Researchers illuminate how weight loss drugs target the brain and pancreas
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Updates every hour. Last Updated: 31-Dec-2025 16:11 ET (31-Dec-2025 21:11 GMT/UTC)
An international research team from Leibniz-FMP, the University of Oxford, and the University of Birmingham have developed a novel imaging approach to track how popular dual agonist drugs like tirzepatide interact with cells in the pancreas and brain. Published this week in Nature Metabolism, the findings could support the design of more effective treatments for diabetes and obesity.
New model describes multiple sclerosis as a disease continuum with dynamic stages instead of subtypes / Inflammation identified as key determinant of disease course / Approach relevant far beyond MS / Publication led by Medical Center – University of Freiburg in Nature Medicine
There were tens of thousands of human victims of coerced medical research under the German National Socialist regime. An important approach to processing these crimes involves raising awareness of the individual fates of those affected and thus giving them back their names and histories. Professor Dr Patrick Cramer, President of the Max Planck Society, and Professor Dr Bettina Rockenbach, President of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, emphasised this point during a press conference to present the first online database that offers systematic access to the names and biographies of victims of unethical medical research under National Socialism. The database encourages remembrance, research, and historical reflection. It was developed as part of the joint research project “Brain Research at Institutes of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society in the Context of National Socialist Injustices”, which is funded by the Max Planck Society.
In a new observational study, researchers at Lund University in Sweden looked at all children listed for heart transplants in the Nordic countries between 1986 and 2023. A total of 597 children were included in the study, 461 of whom received a transplant. The results show that survival rates have increased significantly over time despite the modest volumes in the region – a development that the researchers attribute to technological advances, advanced technologies and better healthcare practices.
A study analyses the negative effects of stress on the brains of male and female rats and concludes that acute stress induces anxiety-like behaviors, especially in males, while chronic stress is more associated with depressive symptoms.
Too much fat can be unhealthy: how fat cells, so-called adipocytes, develop, is crucial for the function of the fat tissue. That is why a team led by researchers from the University Hospital Bonn (UKB) and the University of Bonn investigated the influence of primary cilia dysfunction on adipocyte precursor cells in a mouse model. They found that overactivation of the Hedgehog signaling pathway causes abnormal development into connective tissue-like cells instead of white fat cells. Their findings have now been published in The EMBO Journal.