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Medicine & Health

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 18-Jun-2026 10:16 ET (18-Jun-2026 14:16 GMT/UTC)

Gut ‘Primes’ Pathogenic T Cells Responsible for Neuroinflammation in Multiple Sclerosis

Keio University Global Research Institute
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Gut-derived signals have been implicated in autoimmune inflammation, yet the underlying cellular mechanisms remain poorly understood. A recent study from Japan identifies a conserved gut–central nervous system axis through which gut signals contribute to autoimmune neuroinflammation. These findings suggest that targeting T cell activation in the gut may offer a strategy for limiting neuroinflammation in debilitating diseases like multiple sclerosis.

Journal: Science Immunology
Funder: Japan Science and Technology Agency, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development, Sakaguchi Memorial Foundation, Miyarisan Pharmaceuticals, KGRI Challenge Grant

Mount Sinai scientists recognized with Global AI Prize for novel Alzheimer’s disease research platform

The Mount Sinai Hospital / Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Grant and Award Announcement

A team led by Dr. Kuan-lin Huang, PhD, has been named a winner of the $1 million Alzheimer’s Insights AI Prize, the Alzheimer’s Disease Data Initiative (AD Data Initiative) announced on March 20. Dr. Huang is an Associate Professor of Genetics and Genomic Sciences at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. The award honors the development of Biomni-AD, an advanced AI-powered “co-scientist” designed to dramatically reduce the time required to generate scientific insights from complex biomedical data. The Mount Sinai team collaborated with partners at Stanford University on the winning project. Originally conceived as a single $1 million award, the competition expanded to recognize two winning teams, doubling the total prize amount to $2 million—reflecting both the exceptional quality of submissions and the urgency of advancing new approaches to Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.

New survey on strike at JBS Meatpacking Facility shows most Americans prioritize workers’ rights over beef production

Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine
Reports and Proceedings

A new survey by Morning Consult and the nonprofit Physicians Committee finds that in response to the workers’ strike at one of the country’s largest slaughterhouses, a JBS facility in Colorado, a large percentage, 71%, of Americans say workers have the right to strike as opposed to staying on the job to continue beef production. In a separate survey question, younger Americans favor the transition of slaughterhouses to produce plant-based protein. The Physicians Committee is a nonprofit health advocacy organization with 17,000 physician members nationwide.

TENS improves pain and fatigue in fibromyalgia

University of Iowa Health Care
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Adding TENS (transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation) to outpatient physical therapy reduced movement-based pain and fatigue in patients with fibromyalgia, and the effects lasted for at least six months, according to a new study led by researchers at University of Iowa Health Care.

Journal: JAMA Network Open

Implantable ‘living pharmacy’ produces multiple drugs inside the body

Northwestern University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Living pharmacies use engineered cells to produce medicines inside the body. System integrates the cells with oxygen-producing bioelectronics in one wireless, fully implantable device. In animal studies, the device stably produced three different biologic drugs with three different half lives.

Journal: Device
Funder: Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Breakthrough T1D

Strong patient diversity in biobanks reveals new genetic links to disease risk, treatment response

University of California - Los Angeles Health Sciences
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new study by UCLA Health published in Cell presents a major advancement in the future of personalized medicine by pinpointing new connections between people’s genes, disease risk and medicine response by using a clinically well-characterized and diverse population-represented biobank.

Journal: Cell

Lasting income costs of mental and physical illness

JAMA Network
Peer-Reviewed Publication

About The Study: This study estimated income losses from the individual perspective in the 10 years following hospital diagnosis of depression, alcohol use disorder, stroke, and breast cancer from 2000 to 2023 in Denmark. The researchers found that (1) income losses following mental disorder diagnoses were larger than those for physical conditions, though all evaluated diseases led to substantive loss; (2) average losses grew in years following diagnosis, particularly among individuals younger than 40 and those in school, suggesting accumulating disadvantage; and (3) even those outside of the workforce at the time of hospital diagnosis experienced sustained future income loss.

Journal: JAMA Health Forum

A long-term and scalable system to record from neural organoids

King's College London
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new brain organoid system helps reduce unwanted variability and scales up experiments for higher throughput drug testing and genetic research.

Journal: Cell Reports Methods

Artificial intelligence learns to make sense of childhood cancer survivors’ health care needs

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
Peer-Reviewed Publication

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital scientists studied how prompting styles influence artificial intelligence’s ability to analyze interviews and identify childhood cancer survivors needing extra support.

Journal: Communications Medicine