Huntington’s disease is a devastating brain disorder that slowly robs people of movement, memory and personality. It is caused by a toxic protein that builds in brain cells and ultimately kills them. For years, scientists have known that this harmful protein doesn’t stay put – it spreads from one brain cell to another. However, exactly how that spread happens and how to stop it has remained a mystery. In a major breakthrough, researchers from Florida Atlantic University and collaborators have identified a previously unknown cellular pathway that allows brain cells to pass toxic material directly to their neighbors through tiny, tube-like structures. Importantly, the ...

Cutting patterns into elastic materials allows you to unfold those materials into new shapes, and researchers have now demonstrated the ability to control the sequence in which that unfolding happens by magnetizing the materials. The work represents a fundamental advance in our understanding of metamaterial behavior and has also demonstrated its utility in applications focused on absorbing kinetic energy. “If you cut a T-pattern into a polymer sheet you’ve created a metamaterial, because you’ve changed the properties of the material,” says Haoze Sun, first author of a paper on the work and a Ph.D. student ...

Researchers have developed a new kind of nanoelectronic device that could dramatically cut the energy consumed by artificial intelligence hardware by mimicking the human brain. The researchers, led by the University of Cambridge, developed a form of hafnium oxide that acts as a highly stable, low‑energy ‘memristor’ — a component designed to mimic the efficient way neurons are connected in the brain. The results are reported in the journal Science Advances. Current AI systems rely on conventional computer chips that shuttle data back and forth between memory and processing units. This constant movement consumes large amounts of electricity, and ...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Biomedical engineers from Brown University have developed a new wound dressing material that releases antibiotic drugs only when harmful bacteria are present in a wound. In a new study, the researchers show that the material could help rapidly clear wound infections to accelerate healing while reducing the unnecessary use of antibiotics — a major driver of antibiotic resistance and hard-to-treat “superbug” infections that claim tens of thousands of lives worldwide each year. The new material is a smart hydrogel loaded with an antibiotic cargo that can be placed ...

Mill Valley, CA – March 17, 2026 – SynGAP Research Fund (SRF) has formally transitioned to the name CURE SYNGAP1, reflecting its singular mission to accelerate the development of treatments for SYNGAP1-Related Disorders. The organization’s leadership, scientific strategy, and family-led structure remain unchanged, while the new name provides clearer alignment with its long-term commitment to therapeutic progress. Following the path established by other successful rare disease organizations, including the Foundation for Angelman Syndrome Therapeutics (FAST) ...

SAN FRANCISCO—For millions of people living with HIV, a daily regimen of medications is a lifelong necessity. If they stop taking the drugs—commonly referred to as antiretroviral therapy—the virus usually rushes back within weeks. But not for everyone; scientists have been baffled by rare individuals who, after stopping the drug regimen, keep the virus under control for months or even years. “Strikingly, a small number of people rebound much more slowly and take multiple months or even longer to rebound,” says Nadia Roan, PhD, senior investigator at Gladstone Institutes. In a study ...

The Brunel Centre, a new research and insight hub, releases Strategic Economic Audit of the West of England    The region is England’s most productive Combined Authority area outside London    The West of England has a highly educated and skilled workforce, globally competitive universities and leading industrial clusters    Despite these strengths, there are challenges: investment, transport, housing affordability and inequality    The Economic Audit will be launched at the Festival ...

FINDINGS Researchers at UCLA have discovered a way to dramatically improve how electrical current enters perovskite semiconductors, an emerging class of materials with enormous potential for next-generation electronics. A longstanding challenge has been the metal–perovskite interface, where electrical current often struggles to pass efficiently from the metal electrode into the semiconductor. This interface behaves like a clogged doorway, wasting energy and slowing device performance. The ...

Scientists at the University of Warwick have developed a fully fibre-coupled terahertz (THz) imaging system that significantly improves the speed, resolution, and clinical practicality of terahertz imaging. The study, published in Nature Communications, demonstrates a high-throughput, compact platform that overcomes key barriers limiting current THz systems - bringing real-time, non-invasive tissue imaging closer to routine clinical use. “Terahertz imaging has shown immense promise for biomedical ...

Research Highlights: A study of nearly 300 thousand adults in South Korea found that individuals with higher blood pressure (≥120 mm Hg/80 mm Hg) for up to 10 years during young adulthood (ages 30 and 40 were more likely to develop heart disease and kidney disease after age 40. Having a systolic (top number) blood pressure that remained about 10 mm Hg higher than peers for about 10 years was linked to a 27% higher risk of heart disease and a 22% higher risk of kidney disease. Maintaining optimal blood pressure (<120 mm Hg/80 mm Hg) is important at every age and ...

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) — For half the world’s population, the water in their drinking glasses comes from below them. Groundwater also supplies 40% of global irrigation projects. Alarmingly, more than a third of the planet’s aquifers, or groundwater basins, are dropping. Declining water tables leave entire regions vulnerable to drought, land subsidence or seawater intrusion while damaging ecosystems and reducing water access. Properly securing this resource is a matter of social, humanitarian and environmental ...

