A solar energy generation technology once considered limited in its potential is poised for significant growth in the United States. That’s the conclusion of a team of scientists who analyzed the outlook for cadmium telluride photovoltaics in research published in the peer-reviewed journal Joule. University of Toledo physicists including Dr. Michael Heben, a Distinguished University Professor and McMaster Chair and Director of the Wright Center for Photovoltaics Innovation and Commercialization, collaborated with partners at the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Laboratory ...

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — A Purdue University team led by Kyle Cottrell has discovered a new therapeutic target for triple-negative breast cancer. “Triple-negative breast cancer is a particularly deadly form of breast cancer that currently lacks targeted therapies,” said Cottrell, an assistant professor of biochemistry. Cottrell, biochemistry graduate student Addison Young and their co-authors describe the discovery in the journal RNA. The laboratory research spotlights double-stranded ribonucleic acid (dsRNA)-binding proteins. ...

PHILADELPPHIA—Patients were 28 percent more likely to get a flu shot when they got a text message reminder and their primary care provider already had an order for the shot waiting, new research from the Perelman School of Medicine showed. The study was published in JAMA Internal Medicine.  “This is important given the rise in vaccine hesitancy, which has resulted in a downward trend in flu vaccination that coincided with a high rate of hospitalization this flu season,” said the study’s lead author, Shivan Mehta, MD, MBA, MSHP, associate chief innovation officer at Penn Medicine. “Many nudge interventions directed to patients only on vaccinations have shown ...

LA JOLLA (January 27, 2026)—The COVID-19 pandemic gave us tremendous perspective on how wildly symptoms and outcomes can vary between patients experiencing the same infection. How can two people infected by the same pathogen have such different responses? It largely comes down to variability in genetics (the genes you inherit) and life experience (your environmental, infection, and vaccination history). These two influences are imprinted on our cells through small molecular alterations called epigenetic changes, which shape cell identity ...

Drivers whose car insurance rates are based on data of their driving habits and who then also got tips about improving them were less likely to speed, brake hard, or rapidly accelerate than those who didn’t participate in the program, according to a recent test by a team from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Their work was published in Accident Analysis & Prevention.  Speeding declined by up to 13 percent, and hard braking and rapid acceleration declined by up to 25 percent. In addition, drivers ...

Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) signaling in the tissue around oral cancers both increases nerve sensitivity and makes opioids less effective, according to new research published in Science Signaling. The findings point to a shared mechanism underlying both oral cancer pain and opioid tolerance—and a possible new treatment strategy for both.  “Repurposing existing cancer drugs that block EGFR may be a promising way to manage oral cancer pain and prevent or reverse opioid tolerance,” said Yi Ye, PhD, associate professor at NYU College of Dentistry and associate ...

Claiming a business page on an online review platform such as Yelp may result in a sharp decline in ratings and an increase in lengthy, negative customer feedback, according to a study from Florida International University.  The study, led by Jong Youl Lee, assistant professor of information systems and business analytics at FIU’s College of Business, finds that once a business claims its Yelp page, its average rating falls by more than 10%, driven largely by an influx of one-star reviews and a decrease in five-star reviews. The shift is immediate and persistent, lasting more than a year ...

HERSHEY, Pa. — When the heart’s muscle is weakened or injured due to a heart attack, it can make it hard for the heart to pump enough blood to meet the body’s needs. Over time, it can lead to heart failure, where the heart’s function drops below 40%. The condition affects an estimated 6.7 million people over the age of 20 in the United State, according the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Approximately 50% of patients with heart failure die within five years ...

When it comes to neurodegenerative diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and certain forms of dementia, researchers have known that protein quality control and damage to the nuclear pore are key players. However, how the two are connected has not been clear. Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine and their colleagues have now identified the mechanism that links the two. The findings are published in the latest edition of Neuron. The nuclear pore, the largest protein complex in the cell, is made up of roughly 30 different proteins. It forms a tightly regulated channel, ...

A psychologist at the University of Houston is providing guidance to improve the mental health of victims of sexual violence, recognized by major health organizations as a public health crisis with serious implications on victims’ physical, mental and reproductive health.   Michael Zvolensky, Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished University Professor of psychology, led a team examining how the violence of a sexual assault can lead to a higher risk of lifelong challenges from post-traumatic stress disorder to alcohol use disorder. His findings are published in the Journal of Nervous and Mental ...

The human eye may literally become a window revealing the earliest signals of Alzheimer’s disease, thanks to a new federally funded research initiative at Oregon Health & Science University. The new five-year, $3.3 million award will enable OHSU scientists to develop an eye drop specially designed to detect the fluorescent signal of a protein associated with Alzheimer’s. Combined with the use of a noninvasive scanner, the research project could result in a low-cost, widely accessible screening tool to catch the earliest stage of the disease. “We’re looking for early-stage patients who don’t have ...

NEW YORK, (January 27, 2026) – Scientists at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have identified an important immune response that helps explain why some cancer patients benefit from immunotherapy while others do not. In a study published in the January 27 online issue of Nature Medicine (DOI 10.1038/s41591-025-04177-6), the researchers found that antibody-producing immune cells called IgG1 plasma cells play a key role in helping patients respond to PD-1 immune checkpoint inhibitors. PD-1 immune checkpoint inhibitors are a type ...

