Category Archives: Health

Doctors at Manipal Hospital Kharadi Save 1.5-Month-Old Infant After Emergency Removal of Open Hairpin

Pune, June 16: Doctors at Manipal Hospital Kharadi successfully removed an open hairpin from the digestive tract of a 1.5–month–old baby boy through an emergency endoscopic procedure, preventing a potentially serious complication.

The infant was brought to the hospital nearly two hours after accidentally ingesting a hairpin while at home. An immediate X-ray of the abdomen revealed that the hairpin had reached the distal stomach or proximal small intestine. The case was considered a medical emergency as the hairpin was open, increasing the risk of perforation of the stomach or small intestine.

The hairpin was successfully retrieved using specialized tooth forceps without causing any injury to the digestive tract.

Speaking about the case, Dr Aditya Borawake, Consultant – Gastroenterologist, Manipal Hospital Kharadi, Pune, said, “Considering the critical nature of the case, we decided to perform an emergency endoscopy. During the procedure, the foreign body could not be located up to the second part of the duodenum (D2), which is the usual extent of a routine gastroscopy. We carefully advanced further into the small intestine and eventually located the open hairpin deep in the fourth part of the duodenum (D4).”

Further he added, “Foreign body ingestion in infants can become a medical emergency, especially when the object is sharp or pointed. In this case, the hairpin was open, which significantly increased the risk of intestinal perforation. The procedure was particularly challenging because the foreign body had migrated deep into the duodenum, beyond the usual reach of routine endoscopy. Timely intervention helped us remove the object safely before any complications could occur.”

Following the procedure, the baby remained stable and was started on oral feeds after four hours. He tolerated the feeds well and was discharged the following day in good condition.

Dr Amit Mane, Director, Manipal Hospitals, Pune, said, “This case highlights the importance of seeking immediate medical attention when a child accidentally ingests a foreign object. The successful removal of an open hairpin from such a young infant reflects the expertise of our clinical team and our readiness to handle complex emergencies with advanced minimally invasive procedures. At Manipal Hospitals, we remain committed to delivering timely and specialized care to patients of all age groups.”

The baby recovered well without any complications and continues to do well on follow-up.

Antibody May Improve Treatment Response in Lung Cancer

DALLAS  June 12: An experimental antibody treatment that binds to a protein known as PCDH7 shrank tumors in preclinical models of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), even those resistant to a targeted therapy, a study led by UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers showed. The findings, published in Science Advances, could eventually lead to a new class of drugs to treat NSCLC and potentially other cancers.

“Overcoming resistance to molecularly targeted therapies is a critical unmet need for lung cancer patients. We are excited that these antibodies may open another therapeutic avenue for lung cancer, especially for patients whose cancers have become resistant to KRAS inhibitors,” said Kathryn O’Donnell, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Molecular Biology and a member of the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center at UT Southwestern. Dr. O’Donnell co-led the study with first author Nicole Novaresi, Ph.D., a postdoctoral researcher in the O’Donnell Lab, and collaborators at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.

NSCLC accounts for about 85% of lung cancer cases in the U.S. and is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths. The O’Donnell Lab focuses on identifying and characterizing proteins on the surface of NSCLC and other cancer cells due to their potential as therapeutic targets. In 2017, Dr. O’Donnell and her colleagues identified PCDH7 as a driver of NSCLC, especially in tumors with mutations in a gene called KRAS. Found in about 25% of NSCLC cases, these mutations cause uncontrolled cell proliferation that propels tumor growth.

In 2024, the Food and Drug Administration approved a drug called adagrasib, which targets NSCLC with KRAS mutations. However, patients inevitably developed resistance to this treatment over time, leaving them with few therapeutic options.

Searching for a new way to attack NSCLC, Dr. O’Donnell’s group collaborated with Zhiqiang An, Ph.D., and Ningyan Zhang, Ph.D., at the University of Texas Health Science Center to develop antibodies that target PCDH7. The teams then worked closely to characterize and functionally evaluate them. Starting with hundreds of antibody candidates, the researchers narrowed their focus to an antibody called mAb7 that bound strongly to PCDH7, reduced intracellular signaling and proliferation in NSCLC cells, and eventually caused the cancer cells to die.

