EurekAlert! National Institutes of Health - NIH-funded News

Latest news releases from NIH-funded organizations

Funded Research News

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 10-Sep-2025 10:11 ET (10-Sep-2025 14:11 GMT/UTC)

Adolescents with mental health symptoms more likely to use multiple nicotine products, particularly e-cigarettes, new international research finds

Arnold School of Public Health
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A recent study led by Emily Hackworth, a 2024 graduate of the Arnold School’s Ph.D. in Health Promotion, Education, and Behavior, and co-authors* has found that youth (ages 16-19) with internalizing mental health symptoms (e.g., anxiety, depression, sadness loneliness) are more likely to turn to nicotine products (particularly electronic cigarettes) than their peers. Published in Nicotine and Tobacco Research, the study also revealed that the pandemic and its aftermath has likely played a role in this relationship.

Journal: Nicotine & Tobacco Research
Funder: NIH/National Institutes of Health

Protein accidentally lassos itself, helping explain unusual refolding behavior

Penn State
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new study has described a potential mechanism that could help explain why some proteins refold in a different pattern than expected. The researchers, led by chemists at Penn State, found that a type of misfolding, in which the proteins incorrectly intertwine their segments, can occur and create a barrier to the normal folding process. Correcting this misfold requires high-energy or extensive unfolding, which slows the folding process leading to the unexpected pattern first observed in the 1990s.

Journal: Science Advances
Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation, NIH/National Institutes of Health

Scientists discover how to reactivate cancer’s molecular “kill switch”

Jackson Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers at The Jackson Laboratory and UConn Health discovered that cancer cells suppress "poison exons" — genetic elements that act as an off switch for protein production — in a key gene called TRA2β, promoting tumor growth. By using antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) to restore poison exon activity, the team effectively reactivated this kill switch, offering a potential new precision therapy for aggressive, hard-to-treat cancers.

Journal: Nature Communications
Funder: NIH/National Institutes of Health

UConn uncovers new clue on what is leading to neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and ALS

University of Connecticut
Peer-Reviewed Publication

In Nature Neuroscience, UConn School of Medicine researchers have revealed a new scientific clue that could unlock the key cellular pathway leading to devastating neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Journal: Nature Neuroscience
Funder: American Heart Association, NIH/National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, American Heart Association

University of Minnesota research team awarded $3.8 million grant to develop cell therapy to combat Alzheimer’s disease

University of Minnesota Medical School
Grant and Award Announcement

A University of Minnesota research team was recently awarded a five-year, $3.8 million grant from the U.S. National Institutes of Health to develop a new cell therapy to combat Alzheimer’s disease.

Funder: NIH/National Institutes of Health