Researchers at the University of California San Diego have identified new genetic variants associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) by using long-read whole genome sequencing (LR-WGS), an emerging approach that reads large sections of the genome at once, making it easier for scientists to find new genetic variants and understand how genetic variants affect the function of a gene. The team found that compared to traditional short-read approaches, LR-WGS enhanced the discovery of several categories of genetic variants. The findings may pave ...

Herring from different parts of the Baltic Sea belong to distinct populations genetically adapted to local differences in salinity and temperature. However, these populations can also mix with each other, according to a new study by researchers from Uppsala University, Stockholm University and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. These results have important implications for the management of the Baltic herring. The study is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Spring- and autumn-spawning herring in the Baltic Sea as well as in the Atlantic Ocean are genetically distinct. This is well known. “Despite ...

As any diver knows, oceans can be cloudy places. Even on sunny days, snow-like particles drift through the water column, obscuring the aquatic world below. Scientists have long known that this “marine snow” carries inorganic calcium carbonate – the building block of shells – but couldn’t explain how the mineral dissolves in the upper part of the ocean. New research from Rutgers University-New Brunswick points to the culprit: bacteria. “Think of marine particles as the megacities of the ocean,” said Benedict ...

In some parts of the deep ocean, it can look like it’s snowing. This “marine snow” is the dust and detritus that organisms slough off as they die and decompose. Marine snow can fall several kilometers to the deepest parts of the ocean, where the particles are buried in the seafloor for millennia.  Now, researchers at MIT and their collaborators have found that as marine snow falls, tiny hitchhikers may limit how deep the particles can sink before dissolving away. The team shows that when bacteria hitch a ride ...

The search for materials that can conduct electricity at room temperature without losing energy is one of the greatest and most consequential challenges of modern physics: loss-free power transmission, more efficient motors and generators, more powerful quantum computers, cheaper MRI devices. Hardly any other material discovery has the potential to change so many areas of technology and everyday life at the same time. An international research team with the participation of Christoph Heil from the Institute of Theoretical and Computational Physics at Graz University of Technology ...

Infectious disease can afflict a population in complex ways. Understanding the varying risks is an equally complex challenge. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) offers a general metric for assessing the risk of natural disasters in a region in terms of Social Vulnerability Index (SVI), which includes socioeconomic and cultural factors that impact how a region can adapt to a disaster. Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis wanted to take a more specific approach for assessing a state’s risk for influenza-like illness. Their work, now published in the journal ...

The prevalence of congenital heart disease points to the need for a better understanding of how it influences neurodevelopment. New in JNeurosci, Jung-Hoon Kim and Catherine Limperopoulos, from Children’s National Hospital, led a study examining brain network disruptions that may be linked to congenital heart disease.  Compared to publicly accessible brain imaging data from healthy newborns, babies with heart failure had atypical networks associated with sensory perception, movement, and social behavior. After corrective cardiovascular ...

In a collaboration between Tianjin University and the Chinese University of Hong Kong, researchers led by Xiangbin Teng used behavioral and brain activity measures to explore whether people can discern between AI-generated and human speech. The researchers also assessed whether brief training improves this ability. This work is published in eNeuro.  Thirty participants listened to sentences spoken by people or AI-generated voices and judged ...

AI has designed candidate drugs for antibiotic-resistant infections and genetic diseases. But efforts to incorporate AI into the design of lipid nanoparticles (LNPs), the revolutionary delivery vehicles behind mRNA therapies like the COVID-19 vaccines, have been much more limited.  Designing LNPs is especially challenging: Each formulation combines multiple lipid components whose ratios influence how the particle delivers genetic instructions inside cells. Scientists still lack a clear map connecting those chemical inputs ...

An analysis led by Mass General Brigham investigators found slower aging in older adults after two years of a daily multivitamin, with greater benefits for those who began the trial with accelerated biological age How quickly our bodies age on a cellular level, our “biological age,” can differ from how old we actually are in years. Using data from a large randomized clinical trial of older adults, researchers at Mass General Brigham evaluated the effects of taking a daily multivitamin over the course of two years on five measures of biological aging and found a slowing equivalent to about ...

DURHAM, N.C. – When the eye’s drainage system clogs, pressure builds up and causes damage. The pressure can lead to glaucoma and vision loss. New research, published March 9 in the journal Immunity, reveals that a specialized set of immune cells act as the cleanup crew, pointing to a promising new target for therapies to prevent a major cause of blindness. These immune cells - known as resident macrophages - live in the eye’s drainage tissues. Until now, the role of resident macrophages in controlling eye pressure was unknown. “The only way we can treat glaucoma ...

A new national study evaluating a landmark U.S. transplant policy change finds that efforts to correct the harms of race-based kidney function equations are associated with increased kidney transplantation rates among Black patients. The study, published in JAMA Internal Medicine, underscores how reparative strategies that address the harms of race-based algorithms in medicine can help save lives.  Previous national clinical guidelines recommended using race-based equations to estimate kidney function, which assigned higher kidney function estimates to Black patients. These equations ...

