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Medicine & Health

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 30-Dec-2025 04:11 ET (30-Dec-2025 09:11 GMT/UTC)

Optogenetic platform illuminates new antiviral strategies

University of California - Santa Barbara
Peer-Reviewed Publication

UC Santa Barbara researchers and collaborators from campus biotech spinoff Integrated Biosciences, as well as Harvard, MIT and genomics company Illumina Ventures are using optogenetics — the use of light to probe the functions of living tissue — to find compounds to help our bodies more effectively help themselves in times of physiological stress. Using an optogenetic platform developed in synthetic biologist Max Wilson’s lab at UCSB, they have already discovered dozens of molecules that can act as pan-antivirals and, specifically, two chemical scaffolds that could serve as promising development candidates in the host-directed antiviral space.

Journal: Cell

Mapping important infrastructure could aid emergency response after hurricanes

American Chemical Society
Peer-Reviewed Publication

In the fall of 2024, Hurricane Helene made landfall in the southeastern U.S., later downgrading to a tropical storm causing strong winds, flooding and major destruction throughout Appalachia. Now, researchers and public health officials in ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology Letters provide a debrief about how their mapping of key locations, including private wells, septic systems and service facilities, helped distribute disaster relief in North Carolina — a part of Appalachia hit particularly hard by the hurricane.

Journal: Environmental Science & Technology Letters

Study shows pregnancy can significantly worsen risk of serious brain injury in women with arteriovenous malformations

Society of NeuroInterventional Surgery
Reports and Proceedings

At the Society of NeuroInterventional Surgery’s (SNIS) 22nd Annual Meeting today, researchers presented findings about how pregnancy can worsen the rupture risk for brain arteriovenous malformations, abnormal connections between arteries and veins whose rupture can result in serious brain injury or death.

With the second grant to therapy

University of Würzburg
Grant and Award Announcement

A new strategy for treating a specific form of lung cancer: That is the goal of a research project led by José Pedro Friedmann Angeli. Financial support for the project is provided by the European Research Council.

Funder: European Research Council

How your DNA reveals your true age with astonishing accuracy

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers at the Hebrew University have developed an exceptionally accurate method for predicting chronological age from DNA, based on two short genomic regions. Using deep learning networks analyzing DNA methylation patterns at a single-molecule resolution, they achieve age predictions with a median error as low as 1.36 years in individuals under 50. The method is unaffected by smoking, BMI, and sex, and has potential applications in forensics, aging research, and personalized medicine.

Journal: Cell Reports

Delayed hypertension diagnosis and its association with cardiovascular treatment and outcomes

JAMA Network
Peer-Reviewed Publication

About The Study: The findings of this study suggest that delays in hypertension diagnosis were common and significantly associated with delays in treatment initiation and adverse cardiovascular outcomes, underscoring the need for earlier identification and intervention.

Journal: JAMA Network Open

Study finds political instability, environmental conditions, and social inequality accelerate aging

Trinity College Dublin
Peer-Reviewed Publication

New study redefines healthy aging as an environmental, social, and political phenomenon, and calls on public health strategies to expand beyond lifestyle prescriptions to address structural inequalities and governance deficits.

Journal: Nature Medicine