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Medicine & Health

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 30-May-2026 01:15 ET (30-May-2026 05:15 GMT/UTC)

Researchers discover that a hormone can access the brain by hitchhiking

Touro University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

While examining how exercise affects hormone transport, researchers at Touro University Nevada discovered that extracellular vesicles (EVs) - a communications system within our bloodstream - can carry the hormone precursor proopiomelanocortin (POMC) across human blood vessel barriers, including blood-brain barrier models, significantly more efficiently than POMC on its own.

Because the blood-brain barrier blocks so many existing therapies, this mechanism could have meaningful implications for future approaches to drug delivery, pain management, metabolic disorders, and stress response.

Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Blood test may help identify which colon cancer patients benefit from NSAIDs

Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A blood test could help doctors decide which patients with colon cancer should receive anti-inflammatory medication along with chemotherapy after surgery, according to new study in JAMA Oncology. Based on data from an Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology study, this finding could lead to more personalized treatments and better outcomes for patients.

Journal: JAMA Oncology
Funder: Karen Guo Colon Cancer Fund, Project P, Douglas Gray Woodruff Chair in Colorectal Research Fund, Stone Research Fund, Pfizer, Natera

Researchers see dramatic drop in HIV-infected immune cells in patient after cancer treatment received

Johns Hopkins Medicine
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Advancements in HIV/AIDS research, drug development and clinical practice since the 1980s have made it possible for people living with HIV to lead long, productive lives and keep the virus in check at undetectable levels and nontransmissible as long as therapy is maintained. However, a cure ― completely ridding the body of the virus — has only been documented in a handful of patients who underwent complex and high-risk bone marrow transplants for life-threatening blood cancers such as leukemia or lymphoma.

Journal: Journal of Clinical Investigation

Support for parents with infants at pediatric check-ups leads to better reading and math skills in elementary school

NYU Langone Health / NYU Grossman School of Medicine
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Guiding parents to have pretend play and read aloud with their babies increased parental support of their children’s cognitive development and academic skills by the time they turned six—especially for families facing poverty.

Journal: PEDIATRICS

UTHealth Houston, in collaboration with UTMB Health, awarded $50 million by the state of Texas to lead ibogaine clinical trials

University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
Grant and Award Announcement

UTHealth Houston, in collaboration with The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB Health), has been awarded $50 million from the Texas Health and Human Services Commission to lead a collaborative two-year, multicenter research trial that will evaluate the effect of ibogaine on patients suffering from addiction, traumatic brain injury, and other behavioral health conditions.

The UC3M’s new supercomputer ranks among the world’s top 15% most powerful systems in the IO500

Universidad Carlos III de Madrid
Business Announcement

The Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) inaugurated today its Scientific Computing Center (C3), a new state-of-the-art supercomputing facility designed to support R&D&I projects with high demands in computation, storage and data processing. This supercomputer, ranked 81st worldwide according to the IO500 ranking, reinforces the University’s commitment to scientific and technological excellence and will be available to the UC3M research community, other research centers, and interested companies. The C3 will represent a major advance in socially impactful research in fields such as aeronautics, biology, and health sciences, among others.

Funder: Agencia Estatal de Investigación, European Regional Development Fund

World's smallest programmable robot perform tasks

University of Michigan
Peer-Reviewed Publication

The world's smallest fully programmable, autonomous robots have debuted at the University of Pennsylvania, sporting a brain developed at the University of Michigan.

Journal: Science Robotics
Funder: National Science Foundation

UT Health Sciences researchers demonstrate breakthroughs in cancer treatment quality through AI-enhanced data analytics

University of Tennessee Health Science Center
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Cancer researchers at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center have published three groundbreaking studies demonstrating how advanced artificial intelligence and population health analytics can identify and address barriers to quality cancer care.

Funder: Tennessee Department of Health

Tropical disease oroya fever: Elucidation of disease mechanism opens possibility for novel therapy

Goethe University Frankfurt
Peer-Reviewed Publication

The bacterial pathogen Bartonella bacilliformis causes in South America one of the most dangerous infectious diseases known: the so-called “Oroya fever.” Without antibiotic treatment, 90 percent of the infected patients will die, as the pathogen destroys red blood cells. Researchers at University Medicine Frankfurt have now clarified how the pathogen triggers this hemolytic disease. In laboratory experiments, they were even able to inhibit the destruction of red blood cells. The results open up a possible avenue for developing a novel therapy against this often fatal infectious disease.

Journal: Nature Communications