A tiny, aquatic, single-celled organism can contract to one quarter of its body length in less than five milliseconds – hundreds of times faster than a human can blink. Researchers have discovered that the organism, Spirostomum ambiguum, uses a calcium-activated protein network in a fishnet-like configuration to power the contraction at much faster speeds than human muscles can contract. The work has implications for designing faster artificial muscles and synthetic cellular machinery.

As people continue to live longer and the survival rate of cancer diagnoses increases, researchers from VCU Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center led a multi-decade analysis studying the rates of subsequent primary cancers (SPCs), which are new cancers unrelated to the original diagnosis. The study, which was recently published in PLOS Medicine, provides understanding for how these cancer risks change over time and across generations, helping guide future prevention and monitoring measures.

A team of Massey researchers used cancer registry data from over three million cancer survivors in the United States from 1975-2021 to study patterns of SPCs, examining age, calendar period and birth cohort effects on SPC risk.

Researchers find by utilizing artificial intelligence (AI), physicians can reduce the time and resources needed to develop accurate assessments for sepsis care