealed a gender-crossed pattern: for male adolescents (n = 85), the indirect association was significant only through Interpersonal Security (effect = 0.116, 95% CI [0.048, 0.199]); for female adolescents (n = 199), it was significant only through Certainty in Control (effect = 0.136, 95% CI [0.067, 0.212]).ConclusionSecurity functions as a significant statistical mediator in the association between stressful life events and adolescent depression. The findings are consistent with a “dual-pathway” model wherein stress is concurrently associated with lower levels of both relational security (Interpersonal Security) and personal agency (Certainty in Control). Exploratory analyses suggest that the relative importance of these two pathways may differ by gender. If confirmed by future longitudinal research, clinical interventions may benefit from an integrated approach that addresses both dimensions, with particular attention to interpersonal conflicts and academic pressure as the stressors most strongly associated with depression through security pathways.
Posted on

Unmasking deep-rooted trauma: long-term effects of childhood adversities on posttraumatic stress disorder in healthcare workers facing acute multi-trauma

PurposeIn recent years, healthcare workers (HCWs) in Lebanon have encountered compounded traumatic exposures, including the Beirut Port blast, COVID-19, and an ongoing economic crisis, often preceded by early-life adversities such as adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). Understanding how these acute stressors interact with early adversities is crucial for assessing their long-term psychological impact. Accordingly, this study examines the extent to which these combined factors predict the development of full and subthreshold posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) over time.MethodsA cohort study was conducted following 296 HCWs from Saint George Hospital University Medical Center, with assessments at two timepoints: 6–7 months and 2–2.5 years after the Beirut Blast. PTSD symptoms were measured using the PCL-5, applying both full-threshold criteria and six definitions of subthreshold PTSD. Bivariable and multivariable analysis were conducted.ResultsAt 6–7 months, acute stressors (financial hardship, Beirut Blast, and COVID-19) were significantly associated with PTSD across most definitions. However, by 2–2.5 years, ACEs became the strongest and most consistent predictor of both full-threshold and subthreshold PTSD, while the impact of acute stressors diminished.ConclusionThe impact of acute trauma on the risk of PTSD fades over time, while early-life adversity has an enduring impact. The findings highlight the importance of including developmental trauma histories in PTSD assessments. In concordance with stress sensitization and neurobiological models, the results indicate a marked temporal shift, where the diminishing effects of acute stressors give way to the enduring role of early life adversity in shaping PTSD symptom trajectories.