May 24, 2023
The relationships you choose don’t just impact your mental health. The stress or happiness they cultivate also affects your long-term and short-term physical health. Researchers are finding that the quality of our relationships with our partners, family members and friends can be as important, or in some cases, more important, to human health than habits like smoking, diet, exercising and drinking alcohol. According to Rosie Shrout, an assistant professor in human development and family science at Purdue University, a healthy relationship may vary in how it looks from person to person. However, generally, relationships thrive when couples have open communication, are able to deal with stress well together and are responsive to the thoughts and feelings of their partners. “Good couples may even become stronger when times get tough,” says Shrout.
May 22, 2023
The number of dead birds has been increasing as highly pathogenic bird flu began to spread worldwide in 2020. Estimates suggest that almost 59 million commercial birds have been butchered in the United States. This one is the largest avian flu called H5N1 since it was named in China in 1996. The continuous spread of the virus and the high fatality rate question two types of possible vaccines, one for humans and the other for birds. The virus results in the death of every bird it infects. The death rate in people has been 56% since 2003. According to an announcement by the US Department of Agriculture, it began testing several vaccines for poultry. The vaccines for people would only be considered it transforms into a virus that causes the spread from person to person and there is no such evidence.
'If bird flu becomes pandemic, current vaccines won't suffice'
May 22, 2023
The Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (CTSI) has successfully secured $38 million from the National Institutes of Health for the next seven years, marking the fourth consecutive grant for the statewide research enterprise. The Indiana CTSI was established in 2008 to accelerate clinical and translational research across the state by forming an alliance among the state’s three research universities – Indiana, Purdue and Notre Dame – along with partner health care systems, government agencies and company partners. It provides resources, education, training and funding opportunities to investigators who conduct research ranging from basic science to clinical research and community-based studies.
New Indiana CTSI funding heralds health-related research growth at Purdue
May 17, 2023
A team led by researchers at Purdue University and Purdue spinoff company Tymora Analytical Operations has developed a technique that may reveal signs of Parkinson's disease in urine samples. The technique gives researchers a chance to see if LRRK2 (leucine-rich repeat kinase 2) proteins, which are linked to Parkinson's disease, and their downstream pathways are altered in samples from Parkinson's patients. The method could eventually lead to widespread noninvasive testing for other neurodegenerative conditions as well as cancer. We believe this is a logical and rational approach to move forward for diagnosing Parkinson's disease. Diagnosis for this type of neurodegenerative disease is difficult." W. Andy Tao, professor of biochemistry, Purdue University Cognitive and movement testing can take a year or more to confirm the diagnosis, so molecular tests for early diagnosis and intervention can help people with Parkinson's faster, he explained. Tao and eight co-authors from Purdue, Tymora, The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research, and Columbia University published their findings in the Communications Medicine journal.
New technique may reveal signs of Parkinson's disease in urine samples
May 17, 2023
Structural biologist Richard J. Kuhn, the Trent and Judith Anderson Distinguished Professor in Science and Krenicki Family Director of the Purdue Institute of Inflammation, Immunology and Infectious Disease, has been named as Purdue's Morrill Award winner for 2023. The Morrill Award is the highest honor that Purdue confers on a member of its faculty. It was initiated in 2012 to honor the Morrill Act of 1862, which allowed for the establishment of land-grant colleges and universities, and comes with a $30,000 prize. Kuhn was selected based on the recommendations of a committee composed of distinguished members of the Purdue faculty. His nominator called him a “curve breaker” in each of Purdue’s mission areas.
Distinguished Professor Richard Kuhn named 2023 winner of Morrill Award, Purdue’s highest honor
May 17, 2023
Purdue Ventures has invested in Ixana, a wearable smart devices company that communicates with touch. According to Ixana's website, the fact that human-computer interaction (HCI) is primarily done by looking at a six inch smart phone screen has "bothered Ixana's co-founders for more than a decade." "They have worked independently as well as together to make HCI faster, more effective, and more efficient," the Ixana website states. "Ixana's founder and CTO, Shreyas, had the insight that distributed computing could transform HCI and high communication energy is the bottleneck to it. Realizing this, Shreyas and his research team invented Wi-R, an orders of magnitude energy-efficient and secure communication with transformative impact on HCI."
Purdue Ventures invests $250,000 into wearable technology company
May 16, 2023
EVtrap technology identifies proteins from brain cells in urine samples WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – A team led by researchers at Purdue University and Purdue spinoff company Tymora Analytical Operations has developed a technique that may reveal signs of Parkinson’s disease in urine samples. The technique gives researchers a chance to see if LRRK2 (leucine-rich repeat kinase 2) proteins, which are linked to Parkinson’s disease, and their downstream pathways are altered in samples from Parkinson’s patients. The method could eventually lead to widespread noninvasive testing for other neurodegenerative conditions as well as cancer. “We believe this is a logical and rational approach to move forward for diagnosing Parkinson’s disease,” said W. Andy Tao, professor of biochemistry at Purdue. “Diagnosis for this type of neurodegenerative disease is difficult.” Cognitive and movement testing can take a year or more to confirm the diagnosis, so molecular tests for early diagnosis and intervention can help people with Parkinson’s faster, he explained.
New liquid biopsy method offers potential for noninvasive Parkinson’s disease testing
May 15, 2023
Purdue Ventures, which manages multiple early stage investment funds to support Purdue University-connected startups, has invested in Ixana, a company that provides wearable smart devices with the ability to securely communicate with touch. Purdue Ventures’ investment is part of a larger $3 million seed funding round for Ixana, including backing from EvoNexus, Hack VC, Paradigm Shift Capital, Samsung Next and Uncorrelated Ventures.
Purdue Ventures invests in wearable communication chip company Ixana
May 15, 2023
Purdue Ventures on Monday announced its investment in Ixana, a West Lafayette-based startup that has developed a high-speed silicon chip it says provides wearable smart devices with the ability to securely communicate via touch. The investment is part of a $3 million seed round of funding for Ixana, which received “Startup of the Year” at this year’s TechPoint Mira Awards. Ixana, which also has offices in Seattle, Washington and Bangalore, India, was co-founded by Shreyas Sen, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Purdue, as well as Purdue alumni Shovan Maity and Angik Sarkar. Purdue said the Wi-R, or “wire-like wireless,” chip could transform how wearable devices communicate with each other. Sen, who serves as chief technology officer for Ixana, said the technologies uses the conductive properties of the human body to guide small amounts of Electro-Quasistatic, or EQS, fields around a person.
May 13, 2023
A concrete that “talks”? This is what they say at Purdue, who present their creation as a “talking” material. In reality, what they have developed at the Lyles School of Civil Engineering, a body linked to the university, is a sensor that is added to the concrete to provide engineers with valuable, real-time data about the material. “Allow me to speak,” illustrates the organism. The result seems as promising as its installation is simple. The sensors are embedded during the works, throwing them directly into the formwork to bury them later in the concrete. When they are ready, they are connected to a portable device that begins to record different data about the material. Thanks to an app, engineers thus obtain information in real time.
