EurekAlert! National Institutes of Health - NIH-funded News

Latest news releases from NIH-funded organizations

Funded Research News

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 30-Oct-2026 08:17 ET (30-Oct-2026 12:17 GMT/UTC)

USC robot learns music by ear, opening new possibilities in medicine and therapy

University of Southern California
Peer-Reviewed Publication

USC researchers built a robotic hand that hears a melody once and plays it back after just two minutes of self-taught practice on a keyboard. They say the implications go far beyond music.

Journal: Journal of The Royal Society Interface
Funder: U.S. Department of Defense, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, The Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance at Stanford University

AI reveals how the brain clears harmful waste

University of Rochester
Peer-Reviewed Publication

In a new study published in Science Advances, researchers used AI to help understand how quickly fluid circulates around the brain to wash away metabolic waste that is linked to diseases such as Alzheimer's.

Journal: Science Advances
Funder: BRAIN Initiative

Scientists reveal how dividing cells precisely trigger spindle formation

Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) Graduate University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) and the University of California, San Diego, have revealed the exact mechanism underlying how a key protein, called SPD-5, helps regulate where and when spindle fibers assemble in C.elegans during cell division. Published in Science Advances, the study shows that SPD-5 is activated through a precise, step-by-step process that changes the protein’s shape, unlocking the binding sites needed to begin forming spindle fibers.

Journal: Science Advances
Funder: Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University, Japan Science and Technology Agency, Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research

Are the chemicals around you safe? Researchers are using AI to find out

Texas A&M University

People are exposed to thousands of chemicals every day — through the products they use, the food they eat and the environments they live in — but only a fraction of those chemicals have been fully tested for safety.

Researchers at the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences (VMBS) are turning to artificial intelligence to help close that gap, using new tools to predict chemical toxicity and determine how much those predictions can be trusted.

Journal: Nature Communications
Funder: Swedish Foundation for Strategic Environmental Research, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

Colorectal cancer risk linked to gut microbiome alterations

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Peer-Reviewed Publication

More than a decade after removal of an adenoma—a precancerous mass—from the colon, alterations to the gut microbiome and metabolites remain and may drive heightened risk of colorectal cancer (CRC), according to a new study led by researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The study also found that diet and physical activity were more closely tied to the abundance of these CRC-associated gut microbes in people with a history of adenoma than in adenoma-free individuals, suggesting lifestyle may play a particularly important role in shaping these microbes in this high-risk group.

Journal: Cell Host & Microbe
Funder: team OPTIMISTICC, Prescient Metabiomics, Cancer Research UK, Cancer Research UK, American Cancer Society