Understanding human gene function in living organisms has long been hampered by fundamental differences between species. Although mice share most protein-coding genes with humans, their regulatory landscapes often diverge, limiting how accurately mouse models can mimic human biology. One promising solution is full-length gene humanization (FL-GH), in which entire mouse loci—including coding sequences, introns, untranslated regions, and regulatory elements—are replaced with their human counterparts. ...

Durotomy is a common neurosurgical complication involving a tear in the dura mater, the protective membrane surrounding the brain and spinal cord. Damage can cause cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leakage, leading to delayed healing, headaches, and infection, making a reliable watertight dural closure essential. Tissue adhesives are increasingly explored as alternatives to suturing for dural closure because they offer simpler and faster application. However, many existing glue-based sealants suffer from excessive swelling, leading to mass effect and unwanted tissue adhesion, which can lead to postoperative complications. To address these limitations, researchers have investigated ...

The gene variant posing the greatest genetic risk of late-onset Alzheimer's disease (AD) is called APOE-ε4. A different variant of the same gene, APOE-ε2, is thought to confer protection against AD.   A comparatively large study reported Jan. 16 in Alzheimer's & Dementia, The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association, led by researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, measures the frequency of APOE-ε4 and APOE-ε2 in so-called super agers — people ages 80 or older whose cognitive function is ...

A large multicentre clinical trial led by King’s College London with 150 children and adolescents has shown that a device cleared by the US FDA to treat ADHD is not effective in reducing symptoms.    The device – which uses an approach called trigeminal nerve stimulation (TNS) - was cleared for use by the US Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) to treat ADHD in 2019 based on a small ...

Researchers at University College London (UCL) have uncovered a key mechanism that helps the body switch off inflammation – a breakthrough that could lead to new treatments for chronic diseases affecting millions worldwide. Inflammation is the body’s frontline defence against infection and injury, but when it doesn’t switch off properly, it can drive serious health conditions such as arthritis, heart disease, and diabetes. Until now, scientists didn’t fully understand how the body decides to stop the immune ‘fight’ response and start healing. Published in Nature Communications, the study reveals that tiny fat-derived molecules ...

A solid – rather than liquid – electrolyte between the opposite electrodes of a battery should, in theory, enable a rechargeable lithium metal battery that is safer, packs much more energy, and charges considerably faster than the lithium-ion batteries commercially available today. For decades, scientists and engineers have explored several paths to realize the great promise of lithium metal batteries. A major problem with the solid, crystalline electrolytes under study has been the formation of microscopic cracks that ...

A national panel of experts has issued the strongest call yet for the Department of Health and Social Care to overhaul how it approaches dementia prevention, pointing to vital evidence that dementia risk can be reduced and providing a framework for the development of new government policy that could improve brain health for millions.  The Nottingham Consensus, published in Nature Reviews Neurology, was led by researchers at the NIHR Policy Research Unit in Dementia and Neurodegeneration at Queen Mary University ...

In a proof-of-concept study funded by the National Institutes of Health, researchers from the Keck School of Medicine of USC and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have shown that an innovative, noninvasive technique can be used to quickly collect 3D images of the human body, from head to foot. The technology combines ultrasound and photoacoustic imaging, which detects sound waves generated by light, to simultaneously collect images of both tissue and blood vessels. The findings, just published in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering, have the potential to address current gaps in medical imaging. Imaging ...

When we eat, our bodies convert extra calories, especially from carbs, sugar, fats, and alcohol, into molecules called “triglycerides”. Triglycerides are a form of fat or “lipid”, which the body stores away into its fat cells as an energy fuel for energy between meals. But, as we all know, excess amounts of fat in the body can be dangerous, causing a condition known as “hypertriglyceridemia” (“excess triglycerides in the blood”), which significantly increases the risk of heart disease, stroke, and pancreatitis. This ...

