EurekAlert! News by Subject: Medicine & Health - News by Subject: Medicine & Health

Medicine & Health

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 22-Dec-2025 05:11 ET (22-Dec-2025 10:11 GMT/UTC)

Theatre improves the emotional symptoms of people with Parkinson's

Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC)
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A research team at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), working with the Hospital Sant Pau in Barcelona, has shown that theatre can improve the emotional well-being of people with Parkinson's disease. The study, "Efficacy of a theatre-based intervention in patients with Parkinson's disease" (2025), which has been published in open access in the journal Arts & Health, has provided the first evaluation of the combined effects of active and passive participation in theatre activities on these patients' emotional and cognitive health and quality of life. The researchers were also supported by the Teatre Lliure.

AI predicts patients likely to die of sudden cardiac arrest

Johns Hopkins University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new AI model is much better than doctors at identifying patients likely to experience cardiac arrest.

The linchpin is the system’s ability to analyze long-underused heart imaging, alongside a full spectrum of medical records, to reveal previously hidden information about a patient’s heart health.

Journal: Nature Cardiovascular Research
Funder: NIH/National Institutes of Health, NIH/National Institutes of Health, NIH/National Institutes of Health, Leducq Foundation

Gene therapy restored hearing in deaf patients

Karolinska Institutet
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Gene therapy can improve hearing in children and adults with congenital deafness or severe hearing impairment, a new study involving researchers at Karolinska Institutet reports. Hearing improved in all ten patients, and the treatment was well-tolerated. The study was conducted in collaboration with hospitals and universities in China and is published in the journal Nature Medicine.

Journal: Nature Medicine

Myth busted: Men don’t sleep through baby cries after all

Aarhus University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

New study debunks the myth of women's special ability to hear baby crying. Researchers found only minimal differences between men's and women's hearing, but mothers still handle nighttime childcare three times as often as fathers.

Journal: Emotion

Bioengineered tumor model offers new tool in fight against peritoneal cancers

National University of Singapore College of Design and Engineering
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers in the College of Design and Engineering (CDE) at the National University of Singapore and the National Cancer Centre Singapore (NCCS) have developed a hydrogel-based platform that extends the survival of patient-derived tumour tissues in the lab. The platform better replicates the tumour’s natural environment, allowing for more accurate evaluation of cancer drugs - particularly for peritoneal metastases, an advanced stage for abdominal and pelvic cancers. The study, published in Advanced Materials, could pave the way for more personalised and effective treatment strategies.

Journal: Advanced Materials

A map for single-atom catalysts

ETH Zurich
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers at ETH have used nuclear magnetic resonance to find out what other atoms are bound to the platinum atoms in a single-atom catalyst and where they are spatially located.

The precise knowledge of the atomic environments can help produce single-atom catalysts that are more uniform, and thus more effective.

This also enables very efficient and resource-saving reaction accelerators for sustainable chemicals.

Journal: Nature

Universal amplification-free RNA detection with CRISPR-Cas10 and graphene field-effect transistors

Shanghai Jiao Tong University Journal Center
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Amplification-free, highly sensitive, and specific nucleic acid detection is crucial for health monitoring and diagnosis. The type III CRISPR-Cas10 system, which provides viral immunity through CRISPR-associated protein effectors, enables a new amplification-free nucleic acid diagnostic tool. In this study, we develop a CRISPR-graphene field-effect transistors (GFETs) biosensor by combining the type III CRISPR-Cas10 system with GFETs for direct nucleic acid detection. This biosensor exploits the target RNA-activated continuous ssDNA cleavage activity of the dCsm3 CRISPR-Cas10 effector and the high charge density of a hairpin DNA reporter on the GFET channel to achieve label-free, amplification-free, highly sensitive, and specific RNA detection. The CRISPR-GFET biosensor exhibits excellent performance in detecting medium-length RNAs and miRNAs, with detection limits at the aM level and a broad linear range of 10^-15 to 10^-11 M for RNAs and 10^-15 to 10^-9 M for miRNAs. It shows high sensitivity in throat swabs and serum samples, distinguishing between healthy individuals (N = 5) and breast cancer patients (N = 6) without the need for extraction, purification, or amplification. This platform mitigates risks associated with nucleic acid amplification and cross-contamination, making it a versatile and scalable diagnostic tool for molecular diagnostics in human health.

Journal: Nano-Micro Letters