When the scientists treated mice growing KRAS-mutant NSCLC tumors with mAb7, the tumors shrank significantly. This effect was enhanced when mAb7 was delivered with a drug called trametinib, which targets MAPK/ERK enzymes in the cancer-promoting RAS pathway. This treatment also sensitized the KRAS-mutant NSCLC tumors to adagrasib, causing an effect that reduced tumor size significantly more than mAb7 or adagrasib alone. The team also found that PCDH7 was upregulated in tumors that eventually developed resistance to adagrasib and that mAb7 reduced the growth of those drug-resistant tumors.

To get a sense of whether this strategy might work in patients, the researchers tested mAb7 on mice engineered to have human immune systems. A closer look showed that the antibodies brought immune cells to the human tumor cells and effectively eliminated the cancer cells.

These novel antibodies will require significant testing before use in patients, Dr. Novaresi said. But eventually, they may be used alone or in combination with adagrasib or other emerging targeted cancer therapies. Enhancing them by attaching chemotherapy drugs or by engaging immune cells could help the antibodies fight NSCLC even more effectively. She added that mAb7 may also have potential for treating additional cancers that produce PCDH7 on their cell surfaces, including pancreatic cancer, melanoma, and prostate cancer.

Other UTSW researchers who contributed to this study are John Minna, M.D., Director of the Hamon Center for Therapeutic Oncology Research, Professor of Internal Medicine and Pharmacology, and co-leader of the Experimental Therapeutics Research Program at Simmons Cancer Center; Chul Ahn, Ph.D., Professor of Health Data Science and Biostatistics and a member of the Population Science and Cancer Control Research Program at Simmons Cancer Center; and Shayna Thomas-Jardin, Ph.D., a postdoctoral researcher in the O’Donnell Lab.

Dr. O’Donnell is co-leader of the Development and Cancer Research Program in the Simmons Cancer Center.

This study was funded by grants from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) (R01 CA207763 and P50CA70907), the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (RP250391, RP190610, RP200327, RP250572, RP260660, and RP210041), The Welch Foundation (I-1881), the V Foundation, the Department of Defense (LC190249), the American Lung Association (LCD 1421064), and the NCI Cancer Center Support Grant (P30CA142543).

Dr. O’Donnell is a scientific co-founder and adviser of ProtomAb Therapeutics Inc., a company created to continue this work. The University of Texas System has filed a provisional patent application on the PCDH7 antibodies for cancer care.

Center for Vein Restoration fellowship program graduates seven physicians, expanding the next generation of venous and lymphatic medicine specialists

GREENBELT, Md. — Center for Vein Restoration (CVR) announced the graduation of seven physicians from its accredited Venous & Lymphatic Medicine Fellowship Program for the 2025–2026 academic year, marking another milestone in the organization’s effort to expand access to specialized vein care across the United States.

The graduating fellows are:

• Dr. Rohit Martha
• Dr. Rami Ali
• Dr. Caroly Guillen Aguirre
• Dr. Madeleine Pfleger
• Dr. Mohamed Riazuddin
• Dr. Darius Rutazaana
• Dr. Sun Yoo

“The need for highly trained venous and lymphatic medicine specialists continues to grow, and our fellowship program plays an important role in developing the next generation of leaders in the field,” said Dr. Peter J. Pappas, the program director of CVR’s Venous and Lymphatic Medicine Fellowship. “We are proud of this year’s graduating class and the commitment they have shown to advancing patient care.”

CVR’s 12-month fellowship provides advanced clinical and procedural training in the diagnosis and treatment of chronic venous and lymphatic disorders. Accredited by the American Board of Venous and Lymphatic Medicine (ABVLM), the program equips board-certified physicians from a variety of medical specialties with the expertise needed to address a growing patient population affected by vein disease.

Since welcoming its first fellow in 2017, CVR has steadily expanded the program in response to increasing demand for specialized vein treatment. What began as a single-fellow program has grown to nine fellowship positions, with an additional eight physicians scheduled to begin training in July 2026. 

Throughout the fellowship, physicians complete intensive rotations focused on venous ultrasound, ultrasound-guided sclerotherapy, endovenous ablation procedures, ambulatory phlebectomy and other advanced treatment techniques. Fellows gain extensive hands-on experience while working alongside experienced vein specialists in clinical settings across the country.

The newly graduated physicians join a growing network of fellowship alumni who are helping increase patient access to specialized venous and lymphatic care at CVR and nationwide.

Applications are currently being accepted for future fellowship classes.

For more information about the Center for Vein Restoration Fellowship Program, visit centerforvein.com.

