Latest news with #TexasTechUniversity
Yahoo
7 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Texas Tech System Chancellor blames social media for wrong perceptions of society
The Chancellor of the Texas Tech University System said Friday the world is a better place than ever before, but 'we seem to be insistent upon screaming at each other, yelling at each other, fighting each other and thinking the world we're living in is going straight to hell in a handbasket. What is going on?' Dr. Tedd L. Mitchell spoke during a program sponsored by the Wichita Falls Chamber of Commerce. He told more than 400 people that global access to food, electricity, water and sanitation has skyrocketed in recent years. 'The amount of money spent on food, shelter, and clothes took 80% of every nickel earned in 1900. Today less than half of our money goes to food, shelter, and clothing,' he said, giving people more discretionary spending than ever before. He said the average hours of work in developed nations was 42 hours a week in about 1950 and is now under 35 hours a week. He said houses today are bigger than they were several decades ago, but the number of people living in them has decreased. 'The world as we know it by any measure is dramatically better than it was 200 years ago. But still, when you ask people, are we on the right track, the answer, when you poll people about this is, no,' he said. 'So why doesn't it feel like things are going in the right direction?' Mitchell said surveys show the fastest growing political affiliation is 'unaffiliated' and the number of Americans reporting having no close friends has tripled since 1985. 'There's something going on that's problematic in the overlay of our society,' he said. He placed the blame squarely on social media. 'For the first time in human history, a young boy or a young girl can instantly gauge their popularity. All they have to do is post something. They wait for the comments during the most vulnerable times of their lives,' he said. He said one study showed mental health issues among young people were determined by time spent on the internet. He said it has reached the point that the U.S. surgeon general has suggested a warning label be put on social media. 'We've seen this coming for a long time, like a slow-moving train wreck,' Mitchell said. 'Can you make sure that your children and your friends' children have something to do other than spend time on social media? Yes, you can.' He said those in the room who will feel fulfilled over their lifetimes 'will have found some way to help other people, whether it's in your house, whether it's in the neighborhood, or whether it's at work.' He also described how generations have changed in what they want and expect from their lives since the 'Greatest Generation' of World War II. He said subsequent generations have become quick to move on if their employers don't meet their needs. 'The days of working for 30 years to get the gold watch at the end of it were pretty much gone when it came to Gen X," he said. Mitchell, who has led the university system that includes MSU since 2018, has announced he will retire when a successor is named. He was one of several motivational speakers at the university's D.L. Ligon Coliseum. More: Sikes Senter sale, firefighters benefits on City Council agenda More: Grad student embraces her learning stage at MSU Texas This article originally appeared on Wichita Falls Times Record News: Texas Tech system Chancellor blames social media for wrong perceptions of society Solve the daily Crossword
Fox News
03-08-2025
- Health
- Fox News
Needle-free vaccine method delivers antibodies through dental floss in early study
Dental floss could eventually do much more than improve oral hygiene. A new study led by Texas Tech University and the University of North Carolina suggests that the thin filament could eventually double as a vaccine mechanism. In animal models, the researchers showed that dental floss can effectively release vaccines through the tissue between the teeth and gums, according to a press release. In the study, the flossing technique triggered the production of antibodies in "mucosal surfaces," such as the lining of the nose and lungs, the release stated. The findings were published in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering. "Mucosal surfaces are important, because they are a source of entry for pathogens, such as influenza and COVID," said co-author Harvinder Singh Gill, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at North Carolina State University, in the release. With the traditional method of injecting vaccines, the antibodies are primarily produced in the bloodstream, he noted. "But we know that when a vaccine is given via the mucosal surface, antibodies are stimulated not only in the bloodstream, but also on mucosal surfaces," said Gill. "This improves the body's ability to prevent infection, because there is an additional line of antibody defense before a pathogen enters the body." The vaccine enters through the "junctional epithelium," which is a thin layer of tissue in the deep pocket between the tooth and the gum. This tissue doesn't have the same barrier as other tissue linings, which means it can release immune cells into the body. In the study, the researchers added a peptide flu vaccine to unwaxed dental floss before flossing the teeth of lab mice, according to the release. Next, they compared the effectiveness of the floss-delivered vaccine to techniques that delivered it nasally or orally. "It would be easy to administer, and it addresses concerns many people have about being vaccinated with needles." "We found that applying vaccine via the junctional epithelium produces a far superior antibody response on mucosal surfaces than the current gold standard for vaccinating via the oral cavity, which involves placing vaccine under the tongue," said first author Rohan Ingrole, a Ph.D. student at Texas Tech University. "The flossing technique also provides comparable protection