Scientists have discovered that a part of the brain may be behind high blood pressure. The lateral parafacial region sits in the brainstem – the oldest part of the brain – which controls automatic functions such as digestion, breathing, and heart rate. “The lateral parafacial region is recruited into action causing us to exhale during a laugh, exercise or coughing,” says lead researcher Professor Julian Paton, director of Manaaki Manawa, Centre for Heart Research at Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland. “These ...

A faulty ion channel function is a consistent biological feature of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS), providing long-awaited validation for hundreds of thousands of Australians living with the debilitating illness. The new Griffith University research found a crucial cellular structure responsible for calcium transport, the TRPM3 ion channel, was faulty in immune cells from people with ME/CFS. Director and senior author, Professor Sonya Marshall-Gradisnik from Griffith’s National Centre for Neuroimmunology and Emerging Diseases (NCNED), said the TRPM3 played an essential role in calcium transport into cells, regulating responses properly ...

Scientists have discovered that blocking a key cellular enzyme thought to protect against fatty liver disease may instead increase the risk of chronic liver damage and cancer as we age. In a major new study published in Science Advances, researchers from Adelaide University have shown that loss of the enzyme Caspase-2 drives abnormal growth in liver cells, triggering inflammation, fibrosis, and a significantly higher risk of liver cancer. The findings challenge growing interest in Caspase-2 inhibitors as a potential therapeutic strategy to treat and/or prevent fatty liver disease and highlight the need for caution when targeting this ...

Kyoto, Japan -- What we know of the birth of a black hole has traditionally aligned with our perception of black holes themselves: dark, mysterious, and eerily quiet, despite their mass and influence. Stellar-mass black holes are born from the final gravitational collapse of massive stars several tens of the mass of our Sun which, unlike less massive stars, do not produce bright, supernova explosions. Or at least, this is what astronomers had previously thought, because no one had observed in real time the collapse of a massive star leading to a supernova and forming a black hole. That is, until a team of researchers at Kyoto University reported their observations of SN 2022esa. The ...

The research group of Professor Chuandong Dou at the State Key Laboratory of Supramolecular Structure and Materials, Jilin University, recently constructed two novel boron-hexane two-dimensional benzobenzenes using a borane-controlled cyclization strategy, elucidating the importance of boron atom doping. Using conjugated boranes as precursors, the researchers synthesized boron-hexane Z-type and bilayer benzobenzenes C32B2 via FeCl3 and Bi(OTf)3-mediated intramolecular cyclization reactions, obtaining narrow-spectrum fluorescence (half-width at half-maximum as narrow as 19 nm) and amplified spontaneous emission properties, demonstrating their ...

A team at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University has created a machining method that takes a clear step beyond all existing field-assisted cutting techniques. Instead of using only one external energy field, such as heat or magnetism, the new approach applies a laser field and a magnetic field at the same time during diamond cutting. This dual-field method offers a way to machine advanced materials that are extremely difficult to process with conventional techniques. Field-assisted machining has been used for years to support precision manufacturing. But these traditional methods rely on just one type of assistance, which increasingly falls short as ...

As Australians return to work after the holidays, many will be reflecting on their health and wellbeing goals for the year ahead. New research led by Flinders University reveals that while workplace factors like long hours, work-related stress and shift work do influence high-risk drinking, personal and social factors play an even bigger role. The study, published in Drug and Alcohol Review journal, examined more than two decades of data from the national Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey to uncover how job-related factors influence alcohol consumption among workers. Lead author Dr Gianluca Di Censo from Flinders’ ...

Transparent electronics usually start with indium-tin-oxide coated glass—expensive, brittle and anything but eco-friendly. A Chinese-led team has now turned ordinary basswood into a 65-micrometre membrane that behaves like smart glass yet folds like paper. Writing in the Journal of Bioresources and Bioproducts, they describe a two-step recipe: first remove lignin and oxidise the cellulose with TEMPO to create a nanofibre mesh; then hot-press and impregnate the sheet with PMMA to restore strength and push optical transmittance to 86 %. A light-sensitive skin comes from spin-coating a PMMA layer doped with WO₃ nanoparticles. When hit by sunlight or a 365 nm desk lamp, ...

First study to link COVID-19 vaccine attitudes to subsequent (including post-pandemic) vaccination behaviour sheds light on barriers to future vaccination uptake. Findings reveal a general decline in vaccine hesitancy during the 15 months following the COVID-19 vaccine roll-out in 2021-2022, with almost two-thirds of those initially hesitant going on to receive one or more COVID-19 vaccinations. The most common reasons for original COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy were concerns around vaccine effectiveness and side ...

People experiencing delusions during an episode of psychosis may be ‘living out’ a deeply held emotion, according to new research that provides a ‘radically different perspective’ on one of the most puzzling elements of psychosis.  About 2–3% of the UK and Australian population will experience psychosis at some point in their lives, with people commonly experiencing their first psychotic episode between the ages of 16 and 30 years old. Delusions ...

John Kempen, MD, MPH, PhD, MHS, Director of Epidemiology for Ophthalmology at Mass Eye and Ear and Harvard Medical School, is the lead author of a paper published in The Lancet Global Health, “Evaluation of fluorometholone as adjunctive medical therapy for trachomatous trichiasis surgery (FLAME): a parallel, double-blind, randomised controlled field trial in the Jimma Zone, Ethiopia.” Q: Why is trachoma important? Trachoma is the leading cause of infectious blindness in the world, predominantly affecting low-income individuals, and women more ...

