1,360 results match your criteria: "Institute for Environmental Medicine[Affiliation]"

Background: Interpreting biological system changes requires interpreting vast amounts of multi-omics data. While user-friendly tools exist for single-omics analysis, integrating multiple omics still requires bioinformatics expertise, limiting accessibility for the broader scientific community.

Results: BiomiX tackles the bottleneck in high-throughput omics data analysis, enabling efficient and integrated analysis of multiomics data obtained from two cohorts.

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Convergent transcription, that is, the collision of sense and antisense transcription, is ubiquitous in mammalian genomes and believed to diminish RNA expression. Recently, antisense transcription downstream of promoters was found to be surprisingly prevalent. However, functional characteristics of affected promoters are poorly investigated.

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Background: Some studies have revealed various sleep patterns in adolescents and adults using multidimensional objective sleep parameters. However, it remains unknown whether these patterns are consistent from adolescence to young adulthood and how they relate to long-term obesity.

Methods: Seven-day accelerometry was conducted in German Infant Study on the influence of Nutrition Intervention PLUS environmental and genetic influences on allergy development (GINIplus) and Influence of Lifestyle factors on the development of the Immune System and Allergies in East and West Germany (LISA) birth cohorts during the 15-year and 20-year follow-ups, respectively.

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Low income, being without employment, and living alone: how they are associated with cognitive functioning-Results from the German national cohort (NAKO).

Neuropsychol Dev Cogn B Aging Neuropsychol Cogn

December 2024

Institute of Social Medicine, Occupational Health and Public Health (ISAP), Medical Faculty, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany.

Aim was to investigate to what extent cognitive functioning differs by three socioeconomic conditions: low income, being without employment, and living alone. A total of N = 158,144 participants of the population-based German National Cohort (NAKO) provided data on socioeconomic conditions and completed cognitive tests. Multivariable confounder-adjusted regression analyses indicated that cognitive functioning was lower in those with low income (b = -0.

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The workshop titled State of the Science on Assessing Developmental Neurotoxicity Using New Approach Methods was co-organized by University of Maryland’s Joint Institute for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (JIFSAN) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN; now called the Human Foods Program), and was hosted by FDA in College Park, MD on November 14-15, 2023.

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For many years, polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) were used as flame retardants in a large number of consumer products. Even though international law meanwhile prohibits the production and usage of PBDEs, these persistent and bioaccumulative chemicals still leak into the environment, and are frequently detected in wildlife and humans. Population-based studies reveal positive correlations between human PBDE exposure and various adverse health effects, emphasizing that a better understanding of the mode of action of these polybrominated chemicals is urgently needed.

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The effects of ultrafine particle (UFP) inhalation on neurodevelopment, especially during critical windows of early life, remain largely unexplored. The specific time windows during which exposure to UFP might be the most detrimental remain poorly understood. Here, we studied early-life exposure to clean ultrafine carbonaceous particles (UFP) and neurodevelopment and central nervous system function in offspring.

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Growing evidence suggests that somatic mutations may be a major cause of the aging process. However, it remains to be tested whether the predictions of the theory also apply to species with longer life spans than humans. is a genus of freshwater polyps with remarkable regeneration abilities and a potentially unlimited life span under laboratory conditions.

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Exploring the genetics of airflow limitation in lung function across the lifespan - a polygenic risk score study.

EClinicalMedicine

September 2024

Department of Clinical Science and Education, Södersjukhuset, Karolinska Institutet, Sjukhusbacken 10, 118 83, Stockholm, Sweden.

Article Synopsis
  • Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) can be influenced by genetic factors and may stem from reduced lung growth during childhood, leading to lower lung function throughout life.
  • A polygenic risk score (PRS) was calculated using data from a large genome-wide association study and tested for its correlation with lung function in individuals aged 4-50 from multiple research cohorts.
  • Results indicated that higher PRS scores were associated with significantly lower lung function, measured by key indicators, starting from childhood and continuing into adulthood, regardless of smoking, sex, or asthma diagnosis.
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The safety and developmental neurotoxicity (DNT) potential of chemicals remain critically understudied due to limitations of current in vivo testing guidelines, which are low throughput, resource-intensive, and hindered by species differences that limit their relevance to human health. To address these issues, robust New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) using deeply characterized cell models are essential. This study presents the comprehensive transcriptomic characterization of two advanced human-induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC)-derived models: a 2D adherent and a 3D neurosphere model of human neural progenitor cells (hiNPCs) differentiated up to 21 days.

