Pennington Biomedical Research Center is recruiting participants for a clinical trial evaluating how a study drug for weight loss influences metabolism (the process by which food is used to supply energy for the body) compared to a diet. Dr. Eric Ravussin, LSU Boyd Professor and director of the Human Translational Physiology Laboratory at Pennington Biomedical, is currently leading the study.

The study, NOVO EXPENDITURE, is evaluating the efficacy of a new study drug compared to a reduced-calorie diet. The treatment could influence the process by which food is used to supply energy for the body and helps people reduce excess body weight.

Human skeletal biologists traditionally provide sex estimations as a part of establishing biological profiles (skeletal sex, age-at-death, stature, ancestry/population affinity) for skeletonized remains often using the shapes and sizes of the pelvis, long bones and skull, among other bones in the body. While analytical methods portray skeletal sex differences as almost purely binary (female or male), a person’s sex – including hormones, genetics, external anatomy, internal anatomy, and the skeleton – can be more varied than either female or male.

In a new review article, researchers from Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine explore why palpable change in the operationalization of sex and gender has been difficult to fully enact in human skeletal biology with an emphasis on forensic anthropology (the study of skeletonized remains in medico-legal settings). They argue that sex and gender are more complex than a binary determination and that forensic anthropologists are complicit in maintaining faulty notions regarding human variation that may be harmful for marginalized groups.

The University of Virginia has joined the SPARK GLOBAL initiative to accelerate the development of new medicines and find solutions for the most urgent and complex healthcare challenges of our time.

A new multicenter study led by researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai suggests that a novel electronic health record-based marker can help clinicians identify transplant patients at high risk for organ rejection due to not taking their medications as prescribed—and intervene before the rejection happens.

Researchers at Klick Labs are launching a series of clinical studies with Mayo Clinic in Florida exploring the use of novel vocal biomarkers in connection with a number of chronic diseases and serious health conditions. The new research collaboration plans to include scientists from Klick Labs’ vocal biomarker practice, along with Mayo Clinic Principal investigators across several fields, led by Vivek Kumbhari, MD, PhD..