​For the first time, scientists have directly measured how smoking changes the mechanical behavior of human lung tissue. The researchers found that smoking substantially stiffens this tissue in ways resembling fibrosis, a disease that scars and toughens the lungs.

For decades, ultrasound has been associated with diagnostics – a routine scan in a hospital room, a monitor displaying organs, tissues, or the first image of a baby. However, researchers are now looking at ultrasound from an entirely different perspective. New findings from scientists at Kaunas University of Technology (KTU) suggest that ultrasound waves might not only help doctors see inside the body, but low-frequency ultrasound directly influences blood flow – potentially opening new possibilities to support the treatment of cardiovascular diseases, Alzheimer’s disease, and diabetes, reducing the need for invasive procedures or medication in the future.

Davis Joseph was awarded the 2025 Ciechanover International Biology Award at the Sustainability through Science and Technology Summit 2025 (FLOGEN SIPS 2025) in Cebu, Philippines, for a breakthrough cancer discovery proposing organ-agnostic treatment strategies. His work identifies three universal cancer types based on dysfunctions in p14ARF/p53, DINO lncRNA, and MDM2 activity, and introduces a universal apoptosis network flowsheet built from the analysis of 174 scientific publications. The discovery supports a unified therapeutic framework for treating cancers regardless of the organ in which they originate and is presented as an example of Sustainable Medicine under the FLOGEN Sustainability Framework.

Temporomandibular joint (TMJ) pain is associated with disrupted gut microbiome metabolites. Researchers reveal that butyrate, administered as tributyrin, alleviates pain by restoring histone acetylation and reversing gene regulatory changes in the brain. The team identified key genes involved in pain modulation, such as Nop14 using a mouse model as well as single-cell multi-omics sequencing. Targeting butyrate-related epigenetic pathways may offer a promising non-opioid strategy for treating TMJ pain.