EurekAlert! News by Subject: Medicine & Health - Home

Medicine & Health

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 31-May-2026 14:15 ET (31-May-2026 18:15 GMT/UTC)

Ongoing problems with kids’ heart transplant waitlists found in Stanford Medicine-led studies

Stanford Medicine
Peer-Reviewed Publication

More babies and children survive the wait for a heart transplant than in the past, but improvements are due to better medical care, not changes to wait-list rules, a new study finds.

Journal: Journal of the American College of Cardiology

UC Irvine chemists shed light on how age-related cataracts may begin

University of California - Irvine
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Cataracts affect 25 million people in the U.S. and over 65 million people globally.

These numbers are expected to rise as populations age, and life expectancy increases.

NIH-supported work offers new insight into the earliest steps of cataract formation at the molecular level.

Journal: Biophysical Reports

SFU study sheds light on clotting risks for female astronauts

Simon Fraser University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Just a few days in simulated microgravity can subtly change the way women’s blood clots, sparking bigger questions about health monitoring protocols for astronauts who can spend six months or more in orbit, say Simon Fraser University researchers. First reported in 2020, an International Space Station mission detected an unexpected blood clot in a female astronaut’s jugular vein. To date, space-health research has had more male participants but with the number of female astronauts on the rise, a new SFU–European Space Agency study examined how microgravity affects blood clotting specifically in women.

Journal: Acta Astronautica

Georgia Tech receives up to $21.8M award in ‘unprecedented’ push to treat lymphatic disease

Georgia Institute of Technology
Grant and Award Announcement

Georgia Tech has been awarded up to $21.8 million from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) to develop a first-of-its-kind therapy for lymphatic disease, a condition that has long lacked effective treatment options. Led by Woodruff Professors Susan Napier Thomas and J. Brandon Dixon, the project aims to move beyond symptom management and address the disease itself, offering hope to patients who often experience chronic pain and disfigurement. Funded through ARPA-H’s GLIDE program, the initiative will focus on advancing the therapy toward initial human trials, including for rare pediatric conditions. The award highlights Georgia Tech’s leadership in engineering-driven healthcare innovation and its commitment to improving care for underserved patient populations.

Researchers develop novel Alzheimer's treatment to sidestep immune side effects

Chinese Academy of Sciences Headquarters
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A team led by researchers from the Institute of Zoology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has developed a novel therapeutic strategy termed synthetic peptide-programmed lysosome-targeting chimeras (SPYTACs).

Journal: Cell

Trends in metabolic and bariatric surgery use during the GLP-1 receptor agonist era

JAMA Network
Peer-Reviewed Publication

About The Study: Among metabolic and bariatric surgery (MBS)-eligible patients in a national sample, semaglutide and tirzepatide prescriptions increased dramatically between 2018 and 2025, whereas MBS use rates declined substantially beginning in 2023. Stratification by procedure type and body mass index (BMI) category suggests that recent shifts in MBS use may be more pronounced in certain patient subgroups (e.g., those seeking sleeve gastrectomy or with lower BMIs).

Journal: JAMA Surgery

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