EurekAlert! News by Subject: Medicine & Health

Medicine & Health

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 12-Jun-2026 19:16 ET (12-Jun-2026 23:16 GMT/UTC)

22-Apr-2026

TGR Haas F1 Team, UChicago Medicine introduce first-of-its-kind study on elite team performance

University of Chicago Medical Center
Business Announcement

Pioneering research will examine physical, cognitive and psychological impact of a motorsport race season

22-Apr-2026

Fighting oral cancer with bioengineered chewing gum

University of Pennsylvania
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, a common type of mouth and throat cancer, can be aggressive and often has poor outcomes, especially when diagnosed at advanced stages. But new research led by Henry Daniell of the School of Dental Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania shows that antiviral and antibacterial chewing gums reduce the levels of three microbes linked to worse outcomes in oral cancers, paving the way for more effective and affordable therapies.

Journal: Scientific Reports
Funder: National Institutes of Health, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

22-Apr-2026

New insights into how bacteria manage DNA

Baylor College of Medicine
Peer-Reviewed Publication

New analytical methods developed at Baylor College of Medicine and collaborating institutions have increased our understanding of how bacteria manage DNA. The methods enabled researchers to uncover how the sequence, physical shape and flexibility of DNA guide the activity of an enzyme called DNA gyrase, which used to get all the credit for managing DNA. Their work uncovers that certain attributes of DNA are major players in this game. The study, which appeared in Nature Communications, has implications for antibiotic design.

Journal: Nature Communications

22-Apr-2026

Deceptive ovarian cancer case mimics pelvic abscess, delaying diagnosis in postmenopausal woman

Impact Journals LLC
Peer-Reviewed Publication

BUFFALO, NY — April 22, 2026 — A new case report was published in Volume 13 of Oncoscience on March 11, 2026, titled “Deceptive clinical course of mucinous ovarian carcinoma mimicking pelvic abscess in a postmenopausal woman: An exceptional case report.”

Journal: Oncoscience

22-Apr-2026

Reminiscing may ease grief when caring for persons with dementia

Weill Cornell Medicine
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Caring for a family member with dementia can feel like losing a loved one who is still alive, but a new study suggests that revisiting memories together through a simple digital tool can help ease that grief and even strengthen the patient-caregiver bond. Weill Cornell Medicine and University of Southern California investigators have developed and tested the web-based platform, Living Memory Home for Dementia Care Pairs (LMH-4-DCP), in a pilot trial published April 22 in JAMA Network Open.

Journal: JAMA Network Open

22-Apr-2026

Scientists uncover how the intestine balances cell growth and maintenance

Weill Cornell Medicine
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new preclinical study from Weill Cornell Medicine found that the protein caspase-5 (CASP5), long thought to be a foot soldier in the body’s defense against bacterial infection, does not actually help clear invaders the way its close cousin caspase-4 (CASP4) does. Instead, the researchers discovered that CASP5 boosts the signal to proliferate in a population of gut cells that maintains a healthy intestinal lining and replaces injured cells with new, healthy ones.

Journal: Nature

22-Apr-2026

Feeling the urge: Motor and emotional crosstalk for tic generation

Kobe University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

While tics have been considered to result from an aberrant function of the brain’s motor cortex, a Kobe University mouse study has now discovered a connection to the brain’s emotional functions. The result promises a new avenue of research on treatments for Tourette syndrome.

Journal: Cell Reports
Funder: Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Taiju Life Social Welfare Foundation, Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development

22-Apr-2026

Unraveling the genomic roots of Indigenous peoples

Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Published in Nature, the study includes 128 complete genomes and reveals over one million new genetic variants, uncovering a unique genetic diversity with implications for evolution and health.

For the first time, the team has characterized the final migratory wave to South America, 1,300 years ago, and revealed the origin of these populations, with Y-chromosomal ancestry (“Ypykuéra”).

Journal: Nature

22-Apr-2026

Physicians pay the price for taking parental leave, increasing their workload in early pregnancy and returning soon after childbirth

Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Physicians experiencing pregnancy often maintained or increased their workload in the first and second trimesters, then reduced it in the third. The study also found that surgeons returned to work sooner than other specialties after childbirth—typically within about 19 weeks.

Journal: JAMA Network Open