Some drugs ‘fail’ because of unrealistic testing conditions
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Updates every hour. Last Updated: 26-Oct-2026 08:16 ET (26-Oct-2026 12:16 GMT/UTC)
Researchers commonly test drugs in simplified lab conditions, often at room temperature. Northwestern scientists discovered drugs behave differently at body temperature and with physiologically relevant calcium levels. Findings could improve drug screening and lead to therapies that work only in diseased cells.
Dynamic treatment represents the cornerstone of precision medicine. However, the development of closed-loop systems that respond to endogenous biomarkers remains challenging. Here, we report a dual-channel flexible electrocatalytic system (Pd-Ni5P4/DCEFS) integrated into a microneedle array that enables ultrasensitive real-time monitoring of nitric oxide (NO)—a key biomarker of wound inflammation—with a detection limit of 9.6 nM, while simultaneously driving the hydrogen evolution reaction with a low overpotential of − 91.0 mV at − 10 mA cm−2. This integrated platform establishes a closed-loop sensing-feedback-intervention mechanism, enabling NO-guided on-demand hydrogen generation for precision anti-inflammatory treatment. In diabetic mouse skin wound models, this adaptive hydrogen production strategy markedly suppresses inflammation, promotes tissue regeneration, achieves substantial wound closure within 5 days, and reduces the overall healing time to 11 days. This study establishes a new paradigm for closed-loop dynamic treatment of inflammatory diseases and provides a critical foundation for next-generation self-adaptive therapeutic platforms in regenerative medicine.
The accumulation of excess fat in the liver is not solely a consequence of the combined effects of hereditary factors and adult lifestyle‑related factors. A new study by researchers at Tampere University and the University of Eastern Finland indicates that both maternal health during pregnancy and early-life nutrition may have long-term implications for children’s liver health.
Even what many Americans consider moderate drinking is linked to an increased risk of death, disability, and chronic diseases such as cancer and heart disease, according to a new study published. The findings show mortality risk from alcohol of 1 in 25 for people who consumed an average of 14 drinks per week. In contrast, drinking up to 7 drinks per week was associated with only minimally elevated risks for most conditions.
In a new study, Northwestern University scientists developed a 90s-style video game to help chronic stroke survivors regain lost arm function. While wearing a small device on their impaired arm and using a laptop computer, players use their arm muscles to complete tasks such as flying a helicopter around the screen to hit a moving target. The muscle retraining helps separate the brain’s uncoordinated movement signals, enabling muscles to work independently again.
After six weeks of the game-based therapy, chronic stroke survivors improved arm function by as much as 7.8 times as much as those in the control group.A research team led by Dr. Hyun-Soo Cho at the Stem Cell Convergence Research Center of the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology (KRIBB), in collaboration with Professor Geun Heo of Kyungpook National University, has identified a key mechanism underlying 5-FU resistance in colorectal cancer and proposed a new therapeutic strategy to restore tumor sensitivity to treatment.