EurekAlert! National Institutes of Health

Latest news releases from NIH-funded organizations

Funded Research News

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 14-Dec-2025 22:11 ET (15-Dec-2025 03:11 GMT/UTC)

10-Dec-2025

New computer simulation could light the way to safer cannabinoid-based pharmaceuticals

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, News Bureau
Peer-Reviewed Publication

New psychoactive substances, originally developed as potential analgesics but abandoned due to adverse side effects, may still have pharmaceutical value if researchers could nail down the causes of those side effects. A new study from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign used deep learning and large-scale computer simulations to identify structural differences in synthetic cannabinoid molecules that cause them to bind to human brain receptors differently from classical cannabinoids.

Journal: eLife
Funder: NIH/National Institute of General Medical Sciences, U.S. National Science Foundation

10-Dec-2025

MIT researchers identified three cognitive skills we use to infer what someone really means

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Peer-Reviewed Publication

New research shows our pragmatic language abilities — which allow us to understand nonliteral expressions like sarcasm or metaphors — can be grouped together based on what types of inferences they require. MIT researchers identified three clusters of pragmatic skills based on understanding social conventions and rules, how the physical world works, and differences in tone.

Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Funder: Simons Center for the Social Brain at MIT, NIH/National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation

10-Dec-2025

In pneumonia’s tug-of-war, lung microbiome could tip the balance

Northwestern University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Scientists collected and analyzed lung samples from pneumonia patients. Samples fell into one of four distinct microbial patterns. Lung microbiomes resembling oral microbiomes were associated with recovery. Dynamic, rather than static, microbiomes also were associated with recovery.

Journal: Cell Host & Microbe
Funder: NIH/National Institutes of Health, U.S. National Science Foundation

10-Dec-2025

NIH-led study reveals role of mobile DNA elements in lung cancer progression

NIH/Office of the Director
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Using lung cancer biospecimens from the Sherlock-Lung study, an international team led by National Institutes of Health (NIH) researchers, identified key factors that drive tumor evolution and influence outcomes. Overall, the findings, published Dec. 10, 2025, in Nature, describe a previously unknown origin of some aggressive lung cancers.

Journal: Nature
Funder: NIH/National Institutes of Health, NIH/National Cancer Institute, University of California-San Diego

10-Dec-2025

Older age, chronic kidney disease and cerebrovascular disease linked with increased risk for paralysis and death after West Nile virus infection

University of California - Los Angeles Health Sciences
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Older people with a history of chronic kidney disease or conditions affecting blood flow to the brain such as stroke face about double the risk for developing neuroinvasive disease that can lead to paralysis and death following infection with West Nile virus. The findings suggest that the US's aging population faces escalating West Nile threat as chronic diseases and immunosuppression rates climb.

Journal: JAMA Network Open
Funder: NIH/National Institutes of Health, Fisher Center for Environmental Infectious Diseases