Latest News Releases 23 June

Simon Fraser University has received $6.22 million (CAD) from the Mellon Foundation to support an effort to counter the impacts of discriminatory online misinformation and algorithms, and foster more just and equitable futures. The funding from the U.S.-based foundation will go towards a multi-faceted, multi-institutional three-year Data Fluencies Project aimed at exploring, analyzing and taking action against mis- and disinformation that threaten democracy, and undermine our ability to form complete and accurate narratives about our shared humanity.

Weill Cornell Medicine and New York Genome Center researchers, in collaboration with Oxford Nanopore Technologies, have developed a new method to assess on a large scale the three-dimensional structure of the human genome, or how the genome folds. The genome is the complete set of genetic instructions, DNA or RNA, enabling an organism to function.

The Endocrine Society announces its endorsement of the bipartisan insulin bill introduced by Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Susan Collins (R-ME) that would take steps to reduce out-of-pocket costs of insulin, the escalating price of insulin, and formulary management for people with diabetes.

Researchers at the John T. Macdonald Department of Human Genetics and John P. Hussman Institute for Human Genomics at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine have found that inherited mutations in the MINAR2 gene caused deafness in four families. The gene variation mostly affects the inner ear hair cells, which are critical to hearing. The authors believe the progressive nature of this hearing loss, in some affected individuals and in mice, could offer opportunities for treatment. The study was published in the journal PNAS.

The increased use of contraception in many countries is not because more women at any moment want to delay pregnancy or have no further children. Instead, it is because contraception is helping more women achieve their childbearing goals.

A team led by researchers at Baylor College of Medicine identified a HER2 mutation that confers therapeutic resistance and promotes metastatic behavior in lobular breast cancer. Importantly, they also showed that the drug poziotinib, which is already approved for other cancer types, reduced tumor growth and multi-organ metastasis in laboratory tests and animal models. A phase II clinical trial is on the works to determine the value of this drug in the treatment of patients with this devastating condition.