against the flu virus as compared to the vaccine being given via the nasal epithelium." In addition to flu, the test was repeated for three other vaccine types: proteins, inactivated viruses and mRNA. For all types, the flossing technique produced "robust antibody responses in the bloodstream and across mucosal surfaces," the release stated. Next, the research team aims to test the effectiveness of vaccine delivery to the epithelial junction in humans through the use of floss picks, which are easier to hold. "It would be easy to administer, and it addresses concerns many people have about being vaccinated with needles," Gill said. "And we think this technique should be comparable in price to other vaccine delivery techniques." Hua Wang, assistant professor of materials science and engineering at the University of Illinois' Grainger College of Engineering, was not involved in the study but shared his reaction to the findings. "This study presents a promising floss-based vaccination method that can avoid needle injection or any potentially painful procedure," he told Fox News Digital. "The authors demonstrated that vaccine components in the floss coating can penetrate the junctional epithelium in gingival sulcus and reach the underlying tissues, leading to systemic antibody responses." The floss-based vaccination method could help to improve patient compliance if it goes through the full evaluation process, he noted. There are some limitations and drawbacks associated with floss-based vaccines, the researchers acknowledged. Babies and toddlers who don't have teeth yet wouldn't be candidates for the technique, for example. "In addition, we would need to know more about how or whether this approach would work for people who have gum disease or other oral infections," Gill added. Wang agreed that many questions remain to be answered about this experimental vaccination method. "In addition to the unclear impact of gingival tissue infection on vaccination, the local and systemic side effects of this vaccination method remain to be understood," he told Fox News Digital. "For example, vaccination at the gingival tissue may initiate local inflammation that eventually induces undesirable side effects." It's also not yet clear what exact path the vaccine components follow when traveling from the tooth site to the tissues or how the immune responses are generated, Wang noted. For more Health articles, visit "Lastly, from the translation perspective, the efficacy of floss-based vaccines would need to be comparable to conventional needle-based vaccines." The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and by funds from the Whitacre Endowed Chair in Science and Engineering at Texas Tech University.
New York Post
30-07-2025
- Health
- New York Post
Could dental floss be the next way to receive vaccines? Scientists say open wide
Dental floss could eventually do much more than improve oral hygiene. A new study led by Texas Tech University and the University of North Carolina suggests that the thin filament could eventually double as a vaccine mechanism. Advertisement In animal models, the researchers showed that dental floss can effectively release vaccines through the tissue between the teeth and gums, according to a press release. In the study, the flossing technique triggered the production of antibodies in 'mucosal surfaces,' such as the lining of the nose and lungs, the release stated. The findings were published in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering. 'Mucosal surfaces are important because they are a source of entry for pathogens, such as influenza and COVID,' said co-author Harvinder Singh Gill, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at North Carolina State University, in the release. Advertisement With the traditional method of injecting vaccines, the antibodies are primarily produced in the bloodstream, he noted. 'But we know that when a vaccine is given via the mucosal surface, antibodies are stimulated not only in the bloodstream, but also on mucosal surfaces,' said Gill. 6 Dental floss could eventually do much more than improve oral hygiene, according to a new study. fStop – 'This improves the body's ability to prevent infection, because there is an additional line of antibody defense before a pathogen enters the body.' Advertisement The vaccine enters through the 'junctional epithelium,' which is a thin layer of tissue in the deep pocket between the tooth and the gum. This tissue doesn't have the same barrier as other tissue linings, which means it can release immune cells into the body. In the study, the researchers added a peptide flu vaccine to unwaxed dental floss before flossing the teeth of lab mice, according to the release. 6 With the traditional method of injecting vaccines, the antibodies are primarily produced in the bloodstream, he noted. Looker_Studio – Advertisement Next, they compared the effectiveness of the floss-delivered vaccine to techniques that delivered it nasally or orally. 'We found that applying vaccine via the junctional epithelium produces a far superior antibody response on mucosal surfaces than the current gold standard for vaccinating via the oral cavity, which involves placing vaccine under the tongue,' said first author Rohan Ingrole, a Ph.D. student at Texas Tech University. 'The flossing technique also provides comparable protection against the flu virus as compared to the vaccine being given via the nasal epithelium.' In addition to flu, the test was repeated for three other vaccine types: proteins, inactivated viruses, and mRNA. 6 'But we know that when a vaccine is given via the mucosal surface, antibodies are stimulated not only in the bloodstream, but also on mucosal surfaces,' said Harvinder Singh Gill, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at North Carolina State University. Pormezz – For all types, the flossing technique produced 'robust antibody responses in the bloodstream and across mucosal surfaces,' the release stated. Next, the research team aims to test the effectiveness of vaccine delivery to the epithelial junction in humans through the use of floss picks, which are easier to hold. 