Antibody-secreting plasma cells arise from B cell precursors and are essential for adaptive immune responses against invading pathogens. Plasma cell dysfunction is associated with autoimmune and neoplastic disorders, including multiple myeloma. Surface markers that are specific to plasma cells have not been identified and antibodies that only recognize these cells have been challenging to generate using conventional systems. In the current issue of JCI Insight, Götz Ehrhardt and colleagues at the University of Toronto describe the generation of a plasma cell-specific antibody from immunized lampreys.

 Minority applicants may fare even worse in the resume pile at companies purporting to support diversity than they would at companies that don't make the claim, shows a new study from the University of Toronto.

That's because job seekers are less likely to "whiten" their resumes by downplaying their racial identities when responding to pro-diversity job ads. The odds of getting a callback for an interview when resumes are not whitened are significantly worse, regardless of whether the company says it's a pro-diversity employer or not. On the other hand, hiding one's race by "whitening" was found to improve minorities' chances of landing an interview.

MINNEAPOLIS - Women may have a better memory for words than men despite evidence of similar levels of shrinkage in areas of the brain that show the earliest signs of Alzheimer's disease, according to a study published in the March 16, 2016, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

DALLAS, March 16, 2016 -- A healthy heart may have major benefits for preventing the decline in brain function that sometimes accompanies aging, according to new research in Journal of the American Heart Association.

Researchers studied a racially diverse group of older adults and found that having more ideal cardiovascular health factors was associated with better brain processing speed at the study's start and less cognitive decline approximately six years later.

The researchers from the University of Miami and Columbia University used the American Heart Association's "Life's Simple Seven®" definition of cardiovascular health, which includes tobacco avoidance, ideal levels of weight, physical activity, healthy diet, blood pressure, cholesterol and glucose.

In an article published in the March 2016 issue of the Journal of Anxiety Disorders, investigators in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) report that veterans who fall just below the threshold for a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) respond to a psychotherapy regimen better than those with full PTSD. The study highlights the need to recognize veterans suffering from an overlooked condition called subclinical PTSD.

DARIEN, IL - A new study is the first to report that the relationship between nightmares and suicidal behaviors is partially mediated by a multi-step pathway via defeat, entrapment and hopelessness.

Gender-specific differences between the levels and structures of proteins present in the white matter and the mitochondria of the brains of men and women suffering from dementia have been revealed for the first time in a study published in the open access journal Molecular Brain.

While previous studies have shown that women exhibit higher risk of dementia than men, the underlying mechanisms of this gender difference have remained elusive. The findings by researchers from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore may advance our understanding of the higher risk of dementia that has been observed in women compared to men, which the researchers suggest could lead to the development of new drugs for dementia treatment.

Death, taxes, and conspiracy theories. No matter how many peer-reviewed studies scientists produce, there will always be conspiracy theorists with outlandish alternatives to the generally accepted scientific consensus. Sometimes these ideas are just silly, like Rapper B.o.B. believing the Earth is flat. But other inaccurate theories, like insecticides cause birth defects, genetically modified foods are dangerous, and vaccines cause autism, have serious public health consequences.

BUFFALO, N.Y. - Carrots and apples not only taste different. They make distinct sounds when chewed.

This may seem like trivial knowledge, but it's not in the laboratory of University at Buffalo computer scientist Wenyao Xu, who is creating a library that catalogues the unique sounds that foods make as we bite, grind and swallow them.

Jonathan Lundgren, a US Department of Agriculture currently on leave facing misconduct charges, says the government is suppressing information about the dangers of pesticides, which he believes are endangering the health of bees around the world.