For the last two years, the cultivated meat industry has been experiencing growing pains. Many startups have shrunk, shut down, or pivoted. Their advances aren’t going to waste, though. The Tufts University Center for Cellular Agriculture (TUCCA), which seeks to enable production of meat, milk, and eggs from cells instead of animals, has teamed up with nonprofit partner Good Food Institute to salvage the intellectual property—the inventions—of those firms and make them publicly available to help nurture the industry.  Specifically, this effort aims to obtain and broadly distribute cell lines—cells of a specific type ...

Osaka, Japan – Changes in genes have been linked to the development of different diseases for a while. However, it’s not exactly clear what the mechanisms, or the causes behind those specific genetic changes, are. Recent studies using fission yeast, which can act as an ideal model for human cells, have highlighted one possible mechanism linked to disease onset. In a study recently published in Nucleic Acids Research, researchers from The University of Osaka discovered that the loss of heterochromatin ...

To launch a successful research career in the health sciences, junior faculty need to write persuasive, high-quality grant proposals that get funded. However, the skill is not widely taught in medical schools or graduate programs. In a new study, University of California San Diego researchers report that early career faculty who completed the institution’s innovative Health Sciences Grant Writing Course demonstrated significant increases in grant submission rates and funding success — especially among women and faculty ...

MIAMI, FLORIDA (Jan. 12, 2026) – Head and neck cancer trials are frequently derailed before they can deliver answers. A new analysis suggests that the most common reasons are sponsor decisions related to safety or effectiveness and poor patient recruitment. Researchers from Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, and collaborators analyzed 692 clinical trials launched between 2000 and 2024. Alex Reznik, M.D./Ph.D. student at the University of Miami and co-author, described the study as “A retrospective query of head and neck cancer clinical trials in which we compared ...

Bernard Arulanandam, vice provost for research at Tufts University and professor of immunology at Tufts University School of Medicine, has been named a foreign fellow of the Indian National Science Academy. This honor recognizes his significant contributions to scientific research and his longstanding engagement with international scientific communities. The Indian National Science Academy, established in 1935, is India’s premier scientific body dedicated to advancing scientific inquiry ...

Embargoed for release until 5:00 p.m. ET on Monday 12 January 2026    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 ...

Seattle, WA — In a groundbreaking study published in the in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), scientists at Pacific Northwest Research Institute (PNRI) have overturned a long-held belief in genetics: that inheriting two harmful variants in the same gene always worsens disease. Instead, the team found that, in many cases, two harmful variants can actually restore normal protein function. The research focused on a human enzyme called argininosuccinate lyase (ASL), ...

For decades, researchers have focused on the problem of overgrazing, in which expanding herds of cattle and other livestock degrade grasslands, steppes and desert plains. But a new global study reveals that in large regions of the world, livestock numbers are substantially declining, not growing — a process the authors call destocking. “We often assume that rangelands are being degraded because we overgraze them, but the data show that it's not the whole story: nearly half of livestock production occurs in areas that have experienced destocking over the past 25 years,” said study co-author Osvaldo Sala, an ecologist and professor ...

Kyoto, Japan -- While investigating the FGF21-oxytocin-dopamine system, a mechanism that regulates sugar appetite, a team of researchers at Kyoto University noticed reports suggesting that the protein FGF21 may regulate alcohol ingestion. The team's original aim had been to address sugar appetite in lifestyle-related diseases, but since alcohol is a fermented product of sugar, they speculated that perhaps the body contains a system that recognizes both alcohol and sugar as the same entity. Excessive alcohol consumption is a major global health issue, and ...

Researchers at University of California San Diego have identified a previously unrecognized treatment target for triple‑negative breast cancer (TNBC), the most aggressive subtype of breast cancer. Their new study reveals that a protein called PUF60 plays an essential role in helping TNBC cells grow and survive by controlling how key genes are spliced. In models of TNBC, disrupting the activity of PUF60 caused widespread errors in gene processing, resulting in DNA damage, cell‑cycle arrest and ultimately tumor cell death. ...

For her decades of thoughtful Society leadership and energetic committee participation, the Seismological Society of America  will present Ruth Harris with its 2026 Distinguished Service Award. Harris will receive the award at the 2026 SSA Annual Meeting. Harris, a senior research geophysicist at the U.S. Geological Survey, joined SSA in 1987. She was first elected as an SSA Board Member from 1997 to 2003. She served as SSA Vice President from 2005-2007, and twice as SSA President, from 2015-2016 and from 2023-2024. In ...

The Berlin Aging Study was carried out by the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Freie Universität Berlin, and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin in cooperation with partners from geriatrics, psychology, psychiatry, and the social sciences. BASE is regarded as a pioneering project of multidisciplinary gerontology, examining the lives of older Berliners aged between 70 and over 100 years. A window into life in old age Between 1990 and 1993, 516 inhabitants of former West-Berlin were interviewed and ...

Researchers from the IIASA Biodiversity and Natural Resources Program are involved in the recently launched EU-funded Trees4Adapt project. The project focuses on tree-based solutions for climate adaptation, aiming to strengthen Europe’s adaptation and resilience to climate change in a way that supports people and nature. Climate change and biodiversity loss are two of the most pressing challenges of our time. These crises are deeply interconnected, creating complex risks that threaten ecosystems, human wellbeing, and the economy. Yet, current decision-making and land-use planning often fails to account for this interconnectedness, limiting ...

Scientists at The Lundquist Institute for Biomedical Innovation have identified a previously unknown molecular safeguard that protects the heart during pregnancy, shedding new light on the causes of peripartum cardiomyopathy (PPCM), a rare and life-threatening form of pregnancy-related heart failure.  In a study published in Nature Communications, Michelle L. Matter, PhD, and her team reveal that the gene PTRH2 plays a critical role in helping the maternal heart adapt to pregnancy-induced stress.  “This work identifies a previously unrecognized molecular safeguard in the heart,” said Dr. Matter. “Understanding how the heart normally ...