In a new paper published in Nature, a team of researchers led by Vasilii Petrenko reports two important findings regarding methane, a powerful greenhouse gas and large contributor to global warming:

• First, the risk that warming will trigger methane release from large natural reservoirs of ancient carbon seems to be low.
• Second, humans are probably contributing more methane to the atmosphere through fossil fuel use and extraction than scientists previously believed.

Reducing methane emissions from fossil fuels may therefore be an even more important factor in reducing global warming.

“Our results are suggesting that anthropogenic (man-made) fossil fuel methane emissions are even larger than previously thought,” says Petrenko, an assistant professor of earth and environmental sciences. “This means we have even more leverage to fight global warming by curbing methane emissions from our fossil fuel use.”

Petrenko and collaborators from several US and international laboratories, with support from the National Science Foundation, studied past atmospheric records using ice cores extracted from Taylor Glacier in Antarctica. These cores date back nearly 12,000 years.

Every year that it snows in Antarctica, the current snow layer weighs on the previous layer, compacting over hundreds or thousands of years to eventually form layers of ice. These ice layers contain air bubbles, which are like tiny time capsules; using vacuum pumps and melting chambers, researchers are able to extract the ancient air contained within these bubbles and study the chemical compositions of the ancient atmosphere.

Humans did not begin using fossil fuels as a primary energy source until the Industrial Revolution in the 18th century. Because of this, 12,000-year-old ice cores contain no fossil methane originating from human activities; fossil methane levels are based solely on methane emitted from natural sources — from wetlands, wildfires, or ocean and land seeps. Natural geologic methane emissions of the past are thought to be comparable to natural emissions today, so studying ice cores allows researchers to very accurately measure these levels, separate from their anthropogenic counterparts.

The natural geologic methane levels the research team measured were three to four times lower than previously estimated numbers. If the natural geologic methane emissions are lower than expected, the anthropogenic fossil methane emissions must be higher than expected—Petrenko estimates by 25 percent or more.

Read more here.

University researchers recently set out to understand whether drugs used to keep HIV patients alive could be damaging their brains.  On the contrary, early results from their clinical study showed that short-term use of combination anti-retroviral therapy (cART) improved mental function in HIV-infected individuals.

Giovanni Schifitto, professor of neurology, is leading the study to better understand the short and long term effects of combination antiretroviral therapy on HIV patients’ brains. At 12 weeks, the therapy appears to improve mental performance and functional connectivity in the brain.

HIV patients often experience mental decline ranging from mild impairment to full-blown dementia. Experts have long debated the cause of that mental decline: HIV itself, or the drug used to combat it.

Some of the first HIV drugs were known to cause damage to peripheral nerves. Newer anti-retroviral drugs are believed to be safer, but patients taking these drugs continue to experience mental impairment – even when their viral load is extremely low.  In fact, some studies have shown improvement in HIV patients’ mental function when they stop using cART.

“But those studies were very indirect,” says Schifitto, who is also the director of the Clinical Research Center and function leader for Participant and Clinical Interactions at the Clinical and Translational Science Institute. “They studied cohorts of people who were already on medications, which makes it very hard to pull apart whether the virus or the drug is to blame for effects in the brain.”

Schifitto’s clinical study, on the other hand, followed 17 HIV-infected individuals who had not received any treatment prior to the study. These patients scored worse on mental function tests and brain imaging revealed fewer connections in their brains than the HIV-negative control group.

After receiving cART for 12 weeks, the HIV patients’ mental performance and functional brain connectivity improved nearly to the level of the HIV-negative group. This not only suggests that short term cART use does not damage the brain, but that the virus is the culprit for early mental impairment in HIV-infected patients.

However, this is just a first step of the study, which will enroll and follow over 150 participants for two years. It is possible that cART will cause mental decline after prolonged use and the team wants to track if and when that happens.  They are also monitoring sleep, mood, and several other factors that can impact mental function in HIV patients taking cART.

In the end, the outcomes of the short and long term studies may help health care providers tailor cART cocktails and treatment schedules to individual patients’ needs. The results could also have implications for preventative use of cART in individuals who are at high risk for contracting HIV, a practice called pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP).

Read more here.

(Over the last 20 years, researchers have been uncovering the complexity of lymphoma and the challenges it presents for treatment. The lymphoma program at Wilmot Cancer Institute is helping lead the search for answers. This installment is from a story at the institute’s Dialogue Blog.)

Clinical trials are a priority for Wilmot’s lymphoma program, which enrolls about 25 percent of patients needing treatment on these studies. By participating in cooperative groups like SWOG, a worldwide network of researchers who design and conduct cancer clinical trials, and partnering with industry, Wilmot can stay at the forefront of lymphoma care and offer patients access to new treatments and technology.

“We’re constantly thinking not just about how we are treating patients today, but how we are going to treat them in 20 years and planning for the future,” says Wilmot hematologist Paul Barr.

Wilmot’s portfolio of lymphoma trials includes new techniques for blood and marrow transplants, targeted therapies, and immunotherapies that attack the cancer cells in different ways. The availability of trials gives patients more options if they don’t respond to standard treatments or when their therapies stop working.

“A quarter of our patients are getting treatments today that may not be widely available,” says Jonathan W. Friedberg, Wilmot’s director and a lymphoma expert who has led international efforts to design trials and educate other hematologists and oncologists about new findings.

For example, Wilmot is one of the only cancer centers in New York state to offer CAR T-cell therapy trials for patients with lymphoma. This novel therapy involves re-engineering a patient’s immune cells and training them to attack the cancer.