'It would be easy to administer, and it addresses concerns many people have about being vaccinated with needles,' Gill said. 'And we think this technique should be comparable in price to other vaccine delivery techniques.' Advertisement Start your day with all you need to know Morning Report delivers the latest news, videos, photos and more. Thanks for signing up! Enter your email address Please provide a valid email address. By clicking above you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Never miss a story. Check out more newsletters Hua Wang, assistant professor of materials science and engineering at the University of Illinois' Grainger College of Engineering, was not involved in the study but shared his reaction to the findings. 'This study presents a promising floss-based vaccination method that can avoid needle injection or any potentially painful procedure,' he told Fox News Digital. 'The authors demonstrated that vaccine components in the floss coating can penetrate the junctional epithelium in gingival sulcus and reach the underlying tissues, leading to systemic antibody responses.' Advertisement 6 The vaccine enters through the 'junctional epithelium,' which is a thin layer of tissue in the deep pocket between the tooth and the gum. Yuri A/ – The floss-based vaccination method could help to improve patient compliance if it goes through the full evaluation process, he noted. Limitations and future research There are some limitations and drawbacks associated with floss-based vaccines, the researchers acknowledged. Babies and toddlers who don't have teeth yet wouldn't be candidates for the technique, for example. Advertisement 6 The floss-based vaccination method could help to improve patient compliance if it goes through the full evaluation process, Hua Wang, assistant professor at the University of Illinois' Grainger College of Engineering, said. Shava Cueva/Stocksy – 'In addition, we would need to know more about how or whether this approach would work for people who have gum disease or other oral infections,' Gill added. Wang agreed that many questions remain to be answered about this experimental vaccination method. 'In addition to the unclear impact of gingival tissue infection on vaccination, the local and systemic side effects of this vaccination method remain to be understood,' he told Fox News Digital. Advertisement 'For example, vaccination at the gingival tissue may initiate local inflammation that eventually induces undesirable side effects.' 6 'In addition to the unclear impact of gingival tissue infection on vaccination, the local and systemic side effects of this vaccination method remain to be understood,' Wang continued. Science RF – It's also not yet clear what exact path the vaccine components follow when traveling from the tooth site to the tissues or how the immune responses are generated, Wang noted. 'Lastly, from the translation perspective, the efficacy of floss-based vaccines would need to be comparable to conventional needle-based vaccines.' The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and by funds from the Whitacre Endowed Chair in Science and Engineering at Texas Tech University.
Yahoo
30-07-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
New Kind of Dental Floss Could Replace Vaccine Needles, Study Finds
A fear of needles is a common reason for avoiding vaccines, even among many adults. Now researchers have come up with a rather clever alternative: dental floss. Led by a team from Texas Tech University, the researchers first identified an often overlooked surface in the mouth as an entry point for vaccines: the junctional epithelium (JE), which sits where the gums meet the teeth. The JE is leaky by design, because it allows immune cells to move around and defend the oral cavity from bacterial attack. The researchers wondered whether this could also make this part of the mouth a suitable target for vaccines. "We hypothesized that this leakiness of the JE could expedite the entry of vaccine antigens, and the abundance of immune cells in this microenvironment could elicit an adaptive immune response," the researchers write in their recently published paper. Related: Delivering medications to the JE is complicated by the tissue's seclusion within the gumline, which is why it hasn't really been considered as a potential location for introducing vaccines. That's where floss comes in, which is perfect for getting into tight spaces. The researchers tested their hypothesis by coating dental floss with different types of vaccines and testing them on mice across a period of several weeks. There were numerous encouraging indicators: strong immune responses were observed in the mouth and throughout the bodies of the mice, and the floss vaccine was effective in protecting mice against a later flu infection. Further tests were conducted on human volunteers using dye rather than a vaccine, since clinical trials are still some way off. The amount of dye that reached the JE target via flossing was enough to suggest that this really could work in us too. "These findings establish floss-based vaccination as a simple, needle-free strategy that enhances vaccine delivery and immune activation compared with existing mucosal immunization methods," write the researchers. It's not the first time scientists have looked beyond the thorough cleaning job that floss does. Earlier this year research showed that floss could also be adapted to measure stress levels in the body, potentially giving doctors another useful diagnostic tool. As well as being potentially less scary for those with a phobia of needles, floss-based vaccines would be easier to transport and store. Doctors and nurses wouldn't be needed to administer them, and they could even be delivered in the post – a real advantage in the case of pandemics such as COVID-19. Researchers have previously tried to deliver vaccines orally under the tongue and in the cheek, but not enough of the vaccine penetrates the tissue into circulation. While there's still a lot of work to do with this new approach, the potential is clear. "Due to drawbacks associated with injectable vaccines, such as pain and needle phobia, potential transmission of blood-borne pathogens from unsafe injection practices and the limited activation of mucosal immunity, there is a need for alternative approaches for vaccine delivery," write the researchers. The research has been published in Nature Biomedical Engineering. Related News World's Most Common Pain Relief Drug May Induce Risky Behavior, Research Suggests Human Brains Rapidly Aged in The Pandemic, And It Wasn't Just The Virus Eating Eggs Can Actually Lower Bad Cholesterol, New Study Says Solve the daily Crossword
