Desire on the Couch is a thought-provoking exhibition coming to San Francisco January 28th. Co-organized by the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) and the Kinsey Institute, the exhibition traces a century-long struggle over how sexuality is measured, medicalized, and experienced. Visitors are invited to explore rarely-seen letters, photographs, and archival materials that reveal how ideas about sexuality and desire have long been argued over, resisted, and reimagined. “Sexuality is an important topic because the way in which ...

Doctors may soon be able to tell just how sick a heart failure patient really is by using a routine MRI scan, thanks to new research from the University of East Anglia. People with heart failure often need a test called right heart catheterisation, where a tube is inserted into the heart to measure oxygen levels in the blood. This helps doctors understand how severe the condition is. But the invasive procedure is far from pleasant and carries risks, especially for older, frail or unwell patients. In collaboration with researchers at the University of Leeds and Newcastle University, the team developed a way to estimate ...

The Kraft Center for Community Health at Mass General Brigham today announced the launch of the second annual Kraft Prize for Excellence and Innovation in Community Health, a national award recognizing organizations and innovators driving measurable improvements in community health with scalable, real-world models. The prize will award $100,000 to one recipient addressing critical health challenges in any of a number of areas — cancer, cardiometabolic disease, substance use disorder, maternal health, ...

Highlights: Pneumocystis fungi are difficult to study and culture, making it difficult to develop new treatments. The fungi are thought to use extracellular vesicles (EVs) to scavenge nutrients from the environment. Researchers have harnessed EVs to deliver CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technology inside the fungus. Tests on mice showed that the method worked to modify genes in the fungus associated with treatment resistance. Washington, D.C.—Pneumocystis is an unwieldy genus of fungal pathogens that cause severe pneumonia, particularly in immunocompromised people like those with HIV/AIDs ...

Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) is a highly prevalent chronic liver condition globally, with its management spanning risk assessment, early diagnosis, staged intervention, and long-term follow-up. The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) and smart devices offers innovative approaches to address challenges in precision diagnosis and personalized treatment. This review synthesizes current applications of AI and smart devices across the MASLD care continuum, discusses their benefits and limitations, and outlines future directions to advance precision hepatology. Introduction MASLD, characterized by hepatic lipid accumulation linked to metabolic ...

More than 135 million American adults are either living with or at risk for type 2 diabetes (T2D), elevating the need for more evidence-based dietary guidance to help this growing population achieve optimal health and reduce risks for T2D and its complications. Recently published findings from a randomized controlled trial (RCT) demonstrate that eating 6-7 ounces of beef per day does not impact risk factors for T2D, as well as other cardiometabolic health markers, in adults with prediabetes. The study, “Effects of Diets Containing Beef Compared with Poultry on Pancreatic β -Cell Function and Other Cardiometabolic Health Indicators in Males and ...

Penn Engineers have developed a novel design for solar-powered data centers that will orbit the earth and could realistically scale to meet the growing demand for AI computing while reducing the environmental impact of data centers.  Reminiscent of a leafy plant, with multiple, hardware-containing stems connected to branching, leaf-like solar panels, the design leverages decades of research on “tethers,” rope-like cables that naturally orient themselves under the competing forces of gravity and centrifugal motion. This architecture could ...

To support research that could lead to significant external funding, Binghamton University’s Thomas J. Watson College of Engineering and Applied Science has established a new program offering seed grants to faculty members working in key topic areas. The Watson College Seed Grant Program for Major Research Proposal Development is designed as a catalyst for accelerating interdisciplinary research, addressing pressing scientific and technological challenges while demonstrating a path to major research funding from external sponsors. Six projects will receive $160,000 in ...

Cancer immunotherapy has transformed modern oncology by harnessing body’s own immune system to combat malignant disease. Immune checkpoint inhibitors targeting the PD-1/PD-L1 pathway have produced durable responses in a subset of patients, raising hopes for long-term cancer control. However, for most patients, these therapies offer limited benefit, as tumors evolve mechanisms to evade immune surveillance. This limitation has shifted research focus toward the molecular basis of immune resistance, particularly strategies that suppress immune function beyond the local tumor microenvironment. ...

In the world of modern medicine, most people focus on the active pharmaceutical ingredients, which are the chemicals that specifically fight a disease’s symptoms or causes. However, the unsung heroes of pharmacy are excipients—substances formulated alongside the active ingredients to ensure they reach the right part of the body at the right time. Simply put, excipients are as vital as the drugs themselves because they provide a controllable means of administration. A prominent example is thermoresponsive compounds that enable in situ gelling. These smart liquids, once administered to the body, transform into a solid gel in response to body heat, enabling the medication ...

Discovering materials that exhibit completely insulating thermal behavior—or, conversely, extraordinarily high thermal conductivity—has long been a dream for researchers in materials physics. Traditionally, amorphous materials are known to possess very low thermal conductivity. This naturally leads to an important question: Can a crystalline material be engineered to achieve thermal conductivity close to that of an amorphous solid? Such a material would preserve the structural stability of a crystal while ...

Research Highlights: Middle-aged and older adults — particularly women — who are naturally more active in the evenings may have worse cardiovascular health, as measured by the American Heart Association’s Life’s Essential 8 metric, in comparison to peers without a strong morning or evening preference. Unhealthy behaviors among the night owls, such as poor diet quality, insufficient sleep and smoking, may account for their lower cardiovascular health profile, according to the analysis of data from the UK Biobank. Helping ...

Each year, 20,000 children and adolescents across the U.S. lose a parent to gun violence, while an estimated 2-3 times more have a parent who has been injured due to a firearm. To better understand the mental health impact of parental firearm injury, investigators from Mass General Brigham analyzed records from a large health insurance database, finding that in the year following a parent’s injury, children had increases in psychiatric diagnoses and mental health visits, especially if the parent had suffered a severe injury. Findings are published in the New England Journal of Medicine. “Firearm ...

