Influenza viruses, long known as harmful human pathogens, are now being reengineered into safe and powerful therapeutic tools. A new article in Engineering introduces a controllable PTC influenza platform using non-canonical amino acids to limit viral replication while boosting immune protection. This versatile system works as a next-generation vaccine against flu and other infections and shows strong potential as a cancer immunotherapy tool, opening new paths for future infectious disease and cancer treatments.

Gallbladder cancer (GBC) is an extremely aggressive biliary tract malignancy characterized by silent early progression, late-stage diagnosis and poor prognosis. It is one of the most lethal gastrointestinal cancers, with a five-year survival rate often below 10%, partly because only about 10-20% of patients are eligible for curative surgical resection at diagnosis. 

A key focus of molecular research is whether Actionable Genomic Alterations (AGAs) – specific DNA changes in cancer cells – independently impact survival beyond established factors like stage and treatment.

A new study by researchers at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine has found that patients with gallbladder cancer who had certain documented gene changes in their tumor had a higher risk of death, even when we compared them with similar patients based on age, sex, race/ethnicity, cancer stage, surgery and chemotherapy.

New research presented at this year’s European Congress on Obesity (ECO 2026) in Istanbul, Turkey (12-15 May) shows that people who gain the highest amount of weight across adulthood are at greatly increased risk of certain obesity related cancers. The study is by Associate Professor Anton Nilsson and Associate Professor Tanja Stocks, Department of Translational Medicine, Lund University, Malmö, Sweden, and colleagues.