The Dutch Western Scheldt Estuary has been pushed onto an unsustainable trajectory since large-scale navigation channel deepening began in the 1970s. The dramatic increase in the annual volume of dredged sediment from the navigation channel has reduced feeding grounds for birds and made the estuary more vulnerable to sea-level rise. This is shown by the Dutch report De Westerscheldenatuur: Een mooie toekomst vraagt keuzes nu!. Dutch and Flemish researchers call on policymakers to use dredged sediment strategically for nature restoration and climate adaptation. After analysing nearly seventy years of monitoring data from the Dutch water ...

FRANKFURT. With a so-called cryo plasma-FIB (Plasma Focused Ion Beam) scanning electron microscope with nanomanipulator, the Goethe University in Frankfurt (Germany) is expanding its research infrastructure with a powerful instrument. The microscope was inaugurated today at the Buchmann Institute for Molecular Life Sciences on the Riedberg Campus – as the first of its kind in Hesse and one of only a few in all of Germany.   The large-scale instrument works with a focused plasma ion beam, which can be used to prepare tiny sections from biological cells – so-called nanobiopsies with dimensions in the nanometer range. The decisive advantage ...

Subtle abnormalities in kidney function – even within the range considered normal – may help identify people at risk of developing chronic kidney disease. This is shown in a new study from Karolinska Institutet, published in Kidney International. The researchers have therefore developed a web-based tool that could aid in early detection and thus primary prevention. Chronic kidney disease is a growing global health concern afflicting 10−15 per cent of adults worldwide and is projected ...

RESEARCH The massive consumption of fossil fuels in human society has led to increasingly severe resource crises and environmental pollution, and the efficient utilization of renewable biomass resources is one of the feasible approaches to addressing these issues. The electrocatalytic oxidation of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) to produce 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA) is expected to reduce the excessive reliance on fossil resource-derived terephthalic acid (PTA), a petroleum-based platform molecule. However, the development of high-performance and low-cost electrocatalysts for the efficient HMF oxidation ...

A team from Lanzhou University of Technology have developed a novel NiTi shape memory allow (SMA) with harmonic microstructures fabricated via selective laser melting (SLM). This work explores the relationship between microstructural evolution at various deformation stages and corrosion behaviour in seawater environments. The study reveals that in its initial states, the alloy exhibits superior corrosion resistance, primarily owing to dense and stable passivation films composed mainly of TiO₂ and NiO. Post-fracture, the formation of fragmented amorphous phases and nanocrystalline grains accelerates corrosion processes. Leveraging first-principles ...

A new discovery about how cells communicate with each other in the body’s immune system has revealed deeper insights for an international team of scientists into fundamental immune system function.  The new study, published in Nature Communications, overturns a long held understanding about how T cells – white blood cells that make up a key part of the immune system – recognise lipid antigens, a chemical class of molecules that make up cell membranes. Lipids are presented to T cells by a distinct family of molecules called CD1, yet one member of this family, CD1c, has remained poorly understood despite its significant role in human immunity. For more than 30 years, ...

Medium- and short-chain fatty acids (C8-C14) are widely used in industries including food, pharmaceuticals, lubricants, and surfactants, and they are currently mainly extracted from coconut and palm oils. Developing sustainable microbial alternatives, especially for producing fatty acids with high purity and precise chain-length control, is a major goal of synthetic biology and metabolic engineering. In a study published in Nature Chemical Biology, Prof. ZHOU Yongjin's team from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Prof. Martin Grininger's team from Goethe University Frankfurt developed a modular ...

Porous molecular sieve catalysts, including aluminosilicate zeolites and silicoaluminophosphate (SAPO) molecular sieves, are widely used in heterogeneous catalysis and are expected to play an important role in advancing carbon neutrality and sustainable development. Given the ubiquitous presence of water during catalyst synthesis, storage, and application, the interactions between water and molecular sieves—along with their subsequent effects on framework stability and catalytic performance—have garnered significant attention ...

