University of Virginia School of Medicine researchers have revealed how the popular, low-carb ketogenic diet protects against epilepsy seizures and possibly neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Keto, as the diet is commonly known, has been used to reduce seizures in patients with medication-resistant epilepsy since the 1920s. Doctors, however, have been uncertain exactly how the diet does this, even as they identified potential benefits for other brain disorders. A team led by UVA’s Jaideep Kapur, MBBS, PhD, co-director of UVA’s Brain Institute, has found answers. This discovery could ...

(Toronto and Oslo, January 14, 2026)  JMIR Publications, a leading open-access digital health research publisher, and Sikt (Norwegian Agency for Shared Services in Education and Research) are pleased to announce a new pilot partnership that brings JMIR’s Flat-Fee Unlimited Open Access Publishing model to Norway. University College of Molde (Høgskolen i Molde) is the first institution to join the trial program. “Our partnership with Sikt is further progress in our mission to advance open science and empower researchers globally,” said Dennis O’Brien, VP ...

Of all the types of breast cancer, triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is the most aggressive and lacks specific therapies. TNBC also is more likely to metastasize, or travel through the blood stream to spread to other organs, which causes most of breast cancer-related deaths each year. Until now, tracking circulating tumor cells (CTC), a powerful indicator of cancer metastasis, has been challenging because there are very few markers that specifically identify these cells. Looking to find a better way to follow metastasis progression, researchers at Baylor College of Medicine developed a procedure to enhance the ...

The last time you scrubbed a streaky window or polished a porcelain appliance, you probably used a chemical called ammonia.  Also known as ammonium hydroxide when mixed with water, ammonia is more than a common household cleaner. More than 170 million metric tons of it are produced globally every year, with most of it ending up as fertilizer for corn, cotton and soybeans.  UIC researchers are scaling up a system for farmers to produce ammonia in their own backyards. The method, which uses renewable electricity and Earth’s natural resources, appears in the journal PNAS.  “So many people around the world need food. ...

The Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science (KRISS, President Lee Ho Seong) has developed a key materials technology that accelerates the commercialization of all-solid-state batteries (ASSBs)—next-generation batteries designed to intrinsically eliminate the risks of fire and explosion. The Emerging Material Metrology Group at KRISS demonstrated ultra-dense, large-area solid electrolyte membranes by applying a method that coats solid electrolyte powders with multifunctional compounds, reducing production costs to one-tenth of conventional levels. Lithium-ion secondary batteries, which are widely used in electric vehicles ...

Hoboken, NJ., January 12, 2026 — Disinfecting drinking water prevents the spread of deadly waterborne diseases by killing infectious agents such as bacteria, viruses and parasites. Without disinfection, even clear-looking water can carry pathogens that can cause severe and even life-threatening illness, especially in children, older adults, and people with weakened immune systems. Before water disinfection processes were put in place, outbreaks of waterborne diseases such as cholera, typhoid, and dysentery routinely claimed lives, decimating cities and even countries. Disinfecting drinking water is ...

A new study from researchers at Mass General Brigham finds that patients who undergo unscheduled or unplanned cesarean deliveries are at substantially increased risk for experiencing acute psychological stress during childbirth, with effects that can persist for months and impact maternal mental health and early bonding with infants. Results are published in Pregnancy. The study, which followed more than 1,100 women who gave birth at Massachusetts General Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, found that over 1 in 4 patients who had an unscheduled cesarean delivery experienced clinically significant acute stress shortly after birth, compared with about ...

As 2026 kicks off with a wave of “future-proof your health” messaging, new research offers practical, food-first evidence on what eating for healthy aging can look like.   In an 18-week randomized crossover feeding trial in adults 65 and older, participants following two different plant-forward dietary patterns lost weight while maintaining key markers of functional independence, grip strength and chair-rise performance, alongside improvements in multiple biomarkers tied to physical and cognitive aging.1*  The ...