Noida CME Highlights Growing Role of Evidence-Based Nutrition in Clinical Practice

Noida: Close to 150 healthcare professionals, including a large number of practising physicians, gathered in Noida for a Continuing Medical Education (CME) programme focused on the role of evidence-based nutrition in modern clinical practice. The event explored how Whole Food Plant-Based (WFPB) nutrition, Lifestyle Medicine, and scientifically validated dietary interventions can help prevent and manage chronic diseases.

The CME served as an important platform for clinicians to discuss emerging research and practical approaches to integrating nutrition-based strategies into patient care, particularly in addressing rising cases of diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease, and other lifestyle-related conditions.

The highlight of the event was the keynote address by Prof. Dr. Anoop Misra, one of India’s leading experts in diabetes, obesity, and metabolic health. Dr. Misra shared insights from his recently released book, Smart Calories and Common Sense: An Evidence-Based Guide to Indian Diets, which examines key topics including Indian dietary patterns, weight management, ketogenic diets, intermittent fasting, GLP-1 medications, and common misconceptions surrounding diabetes reversal.

During the programme, Dr. Bijli Nanda, Co-Chair of the PAN Delhi/NCR Chapter, presented guidelines for incorporating Whole Food Plant-Based nutrition into clinical practice. The session focused on practical recommendations for healthcare professionals seeking to use nutrition as a complementary tool in disease prevention and management.

An engaging panel discussion moderated by Anjali Nakra, NCR Chair of PAN India, brought together experts to discuss patient outcomes, barriers to adoption, and strategies for integrating evidence-based nutrition into routine healthcare delivery. Participants exchanged experiences and explored opportunities to strengthen nutrition-focused interventions within clinical settings.

Organisers described the CME as a significant milestone for PAN Delhi/NCR, helping deepen clinician engagement, expand the network of healthcare professionals interested in nutrition science, and foster meaningful dialogue around the role of dietary interventions in healthcare.

The organisers expressed gratitude to the PAN Delhi/NCR leadership, programme management team, faculty members, panelists, participants, and supporters whose contributions made the event successful.

Special appreciation was extended to the organising team, including Dr. Manas Sharma, Dr. Sukrit Kumar, Arvind Tiwari, Anjali Nakra, Dr. Bijli Nanda, and Senior Programme Manager Shruti Sharma, for bringing together a diverse healthcare fraternity and delivering the programme within a short timeframe.

The event underscored the growing recognition of nutrition as a critical component of preventive and therapeutic healthcare, while reinforcing the importance of evidence-based approaches in addressing India’s chronic disease burden.

What Makes the Herbalist and Herbal Practitioner Market a Growing Healthcare Segment

Understanding Congenital Heart Defect Outcomes: Insights from the Heart Institute at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles

Finding out your child has a congenital heart defect (CHD) can come with a lot of emotion, fear, and urgent questions about what the future may hold for your family. But it’s important to know that major advances in heart care have transformed the reality of what it’s like to live with many of these conditions.

Today, the vast majority of babies with a congenital heart defect will reach adulthood. 

“For complex CHDs, survival is no longer the main benchmark for success,” says Luke M. Wiggins, MD, cardiothoracic surgeon at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. “Pediatric cardiac specialty centers have the tools to improve quality of life, promote long-term health, and help kids thrive.”

As a major referral center for the Southern California region, CHLA’s nationally ranked Heart Institute team is well-versed in treating fetal, neonatal, and pediatric patients with even the most challenging heart anatomy.

For families just starting out on their care journey, the Heart Institute team shares what parents should know about congenital heart defect outcomes. 

1. No two hearts look the same. 

The heart is an incredibly complex organ—which is why the same diagnosis may look completely different from one child to another.

There are more than 35 distinct types of congenital heart defects, and the potential combination of differences is nearly infinite. This is why heart defects often require a personalized treatment approach.

This was true for a young patient named Samuel, whose exceptionally unique heart anatomy required an innovative treatment plan that provided life-saving interventions while allowing him to grow and heal at home before reconstructive surgery.

2. Early detection—and accurate diagnosis—is essential.

While standard fetal imaging, like a 20-week ultrasound, can help to illuminate major structural issues, it’s essential that doctors understand all details of a patient’s anatomy to make the most informed diagnosis. It’s common for families visiting the Heart Institute to be seeking a second opinion after an initial diagnosis at their local hospital. 

