Month: April 2021

Apr 30 2021 An estimated 500,000 babies born around the world each year develop unnecessary brain damage that could be treated if caught in time – but monitoring these infants’ delicate brains is extremely difficult. However, spotting these underlying causes at a critical, early stage, a new photonics device currently in development aims to reduce

Mistrust in local and national government plays a significant role in slowing down child vaccination progress in Africa – the continent home to half of the world’s unvaccinated and under-vaccinated children, new research reveals. A study published in BMJ Global Health finds child vaccination rates in African countries are considerably lower in areas where the

Using ultra-high field magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to map the brains of people with Down syndrome (DS), researchers from Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals and other institutions detected subtle differences in the structure and function of the hippocampus–a region of the brain tied to memory and learning. Such detailed mapping, made possible

After more than a year of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, it has become clear that children are less susceptible to the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), both in terms of the number of infections and the severity of illness. However, some children do develop severe disease as well as a host

Researchers have created a new, open-access tool that allows doctors and scientists to evaluate infant brain health by assessing the concentration of various chemical markers, called metabolites, in the brain. The tool compiled data from 140 infants to determine normal ranges for these metabolites. Published in the journal NMR in Biomedicine, the study describes an

In his first speech before Congress, President Joe Biden argued it was time to turn the coronavirus pandemic into a historic opportunity to expand government for the benefit of a wider range of Americans, urging investments in jobs, climate change, child care, infrastructure and more. Biden said that taxes should be increased on corporations and

Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine have discovered one way in which SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, hijacks human cell machinery to blunt the immune response, allowing it to establish infection, replicate and cause disease. In short, the virus’ genome gets tagged with a special marker by a human enzyme

Older children and children with allergies or asthma were found to have greater odds of having persistent symptoms even months after recovery.   With the COVID-19 pandemic continuing to affect many parts of the globe, our understanding of the short-term and acute effects of the disease has been growing, but its consequences on long-term health

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex developmental condition that involves challenges in social interaction, nonverbal communication, speech, and repetitive behaviors. In the United States alone, about 1 in 54 children is diagnosed with ASD. Boys are four times more likely to be diagnosed with autism than girls. Early diagnosis is crucial for treatment and

For the first time in published literature, Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital and University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) researchers showed that a variety of white blood cells known as eosinophils modify the respiratory barrier during influenza A (IAV) infection, according to a recent paper in the journal Cells. This research could have implications in

A study that tested neural activity in the brains of individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) reveals that they successfully encode facial emotions in their neural signals – and they do so about as well as those without ASD. Led by researchers at Stony Brook University, the research suggests that the difficulties ASD individuals have