For the first time, researchers at the University of British Columbia have demonstrated how to reliably produce an important type of human immune cell—known as helper T cells—from stem cells in a controlled laboratory setting.  The findings, published today in Cell Stem Cell, overcome a major hurdle that has limited the development, affordability and large-scale manufacturing of cell therapies. The discovery could pave the way for more accessible and effective off-the-shelf treatments for a wide range of conditions like ...

The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) has awarded $7.4 million to support a University of California San Diego team developing a first-of-its-kind stem cell-based gene therapy for Friedreich’s ataxia, a rare inherited neurodegenerative disease that causes progressive loss of coordination, muscle strength, heart function and overall mobility. The new funding will help the research team complete the final steps required by federal regulators before they can apply to begin a first-in-human clinical trial. “This support is essential for scientific progress and for families living ...

Promising ovarian cancer research by Melanie Rutkowski, PhD, at the University of Virginia Comprehensive Cancer Center has won $700,000 in support from the Victoria’s Secret Global Fund for Women’s Cancers in partnership with Pelotonia and AACR, the American Association for Cancer Research. Rutkowski has been selected as a Victoria’s Secret Rising Innovator, receiving a Research Grant in partnership with Pelotonia and AACR to further her studies of the role of the microbiome – the collection of microorganisms that live within ...

New preclinical research suggests that bowel preparation procedures for colonoscopies may temporarily alter gut balance, culminating in unappreciated effects in patients with compromised gastrointestinal health. The study, published in Cell Reports Medicine, found that simulating bowel preparation in mouse models disrupted the gut environment, making the mice more susceptible to infection and inflammation. "Colonoscopies play a crucial role in the diagnosis and treatment of gastrointestinal pathologies, including cancer, so it’s important to emphasize that we’re not trying ...

(Toronto & Stockholm, January 7, 2026) JMIR Publications, a leading open-access digital health research publisher, and the National Library of Sweden (NLS), representing the Bibsam Consortium, are pleased to announce the extension of their Flat-Fee Unlimited Open Access Publishing Agreement through December 31, 2026. The renewal of this agreement, originally set to expire on December 31, 2025, reinforces the commitment of Swedish research funders and institutions to the principles of open science. The partnership provides authors affiliated with ...

A new study highlights a semi-transparent, color-tunable solar cell designed to work in places traditional panels can’t, like windows and flexible surfaces. Using a 3D-printed pillar structure, the researchers can fine-tune how much light passes through and what color the cell appears, without changing the solar material itself. The result is a system that balances energy output with durability, while giving designers far more control over how the technology looks and functions. [Hebrew University of Jerusalem] The research was led by Prof. Lioz Etgar and Prof. Shlomo Magdassi and from the Institute of Chemistry and the Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology ...

(WASHINGTON, Jan. 8, 2026) — A single dose of intravenous (IV) iron dextran is the cost-effective treatment for women with heavy menstrual bleeding and iron deficiency anemia (IDA), according to new research published in Blood Advances.   “Oral iron is usually given as first-line treatment because on the surface, it appears less expensive and more convenient,” said study author Daniel Wang, a fourth-year medical student at Yale School of Medicine currently pursuing a research year as a recipient of the American Society of Hematology Medical Student Physician-Scientist Award. “However, we found that the preferred first-line treatment for these patients ...

Fukuoka, Japan—This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), launched with United Nations backing in 2006. Today, environmental, social, and governance (ESG) related non-financial information—such as greenhouse gas emissions, pollution control, and diversity metrics—is routinely analyzed alongside traditional financial data. As companies scale up their ESG commitments, core questions remain: do these efforts create extra value, and how do they ...

Collaboration focuses on City of Hope’s IL13RA2-EGFR targeting CAR T cell program addressing a type of fast-growing, aggressive brain cancer called glioblastoma multiforme.  The collaboration addresses solid tumor manufacturing bottlenecks and accelerates advancement toward clinical trials.  Los Angeles and South San Francisco, ​​Calif.​​​​ – City of Hope®, one of the largest and most advanced cancer research and treatment organizations in the United States, and ​Cellares, the first Integrated Development and Manufacturing Organization (IDMO), today announced a ...

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is the most lethal form of pancreas cancer. It’s also the most common form of the disease. Potential treatments typically target a key mutated oncogene called KRAS. In some cases, PDAC tumors with these mutations have resisted therapeutic efforts. However, combination therapies involving alternative drug targets may one day help clinicians overwhelm these defenses. In 2023, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) Professor Adrian Krainer’s lab discovered ...

They’re called ghost particles for a reason. They’re everywhere – trillions of them constantly stream through everything: our bodies, our planet, even the entire cosmos – without us noticing. These so-called neutrinos are elementary particles that are invisible, incredibly light, and interact only rarely with other matter. The weakness of their interactions makes neutrinos extremely difficult to detect. But when scientists do manage to capture them, they can offer extraordinary insights into the universe. Neutrinos ...

In recent years, two-dimensional (2D) single-crystalline metal nanosheets have emerged as a promising next-generation platform for self-powered electronics. However, their potential for triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs)—a promising energy-harvesting technology—remains largely untapped, mainly due to their low current output and limited durability. In an innovative breakthrough, a team of researchers led by Associate Professor Tae-Wook Kim from the Department of Flexible and Printable Electronics, Jeonbuk National University, Republic of Korea, has redesigned the internal structure of 2D metal nanosheets to overcome the existing ...

