Research assistants often face unique challenges when working on emotionally intense topics, particularly if they lack established support systems outside the research team or have not yet learned effective coping strategies, according to a Rutgers Health study.

The study, published in the Journal of Gender-Based Violence, surveyed 27 research assistants involved in a multistate firearm violence research project. While working on the project, research assistants read and coded graphic descriptions of gun violence.

David A. Drew, PhD, of the Clinical & Translational Epidemiology Unit and Division of Gastroenterology at Massachusetts General Hospital, is the corresponding author of a paper published in Cellular and Molecular Gastroenterology and Hepatology, “Droplet vs. Picowell: Considerations for single-cell transcriptomic profiling of human colon biopsies

CT scans may account for 5% of all cancers annually, according to a new study out of UC San Francisco that cautions against overusing and overdosing CTs.  

The danger is greatest for infants, followed by children and adolescents. But adults also are at risk, since they are the most likely to get scans.  

Most cancer genome studies have focused on mutations in the tumor itself and how such gene variants allow a tumor to grow unchecked. A new study, led by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, takes a deep dive into inherited cancer mutations measured in a healthy blood sample and reports how those mutations might take a toll on the body’s cells starting at birth, perhaps predisposing a person to develop cancers at various stages of life.