Embargoed for release until 5:00 p.m. ET on Monday 30 June 2025    Follow @Annalsofim on X, Facebook, Instagram, threads, and Linkedin         Below please find summaries of new articles that will be published in the next issue of Annals of Internal Medicine. The summaries are not intended to substitute for the full articles as a source of information. This information is under strict embargo and by taking it into possession, media representatives are committing to the terms of the embargo not only on their own behalf, ...

Study from Mass General Brigham and Karolinska Institutet researchers suggests that patients with the condition do not need to stop taking important medications  Microscopic colitis (MC) is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease that severely reduces quality of life. MC is responsible for over 30% of all chronic diarrhea cases in people over 65 years of age, and its prevalence is rising worldwide. Although little is known about what causes MC, previous studies have suggested that a range of common medications could trigger ...

Abu Dhabi, UAE, June 30, 2025: A team of researchers at NYU Abu Dhabi has uncovered a key mechanism that helps shape how our brains are wired, and what can happen when that process is disrupted. In a new study published in Cell Reports, the RNA-MIND Lab at NYU Abu Dhabi, led by Professor of Biology Dan Ohtan Wang, with Research Associate Belal Shohayeb, reveals how a small molecular mark on messenger RNA, called m6A methylation, regulates the production of essential proteins inside growing neurons. This process plays a critical role in the development of axons, the long extensions that neurons use to connect and communicate with each other. The study ...

June 30, 2025 -- Inflammation, long considered a hallmark of aging, may not be a universal human experience, according to a new study from Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. The research suggests that "inflammaging"—chronic, low-grade inflammation associated with aging—appears to be a byproduct of industrialized lifestyles and varies significantly across global populations. The findings are published in Nature Aging. Researchers analyzed data from four populations: two industrialized ...

With a new $11 million federal grant, the University of Oregon will create a national center for children’s mental health, putting the university at the forefront of national prevention efforts to improve the mental health and well-being of adolescents. The center will be housed in the UO’s Prevention Science Institute. It will be funded over the next five years by the National Institute of Mental Health. “This center will build on the strong work the UO’s Prevention Science Institute has done over decades in the area of school-based mental health prevention, bringing ...

Caroline King didn’t expect to get involved in research when she arrived at The University of Texas at Arlington. But after joining the Honors College and taking a job with the Center for Rural Health and Nursing, she found herself diving into a literature review on midwifery in rural Texas. Two and a half years later, King is a published author in the Online Journal of Rural Nursing and Health Care. While publication is a milestone for any academic, it’s a rare achievement for an undergraduate. “It’s ...

TikTok is one of the fastest-growing and most popular social media platforms in the world – especially among college-age individuals. In the United States alone, there are over 136 million TikTok users aged 18 and older, with approximately 45 million falling within the college-age demographic. And college students aren’t just using the platform to watch viral videos. They’re also turning to it as a source of information, with around 40% of Americans using TikTok as a search engine. While the ...

PITTSBURGH, June 30, 2025—For the first time, the extreme variability in dengue fever has been linked to a biological mechanism, potentially opening doors to new treatments and vaccines for the most common mosquito-borne disease worldwide. The study was published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) by researchers from the University of Pittsburgh, UPMC and Instituto Aggeu Magalhães in Brazil.   Cases of dengue fever, commonly known as “breakbone fever” for the excruciating joint pain that is the hallmark of the disease, have ...

Using whole genome sequencing and cutting-edge analyses researchers at Stockholm University have uncovered the surprising evolutionary history of the Norwegian lemming (Lemmus lemmus), revealing it to be one of the most recently evolved mammal species. The results published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), reveal that the Norwegian lemming is a distinct species that split from its closest relative, the Western Siberian lemming, approximately 35,000 years ago — just before the peak of the last Ice Age. “The ...

Going to bed earlier than usual may help to optimise physical activity the following day, Monash University-led research has found. Published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the study examined whether sleep duration and sleep timing were associated with the duration of moderate-to-vigorous and overall physical activity the following day. In the primary study, almost 20,000 participants wore a validated biometric device (WHOOP) for one year, resulting in almost six million nights of data. Objective sleep and physical activity metrics were derived from the wrist-worn device. The study examined how both typical ...

27 June 2025 UNDER EMBARGO UNTIL 20:00 UK TIME (15:00 U.S. EASTERN TIME) ON MONDAY JUNE 30, 2025 Groundbreaking analysis provides day-by-day insight into prehistoric plankton’s capacity for change Scientists at the University of Southampton have developed a new way of analysing fossils allowing them to see how creatures from millions of years ago were shaped by their environment on a day-to-day basis for the first time. The research published today [30 June] in Proceedings of the National Academy ...

UNDER EMBARGO UNTIL 20:00 UK TIME (15:00 U.S. EASTERN TIME) ON MONDAY JUNE 30, 2025 Southern Ocean saltier, hotter and losing ice fast as decades-long trend unexpectedly reverses Researchers have discovered a dramatic and unexpected shift in the Southern Ocean, with surface water salinity rising and sea ice in steep decline. Since 2015, Antarctica has lost sea ice equal to the size of Greenland — the largest environmental shift seen anywhere on Earth in the last decades. The Southern Ocean is also getting saltier, and this unexpected change is making the problem worse. For decades, the ocean’s surface freshened (becoming less salty), helping sea ice grow. Now, scientists ...

When we think of fossils, giant prehistoric creatures like dinosaurs may come to mind. But the fossil record also holds the remains of smaller organisms, such as fish and corals, that tell us about our oceans’ past. Scientists at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) recently studied exposed fossilized coral reefs from Panama's Bocas del Toro Province and the Dominican Republic, comparing them with nearby modern reefs. These exceptionally well-preserved reefs date back 7,000 ...