Researchers from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa's Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB) Shark Lab have solved a long-standing global mystery in shark biology: the location and nature of tiger shark mating. A new study, based on six years of acoustic tracking data, provides the first concrete evidence of a potential seasonal mating aggregation site for tiger sharks, located off Olowalu, Maui. This discovery challenges the conventional understanding of tiger sharks as purely solitary animals, revealing a predictable seasonal convergence ...

A mysterious bar-shaped cloud of iron has been discovered inside the iconic Ring Nebula by a European team led by astronomers at UCL (University College London) and Cardiff University. The cloud of iron atoms, described for the first time in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, is in the shape of a bar or strip: it just fits inside the inner layer of the elliptically shaped nebula, familiar from many images including those obtained by the James Webb Space Telescope at infrared wavelengths1. The bar’s length is roughly 500 times that of Pluto’s orbit around the Sun and, according ...

World’s first research-backed intervention reduces harmful engagement with AI-generated explicit imagery. As the Grok AI-undressing controversy grows, researchers say user education must complement regulation and legislation. Study links belief in deepfake pornography myths to higher risk of engagement with non-consensual AI imagery.   Friday, 16 January 2026: A new evidence-based online educational tool aims to curb the watching, sharing, and creation of AI-generated explicit imagery. Developed by researchers at University College Cork (UCC), the free 10-minute intervention Deepfakes/Real Harms is designed to reduce users’ willingness ...

Providing accurate information about the climate crisis can help to correct misperceptions about how much public support exists for action.   However, simply showing that others support climate action does not, on its own, have a meaningful impact on people’s own beliefs or behavioural intentions, a new study based on data from Germany shows, challenging common expectations about the power of public consensus to drive climate action.   The study finds that learning about widespread public support for climate action policies can initially make people think such policies are more politically feasible and more likely to be implemented. However, these effects are small ...

JANUARY 2026 TIP SHEET Cancer and Lifestyle Medicine Sylvester Expert Can Help Digest New Dietary Guidelines Forty percent of cancers are preventable, and diet is one of the biggest levers at one’s control, according to a Sylvester expert on lifestyle interventions in cancer treatment. Tracy Crane, Ph.D., RDN, director of Lifestyle Medicine and co-lead of Sylvester’s Cancer Control Research Program, says the updated U.S. dietary guidelines emphasize an overall healthy eating pattern ...

The Oceanography Society (TOS) has awarded the Ocean Observing Team Award to the Global Ocean Ship-Based Hydrographic Investigations Program (GO-SHIP), recognizing the program’s groundbreaking and sustained contributions to ocean observing that have transformed scientific understanding of the global ocean and delivered profound societal benefits. Team members will be recognized during The Oceanography Society’s Awards Breakfast taking place on Tuesday, February 24, 2026, during the Ocean Sciences Meeting in Glasgow, Scotland. GO-SHIP is the international community’s premier program for full-depth, ...

The Oceanography Society (TOS) has selected Dr. Elva Escobar Briones of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México; Instituto de Ciencias del Mar y Limnología, as the recipient of the TOS Mentoring Award, recognizing her outstanding and sustained excellence in mentoring the next generation of ocean scientists, as well as her leadership in advancing inclusion, equity, and capacity building in oceanography. Her achievements will be celebrated during the TOS Honors Breakfast on February 24, 2026, during the Ocean Sciences Meeting in Glasgow, Scotland. The TOS Mentoring Award honors individuals whose ...

When agitated dementia patients wander or shout through the night, families and caregivers understandably feel the need to treat this frightening and potentially dangerous behavior.  Antipsychotic medications are often resorted to with such patients, contributing to increases in antipsychotic treatment rates among older people. Indeed, a research letter by Rutgers and Columbia University researchers in JAMA Psychiatry shows those prescriptions are becoming more common in the United States, even though antipsychotic drugs do little for dementia and carry a black-box warning on their labels stating ...