Building on their success developing a cleaner way to make valuable organic acids, researchers from the Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation (CABBI) have pushed one product closer to commercialization with a major upgrade in yield. A CABBI team from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Princeton University re-engineered the metabolism of the yeast Issatchenkia orientalis to supercharge its fermentation of plant glucose into succinic acid – an important industrial chemical used in food additives and a diverse array of agricultural and pharmaceutical products. Since ...

Embargoed for release until 5:00 p.m. ET on Monday 11 August 2025    Follow @Annalsofim on X, Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, and Linkedin              Below please find summaries of new articles that will be published in the next issue of Annals of Internal Medicine. The summaries are not intended to substitute for the full articles as a source of information. This information is under strict embargo and by taking it into possession, media representatives are committing to the terms of the embargo ...

An international team, led by scientists from the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute has studied around 3000 people affected by the heart disease dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) – a driver of heart failure and sudden cardiac arrest. They discovered those who had a mutation in a particular gene called TTN were 21 times more likely to develop the disease than family members who did not carry a mutation. For the first time, the team found that a person's general health and lifestyle factors; such as being overweight or having high alcohol consumption, contributed to an earlier DCM diagnosis. The study published in the European Heart Journal involving 1000 families affected ...

LOS ANGELES — Researchers at City of Hope®, one of the largest and most advanced cancer research and treatment organizations in the United States with its National Medical Center ranked among the nation’s top cancer centers by U.S. News & World Report, today published a new study which found that some survivors of childhood cancer are more at risk for serious health issues as they grow older, including new cancers and chronic conditions like heart disease.  While a cause for concern, the findings published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology also point to a silver ...

Dried fruit is a tasty snack or sweet addition to recipes, but the water removal process often requires heat and energy. In a step toward more sustainable food preservation, researchers reporting in ACS Food Science & Technology have developed a method to dry food at room temperature by adjusting air pressure conditions and using food-safe calcium chloride. In a proof-of-concept, the system successfully dried mango and apple slices to commercial levels. Dehydrating food turns perishable items such as fruit into long-lasting pantry ...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Optica Foundation today announces its new Executive Director of Development, Cara Green. Building on more than a decade of fundraising experience, Green will lead fundraising efforts for the Optica Foundation as it launches students and early-career professionals into successful careers. There has never been a greater need – or a greater opportunity – to assist the next generation entering the field of optics and photonics.  The Optica Foundation is dedicated to doing so, and to recognizing and fostering excellence in students and early-career professionals who ...

A new UC Berkeley study shows that the so-called love hormone, oxytocin, is also critical for the formation of friendships. Oxytocin is released in the brain during sex, childbirth, breastfeeding and social interactions and contributes to feelings of attachment, closeness and trust. Never mind that it’s also associated with aggression; the hormone is commonly referred to as the "cuddle" or "happy" hormone, and people are encouraged to boost their oxytocin levels for better well-being by touching friends and loved ones, listening to music and exercising. But recent studies involving the prairie vole have ...

Tampa, FL, USA – The Global Virus Network (GVN), a coalition of leading human and animal virologists from 80+ Centers of Excellence and Affiliates in more than 40 countries dedicated to advancing pandemic preparedness, is unequivocally committed to the continued development and deployment of mRNA vaccines and the global scientific collaboration that makes such innovation possible. Vaccination remains one of public health’s greatest achievements, preventing an estimated 4.4 million deaths ...

Images    To help manage agricultural practices with fewer or no pesticides, University of Michigan researchers say they need to understand how ecological systems work on agricultural lands.   Now, U-M researchers John Vandermeer and Ivette Perfecto have used two ecological theories to describe a tangle of interactions between three ant species and a recently introduced fly that preys on one of the ant species. Their work on a coffee farm in Puerto Rico shows that the interaction between the ants and the predator fly creates chaotic patterns—chaos in ...

Water is essential for life on Earth. So, the liquid must be a requirement for life on other worlds. For decades, scientists’ definition of habitability on other planets has rested on this assumption.  But what makes some planets habitable might have very little to do with water. In fact, an entirely different type of liquid could conceivably support life in worlds where water can barely exist. That’s a possibility that MIT scientists raise in a study appearing this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.  From lab experiments, the researchers found that a type of fluid known as an ionic liquid can readily ...

ITHACA, N.Y. – When cells expire, they leave behind an activity log of sorts: RNA expelled into blood plasma that reveal changes in gene expression, cellular signaling, tissue injury and other biological processes. Cornell University researchers developed machine-learning models that can sift through this cell-free RNA and identify key biomarkers for myalgic encephalomyelitis, also known as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). The approach could lead to the development of diagnostic testing for a debilitating disease that has proved challenging ...

CAMBRIDGE, MA – The cost of solar panels has dropped by more than 99 percent since the 1970s, enabling widespread adoption of photovoltaic systems that convert sunlight into electricity. A new MIT study drills down on specific innovations that enabled such dramatic cost reductions, revealing that technical advances across a web of diverse research efforts and industries played a pivotal role. The findings could help renewable energy companies make more effective R&D investment decisions and aid policymakers in identifying areas to prioritize to spur growth in manufacturing and deployment. The ...

Groundbreaking research led by a Swansea University academic has revealed a synthetic glycosystem — a sugar-coated polymer nanoparticle — that can block Covid-19 from infecting human cells, reducing infection rates by nearly 99%. The glycosystem is a specially designed particle that mimics natural sugars found on human cells. These sugars, known as polysialosides, are made of repeating units of sialic acid — structures that viruses often target to begin infection. By copying this structure, the synthetic molecule acts as a decoy, binding to the virus’s spike protein and preventing it from attaching to real cells. Unlike vaccines, which trigger immune responses, ...