A new study from researchers at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill finds that middle and high school students spend nearly one-third of the school day on their smartphones, checking them dozens of times, often for social media and entertainment, with frequent checking linked to weaker attention and impulse control.  The research examined how often adolescents use their phones during school and whether that behavior is related to their ability to focus and regulate attention. By objectively tracking smartphone use every hour over a two-week period, the study generated thousands of real-world data points, ...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — By simulating the life cycle of a minimal bacterial cell — from DNA replication to protein translation to metabolism and cell division — scientists have opened a new frontier of computer vision into the essential processes of life. The researchers, led by chemistry professor Zan Luthey-Schulten at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, present their findings in the journal Cell. In two videos, researchers describe the work and walk viewers through the simulation of a full cell cycle.  The team simulated a living cell at ...

State-level abortion restrictions have shifted the landscape of care and the experiences of people traveling for abortion care after the June 2022 Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization Supreme Court decision. A new, qualitative study published JAMA Network Open takes a deeper look at the experiences of people traveling from U.S. states with abortion restrictions or bans to Illinois, a state where abortion remains legal. Through interviews and surveys with 33 individuals, the paper tells the story ...

About The Study: In this systematic review and meta-analysis, digital media use was consistently associated with risks to child and adolescent health and development, particularly for social media. These findings highlight the need for targeted, multifaceted policies and interventions to mitigate potential harms from digital media exposure.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Samantha Teague, PhD, email sam.teague@jcu.edu.au. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2026.0085) Editor’s ...

About The Study: The findings of this study suggest that people in states with abortion bans face limitations to obtaining abortion care out of state and should be supported through policy change, visible information and resources, and charitable and interpersonal social support systems.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Alia Cornell, MPH, email alia.d.cornell@kp.org. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2026.1068) Editor’s Note: Please see the article ...

About The Study: This cross-sectional study found that youths use smartphones approximately one-third of the school day; this use was associated with reduced cognitive control. These findings highlight the need for school-level policies and digital literacy programs that address not only overall screen time but also habitual smartphone-checking behaviors that fragment attention.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Eva H. Telzer, PhD, email ehtelzer@unc.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2026.1092) Editor’s ...

About The Study: The findings of this cohort study in Taiwan suggest that positive associations were observed between maternal prenatal acetaminophen prescriptions and offspring’s attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) in the full cohort but not in the sibling-matched analyses. A substantial divergence in associations in the sibling bidirectional analyses indicates unaddressed sources of bias and prevents firm conclusions from being drawn using the sibling design.  Corresponding Authors: To ...

About The Study: In this randomized clinical trial, a low-cost digital intervention increased expectation to adopt health behaviors among adults using glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RAs), with effects persisting for 2 weeks. These findings suggest a potential role for the written microsteps intervention plus short video boosters as adjuncts to pharmacotherapy. Longer trials are warranted to determine whether the behavioral expectations stimulated by such interventions may lead to sustained behavior change.  Corresponding Author: To ...

Chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR T) cell therapy represents a milestone in leukemia treatment. CAR T works by genetically engineering a chimeric antigen receptor on the surface of the patient's T cells to target specific antigens on leukemia cells, with the goal of identifying and eliminating them. However, clinical data show that more than 50% of patients eventually relapse after CAR T treatment. One major reason is that leukemia cells can reduce or lose expression of the targeted antigen under therapeutic pressure. When this occurs, CAR T cells can no longer effectively recognize and ...

Women with certain cardiometabolic risk factors, including type 2 diabetes and high waist circumference, face a greater increase in risk for liver fibrosis than men with the same risk factors. The study, just published in JAMA Network Open, is one of the first to explore sex differences in cardiometabolic risk factors for liver fibrosis, a condition on the rise globally. Liver fibrosis is the buildup of scar tissue in the liver due to chronic inflammation. Over time, it can lead to serious complications, including cirrhosis, liver failure and liver cancer. While men face higher rates of liver fibrosis, severe cases are increasing among women, prompting ...

Today, around 70% of countries report using artificial intelligence (AI) to improve internal governmental processes, while a third use it to support policy design and implementation. Others are even exploring the possibility of using AI as a substitute to core governmental functions. Yet caution and pragmatic considerations are needed to ensure a successful AI implementation as statistics show that over 80% of AI projects fail. To support governments facing these challenges, an international group of experts led by Prof. Catherine Régis (IVADO, Université de Montréal) and Prof. Florian Martin-Bariteau (University of Ottawa) analyzed key factors ...

A new University of California San Diego study published in Cell challenges a long-standing assumption about how animal viruses become capable of sparking human epidemics and pandemics. Using a phylogenetic, genome-wide analysis across multiple viral families, researchers report that most zoonotic viruses — infectious pathogens that spread from animals to humans, including the cause of COVID-19 — do not show evidence of special evolutionary adaptation before spilling over into humans. “This work has direct relevance to the ongoing controversy around COVID-19 origins,” said Joel Wertheim, PhD, senior author ...

A single session of physical exercise can spawn a boost of neural activity in brain networks that underlie learning and memory, according to a new study led by the University of Iowa. The researchers measured neural activity in the brains of patients with epilepsy before and after they completed a bout of physical exercise. The results showed that a single exercise session produced in the participants a burst of high-frequency brain waves, called ripples, emanating from the hippocampus to areas of the brain involved in learning ...