Cue the Fall Out Boy medley.
This month’s “Insights & Outcomes” highlights Yale researchers making discoveries in all manner of realms. They’re testing the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to triage patients in hospital emergency departments, finding hidden structures in microscopic lattices, tracing brain connections in early-stage Alzheimer’s disease — and giving ancient marine life a punk/emo update.
As always, you can find more science and medicine research news on Yale News’ Science & Technology and Health & Medicine pages.
Punk, Emo, and Yale
Don’t let the spikes and studs fool you. Punk and Emo — also known as Punk ferox and Emo vorticaudum — have joined the establishment.
Thanks to some well-preserved fossils in the UK, researchers have identified the two ancient mollusks as distinct species of marine animals. Punk and Emo lived more than 400 million years ago and stood out from other marine mollusks both in their appearance and the way they moved.
“Mollusks are one of the most diverse groups of living animals including slugs and snails, clams, octopus, and squids. Less familiar mollusks are coat-of-mail shells (chitons), and so-called ‘spicule worms’ (aplacophorans) which lack a shell and have a worm-like body,” said Yale paleontologist Derek Briggs, co-author of a new study in Nature.
“Both new fossils have a spectacular array of long spicules on their upper surface reminiscent of the hairstyles associated with performers of punk rock and its derivative emo which inspired the scientific names of these new forms,” said Briggs, the G. Evelyn Hutchinson Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. “These animals reveal that the group including chitons and aplacophorans — long considered to be much more limited in form than the more familiar groups of mollusks — were remarkably diverse in the distant past compared to the present day.”
Punk’s top-of-the-body spikes were particularly pronounced, the researchers said. And Emo sported wavy, “fringe” spikes and stud-like valves. Emo also seems to have moved along in an “inching” fashion, curling up its body and lurching forward.
Mark Sutton, a paleontologist at Imperial College in London, led the research team, which also included researchers from Goethe University in Germany, the University of Lausanne in Switzerland, the SOLEIL synchrotron in France, and the University of Leicester and the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.
Briggs is also a curator at the Yale Peabody Museum.
Neuronal reconnections
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is long underway by the time symptoms become apparent. While that limits how effective current treatments can be, it suggests a much larger therapeutic window exists. In a new study, Yale researchers investigated both ends of this potential window, identifying early-stage brain changes that could aid in early detection and evaluating a novel treatment strategy for late-stage disease.
For the study, published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, the researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to track brain connectivity in healthy mice and mice genetically altered to develop Alzheimer’s-like symptoms. Following them from 4 to 22 months of age — comparable to 20 to 70 years of age in humans — the researchers found that functional brain connectivity had a discernable trajectory across age periods and that it was distinctly different in mice with Alzheimer’s disease.
“These connectivity changes between healthy and AD mice were apparent by six months of age and pronounced by nine months,” said Francesca Mandino, an associate research scientist at Yale School of Medicine (YSM) and lead author of the study. “In humans that correlates to 20 to 30 years of age and 38 to 47 years of age, respectively, both ranges of which are earlier than when we typically diagnose Alzheimer’s disease.”
The researchers then administered a drug that works at a particular receptor of the neurotransmitter glutamate. Dr. Stephen Strittmatter, professor of neuroscience and neurology and a co-author of the new study, had previously shown the drug can increase connections between neurons. In late-stage AD mice, two months of treatment with the drug reversed much of the functional connectivity losses that occurred during disease progression, the researchers found in the new study.
“These findings show that fMRI may be a valuable, non-invasive tool for earlier detection of Alzheimer’s disease and monitoring treatment efficacy at late stages,” said Evelyn Lake, associate professor of radiology and biomedical imaging at YSM and senior author of the study. “It opens up opportunities for early intervention, which will be crucial for disrupting or reversing disease progression, as well as new ways to monitor treatment response.”
AI in the ED
In the emergency department (ED), triage is used to sort patients by need, with those in more critical condition prioritized over patients with less time-sensitive needs. Typically, triage is conducted by nurses or physicians who evaluate the patient and assign a triage “score” that indicates the patient’s priority level.
As with anything driven by human decision-making, however, triage is subject to human error. But in a new study, Yale researchers show that AI may help reduce errors and increase equity.
Researchers used a tool called TriageGO that applied data taken during patients’ arrival (such as age, vital signs, chief complaint, and past medical history) to estimate the likelihood they would require critical care, emergency surgery, or hospital admission. TriageGO then translated these risk estimates into a recommended triage rating — from one, signaling most immediate need, through five, meaning least time-sensitive — with a brief explanation as to why, which triage nurses or physicians could use to assign priority.
“We found that after the AI tool was introduced into three EDs, patients were more accurately given scores that reflected their clinical need,” said Dr. Rohit Sangal, an assistant professor of emergency medicine at YSM and a co-author of the study published in Annals of Emergency Medicine. “By augmenting the decision-making process with outcome-based scores, we have a more efficient triage system and improved alignment between patient needs and resource allocation.”
This improved accuracy was observed across all patients, but most strongly for historically marginalized groups — including Black, Hispanic, and non-English speaking individuals — who are typically more likely to receive lower priority scores when in critical need.
“These findings show that AI can have a positive impact on health equity if done well,” said senior author Dr. Andrew Taylor, associate professor of emergency medicine at YSM.
The conventional belief, said Dr. Arjun Venkatesh, professor of emergency medicine at YSM and co-author of the study, is that AI worsens disparities. “But this shows the opposite is possible,” he said. “It’s a big deal and it’s very exciting.”
Hidden figures — and counting
Finding hidden patterns in a grid doesn’t just make for a good Sudoku puzzle or game of dominoes. It’s also at the heart of counting problems in physics, mathematics, and computer science.
The challenge becomes much harder when a grid is scaled up and made larger. But help is on the way.
In a new study in the journal Physical Review E, Yale’s Yong Kong examined one such intractable counting problem and identified a recurring structure. The problem involved counting the number of ways that polymers can be arranged in a two-dimensional lattice — a common model used by physicists to study certain molecules and phase transitions.
“Imagine you have a checkerboard, and you want to place a mix of dominoes and single tiles on it,” said Kong, a senior research scientist at the Yale School of Public Health. “Now imagine trying to figure out all the possible ways to arrange them without any overlaps. This might seem simple at first, but it gets extremely complicated as the board gets bigger. These problems can get so tricky that it seems impossible to solve them as they get larger.”
By discovering the hidden structure — called a “recurrence relation,” researchers may be able to use it or other similar structures to better understand complex systems, from algorithms to new materials. “This finding opens up new paths for research and could lead to advances in multiple scientific fields,” Kong said.
Research Redux:
Antibodies that keep ancient viral DNA in check may inform new treatments
Evidence of a new type of superconductor
Yale prof solves part of math’s ‘Rosetta Stone’
Are you tasty to mosquitoes? Study offers clues into when and why they bite
