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Category: biotech/medical – Page 52

Beyond the brain: Organs help shape the nervous systems that control them

A new Yale study reveals that major organ systems in the body aren’t just passive structures operating on directions from command central—the brain—but instead are active participants in controlling their own functions.

Writing in the journal Nature, a team of researchers led by Yale’s Rui Chang demonstrates how organs develop and maintain their own neural circuitry, which in turn communicates with the brain in a sort of two-way conversation.

The findings provide a new understanding of how the body and brain communicate via networks of neurons embedded inside organs that constitute a mini-nervous system, called “organ intrinsic nervous systems,” which help control critical functions such as digestion, heart rhythm, breathing, insulin secretion, and immune responses, the researchers say.

AI misses cancer drug target, revealing why lab validation still matters

Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have identified a previously hidden druggable site in a cancer-related protein that could open the door toward the development of a new generation of more precise cancer drugs. The finding also reveals important limitations in today’s artificial intelligence tools for drug discovery.

The study, published in the June 2 online issue of the Journal of the American Chemical Society, focused on PKMYT1, a type of protein known as a kinase that helps control how cells grow and divide. Because this process can go wrong in cancer, PKMYT1 has emerged as a promising target for new cancer drugs.

Most experimental drugs designed to block kinases work by targeting a region called the ATP-binding site—the part of the protein that uses the cell’s energy supply to function. But many kinases share nearly identical ATP-binding sites, making it difficult for drugs to distinguish between the desired target and other kinases, which can lead to unwanted side effects.

Novel prostate cancer treatment can reduce risk of disease progression by half, clinical trial shows

A Phase III clinical trial led by Neeraj Agarwal, MD, FASCO, senior director of clinical research at Huntsman Cancer Institute and professor of internal medicine at the University of Utah (the U), has found that a combination prostate cancer treatment could prevent the disease from progressing into a harder-to-treat form of cancer in select patients.

The study, TALAPRO-3 (NCT04821622), evaluated a combination of two drugs—talazoparib and enzalutamide—in patients with metastatic castration-sensitive prostate cancer. This is a form of the disease that has spread beyond the prostate but remains susceptible to standard hormone therapy treatment.

The patients involved also had prostate cancer affected by certain gene mutations, including but not limited to BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations, that often signal more aggressive disease.

Life-changing benefits of hydroxyurea for sickle cell anemia affirmed by 10-year study

Fewer serious complications. Fewer hospitalizations and blood transfusions. Better growth and development. And a markedly lower risk of death from the complications of sickle cell anemia.

These are the benefits documented from 10 years of continuous hydroxyurea treatment provided in the NOHARM trial to a group of young children in Uganda, which has one of the world’s largest number of people living with the painful disorder known for causing sickle-shaped red blood cells. These improved outcomes were highlighted May 27, 2026, in a report published by the New England Journal of Medicine.

Russell Ware, MD, Ph.D., director of the Division of Hematology and the Global Health Center at Cincinnati Children’s, was the lead author of the report. He has been working for years with researchers and clinicians across sub-Saharan Africa to demonstrate the safety and effectiveness of low-cost hydroxyurea treatments.

Senescent cells dodge cell death by rewiring fat metabolism, study shows

In response to stress or damage, cells undergo senescence and stop dividing. However, if senescent cells accumulate in tissues over the long term, chronic inflammation occurs and the risk of cancer increases. Researchers at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) have now discovered a previously unknown mechanism by which senescent cells protect themselves from oxidative stress and a specific form of cell death known as ferroptosis.

In the long term, these findings could provide new avenues for cancer therapies and the treatment of age-related diseases. The research is published in the journal Cell Death & Differentiation.

Senescence occurs when cells respond to stress or harmful changes and permanently cease their growth. This process is considered a protective mechanism against cancer. For example, cells that carry an oncogene permanently activated by mutations are effectively “frozen” before they can proliferate uncontrollably—a biological emergency program. However, problems arise when senescent cells accumulate in tissue, where they promote chronic inflammation and thus facilitate tumor development. Scientists are therefore searching for ways to eliminate senescent cells before they can cause harm.

