Q&A: High-sensitivity tech offers a potential COVID-19 testing solution

Many of the latest developments in the global coronavirus pandemic revolve around testing—for active infection and immunity. Diagnostic and antibody tests for COVID-19 and SARS-CoV-2 are flooding the market, as leaders and the public hope they might support safer strategies for re-opening. Ping Wang, an associate professor of pathology and laboratory medicine, investigates diagnostics and […]

Dutch report new coronavirus infection on mink farm

Dutch authorities announced Friday that yet another mink farm has been infected with the novel coronavirus, making 18 in total, with thousands of animals to be culled. The outbreak was reported on a farm at Landhorst in the southeast, the Health Ministry said in a statement, in the same region where 17 other farms were […]

How a mutant coronavirus strain dominated the world:

How a mutant coronavirus strain dominated the world: Scientists discover change to COVID-19 variant that lets it copy itself more efficiently – making it more infectious (but not more deadly) Researchers found the most dominant strain of the virus was a mutation of the original variant called G614 The G strain is not a deadlier […]

Study exposes disparities in health care access in rural Southern California

A University of California, Riverside, study that sought to determine barriers to health care among Spanish-speaking Latino farmworkers in rural communities has devised an innovative health care service delivery model that addresses many challenges these communities face. The researchers, led by Ann Cheney, a medical anthropologist and assistant professor in the Department of Social Medicine, […]

Study says crowdsourced data could help map urban food deserts

New research from The University of Texas at Dallas suggests food deserts might be more prevalent in the U.S. than the numbers reported in government estimates. In a feasibility study published in the journal Frontiers in Public Health, scholars found that the methods used by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to identify areas with […]

Oropharyngeal secretions may help reduce false negative COVID-19 test results

As the global battle to understand and eliminate the coronavirus continues, a new study published in the Journal of Dental Research demonstrates that testing of oropharyngeal secretions (OS) may reduce the number of false negative results from nasal swab testing of patients who have seemingly recovered from the disease. In the study, led by Jingzhi […]

New method reveals how the Parkinson’s disease protein damages cell membranes

Sufferers of Parkinson’s disease have clumps of α-synuclein (alpha-synuclein), sometimes known as the “Parkinson’s protein,” found in the brain. These destroy cell membranes, eventually resulting in cell death. Now, a method developed at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, reveals how the composition of cell membranes seems to be a decisive factor for how small quantities […]