In the Fetal Cardiac Clinic, renowned specialists in fetal cardiology, congenital heart defects, and prenatal heart care use state-of-the-art diagnostic tools, including 3D/4D ultrasound and fetal echocardiography, to help provide exceptional diagnostic clarity. 

Often before patients are even born, a multidisciplinary care team of fetal cardiologists, cardiothoracic surgeons, and interventional cardiologists starts devising a personalized care plan. 

Neonatal or pediatric patients may receive imaging in the Catheterization Lab or the Cardiac Imaging Suite, which includes a first-in-the-nation low-field MRI machine that allows unprecedented diagnostic precision. 

3. When it comes to complex heart defects, volume matters. 

The Heart Institute team conducts an average of more than 14,000 patient visits and 700 cardiothoracic surgeries each year. 

Over 50% of neonatal heart surgeries at the hospital are high-risk cases, making CHLA one of the largest complex surgical programs in the country.

“Volume makes specialty centers more effective at understanding risks and complications and optimizing care amidst challenges,” says Dr. Wiggins.

“We have pediatric specialists in every area of cardiac care who are doing open heart surgeries, catheterization procedures, anesthesia, and critical care day in and day out,” he adds. “This is in contrast to specialists at smaller hospitals who may encounter a pediatric patient with complex care needs much more infrequently.”

Additionally, CHLA’s heart team observes a two-surgeon system in the operating room—a rare practice among similar programs. 

“This approach allows for a much more fluid management of the many layers of complex congenital operations, which typically results in the operation progressing more quickly,” Dr. Wiggins explains. “For the patient, that means substantially less time under general anesthesia with their heart stopped and on a bypass machine.”

4. Research is the backbone of progress for complex heart care outcomes.

Just a few decades ago, many congenital heart defects were universally fatal. Today, innovations like fetal surgery, minimally invasive catheter-based procedures, and new medical devices have made congenital heart surgeries safer and more effective.

These innovations were made possible through research—and many key treatment breakthroughs and technologies have origins here at CHLA.

35 years ago, Head of Cardiothoracic Surgery and Heart Institute Co-Director Vaughn A. Starnes, MD, developed a new surgical technique to treat a valve abnormality called Ebstein anomaly. The Starnes procedure revolutionized management for critically ill babies with this condition, and a version of the operation is still used worldwide.

Today, the Heart Institute has more than 100 research studies and active clinical trials. Voluntary clinical research helps doctors and scientists learn more about current and investigational treatments and technologies—often before they are widely available—with a focus on solutions specially-designed for the smallest patients.

In 2022, Heart Institute physician-researchers spearheaded the clinical trial that led to FDA approval for a first-of-its-kind Minima Stent, and in 2024, Dr. Wiggins and his team launched a trial for a novel, size-adjustable prosthetic pulmonary valve. Both solutions are designed to be expanded as the child grows, without the need for multiple invasive replacement surgeries.

Most recently, CHLA’s interventional cardiologists started using a miniaturized imaging device that enables them to conduct patent ductus arteriosis (PDA) closures, a repair for a common heart defect in preemies, from right within the baby’s isolette.

5. For complex conditions, comprehensive heart care should continue through childhood.

Some heart defects may resolve on their own or need just one surgery to restore functional heart anatomy, and children will go on to live life without complications. For children with more complex anatomy, comprehensive multidisciplinary care is required as they grow up. 

In children with single ventricle disease who have undergone the Fontan procedure—the final stage of a three-part surgical reconstruction—multiple organ systems are affected. Families may receive coordinated care from specialists in Cardiology, Hepatology, Nephrology, Pulmonology, Nutrition, Psychology, nursing, and Social Work.

Home monitoring is also an essential aspect of long-term care for many children—helping them stay safe outside the hospital while ensuring peace of mind for families and providing important data to their care teams.

6. You’re not alone. 

It can feel impossible to wrap your head around a tough diagnosis. But working with a trusted team of specialists means your family will have guidance and support every step of the way.

“Early conversations with families are often focused on complexity and survival,” Dr. Wiggins says. “Later, they go home and return to everyday life, and as their surgeon, I might not see the kids again until months or even years later.

Seeing their progress—growing, developing personalities, building relationships—it’s all incredibly rewarding. It’s a powerful reminder of why this work matters.”

