AI can predict the structures of many proteins, but it still struggles with a large class of proteins that do not hold one fixed shape and are heavily implicated in neurodegenerative disease.

A new $28.6 million ARPA-H-funded effort aims to close that gap. Randal Halfmann, Ph.D., and his lab at the Stowers Institute will generate more than 10 billion measurements of protein aggregation across 50,000 proteins using DAmFRET, creating one of the large experimental datasets needed to train AI models on when and how these proteins go wrong.

The work could help researchers move from observing harmful protein aggregation after it happens to predicting it earlier, with implications for Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, ALS, Huntington’s and related diseases.

A team of engineers has designed a new line of multicolored tattoo inks that switch on and off with different kinds of light. Described in a study publishing October 9 in the Cell Press journal Matter & Light, the technology could one day help people hide their tattoos when they have an important business meeting. They could even doodle on their own skin using a simple laser pointer.   

A new study led by the University of Michigan has shown that artificial intelligence can help researchers identify data-rich comments on eBird and iNaturalist, then extract and categorize the information to help build robust ecological datasets.

A high-entropy lanthanoid oxide catalyst overcomes the challenges associated with oxidative coupling of methane (OCM), revealed Institute of Science Tokyo scientists. Using lanthanoid acetates and aspartic acid, they developed a high-entropy lanthanoid oxide, (LaSmEuGdDy)₀.₄O₃, via a sol–gel method. The high entropy catalyst was characterized by enhanced durability. The catalyst lowered OCM onset temperature and improved C2 hydrocarbon yield. Going beyond conventional catalysts, this finding may open a new avenue for selective heterogeneous catalysis.

Alka Sapat, Ph.D., professor and director of the School of Public Administration within FAU's Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, has been named a 2026 Fellow of the prestigious National Academy of Public Administration, one of the nation’s highest honors for scholars and practitioners whose work has made significant and continuing contributions to public administration and public policy.