Researchers have found a promising new method for gene therapy. They successfully restarted inactive genes by bringing them closer to genetic switches on the DNA called enhancers. The intermediate piece of DNA was cut out using CRISPR-Cas9 technology. This strategy opens up new possibilities for treating genetic diseases. The team specifically shows the technology’s potential for the treatment of sickle cell disease and beta-thalassemia, two genetic blood diseases. In these conditions, a faulty gene could potentially be compensated by reactivating a helpful but normally inactive one. This ‘delete-to-recruit’ ...

As experts dedicated to providing patients with compassionate, evidence-based care every day, we are disappointed in the United States vs. Skrmetti decision, which increases the likelihood that other states will limit or eliminate families’ and patients’ ability to access medical care. As doctors, nurse practitioners, and nurses, we believe that every patient is different. Decisions about medical care must be based on individualized assessments by qualified professionals in consultation with the patient and their parents or legal guardians and guided by well-designed medical evidence. This Supreme Court decision strips patients and families of the choice ...

Low social support and a tendency to compare yourself to others may be associated with problematic social media use, per study of 403 Italian adolescents Article URL: https://plos.io/4kMA1J8 Article title: Social support and social comparison tendencies predict trajectories of adolescents’ problematic social media use: A longitudinal study Author countries: Italy, Germany Funding: The author(s) received no specific funding for this work. END ...

Knee braces, water therapy and exercise are the most promising non-drug therapies for treating knee osteoarthritis, according to a new meta-analysis publishing June 18, 2025 in the open-access journal PLOS One by Yuan Luo of the First People’s Hospital of Neijiang, China. Knee osteoarthritis (KOA) is a common and often debilitating condition that affects millions of older adults, causing pain and stiffening of the knee joint. Treatment often includes anti-inflammatory drugs, which are linked to gastrointestinal and cardiovascular adverse events. In ...

QUT robotics researchers have developed a new robot navigation system that mimics neural processes of the human brain and uses less than 10 per cent of the energy required by traditional systems. In a study published in the journal Science Robotics, the researchers detail a new system which they call LENS – Locational Encoding with Neuromorphic Systems. LENS uses brain-inspired computing to set a new, low-energy benchmark for robotic place recognition. The research, conducted by first author neuroscientist Dr Adam Hines along with Professor Michael Milford and Dr Tobias Fischer, all from the QUT Centre of Robotics and the QUT School of Electrical Engineering and Robotics, uses ...

A new study from scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill reveals that the cells shaping our organs may be far more mobile and coordinated than once believed.  Using fruit flies as a model, researchers discovered that future muscle cells crawl across the surface of the developing testis and actively sculpt it into its final form. These dynamic cells don’t work alone, they coordinate their movements using a communication system previously typically associated with brain development.  “While most organs are thought to be shaped by static, brick-like cells, our study highlights the powerful role of dynamic, migrating cells — and how ...

Wildfires that keep us inside might drive the spread of infectious disease, per study of the U.S. West Coast wildfires of 2020, highlighting indirect health impacts of extreme weather events. ### Article URL: https://plos.io/4mXg1FC Article Title: Disruption of outdoor activities caused by wildfire smoke shapes circulation of respiratory pathogens Author Countries: Denmark, France, Italy, Spain, United States   Funding: Research reported in this publication was supported by the Fritz-Family fellowship program to SB and GP. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation ...

Summary Excitons--bound pairs of electrons and holes created by light--are key to the optoelectronic behavior of carbon nanotubes (CNTs). However, because excitons are confined to extremely small regions and exist for only fleeting moments, it has been extremely challenging to directly observe their behavior using conventional measurement techniques. In this study, we overcame that challenge by using an ultrafast infrared near-field optical microscope that focuses femtosecond infrared laser pulses down to the nanoscale. This advanced approach allowed us to visualize where excitons ...

A new paper from Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, Butler Columbia Aging Center, and Columbia Irving Medical Center introduces a scientific framework for understanding the biological foundation of health—what the researchers term Intrinsic Health. Published in Science Advances, the study lays the groundwork for measuring and promoting health itself, rather than merely treating disease. Titled “Intrinsic Health as a Foundation for a Science of Health,” the paper defines intrinsic health as a field-like state that supports the body’s ability to maintain internal balance across dynamic biological ...

Vance Holliday jumped at the invitation to go do geology at New Mexico's White Sands. The landscape, just west of Alamogordo, looks surreal – endless, rolling dunes of fine beige gypsum, left behind by ancient seas. It's one of the most unique geologic features in the world. But a national park protects much of the area's natural resources, and the U.S. Army uses an adjacent swath as a missile range, making research at White Sands impossible much of the time. So it was an easy call for Holliday, a University of Arizona archaeologist and geologist, to accept an invitation in 2012 ...

The gut microbiome, a vast assortment of bacteria and other microorganisms that inhabit our digestive system, plays a critical role in converting food into energy. Many of these microbes follow rhythmic cycles of activity throughout the day. However, high-fat diets and other factors can disrupt these rhythms and contribute to metabolic disease. A new study by researchers at University of California San Diego and their colleagues used time-restricted feeding (TRF), an intervention that limits dietary intake to a short time window each day, to restore microbial rhythms in mice fed a high-fat diet. By analyzing ...

Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health is pleased to announce funding awards to support the teaching of Public Health Law at U.S. schools of public health.  Part of a CDC-funded initiative designed to improve capacity for local health departments and increase knowledge of law among the next cadre of public health graduates, the “Teaching Public Health Law in Accredited Schools and Programs of Public Health” project is led by Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health Faculty Magda Schaler-Haynes, JD, MPH, and Heather Krasna, PhD. The project is housed within The Center for Public Health Systems in ...

