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Medicine & Health

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 31-May-2026 12:15 ET (31-May-2026 16:15 GMT/UTC)

Mount Sinai experts to present new research on AI model that predicts lung nodule risk, impact of air pollution during pregnancy, and more at ATS 2026 International Conference

The Mount Sinai Hospital / Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Meeting Announcement

Doctors and researchers available for interview on breaking news and trending topics in respiratory medicine

Meeting: ATS 2026 International Conference

Violence against women remains high — particularly for marginalized groups

University of California - Berkeley
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Rates of violence against women have remained largely unchanged in California for nearly two decades, with Black and multiracial women facing the highest risks, a sweeping new analysis by UC Berkeley public health researchers has found.

Black women under age 65 were at the highest risk of violence, researchers found. Across all ages, assault injury rates among Black women were 3.8 times those of white women. Notably, the group at greatest risk of violence over age 65 shifted to multiracial women, signaling how vulnerability evolves throughout one’s life.

Journal: American Journal of Preventive Medicine

Oral GLP-1s without fasting or reduced efficacy

Duke University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Biomedical engineers at Duke University have developed a new approach to delivering GLP-1 medications orally that does not require fasting and maintains their efficacy. The technique could also be useful for any pharmaceutical based on peptides such as insulin or treatments for irritable bowel syndrome, HIV and osteoporosis.

Journal: Cell Biomaterials
Funder: Air Force Office of Scientific Research

'Forever chemicals' found throughout Solent food web as researchers call for stronger regulation

University of Portsmouth
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Current laws are not doing enough to protect the environment or public health against toxic per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), warns a new study.

PFAS are a family of nearly 15,000 synthetic chemicals used in everyday products since the 1950s, from non-stick cookware and waterproof clothing to firefighting foam. Because they are extremely resistant to breaking down, they build up in the environment and in living organisms, earning their nickname 'forever chemicals'.

New research, the latest in an ongoing partnership between the University of Portsmouth and the Marine Conservation Society tested for PFAS in the Solent, a stretch of water between Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight.

Journal: Marine Environmental Research

Technology that breaks down barriers in parasports wins Best Paper Award at CHI

Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
Grant and Award Announcement

Harvard’s Visual Computing Group developed BRIDGE, a simulation system that converts standard standing-basketball footage into realistic wheelchair-basketball videos.

Meeting: ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

One in five pregnancies miss timely syphilis screening in Ontario

Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Congenital syphilis is entirely preventable—yet new research shows critical gaps in prenatal screening that are leaving some infants at risk. With funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (Institute of Population and Public Health), researchers from ICES and Queen’s University found that one in five pregnancies in Ontario did not receive syphilis screening in the first trimester. Furthermore, delayed screening was more common among equity-deserving populations.

Journal: Canadian Medical Association Journal

Kids who take risks at play make faster, smarter decisions in traffic

University of British Columbia
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Children who take more risks on the playground make safe decisions more quickly when crossing a busy street. That’s the central finding of a study that put 424 children aged seven to 11 from Norway and Canada through two virtual-reality tasks—essentially video game-style simulations they experienced through a headset while moving around a real gym. In one, children explored a virtual balancing structure with different height levels. In the other, they had to decide when it was safe to cross a street with oncoming traffic. The researchers tracked how willing each child was to take risks during play, then looked at how those same children performed when the ‘stakes’ were higher.

Journal: Journal of Environmental Psychology
Funder: Research Council of Norway

$500,000 Gruber Genetics Prize Awarded to Alan G. Hinnebusch for discoveries in the integrated stress response

Yale University
Grant and Award Announcement

The 2026 Gruber Genetics Prize is being awarded to Alan G Hinnebusch, PhD, a Distinguished Investigator at the National Institutes of Health, for his pioneering work that established both the paradigm and the detailed mechanism of translational control that underlies the Integrated Stress Response, a pivotal mechanism whereby eukaryotic cells reprogram protein synthesis under stress.

In a series of forward genetics screens in budding yeast, Hinnebusch identified mutations in the kinase Gcn2, which phosphorylates the key translation initiation factor eIF2, and Gcn4, a key transcription factor that controls genes involved in amino acid biosynthesis.

Hinnebusch demonstrated that the phosphorylation of eIF2 suppresses global protein synthesis and selectively induces the master transcription factor Gcn4. This translational control mechanism is broadly conserved from yeast to humans.

Hinnebusch’s work has led to a greater understanding of how cells respond to stressors such as amino acid starvation and viral infections. Dysregulation of the integrated stress response has been linked to neurodegeneration, metabolic disorders and cancer.

“Brain signatures whisper warnings:” Researchers identify age 9 as critical turning point for anxiety and depression

Elsevier
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A longitudinal study tracking children over a period of seven years identified distinct brain-wave patterns emerging from age 9 can forecast a child’s vulnerability to anxiety or depression by age 13. These predictive markers reveal divergent, hemisphere-specific neurodevelopmental trajectories. Anxiety is linked to activity on the right side of the brain, while depression is tied to the left. The findings from the novel study in Biological Psychiatry, published by Elsevier, provide a robust, externally validated foundation for early detection and targeted precision prevention.

Journal: Biological Psychiatry
Funder: STI 2030—Major Projects, National Natural Science Foundation of China, Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities

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