Medical University of South Carolina researchers have secured up to $5 million in funding expected over six years from the National Institute on Drug Abuse to address the complex links between opioid use disorder (OUD), intimate partner violence and post-traumatic stress disorder. They are developing a digital toolkit to identify these intertwined risk factors early with the goal of improving OUD treatment outcomes.

These miniature immune system models — known as human immune organoids — mimic the real-life environment where immune cells learn to recognize and attack harmful invaders and respond to vaccines. Not only are these organoids powerful new tools for studying and observing immune function in cancer, their use is likely to accelerate vaccine development, better predict disease treatment response for patients, and even speed up clinical trials.

Only half of people with early-onset cancers reported discussing fertility preservation options prior to their oncology treatments, according to results of a cross-sectional study published Nov. 12 in JAMA Network Open.