Dallas, Texas - High-intensity step training that mimics real-world conditions may better improve walking ability in stroke survivors compared to traditional, low-impact training, according to new research published in the American Heart Association’s journal Stroke.

Dallas, Texas - Type 2 diabetes affects the structure of the heart in heart failure patients and increases their risk for repeat hospitalizations and/or death, according to new research published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, the Open Access Journal of the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association.

Washington, DC - The National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD), part of the National Institutes of Health, has funded three new awards and renewed the awards of eight institutions previously funded under the Research Centers in Minority Institutions (RCMI) Specialized Centers program. The RCMI develops and strengthens the research infrastructure necessary to conduct state-of-the-art biomedical research and foster the next generation of researchers from underrepresented populations. The centers will share approximately $187 million over their five-year project periods, subject to available funds.

Washington, DC - The All of Us Research Program (link is external), part of the National Institutes of Health, has awarded $4.6 million in initial funding to Color (link is external), a health technology company in Burlingame, California, to establish the program’s nationwide genetic counseling resource. With the goal of speeding up health research breakthroughs, All of Us plans to sequence the genomes of 1 million participants from diverse communities across the United States. Through this funding, Color’s network of genetic counselors will help participants understand what the genomic testing results mean for their health and their families.

Washington, DC - Even when taking in fewer calories and nutrients, humans and other mammals usually remain protected against infectious diseases they have already encountered.  This may be because memory T cells, which are located throughout the body and required to maintain immune responses to infectious agents, according to scientists at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health. Their study in mice, published online today in Cell, also found that animals undergoing dietary restriction were better protected against tumors and bacterial infections than animals with unrestricted diets.

Escondido, California - San Diego Zoo Global scientists are celebrating a major conservation milestone for the organization’s Burrowing Owl Recovery Program. One of two burrowing owls released into their native range have successfully reproduced—and they have produced the program’s first chicks to be hatched in the wild. The mother owl, known as “Blue X,” hatched at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park’s Bird Breeding Complex (BBC) in 2018. The father owl, known as “B06,” is the offspring of birds that were translocated from Otay Mesa, California to the Rancho Jamul Ecological Reserve, as part of an effort to establish additional burrowing owl breeding nodes in San Diego County. The chicks represent new hope for a species whose population is in decline.