Critical Thalamocortical Coordination Dynamics Track Conscious State Transitions

Abstract Despite substantial progress in identifying neural correlates of consciousness, no unified quantitative framework currently derives a formally specified order parameter for conscious-state organisation from established neurophysiological principles, or links thalamocortical coordination dynamics to measurable state transitions across pharmacological, pathological, and perturbational conditions through a single computational formalism. We propose a neurocomputational theoretical framework in which conscious states are associated with metastable regimes of large-scale thalamocortical coordination operating near critical dynamical boundaries. The framework is formalised through a dynamic coordination functional Φ(t), defined as a surface integral over the thalamocortical interface and directly operationalisable from high-density EEG as a weighted combination of gamma-band power spectral density, thalamocortical coherence, and theta-gamma phase-amplitude coupling. The thalamic reticular nucleus (TRN) is identified as the anatomical implementation of the control parameter governing proximity to the critical point, grounded in a Wilson-Cowan model of TRN inhibitory gating whose bifurcation structure is characterised computationally. Numerical simulation of the linearised field equation on the thalamocortical boundary demonstrates internal consistency: the simulated system produces power-law recovery dynamics tau_rec proportional to | θ — θ _c|^v with nu consistent with model A universality class [0.5, 1.5], and a Kuramoto mean-field derivation establishes that Φ(t) emerges as the natural order parameter of coupled thalamocortical oscillators rather than being postulated. The joint (|Φ(t)|, Var[|Φ(t)|]) phase space correctly separates simulated waking, anaesthetic, ictal, and minimally conscious regimes without parameter fitting to empirical data. All simulation code is publicly available. Six quantitatively specific, independently falsifiable predictions are derived across five experimental domains: power-law Gamma Dip scaling in near-threshold EEG with a specific exponent range; causal disruption of thalamocortical coherence by selective TRN silencing; opposite EEG scaling exponent deviations in ASD versus schizophrenia; systematic Φ_est collapse under propofol anaesthesia correlated with PCI; Φ_est as a real-time consciousness biomarker in disorders of consciousness; and clinical validity of Φ_est in disorders of consciousness and ictal state discrimination by the metastability index. Each prediction is stated with quantitative thresholds and a pre-specified falsification criterion. The framework provides: the first anatomically specified and formally derived order parameter for conscious-state organisation directly operationalisable from passive EEG; a mechanistically grounded identification of the TRN as the dynamical control parameter, testable by a single optogenetic experiment; and a computationally validated, pre-registerable programme of six falsifiable predictions defining a tractable empirical agenda. Φ_est would constitute a candidate real-time consciousness biomarker if the framework’s predictions are confirmed in purpose-designed experiments.

Neuroproteasomes regulate endogenous tau paired helical filament formation in an APOE genotype- and age-dependent manner

A cellular explanation for how tau aggregates into fibrils in Alzheimer’s disease has been elusive. This paper identifies the failure of ‘neuroproteasomes’ as sufficient to convert tau into paired helical filaments, a process regulated by ApoE and aging.

NIH-funded study suggests that testosterone suppresses brain tumor growth in males

Findings may warrant exploration of the hormones as glioblastoma treatment.

In a new National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded study, scientists at Cleveland Clinic discovered that hormones associated with male development may play a key role in limiting the growth of brain tumors in men. The research team found that the loss of androgen hormones, such as testosterone, in a preclinical model of glioblastoma drove tumor growth by inducing local inflammation and triggering the production of stress hormones. In an analysis of data from more than 1,300 men with glioblastoma, the authors found that supplemental testosterone was significantly associated with improved survival, which was consistent with their preclinical experiments.

“This outcome is a welcome surprise and may potentially offer a lead for new treatments for a kind of cancer that is deadlier in men,” said Anthony Letai, M.D., Ph.D., director of NIH’s National Cancer Institute (NCI).

AI system automates scientific software design, outperforming human-written code in key benchmarks

A research team at Google co-led by Michael Brenner, Catalyst Professor of Applied Mathematics and Physics at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and Google research scientist, has produced a new artificial intelligence system that can automatically write scientific software programs that surpass the performance of human-written programs. The paper is published in the journal Nature.

How the ERA system came together The system is called Empirical Research Assistance (ERA), and the project was co-led by Brenner and Shibl Mourad from Google DeepMind. Harvard Ph.D. students Qian-Ze Zhu, Ryan Krueger, and Sarah Martinson contributed as Google student researchers while working in Brenner’s group. The research was done in Brenner’s capacity as a Catalyst Professor, a position established by the University to enhance relationships between academia and the private sector by supporting senior faculty in research roles at external companies.

Across modern science, customized software is constantly used to test specific hypotheses or interpret complex data. The authors refer to this type of computer program as “empirical software”—a program whose sole purpose is to maximize how well it does on a scientific task, like making weather predictions or forecasting hospitalizations during a disease outbreak. Any problem that can be expressed as a numerical value—its “score”—is called a scorable task.

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