An international study led by Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies and published in Science Translational Medicineshows that preserving or restoring cardiac vagal innervation—especially the right vagus nerve—prevents heart aging. A bioabsorbable nerve conduit enabled vagal regeneration, opening new strategies for long-term cardiac protection

WashU Medicine researchers find stimulant medications don’t affect attention-controlling regions of the brain, as previously thought. Brain scans show the drugs affect brain areas involved in wakefulness and reward.

Researchers in China conducted a comprehensive overview of the fabrication of magnetic robotic materials, structural design, actuation systems, and their application scenarios. In terms of fabrication, permanent magnetic particles are discussed. Structural design encompasses one-dimensional, two-dimensional, and three-dimensional architectures, as well as bio-inspired structures. The actuation systems primarily introduce coil-based mechanisms and permanent magnet-based approaches. Application scenarios mainly include targeted drug delivery and minimally invasive surgery, among others.

Researchers at Osaka Metropolitan University developed models that classify X-ray images into specific body regions and simultaneously determine the imaging method and image orientation. Using these models, they successfully classified almost all data for use in deep-learning models.

Gastric (stomach) cancer remains one of the most common and deadly cancers in East Asia, including Korea. Yet despite its high prevalence, it has received far less molecular attention than colorectal cancer, which is more common in Western countries. As a result, many of today’s models of gastric cancer biology are still based on assumptions borrowed from colorectal cancer research — often with limited success when applied to patients.

One of the biggest unanswered questions has concerned the very first steps of gastric cancer development: how do early cancer cells survive and grow when they should not?

Under normal conditions, cells lining the stomach cannot grow independently. They rely on constant signals from their surrounding tissue — known as the microenvironment — to tell them when to divide, when to rest, and when to die. Losing this dependence is one of the defining features of cancer. But in gastric cancer, researchers have long struggled to explain how this transition occurs.

This problem has been tackled by a joint international research team led by Dr. LEE Ji-Hyun, Dr. KOO Bon-Kyoung, and Dr. LEE Heetak at the Center for Genome Engineering within the Institute for Basic Science (IBS), in partnership with the laboratories of Prof. CHEONG Jae-Ho and Prof. KIM Hyunki (Yonsei University College of Medicine) and Prof. Daniel E. STANGE (TU Dresden / University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus). The team has identified a previously unknown mechanism that allows early gastric cancer cells to become self-sufficient. The findings provide a new framework for understanding how stomach cancer begins — and point to potential new targets for treatment.

How consumers’ digital activity trackers could enable personalized health screening and early intervention for cardiovascular health and beyond.

Invisible pollutants at the nanoscale are quietly entering bodies and ecosystems, yet standard toxicology tools still treat living organisms like a black box. A new perspective article in the journal New Contaminants describes how cutting edge bioimaging is turning that black box into a transparent map, revealing where these particles go and how they may harm health.