EurekAlert! News by Subject: Medicine & Health - Home

Medicine & Health

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 26-Oct-2026 23:16 ET (27-Oct-2026 03:16 GMT/UTC)

Researchers develop AI model that maps how genes work together in human cells

The Mount Sinai Hospital / Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Scientists at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have created a new artificial intelligence (AI) model that helps reveal how genes function together inside human cells, offering a powerful new way to understand biology and disease. The study, published in the May 21 online issue of Patterns, a Cell Press Journal [DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.patter.2026.101565], introduces a gene set foundation model (GSFM) designed to learn patterns in how genes are grouped and function across thousands of biological contexts. The work draws inspiration from advances in large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT, which learn how words gain meaning depending on their context. In a similar way, a GSFM learns how genes behave differently depending on their cellular “context.”

Journal: Patterns

Heart failure trajectories after guideline-directed medical therapy

JAMA Network
Peer-Reviewed Publication

About The Study: The findings of this cohort study underscore a gap between evidence and practice. Two-thirds of patients with newly identified heart failure with reduced ejection fraction did not undergo left ventricular ejection fraction reassessment, limiting opportunities to confirm persistence, evaluate reverse remodeling, and identify candidates for treatment. Receipt of guideline-directed medical therapy was modest across groups, even among patients with persistent heart failure with reduced ejection fraction, who derive the greatest benefit.

Journal: JAMA Network Open

Prostate cancer mortality after relabeling low-grade prostate cancer as precancerous

JAMA Network
Peer-Reviewed Publication

About The Study: In this study, dropping the cancer label from grade group (GG)1 prostate disease and redefining GG1 prostate disease as a precancerous lesion led to a net reduction in estimated prostate cancer deaths. Proponents for retaining the cancer label for GG1 prostate disease should argue relabeling would have close to zero effects on screening rates or that other harms outweigh the benefits of reduced prostate cancer mortality.

Journal: JAMA Oncology

Targeting inflammation may help overcome drug resistance in colon cancer

Weill Cornell Medicine
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Chemotherapy drugs that target a common mutation in colorectal cancer rapidly lose efficacy in patients, leading to relapse. According to a new preclinical study by Weill Cornell Medicine and MD Anderson Cancer Center investigators, colorectal tumors often find multiple ways to survive treatment, including additional genetic mutations and activation of cellular pathways typically associated with inflammation and regeneration. Targeting this tumor-specific inflammatory process could enhance the efficacy of some anticancer therapies and prevent drug resistance.

Journal: Cancer Cell

AI helps create miniprotein switches for drug targets

University of Washington School of Medicine/UW Medicine
Peer-Reviewed Publication

G protein-coupled receptors sit in the plasma membrane, the boundary that defines the inside and outside of a living cell. They communicate with nearly every physiological process in our bodies, from the ability to see and smell, to sensing of adrenaline, insulin, nutrients and medicines. Researchers now report using AI to create tiny, computationally designed proteins to activate or block G protein-coupled receptors. The methods used in their study may form a roadmap for future efforts to create new drug candidates for metabolic, inflammatory, and neurological diseases. These approaches would try to target G protein-coupled receptors that have been largely inaccessible to conventional drug discovery.

Journal: Nature
Funder: Austrian Science Fund Erwin Schrödinger Program, BioInnovation Institute Foundation, Novo Nordisk Foundation, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Novo Nordisk, Defense Threat Reduction Agency, Microsoft, Audacious Project, Nordstrom Barrier Institute for Protein Design Directors Fund, The Open Philanthropy Project Universal Flu Vaccine Fund, The Open Philanthropy Project Improving Protein Design Fund, The Wu Tsai Protein Innovation Fund, Cancer Research UK, Department of the Defense and Defense Threat Reduction Agency, U.S. Department of Energy, National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia, U.S. Department of Defense, CureSearch for Children's Cancer, DBT Wellcome Trust India Alliance, ANRF, Department of Biotechnology, Lady Tata Memorial Trust

NIH awards $50 million to UMass Center for Clinical and Translational Science

UMass Chan Medical School
Grant and Award Announcement

The UMass Center for Clinical and Translational Science (UMCCTS) has been awarded a seven-year, $50 million renewal of its Clinical and Translational Sciences Award, along with an associated K12 Scholar program, from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of the National Institutes of Health.

The secret to keeping ticks at bay this summer: Woodchips

University of Ottawa
Peer-Reviewed Publication

New research from the University of Ottawa has shown woodchips to be the secret weapon to keeping ticks off recreational woodland trails, including eliminating nearly all Lyme disease-carriers when treated with insecticide.

Journal: Ticks and Tick-borne Diseases
Funder: Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada

Ohio State study targets alcohol marketing that downplays breast cancer risk

Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center
Business Announcement

A new study at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute seeks to raise awareness of alcohol as a risk factor for cancer specifically among young women.

Funder: Breast Cancer Research Foundation

UMass Chan scientist receives $1.6 million from National Institute of General Medical Sciences to refine gene therapy vectors

UMass Chan Medical School
Grant and Award Announcement

Phillip Tai, PhD, received a $1.6 million grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences to investigate the basic mechanisms of adeno-associated viral vectors (AAV) using high-resolution DNA sequencing technology. These findings could potentially lead to new vector designs that improve the safety of gene therapy treatments.