A breakthrough zwitterionic polymer slips through the skin’s toughest barriers, carrying insulin deep into tissue and normalizing blood sugar, offering patients a painless alternative to daily injections. A recent study published in the journal Nature examines the use of the skin-permeable molecule poly[2-(N-oxide-N,N-dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate] (OP) as a delivery system for insulin, a key drug in the [...]
Antibiotic resistance is a growing concern - from human health to crop survival. A new study successfully uses nanogels to target and almost entirely inhibit the bacteria P. Aeruginosa. Recently published in Angewandte Chemie, the study demonstrates 99.9 % effective inhibition against P. Aeruginosa, a particularly evasive bacterium. By combining pathogen-specific sugar ligands with a membrane-disrupting antimicrobial peptide, [...]
Biomedical researchers at Texas A&M University may have discovered a way to stop or even reverse the decline of cellular energy production—a finding that could have revolutionary effects across medicine. Dr. Akhilesh K. Gaharwar and Ph.D. student John Soukar, along with their fellow researchers from the Department of Biomedical Engineering, have developed a new [...]
Scientists worldwide have joined forces to build the first-ever roadmap for conserving Earth’s vast invisible majority—microbes. Their new IUCN Specialist Group reframes conservation by elevating microbial life to the same urgency as plants and animals, emphasizing microbes’ foundational role in climate stability, soil fertility, marine ecosystems, and human health. The roadmap charts new metrics, [...]
Scientists have discovered that the brain may have a built-in way to fight Alzheimer’s. By activating a protein called Sox9, researchers were able to switch on star-shaped brain cells known as astrocytes and turn them into powerful cleaners that remove toxic plaques linked to memory loss. Tests in mice that already had Alzheimer’s-like symptoms showed that [...]
Temporarily anesthetizing the retina briefly reverts the activity of the visual system to that observed in early development and enables growth of responses to the amblyopic eye, new research shows. In the common vision disorder amblyopia, impaired vision in one eye during development causes neural connections in the brain's visual system to shift toward supporting [...]
A new ultrasound-guided nanotherapy wipes out liver tumors while training the immune system to keep them from coming back. The study, published in Nano Today, introduces a biodegradable nanoparticle system that combines sonodynamic therapy and cell death induction (ferroptosis) to treat hepatocellular carcinoma, the most common type of liver cancer. The platform uses ultrasound-triggered generation of [...]
Every year, 12 million people worldwide suffer a stroke; many die or are permanently impaired. Currently, drugs are administered to dissolve the thrombus that blocks the blood vessel. These drugs spread throughout the entire body, meaning a high dose must be administered to ensure that the necessary amount reaches the thrombus. This can cause [...]
Scientists have discovered how tumors secretly drain the energy from T cells—the immune system’s main cancer fighters—and how blocking that process can bring them back to life. The team found that cancer cells use a little-known molecular signal to push T cells into exhaustion, making them stop attacking. By interrupting this harmful signal, researchers [...]
Brigham and Women's Hospital's TIMI Study Group reports that in patients with prior ischemic stroke, very low achieved LDL-cholesterol correlated with fewer major adverse cardiovascular events and fewer recurrent strokes, without an apparent increase in hemorrhagic stroke. Study background and patient population Patients with prior ischemic stroke face a high risk for recurrence and [...]