The American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics (ACMG) announced today that the eighth annual Medical Genetics Awareness Week, sponsored by MyOme, will be held March 10–14, 2026, inviting the public, health professionals, patients, and policymakers to learn more about one of the most rapidly advancing and impactful fields in modern medicine. Medical genetics plays a central role in today’s healthcare, guiding the diagnosis of rare diseases, informing cancer risk, shaping newborn screening, and enabling precision treatment ...

Arteries become clogged. Blood flow is restricted and oxygen is cut off. The result is a heart attack, the world’s leading cause of death. The conventional approach to studying and treating these episodes is to focus on the heart as an isolated organ. University of California San Diego research, led by the School of Biological Sciences, is upending the way heart attacks are viewed under a transformative new understanding of how cardiac events are interconnected with other systems. In a study ...

NEW YORK, (January 27, 2026) – Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, in collaboration with other leading institutions across the country, have published an innovative study that provides radiation oncologists with practical guidance to identify and protect female sexual organs during pelvic cancer treatment. Published in the latest issue of Practical Radiation Oncology, this study addresses a long-standing gap in cancer care by bringing key female sexual anatomy into consideration during routine radiotherapy ...

After two and a half years of work, the MLEDGE project (Cloud and Edge Machine Learning), led by Professor Nikolaos Laoutaris at IMDEA Networks, has demonstrated that it is possible to combine federated learning with cloud and edge computing infrastructures to develop artificial intelligence solutions that are more secure, efficient, and closer to end users. The project’s results have been translated into real-world applications in both the traditional and digital economy. Applications that make a difference The project has developed and tested concrete applications that clearly illustrate its impact. First, real-time COVID ...

UCLA scientists have developed advanced miniature 3D tumor organoid models that make it possible to study glioblastoma tumors in a setting that closely mirrors the human brain, shedding light on how the aggressive cancer interacts with surrounding brain cells and the immune system to become more invasive and resistant to therapy. The organoid models, described in two complementary studies published in Cell Reports, are built from human stem cells and recreate the complex mix of cell types found in the human brain. This approach allows researchers to directly observe how patient-derived tumors communicate with healthy brain tissue, revealing ...

A new study led by investigators from Mass General Brigham shows that a brain waste- “clean-up” system is influenced by intracranial pressure. The system, called the glymphatic system, was unrecognized until 2012 and helps circulate fluid and remove waste from the brain. Using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), the research team found that changes in this fluid flow may help doctors better diagnose intracranial hypertension (IIH) less invasively and more reliably than with standard approaches currently ...

LAWRENCE — Researchers at the University of Kansas have shown the National Severe Storms Laboratory’s Warn-on-Forecast System(WoFS) has potential to help weather forecasters issue warnings to emergency managers and the general public well before tornado formation. Their study appears in the peer-reviewed journal Weather and Forecasting. The current lead time on issuing tornado warnings is about 15 minutes. The difference could save lives and property across the Great Plains (the classic ...

Dario Fiore, research professor at IMDEA Software, has been awarded an ERC Proof of Concept (PoC) grant by the European Research Council. This funding scheme is designed to help translate high-level scientific results into applications with social and industrial impact and is exclusively available to researchers who have previously led ERC-funded projects. The awarded project has a budget of €150,000 and a duration of 18 months, and will focus on one of the major challenges in digital technology today: ensuring both privacy and reliability in cloud-based machine learning services. The project, ...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 27, 2026 — Concrete structures like roads and bridges require nondestructive testing methods to identify interior defects without destroying their structure. Most methods send sound waves into the material and capture the waves that echo back to create images of what’s inside and find defects. This process is similar to ultrasounds used to see inside the human body. But unlike human tissues, concrete contains a diversity of materials, including stone, clay, chalk, slate, iron ore, and sand, that scatter sound waves and make clear imaging difficult to obtain. In an article in Applied Physics ...

A newly excavated archaeological site in central China is reshaping long-held assumptions about early hominin behaviour in Eastern Asia. Led by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, an international team of researchers conducted archaeological excavations at Xigou, located in the Danjiangkou Reservoir Region in central China, uncovering evidence of advanced stone tool technologies dating back 160,000-72,000 years ago. The explorations, co-led by Griffith University, revealed hominins in this region were far more inventive and adaptable than previously believed, at a time when multiple large-brained ...

About The Study: The findings of this cohort study suggest that Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act was associated with lower overall mortality among women ages 40 to 64 with breast cancer. Benefits were uneven, underscoring persistent racial and ethnic and socioeconomic disparities and the need for targeted interventions. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Chioma Ekwunazu, BS, email chioma.ekwunazu@bison.howard.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit ...

About The Study: This trial demonstrated acupuncture’s efficacy for migraine without aura pain relief and functional improvement. Connectome-based predictive modeling identified default mode network and subcortical cerebellum hypoconnectivity as predicting pain relief and subcortical-cerebellum-motor hyperconnectivity as predicting reduced disability, providing a personalized treatment framework. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Lu Liu, PhD, email lululalavictor1985@126.com. To ...

University of Liverpool researchers have discovered a way to host some of the most significant properties of graphene in a three‑dimensional (3D) material, potentially removing the hurdles for these properties to be used at scale in green computing. Graphene is famous for being incredibly strong, lightweight, and an excellent conductor of electricity and its applications range from electronics to aerospace and medical technologies. However, its two-dimensional (2D) structure makes it mechanically fragile and limits its use in demanding environments and large-scale applications. In a paper published today, a team of researchers have identified that 3D material, HfSn₂, ...