During development, cells grow, expand, and migrate to generate tissues and organs in a highly controlled manner. Many intracellular pathways – series of signalling cascades within a cell – regulate these actions to avoid non-programmed growth that could lead to malformations or cancer. One of these pathways is the PTEN / PI3K axis, a complex series of perfectly balanced chemical reactions. Mutations in the PTEN gene usually result in the overactivation of PI3K and the imbalance of the system. This may trigger the onset of different types ...

Baltimore, Maryland (March 31, 2025) — The Lieber Institute for Brain Development, a nonprofit research institution dedicated to treating and preventing developmental brain disorders, today announced the progression toward clinical testing of a unique, centrally acting catechol Omethyltransferase (COMT) inhibitor from its collaboration with Boehringer Ingelheim.   COMT is a dopamine-metabolizing enzyme involved in the regulation of neurotransmitter levels. These are critical for cognitive and behavioral processes that are impaired in several neuropsychiatric disorders. While peripherally ...

PULLMAN, Wash. — A new artificial intelligence tool could aid in limiting or even prevent pandemics by identifying animal species that may harbor and spread viruses capable of infecting humans. Created by Washington State University researchers, the machine learning model analyzes host characteristics and virus genetics to identify potential animal reservoirs and geographic areas where new outbreaks are more likely to occur. The model focuses on orthopoxviruses — which includes the viruses that cause smallpox and mpox. The researchers recently published a study on their work using the model ...

An authoritarian regime is a type of government system where power is restricted in the hands of a single leader or a group, limiting the participation of citizens in decision-making. As authoritarian states like China and Russia intensify their global information campaigns, a new study highlights Japan’s vulnerability to illiberal narratives. This research, led by Professor Tetsuro Kobayashi of Waseda University, Research Associate Yuan Zhou of Kobe University, Ph.D. student Lungta Seki of Koç University, and Professor Asako Miura of Osaka University, was published online on March 12, ...

A nearly complete specimen of Plesiopterys wildi from Germany provides fresh insights into plesiosaur diversity and regional specialisation A newly described plesiosaur fossil from southern Germany is providing crucial evidence about the diversification of these ancient marine reptiles during the Early Jurassic. Published in PeerJ Life and Environment, the study details the discovery and analysis of an exceptionally well-preserved Plesiopterys wildi specimen, which offers new clues about the evolution and geographic distribution of plesiosaurs in Europe nearly 180 million years ago. Unearthed ...

HOUSTON – (March 31, 2025) – A chance discovery led a team of scientists from Rice University, University of Cambridge and Stanford University to streamline the production of a material widely used in medical research and computing applications. For over two decades, scientists working with a composite material known as PEDOT:PSS, used a chemical crosslinker to make the conductive polymer stable in water. While experimenting with ways to precisely pattern the material for applications in biomedical optics, Siddharth Doshi, a doctoral student at Stanford collaborating with Rice materials scientist Scott Keene, ...

Vienna, Austria- 31 March 2025 - While everybody’s heart has an absolute chonological age (as old as that person is), hearts also have a theoretical ‘biological’ age1 that is based on how the heart functions. So someone who is 50 but has poor heart health could have a biological heart age of 60, while someone of 50 with optimal heart health could have a biological heart age of 40.  Researchers presenting a new study today at EHRA 2025, a scientific congress of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC), demonstrated that by using artificial intelligence (AI) to analyse standard ...

WOODS HOLE, Mass. -- Humans like to think that being multicellular (and bigger) is a definite advantage, even though 80 percent of life on Earth consists of single-celled organisms – some thriving in conditions lethal to any beast. In fact, why and how multicellular life evolved has long puzzled biologists. The first known instance of multicellularity was about 2.5 billion years ago, when marine cells (cyanobacteria) hooked up to form filamentous colonies. How this transition occurred and the benefits it accrued to the cells, though, is less than clear. This week, a study originating from the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) presents a striking example of cooperative ...

Researchers have discovered an unexpected superconducting transition in extremely thin films of niobium diselenide (NbSe₂). Published in Nature Communications, they found that when these films become thinner than six atomic layers, superconductivity no longer spreads evenly throughout the material, but instead becomes confined to its surface. This discovery challenges previous assumptions and could have important implications for understanding superconductivity and developing advanced quantum technologies. Researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have made a surprising discovery about how superconductivity ...

Researchers have developed new AI models that can vastly improve accuracy and discovery within protein science. Potentially, the models will assist the medical sciences in overcoming present challenges within, e.g. personalised medicine, drug discovery, and diagnostics.   In the wake of broadly available AI tools, most technical and natural sciences fields are advancing rapidly. This is particularly true in biotechnology, where AI models power breakthroughs in drug discovery, precision medicine, gene editing, food security, and many other research areas. One sub-field is proteomics – the study of proteins on a large scale – where ...

A newly developed blood test for Alzheimer’s disease not only aids in the diagnosis of the neurodegenerative condition but also indicates how far it has progressed, according to a study by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Lund University in Sweden. Several blood tests for Alzheimer’s disease are already clinically available, including two based on technology licensed from WashU. Such tests help doctors diagnose the disease in people with cognitive symptoms, but do not indicate the ...

Plate temperature and water release can explain the occurrence of different types of earthquakes in Guerrera, Mexico. The Kobe University simulation study also showed that the shape of the Cocos Plate is responsible for a gap where earthquakes haven’t occurred for more than a century. The results are important for accurate earthquake prediction models in the region. Where one tectonic plate is pushed down by another, the resulting stress is released in various tectonic events. There are catastrophic megathrust earthquakes, unnoticeable “slow slip events,” and continuous low-frequency “tectonic tremors,” and knowing ...

