Beth Newcomb

Daily Trojan featured research led by student Nicholas Kim and Associate Professor Andrei Irimia on the genetics of how different regions of the brains age. “There’s a lot to be said about the ability of undergraduate students at USC to become engaged … [to] allow us to connect translational findings in engineering, in image analysis, in genomics to clinical deliverables that can improve the lives of patients,” Irimia said. Patient Worthy also featured the study.

The Hearty Soul quoted Christian Pike in an article profiling a mom with early-onset Alzheimer’s. Pike explained that one copy of the APOE4 gene increases the risk of Alzheimer’s disease by 4 times in women. When women have 2 copies, their risk of Alzheimer’s increases 15 times over. In contrast, having 1 copy of APOE4 poses almost no risk for men, and 2 copies only increase their risk by 4 times. This difference in gene expression means that women who carry APOE4 face a significantly different level of risk compared to men.

New Yorker quoted Pinchas Cohen on the discovery and therapeutic potential of peptides, noting how the effects in humans aren’t yet well understood.

“The public conception of peptides doesn’t grasp what’s going on from a scientific perspective. … This is not a dozen or so things you can buy at the gym. This is a revolution in science. It’s going to start a new era of drug discovery,” Cohen said. However, he added that “people should not be taking them until they’re fully tested. The history of shortcuts is not a happy one.”

Kiplinger mentioned that Jon Pynoos coined the term “Peter Pan housing” to refer to homes designed for people who will never grow old in an article on aging in place.

PsyPost featured a study led by Andy Jeesu Kim and Mara Mather on how mindfulness meditation practice appeared to improve attentional control as measured by eye tracking.

WKRC (Cincinnati, OH) featured a study led by Roberto Vicinanza and Pinchas Cohen on how mitochondrial microproteins respond to the Mediterranean Diet. Knowridge, Scientific Inquirer and others also featured the study.