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  • The study investigates how incivility and bullying among students in Swedish higher education affect their health and well-being, with a focus on whether gender plays a role in these dynamics.
  • Using data from over 17,000 students across 38 universities, the research finds that women report more instances of incivility and bullying than men.
  • Although incivility is directly linked to poor health and well-being, the study finds that bullying does not significantly mediate this relationship, highlighting the need for targeted interventions considering gender differences.
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There is no doubt that global warming, with its extreme heat events, is having an increasing impact on human health. Heat is not independent of ambient temperature but acts synergistically with relative humidity (RH) to increase the risk of several diseases, such as cardiovascular and pulmonary diseases. Although the skin is the organ in direct contact with the environment, it is currently unknown whether skin health is similarly affected.

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Bioaerosols, such as pollen and fungal spores, are routinely monitored for agricultural, medical or urban greening practices, but sampling methodology is largely relying on techniques more than half a century old. Moreover, biomonitoring campaigns often take place in urban environments, although sources can be located outside cities' borders with ampler vegetation. Therefore, the question arises whether we are accurately picturing the biodiversity and abundance of regional bioaerosols and whether those locally detected might derive from long-distance transport, horizontally or vertically.

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Dynamics of intracellular and intercellular redox communication.

Free Radic Biol Med

November 2024

Institute for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology I, Medical Faculty, Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany; Leibniz Research Institute for Environmental Medicine, Düsseldorf, Germany. Electronic address:

Cell and organ metabolism is organized through various signaling mechanisms, including redox, Ca, kinase and electrochemical pathways. Redox signaling operates at multiple levels, from interactions between individual molecules in their microenvironment to communication among subcellular organelles, single cells, organs, and the entire organism. Redox communication is a dynamic and ongoing spatiotemporal process.

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Genetic Prediction Modeling in Large Cohort Studies via Boosting Targeted Loss Functions.

Stat Med

December 2024

Institute of Medical Biometry, Informatics and Epidemiology, Medical Faculty, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany.

Article Synopsis
  • - Polygenic risk scores (PRS) are used to predict traits from genetic data based on common genetic variants, typically requiring methods suitable for large-scale, high-dimensional datasets.
  • - The snpboost algorithm has been introduced to estimate PRS using individual genotype data through multivariable regression, effectively addressing the complexities of high-dimensional data analysis.
  • - Recent advancements in snpboost now allow for the application of alternative loss functions, enabling more nuanced analyses such as time-to-event and count data, which improves risk stratification and quantifies prediction uncertainty for individual patients.
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  • Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a complicated disease with various manifestations, making it hard to manage, but autoantibodies may help identify different patient groups and their underlying mechanisms.
  • A study of 206 SSc patients used antibody status (ACA and SCL70) and various biological analyses to explore differences between groups.
  • Results showed that SCL70-positive patients had more severe symptoms and unique biological profiles, while ACA-positive patients had a different set of immune and metabolic features, highlighting the importance of serological status in understanding and treating the disease.
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  • A recent study found that cognitive behavioral therapy for symptom preoccupation related to paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (AF-CBT) improved quality of life but its effects on physiological factors like heart rate variability (HRV), physical activity, and sleep were unclear.
  • In the study, 127 patients were divided into two groups, one receiving AF-CBT and the other AF education for 10 weeks, with assessments conducted before, after treatment, and at three months.
  • Results showed that while AF-CBT significantly reduced insomnia severity, it did not affect heart rate variability, physical activity levels, or overall sleep duration, suggesting the therapy's benefits may be more psychological than physiological.
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Vδ1 T cells are a subpopulation of γδT cells found in human dermis. Much less is known regarding their role and function in skin health and disease than regarding the roles of murine skin-resident γδT cells. In this study, we report the successful integration of Vδ1 T cells into long-term fibroblast-derived matrix skin equivalents.

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  • The long-term health impacts of playing professional football (soccer) are gaining attention, particularly concerning brain health, but cardiovascular, metabolic diseases, and cancer also need to be studied.
  • A new project called 'SoccHealth' is being conducted as part of Germany’s largest cohort study, NAKO, examining the health of 348 former professional football players aged 40-69.
  • This project aims to provide insights into the long-term health effects of football by comparing the football players' health data with general population controls, using a consistent examination protocol.
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  • - Human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) offer significant research potential, but current testing methods for pluripotency are inconsistent and rely on unclear markers.
  • - The study employs long-read nanopore transcriptome sequencing to identify 172 genes related to specific cell states, validating 12 as unique markers for pluripotent and differentiated fates, like endoderm and mesoderm.
  • - A new machine learning-based scoring system called "hiPSCore" is developed to effectively classify cell states and predict their potential in forming specialized cells and organoids, improving iPSC assessment by minimizing time and resource use.
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