The first patient at Wilmot to undergo CAR T-cell therapy, Ed Foster of Elmira, went into remission for nine months, allowing him to return to his work as a physician and to enjoy hunting and fishing. Although his cancer returned and he later died, his experience in the trial continues to inform the researchers at Wilmot and nationwide who are also part of this study.

“We were able to take a biopsy of his tumor and were able to study it to find out how it escaped the CAR T-cell therapy,” Friedberg says. “We think we understand why it progressed and this will inform future research efforts to prevent these recurrent events.”

Even after trials close and therapies are approved by the FDA, clinical investigators continue to follow patients who are on those drugs. For example, Wilmot’s team maintains a database that includes information on 500 chronic lymphocytic leukemia patients they’ve treated since 2014. This data allows them to see how patients are doing in the real world — not just in the defined conditions of a clinical trial.

They are looking at how well patients are tolerating medications like ibrutinib and idelalisib, whether patients have had to stop taking them and why, and what happens to those patients after they discontinue those drugs. They’re investigating the impact of the shift from chemotherapy to targeted agents on patients’ risk for infections or secondary cancers and on the risk of cognitive problems like chemo-brain.

“This database allows us to look at the big picture,” Barr says. “Are we improving not just one treatment but also patients’ lives as a whole? That’s something that you can’t study in a clinical trial.”

In a world of “alternative facts,” it is more important than ever that researchers do a good job of communicating their work to a wide audience. A group of academics from the University and RIT invite you to join them from 9 a.m. to noon Monday, September 18 at RIT for a workshop entitled “Improv for Faculty. Unlock Your Presentation Skills.”

Participants will use fun, energizing, and interactive improv exercises to practice skills in a hands-on workshop. Wear loose, comfortable clothing and come ready to engage. Learn more and reserve a spot by contacting tracey-baas@urmc.rochester.edu by September 15.

Ever Better Mentoring, a hybrid online and face-to-face mentoring course, is designed to both reinforce and introduce common issues faced by mentors of research trainees and students.

The course, announced by the Clinical and Translational Science Institute in conjunction with the University’s Office of Faculty Development and Diversity, includes a Blackboard component with videos and case-based scenarios, complemented by an in-person workshop to encourage the exchange of best practices and persistent challenges. Both seasoned and inexperienced mentors have found the course valuable. Contact Oksana Babiya with questions.

Today: Community Engagement Symposium. Interdisciplinary workshop is designed for students and instructors who want to conduct relevant community-engaged projects that are effective, evidence-based, measureable, and sustainable.  9 a.m. to noon, School of Nursing, Helen Wood Hall (1-304). For additional information, contact Theresa_Green@urmc.rochester.edu.

Sept. 12-14: Light and Sound Interactive conference, trade show, career fair, and presentations focusing on eight emerging technologies: virtual and augmented reality, games and interactive media, cinema, music and audio engineering, imaging, displays and lighting, health care, and optics and photonics. Riverside Convention Center. Click here for updates as new keynote speakers and events are added.

September 13:  Humanities Center Welcome Back reception.  Enjoy refreshments, greet colleagues, and learn about programming for the coming year.  5 p.m. Humanities Center Lounge.

Sept. 17: Celebrating a Community of Diverse Students and Trainees at URMC. 1 to 4 p.m., Canalside Shelter, Genesee Valley Park. The event, for students, trainees,  and their families, is sponsored by the Medical Center, and includes food, fun, and games. Click here to RSVP by September 8.

Sept. 25: Conference: The Road from Nanomedicine to Precision Medicine. Networking opportunities for physicians, scientists, engineers, lawyers, business professionals, technology transfer specialists, policy makers and venture capitalists from government, academia, and industry. Albany College of Pharmacy. Free. No registration. The University’s UNYTE Translational Research Network is partnering with Albany to produce the event. Click here for more information

Sept. 25: 5 p.m. deadline to submit initial abstracts for Novel Biostatistical and Epidemiologic Methods awards from the Clinical and Translational Science Institute. Click here to view the RFA.

Sept. 25 to 29: Early Stage Faculty Boot Camp to help senior instructors and assistant professors identify the skills they need for successful career advancement. 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Visit the CTSI website for more details. Registration deadline is today.

Sept. 27: Science, Technology, and Culture book club discusses Chemistry, by Weike Wang. Featuring Hochang (Ben) Lee, Department of Psychiatry Chair. 5 to 6 p.m. Humanities Center lobby (Rush Rhees Library). Email Emma_Grygotis@urmc.rochester.edu for more information.

Oct. 1: Deadline for applications for AS&E PumpPrimer II awards to stimulate extramural funding for projects otherwise difficult to launch. Click here for more information.

Oct. 18: Science, Technology, and Culture book club discusses A Crack in Creation, by Jennifer Doudna. 5 to 6 p.m. Humanities Center lobby (Rush Rhees Library). Email Emma_Grygotis@urmc.rochester.edu for more information.

Nov. 8: Science, Technology, and Culture book club discusses The Periodic Table, by Primo Levi. 5 to 6 p.m. Humanities Center lobby (Rush Rhees Library). Email Emma_Grygotis@urmc.rochester.edu for more information.

Nov. 13: Initial abstracts due for Incubator Awards from the School of Medicine and Dentistry’s Scientific Advisory Committee. Find more details and application instructions online.

Dec. 6: Science, Technology, and Culture book club discusses Weapons of Math Destruction, by Cathy O’Neil. 5 to 6 p.m. Humanities Center lobby (Rush Rhees Library). Email Emma_Grygotis@urmc.rochester.edu for more information.