We’re thrilled to announce the 16 distinguished early-career gastroenterologists and hepatologists selected for our 2025-2026 class of AGA Future Leaders. This AGA program cultivates effective leadership skills for professional advancement in AGA and within the field of digestive diseases. 

A research team at Osaka University, Japan has developed a new system to estimate a person’s biological age—a measure of how well their body has aged, rather than just counting the years since birth. Using just five drops of blood, this new method analyzes 22 key steroids and their interactions to provide a more precise health assessment. The team’s breakthrough study, published in Science Advances, offers a potential step forward in personalized health management, allowing for earlier detection of age-related health risks and tailored interventions.

Researchers at The Jackson Laboratory and UConn Health discovered that cancer cells suppress "poison exons" — genetic elements that act as an off switch for protein production — in a key gene called TRA2β, promoting tumor growth. By using antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) to restore poison exon activity, the team effectively reactivated this kill switch, offering a potential new precision therapy for aggressive, hard-to-treat cancers.

 

In Nature Neuroscience, UConn School of Medicine researchers have revealed a new scientific clue that could unlock the key cellular pathway leading to devastating neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).