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 ...

A new study from UCLA Health has uncovered how inflammation in brain blood vessels exacerbates damage in vascular dementia and demonstrated that targeting this process with a repurposed drug can promote brain repair and functional recovery in mice. Published in Cell, the research combines laboratory and human data to pinpoint a critical signaling pathway that could lead to the first effective treatment for this understudied form of dementia. Vascular dementia is the second leading cause of dementia. This disease co-occurs with Alzheimer’s disease in the leading cause of dementia, termed “mixed dementia.” There is no drug therapy that ...

A new study finds that people value empathy more when they believe it comes from a human—even if the actual response was generated by AI. Across nine studies involving over 6,000 participants, the research reveals that human-attributed responses are perceived as more supportive, more emotionally resonant, and more caring than identical AI-generated responses. A new international study led by Prof Anat Perry from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and her PhD student – Matan Rubin, in collaboration with Prof. Amit Goldenberg researchers from Harvard University and Prof. Desmond C. Ong from the University of Texas, finds that people place greater emotional value on empathy ...

About The Study: This cohort study of older participants found accelerated decreases in cognition among individuals hospitalized for SARS-CoV-2 infection, but not nonhospitalized infection, in comparison with individuals not yet infected. These findings suggest that avoiding severe SARS-CoV-2 infection could help preserve cognitive function among older adults.  Corresponding Authors: To contact the corresponding authors, email Ryan T. Demmer, PhD, MPH, (demmer.ryan@mayo.edu) and Elizabeth C. Oelsner, MD, DrPH, (eco7@cumc.columbia.edu). To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.18648) Editor’s ...

About The Study: Nearly one-third of U.S. adults would not or might not test for suspected COVID-19, largely because they do not see value in testing, according to the results of an online national survey. Test hesitancy may delay oral antiviral initiation and could result in missed opportunities to limit transmission. Efforts are needed to increase awareness of the value of testing.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Kimberly A. Fisher, MD, email kimberly.fisher2@umassmed.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this ...

LONDON, Ont. – Dementia poses a major health challenge with no safe, affordable treatments to slow its progression. Researchers at Lawson Research Institute (Lawson), the research arm of St. Joseph’s Health Care London, are investigating whether Ambroxol - a cough medicine used safely for decades in Europe - can slow dementia in people with Parkinson’s disease. Published today in the prestigious JAMA Neurology, this 12-month clinical trial involving 55 participants with Parkinson’s disease dementia (PDD) monitored memory, psychiatric symptoms and GFAP, a blood marker linked to ...

An engineered protein turns off the kind of immune cells most likely to damage tissue as part of Type-1 diabetes, hepatitis, multiple sclerosis, shows a new study in mice.   In these autoimmune diseases, T cells mistakenly target the body’s own tissues instead of invading viruses or bacteria as they would during normal immune responses. Treatments focused on T cells have been elusive because blocking their action broadly weakens the immune system and creates risk for infections and cancer. Published online June 30 in the journal Cell, the study revealed that holding closely together two protein groups (signaling complexes) on ...

Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers among women in the United States. Thanks to decades of fundamental research, it’s also one of the most curable. The exception is a particularly aggressive variant known as triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). It accounts for 10 to 15 percent of all breast cancer cases. It disproportionately affects younger and African American women. No effective therapies exist. A new discovery by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Professor David Spector and graduate student Wenbo Xu—published in Molecular Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research—could help ...

From Chile to China, cultures vary greatly around the globe, but people in at least a dozen countries agree about what it means to be cool, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.    The researchers conducted experiments with almost 6,000 participants from countries around the world and found that cool people have surprisingly similar personalities. Even though Eastern and Western cultures often differ in many cultural attitudes, cool people were universally perceived to be more extraverted, hedonistic, powerful, adventurous, open and autonomous.  “Everyone wants to be cool, or at least ...

Imaging data from Japan’s Himawari-8 and -9 meteorological satellites have been successfully used to monitor temporal changes in Venus’ cloud-top temperature, revealing unseen patterns in the temperature structure of various waves. A team led by the University of Tokyo collated infrared images from 2015–25 to estimate brightness temperatures on day to year scales. The results demonstrate that meteorological satellites can serve as additional eyes to access the Venusian atmosphere from space ...

Florida Atlantic University researchers have secured two key grants to investigate targeting a gene for the first time as a new approach to treat glioblastoma, a very aggressive and fast-growing type of brain cancer.   Malignant gliomas, such as glioblastoma multiforme and astrocytomas, are the most common type of primary brain tumor in the United States. They make up about 78% of all malignant brain tumors. Although these tumors are not very common, especially in the U.S., they cause a high number of cancer deaths because they are so aggressive. These awards, granted by the Florida Department of Health’s Cancer Connect program for $562,000 and the Palm Health Foundation for ...

The United Nations' digital tech agency, ITU, invites reporters to an exclusive press tour on Monday, 7 July, before the official opening of the AI for Good Global Summit 2025. With the rapid advance of artificial intelligence – from autonomous AI agents to brain-machine interfaces, self-driving vehicles, and a growing range of quantum technologies – AI for Good highlights global AI action to safeguard the future.​ AI for Good will feature talks from AI leaders and 100+ demos showcasing AI innovations to deliver ...

PULLMAN, Wash. – Washington State University researchers have discovered how the bacteria that cause anaplasmosis and Lyme disease hijack cellular processes in ticks to ensure their survival and spread to new hosts, including humans. Based in the College of Veterinary Medicine, the team found that the bacteria can manipulate a protein known as ATF6, which helps cells detect and respond to infection, to support its own growth and survival inside the tick. The findings, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could serve as a launching point for developing methods to eliminate the bacteria in ticks before they are transmitted to humans and ...

June 30, 2025, Sioux Falls, SD: A new study published in Nutrients offers new insight into omega-6 and whether it is truly the proinflammatory fatty acid many claim it to be.   There is currently a heightened interest in the health effects of seed oils, many of which are rich in linoleic acid (LA), an essential omega-6 fatty acid. Many have claimed that western diets contain “too much” LA and that many diseases of modernity stem from the increased intake of LA over the last century.   This narrative places the blame on excess inflammation presumably caused by higher LA intakes. But ...

When companies miss their earnings targets, one might expect them to lower expectations and rebuild investor trust slowly. However, many do the opposite. They announced even higher goals for the next period. A team of researchers, led by Professor Jungwon Min from Inha University, South Korea, including Professor Hyonok Kim from Tokyo Keizai University and Professor Konari Uchida from the Graduate School of Business and Finance, Waseda University, Japan, published a new study online in the journal Review of Managerial Science on June 03, 2025. It uncovers how firms strategically ...

Organ transplantation has significantly revolutionized the treatment of patients with organ failure. However, the recipient’s immune system recognizes transplanted organs as foreign and elicits a defensive response that can lead to serious complications. Bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome (BOS) is one such complication that arises frequently following lung transplantation (LT) and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). BOS is characterized by the narrowing of airways, fibrosis, and inflammation in the lung tissue leading to breathing difficulties and poor graft survival.    Immune mechanisms and shared pathological ...

PITTSBURGH, June 30, 2025 – New research from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and La Jolla Institute for Immunology, published today in Nature Microbiology, reveals an opportunity for developing a therapy against cytomegalovirus (CMV), the leading infectious cause of birth defects in the United States. Researchers discovered a previously unappreciated mechanism by which CMV, a herpes virus that infects the majority of the world’s adult population, enters cells that line the blood vessels and contributes to vascular disease. In addition to using molecular machinery that is shared by ...