PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — A long-standing Medicare policy meant to manage rehabilitation services in nursing homes may keep older Americans in hospitals longer than necessary without improving patient health or saving Medicare money, new research finds. Established in 1965, the rule was intended to manage the use of skilled nursing facilities, which provide short-term medical and rehabilitative care to Medicare beneficiaries. Known as the “three-day rule,” it requires patients to spend at least three consecutive ...

About The Study: In this study, individuals with autism spectrum disorder, intellectual disability, or cerebral palsy experienced higher mortality from a range of causes compared with the general population in youth and young adulthood. Mortality among these groups is difficult to ascertain using death certificates alone, since ICD-10 codes for these disabilities were rarely listed. These findings can inform public health and health care strategies to understand and prevent health disparities and excess mortality associated with developmental disabilities.  Corresponding ...

About The Study: In this meta-analysis, the most credible risk factors associated with development of childhood food allergy are a combination of major and minor risk factors, including early allergic conditions (atopic march/diathesis), delayed allergen introduction, genetics, antibiotic exposure, demographic factors, and birth-related variables.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Derek K. Chu, email chudk@mcmaster.ca. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website ...

About The Study: This cross-sectional study of 4,043 registered nurses (RNs) who recently left a hospital staff nurse job found opportunities for reattracting an existing RN workforce if hospitals are willing to address organizational issues driving RNs away. Many nonretired RNs, particularly those not currently employed, reported being very likely to return to work. The top factors to increase their likelihood of returning were adequate staffing, flexible scheduling, and better wages or benefits. Corresponding Author: To ...

A new study from McMaster University involving 2.8 million children around the world has revealed the most important early-life factors that influence whether a child becomes allergic to food. The study, one of the largest of its kind to examine food allergies, furthers our understanding of how allergies develop, concluding that a combination of genetic, environmental, microbial and social factors influence allergies, rather than a single cause. To come to their findings, researchers carried out a systematic review and meta-analysis of 190 studies on childhood food allergy, including those that confirmed allergy using gold-standard food challenge testing. The study, published ...

A major study by UCL and Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori in Milan (INT) researchers has for the first time shown in detail how far children’s cancer has spread at diagnosis in a way that can be compared between countries. While poorer survival following late-stage diagnosis is well recognised, the study is the first to show that differences in tumour stage at diagnosis may explain why childhood cancer survival varies between some European regions and tumour types. Published in JAMA Network Open, the researchers analysed ...

In remembrance of Peer Bork  In a new study published in Cell, scientists in the Bork Group at EMBL Heidelberg reveal that microbes living in similar habitats are more alike than those simply inhabiting the same geographical region. By analysing tens of thousands of metagenomes, the team found that while most microbes adapt to a specific ecosystem, a rarer subset known as ‘generalists’ can thrive across very different habitats. Known for being ecologically tolerant, generalists are capable of ...

Pancreatic cancer has a lot of nerve. Notoriously tricky to detect, the disease also often resists traditional therapy. So, researchers are urgently looking for new ways to disrupt tumor formation. Though scientists know that the nervous system can help cancer spread, its role in the disease’s earliest stages remains unclear. “One phenomenon that is known is called perineural invasion,” says Jeremy Nigri, a postdoc in Professor David Tuveson’s lab at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL). “This means cancer cells will migrate within the nerve and use the nerve as a way to metastasize.” Now, Nigri and his colleagues at CSHL have discovered ...

Contact: Rachel Peifer rpeifer@crohnscolitisfoundation.org Intermittent Fasting Cut Crohn’s Disease Activity by 40% and Halved Inflammation in Randomized Clinical Trial First study of time-restricted feeding in people with IBD suggests a role in long-term remission February 9, 2026 — A new randomized controlled study funded by the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation found that time-restricted feeding—a form of intermittent fasting—significantly reduced symptomatic disease activity and systematic inflammation in adults with Crohn’s ...

PLYMOUTH MEETING, PA [February 9, 2026] — New research in the February 2026 issue of JNCCN—Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network found that incorporating information from prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) PET/CT scans may be able to predict progression-free survival (PFS) and guide treatment planning in patients with rising prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels following removal of the prostate.  The researchers used retrospective clinical data from 113 patients treated for prostate ...

Pet owners want quick answers when their beloved cat or dog is sick. And if these furry friends are experiencing digestive distress, lethargy and fever, it’s important to rapidly rule out serious illnesses like feline panleukopenia (also called feline parvovirus) and canine parvovirus. Now, researchers in ACS’ Analytical Chemistry report improved lateral flow assays for at-home screening. In tests on veterinary clinic samples, the assays demonstrated 100% sensitivity and reproducibility for both parvoviruses. “Feline parvovirus (FPV) and canine parvovirus (CPV) infection can be deadly for pets, and clinical signs alone are often insufficient to ...

CLEVELAND—A significant discovery by Case Western Reserve University researchers could change how doctors treat two of the most devastating neurodegenerative diseases. The team identified a link between gut bacteria and the deterioration of the brain in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD). The researchers discovered that certain bacterial sugars cause immune responses that kill cells—and how to prevent it. FTD mainly affects the brain’s frontal and temporal ...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Adults age 65 and older who completed five to six weeks of cognitive speed training — in this case, speed of processing training, which helps people quickly find visual information on a computer screen and handle increasingly complex tasks in a shorter time period — and who had follow-up sessions about one to three years later were less likely to be diagnosed with dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, up to two decades later, according to new findings published today in Alzheimer’s & Dementia: Translational Research and Clinical Interventions. This National Institutes of Health ...