NEW YORK, NY (June 18, 2025)--Addictive use of social media, video games, or mobile phones—but not total screen time—is associated with worse mental health among preteens, a new study by researchers at Columbia and Cornell universities has found.   The study, published June 18 in JAMA, examined the social media use of nearly 4,300 children, starting at age 8, and how use changed over the next four years.   Addictive use of screens—excessive use that interfered with schoolwork, home responsibilities, or other activities—was ...

Kyoto, Japan -- Sea cucumbers spend their lives prowling the ocean floor, scavenging for food and generally minding their own business. We can see snails leading similar lives, slimy but not bothering anyone. Yet some species of tiny sea snails are a bother: they are common parasites of sea cucumbers. Extensive taxonomic research has been conducted on these host-parasite interactions in Japan, where sea cucumbers are a seafood delicacy -- for humans. Despite these previous studies, however, local species richness still contains some unknowns. Parasites of the sea cucumber species Holothuria atra have been thoroughly investigated, but those of Holothuria leucospilota have not. This is ...

From depressed polar bears to charismatic pandas, conservationists have used anthropomorphism, or the practice of attributing human qualities to non-human subjects, to garner public support for conservation efforts. In a new study publishing June 18 in the Cell Press journal iScience, scientists tease apart some of the social factors that influence whether people view animals similarly to humans. The researchers found that factors such as social integration, urban living, formal education, and religion can affect an individual’s tendency to assign human characteristics to animals. This in turn may affect their willingness to engage with conservation ...

In brief: New research offers the most comprehensive look yet at how global crop yields are likely to change as the planet warms. After adjusting for how real farmers adapt, researchers estimate global yields of calories from staple crops in a high-emissions future will be 24% lower in 2100 than they would be without climate change.  U.S. agriculture and other breadbaskets are among the hardest-hit in the study’s projections, while regions in Canada, China, and Russia may benefit. The global food system faces growing risks from climate change, even as farmers ...

Inspired by naturally occurring air bubbles in glaciers, researchers have developed a method to encode messages in ice. Publishing June 18 in the Cell Press journal Cell Reports Physical Science, the paper explains how the team encoded frozen messages in binary and Morse code by manipulating the size and distribution of bubbles in ice. The method could be used to store short messages in very cold regions such as Antarctica and the Arctic, where conventional information storage is difficult or prohibitively expensive.   “In naturally cold regions, the use of trapped air bubbles as a means of message delivery and storage uses less energy than ...

Today, all non-Africans are known to have descended from a small group of people that ventured into Eurasia after around 50 thousand years ago. However, fossil evidence shows that there were numerous failed dispersals before this time that left no detectable traces in living people. In a paper published in Nature this week, new evidence for the first time explains why those earlier migrations didn’t succeed. A consortium of scientists led by Prof. Eleanor Scerri of the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology in Germany, and Prof. Andrea Manica of the University of Cambridge has found that before expanding into Eurasia 50 ...

About The Study: This study identified distinct trajectories of addictive use of social media, mobile phones, and video games from childhood to early adolescence and found links to suicidal behaviors, suicidal ideation, and worse mental health outcomes. High or increasing addictive use trajectories were common. Addictive screen use trajectories warrant further study regarding potential use for clinical evaluation of risk and for the design and testing of interventions to improve youth mental health. Corresponding ...

In brief: Taking better photos with less light: that is the promise of a new perovskite image sensor developed by researchers at ETH Zurich and Empa. The new sensor is more light-sensitive, reproduces colours more accurately and offers significantly higher resolution than conventional silicon sensors. In addition to digital cameras, the perovskite sensor is particularly well suited for medical analysis or for automated monitoring of the environment and agriculture. Image sensors are built into every smartphone and every ...

About The Study: In this cross-sectional study of 23,000 adolescents, members of racial and ethnic minority groups were significantly less likely to access mental health visits or receive psychotropic medications or services in outpatient, telemental health, or school settings compared with white adolescents. These findings highlight the need to improve mental health access for adolescent members of racial and ethnic minority groups. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding ...

About The Study: Results of this cohort study reveal that compared with cardiovascular risk scoring, coronary computed tomography (CT) angiography was associated with modest improvements in healthier lifestyle behaviors, acceptance of recommended preventive therapy, and risk factor modification. Whether this strategy reduces coronary events remains to be established. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Michael McDermott, MBChB, email michael.mcdermott@ed.ac.uk. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamacardio.2025.1763) Editor’s ...

About The Study: The results of this study demonstrate that surgical patients are at significant risk of experiencing food insecurity. Interventions, including food insecurity screening, may improve food access and health outcomes in this cohort.  Corresponding Authors: To contact the corresponding authors, email Annabelle Jones, MD, MPH, (ajones50@bwh.harvard.edu) and Kavitha Ranganathan, MD, (kranganathan@bwh.harvard.edu). To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamasurg.2025.1809) Editor’s ...

“What Denisovans looked like, despite their genetic contributions to present-day East Asians and Oceanians?” This is one of the most important questions that has arisen since the discovery of the Denisovans 15 years ago. Now, recent research by a team led by FU Qiaomiei from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and JI Qiang of Hebei GEO University has helped answer this question by confirming that a nearly complete hominin skull discovered near Harbin belongs to the Denisovan lineage. It dates back to at least 146,000 years ...

New research found that youth who become increasingly addicted to social media, mobile phones or video games are at greater risk of suicidal thoughts, suicide attempts and emotional or behavioral issues. The study, published June 18 in JAMA, was led by researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine, Columbia University and University of California, Berkeley. Unlike previous studies that focused on total screen time at one point in a child’s life, this study looked at how young people’s patterns of compulsive or “addictive” use changed over time. These patterns included ...