The molecular mechanism that drives the disease-causing effects of the most common genetic risk factor for lupus,  HLA-DRB1*03:01, has been revealed in a new study.

Systemic lupus erythematosus is a common, incurable autoimmune disease that affects millions of individuals worldwide, with a particularly high prevalence among women. The genetic variant HLA-DRB1*03:01 is the greatest risk factor for the condition, which involves inflammation in many vital organs, and can lead to severe disability and death.

In the study, investigators found that a protein coded by that HLA variant triggers a cascade of molecular and cellular effects that can cause the inflammatory symptoms seen in lupus patients.

Hot on the heels of COVID-19, Monkeypox is in the news for an alarming spread among people who engage in risky sexual behavior, because it is transmitted primarily through direct contact with infectious sores, scabs, or body fluids.

Healthcare professionals, particularly those in general practice, gastroenterology, and colorectal surgery, are going to need to discuss sexual behavior to make patients better informed. A new analysis of survey results finds that applies to young heterosexual women as well.

The Multicentre Epilepsy Lesion Detection project (MELD) used over 1,000 patient MRI scans from 22 global epilepsy centers to develop an algorithm which provides reports of where abnormalities are in cases of drug-resistant focal cortical dysplasia (FCD) – a leading cause of epilepsy.

Around 1 percent of the world’s population have the serious neurological condition epilepsy, that is characterized by frequent seizures. While drugs treatments are available for the majority of people with epilepsy, 20 to 30 percent do not respond to medications.

Today I am back from one of the most interesting workshops I ever attended to, and I wish to share some thoughts I had on possible ways to enhance our research of new ideas for future particle detectors with you. Those ideas come from discussions with other participants to the workshop, or just from re-digesting things I have been pondering over for a while. 

A recently published paper

An experiment found that selfing” monkeyflower plants lost 13 percent to 24 percent of their genetic variation compared to another group that were propagated by bumble bees. 

Genetic variation is important to respond to changes in nature or the overall environment. The good news is that they used bumblebees and though they claim they are in decline, evidence does not show that, so the plants are not at short term risk. Even better, pollination is not done by bumblebees alone, there are over 25,000 species of just bees, and lots of other insects pollinate. An experiment outside a closed greenhouse would show that.

In March 2020, a few days before lockdown was introduced, the UK government launched the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, widely referred to as “furlough”. This scheme provided employees who were unable to work due to the pandemic with 80% of their pay (capped at £2,500 per month).

WNBA star Brittney Griner is in a Russian jail because the laws of the country you enter no matter what country you live in. A visitor to the US with banned substances is going to jail the same way. Yet to many Americans, what she had is no problem. She was not smuggling drugs, she had cannabis oil used for vaping.

In that, she is hardy alone. Much like medical marijuana prescriptions were overwhelmingly obtained by young men while pain prescriptions are overwhelmingly for older women, there is a clear demographic who take up vaping for the cannabis, not to quit smoking or reduce harm by replacing carcinogenic smoke with nicotine vapor.

Obesity is correlated to risk for breast cancer after menopause and new study suggests that this adiposity is related to the follicle stimulating hormone (FSH).

It is only an observational study, in the exploratory section and not causal, but the authors say their examination of  hormone levels from samples stored in a Women’s Health Initiative biobank is the largest study of its kind in older women.

A hormone released by the pituitary gland, FSH plays an important role in female development and reproduction by stimulating growth of the ovarian follicle before ovulation.

The first f