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Article Highlights

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 25-Oct-2026 05:16 ET (25-Oct-2026 09:16 GMT/UTC)

BacSafe: A comprehensive database for integrated assessment of bacterial biosafety

International Society for Health Data Science

• BacSafe is a comprehensive, open-access bacterial biosafety database covering 20,630 species across 3,902 genera, with 89 biosafety-related attributes per entry compiled from 711,344 genome assemblies, over 2.5 million PubMed publications, and 20,437 food and pharmaceutical recall records.

• It introduces a dual-dimensional risk framework that decomposes bacterial biosafety into clinical risk and environmental risk, reflecting the fact that these two dimensions are not inherently correlated.

• It integrates empirical, real-world risk evidence, bridging the gap between genome-based theoretical prediction and actual risk in practice.

• A fine-tuned AI assistant (RAG + DeepSeek-R1) enables natural-language querying of the database.

• Decision-tree-based tools operationalize the assessment of "objectionable microorganisms" in non-sterile products and cleanroom environments, implementing the algorithms of the Chinese Pharmacopoeia (2025 edition) and PDA Technical Report 67, alongside genome-upload tools for species identification and phenotypic prediction.

Funder: Space Medical Experiment Project of CMSP, “Leading Goose” R&D Program of Zhejiang

T-cell research reveals paths to better vaccines for COVID-19 and beyond

Texas A&M University

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers have been trying to figure out why someone develops a mild or severe case. One way to do that would be through looking at T-cells, which are white blood cells that mount an immune response — and specifically CD8⁺ T cells, “killer” T-cells that have been shown to effectively fight back against COVID-19 infections.

Journal: iScience

Why some people are good at math while others struggle

Texas A&M University

Dr. Daniel Hajovsky, associate professor in the Department of Educational Psychology at Texas A&M University, studies human intelligence and the cognitive processes that affect learning. In a study published in the Journal of Intelligence, Hajovsky and his co-authors examined the relationship between cognitive abilities and mathematics skills. The findings point to fluid reasoning and comprehension knowledge as two of the most consistent cognitive predictors of math skills.

Journal: Journal of Intelligence

Why muscle health should be a bigger part of clinical nutrition

Texas A&M University

In a new expert review, researchers examine gaps in how muscle health is addressed in clinical nutrition and lay out a research agenda for moving the field forward. In the review, published in Clinical Nutrition, the experts draw on existing research on muscle health across aging, cancer, critical illness, diabetes and obesity to consider how muscle health can be better incorporated into clinical nutrition.

Ultimately, the authors propose that “muscle health should be recognized as a central and measurable target of clinical nutrition rather than a secondary or downstream outcome.”

Journal: Clinical Nutrition

Circadian disruption may open a timing window for cancer metastasis

China Anti-Cancer Association

Circadian rhythms influence not only sleep and metabolism but also the ability of cancer cells to invade, survive in blood, and colonize distant organs.

Journal: Cancer Biology & Medicine

As new EU requirements approach, KTU researchers propose a tool for assessing digital building models

Kaunas University of Technology

Manvydas Mikulėnas, a PhD student at Kaunas University of Technology (KTU), supervised by Professor Lina Šeduikytė, is investigating whether digital building models contain enough data to assess whole-life carbon footprints and circularity – the potential to keep materials and components in use. As part of the research, the team developed a prototype that identifies gaps in model data. Missing information already makes climate impact calculations more difficult and could make it harder to reuse building components in the future.

Journal: Buildings

Pain, psychological factors and physical function closely linked in people with systemic sclerosis

Michigan Medicine - University of Michigan

Chronic pain doesn’t only impact your physical health, but their mental health as well 

Journal: Journal of Scleroderma and Related Disorders

Study finds colonization may have fed the flames of Australia’s recent wildfires

University of Nottingham

Colonial land-use change may have helped fuel Australia’s current wildfire crisis, according to a new study from environmental researchers in the UK and Australia.

Journal: Nature

Objective: Improving control of real vehicle emissions

Universitat Politècnica de València

Helping European regulations to reflect better the actual pollution levels produced by vehicles when driving on the road. This is the aim of a study by the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV), which analyses real-world driving data to evaluate new emissions monitoring tools. Its findings have been published in Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment

Journal: Transportation Research Part D Transport and Environment

Korea University Ansan Hospital research team suggested a new paradigm for diabetes management

Korea University College of Medicine

A research team led by Dr. Lee Da young, Dr. Nan Hee Kim of the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism (Department of Internal Medicine, Ansan Hospital), Dr. Lee Heon-jeong of the Department of Psychiatry (Anam Hospital), and Dr. Lee Jung-been of the Division of Computer Science and Engineering (Sun Moon University) announced research results indicating that circadian rhythms (biorhythms) are closely related to blood glucose control in patients with type 2 diabetes.

Journal: Metabolism

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