Rice University computer scientist Luay Nakhleh, who also serves as the dean of the George R. Brown School of Engineering and Computing, has received a $1.9 million grant from the National Science Foundation to build a powerful new software infrastructure that could significantly expand how scientists study evolution. The project, titled PhyNetPy, aims to bring the next generation of evolutionary modeling tools into the hands of researchers around the world by enabling the widespread use of phylogenetic networks — complex, ...

A research team at McMaster University has discovered a new drug class that could someday lead to breakthrough treatments for dangerous fungal infections. The new molecules, dubbed coniotins, were isolated from a plant-dwelling fungus called Coniochaeta hoffmannii — the samples of which were collected from the McMaster greenhouse, located on the university’s campus. Detailed recently in the journal Nature Communications, the discovery responds to a critical need for new antifungal medicines.    “There is a huge, growing clinical need for new drugs that target fungal infections,” says Gerry Wright, a ...

Scientists have created new way to characterise graphene oxide (GO) cheaper and quicker than ever before, helping get the emerging technology out of the lab and into the market.  Researchers at King’s College London have designed an ‘interactional fingerprinting’ method that creates a unique identity of individual samples. By mimicking humans’ sense of taste and smell, the method can create a qualitative snapshot of the material without relying on inaccessible gold-standard measurement machinery manned by teams of specialists.   By promising a faster and cheaper way to quality control graphene oxide, the scientists ...

From lifelong farmers to backyard gardeners, most plant-lovers know that adding organic matter to a field, vegetable plot or flowerpot increases the soil’s moisture. Now, for the first time, Northwestern University scientists have uncovered the molecular mechanisms that enable organic matter to boost soil’s ability to retain water — even in desert-like conditions. Carbohydrates — key components of plants and microbes — act like a molecular glue, using water to form sticky bridges between organic molecules and soil minerals, the team found. These bridges lock in moisture that ...

A researcher at The University of Texas at Arlington is helping a leading national cancer center explore how wearable devices could help childhood cancer survivors avoid long-term health complications such as diabetes and heart disease. Yue Liao, assistant professor of kinesiology at UT Arlington, was invited by researchers at City of Hope, a National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center, to contribute to a review article published in Cancer. The article examines how survivors of childhood cancer face elevated risks of chronic conditions such as diabetes and how digital health tools could help detect—and possibly prevent—these ...

A new study led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found big increases in the use of continuous glucose monitoring and insulin delivery devices by children and adults with type 1 diabetes over a 15-year period, with corresponding jumps in optimal blood-sugar control. For their study, the researchers used a large national database of de-identified electronic health records to analyze nearly 200,000 individuals with type 1 diabetes across five three-year periods from 2009 to 2023. The research team tracked individuals’ adoption of continuous ...

PHILADELPHIA – Lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) are tiny fat bubbles that are used to deliver medicines, genes, and RNA into cells. However, in some cases LNPs can cause harmful inflammation as a result of the process of RNA delivery. Now, two new solutions can help alleviate inflammation while still getting RNA where it needs to be in the cell. One discovery found that inflammation could be reduced with the addition of a unique biodegradable lipid to the treatment; another solution identified a common drug, called thiodigalactoside (TG), which blocked inflammation when added to the LNP. Today’s Nature Nanotechnology features this research from the Perelman ...

“These findings highlight that, in PC, RSPO2 functions as a unique member of the R-spondin family by promoting genes and signaling pathways associated with aggressive PC, and RSPO2 amplifications are associated with poor outcomes in PC patients.” BUFFALO, NY – August 11, 2025 – A new research paper was published in Volume 16 of Oncotarget on July 25, 2025, titled “Dissecting the functional differences and clinical features of R-spondin family members in metastatic prostate cancer.” In this study, researchers led by first ...

Oxytocin promotes social behaviors and helps maintain relationships. But clinical trials in patients with autism show variability in how consistently oxytocin improves these behaviors. Steve Chang, from Yale University, led a study to explore how oxytocin influences brain activity to shape social behavior in rhesus monkeys and why its effects are so variable. This work is featured in JNeurosci’s Central Questions for Social Neuroscience Research Special Collection.  The researchers focused on the basolateral amygdala (BLA) and the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) because these brain areas process reward and integrate ...

The International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) released an update of its 2021 Guidelines for Stem Cell Research and Clinical Translation today. The targeted update addresses significant advances in the development and application of human stem cell-based embryo models (SCBEMs) and recommendations for research oversight outlined in a white paper from the ISSCR Embryo Models Working Group published in June. SCBEMs are three-dimensional stem cell-derived structures that replicate key aspects of early embryonic development. ...

Building upon the success of the first in utero brain surgery for Vein of Galen Malformation (VOGM) reported in 2023, new data published today in JAMA provides further evidence for the potential use of fetal embolization for this condition. VOGM is the most common type of congenital blood vessel abnormality, in which the earliest arteries that develop in the brain connect directly with the dominant vein in the young brain, rather than nourishing the brain tissue. This causes a tremendous rush of high-pressure, high-flow blood into the veins, putting the fetus at high risk for mortality, heart failure, brain ...

Using dollar stores for food purchases may be a common practice for Americans looking to free up funds for the rest of their grocery list, researchers from Tufts University School of Medicine, the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, and the USDA-Economic Research Service report on August 11 in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.   Their multi-year analysis of where households buy their non-restaurant calories found that dollar store food purchases are rising. Although the food purchased is less healthy compared with other food outlets, families are balancing this ...