A new review in Medicine Plus outlines a transformative paradigm for luminal cancers using engineered microbe-based micro/nanorobots. Deployed via oral, suppository, or intracavitary routes, these living platforms bypass physiological barriers, colonize tumor niches, continuously synthesize therapeutics, and remodel the tumor microenvironment. Merging microbial adaptability with synthetic biology, they usher in an era of persistent, spatially controlled intervention.

A new review in Medicine Plus traces the evolution of mRNA lipid nanoparticles (mRNA-LNPs) from prophylactic vaccine vehicles to programmable therapeutic platforms. The authors detail clinical and preclinical progress across infectious disease, cancer, autoimmunity, rare genetic disease and tissue repair, while identifying key translational hurdles including extrahepatic targeting, repeat-dose immunogenicity, off-target editing risks, and scalable manufacturing.

Researchers successfully translated intensive clinical brain-health protocols into a scalable municipal program in Kikuyo Town, Japan. By combining exercise, dual-task cognitive training, and nutritional guidance for 50 older adults, the 24-week intervention delivered significant improvements in attention scores—particularly for participants with lower baseline attention—alongside markedly better dietary balance. These findings provide local governments with an engaging, practical blueprint for bridging the gap between clinical research and everyday municipal dementia prevention.

Seventy years after a small group of scientists gathered at Dartmouth College and helped launch artificial intelligence as an academic discipline, AI has evolved from an ambitious idea into a powerful force reshaping science, medicine, industry, and environmental protection.

People with different skin tones may not face the same risk of laser-induced skin injury, according to new research published in the Journal of Biomedical Optics. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University measured the laser exposure required to cause visible skin damage in swine with varying levels of pigmentation and found that darkly pigmented skin reached the injury threshold with 27.7 percent less radiant exposure than lightly pigmented skin under the tested conditions. The team exposed 150 skin sites to nanosecond laser pulses used in photoacoustic imaging and analyzed how melanin levels influenced the skin's response. The findings provide experimental evidence that skin pigmentation affects laser injury thresholds and suggest that future laser safety standards could benefit from accounting for biological differences in skin tone. The work may help improve the safety of photoacoustic imaging and other medical and research technologies that rely on laser light.

In a new study published in Scientific Reports, an international and multidisciplinary research team including Binghamton University researchers identified a set of blood proteins that may explain why the corticosteroid prednisone, although beneficial in treating Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), can interfere with childhood growth and bone health.