EurekAlert! News by Subject: Medicine & Health - Article Highlights

Article Highlights

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 18-May-2026 20:15 ET (19-May-2026 00:15 GMT/UTC)

Researchers uncover how prostate cancer cells build up cholesterol and fuel tumor growth

Texas A&M University

Researchers at Texas A&M Health have identified a molecular mechanism that increases cholesterol levels inside prostate cancer cells — an important process that may help explain how some tumors progress and become resistant to treatment.

Journal: International Journal of Molecular Sciences
Funder: Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, Welch Foundation

Brain connectivity reveals causal insights into epilepsy subtypes through mendelian randomization

Health Data Science

This study investigates the causal relationship between epilepsy subtypes and brain connectivity within resting-state networks using a bidirectional Mendelian randomization framework. By leveraging large-scale genetic and neuroimaging datasets, the researchers provide a more reliable assessment of causality beyond traditional observational studies.

The results demonstrate that genetic generalized epilepsy is associated with functional alterations in attention and motor-related brain networks, while brain connectivity changes do not appear to causally drive epilepsy. These findings deepen our understanding of epilepsy as a network-level disorder and suggest new avenues for targeted intervention and precision medicine.

Journal: Health Data Science

Magnetic field technology offers new hope for organ preservation, expanding donor pools

KeAi Communications Co., Ltd.

A new review published in the journal Magnetic Medicine indicates that static magnetic fields (SMF) and alternating magnetic fields (AMF) are expected to provide a non-invasive new method for organ preservation, addressing many limitations of current organ preservation technologies and bringing new hope to the field of organ transplantation.

Journal: Magnetic Medicine
Funder: Key R&D Program of Shandong Province China, National Natural Science Foundation of China, International Partnership Program of CAS

Thinking too much about mistakes can lead to avoidance

Texas A&M University

Researchers at Texas A&M University have discovered how intensely people react to making mistakes may be a predictor of anxiety-driven avoidance.

Journal: Biological Psychiatry Global Open Science
Funder: National Institute of Mental Health

Coping with chronic disease when food is scarce takes its toll on mental health, researchers find

Arnold School of Public Health

Twenty-five years into her CDC and NIH-funded diabetes and youth research, epidemiology professor Angela Liese and her team continue to increase our understanding of this uniquely vulnerable population. These findings reveal that youth and young adults who have diabetes and experience food insecurity have higher rates of mental health symptoms, including disordered eating.

Journal: BMJ Open Diabetes Research & Care

Free summer camp helps close the gap in healthy behaviors for kids, study finds

Arnold School of Public Health

Researchers from the Arnold Healthy Kids Initiative and Research Center for Child Well-Being have continued publishing results from their three-year study examining the health effects of providing free summer camp for children from low-income households. In a paper that appeared in JAMA Pediatrics, the team previously showed that free summer programming reduced BMI gains. Specifically, children who attended the free camp decreased their BMI while children who experienced a typical summer saw increases.

Journal: International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity

Sunscreen produces persistent free radicals when exposed to light, a recent study finds

Arnold School of Public Health

New research from the Department of Environmental Health Sciences explores how common sunscreen ingredients behave under light exposure. Led by associate professor Eric Vejerano, the team tested seven commercially available sunscreens (including four mineral-based formulas) and found that every sample produced persistent free radicals (PFRs) when exposed to artificial light. The study, published in Environmental Science & Technology Letters, provides new insight into sunscreen photochemistry and may help guide future evaluations of product performance and safety.

Journal: Environmental Science & Technology Letters

Measles outbreak surveillance confirms utility of wastewater-based epidemiology for monitoring infectious disease surges

Arnold School of Public Health

New research led by environmental health sciences assistant professor Laura Langan has provided further support for the effectiveness of wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE). Langan and her team compared two of the most common approaches to WBE for monitoring the spread of an active measle outbreak in Texas: reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (more widely available) and RT digital PCR.

Journal: ACS Environmental Au

Researchers untangle residence and race when looking at postpartum hospital readmissions

Arnold School of Public Health

USC researchers continue to uncover new insights from a five-year project launched by health services policy and management associate professor Peiyin Hung and health promotion, education, and behavior professor Xiaoming Li to investigate maternal care and outcomes, particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Last year, their team received a $200,000 supplement to the initial $3 million National Institutes of Health U01 grant to further explore postpartum trends related to the intersection of residence location and race/ethnicity.

Journal: JAMA Network Open

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