The origins of Alzheimer’s remain contentious, but a new study suggests the disease may emerge as two key proteins compete inside brain cells.
Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia, has long been associated with the build-up of two proteins in the brain: amyloid-beta and tau.
This new study ties those two together, offering a “unifying theory” that, according to the team of chemists proposing it, resolves some conflicting ideas about Alzheimer’s.
Systemic candidiasis is an opportunistic fungal infection that has been difficult to treat effectively. Research published in a paper in the April edition of Cell Host & Microbe suggests that immune metabolic reprogramming could be a new strategy to fight the infection rather than developing another specific antifungal medication.
The fungus Candida albicans causes infections that range from superficial on the skin and nails to invasive into organs and the bloodstream. In recent decades, systemic candidiasis has increased due to more patients with immunosuppression from disease or treatments, prolonged antibiotic exposure, and certain conditions such as kidney disease. Management of systemic candidiasis has become more difficult because of antifungal drug resistance, limited early diagnostic tools, and absence of approved fungal vaccines.
According to Partha Biswas, DVM, Ph.D., lead author of the paper, and a Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology in the Renaissance School of Medicine (RSOM) at Stony Brook University, these challenges have become roadblocks to treating systemic candidiasis and illustrate the need for new and different therapeutic strategies.
If you have a knee replacement, imagine pointing your phone at your knee and pulling up an app that tells you how much stress the artificial joint is experiencing. Knowing the activities that cause the biggest problems—which can lead to a second replacement surgery—would be invaluable. Research led by Binghamton University is closer to making this technology a reality.
Professor Shahrzad “Sherry” Towfighian—a faculty member from the Thomas J. Watson College of Engineering and Applied Science’s Department of Mechanical Engineering—has worked toward “smart-knee” tech over the past decade.
According to the American College of Rheumatology, nearly 800,000 total knee replacements are done every year in the U.S., and that number is expected to rise sharply by 2030 as the population ages and sports injuries become more common.
Online now: Body-wide multi-omic counteraction of aging with GLP-1R agonism: (Cell Metabolism 37, 2362–2380.e1–e8; December 2, 2025)
Online now: (Cell Metabolism 37, 2362–2380.e1–e8; December 2, 2025)
Following publication, Steve Horvath and colleagues at the Clock Foundation alerted us to a platemap error in the DNA methylation (DNAm) data. Our investigation pinpointed the potential source of this error. We provided samples on 96-well plates in a row-wise orientation instead of the column-wise orientation specified in the Clock Foundation’s protocol. Subsequently, incorrect assignment of metadata for 36 samples (out of 459) that contributed data to the paper likely occurred during the transposition and rearrangement of a subset of samples on two incompletely filled plates prior to the assay. Working with Clock Foundation colleagues, we have corrected the metadata for 33 samples and discarded 3 samples for which we could not retrieve the metadata with total certainty.
This error impacted DNAm data for the following tissues:
A team led by principal investigators Bobo Dang and Ting Zhou at Westlake University/Westlake Laboratory have developed a high-throughput platform for engineering fast-acting covalent protein therapeutics. Their study, titled “A high-throughput selection system for fast-acting covalent protein drugs” published in Science, opens new avenues for next-generation biologics.
Covalent small-molecule drugs have shown great success in cancer therapy by forming irreversible bonds with their targets. This has inspired efforts to extend covalent strategies to protein therapeutics, especially engineered miniproteins. However, their development is limited by a kinetic mismatch: Miniproteins are rapidly cleared in vivo, whereas covalent bond formation is typically slow. In addition, high-throughput platforms for systematically optimizing covalent protein reactivity have been lacking.
To address this challenge, the researchers proposed that precise spatial positioning of chemical warheads within protein scaffolds could enable molecular preorganization, thereby accelerating covalent bond formation without increasing intrinsic reactivity.
As part of the JCI’s Review Series on Neurodegeneration, Sonja W. Scholz and colleagues highlight key genomic technologies advancing diagnosis and research in neurodegeneration.
1Neurodegenerative Diseases Research Section, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke;
2Neurogenetics Branch, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke; and.
3Neuromuscular Diseases Research Section, National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
Imagine treating back pain not with surgery, not with opioids—but by using your own stem cells to repair the damage at its source.
Lance Alstodt is President, CEO, and Chairman of BioRestorative Therapies, Inc. (https://biorestorative.com/), a publicly traded regenerative medicine company focused on developing stem cell-based therapies to treat highly prevalent conditions, including chronic lower back pain and metabolic disorders.
With more than 25 years of experience across healthcare investment banking, medical technology, and company building, Lance brings a unique perspective at the intersection of science and capital markets. Prior to joining BioRestorative, he was the founder and CEO of MedVest Consulting, advising healthcare companies on growth strategy, M&A, and capital formation.
Earlier in his career, Lance held senior leadership roles at firms including Leerink Partners, Oppenheimer & Co., Bank of America Merrill Lynch, and JPMorgan Chase & Co., where he specialized in healthcare and medical technology transactions.
At BioRestorative, Lance is leading the development of innovative cell therapies such as BRTX-100, an autologous mesenchymal stem cell therapy currently in Phase 2 trials for chronic lumbar disc disease, aiming to offer a non-opioid, non-surgical solution to one of the most widespread causes of disability worldwide.
#StemCells #RegenerativeMedicine #BackPainRelief #Biotech #HealthcareInnovation #MedicalBreakthrough #ChronicPain #BioTech #FutureOfMedicine #StemCellTherapy #DegenerativeDiscDisease #PainManagement #HealthTech #BiotechStocks #Longevity #MedicalInnovation #CellTherapy #NonSurgicalTreatment #OpioidCrisis #SciencePodcast #HealthcareRevolution
Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists are incretin analogues that promote glucose-mediated insulin release and are used to treat type 2 diabetes mellitus and obesity. GLP-1 receptor agonists and GLP-1 and glucose-dependent insulinotropic peptide agonists have several mechanisms of action, including reduction of gastric emptying, inhibition of glucagon secretion, beneficial changes in the intestinal microbiome, and direct effects on hypothalamic nuclei to enhance satiety (which promotes weight loss). Beyond the impressive effects of GLP-1 receptor agonists on blood glucose levels and body weight, large-scale randomized, controlled trials have shown that GLP-1 receptor agonists reduce cardiovascular risk and slow progression to renal failure in persons at high risk and those with type 2 diabetes.