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Category: health

Invisible threads: How our environment quietly shapes disease

From the air we breathe to the food we eat, we are constantly exposed to thousands of chemicals—yet how these exposures affect our health has remained surprisingly difficult to understand. A new study led by researchers at the CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Network Medicine at the University of Vienna, published in Nature Communications, offers a unifying view: Diverse substances can disrupt the same biological systems and thereby contribute to disease risk in predictable ways.

Environmental pollution is estimated to contribute to around one in six deaths worldwide, but scientists have long struggled to connect specific exposures to specific diseases. One reason is the sheer complexity of the “exposome” —the totality of all environmental influences a person encounters over a lifetime. Traditionally, chemicals have been grouped by their structure or origin, but this says little about what they actually do inside the body. Two nearly identical molecules can have completely different effects, while entirely unrelated substances may trigger the same illness. This has made it difficult to move from observation to understanding.

A new study, led by Jörg Menche, CeMM adjunct PI and director of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Network Medicine, and first authored by former Ph.D. student at CeMM and LBI NetMed (now a postdoc at Harvard Medical School) Salvo Danilo Lombardo, takes a different route: Instead of asking what chemicals look like, the researchers asked what they do. They compiled nearly 10,000 environmental exposures, ranging from pollutants and food components to medications, and mapped how each affects human genes. The result is a large-scale network that links exposures based on shared biological effects.

Safety and efficacy of mRNA vaccines: a mechanistic and public health perspective

MRNA vaccines represent a transformative advance in vaccinology, combining rapid development timelines, scalable manufacturing, and strong immunogenicity with a favourable safety profile. Global deployment of mRNA vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic provided an unprecedented real-world evaluation of this platform, with billions of doses administered across diverse populations. In this Review, we critically examine the safety and efficacy of mRNA vaccines from mechanistic, preclinical, clinical, and public health perspectives.

Cognitive flexibility problems may arise months before memory impairment in Alzheimer’s

When most people think about Alzheimer’s disease, memory loss is usually the first thing that comes to mind. Forgetting a loved one’s name, missing appointments or repeatedly misplacing everyday items are often considered early warning signs. But what if the disease begins affecting the brain long before memory problems become noticeable? New research from scientists at Texas A&M Health suggests that another change in brain function may appear even earlier: difficulty adapting when circumstances change.

In a recent study published in Nature Communications, researchers found that animal models with Alzheimer’s-related brain changes developed problems with cognitive flexibility months before they showed signs of memory impairment. Cognitive flexibility refers to the brain’s ability to adjust behavior, learn new rules and adapt when situations change.

“We found that this function was impaired before we could detect deficits in spatial memory,” said neuroscientist Jun Wang, Ph.D., professor in the Texas A&M University Naresh K. Vashisht College of Medicine at Texas A&M Health.

Faulty calcium signaling may drive dry mouth in Down syndrome, raising gum disease risk

Researchers at NYU College of Dentistry have uncovered what may be biologically driving oral health issues unique to Down syndrome. Their study, published in Cell Reports, describes a molecular mechanism—a defect in calcium signaling—behind low saliva production, along with other factors that may contribute to gum disease.

“Understanding the processes responsible for low saliva in Down syndrome and developing therapies to restore salivation could have a transformative impact on the oral and overall health of people with Down syndrome,” said Rodrigo Lacruz, professor of molecular pathobiology at NYU College of Dentistry and the study’s senior author.

Addressing Barriers to Transitioning Pediatric Patients With Epilepsy to Adult Health Care in the United StatesA Narrative Review

Purpose of ReviewAdolescents with childhood-onset epilepsy, along with their families, must navigate a complex constellation of uncertainties related to physical, psychological, and social changes as well as medical and possibly legal ramifications as…

Lab-grown retinal cells show promise for new eye therapies

Biomedical engineers at Duke University have used induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) to grow specialized blood vessel cells critical to retinal health for the first time. When injected into mouse models of retinal disease, these “retinal endothelial cells” integrated into the damaged tissue to regenerate blood vessels and restore retinal function. Researchers also demonstrated the cells’ ability to form functional retinal vascular tissue in a lab-grown environment, providing a pathway to model and research various eye diseases.

The results, published in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering, point toward the potential of using these retinal cells and models to develop new methods for treating vision loss and researching eye disorders.

“Retinal vascular diseases affect millions of people in the US, but our understanding remains limited, hindering our ability to discover and develop new therapeutics,” said Sharon Gerecht, the Paul M. Gross Distinguished Professor and chair of biomedical engineering at Duke. “Using human stem cells, we generated the cells found in retinal blood vessels, paving the way for new therapeutic approaches.”

Wireless biodegradable sensor could help injured knees heal without dangerous overloading

A biodegradable pressure sensor could help people with knee injuries exercise and heal faster, University of Connecticut researchers report in Science Advances. The knee can take a great deal of abuse, thanks to the cartilage that cushions it. But if it’s not moved and exercised enough, the knee stiffens and has poor blood flow. The cartilage can degrade or tear, worsening any injury already there. So people with injured knees have to move in order to heal. The challenge is knowing how much exercise or movement is too much.

To answer that question, UConn College of Engineering professor Thanh Nguyen, along with Ph.D. student Jinyoung Park and other colleagues, developed a pressure sensor that can be placed inside the knee joint and then degrade harmlessly in the body when no longer needed.

“Overloading destroys the cartilage. But if you don’t move and exercise, if you don’t run, walk, jump, you have a very stiff joint with little blood flowing to it,” says Nguyen, a professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, which is a joint effort by the College of Engineering, School of Medicine and School of Dental Medicine. “My lab developed a sensor that can monitor the force in real time.”

H. pylori screening could return fivefold value in gastric cancer prevention

Each unit of cost invested in Helicobacter pylori screening can generate approximately a fivefold return in gastric cancer prevention benefits.

The gastric cancer prevention research team at National Taiwan University Hospital and College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, has pioneered a globally applicable preventive model for gastric cancer control. To inform public health policymaking, the research team developed a globally adaptable decision-tree model to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of H. pylori screening. The findings were published in JAMA on June 1, 2026.

Building on Taiwan’s nationwide fecal immunochemical test-based colorectal cancer screening program, the gastric cancer prevention team has conducted a 10-year randomized clinical trial demonstrating that the additional use of an H. pylori stool antigen test (HPSA) alongside fecal occult blood testing could simultaneously achieve the dual goals of colorectal cancer and gastric cancer prevention. The findings were previously published on Sept. 30, 2024, in JAMA.

Rare inner ear cells point to regenerative hearing treatments

A study by a team of researchers from the Gray Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences at Tel Aviv University offers new hope to millions of people with irreversible hearing loss. The researchers identified a unique biological mechanism that could, in the future, enable the regeneration of sensory hair cells in the inner ear—a process previously thought impossible in humans.

The study was conducted under the leadership of Prof. Karen Avraham, dean of the Gray Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences and Drs. Sarah and Felix Dumont Chair for Research of Hearing Disorders. It was spearheaded by Lama Khalaily, a Tel Aviv University doctoral student, in collaboration with Prof. David Sprinzak of TAU’s Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Shahar Kasirer from Sprinzak’s laboratory, Dr. Litao Tao of Creighton University in Omaha, and additional researchers. The findings are published in the journal Science Advances.

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