Research finds stark disparities in treatment and survival time for people with pancreatic cancer

New research appearing in JNCCN—Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network found significant disparities based on race, socioeconomic status, and other factors when it came to quality of care and outcomes for people with metastatic pancreatic adenocarcinoma (mPDAC)—which is associated with very high cancer mortality.

Wastewater surveillance study suggests onsite monitoring could aid efforts against disease spread

In a new study, wastewater surveillance for multiple pathogens at five different sites identified local trends that were not captured in larger surveillance programs, and some sites used the data to inform efforts to prevent disease spread. Jay Bullen of Untap Health in London, U.K., Charlotte Hammer of the University of Cambridge and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS Global Public Health.

Incarcerated individuals report significantly higher rates of mental health diagnoses than other community members

A new national epidemiological survey provides a demographic and diagnostic picture of people living with mental ill health in prison, those with criminal legal involvement in the last year, and those with no criminal legal history in the last year—finding significantly higher rates of five mental health conditions in incarcerated individuals and individuals with recent criminal legal history.

NEURD: Proofreading the map of the brain

From the smallest fragment of brain tissue, the intricate blueprint of the entire brain is beginning to emerge. Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine are making several time-consuming aspects of this process a lot easier with the development of a software package called NEURD short for “NEURal Decomposition.” This new software increases the speed of data error detection and correction for the wiring, or “street map,” of connections between cells in the brain, enabling new discoveries.