Omnigel associates with Peddi, bringing its presence into a sport-led cinematic narrative

The partnership reflects a growing shift towards brand presence within culturally rooted narratives

India, June 06: Omnigel, Cipla Health’s leading pain relief brand, has announced its in-film association with Peddi, a highly anticipated Telugu sports film featuring Ram Charan and Janhvi Kapoor.

Set in 1980s rural Andhra Pradesh, Peddi brings to life a powerful story of sport, resilience and community. Reflecting these themes, Omnigel has been integrated into the film’s narrative through contextual and natural placements, aligning the brand closely with moments of performance, recovery and endurance.

Omnigel is integrated into the film across several moments, reflecting its presence within a sport-led setting. It is also seen during the film’s central sports sequence, aligning with the broader themes of performance and resilience.

This association builds on Cipla Health’s ongoing efforts to explore formats beyond traditional media, with a sharper focus on platforms that are more culturally rooted and locally relevant. In the case of Peddi, the choice of a regional, sport-led film allows the brand to be part of a narrative that reflects everyday resilience and performance, rather than communicate through conventional advertising formats.

Commenting on the strategic association, Mr. Shivam Puri, MD & CEO, Cipla Health Limited, said: “Pain and recovery are strongly connected to how people live their daily lives, whether through sports or routine activities. At Cipla Health, our key focus with Omnigel has been to build solutions that support sustained movement. Peddi, with its grounding in sport and resilience, reflects this reality in a very natural way, making it a relevant context for us to be part of. Through this association, we are also looking at newer ways of engaging with audiences, where the brand can be present within the environments and stories they relate to.”

With sport at the centre of the film, Omnigel’s presence aligns with the physical demands and recovery associated with it. It also reflects the brand’s relevance in everyday movement and activity.

Omnigel is the leading player in pain relief brand offering solutions for everyday muscle and joint pain. It is designed to provide quick relief and help individuals stay active in their daily lives.

Azara Healthcare Closes the Medicaid Coverage Gap for Safety-Net Providers with Addition of Advocatia

BURLINGTON, Mass. — June 4, 2026: Azara Healthcare, the four-time Best in KLAS provider of population health and value-based care solutions for the safety net, today announced that it has acquired Advocatia, a digital-first public benefits enrollment platform. The combination delivers the first end-to-end Medicaid coverage retention solution — pairing the Azara DRVS platform’s ability to identify and engage at-risk individuals with Advocatia’s strengths in guiding them through application, documentation, and initial enrollment or renewal of Medicaid coverage and other public benefits programs. 

Together, the combined solution enables clients to: 

– Identify and prioritize patients at risk of losing coverage using Azara DRVS registries and risk stratification

– Engage patients at scale through automated, multi-channel outreach

– Guide patients through the enrollment and renewal process in 75 languages via Advocatia’s self-service digital platform

– Capture documentation and income verification to support redeterminations and new work requirement reporting

– Provide health center staff and navigators real-time visibility into patient progress and completion rates alerting and allowing them to intervene when additional help is needed

The move comes as community health centers, hospitals, and other safety-net providers prepare for one of the most significant coverage shifts in a generation. Under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (HR.1), more than 7.6 million Americans are projected to lose Medicaid coverage by 2034, and 80-hour monthly work requirements take effect in January 2027. The financial stakes for safety-net organizations are immediate. Hospitals are estimated to have delivered over $36 billion in uncompensated care to uninsured patients in each of the past 3 years, underscoring the growing pressure on providers caring for vulnerable populations. Compounding the challenge, the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC) projects HR.1 will reduce community health revenue by $7 billion annually due to increased uncompensated care — a level of strain that could force 1,800 site closures and 34,000 job losses nationwide.

“Our clients have been telling us the same thing for months: they need help ensuring that all patients still eligible for Medicaid coverage successfully re-enroll before deadlines and coverage loss,” said Jeff Brandes, President and CEO of Azara Healthcare. “Integrating Advocatia into the Azara platform closes that last mile by providing a single, connected workflow which moves a patient from identification, to outreach, to completed application, to coverage. That’s a meaningful step forward for the millions of patients who rely on safety net organizations for care.”

 Azara’s solutions, including the Azara DRVS platform, Azara Care Connect (ACC), and Azara Patient Outreach (APO), already help more than 1,000 safety-net provider organizations identify and engage patients who are at risk of falling off the Medicaid rolls during reenrollment periods. Clients include community health centers, rural and critical access hospitals, primary care associations, clinically integrated networks and health plans across all 50 states. Advocatia adds the final, essential layer. Its digital, guided enrollment experience walks patients through enrollment in Medicaid, SNAP, and more than 1,000 additional public benefit programs, with built-in tools for document collection, application completion, and follow-up.

