For people living with Parkinson’s disease, there has been a gap between laboratory research and real-world behavior that has limited efforts to improve gait symptoms outside of the clinic. Now, researchers from UC San Francisco have taken an important step toward closing that gap by successfully moving the laboratory into the living room. In a new study published February 13 in Science Advances, the team demonstrated that brain activity recorded from fully implanted devices while patients are at home can be used to reliably determine whether a person is walking or not. By analyzing synchronized neural and movement data collected during more than 80 hours of unsupervised daily activity, researchers identified individualized patterns of brain activity associated with walking. These neural signatures allowed an implanted deep brain stimulation (DBS) device to classify movement states using signals generated during natural, at-home activities.

About The Study: In this study of ambulatory older women, greater muscular strength was associated with lower mortality even when controlling for accelerometer-measured physical activity and sedentary time, walking speed, and systemic inflammation. These findings suggest that assessing strength and promoting its maintenance are instrumental for optimal aging. 

About The Study: Prior research finds abortion restrictions are associated with increased demand for telehealth medication abortion. However, whether this trend extended to adolescents was previously unknown, a population facing the unique legal burden of mandatory parental involvement, in addition to gestation bans. This study found that post-Dobbs increases in requests were highest among young adults, especially in states with restrictive abortion laws, and among adolescents, in states with gestational bans and parental consent and notification requirements.

A team of researchers from the Andalusian Centre for Molecular Biology and Regenerative Medicine (CABIMER) and the University of Seville, in collaboration with the Virgen Macarena University Hospital, have identified a fundamental mechanism that links the 24-hour circadian cycle to the precise repair of DNA breaks. This study, which focused on the circadian protein Cryptochrome1 (CRY1), suggests that the time of day when radiotherapy is administered can significantly influence the effectiveness of treatment for certain types of cancer.

New research has been published ahead-of-print by The Journal of Nuclear Medicine (JNM). JNM is published by the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, an international scientific and medical organization dedicated to advancing nuclear medicine, molecular imaging, and theranostics—precision medicine that allows diagnosis and treatment to be tailored to individual patients in order to achieve the best possible outcomes.