Fox News
30-07-2025
- Health
- Fox News
Could dental floss be the next vaccine method? Scientists say it could work
Dental floss could eventually do much more than improve oral hygiene. A new study led by Texas Tech University and the University of North Carolina suggests that the thin filament could eventually double as a vaccine mechanism. In animal models, the researchers showed that dental floss can effectively release vaccines through the tissue between the teeth and gums, according to a press release. In the study, the flossing technique triggered the production of antibodies in "mucosal surfaces," such as the lining of the nose and lungs, the release stated. The findings were published in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering. "Mucosal surfaces are important, because they are a source of entry for pathogens, such as influenza and COVID," said co-author Harvinder Singh Gill, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at North Carolina State University, in the release. With the traditional method of injecting vaccines, the antibodies are primarily produced in the bloodstream, he noted. "But we know that when a vaccine is given via the mucosal surface, antibodies are stimulated not only in the bloodstream, but also on mucosal surfaces," said Gill. "This improves the body's ability to prevent infection, because there is an additional line of antibody defense before a pathogen enters the body." The vaccine enters through the "junctional epithelium," which is a thin layer of tissue in the deep pocket between the tooth and the gum. This tissue doesn't have the same barrier as other tissue linings, which means it can release immune cells into the body. In the study, the researchers added a peptide flu vaccine to unwaxed dental floss before flossing the teeth of lab mice, according to the release. Next, they compared the effectiveness of the floss-delivered vaccine to techniques that delivered it nasally or orally. "It would be easy to administer, and it addresses concerns many people have about being vaccinated with needles." "We found that applying vaccine via the junctional epithelium produces a far superior antibody response on mucosal surfaces than the current gold standard for vaccinating via the oral cavity, which involves placing vaccine under the tongue," said first author Rohan Ingrole, a Ph.D. student at Texas Tech University. "The flossing technique also provides comparable protection against the flu virus as compared to the vaccine being given via the nasal epithelium." In addition to flu, the test was repeated for three other vaccine types: proteins, inactivated viruses and mRNA. For all types, the flossing technique produced "robust antibody responses in the bloodstream and across mucosal surfaces," the release stated. Next, the research team aims to test the effectiveness of vaccine delivery to the epithelial junction in humans through the use of floss picks, which are easier to hold. "It would be easy to administer, and it addresses concerns many people have about being vaccinated with needles," Gill said. "And we think this technique should be comparable in price to other vaccine delivery techniques." Hua Wang, assistant professor of materials science and engineering at the University of Illinois' Grainger College of Engineering, was not involved in the study but shared his reaction to the findings. "This study presents a promising floss-based vaccination method that can avoid needle injection or any potentially painful procedure," he told Fox News Digital. "The authors demonstrated that vaccine components in the floss coating can penetrate the junctional epithelium in gingival sulcus and reach the underlying tissues, leading to systemic antibody responses." The floss-based vaccination method could help to improve patient compliance if it goes through the full evaluation process, he noted. There are some limitations and drawbacks associated with floss-based vaccines, the researchers acknowledged. Babies and toddlers who don't have teeth yet wouldn't be candidates for the technique, for example. "In addition, we would need to know more about how or whether this approach would work for people who have gum disease or other oral infections," Gill added. Wang agreed that many questions remain to be answered about this experimental vaccination method. "In addition to the unclear impact of gingival tissue infection on vaccination, the local and systemic side effects of this vaccination method remain to be understood," he told Fox News Digital. "For example, vaccination at the gingival tissue may initiate local inflammation that eventually induces undesirable side effects." It's also not yet clear what exact path the vaccine components follow when traveling from the tooth site to the tissues or how the immune responses are generated, Wang noted. For more Health articles, visit "Lastly, from the translation perspective, the efficacy of floss-based vaccines would need to be comparable to conventional needle-based vaccines." The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and by funds from the Whitacre Endowed Chair in Science and Engineering at Texas Tech University.