Manchester, UK —  Every business depends on biodiversity, and every business impacts biodiversity. The growth of the global economy has been at the cost of immense biodiversity loss, which now poses a critical and pervasive systemic risk to the economy, financial stability and human wellbeing. This is a central finding of a landmark new report published today by the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). Even companies that might seem far-removed from nature or that do not see themselves as nature-based rely, directly or indirectly, on material inputs, regulation of environmental conditions - such as ...

The signals that drive many of the brain and body’s most essential functions—consciousness, sleep, breathing, heart rate and motion—course through bundles of “white matter” fibers in the brainstem, but imaging systems so far have been unable to finely resolve these crucial neural cables. That has left researchers and doctors with little capability to assess how they are affected by trauma or neurodegeneration. In a new study, a team of MIT, Harvard, and Massachusetts General Hospital researchers unveil AI-powered software capable of automatically segmenting eight distinct bundles in any ...

Mill Valley, CA – February 3, 2026 – CURE SYNGAP1 (fka SynGAP Research Fund), a 501(c)(3) organization, announces a $130,000 grant to Dr. Paul Donlin-Asp, PhD, of the Simons Initiative for the Developing Brain (SIDB) at The University of Edinburgh. The grant supports his work in investigating the molecular functions and regulation of local SYNGAP1 protein synthesis, with the goal of advancing therapies for SYNGAP1-Related Disorders (SRD). Why We Supported This Project Dr. Donlin-Asp’s research focuses on a critical aspect of SRD: the production of SYNGAP1 protein at synapses, which plays a key role in regulating ...

The irregular, swirling motion of fluids we call turbulence can be found everywhere, from stirring in a teacup to currents in the planetary atmosphere. This phenomenon is governed by the Navier–Stokes equations—a set of mathematical equations that describe how fluids move. Despite being known for nearly two centuries, these equations still pose major challenges when it comes to making predictions. Turbulent flows are inherently chaotic, and tiny uncertainties can grow quickly over time. In real-world situations, scientists can only observe part of a turbulent flow, usually its largest and slowest ...

Polymer micelles are tiny, self-assembled particles that are revolutionizing the landscape of drug delivery and nanomedicine. They form when polymer chains containing both hydrophilic and hydrophobic segments organize into nanoscale spheres in liquid solutions; these structures can trap and hold drugs that are otherwise difficult to dissolve. Poloxamer 407 (P407), a widely studied micelle-forming polymer, is particularly useful because it changes from a liquid into a soft gel as it warms, becoming most stable near body temperature. This temperature-dependent gelling behavior ...

A new digital resource co-created by University of Victoria (UVic) researchers and trauma survivors will streamline access to resources and tools for clinicians who support people with complex post-traumatic stress at Island Health in B.C. and other jurisdictions.  To enhance trauma-informed health care for people experiencing complex post-traumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD), an online site has been built to provide the information and tools professionals need to respond to emerging patient care needs. Using multimedia including videos, handouts and quizzes, the tool provides information on C-PTSD, how it affects people mentally ...

Volcanic activity is not unique to Earth: traces of volcanic activity, such as lava tubes, have been found on Mars and the Moon. Now, the University of Trento has demonstrated the existence of an empty lava tube even in the depths of Venus, a planet whose surface and geology have been largely shaped by volcanic processes. The cave was identified through radar data analysis as part of a project funded by the Italian Space Agency. The discovery was published by Nature Communications. "Our knowledge of Venus is still limited, and until now we have never had the opportunity to directly observe processes occurring beneath the surface of Earth’s twin planet. ...

Scientists are recruiting adults from across the UK to take part in a groundbreaking trial to accurately track what they eat and drink in their daily lives. The findings of their research could pave the way for better public health strategies to tackle diseases linked to poor diets such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease and some cancers. Currently diets are measured by people completing complex and time-consuming nutrition surveys themselves and trying to remember exactly what they have eaten, but this can lead ...

People are more likely to act helpfully in situations where there are poorer choices to give to others, according to a new study that tested willingness to help others in different contexts. The paper, published in Nature Communications today (Monday 9 February), is the culmination of three studies involving more than 500 participants and led by academics from the University of Birmingham. The team, which also included academics from Oxford University and the University of East Anglia, found that when people were in a poor environment they were surprisingly more likely to help compared to the richer environment. Dr ...

Gas giants are large planets mostly composed of helium and/or hydrogen. Although these planets have dense cores, they don’t have hard surfaces. Jupiter and Saturn are the gas giants in our solar system, but there are many other gas giant exoplanets in our galaxy and some are many times larger than Jupiter. The largest gas giants blur the line between planets and brown dwarfs — those substellar objects, sometimes called “failed stars” because they do not fuse hydrogen. How do these gas giants form? Was it through core accretion, where solid cores gradually ...

In order to build the computers and devices of tomorrow, we have to understand how they use energy today. That’s harder than it sounds. Memory storage, information processing, and energy use in these technologies involve constant energy flow – systems never settle into thermodynamic balance. To complicate things further, one of the most precise ways to study these processes starts at the smallest scale: the quantum domain. New Stanford research published Feb. 9 in Nature Physics combines theory, experimentation, and machine learning ...

MDPI, the Open Access (OA) publisher, today announced more than 1,000 partners have joined its Institutional Open Access Program (IOAP), a significant milestone for the organization. The agreements span 59 countries, covering North and South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Oceania.  Last year alone, more than 150 new libraries and academic institutions joined MDPI’s IOAP. The expansion of an existing consortium deal in Sweden added a further 75 partners to the publisher’s portfolio in January 2026, ...