  In the study, researchers from Canada, New Zealand and Mexico reported on 34 interactions spanning two decades in which orcas in the wild attempted to offer food to humans. The incidents took place in oceans around the world, from California to New Zealand to Norway to Patagonia. “Orcas often share food with each other – it’s a prosocial activity and a way that they build relationships with each other,” said study lead author Jared Towers, of Bay Cetology in British Columbia, Canada. “That they also share with humans may show their interest ...

A recently published article in the journal BioScience reveals that endangered longleaf pine ecosystems—among North America's most biodiverse habitats—face mounting threats from intensifying hurricane regimes driven by climate change. An interdisciplinary team of authors headed by Nicole Zampieri (Tall Timbers and The Jones Center at Ichauway) describe the urgent situation: The North American Coastal Plain was once characterized by extensive longleaf pine savannas covering approximately 36 million hectares. Today, these ecosystems "now occupy ...

BOZEMAN – They’re in the headlines every week – critical minerals like lithium, cobalt, nickel, graphite and the rare earth elements essential for high-technology and national security applications. While nations and businesses around the globe strategize to secure supplies of the coveted resources, Montana State University geologist Zachary Burton studies how rare earth elements are moved by geochemical and aqueous forces, such as freeze-thaw cycles and snowmelt, to concentrate in different environments.  “Rare earth elements aren’t technically rare – they ...

The Department of Energy’s (DOE) Isotope Program, within the Office of Science, will supply a U.S. based company with accelerator produced actinium-225 (Ac-225) in support of an upcoming U.S. clinical trial for cancer therapy for the first time. This is a significant milestone in the advancement of radiopharmaceutical development and cancer therapy because it opens a potential new pipeline for this lifesaving isotope. "We are proud to enable U.S. based companies to push past the boundaries on how we combat cancer in this country," said Christopher Landers, Director of the Office of Isotope ...

A new study led by Johns Hopkins researchers has identified a significant gap between the number of U.S. patients for whom cholesterol-lowering drugs such as statins are recommended and the actual number of patients who take them.  Coronary artery disease remains a leading cause of death in the U.S. and globally, despite the development of statins and other cholesterol-lowering medications in recent decades. Many adults who should be taking these drugs to lower their low-density-lipoprotein (LDL) levels are not—even though these drugs are considered safe and there is a large body of evidence supporting their effectiveness. In their new study, the researchers sought ...

Michael Karin, PhD, has long been fascinated by what happens when inflammation—ideally a short-term burst of biological activity to promote healing or fight infection—turns chronic and potentially deadly. He joined Sanford Burnham Prebys on June 30, 2025, where he will continue investigating how chronic inflammation can promote tumor formation. Karin also will serve as director of the new Center for Metabolic and Liver Diseases. “Michael is a key leader in the molecular mechanisms that underlie metabolism, inflammation and cancer, and his recruitment to our institute is transformational,” said David A. Brenner, MD, president ...

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a debilitating neurodegenerative condition that affects a significant proportion of older people worldwide. Synapses are points of communication between neural cells that are malleable to change based on our experiences. By adding, removing, strengthening, or weakening synaptic contacts, our brain encodes new events or forgets previous ones. In AD, synaptic plasticity, the brain’s ability to regulate the strength of synaptic connections between neurons, is significantly disrupted. This worsens over time, reducing cognitive and memory functions leading to reduced quality of life. To date, there is no effective ...

A new University of Oregon review of 11 studies found little evidence that the four-day school week benefits student academic performance, attendance, behavior or graduation rates. The HEDCO Institute for Evidence-Based Educational Practice at the UO conducted the systematic review, a rigorous analysis of the highest-quality research available on the four-day school week in the United States. “Districts often turn to four-day school weeks to address budget and staffing pressures, but the evidence ...

How does the human brain track emotions and support transitions between these emotions? In a new eNeuro paper, Matthew Sachs and colleagues, from Colombia University, used music and an advanced approach for assessing brain activity to shed light on the context dependence and fluctuating nature of emotions.  The researchers collaborated with composers to create songs that evoked different emotions at separate time points. They then assessed the brain activity of study participants as they listened to these songs. Sachs ...

Because aging weakens cognitive skills, older people can struggle to read difficult social cues. A brain region involved in attention and arousal—the locus coeruleus (LC)—helps with complex tasks, and its connections to the cortex may adapt as humans age to support cognition. To shed more light on this, Maryam Ziaei, from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, and colleagues explored whether the LC and its cortical pathways change over time to help process faces that are difficult to read.  In their new JNeurosci paper, the researchers imaged the brains of young (21 to 29 years old) and old (67 to 75 years old) adults as they looked at faces. Older adults ...

With 8.2 billion people in the world, cities are constantly expanding, rapidly altering the environment. Animals that undergo complete metamorphosis, such as frogs, may face bigger challenges as they try to survive in new and changing conditions, because their young stages, the eggs and tadpoles, are more vulnerable.  Scientists at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama (STRI) compared the development of tadpoles of Túngara frogs (Engystomops pustulosus) in urban and forest conditions. Túngara frogs, whose mating calls sound like they’ve come straight out of a video game, lay their eggs in foam nests inside puddles. The eggs become tadpoles and, ...

Earlier this year, wildfires in southern California killed 30 people, destroyed more than 18,000 homes and burned more than 57,000 acres. The fires were a stark reminders of the threat of worsening climate change, and the increased likelihood of future devastating fires. With these fires comes smoke, which has long-term health effects for the people exposed to it – whether they are close to the source, or many miles away.   A Harvard atmospheric modeling team has created an online platform that could help communities identify areas in need of controlled burns ...