This paper to be published in Science reveals a surprising new role for immune cells in regulating blood sugar.

Key Findings: Immune cells migrate from the intestine to the pancreas during periods of low energy, like intermittent fasting or exercise.

This migration triggers glucagon release, helping to stabilise blood sugar levels.

These results uncover a remarkable, previously unknown “three-way conversation” between the nervous, immune, and hormonal systems.

Why it matters:

Shows that the immune system not only fights infections but also actively maintains metabolic balance, enabling the body to handle fasting and intense exercise more efficiently.

Opens doors to new therapies targeting diabetes, obesity, and even cancer, since some cancers hijack metabolic pathways—including glucagon—to fuel their growth.

Researchers at The University of Texas at El Paso have been awarded a $2.8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to explore the neurobiological mechanisms behind drug-taking behaviors and addiction. The study will focus on striosomes, clusters of cells within the brain that play a pivotal role in decision-making,

The National Institute of Mental Health has awarded a significant grant of $1.5 million to Jianyang Du, PhD, of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, for a research study aimed at uncovering the cellular and molecular mechanisms that lead to neurological disorders caused by long COVID-19.

A new report from University of Houston optometry researchers shows the benefit of wearing contact lenses for slowing myopia has a lasting effect – good news since 50% of the world (5 billion people) will be nearsighted by 2050.  

Nebraska scientists have taken a significant step toward bringing to market a new way to target therapeutic drugs to specific locations in the body. The strategy, which uses universal milk exosomes to transport cargo to human cells, would overcome one of the major flaws of current drug delivery approaches, where therapeutics reach beyond diseased cells to healthy parts of the body. Chemotherapy patients, for example, often suffer compromised immune function, hair loss and gastrointestinal upset because their therapeutics reach beyond targeted cells. Minovacca, a startup company recently incorporated by Janos Zempleni and Jiantao Guo of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, would commercialize use of universal milk exosomes, natural nanoparticles found in milk to deliver therapeutics, gene editing tools plasmids and more to targeted locations in the human body. The technique also offers new avenues to develop treatments for rare diseases. 

Is it possible to feed the planet in a healthy way while reducing the use of land and water? A study conducted by researchers from the Glob3science Lab of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Politecnico di Milano and published in Nature Sustainability, proposes a global model that makes the best use of agricultural and water resources, making the adoption of the EAT-Lancet universal reference diet a sustainable possibility.