Advocatia brings a decade of experience working with hospitals, providers, and health plans, with more than 5 million patients having accessed the platform. The company reports industry-leading metrics including 93% application submission rate among users who begin the process, 86% approval rate on submitted applications, and 33% reduction in application completion time.

“Advocatia was built on the simple belief that no one should lose coverage because the process is too hard to navigate,” said Ryan Brebner, Co-Founder and CEO of Advocatia. “Joining Azara lets us deliver on that mission at a scale we couldn’t reach alone. Azara already has trusted relationships with the safety-net providers and health plans serving the communities we’re built to help, and together, we can make sure those individuals don’t just get identified but stay covered.”

The combined Azara and Advocatia solution is available to Azara clients immediately, with several additional capabilities planned throughout 2026 and into 2027.

Multiangle Simulations Uncover How Neutrinos Can Help or Hinder Supernova Explosions

Core-collapse supernovae are thought to be powered by neutrino-driven energy transport. Now, researchers in Japan have shown that neutrino fast flavor conversion can either enhance or suppress supernova explosions depending on the progenitor star. Using advanced multiangle neutrino radiation hydrodynamics simulations, the team demonstrated that the mass accretion rate is the key factor governing this bifurcated behavior, offering new insight into the evolution and death of massive stars.

Our universe, filled with galaxies and stars, is full of mysteries. Over the centuries, astronomers have observed and documented supernova—the catastrophic explosion of stars—as some of the brightest and most energetic events in the universe. In particular, at the end of their lives, massive stars explode into core-collapse supernovae (CCSNe). Scientists believe these explosions to be mainly facilitated by neutrino-mediated energy transport. However, the effects of collective neutrino oscillations known as fast flavor conversion (FFC) on the CCSN explosion mechanism remain largely unclear. 

Previous studies attempted to investigate the role of FFC in CCSNe using approximate “truncated moment” methods. However, these approaches cannot reliably capture the angular neutrino distributions needed to determine where FFC occurs. 

A new study instead employs a multiangle treatment, allowing the researchers to directly model the angular behavior of neutrinos in momentum space.   

The team of researchers, led by Assistant Professor/Junior Researcher Ryuichiro Akaho from the Faculty of Science and Engineering at Waseda University, Japan, along with co-authors Dr. Hiroki Nagakura from the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan and Professor Shoichi Yamada from Waseda University, has carried out CCSN simulations with multiangle neutrino transport to elucidate the impact of neutrino FFC on CCSNe.Their insightful findings were made available onlineon May 11, 2026, and have been published inVolume 136, Issue 19 ofthe journal Physical Review Letters on May 15, 2026. The paper was also selected as a “Featured in Physics” article by the journal editors, recognizing its significance and broad interest to the physics community.

 In this study, the team combined a quantum kinetic theory-based FFC model with multidimensional Boltzmann neutrino radiation hydrodynamics simulations. Their framework directly identifies where FFC occurs using neutrino angular distributions calculated during the simulation itself. Akaho remarks: “We deploy our first-ever Boltzmann radiation hydrodynamics code that implements an FFC subgrid model, judge the occurrence of FFC directly from angular distributions obtained in simulations, and ascertain neutrino flavor states via physics-based quantum kinetic methodsimplemented through the Bhatnagar-Gross-Krook relaxation scheme. Crucially, we have already demonstrated this extended framework of neutrino transport in our previous work.”

The CCSN simulations presented in this study encompass successful as well as failed explosions, various progenitor models with zero-age main sequence masses of 9, 12, 16, and 20M_⊙, and three different nuclear equations of state (EOSs), namely, variational method-based Furusawa-Togashi EOS, Dirac-Brückner-Hartree-Fock technique, and chiral effective field theory. 

The researchers remarkably found that the impact of FFC on CCSN explosion is bifurcated depending on the progenitors. While FFC promotes shock revival and boosts the explosion energy for the lowest-massprogenitor, it has an inhibitory impact for higher-mass progenitors. The mass accretion rate is the main determinant governing this bifurcated effect. For a high value of mass accretion rate, the contribution of FFC to neutrino heating turns out to be negative,since the concurrent reduction in neutrino luminosity dominates over the enhancement of heating efficiency through FFC-driven spectral hardening of electron-type neutrinos. In contrast, FFC contribution to neutrino heating becomes positive foralow mass accretion rate.

