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Is Pollution Secretly Making You Diabetic?
Good morning. It’s Friday, November 29th.
Did you know: On November 29, 1999, scientists at the Scottish Primate Research Centre cloned a rhesus macaque for the first time, using a technique known as somatic cell nuclear transfer. This was a major milestone in primate cloning, although it raised ethical questions about the future of genetic research!
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Is Pollution Secretly Making You Diabetic?
4 Research Scientist Jobs
4 Postdoctoral Fellowships
4 Fully Funded PhD Programs
New Research AI Tools: ElicitAI
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Is Pollution Secretly Making You Diabetic?
Recent research unveils a startling link between air pollution and your body’s ability to regulate blood sugar and energy, potentially paving the way for metabolic diseases like diabetes. The culprit? A common air pollutant known as benzene.
Benzene, a volatile organic compound (VOC), is a sneaky yet prevalent part of urban air. It’s released by vehicle exhaust, industrial emissions, and even everyday products like paint and cleaning supplies.
While its toxic effects on cancer risk are well-documented, scientists at Wayne State University dug deeper to uncover another alarming consequence: benzene may directly interfere with how our bodies maintain energy balance, starting with the brain.
The research focuses on the hypothalamus, a small yet mighty part of the brain responsible for controlling hunger, energy, and blood sugar. Using male mice as models, the scientists found that benzene exposure disrupted energy regulation through an unexpected player—microglia.
These tiny immune cells in the brain, typically the first responders to injury or infection, became hyperactive when exposed to benzene. This overactivation set off a cascade of inflammation in the hypothalamus, impairing insulin signaling and ultimately throwing the body’s metabolic balance out of sync.
Explore Research Scientist Jobs
1. Biophysicist Research Scientist, Salary: $101,216 – $134,947 per year
Berkeley Lab’s (LBNL) Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging Division (MBIB) has an opening for a Biophysicist Research Scientist to join the Bioenergetics Department. In this exciting role, you will develop and apply novel data analysis methods for time resolved diffraction studies of photosynthetic proteins as well as several other enzyme systems that are relevant to the mission of the Laboratory and to the Basic Energy Sciences (BES) program of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Read More
2. Researcher/Scientist III (Multiple Openings), Salary: $59,404 - $74,254
A full-time Research Scientist position is available in the multidisciplinary cardiovascular research laboratory of Dr. Chiamvimonvat in the Department Basic Medical Sciences at the University of Arizona College of Medicine-Phoenix. The candidate should have experience performing research in a laboratory setting and should have authored peer-reviewed research publications. Applicants should be detail-oriented, conscientious, able to work independently as well as in a team under direction of the principal investigator, and have the ability to communicate in a clear, concise manner orally and in writing. Read More
3. Data Scientist, Senior Research and Data Analyst, Salary: $86,870 - $112,932
The Data Scientist/Senior Research and Data Analyst analyzes data from various databases/sources, performs institutional research activities, and assesses instruction and learning. This position uses proficiency in statistical programming to create meaningful visual representations and detailed reports. The analyst uses research and statistical methodological skills, particularly related to assessment and evaluation, to design projects, track metrics, maintain databases, predict outcomes, and improve educational research by answering challenging questions. In addition, the analyst will be responsible for managing a large longitudinal dataset by combining data from multiple data sources. Read More
4. Research Data Scientist, Salary: $95,000 - $128,000
The Research Data Scientist position will work closely with the Program Director of the TraCS Data Science Lab (TDSL) and TraCS leaders and team members to support clinical data science across UNC. The Research Data Scientist will (1) collaborate on translational research using real world data, (2) design and build novel data resources and statistical methods to enhance and improve clinical data science, and (3) create curricula and training resources for a clinical data science education program at UNC. Read More
Explore Funded PhD Programs
1. PhD studentship in Ageing – Why do men and women age differently?
In this project, you will examine stress response mechanisms—such as mitochondrial function, DNA damage response, and autophagy—to understand how they contribute to distinct ageing patterns, through cell senescence. You will also test drugs for sex-optimised targeting. Over your PhD, you’ll gain expertise in biochemical and molecular biology techniques, microscopy, image analysis, and mitochondrial assays using both in vitro and in vivo mouse models. Read More
2. PhD studentship in Investigating novel interactions of the Merlin gene in cell behaviour
The aim of this project is to investigate the functions of the Merlin/NF2 protein using a combination of Drosophila, mouse and human resources and approaches, giving the student on this project a huge range of expertise with many different techniques and model organisms. This project is important because the Merlin protein is a key scaffolding protein, which controls many aspects of cell growth, adhesion, proliferation, differentiation and migration as well as being dysregulated in many tumour types and tumour syndromes. Read More
3. PhD student in Computational Biology
The research project is performed in an international and highly collaborative multidisciplinary environment. We study the complexity of cellular ageing using experimental and computational methods. The work is highly interdisciplinary with close collaboration with a number of experimental research groups in other areas. Read More
4. PhD Project in Sub-Millimeter Wave Antennas for High-Resolution Terahertz Imaging Systems
This project aims to develop a high-performance antenna system tailored specifically for imaging applications in the sub-millimeter wave region. Operating at 300 and 500 GHz, the proposed antenna systems will address key imaging requirements, including fine spatial resolution, wide field-of-view (FOV), and adaptability to varying imaging distances, making it suitable for applications such as security screening and industrial inspection. Read More
Explore Postdoctoral Jobs
1. Postdoctoral Associate, Learning from Landscapes
The Husic Research Group within the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Virginia Tech is seeking a postdoctoral associate whose research interest relate to Learning from Landscapes, a modeling framework that leverages interpretable machine learning to understand how landscape connectivity influences water quality. The selected candidate will work alongside and be mentored by Dr. Admin Husic at the Occoquan Watershed Monitoring Laboratory located in Northern Virginia. Read More
2. 3 Postdoctoral Fellow positions (TIAS)
Turku Institute for Advanced Studies (TIAS) invites applications for three (3) Postdoctoral Fellow (Postdoctoral Researcher) positions for a three-year period starting from 1 September 2025. TIAS Fellows are selected via an international call for applications and TIAS welcomes applications from projects based in any discipline within its five constituent faculties (Economics, Education, Humanities, Law and Social Sciences). Selection of successful applicants will be on the basis of academic excellence. Read More
3. Postdoctoral researcher in computational linguistics focused on multimodal NLP with LLMs
The debate over whether grammaticality is binary or gradient has been a longstanding topic in linguistics and psychology. Experiments using classical machine learning with both binary and gradient scales suggest that speakers tend to perceive grammaticality as a gradient. Further support comes from additional image classification tasks. This project aims to evaluate the ability of transformer models to accurately predict how visual context influences human judgements of sentence well-formedness. Read More
4. Postdoctoral Fellowship in Postdoctoral Associate: Modeling Institutional and Human Dimensions of Energy Transition
The Peng group in the School of Public and International Affairs and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment is seeking applications for postdoctoral or more senior research associate positions. Dr. Wei Peng’s group (www.weipengenergy.com) focuses on modeling institutional and human dimensions of energy transition to identify realistic and robust decarbonization strategies and provide insights for integrated policy making for climate, energy, and health. Read More
The Future of Research: ElicitAI
Elicit is an AI-powered research tool designed to help users structure and analyze complex research questions. Elicit aims to streamline the process of evidence synthesis, making it easier to extract insights from large datasets, academic papers, and expert opinions, thus enhancing decision-making in fields like business, policy, and science.
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