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Medicine & Health

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 17-Jun-2026 03:16 ET (17-Jun-2026 07:16 GMT/UTC)

Serotonin reduces ‘belief stickiness,’ which could explain how it works on people with OCD

Brown University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

In exploring how serotonin affects how people learn and adapt to changes, researchers found that the neurotransmitter helps reduce "belief stickiness" — the tendency to get stuck on an old idea despite new contradicting evidence. According to the researchers, the discovery, detailed in Nature Mental Health, holds important implications for the understanding and treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

Journal: Nature Mental Health

DNA repair protein gene gone rogue may unlock new cancer treatments

Penn State
Peer-Reviewed Publication

An overabundance of a common DNA repair protein can mimic the effects of a mutation in the BRCA gene — a genetic flaw linked to hereditary breast and ovarian cancer — even in tumors that test negative for it, according to a new study led by Penn State College of Medicine researchers. The finding raises the possibility of more personalized cancer treatment for patients whose tumors don't carry the genetic mutations doctors typically screen for.

Journal: Nature Communications
Funder: Four Diamonds

UK heat risk leaves vulnerable people dangerously exposed

University of East London
Peer-Reviewed Publication

As temperatures rise across the UK, new research from the University of East London warns that overheating in homes, hospitals and care settings is becoming a major public health threat, with older people and vulnerable groups most at risk. The study finds that current building regulations and heat adaptation measures are failing to keep pace with climate pressures, leaving millions exposed to unsafe indoor temperatures. Researchers are calling for stronger overheating rules, better public guidance and greater integration of heat resilience into housing, healthcare and planning policy.

Journal: Energy Research & Social Science

Researchers develop AI model that maps how genes work together in human cells

The Mount Sinai Hospital / Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Scientists at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have created a new artificial intelligence (AI) model that helps reveal how genes function together inside human cells, offering a powerful new way to understand biology and disease. The study, published in the May 21 online issue of Patterns, a Cell Press Journal [DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.patter.2026.101565], introduces a gene set foundation model (GSFM) designed to learn patterns in how genes are grouped and function across thousands of biological contexts. The work draws inspiration from advances in large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT, which learn how words gain meaning depending on their context. In a similar way, a GSFM learns how genes behave differently depending on their cellular “context.”

Journal: Patterns

Heart failure trajectories after guideline-directed medical therapy

JAMA Network
Peer-Reviewed Publication

About The Study: The findings of this cohort study underscore a gap between evidence and practice. Two-thirds of patients with newly identified heart failure with reduced ejection fraction did not undergo left ventricular ejection fraction reassessment, limiting opportunities to confirm persistence, evaluate reverse remodeling, and identify candidates for treatment. Receipt of guideline-directed medical therapy was modest across groups, even among patients with persistent heart failure with reduced ejection fraction, who derive the greatest benefit.

Journal: JAMA Network Open

Prostate cancer mortality after relabeling low-grade prostate cancer as precancerous

JAMA Network
Peer-Reviewed Publication

About The Study: In this study, dropping the cancer label from grade group (GG)1 prostate disease and redefining GG1 prostate disease as a precancerous lesion led to a net reduction in estimated prostate cancer deaths. Proponents for retaining the cancer label for GG1 prostate disease should argue relabeling would have close to zero effects on screening rates or that other harms outweigh the benefits of reduced prostate cancer mortality.

Journal: JAMA Oncology

Targeting inflammation may help overcome drug resistance in colon cancer

Weill Cornell Medicine
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Chemotherapy drugs that target a common mutation in colorectal cancer rapidly lose efficacy in patients, leading to relapse. According to a new preclinical study by Weill Cornell Medicine and MD Anderson Cancer Center investigators, colorectal tumors often find multiple ways to survive treatment, including additional genetic mutations and activation of cellular pathways typically associated with inflammation and regeneration. Targeting this tumor-specific inflammatory process could enhance the efficacy of some anticancer therapies and prevent drug resistance.

Journal: Cancer Cell

AI helps create miniprotein switches for drug targets

University of Washington School of Medicine/UW Medicine
Peer-Reviewed Publication

G protein-coupled receptors sit in the plasma membrane, the boundary that defines the inside and outside of a living cell. They communicate with nearly every physiological process in our bodies, from the ability to see and smell, to sensing of adrenaline, insulin, nutrients and medicines. Researchers now report using AI to create tiny, computationally designed proteins to activate or block G protein-coupled receptors. The methods used in their study may form a roadmap for future efforts to create new drug candidates for metabolic, inflammatory, and neurological diseases. These approaches would try to target G protein-coupled receptors that have been largely inaccessible to conventional drug discovery.

Journal: Nature
Funder: Austrian Science Fund Erwin Schrödinger Program, BioInnovation Institute Foundation, Novo Nordisk Foundation, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Novo Nordisk, Defense Threat Reduction Agency, Microsoft, Audacious Project, Nordstrom Barrier Institute for Protein Design Directors Fund, The Open Philanthropy Project Universal Flu Vaccine Fund, The Open Philanthropy Project Improving Protein Design Fund, The Wu Tsai Protein Innovation Fund, Cancer Research UK, Department of the Defense and Defense Threat Reduction Agency, U.S. Department of Energy, National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia, U.S. Department of Defense, CureSearch for Children's Cancer, DBT Wellcome Trust India Alliance, ANRF, Department of Biotechnology, Lady Tata Memorial Trust

NIH awards $50 million to UMass Center for Clinical and Translational Science

UMass Chan Medical School
Grant and Award Announcement

The UMass Center for Clinical and Translational Science (UMCCTS) has been awarded a seven-year, $50 million renewal of its Clinical and Translational Sciences Award, along with an associated K12 Scholar program, from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of the National Institutes of Health.