A new single-cell profiling technique has mapped pre-malignant gene mutations and their effects in solid tissues for the first time, in a study led by investigators at Weill Cornell Medicine and the New York Genome Center. The research, published Dec. 31 in Cancer Discovery, demonstrates a practical method for simultaneously measuring specific DNA mutations and gene activity in thousands of individual cells from human tissue. The technique is expected to be useful for studying pre-cancerous cells and may ultimately guide early ...

Itaconate, an endogenous mitochondrial metabolite produced by the enzyme aconitate decarboxylase 1 (ACOD1), has emerged as a central regulator of inflammation, innate immunity, and cellular stress responses. In a comprehensive review published in the Journal of Intensive Medicine by Yang et al, researchers summarize the rapidly expanding field of itaconate biology—highlighting its chemical reactivity, protein modification mechanisms, and therapeutic potential across infectious, inflammatory, autoimmune, and neurodegenerative diseases. Itaconate and its electrophilic ...

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is the most common type of pancreatic cancer and begins in the cells lining the pancreatic duct. Accounting for more than 90% of all pancreatic cancers, PDAC is extremely difficult to treat and has a very high mortality rate. According to the Global Cancer Observatory 2022 report, pancreatic cancer is the sixth most common cancer in Japan, with over 47,000 new cases and more than 40,000 deaths, making it the fourth leading cause of cancer-related mortality in the country. In search of potential treatments, Ms. Mayuka Nii, a second-year doctoral ...

January 15, 2026 – Dallas – TAMEST (Texas Academy of Medicine, Engineering, Science and Technology) and Lyda Hill Philanthropies today announced the recipients of the 2026 Hill Prizes. The prizes, funded by Lyda Hill Philanthropies, propel high-risk, high-reward ideas and innovations that demonstrate significant potential for real-world impact and can lead to new, paradigm-shifting paths in research.   The prizes are given in seven categories: artificial intelligence, biological sciences, engineering, medicine, physical sciences, public health and technology. They recognize and advance top Texas innovators, providing seed funding to advance groundbreaking science and highlight ...

A team of Mass General Brigham researchers has developed one of the first fully autonomous artificial intelligence (AI) systems capable of screening for cognitive impairment using routine clinical documentation. The system, which requires no human intervention or prompting after deployment, achieved 98% specificity in real-world validation testing. Results are published in npj Digital Medicine. Alongside the publication, the team is releasing Pythia, an open-source tool that enables any healthcare system or research institution to deploy autonomous prompt optimization for their own AI screening applications. "We didn't build a single AI model — ...

For the first time, a study from researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego integrates climate-related damages to the ocean into the social cost of carbon— a measure of economic harm caused by greenhouse gas emissions.  When ocean damage from climate change, dubbed the “blue” social cost of carbon, is calculated, the study finds that the global cost of carbon dioxide emissions to society nearly doubles. Until now, the ocean was largely overlooked in the standard accounting of the social cost ...

As climate change drives more frequent and severe wildfires across boreal forests in Alaska and northwestern Canada, scientists are asking a critical question: Will these ecosystems continue to store carbon or become a growing source of carbon emissions? New research published this week shows that when forests shift from coniferous—consisting mostly of pines, spruces and larches—to deciduous—consisting mostly of birches and aspens—they could release substantially less carbon when they burn. The National Science Foundation-funded study, led by researchers from the Center for Ecosystem Science and Society (ECOSS) at Northern Arizona University and published in ...

Barcelona, January 15, 2026. A multidisciplinary team has uncovered a key mechanism that allows the human bacterium Mycoplasma pneumoniae—responsible for atypical pneumonia and other respiratory infections—to obtain cholesterol and other essential lipids directly from the human body. The discovery, published in Nature Communications, was co-led by Dr. Noemí Rotllan, from the Sant Pau Research Institute (IR Sant Pau) and the Center for Biomedical Research in Diabetes and Associated Metabolic Disorders (CIBERDEM); Dr. Marina Marcos, from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB); and Dr. David Vizarraga, from the Institute of Molecular Biology ...

