Being emotionally flexible may be one of the most important factors when it comes to longevity and overall health of your romantic and familial relationships.

That’s the finding of a new University meta-analysis, published in the Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science, which statistically combined the results of 174 separate studies that had looked at acceptance and commitment therapy, mindfulness, and emotion regulation.

The researchers’ aim was to clarify how mindful flexibility—on one hand—and inattentive, mindless, and rigid inflexibility on the other—were linked to the dynamics within families and romantic relationships.

“Put simply,” says coauthor Ronald Rogge, an associate professor of psychology, “this meta-analysis underscores that being mindful and emotionally flexible in tough and challenging situations not only improves the lives of individuals, it might also strengthen and enrich their close relationships.” Read more here.

The COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and the German pharmaceutical company BioNTech made history–and not only because it reported a 95 percent efficacy rate at preventing COVID-19 in clinical trials. In addition, it is the first vaccine ever approved by the FDA for human use that is based on RNA technology.

A contingent of researchers at the University study the RNA of viruses to better understand how RNAs work and how they are involved in diseases, which provides an important foundation for developing vaccines and other drugs and therapeutics to disrupt the virus and stop infections.

“The development of RNA vaccines is a great boon to the future of treating infectious diseases,” says Lynne Maquat, the J. Lowell Orbison Distinguished Service Alumni Professor in biochemistry and biophysics, oncology, and pediatrics and the director of Rochester’s Center for RNA Biology.

The algorithms that social media platforms use to recommend who we should “follow” are designed to steer us to people who likely share the same ideas and interests.

However, platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram could help us become more creative—a quality that is increasingly valued in our society—if they instead steered us to people with ideas and interests different from our own, say researchers at the human-computer interaction lab of Ehsan Hoque, an associate professor of computer science.

In a new paper in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface, they describe conducting a novel experiment in which participants were asked to think of unusual, “creative” uses for commonplace items–using a pencil as a dart, for example, or a shoe as a hammer. They were also given the opportunity to view the ideas of other participants and then decide which of them they would like to “follow” for creative inspiration.

“We found that the participants overwhelmingly chose to follow peers who had the most creative ideas,” says lead author Raiyan Abdul Baten, a PhD student.

“We confirmed that following highly creative peers indeed helped people generate novel ideas themselves—the intuition being, if you bump up against out-of-the-box ideas, chances are higher that you will be able to combine your own ideas with ideas you didn’t originally think of. Such creative recombinations can lead to further novel ideas.” Read more here.

Oscine Therapeutics – a biotechnology company that is developing cell-based therapies for neurological disorders based on discoveries made at Medical Center (URMC) – has been acquired by Sana Biotechnology for undisclosed terms.

The research behind Oscine is based on decades of work in the lab of Steve Goldman, professor of neurology and neuroscience and co-director of the Center for Translational Neuromedicine. Goldman’s research has focused on understanding the basic biology and molecular function of the glial support cells in the central nervous system, devising new techniques to precisely manipulate and sort these cells, and studying how cell replacement could impact the course of neurological diseases. Goldman, who was Oscine’s president and scientific founder, joins Sana as senior vice president and head of Central Nervous System Therapy. He will also remain on the URMC faculty.

Sana Biotechnology, which has operations in Washington, Massachusetts, and California, was created in 2018 with a focus on developing and delivering engineered cells as medicines for patients.  Last year, the company invested in Oscine’s R&D in neurological disorders, in what remains the University’s largest-ever commercial spin-off.

The exclusive licenses for the portfolio of technologies and equity stake that the University held with Oscine have been acquired by Sana. The University and Goldman may continue to receive significant licensing, milestone, and royalty payments from Sana going forward. Read more here.

Ranga Dias, assistant professor of mechanical engineering and of physics and astronomy. His lab’s creation of room-temperature superconducting material–considered the Holy Grail of Condensed Matter Physics–was selected as one of 10 finalists for Breakthrough of the Year by the journal Physics World. Read more here.

Jannick Rolland, the Brian J. Thompson Professor of Optical Engineering and  director of the Center for Freeform Optics, who has been named a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). Rolland holds more than 50 patents and is considered a pioneer in optical applications in augmented and virtual reality. “Jannick is the epitome of the inventor,” says Scott Carney, director of the Institute of Optics. “Her research has opened new vistas in imaging and free form optical design. She has brought her ideas to market through her entrepreneurial efforts. Graduates from her group lead the field and credit Jannick’s mentorship for their success.” Read more here.

Melina Esse, an associate professor of musicology at the Eastman School of Music, who has won the Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Publication Award for a Manuscript in Italian Literary Studies from the Modern Language Association for her new book, Singing Sappho: Improvisation and Authority in Nineteenth-Century Italian Opera.

The Department of Psychiatry is accepting applications for its T32 postdoctoral fellowship in suicide prevention.

Now in its 20^th year, the University’s Center for the Study and Prevention of Suicide (CSPS) postdoctoral training program is supported by a training grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).

Yeates Conwell is program director and Kim Van Orden is associate director. The program provides up to three years of stipend support and related benefits for early career investigators committed to careers in suicide prevention research. Each fellow works closely with a primary mentor, takes courses, and participates in a diverse array of CSPS research and training activities.

A strength of the UR/CSPS fellowship is the provision of intensive mentorship in grant writing, study design, and data analysis from UR/CSPS core faculty dedicated to suicide prevention.

The annual America’s Got Regulatory Science Talent Student Competition provides an opportunity for students from across the University to compete for a chance to present their regulatory science ideas at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The student competition takes place virtually on Thursday, March 4, 10:30 am – 12:00 pm. The completed entry form is due by 5 p.m. Wednesday, February 17.

The next Research Connections will be on January 8.

Here are important links for researchers:

• The University’s COVID-19 Resource Center for important updates and guidance on working, teaching, and learning remotely
• University of Rochester Medical Center website for restrictions, resources, and news
• Office of Research and Project Administration (ORPA) site on Coronavirus 2019 resources related to sponsored programs
• The University’s COVID-19 “Restart and Recovery” web page

Bring Roc Back: How Our Community Can End the Pandemic: The University’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute (UR CTSI) is part of a group of community partners encouraging people to Bring Roc Back. The community outreach campaign encourages communities most impacted by COVID-19 to participate in Rochester-based vaccine studies and to take the vaccine when it becomes available. The campaign reminds us that we all have the power to do something to help Rochester get back to where we were before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Please note that the University’s COVID-19 Dashboard is updated daily and dashboard numbers may reflect additional cases confirmed later in the day. When a new case is known, the contact-tracing process begins immediately with the Monroe County Health Department, with confirmed exposures being contacted and required to quarantine. Remember:

• A temperature of 100 °F (37.8 °C) or higher
• Chills
• Muscle or body aches
• Severe fatigue
• Headache
• Congestion or runny nose
• Sore throat
• Loss of taste, smell, or appetite
• Cough, shortness of breath, or difficulty breathing
• Nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea