Bonn, January 14, 2026 – Researchers from Bonn and Basel have developed a new method to equip human retinal organoids – small, lab-grown models of the retina – with artificial blood vessel structures. These vascularized retinal organoids, called vROs, preserve inner retinal cell types and for the first time, form fully functional light-signal pathways from photoreceptors to retinal ganglion cells.

A novel liquid biopsy technology is set to advance cancer diagnostics and monitoring by overcoming the long-standing challenge of simultaneously achieving high sensitivity, broad coverage, and simple workflow. A team of researchers from Genomill Health Inc., the University of Turku, and the TYKS Turku University Hospital, Finland, benchmarked this new method, Bridge Capture, against two market-leading tools Their analysis, appearing in The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics, published by Elsevier, highlights the method’s simplicity, cost-efficiency, reproducibility, and scalability, making it well suited for routine clinical testing, disease monitoring, and treatment selection.

Harvard researchers have found that silica, long thought to lack the right properties for optical metasurfaces, can sometimes outperform standard high-index materials like titanium dioxide.

A child’s blood pressure may be influenced by exposure to air pollution before and shortly after birth, according to a new study from the NIH-funded Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program. The study focused on fine particulate matter (PM_2.5) and nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), common pollutants from vehicles, power plants, and other industrial sources.