— happy voices assumed to be real whereas ‘neutral’ voices assumed to be AI – Vienna, Austria: People are not very good at distinguishing between human voices and voices generated by artificial intelligence (AI), but our brains do respond differently to human and AI voices, according to research presented today (Tuesday) at the Federation of […]
Women who experience depression during pregnancy or after birth have higher risk of cardiovascular disease
Women diagnosed with perinatal depression are more likely to develop cardiovascular disease in the following 20 years compared to women who have given birth without experiencing perinatal depression, according to research published in the European Heart Journal [1]. Perinatal depression, meaning depression during pregnancy or after birth is believed to affect one in five women […]
Discovery of shared genetic links between sleep, neurodevelopmental, and neuropsychiatric conditions may lead to the development of new treatments
Berlin, Germany: Disturbed sleep is very common in almost all neuropsychiatric and neurodevelopmental conditions (NDPCs), such as autism, attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder. While it is understandable that the symptoms of such conditions would lead to sleep disruption and also that sleep disruption would worsen symptoms in these conditions, Irish researchers […]
New biomarkers will enable personalised influenza vaccination schedule
Berlin, Germany: While influenza infection is a significant public health threat, causing serious illness in between three and five million people worldwide per year and leading to about up to 650,000 deaths, the effectiveness of influenza vaccines varies considerably between individuals depending on vaccine types and individual circumstances. A person’s ability to resist infection (host […]
Understanding how abnormal embryos self-correct may provide women with a better chance of IVF pregnancy
Berlin, Germany: Aneuploidy (the presence of an abnormal number of chromosomes) in embryos is a major cause of impaired embryo development, leading to conditions such as Down syndrome, as well as to pregnancy loss. The transfer of such embryos in women undergoing IVF is therefore usually avoided because of unfavourable pregnancy outcomes. But mosaic embryos, […]
Socioeconomic status influences genetic risk for many complex diseases
Berlin, Germany: Differences in socioeconomic status (SES) are known to be linked to differences in the risk of developing disease. While people with lower SES are more likely to develop complex diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease, those with a higher SES are at increased risk of developing certain types of cancer. Using biobank […]
Molecular profiling improves diagnosis and survival for children with high-risk cancers
Berlin, Germany: Cancer is the leading cause of disease-related death in children in most developed countries, and at least a quarter of these patients are diagnosed with aggressive high-risk or relapsed cancers, with an expected five-year survival rate of less than 30%. Accurate diagnosis can be difficult, and survivors often suffer life-long side effects because […]
Polygenic risk scores give inaccurate and highly inconsistent results in embryo selection
Berlin, Germany: Polygenic risk scores (PRSs) are estimates of an individual’s susceptibility to a specific complex trait obtained by aggregating the effects of dozens, thousands, and potentially millions of genetic variants associated with that specific trait into a single figure. Some private companies now market PRS embryo screening to prospective parents through the use of […]
Google Street View reveals how built environment correlates with risk of cardiovascular disease
Researchers have used Google Street View to study hundreds of elements of the built environment, including buildings, green spaces, pavements and roads, and how these elements relate to each other and influence coronary artery disease in people living in these neighbourhoods. Their findings, published in the European Heart Journal [1], show that these factors can […]
Breast cancer patients can safely avoid extensive removal of lymph nodes if they respond well to primary systemic treatment
Milan, Italy: Patients with breast cancer that has started to spread to the lymph nodes in the armpit can safely avoid extensive removal of the lymph nodes if their treatment is tailored to their response to cancer-killing therapies such as chemotherapy before surgery. In a presentation to the 14th European Breast Cancer Conference in Milan, […]