“They’re very destructive when there's a lot of them, but one-on-one, what's not to love?” says Arianne Cease. She’s talking about locusts. As the director of Arizona State University’s Global Locust Initiative, Cease has a healthy admiration for these insects, even as she studies ways to manage locust swarms and prevent the destruction they cause. Locust swarms, which may conjure images of biblical plagues and ancient famines, remain a serious problem worldwide. They can destroy crops across entire regions, ruin people’s livelihoods, ...

Statement Highlights: More than one-third of adults and children in the U.S. are living with obesity. Obesity rates are highest among non-Hispanic Black children and adults, low-income families, people living in rural areas and adults with a high school education or less. The latest research indicates that barriers to maintaining a healthy weight or participating in weight management programs include: limited access to healthy foods, lack of time to prepare meals and engage in regular physical activity, ...

Women and people with anxiety are both prone to low confidence in their own abilities, but a new study by University College London (UCL) researchers has found that the two groups are prone to two distinct types of underconfidence. When they took more time to reflect on their answers in a simple experimental task, people with anxiety grew less confident in their answers, while women who were underconfident gained confidence. Lead author, Dr Sucharit Katyal, who completed the work as a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck UCL Centre ...

Insects are often seen as invaders due to high-profile species like the yellow-legged (Asian) hornet, the harlequin ladybird and fire ant. but new research reveals insects are also major victims of invasive alien species – exacerbating population declines and reducing their ability to provide vital services for biodiversity and people from pollination to pest control. The first global analysis of its kind, led by the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH), revealed that invasive alien species reduce abundance of terrestrial insects* by 31% on average and reduce species richness by 21%. Invasive animals outcompete or eat insects while invasive vegetation replaces ...

Polymer capsules can store functional substances such as drugs and fragrances, making them widely used in functional cosmetics and daily necessities. However, conventional capsules use non-degradable polymers and are difficult to decompose in natural environments. They are identified as a contributing factor to the marine microplastics problem, and concerns have been raised about their impact on the ecosystem and human health. In search of an alternative, a research group led by Associate Professor Yukiya Kitayama at ...

With 440,000 employees and a value added of around 43 billion euros, the Austrian forestry and timber sector is a significant economic factor. However, the sector is suffering from a considerable shortage of skilled labour. “Forestry is characterised by physically demanding and sometimes dangerous work,” says Mario Hirz from the Institute of Automotive Engineering at Graz University of Technology (TU Graz), “Forestry companies cannot find enough people who are capable of carrying out the dangerous ...

A new paper in the Journal of Public Health, published by Oxford University Press, indicates that maternity services in the North of England most consistently report higher-than-average rates of perinatal mortality, including stillbirths, compared to those in the South. The year 2025 marked the end of a decade-long UK government national maternity safety initiative, which aimed to halve the rate of stillbirths, neonatal and maternal deaths and brain injuries occurring during or soon after birth. While this was not achieved, a 36% reduction in perinatal ...

Stretching along the Brazilian coastline, the Atlantic Forest is home to hundreds of species of birds, amphibians, reptiles, mammals, and fishes. However, due to human expansion, only about a third of the forest’s original area remains intact. As human presence drives animals from their habitats, mosquitoes that once fed on a wide variety of hosts might be finding new, human targets to quench their thirst for blood, a new Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution study found. “Here we show that the mosquito species we captured in remnants ...

A new randomised controlled trial has found promising evidence that the smoking cessation medication varenicline (Chantix/Champix) can help people with cannabis use disorder (CUD) to reduce cannabis use.  CUD is a rising problem globally, partly due to recent legalization in several countries and US states, and until now no medications have been found to treat it.  CUD is characterized by continued use of cannabis despite ‘clinically significant impairment’ such as ignoring important social, ...