Scientists have found another reason to put the phone down: a survey of 45,202 young adults in Norway has discovered that using a screen in bed drives up your risk of insomnia up by 59% and cuts your sleep time by 24 minutes. However, social media was not found to be more disruptive than other screen activities.  “The type of screen activity does not appear to matter as much as the overall time spent using screens in bed,” said Dr Gunnhild Johnsen Hjetland of the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, ...

In the face of major changes to federal policy and funding in the United States, Canada should support Canadian researchers with adequate funding to ensure long-term research in health and science, argue authors in two articles published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). “As the US stands on the brink of tearing down its exemplary system for covering the full costs of research, Canada, with its flawed federal system for indirect costs, should heed the recent commissioned science policy report and a chorus of advocacy calling for an enhanced indirect cost system,” writes Dr. William Ghali, vice-president ...

Cannabis use has been increasing during pregnancy, according to researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and the Columbia University Irving Medical Center. Previous research has observed that past-month cannabis use has more than tripled among pregnant women in the U.S. from 2002-2020 with self-reported cannabis use rising from 1.5 percent to 5.4 percent over the 18 years of tracking data. The findings are published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Medical guidelines recommend that pregnant women abstain from cannabis because of its link to an increased risk of adverse maternal ...

The UK education system must urgently change to be more understanding of school ‘refusers’, as returning to school might not be the right outcome for some children, psychologists say. While much has been made of school attendance figures in recent months, a group of experts are suggesting not enough attention has been given to the experiences of parents and young people experiencing school distress. In a new book, What Can We Do When School’s Not Working?, a parent and two ...

Play should be a core feature of children’s healthcare in forthcoming plans for the future of the NHS, according to a new report which argues that play “humanises” the experiences of child patients. The report, by University of Cambridge academics for the charity Starlight, calls for play, games and playful approaches to be integrated into a ‘holistic’ model of children’s healthcare – one that acknowledges the emotional and psychological dimensions of good health, ...

Banks facing regulatory sanctions for financial misconduct tend to adopt riskier business practices, according to new research. The authors warn repeated or systemic misconduct can accelerate risk-taking in ways that weaken both individual institutions and the wider financial system. Researchers from the University of East Anglia (UEA), the US Department of the Treasury and Bangor University, in the UK, drew on data from nearly 1,000 publicly listed US banks from 1998 to 2023 - a period spanning multiple economic cycles including the 2007–09 ...

About The Study: This study found that despite increased participation in U.S. long distance running races, the incidence of cardiac arrest during U.S. marathons and half-marathons remains stable. There has been a marked decline in cardiac arrest mortality, and coronary artery disease was the most common etiology among cases with sufficient cause-related data. Effective emergency action planning with immediate access to defibrillation may explain the improvement in survival. Corresponding Authors: To ...

While more people than ever are running marathons in the U.S., the risk of dying from a heart attack during a run has fallen dramatically in recent years. That’s a key conclusion from a new study by Jonathan Kim, associate professor in the Emory School of Medicine. Kim’s research is a follow-up to a study he published in 2012 – the first investigation into unexpected cardiac arrests during long distance running events. The new findings, published in JAMA, indicate that while the rate of marathon runners who suffer cardiac arrests remained unchanged, their chance for survival is twice what it was in the ...

A new Intermountain Health study finds that peripheral artery disease, a condition that affects more than 10 million Americans over the age of 40, is often underdiagnosed and undertreated, with fewer women getting guideline-directed medical therapy than men. As a result, combined with this highly debilitating disease, patients with peripheral artery disease have a more than 50 percent chance of dying from the condition. Peripheral artery disease affects nearly 10 percent of the US population. It occurs when the arteries that carry blood to the legs and arms become narrowed or blocked by plaque ...

Vienna, Austria- 30 March 2025  Sudden cardiac death (SCD) refers to an unexpected death of a person, believed to be caused by a heart-related issue. It occurs within one hour of the onset of symptoms in witnessed cases or within 24 hours of the person being last seen alive in unwitnessed cases.  The causes in people under the age of 39 are often a thickening of the heart muscle or an electrical problem with the heart. In older people, SCD is more likely to be caused by a narrowing of the blood vessels that supply the heart.   Previous research has shown1 that patients with psychiatric disorders have an increased all-cause mortality ...

Vienna, Austria- 31 March 2025  New research presented at the EHRA 2025, a scientific congress of the European Society of Cardiology, shows that the presence of atrial fibrillation (AF) increases the risk of future dementia by 21% in patients diagnosed with AF under 70 and the risk of early-onset dementia (diagnosed before age 65 years) by 36%. The association was stronger in younger adults and was lost in older adults aged 70 years and over.  “This is the largest European population-based study evaluating the association between AF and dementia,” say the authors that include Dr Julián Rodriguez ...

About The Study: Among patients with heart failure with mildly reduced ejection fraction/heart failure with preserved ejection fraction in the Finerenone Trial to Investigate Efficacy and Safety Superior to Placebo in Patients With Heart Failure randomized clinical trial, higher proportions of cardiovascular and overall mortality in those with ejection fraction less than 50% were related principally to higher proportions of sudden death. A clear treatment effect of finerenone on cardiovascular or cause-specific mortality was not identified, although the trial was likely underpowered for these outcomes. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Akshay S. Desai, ...

About The Study: In patients with heart failure and iron deficiency, ferric carboxymaltose did not significantly reduce the time to first heart failure hospitalization or cardiovascular death in the overall cohort or in patients with a transferrin saturation less than 20%, or reduce the total number of heart failure hospitalizations vs placebo. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Stefan D. Anker, MD, PhD, email s.anker@cachexia.de. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jama.2025.3833) Editor’s ...