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Latest News Releases

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 27-Apr-2025 05:08 ET (27-Apr-2025 09:08 GMT/UTC)

New antibodies show potential to defeat all SARS-CoV-2 variants

Stanford University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A Stanford-led team has found two antibodies that can work together to neutralize the virus that causes COVID-19 in all its current known variations in a laboratory environment. More research is needed, but the approach shows promise in developing treatments to keep pace with evolving viruses.

Cancer screening 3 years after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic

JAMA Network
Peer-Reviewed Publication

About The Study: In 2023, reported breast and colorectal cancer screening rebounded from COVID-19 pandemic–related declines and surpassed pre-pandemic estimates. These findings are encouraging given larger-than-expected declines in early-stage breast and colorectal cancer diagnoses in 2020 and increases in distant-stage breast cancer diagnoses through 2021. Cervical cancer screening rates remained below pre-pandemic levels, a troubling trend as early-stage diagnoses continued to decrease in 2021. The persistent decline may in part reflect longer-term declines in patient knowledge and clinician recommendation of cervical cancer screening.

Journal: JAMA

Anxiety sensitivity led to pandemic problem drinking, new Concordia study shows

Concordia University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

For many young adults with anxiety sensitivity — the fear of experiencing anxiety symptoms and the negative health, social and emotional outcomes associated with them — alcohol use became a way to cope with those fears. But as a new Concordia study shows, drinking to cope with fears of anxiety probably made them feel worse.

The study, published in the Journal of American College Health, reveals that drinking to cope put young adults with anxiety sensitivity at further risk of problematic drinking and the negative consequences associated with it.

Journal: Journal of American College Health
Funder: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada

BAADesign enables the immune escaped etesevimab fully-armed against SARS-CoV-2 Omicron subvariants

Tsinghua University Press
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Monoclonal antibodies like etesevimab have lost efficacy against Omicron subvariants, necessitating innovative solutions. George Fu Gao's team developed BAADesign, a strategy combining structural analysis, computational design, and experimental validation to restore antibody activity. Using this method, they reengineered etesevimab into CB6-IV, achieving broad-spectrum neutralization against Omicron subvariants.

Journal: hLife

Study: Smartwatches could end the next pandemic

Aalto University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Everyday smartwatches are extremely accurate in detecting viral infection long before symptoms appear — now, research shows how they could help stop a pandemic before it even begins.

Journal: PNAS Nexus

Ending pandemics with smartwatches

PNAS Nexus
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Your smartwatch can probably tell that you are sick before you can—and if everyone followed their watch’s advice to self-isolate, incipient epidemics could be stopped in their tracks, according to a study.

Journal: PNAS Nexus

Study links intense energy bursts to ventilator-induced lung injury

Tulane University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new study from Tulane University sheds light on ventilator-induced lung injury, a complication that gained increased attention during the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to a surge in patients requiring mechanical ventilation. The study suggests that repeated collapse and reopening of tiny alveoli—air sacs in the lungs essential for breathing—during mechanical ventilation may cause microscopic tissue damage, playing a key role in ventilator-related injuries that contribute to thousands of deaths annually.

Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Breakthrough CRISPR-based test offers faster, more accurate diagnosis for fungal pneumonia

Tulane University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia (PJP) is the most common fungal pneumonia in children. But current diagnostic methods can take days an require an invasive bronchoscopy procedure. Now, a new CRISPR-based test has been developed to diagnose PJP more quickly and less invasively.

Journal: Journal of Clinical Investigation
Funder: NIH, NHLBI, NIAID, NIHR

COVID-flu vaccine could provide broad, lasting protection

Cornell University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Cornell University researchers have developed a new vaccine platform that could provide more robust, longer-lasting protection from both COVID-19 and influenza, and broader immunity to different flu strains.

Journal: Science Advances

Changes in food insecurity among US adults with low income during the COVID-19 pandemic

JAMA Network
Peer-Reviewed Publication

About The Study: During the COVID-19 pandemic, food insecurity decreased among Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participants in most racial and ethnic groups but did not decrease among non-SNAP participants in any group. These results suggest that during the pandemic, increased SNAP benefit amounts were associated with ameliorating food insecurity for many U.S. adults who were able to access SNAP but did not reduce racial and ethnic disparities in food insecurity.

Journal: JAMA Network Open

Large population study identifies long-term health risks after COVID-19 hospitalization

Taylor & Francis Group
Peer-Reviewed Publication

COVID-19 hospital patients experienced a higher rate of deaths from any cause: 5,218 per 100,000 people.

They were also more likely to be hospitalized for any reason, with particularly high risks for neurological, psychiatric, cardiovascular and respiratory problems.

Journal: Infectious Diseases
Funder: Agence Nationale de Sécurité du Médicament et des Produits de Santé, Agence Nationale de la Recherche

Medicaid extension policies that cover all immigrants in a post-COVID world reduce inequities in postpartum insurance coverage

Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Study reveals that Medicaid extension policies, which cover all immigrants in the post-COVID era, have led to a notable reduction in postpartum uninsurance, particularly in New York City.

Journal: American Journal of Public Health
Funder: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Prevalence and control of diabetes among US adults

JAMA Network
Peer-Reviewed Publication

About The Study: This study found that the prevalence of adults with diabetes did not significantly change between 2013 and 2023, but glycemic control among those with diagnosed disease worsened in 2021-2023 after nearly a decade of stability. This trend was most pronounced among young adults. The increase of 1% in mean HbA1c levels and 20% decrease in glycemic control would increase the lifetime risk of cardiovascular events. Potential explanations for these findings include increased sedentary behavior, reduced social support, heightened mental health stressors, and limited access to health care and medications during the pandemic.

Journal: JAMA

Patients with depression from wealthier areas more likely to use telehealth for mental health care

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new study led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that mental health visits for patients with depression from high-wealth neighborhoods in Maryland were significantly more likely to happen via telehealth compared to patients with depression from low-wealth neighborhoods in Maryland from mid-2021 through mid-2024.

Journal: PNAS Nexus

Closing the gaps — MXene-coating filters can enhance performance and reusability

Drexel University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Despite improvements to air filtration technology in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, some of the smallest particles — those of automobile and factory emissions — can still make their way through less efficient, but common filters. An interdisciplinary team of researchers from Drexel University’s College of Engineering have introduced a new way to improve textile-based filters by coating them with a type of two-dimensional nanomaterial called MXene.

Funder: Army Research Laboratory

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