“The mosquito rectum is exactly as heavily studied as you might imagine,” Laura Duvall, a professor in Columbia’s department of Biological Sciences said in a recent conversation describing her new research. Which is to say, it barely has been. Researchers have known for decades that female mosquitoes—the ones responsible for the itchy and irritating bites that can also transmit disease—lose their desire to bite humans for several days after feeding, as they digest blood and convert it to yolk protein that they deposit in their eggs.  The question has been ...

Losing health insurance can quickly worsen health for people with diabetes as patients struggle to control the disease after coverage is interrupted, according to new research from Oregon Health & Science University, The study, published today in JAMA Health Forum, found that low-income adults with diabetes who experienced insurance “churn” — defined as losing coverage for multiple medical visits — had poorer blood sugar control and needed more intensive medications than similar patients who stayed insured. “Our ...

About The Study: The findings of this study suggest that significant heat-health risks were observed in an emergency department serving socioeconomically vulnerable populations, suggesting tailored heat warning strategies should be studied further. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Alexander Azan, MD, email alexander.azan@nyulangone.org. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2026.2645) Editor’s Note: Please see the article for ...

About The Study: In this cohort study, smokers with negative baseline low-dose computed tomography findings exhibited a substantially elevated long-term lung cancer risk, which became significant only after 2 years after screening. These findings suggest support for extending the initial screening interval and implementing personalized long-term monitoring based on smoking history. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Shaokai Zhang, PhD, email shaokaizhang@126.com. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2026.1913) Editor’s ...

About The Study: This case-control study found that insurance churn (defined as 2 or more consecutive uninsured visits, to capture sustained coverage loss) among community health center (CHC) patients with diabetes was associated with poorer diabetes management and increased insulin use and acute diabetes complications. These results underscore the harm insurance (Medicaid or private) instability could have on CHC patients with diabetes. Supporting continuous insurance coverage for patients with low income who have diabetes will likely lower risk for costly preventable diabetes complications. Corresponding ...

Animals come in an extraordinary range of body shapes. A starfish looks nothing like an earthworm, a mouse, or a human. Yet even closely related species can appear radically different: corals, jellyfish, and sea anemones all belong to the same biological 'phylum', but their bodies take strikingly different forms. A new study from EMBL researchers and their collaborators at the University of Geneva shows how such shape diversity is determined by variation in mechanical tissue properties – an idea they termed ‘mechanotypes’. The hypothesis that ...

Nationally, heat-related mortality has risen by nearly 17% per year since 2016. As a result, New York City now issues heat alerts and opens cooling centers when the heat index is forecast to reach 95 degrees Fahrenheit or higher for at least two consecutive days or a heat index of 100 degrees Fahrenheit or higher for any length of time. Meanwhile, older adults are known to have a higher risk of heat stroke and related death, to have more heat-sensitive chronic conditions such as heart disease, kidney disease, ...

When Skin Deep Means Healing Completely Study reveals potential way to fully regenerate skin without scarring By Kermit Pattison / Harvard Staff Writer    Could wounded skin someday regrow perfectly without scars? A new study [LINK ACTIVATES AFTER EMBARGO] by Harvard stem cell biologists published March 20 in Cell reveals a way to fully regenerate skin by unblocking an embryonic healing mechanism that shuts off after birth. Demonstrated on mice, the study suggests a potential means to develop similar therapies in human ...

For ants, the ability to instantly distinguish nestmates from outsiders who might hijack the colony is crucial. Now, a new study shows that the system that ants use to determine who belongs in the colony is far more flexible than once thought.  The findings, published in Current Biology, demonstrate how clonal raider ants update their sense of nestmate identity throughout adulthood through repeated exposure, while still retaining an intrinsic recognition of their kin. The work, which reveals the mechanisms by which insiders learn to tolerate outsiders and outsiders learn to identify with insiders, also ...

Plant immunity is largely initiated at the cellular level, with each cell capable of autonomous detection and response, while also coordinating systemic signaling across the organism—unlike the centralized, cell-based immune system of animals. One of the key mechanisms of plant immunity involves nucleotide-binding, leucine-rich repeat (NLR) immune receptors—intracellular receptors that detect pathogen invasion and activate a strong immune response. Unlike surface receptors, NLRs detect pathogen effector ...

Sea urchin spines are not only for defence—they also act as natural sensors. A research team led by Prof. WANG Zuankai, Associate Vice President (Research and Innovation), Dean of Graduate School, Kuok Group Professor in Nature-Inspired Engineering and Chair Professor of the Department of Mechanical Engineering of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU), together with scholars from City University of Hong Kong (CityU) and Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), has discovered the mechanoelectrical ...

A new discovery by McGill researchers sheds light on how we retain memories over time, even though brain activity is constantly changing. Published in Nature, the preclinical study found the brain’s internal compass remains remarkably stable over time. The findings suggest this steady sense of direction may act as an anchor for memory. “This is a long-standing puzzle: if the brain’s memory structures keep shifting, how do our memories remain so stable? Our results offer an explanation,” said senior author Adrien Peyrache, Associate Professor at the Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery ...

Michael Franklin, former Liew Family Chair of Computer Science and founding Faculty Co-Director of DSI, has been appointed Deputy Dean for Computational and Mathematical Sciences in the University of Chicago’s Physical Sciences Division. Franklin will lead strategic planning for computational and mathematical sciences, building mechanisms to advance these disciplines and fostering collaborations across campus. Franklin has been instrumental in establishing UChicago as a leader in computer science and data science ...