A research team from Northwest University, China, has developed a breakthrough nano-composite hydrogel system to address the dual challenges of inflammation and cartilage damage in osteoarthritis (OA), a leading cause of joint disability worldwide. Published in Engineering, the study confirms that the dual-drug-loaded hydrogel promotes cartilage repair through synergistic immune regulation and chondrocyte differentiation, offering a novel therapeutic strategy for OA. OA is characterized by persistent inflammation and impaired cartilage regeneration, with existing treatments failing ...

The 2025 Guangci Laboratory Medicine Innovation and Development Conference was successfully concluded at Shanghai Qingsongcheng Hotel during June 5-8, 2025! With the theme of "Innovation, Guidance, and Development", this conference successfully brought together nearly 100 well-known experts and scholars at home and abroad, and carried out in-depth dialogues and collisions of ideas around the cutting-edge hotspots in the field of clinical and laboratory medicine. Through diversified academic exchanges, the conference has built a high-level technology sharing and achievement display platform for laboratory medicine ...

In May 2025, under the review of the Polish ICI World of Journals (Copernicus Index Database), LabMed Discovery magazine was officially included in the ICI World of Journals database. This marks an important step for LabMed Discovery on the international academic stage, and is also a high recognition of the journal's long-term efforts in improving academic quality and promoting academic exchanges.   ICI World of Journals is the world's third largest scientific journal database, which includes and evaluates 45,000 journals from more than 150 countries and regions. The database adopts strict review standards and conducts multi-dimensional ...

After rigorous evaluation and review, LabMed Discovery was officially included in China Open Access Journal Database (COAJ) in May 2025. This progress marks that LabMed Discovery has been officially recognized in terms of academic quality, publishing standards and open access. It is also another achievement of LabMed Discovery following being selected into the ICI international database this month. This proves the improvement of LabMed Discovery's academic communication and influence, and is of great significance in furthering the speed, breadth and visibility of the journal's international dissemination. We ...

A research team has evaluated the real-world impact of a community-based pneumococcal vaccination support program for older adults conducted in Sera Town, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. Their work is published in the Journal of Epidemiology on May 5, 2025. Pneumonia is one of the leading causes of death in Japan. Each year about 74,000 people die from pneumonia with 98 percent of these deaths occurring in people aged 65 and older. The bacteria Streptococcus pneumoniae is the primary cause of pneumonia. In October 2014, Japan began a nationwide routine vaccination program for the elderly under ...

In the early 2000s the U.S. Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP), a large randomized clinical trial, showed that intensive lifestyle modification was better than a medication called metformin at preventing at-risk patients from developing Type 2 diabetes. In a newly completed follow-up study, a team of researchers including Vallabh “Raj” Shah, professor emeritus in The University of New Mexico Departments of Internal Medicine and Biochemistry & Molecular Biology at the School of Medicine, found that the health benefits from the lifestyle intervention persisted more than 20 years later.Molecular Biology at the School of Medicine In a paper published in The ...

Disrupted care during the covid-19 pandemic led to sharp increases in other non-covid causes of illness and death, particularly mental health disorders, malaria in young children, and stroke and heart disease in older adults, finds a study published by The BMJ today. For example, new cases of depressive disorders rose by 23% in 5-14 year-olds and malaria deaths rose by 14% in children under five years old from 2020-2021. The researchers say future responses to potential pandemics or other public health emergencies of international concern “must extend beyond infection control ...

The green transition will boost productivity across the UK economy, new research suggests. Researchers analysed the impacts of the low-carbon transition in power, transport and heating. With renewable energy now cheaper than fossil fuels in most of the world – and still getting cheaper – the findings show these three industries benefit directly from the transition. But the far larger knock-on effect is an economy-wide productivity boost, as all businesses gain from cheaper power, transport and heating. The research team – led by the universities of Exeter and Manchester – warn that this boost depends on cheaper ...

A new report from the University of East Anglia has raised concerns about the state of democracy around the world during 2024’s ‘Super Cycle’ of elections. Described by Time Magazine as the ‘Year of Elections’, 2024 saw 1.6 billion people head to the polls across 74 national elections in 62 countries - an unprecedented concentration of democratic activity in a single year. But a global report from the Electoral Integrity Project, released today, paints a mixed and often troubling picture of how those ...

“Forever chemicals” or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have been widely used in consumer and industrial products for the better part of a century, but do not break down in the natural environment. One PFAS, perfluorohexanoic acid or PFHxA, is made up of a shorter chain of molecules and is thought to have less of an impact on human health. New research from the Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience at the University of Rochester suggests otherwise, finding that early life exposure to PFHxA may increase anxiety-related behaviors and memory deficits in male ...

Quantum sensing:  Researchers at the Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, have developed a tunable system that paves the way for more accurate sensing in a variety of technologies, including biomedical diagnostics. The potential range of technologies is large, stretching from the largest scales – detecting gravitational waves in space over environmental monitoring to the tiny fluctuations in our own bodies – biomedical sensing for imaging and diagnostics in e.g. magnetic scanners. The result is now published in Nature. Quantum limit – this is where it gets really tricky Optical sensing ...

Wet wastes, including food waste and biomass, are promising candidates for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production due to their triglyceride content, which can be converted into biocrude via hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL). SAF precursors must meet criteria derived from conventional fuels (e.g. Jet A), including complete oxygen removal to prevent jet engine corrosion and a higher heating value (HHV) close to Jet A. Currently, no HTL-derived biocrude meets these. This study, with contributions from researchers at the Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation ...