 “Our present results highlight the limitations of approximate neutrino transport and show that a multiangle treatment is essential for accurately capturing FFC effects. Otherwise, important FFC signals may be overlooked or even falsely identified,” highlights Akaho.

Overall, this work provides a robust argument for the involvement of neutrino FFC in the explosion mechanism of CCSNe, improving our understanding of the lifecycle of massive stars and potentially serving as a theoretical guide for future CCSN observations.

How New Discoveries About ‘Ground Plans’ for Neurons Could Simplify Brain, Behavior Research

While E. Josie Clowney would never suggest that neuroscience is simple, a new study by her team at the University of Michigan could drastically reduce complexity in future studies. 

Their work focused on instinctual behaviors in fruit flies, but it has the potential to accelerate work to better understand the neurobiology that underlies behavior and decision-making in mammals, including humans.

The research establishes a new way to understand neurons, their connectivity and the behaviors they control. Within this new framework, the researchers can circumvent the conventional approach of considering each type of neuron individually and instead focus on groupings defined by shared structure and by two sets of regulatory genes. 

The work was supported by the Pew Charitable Trust and the McKnight Endowment Fund for Neuroscience, with additional funding from the National Institutes of Health and U.S. National Science Foundation.

While there are more than 8,000 kinds of neurons in the fruit fly cerebrum – the part of its brain where instinctual behaviors are hardwired – there are less than 200 major structural groups, or ground plans. Led by Najia Elkahlah, who recently defended her doctoral thesis in the Clowney lab, the team’s discoveries revealed how these ground plans get set up. There is a sort of order or hierarchy, where one set of genes coordinates the formation of the ground plan, and the other set produces small differences in shape and connectivity among neurons within each ground plan.

“Instead of studying all 8,000 kinds of neurons, we can instead understand how circuits work by studying these 200 modular elements that are wired together in various ways for different functions,” said Clowney, associate professor in the Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology.

These gene sets have homologues in mammals, and many of them are known to be critical in mammalian neural development. This raises the possibility of discovering similar simplifying frameworks in other organisms.

“At this moment, it’s not yet possible to ask if the same rules apply to analogous parts of mammalian brains, because we don’t know enough about the relationships among circuits, genes or developmental programs that operate there,” Clowney said. “But I feel strongly that there will be simplifying rules of some sort in the mammal as well, and that we or others will be able to discover them if we take inspiration from the way we went about making this discovery.”

The research was published in the journal Nature.

Taste and cease

Scientists have been studying the humble fruit fly as a biological model since before they knew genes were made of DNA. That history has yielded fundamental biological discoveries, as well as a substantial body of work on which to build new ones.

“The reasons we work with this animal today are because it has useful characteristics that simplify our experiments and interpretations, and because we want to take advantage of 100 years’ worth of knowledge,” Clowney said. “In my opinion – though others in the field might disagree—we don’t study this animal because it is ‘special,’ but rather as a generic example of ‘an animal.'”

Within the Drosophila cerebrum, researchers including Clowney had previously discovered specific neural circuits linked to specific instinctual behaviors. And this specificity helped the team discover the broader ground plans that can help simplify their quest to link molecular and cellular biology to behavior.

The researchers discovered that there are two sets of regulatory genes at work. The first set controls the basic shape of the neuron, while the second set influences finer variations and connectivity.

It’s this first set that gives rise to the roughly 200 ground plans. Of these 200, there’s one ground plan that’s connected to sensing a taste and stopping a behavior. Within that ground plan, there’s neural circuitry that detects unsavory taste information and quashes feeding behavior. Another circuit detects undesirable pheromonal tastes and blocks mating behavior. The team was able to identify the second set of genes that gave rise to these two distinct neural pathways and behaviors.

“Thinking about these two sets of genes separately allowed us to relate the developmental programs to the function of circuits,” Clowney said. “We identified two sets of genes that give neurons in the decision-making center of the brain their gross versus fine characteristics, and defined a new way to study these circuits.”

U-M research lab technician Joe Carter and doctoral students Yunzhi Lin and Yijie Pan also contributed to the study. The Clowney lab worked in collaboration with Troy Shirangi, a professor at Villanova University. Additional support for the project was provided by the U-M Advanced Genomics Core and the U-M Single Cell Spatial Analysis Program.