A new study, led by IIASA researchers and coauthored by UNEP colleagues, finds that if governments fully implement their methane reduction plans, they could reduce global emissions by 11% between 2020 and 2030. This would reverse the current trend of increasing methane emissions, but would not be sufficient to achieve the goal of the Global Methane Pledge. A detailed assessment shows that a 22% reduction could be possible at a relatively low cost, while a 30% reduction would nearly exhaust the mitigation potential achievable with existing technology.   

Researchers in India have used an AI-based molecule generation platform to design a novel compound that computationally blocks one of the most conserved and functionally essential enzymes of SARS-CoV-2 — the main protease — with drug-like properties, no predicted toxicity, and a binding profile that compares favourably with clinically studied inhibitors, making it a candidate worth pursuing for further laboratory validation.

Researchers adapted an adult x-ray model for newborns with data from 30 hospitals, using a method designed to keep each hospital’s data in place.

A research team from the Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, has developed a hypoxia-responsive, tumor-penetrating lipoplex that can generate NKG2D CAR-T and NK cells directly within solid tumors. This dual-controlled strategy enables local CAR generation in triple-negative breast cancer via targeting GRM4 and utilizing a hypoxia-inducible promoter, significantly enhancing antitumor immunity while minimizing off-target expression and inflammatory side effects. This study offers a promising precision strategy to engineer CARs in solid tumors with enhanced safety.

A new review from researchers at Taylor’s University in Malaysia and Ningxia Medical University in China maps how a powerful class of artificial neural networks is being applied across the full breadth of medical imaging, identifies where the technology is delivering real clinical value, and makes the case that closing the gap between promising research results and routine hospital use will require urgent progress on three fronts: making these systems more transparent, more efficient, and more trustworthy.