Cholera, a severe bacterial infection that causes diarrhea and kills if untreated, can be defeated with a diet high in protein, according to a new study from UC Riverside. Specifically, the study found that diets high in casein, the main protein in milk and cheese, as well as wheat gluten, could make a dramatic difference in the amount of cholera bacteria able to infect the gut.  “I wasn’t surprised that diet could affect the health of someone infected with the bacteria. But the magnitude of the effect surprised me,” said Ansel Hsiao, UCR associate professor of microbiology and plant pathology and senior author of the study published in Cell Host ...

Decades of advances in medical technology and public health are causing global populations to age. While achieving longer lives is certainly a net positive, this demographic shift is placing an ever-growing strain on national budgets, and many countries around the world are struggling to maintain sustainable healthcare systems. Japan, which boasts as one of the world’s longest life expectancies, faces an especially big hurdle, with healthcare expenses projected to nearly double by 2040. To meet this challenge, governments must ...

Researchers at University of California San Diego, Mass General Brigham, and their colleagues have identified specific gut bacteria and metabolic pathways that drive alcohol production in patients with auto-brewery syndrome (ABS). The rare and often misunderstood condition causes people to experience intoxication without drinking alcohol. The study was published in Nature Microbiology on January 8, 2026. ABS occurs when gut microbes break down carbohydrates and convert them to ethanol (the alcohol found ...

A new Curtin University-led study has shed new light on the widespread number of households in developing countries burning plastic as an everyday energy source, uncovering serious international health, social equality and environmental concerns.   Published in Nature Communications, the research surveyed more than 1000 respondents across 26 countries who work closely with low-income urban neighbourhoods, such as researchers, government workers and community leaders.   One in three respondents said they were aware of households burning plastic, with many personally witnessing ...

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- In an advance that could help ensure people are taking their medication on schedule, MIT engineers have designed a pill that can report when it has been swallowed. The new reporting system, which can be incorporated into existing pill capsules, contains a biodegradable radio frequency antenna. After it sends out the signal that the pill has been consumed, most components break down in the stomach while a tiny RF chip passes out of the body through the digestive tract. This type of system could ...

Osaka, Japan – Despite the immense amount of genetic material present in each cell, around three billion base pairs in humans, this material needs to be accurately divided in two and allocated in equal quantities. The centromere, located in the middle of each chromosome, is known as the site where cellular equipment attaches to divide chromosomes successfully, but the specific mechanisms behind this remain unknown. In a major new study reported in The EMBO Journal, researchers at The University of Osaka have identified an additional pathway by which the DNA-packaging histone CENP-A associates with and specifies the location ...

Inspired by biological systems, materials scientists have long sought to harness self-assembly to build nanomaterials. The challenge: the process seemed random and notoriously difficult to predict. Now, researchers from the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) and Brandeis University have uncovered geometric rules that act as a master control panel for self-assembling particles. The results, which could find applications ranging from protein design to synthetic nanomachines, were published in Nature Physics. Life is the ultimate nanotechnologist. Biology has long fascinated physicists with its ability to build complex molecular machines and structures from ...

Researchers have identified specific gut bacteria and metabolic pathways that drive alcohol production in patients with auto-brewery syndrome (ABS), a rare and often misunderstood condition in which people experience intoxication without drinking alcohol. The research team from Mass General Brigham, in collaboration with colleagues at University of California San Diego, published their findings in Nature Microbiology. ABS occurs when gut microbes break down carbohydrates and convert them to ethanol (alcohol) that ...

Researchers find promising new way to boost the immune response to cancer Multi-pronged antibodies more effective in activating cancer-killing cells Researchers at the University of Southampton have developed a promising new way to bolster the body’s immune system response to cancer. In a study published in Nature Communications, researchers used specially engineered multi-pronged antibodies to better activate cancer-killing T cells. The antibodies work by ‘grabbing’ and ‘clustering’ multiple immune cell receptors – boosting the signal ...

To ensure that the tissue structures of biological samples are easily recognisable under the electron microscope, they are treated with a staining agent. The standard staining agent for this is uranyl acetate. However, some laboratories are not allowed to use this highly toxic and radioactive substance for safety reasons. A research team at the Institute of Electron Microscopy and Nanoanalysis (FELMI-ZFE) at Graz University of Technology (TU Graz) has now found an environmentally friendly alternative: ordinary espresso. Images of the samples treated with it were of equally good quality as images of comparative samples, which were prepared with uranyl ...

Tsukuba, Japan—Animals, including humans, rely on their sense of smell to locate food, avoid predators, and communicate. This sensory ability depends on specialized receptor proteins. In vertebrates, four major receptor families mediate olfaction; these include olfactory receptors (ORs), vomeronasal type 1 receptors (V1Rs), vomeronasal type 2 receptors (V2Rs), and trace amine-associated receptors (TAARs). However, the evolutionary origin and early diversification patterns of these receptor classes remain poorly understood. In this study, University of Tsukuba researchers examined the hagfish genome for genes linked to ORs. In total, they identified 48 OR genes, 2 V1R genes, ...

A new technology has been developed that enables cuffless non-invasive blood pressure monitoring by using ultrasonic to track real-time changes in vascular diameter—without the need for a traditional cuff. The technology is expected to serve as a core component in future wearable healthcare devices and smart medical monitoring platforms. A research team led by Dr. Shin Hur at the Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM, President Seog-Hyeon Ryu), including Syed Turab Haider Zaidi, a student researcher from the UST–KIMM ...

A new study of over 32,000 US Veterans has found that the longer people stay on medications for opioid use disorder (buprenorphine, methadone, or extended-release naltrexone), the greater the probability of short- and medium-term survival.  This benefit continues to increase at least for four years of ongoing treatment, considerably longer than most patients currently stay in treatment. People with opioid use disorder run the risk of dying from accidental overdose but opioid use disorder also increases the risk of death from other health conditions, most notably infectious ...