Historical data indicate that men develop coronary heart disease (CHD) 10 years before women. A recent study in the Journal of the American Heart Association indicates that this sex gap still remains. Investigators analyzed data from the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study, in which US adults aged 18–30 years enrolled in 1985–1986 and were followed through August 2020. Among 5,112 participants (54.5% female, 51.6% Black) with an average age of 24.8 years at enrollment and a median follow-up of 34.1 years, men had a significantly higher cumulative incidence of cardiovascular disease. They ...

A new Italian study published in Nature Medicine provides compelling evidence that fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) can enhance the effectiveness of immunotherapy in patients with advanced metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC). The research was coordinated by Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore and Fondazione Policlinico Gemelli IRCCS and represents a significant step forward in understanding how the gut microbiota modulates cancer treatment outcomes. Over the past 10–15 years, immunotherapy—drugs that reactivate the immune system against cancer—has revolutionized the treatment of many malignancies, including kidney cancer. However, a substantial proportion ...

Hakho Lee, PhD, Director of the Biomedical Engineering Program at the Center for Systems Biology at Mass General Brigham, is the co-senior author of a paper published in Nature Biomedical Engineering, “Automated disc device for multiplexed extracellular vesicle isolation and labelling from liquid biopsies in cancer diagnostics.” Hyunkyung Woo, PhD, a research fellow also at the Center for Systems Biology, is a co-lead author.   Q: What challenges or unmet needs make this study important? Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are tiny particles shed by cells that carry important molecular “clues” about the cell’s identity ...

Trees play a central role in life on Earth. They store CO₂, provide habitats for animals, fungi, and insects, stabilize soils, regulate water cycles, and supply resources that humans rely on – from timber and food to recreation and shade on a hot day. But the world’s forests are entering a new era, characterized by homogenization, biodiversity loss, and weakened ecosystems. This is shown by a comprehensive international study recently published in the leading journal Nature Plants. The researchers analyzed more ...

Statement Highlights: A new scientific statement from the American Heart Association and endorsed by the American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists details risk factors for pregnancy-related stroke and offers suggestions for stroke prevention, rapid diagnosis, timely treatment and recovery during pregnancy and postpartum. Stroke prevention strategies during pregnancy and postpartum include risk factor modification through healthy lifestyle behaviors, managing high blood pressure and anti-clotting medications, if needed. Supporting emotional ...

The objective of “The Prevalence of Dementia in Europe 2025” report is to provide updated figures for the number of people living with dementia both for Europe as a whole, as well as the countries within.  It builds upon the work undertaken in the “Dementia in Europe Yearbook 2019”, in which Alzheimer Europe previously calculated the prevalence of dementia in Europe.  It applies prevalence estimates across 5-year age bands to UN World Population Prospects data 2024, for the years 2025 and 2050.  For 2025, there ...

Research in the International Journal of Consumer Studies reveals that TikTok functions as a powerful tool for shaping consumers' food preferences and behaviors through the use of algorithmic mechanisms, social influence, and users' emotional engagement.  The study, which was based on an online survey conducted in 2025 among 406 active TikTok users, found that the platform affects dietary preferences through various channels of influence. "Nowadays, young people are aligning most of their dietary habits with the content they might see in social media,” said corresponding ...

Because treatment of the whole prostate can lead to long-term side effects in patients with prostate cancer, interest in minimally invasive, focal treatment options has been growing for certain patients. A clinical trial published in BJU International generated promising results for a type of focal therapy, which directly targets the cancer and spares the remainder of the unaffected prostate gland. The ProFocal Laser Therapy for Prostate Tissue Ablation (PFLT-PC) trial is the first pivotal trial of ProFocal®, a novel, cooled laser focal therapy device for prostate cancer treatment. In the 100-participant trial, 84% of patients had no clinically significant prostate cancer on their ...

New research in Brain & Behavior found a link between screen time and adolescents’ sleep quality and beliefs about healthy lifestyles. In the study of 700 teens attending 2 high schools in the Black Sea region of Turkey, questionnaire responses revealed that participants who spent more time exposed to screens tended to have lower sleep quality. These adolescents were also less likely to have beliefs supporting the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Screen exposure appeared to play a mediating role in the relationship between sleep quality ...

Research in the Journal of Applied Ecology has identified threats to endangered plants in an urban area, generating information that can be used to guide effective conservation strategies across major cities. For the study, investigators in Germany analyzed data on 1,231 populations of 201 endangered plant species within Berlin’s Flora Protection Program. Threats were categorized and their relative importance was quantified at both population and species levels, and across habitat types. Biological threats—especially ...

Men reached 5% cardiovascular disease risk about seven years earlier than women Coronary heart disease drove most of the gap Risk started diverging around age 35 Earlier risk in men suggests factors beyond smoking, hypertension and diabetes alone CHICAGO --- Men begin developing coronary heart disease — which can lead to heart attacks — years earlier than women, with differences emerging as early as the mid-30s, according to a large, long-term study led by Northwestern Medicine. The findings, based on more than three decades of patient follow-up, suggest that heart disease prevention and screening ...

A new paper in Biology Methods and Protocols, published by Oxford University Press, indicates that a new computational method may help researchers identify effective precision treatments for cancer more quickly and efficiently. Precision oncology is the promising, recently developed, approach to cancer treatment in which providers shape therapies to the unique molecular profile of a patient’s tumor. Current cancer therapy depends increasingly on matching the right drug to the right patient. Large-scale studies evaluate thousands of drugs on hundreds of cancer cell lines to find genetic biological markers to predict a drug’s effectiveness. In practice, however, this data is incredibly ...