In a new communications landscape that feasts on polarization, the science community needs to rethink how it engages society in scientific discovery, controversy and policy. The authors of a report in this week’s Proceedings of the National Academies of Science (PNAS) argue that the standard communication model of disseminating the facts and assuming “the truth will prevail” is increasingly falling on deaf ears.  Instead, the science community needs to create a “collaboration model” that invites more public conversations, incorporates personal morals and values, creates a level playing field for input, and embraces uncertainty. Report ...

For economic and sustainable biomanufacturing, the oleaginous yeast Rhodotorula toruloides has emerged as a promising platform for producing biofuels and other valuable chemicals. However, its genetic manipulation has been limited by its high GC content and the lack of a replicating plasmid, necessitating gene integration. To address these challenges, researchers at the Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation (CABBI), a Department of Energy-funded Bioenergy Research Center, developed the RT-EZ toolkit ...

The ISSCR has selected five distinguished early career scientists to serve as new Early Career Editors for Stem Cell Reports, the peer-reviewed, open access, online journal of the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR). During their term, Early Career Editors provide strategic advice, participate in the editorial review process, and receive mentorship from current editors. They join other Early Career Editors currently working with the journal. The new Early Career Editors are: Harsha Devalla, Ph.D., Amsterdam University Medical ...

College students who want help overcoming high-risk drinking could benefit from a two-pronged approach that combines an individual-focused psychological theory with social network analysis. That’s according to a new study from Texas A&M University School of Public Health Assistant Professor Benjamin Montemayor and former doctoral student Sara Flores, both in the Department of Health Behavior. High-risk drinking is defined as drinking resulting in a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08% or higher, the legal threshold for intoxication in the United ...

Forensic pathologists play a unique role in monitoring and responding to public health threats and advancing our understanding of human disease and injury, according to a new review article published July 3 in The New England Journal of Medicine. Recognizing that there is little understanding about this key medical subspecialty among the public and even among physicians, the journal asked several forensic pathology leaders to write an overarching review of the field. “Many people may picture forensic ...

Researchers at McMaster University, Cleveland Clinic and Case Comprehensive Cancer Center have uncovered how a protein long associated with Alzheimer’s disease helps lung cancer spread to the brain – a discovery that offers hope that existing Alzheimer’s drugs could be repurposed in preventing cancer’s spread. The study, published in Science Translational Medicine on July 2, 2025, details how the protein (BACE1) is instrumental in the development of brain metastases – tumours that ...

Women who see themselves as having lower social status are more likely than other people to show early signs of heart stress linked to future disease risk, according to a new study led by researchers at McGill and Concordia universities. “One in three women in North America die from heart disease. Yet, women are less likely to receive important cardiac interventions or therapies than men. This highlights the need to rethink how we assess cardiovascular risk in women,” said co-lead author Dr. Judy Luu, Assistant Professor in McGill’s Department of Medicine ...

As brain tumors grow, they must do one of two things: push against the brain or use finger-like extensions to invade and destroy surrounding tissue. Previous research found tumors that push — or put mechanical force on the brain — cause more neurological dysfunction than tumors that destroy tissue. But what else can these different tactics of tumor growth tell us? Now, the same team of researchers from the University of Notre Dame, Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts General Hospital, and Boston University has developed a technique for measuring a brain tumor’s mechanical force and a new model to estimate how much brain tissue a patient has ...

Ask anyone what comes to mind when they think of Northern Arizona University and they’ll probably say something about the trees. NAU's Flagstaff mountain campus is home to an estimated 5,000 to 6,000 trees—most of them ponderosa pines. This precious resource is worth protecting. That’s why, this summer, students, faculty and staff at NAU are working together to take stock of the campus tree collection. Slowly but surely, a team of forestry and environmental scientists will collect information about the health, ...

The use of emojis in text messaging improves perceived responsiveness and thereby enhances closeness and relationship satisfaction, according to a study published July 2, 2025, in the open-access journal PLOS One by Eun Huh from The University of Texas at Austin, U.S. Text-based messaging is a primary use of smartphones, with near-universal adoption across age groups. The use and variety of emojis in such messages have also surged, particularly among young adults. Defined as digital representations of emotions and ideas, emojis enrich text-based communication by conveying emotional nuance and increasing expressiveness. ...

Do we climb the social ladder alone or with help from our communities? Early childhood education (ECE) policies are betting on the former, according to a study published July 2, 2025, in the open-access journal PLOS One by Katarzyna Bobrowicz from the University of Luxembourg and University of Liège in Belgium, and colleagues. A 53-country survey of global ECE policies indicates favoritism of competition over cooperation, individualism over solidarity and talent over luck. Recent decades have seen a rising belief in meritocracy: a 1950s-era Western ideal that one’s individual merit (i.e., their skill and talent), begets success rather ...

Your mouth is a magician. Bite the inside of your cheek, and the wound may vanish without a trace in a couple of days. A preclinical study co-led by Cedars-Sinai, Stanford Medicine and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), has discovered one secret of this disappearing act. The findings, if confirmed in humans, could one day lead to treatments that enable rapid, scarless recovery from skin wounds on other parts of the body. The study was published in the peer-reviewed journal Science Translational Medicine. “Our research began with two ...

Key takeaways SEAS researchers grew green algae inside shelters that recreated pressure conditions on Mars. The shelters were made from bioplastics derived from algae. The experiments demonstrate the possibility of closed-loop, sustainable habitats in space. If humans are ever going to live beyond Earth, they’ll need to construct habitats. But transporting enough industrial material to create livable spaces would be incredibly challenging and expensive. Researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) think there’s a better way, through biology.  An international team of researchers led by Robin Wordsworth, ...