A new Penn Nursing study suggests that the specific sedatives used during critical illness in early childhood may have long-term implications for a child’s neurocognitive development. Martha A.Q. Curley, PhD, RN, FAAN, Professor in the Department of Family and Community Health, and the Ruth M. Colket Endowed Chair in Pediatric Nursing at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. co-led the study with R. Scott Watson, MD, from Seattle Children’s Hospital.

A study examined U.S. hospitalizations from 2016–2022 to better understand how amputation rates have shifted over time and across regions.The study found that during this period, amputation rates increased among both opioid- and non-opioid-related hospitalizations, but the rise was significantly steeper among opioid-related cases—especially in the Northeast and Western United States. 

Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and collaborators have discovered that many gut bacteria use a flexible survival strategy to withstand disruptions such as antibiotics and diet changes. Published in the May 19 online issue of Cell Host & Microbe (DOI: 10.1016/j.chom.2026.04.019), the study shows microbes can switch between functional states, rather than relying solely on genetic mutations, to try to survive shifting conditions. The findings shed light on a previously hidden layer of microbiome biology and may help explain why probiotics and fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) produce inconsistent benefits across individuals.