Researchers at the University of Rochester and the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) have taken a decisive step toward developing electronics and information processing that operate near the fastest timescales allowed by the laws of nature.

They have demonstrated a logic gate—the building block of computation and information processing—that operates at femtosecond timescales. The feat, reported in the journal Nature, was accomplished by harnessing and independently controlling, for the first time, the real and virtual charge carriers that compose these ultrafast bursts of electricity.

The researchers’ advances have opened the door to information processing at the petahertz limit, where one quadrillion computational operations can be processed per second. That is almost a million times faster than today’s computers operating with gigahertz clock rates, where 1 petahertz is 1 million gigahertz.

“This is a great example of how fundamental science can lead to new technologies,” says Ignacio Franco, an associate professor of chemistry and physics at Rochester who, in collaboration with doctoral student Antonio José Garzón-Ramírez ’21 (PhD), performed the theoretical studies that lead to this discovery. Learn more.

Here’s a scenario so common that it applies to nearly 92 percent of older adults with cancer: An individual comes in for treatment and reports taking several medications that might include a drug for high blood pressure or heart disease, an antidepressant, and something for diabetes. The person may also take frequent doses of Advil, over-the-counter pills to relieve heartburn or reflux, antihistamines, and vitamins and minerals. However, patients may not report these as often to the medical team.

This soupy concoction defines “polypharmacy”—the concurrent use of multiple medications—which can lead to harmful drug interactions. This is especially dangerous for cancer patients about to undergo therapy.

“As doctors, we tell people to take medications but we don’t always do a great job of following up,” says Erika Ramsdale, a Wilmot Cancer Institute oncologist, geriatrics specialist, and data scientist who led a recent study on polypharmacy published in The Oncologist journal. “From the patient perspective, if it’s determined that a medication is no longer needed, it’s hard to stop taking it. There’s a sense of, ‘What will happen if I stop?’ or ‘Are you giving up on me?’ A lot of uncertainty and emotions are tied up in this issue.”

Wilmot researchers analyzed medication use in a nationwide sample of 718 adults with a mean age of 77 who had stage 3 or 4 cancer and other health conditions. 70 percent were at risk of drug-drug interactions and 67 percent were taking at least one drug that was potentially inappropriate. Learn more.

Jin Xiao, Steve Gill, and Tong Tong Wu.

The Eastman Institute for Oral Health has been awarded a $3.5 million grant to conduct a first-ever study that will examine early-life biological factors related to severe tooth decay among underserved racial and ethnic minority groups.

The study is led by Jin Xiao, associate professor and perinatal oral health expert, in collaboration with co-principal investigators Steve Gill, professor of microbiology and immunology, and a microbiome research expert, and Tong Tong Wu, associate professor of biostatistics and computational biology and a high-dimensional data modeling expert.

Although largely preventable, Early Childhood Caries (ECC)—severe tooth decay among young children—affects one third of socioeconomically disadvantaged and racial/ethnic minority preschool children in the U.S.  While ECC is an infectious disease initiated by bacteria in the oral cavity, the relationship between the person, the bacteria and the environment affects the onset and severity.

In a separate study, EIOH scientists learned that a certain type of yeast—Candida albicans—is largely present in the mouths of pregnant women in underserved communities. “If we learn that infants in underserved communities have a higher amount of bacteria and yeast in early life, we could predict sooner and with more accuracy who is at increased risk of developing ECC and then work to prevent it,” Xiao says.

Funded by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, the five-year study will examine 2,000 saliva samples previously collected from a cohort of minority mothers and babies to sequence the whole spectrum of oral microbes, including bacteria and fungi. The team will then build tooth decay prediction models by integrating multi-platform data, including the microbiome, human candidate genes, immune markers and maternal and socio-behavioral information. Learn more.

Brian Brent, Elaine Hill, Joanne Larson, Carol Anne St. George, and Jinjiao Wang.

• Brian Brent, the Earl B. Taylor Professor at the Warner School of Education, who has been selected as a 2022 Distinguished Research and Practice Fellow by the National Education Finance Academy.
• Elaine Hill, an associate professor of public health sciences, of economics, and of obstetrics and gynecology, who was recently appointed as a faculty research fellow in the National Bureau of Economic Research’s program on Health Economics and Children.
• Joanne Larson, the Michael W. Scandling Professor of Education at the Warner School of Education, who received the 2022 Henry T. Trueba Award for Research Leading to the Transformation of the Social Contexts of Education from the American Educational Research Association.
• Carol Anne St. George, a professor in teaching and curriculum at the Warner School of Education, who received the 2022 Frederica Hollister Professional Educators Award from the Delta Kappa Gamma International Society, New York Chapter.
• Jinjiao Wang, assistant professor at. the School of Nursing, who was selected as this year’s recipient of the University of Rochester Division of Geriatrics & Aging Research Award.

Writing a successful grant is critical to advancing your research career. The AAMC Grant Writers Coaching Group for NIH Awards program, on June 16, supports underrepresented faculty in writing successful grants. The program is designed for faculty who are actively working on an NIH Career Development (K or R) proposal. Apply now! Learn more.

This free, on-demand, 60-minute interactive workshop, presents common reasons why reading research can be so challenging (even for advanced students) and models effective techniques for helping students and scholars practice this skill in more engaging ways. Participants will work with colleagues in breakout groups to simulate the activities used with students and plan updates to their own teaching.