Christina Economos, professor and dean of the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, has been named a member of the National Academy of Medicine (NAM). 

A research team at the University of Cologne and University Hospital Cologne identifies a circuit in the brain that counteracts anxiety and helps to restore balanced behaviour. The result could contribute to developing treatment options for anorexia nervosa, one of the deadliest mental illnesses / publication in “Nature Neuroscience”

A new study has revealed how pear trees use a hidden layer of RNA communication to defend themselves against fungal infection. Scientists discovered that a long non-coding RNA named MSTRG.32189 forms a regulatory network with PcmiR399b and PcUBC24 to control phosphate levels and disease resistance. Acting like a molecular decoy, MSTRG.32189 fine-tunes the plant’s internal balance between nutrition and immunity. When its expression decreases during infection, the pear’s defense system activates, boosting resistance through increased phosphate accumulation and reactive oxygen species (ROS) signaling. This finding offers a new window into how plants coordinate nutrient metabolism with immune protection.

The faster a child takes bites during a meal or snack, the greater risk they have for developing obesity, according to researchers in the Penn State Department of Nutritional Sciences. But research into this association is often limited to small studies in laboratory environments, largely because counting a child’s bite rate is difficult; it requires someone to watch videos of a child eating and manually record each bite.