Just three pharmacy benefit managers (PBM) dominate retail prescriptions in Medicare Part D and Medicaid managed care across much of the country, with markets in in nearly every state considered highly concentrated for at least one program, according to a new study from the USC Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics. The study, published Feb. 6 in JAMA Health Forum, provides one of the most detailed examinations to date of PBM competition within states. Based on a federal antitrust index, the authors find: 40 states have highly ...

Toronto, February 9, 2026 – New research is proving persistent gender gaps in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) careers can’t be explained by academic ability alone. A recent Baycrest study suggests that success in STEM careers is shaped by different cognitive strengths and that these strengths relate differently to career outcomes for women and men. The findings offer new insight into why women remain underrepresented in computational STEM fields, such as computer science and engineering, despite comparable academic ability. The ...

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Beginning in the late 1990s, nearly 3,000 older adults received brain training as part of a study to evaluate the training's effect on thinking and memory. Twenty years later, participants continued to reap the benefits. In the latest follow-up from the Advanced Cognitive Training for Independent and Vital Elderly, or ACTIVE, study, investigators report that participants who received cognitive speed training, plus booster sessions one and three years later, were 25% less likely to be diagnosed with dementia in the next two decades. Researchers say it is one of the first results from a large randomized, controlled trial ...

Washington, D.C., February 9, 2026 — The ESA Governing Board announced today that Dr. Adrienne Sponberg will become its new executive director effective March 2. Following an extensive search, the Governing Board unanimously selected Sponberg from an outstanding field of candidates because of her deep experience within the ecological community. She is being promoted from the ESA director of publications into the leadership position. Sponberg brings over 25 years of executive-level association experience, with a proven record of ...

Led by Mathieu Beraneck, researchers at the University of Paris Cité/CNRS and the University of Barcelona explored the strength of the relationship between a type of inner hair cell in the ear and balance. Their work is published in eNeuro. Says Beraneck, “After 200 years of research on this system, still no one has demonstrated the quantity of hair cells necessary for balance, so our study is a first step in answering this long-standing question.”  Using mice, the researchers assessed how sensitive balancing and orienting abilities are to the loss of a subtype ...

Hyesang Chang and colleagues, from Stanford University, explored why some children struggle to learn math compared to their peers in a new JNeurosci paper.   Children selected which numbers were bigger than others across different trials, with quantities represented as numerical symbols or as clusters of dots. The researchers created a model based on how much performance varied over time. The model suggested that children with difficulties in learning math struggled to ...

By Erin Digitale On a simple math task — indicating which of two amounts is greater — kids with math learning disability get the right answer as often as their good-at-math peers, but behind the scenes, their brains are working differently, a new Stanford Medicine study has found. The differences shed light on what causes their math struggles. The findings, which will be published online Feb. 9 in the Journal of Neuroscience, show that children with a math learning disability are less likely to solve problems at the right speed, or to slow down after they make mistakes, particularly ...

BOSTON — Dana-Farber Cancer Institute-led research helped drive an FDA label update for axicabtagene ciloleucel (Yescarta) that removes a prior exclusion for patients with primary central nervous system lymphoma, a rare and aggressive lymphoma of the brain and spinal cord. The change is expected to expand access to commercial CAR T-cell therapy for eligible patients with relapsed or refractory disease. The updated labeling reflects years of Dana-Farber research focused on defining whether CD19-directed CAR T-cell therapy can be delivered safely and effectively to patients with lymphoma involving the central nervous system. Most CAR T-cell trials ...

For many years, the deep ocean has been seen as a nutrient-poor environment where microbes living in the water survive on very limited resources. But new research from the University of Southern Denmark (SDU) challenges that idea. A study led by SDU-biologists at the Department of Biology shows that nutrients might not be so sparse after all in the deep and that microbes have access to a hitherto unknown source of dissolved organic food. The study shows that sinking organic particles—known as marine snow—begin to leak dissolved carbon and nitrogen when they reach depths of 2–6 kilometres, presenting microbes in the surrounding seawater with nutrients. The leakage is caused ...

About The Study: This study found that greater consumption of caffeinated coffee and tea was associated with lower risk of dementia and modestly better cognitive function, with the most pronounced association at moderate intake levels. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Dong D. Wang, MD, ScD, email dow471@mail.harvard.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jama.2025.27259) Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and ...

About The Study: This cross-sectional study assesses the potential impact of a smartwatch hypertension notification feature for U.S. adults who have not been diagnosed with hypertension. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Jordana B. Cohen, MD, MSCE, email jco@pennmedicine.upenn.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jama.2025.26925) Editor’s Note: Please see the article ...

As glaciers around the world melt at unprecedented rates, tourism in these icy landscapes is booming, adding pressure to vulnerable regions and disrupting delicate ecosystems. A collective effort, led by UNIL and published in Nature Climate Change, points to ways of balancing tourism with conservation, awareness, and social equity. Since the 18th century, glaciers have captivated mountaineers, scientists, and nature enthusiasts alike. In recent years, this tourist interest has surged, fueled by media coverage of their decline due to climate change. Each year, over 14 million visitors (drawn by fascination, scientific curiosity, and ecological mourning) travel to ...

Why melting glaciers are drawing more visitors and what that says about climate change As glaciers around the world continue to shrink and disappear, they are drawing more visitors than ever, not only for their beauty but for what they have come to represent in an era of climate change. A new study co-authored by Rice University anthropologist Cymene Howe examines this phenomenon, showing how melting glaciers have become powerful destinations for tourism, sites of collective grief and symbols of political meaning even as their loss threatens the communities that depend on them. Published in Nature Climate Change, the paper draws on global case studies to examine how glaciers now ...

Mount Sinai researchers have identified a cellular mechanism linking infections from influenza A viruses (IAVs) to cardiovascular disease, providing critical insights on how influenza can damage the heart and increase the risk of a heart attack or other major cardiovascular event. Through its work with mouse models and human data, the team also provided evidence that a cutting-edge modified mRNA treatment that dampens an interferon signaling pathway in the heart can significantly mitigate cardiac damage following viral infection while preserving the protective antiviral response of the immune system. The study was published in the February 9 issue of Immunity. “We have known ...

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 ...