Researchers have investigated the role of a certain enzyme in regulating energy in muscle and exercise performance for decades, but a new study by Virginia Tech scientists has identified more precisely than ever how this mechanism works. Scientists working at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC focused on a triggering event that leads to the activation AMPK, which is a master energy senso known as Adenosine Monophosphate-Activated Protein Kinase. It is a regulator of energy production in response to the tremendous energetic demands of exercise. The study, published Wednesday, Feb. 25, in Science Advances, confirmed role of AMPK phosphorylation ...

Many therapeutic molecules used in cancer treatments are highly toxic, often harming healthy tissues and causing significant side effects. This creates a critical need for strategies that localize their toxic activity to tumors. What if cancer drugs could stay dormant until they reach cancer cells? A new study by Syracuse University researchers demonstrates a promising chemistry-based strategy that could do just that. Xiaoran Hu, assistant professor of chemistry in the College of Arts & Sciences (A&S), and his team introduced a prototyping “lock-and-key” system that holds therapeutic drugs in an inactive, caged form until a separate chemical trigger ...

February 25, 2026--  Benzodiazepine treatment declined among U.S. adults between 2018 and 2022, with the steepest drop among adults ages 56 and older, according to a new study by researchers at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and Columbia University Irving Medical Center. Despite the overall decrease, co-prescribing with other central nervous system (CNS) depressants — including opioids — remains common, particularly among adults in poor health or experiencing serious psychological distress. The ...

Dining on the moon or Mars might seem like a fantasy reserved for science fiction, but researchers are investigating how it could become a reality. Their efforts to recycle plant and human waste into a fertilizer material — turning the barren surfaces of the moon and Mars into fertile fields that might be suitable for extraterrestrial agriculture — are described in ACS Earth and Space Chemistry. “In lunar and Martian outposts, organic wastes will be key to generating ...

When artificial intelligence systems began acing long‑standing academic assessments, researchers realized they had a problem: the tests were too easy. Popular evaluations, such as the Massive Multitask Language Understanding (MMLU) exam, once considered formidable, are no longer challenging enough to meaningfully test advanced AI systems. To address this gap, a global consortium of nearly 1,000 researchers, including a Texas A&M University professor, created something different — an exam so broad, so challenging and so deeply rooted in expert human knowledge that current AI systems consistently fail it. “Humanity’s Last Exam” (HLE) introduces ...

Quantum technologies are anticipated to transform computing, communication and sensing by harnessing the unusual behavior of matter at the atomic scale. Translating quantum’s promise into practical devices will require physical systems that have desirable quantum properties and can be easily manufactured. Silicon, the material behind today’s computer chips, is highly attractive as a platform because it plays to the strengths of the trillion-dollar semiconductor industry that has already been built. Identifying quantum building blocks — qubits —in silicon is, therefore, an important frontier research ...

How many fossils does it take to accurately train an image-based AI algorithm? According to a new study co-authored by Bruce MacFadden, UF Distinguished Professor Emeritus and retired curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Florida Museum of Natural History, the answer is somewhere around 250. This number is much lower than the amount scientists previously thought was needed. This is a new spin on an old question that paleontologists have contended with for years. The amount of information that can be gleaned from a single fossil is limited to a few bare facts. If they’re ...

Bio-based polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are considered one of the most promising sustainable alternatives to fossil-derived plastics. Poly[(D-lactate)-co-(R)-3-hydroxybutyrate] (LAHB) is an environmentally biodegradable microbial copolyester, and its lactate (LA) content significantly influences its properties. A new study shows how reinforcing the gene expression of the LA-polymerizing enzyme in a recombinant strain of Cupriavidus necator improves the LA fraction. The LA-enriched LAHB maintained a high molecular weight and displayed a balance of strength and elongation ...

MIT researchers have discovered that two common genetic mutations that cause Rett syndrome each set off a molecular chain of events that compromises the structural integrity of developing brain blood vessels, making them leaky. The study traces the problem to overexpression of a particular microRNA (miRNA-126-3p), and shows that tamping down the miRNA’s levels helps to rescue the vascular defect. Rett syndrome is a severe developmental disorder affecting both the brain and body. It is caused by various mutations in the widely expressed MECP2 ...

Scientists have identified how specific genetic changes function in cells to influence disease risk and other human health traits. By probing regions of DNA previously linked to disease, the work has created high resolution maps of DNA variant activity, helping pinpoint the exact changes that shape blood pressure, cholesterol levels, blood sugar and other complex human traits. The study, published today in Nature and led by researchers from The Jackson Laboratory (JAX), the Broad Institute, and Yale University, takes on a long-standing challenge in human genetics. Scientists have known for years that ...

What does it take to make AI that can pass as human? Try massive clusters of supercomputers. To build human-like intelligence, computer scientists think big. However, for neuroscientists who want to understand how real brains work, today’s AI only goes so far, as it replaces one deeply complicated system (the brain) with another (AI). How then do we figure out the inner workings of the biological brain? To answer this question, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Assistant Professor Benjamin Cowley is thinking small. In collaboration with Carnegie Mellon University Professor Matthew Smith and Princeton ...

About The Study: Strategic placement of a trauma center in an area with high rates of violent injury and limited trauma care access was associated with significantly reduced mortality within the service area. These findings should inform trauma system planning to address geographic disparities in trauma care access, particularly in communities with high rates of penetrating trauma.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Michael R. Poulson, MD, MPH, email michael.poulson@uchicagomedicine.org. To ...

