Researchers at the University of Vienna have developed fluorescent peptide tracers that can simultaneously visualise and activate the oxytocin receptor. This receptor–also known as the love/bonding hormone receptor–plays a key role in processes related to social behaviour, health and disease. These tracers create new possibilities for imaging and functional analysis in various biological systems–with far-reaching implications for fundamental research as well as for breast cancer diagnostics and therapy. The development of the tracers is described in the current issue of the renowned journal Angewandte Chemie, International Edition, and the tracers have recently been patented.

Changing habits like quitting smoking or managing stress is hard – but crucial. Motivational interviewing (MI), a proven counseling method that sparks internal motivation, works well but isn’t widely used due to time and training demands. Now, AI tools like ChatGPT are stepping in, simulating MI conversations anytime, anywhere. A new review shows these tools are promising and well-received, but questions remain: Do they truly reflect MI’s core principles? Can they drive real, lasting change? The answer could reshape digital health interventions.

A new AI can fill in missing sensor data for fusion systems, offering even more detail than the real-world sensor could have provided. The AI, known as Diag2Diag, could prove essential for commercial fusion energy production by helping to reduce costs and ensure reliability. Diag2Diag also provided new support for a leading theory about controlling plasma disruptions, bringing us closer to using fusion to generate electricity for the power grid. Researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and Princeton University were part of an international team behind the research, which was recently published in Nature Communications.

As city dwellers may know, escaping to the beach can provide a much-needed change of scenery or a mental reset. Historically, some doctors even prescribed trips to the sea to treat diseases. And now, research published in ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology Letters provides another reason to visit the coast. A pilot study found that urban air contained pathogenic strains of Candida yeast that were absent in coastal air samples, revealing a potential transmission method.

Seoul National University College of Engineering announced that a research team led by Professor Sunghoon Kwon from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, in collaboration with Professor Eun Ju Lee from the Department of Biomedical Sciences at Seoul National University Hospital and Professor Tae Hyun Kim from the KU-KIST Graduate School of Converging Science and Technology at Korea University, has successfully developed a rapid sterility test (NEST: Nanoparticle-based Enrichment and rapid Sterility Test) that can determine the sterility of pharmaceuticals within a single day—dramatically shortening the conventional 14-day testing process.

 

The research findings were published on October 1st in Nature Biomedical Engineering, one of the world’s most prestigious journals in the field of biomedical engineering.