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Medicine & Health

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 31-May-2026 09:15 ET (31-May-2026 13:15 GMT/UTC)

Study reveals how gut bacteria and diet can reprogram fat to burn more energy

City of Hope
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Scientists at City of Hope, the Broad Institute and Keio University have discovered how specific gut bacteria work together with diet to flip a metabolic switch — transforming energy‑storing white fat into calorie‑burning beige fat in mice. The study, published today in Nature, shows that a low‑protein diet activates a precise set of gut microbes that send chemical signals throughout the body, prompting fat tissue to burn energy instead of storing it. The findings uncover a previously unknown biological pathway linking diet, the gut microbiome and metabolic health — one that could eventually inform new treatments for obesity, diabetes and related diseases.

Journal: Nature
Funder: Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Stand Up To Cancer, Wellcome Trust and Temasek Trust, Mitsukoshi Health and Welfare Foundation, Chugai Foundation for Innovative Drug Discovery Science, Keio University, nfectious Disease and Microbiome Program at the Broad Institute

Loneliness, anxiety symptoms, depressive symptoms, and suicidal ideation in the all of us dataset

JAMA Network
Peer-Reviewed Publication

About The Study: In this cross-sectional study of 62,685 participants from the All of Us Research Program, loneliness partially mediated the association between anxiety symptoms and suicidal ideation as well as depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation. Targeting and reducing loneliness may present a transdiagnostic approach to arrest the progression from anxiety and depressive symptoms toward suicidal ideation.

Journal: JAMA Network Open

A decision-support system to personalize antidepressant treatment in major depressive disorder

JAMA Network
Peer-Reviewed Publication

About The Study: Compared with usual care, use of the PETRUSHKA tool increased the number of patients still taking their antidepressant at 8 weeks and improved depressive and anxiety symptoms at 24 weeks. However, lack of a double-blind design and the large amount of missing data limit the validity of these results. The PETRUSHKA tool is a web-based clinical decision-support system combining clinical and demographic predictors with patient preferences to personalize antidepressant treatment.

Journal: JAMA

Automated CT scan analysis could fast-track clinical assessments

NIH/Office of the Director
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A research team funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has developed a versatile machine learning model that could one day greatly expand what medical scans can tell us about disease. Scientists used their tool, named Merlin, to assess 3D abdominal computed tomography (CT) scans, accomplishing tasks as simple as identifying anatomical features to as complex as predicting disease onset years in advance. Despite being developed as a general-purpose CT model, Merlin surpassed a gauntlet of similar automated tools in tasks they were specifically built to handle.

Journal: Nature

Treatment with psychedelics may provide a missing link towards long-term PTSD recovery

Elsevier
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is not only characterized by strongly encoded traumatic memories, but also by disrupted coordination across brain networks. New research shows that treatment with psychedelic drugs triggers a large-scale reconfiguration of brain network dynamics driven by the remodeling of myelin—the neuronal insulation layer. The findings from the novel study in Biological Psychiatry, published by Elsevier, show enhancing myelination might be a viable strategy to augment or sustain the therapeutic effects of psychedelic-assisted treatments for PTSD and related disorders.

Journal: Biological Psychiatry
Funder: The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey

Study offers guidance on the therapeutic use of mindfulness, yoga to boost mental health for dementia patients

McGill University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers who undertook a scoping review of literature found that such strategies as keeping sessions under an hour, recruiting family or staff to reinforce program participation, having flexible scheduling and clear routines, as well as holding group sessions, can be particularly helpful to reduce some mental health symptoms of patients living with cognitive decline or dementia.

Journal: Aging & Mental Health
Funder: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada

UCF med students share pediatric research globally

UCF College of Medicine
Meeting Announcement

Three University of Central Florida medical students, who researched better ways to help children with cleft palates and other skull deformities, recently presented their findings to international scientific experts. Fourth-year medical student Hannah Brown, and third-years Leticia Lenkiu and Rose Meltzer presented their research at the biennial International Society of Craniofacial Surgeons (ISCFS) in Shanghai. The society is comprised of surgical leaders from 30 countries worldwide and it focuses on plastic and reconstructive surgeries that correct congenital malformations of the face, jaw, neck and skull.

Meeting: ISCFS 2025

Glucose drives STAT3 activation in colorectal cancer cells, leading to tumor growth

Michigan Medicine - University of Michigan
Peer-Reviewed Publication

In a new study published in Science Signaling, University of Michigan researchers have shown that glucose levels sustain the increased STAT3 activation in colorectal cancer cells.

Their findings suggest that targeting glucose metabolism could inhibit STAT3, leading to novel therapeutic strategies.

Journal: Science Signaling
Funder: GI SPORE Molecular Pathology and BioSample Core, University of Michigan Center for Gastrointestinal Research, U.S. Department of Defense, University of Michigan

Health informatics class gets an AI makeover to better prepare nursing students

George Mason University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Study finds larger learning gains after course redesign using artificial intelligence