About The Study: Given increasing rates of coronary artery disease (CAD) worldwide, the findings of this study of marked variation in radiation dose to patients from diagnostic testing identify a critical need for training, standardized protocols, and updated equipment to reduce radiation worldwide. This especially affects patients in low- and middle-income countries and patients undergoing coronary computed tomography angiograph. There are therefore important opportunities to improve the quality of CAD diagnosis for patients across the globe. Corresponding ...

About The Article: Climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of heat waves and the exposure of pregnant individuals to extreme heat. This article summarizes current evidence about risks to maternal health from ambient heat (hot weather, high indoor temperatures, and occupational exposures) and how these risks can be managed. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Sari Kovats, PhD, email Sari.kovats@lshtm.ac.uk. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link ...

Brains of older adults with super healthy cognition grow more new neurons than those of their peers, according to a study from UIC, Northwestern University and the University of Washington. Researchers found that the brains of superagers — octogenarians with uncommonly nimble minds — were the most neuronally fertile, while those with Alzheimer’s disease had negligible new growth. “This is a big step forward in understanding how the human brain processes cognition, forms memories and ages. Determining why some brains age more healthily ...

[New York, NY [February 25, 2026]—A team of researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Weill Cornell Medicine, and other institutions have uncovered a key biological explanation for why eczema so often starts in childhood. The study, in young mice, found that some types of immune cells in early-life skin are more reactive than those in adults, a difference that may help explain why children are more vulnerable to inflammation and allergic skin disease.     The findings suggest that early childhood represents a critical window for immune-driven ...

Small models, big insights into vision Understanding how the brain processes what we see is one of the central questions in neuroscience. Our visual system is incredibly powerful, able to recognize faces, objects, and scenes with ease, yet the details of how individual neurons respond to images remain complex and difficult to study. A new study published in Nature shows that it is possible to capture these responses using models that are both highly accurate and far simpler than previous approaches. The team began with a large computer model designed to predict how neurons in the visual cortex ...

The scientists report their findings in the February 26 issue of the journal Nature. The lead author of the paper is Yancheng Evelyn Li, a graduate student in the lab of Bil Clemons, the Arthur and Marian Hanisch Memorial Professor of Biochemistry at Caltech, who is the corresponding author.   "Evolution is powerful, and in bacteria, resistance to antibiotics develops quickly. This means that we now deal with bacteria that are resistant to all the medicines that we have," Clemons says. "In the USA alone, tens of thousands of people die every year from antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections, ...

Coral reefs are teeming with life: they are home to over a third of all marine animal and plant species on Earth, despite covering less than one percent of the ocean floor. However, this immense diversity is under threat from rising ocean temperatures. Since the 1950s, half of the world’s coral population has already disappeared.   Beyond the reef’s visible inhabitants, countless microorganisms are also under threat. These often live in symbiosis with corals, sponges and other reef dwellers, which benefits them ...

The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards in Economics, Finance and Management has gone in this eighteenth edition to Charles F. Manski for his pioneering contributions to the measurement of uncertainty in economic research and its application to public policy analysis. The professor at Northwestern University (Chicago, United States) is described by the committee as a “foundational figure” in the development of modern methods that have transformed how economists infer conclusions from data, report degrees of uncertainty in their models, ...

NEW YORK, February 24, 2026 – The Dana Foundation today announced Walter Koroshetz, M.D., FAAN, will join the organization as a senior advisor, effective March 1, in support of its mission to advance neuroscience that benefits society and reflects the aspirations of all people. Koroshetz, who oversaw the federal government’s largest neuroscience research portfolio as director of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), will work with the Foundation’s leadership to guide science funding collaborations and support for early-career scholars and ...

“CAR T-cell therapy has emerged as a particularly promising cancer-specific treatment strategy.” BUFFALO, NY – February 25, 2026 – A new editorial perspective was published in Volume 17 of Oncotarget on February 20, 2026, titled “CAR-T therapy: Trailblazing CAR(ing) in cancer treatment.” Led by Uzma Saqib — with corresponding author Krishnan Hajela from the School of Life Sciences, Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya — the perspective reviews recent clinical and translational advances in chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapy and highlights both its promise ...

Patients are now expected to navigate much of their care online — from seeing their doctor on a screen to booking appointments, refilling prescriptions, and checking test results through health care portals.   Yet, according to a new study by UC San Francisco, most health systems are skipping a crucial step: asking whether their patients have the access and skills to use these digital tools.   The researchers surveyed nearly 150 clinicians and informatics leaders from health care systems across the country during the first half of 2024. Just 44% said they asked their patients if they could use digital devices. Among the ...

Background and objectives Endometrial polyp (EMP) is one of the most common diagnoses in the evaluation of women with abnormal uterine bleeding. Understanding the malignancy risk associated with EMPs and related risk factors is essential for guiding both pathology practice and clinical management. This study aimed to explore risk factors for malignancy in EMPs. Methods The pathology database was searched for women diagnosed with EMP between 2021 and 2022. Patient age, polyp size, background endometrium, recurrence, and (if applicable) cancer types were recorded. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) for p53 and p16 was performed on selected cases. Risk factors for malignancy were analyzed using Chi-square ...

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. and MIAMI — Gibson Oncology, a clinical-stage private pharmaceutical company headquartered in Miami, announced it has entered Phase 2 clinical trials with LMP744 for the treatment of first-time recurrent glioblastoma patients. The company is focused on advancing its novel small molecules with dual-action inhibition of topoisomerase 1 and reduction of overexpression of the cMYC oncogene.  “The primary endpoint of the study is to evaluate tumor regression in patients with recurrent glioblastoma. Secondary endpoints will evaluate parameters such as progression-free survival, biological changes in glioblastoma tissues obtained pre- and post-treatment, ...