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Category: sex

Chinaled team uses 3Dprinted male sex organ for ED treatment in world first

ED affects more than 40 per cent of men aged 40 and above. The team of researchers used hydrogel-based bioinks to develop a 3D-printed penile implant system able to anatomically replicate all functional components of natural erectile tissue.

The animal subjects – pigs and rabbits – exhibited restored erectile capacity post-implantation, with reproductive success rates surging from 25 per cent in the control group to 100 per cent in the treatment group, the team said.

Details of the landmark study were published in Nature Biomedical Engineering on March 4.

Robust inference and correlates from genetic associations with personality

Among participants with EUR-like genomes, SNP heritability (h2SNP) estimated for the Big Five traits using linkage disequilibrium score regression (LDSC)34 ranged from 4.8% (s.e. = 0.2%) for agreeableness to 9.3% (s.e. = 0.3%) for extraversion (Table 1, Supplementary Table 4 and Supplementary Note 3). Importantly, these SNP heritability estimates from GWAS meta-analysis index genetic effects that are consistent across contributing cohorts. To allow for variability in genetic effects across cohorts, we conducted a random effects meta-analysis of cohort-specific h2SNP estimates, which indicated an average h2SNP of 8.6% (s.e. = 0.6%) across traits (ranging from 7.4% for agreeableness to 10.6% for extraversion; Table 1 and Supplementary Table 21), with significant variability across cohorts (mean τ = 3.6%). Random response error by the participants cannot systematically relate to their genome35,36. Accordingly, we found that personality measures with greater reliability (lower random response error) tended to be more heritable (b = 6.7%, s.e. = 0.7%; Extended Data Fig. 2). In this analysis, the expected h2SNP for a measure of typical (median) reliability (α = 0.81) ranged from 9.3% for agreeableness (s.e. = 0.6%) to 13.3% for extraversion (s.e. = 0.6%), and h2SNP completely disattenuated for measurement error ranged from 10.8% for agreeableness (s.e. = 0.9%) to 15.8% for extraversion (s.e. = 0.9%; Table 1).

To further characterize the generalizability of genetic associations with personality, we examined the concordance of genetic signal across geography, age, veteran status, measurement instrument and reporter perspective (Table 1 and Extended Data Fig. 3). Genetic effects were similar but not identical across four western country clusters (USA, continental Europe, Nordic and UK–Australia, mean rg = 0.86, mean s.e. = 0.15), three age groups (young (≤25 years), middle (25–64 years) and older (65 years and older), mean rg = 0.80, mean s.e. = 0.18), between the Million Veteran Program and other, primarily non-veteran cohorts (mean rg = 0.82, mean s.e. = 0.04), and across five personality measurement instruments (mean rg = 0.85, mean s.e. = 0.07). Additional characterization of genetic architecture across measurement instruments using genomic structural equation modelling37 confirmed that genetic effects plausibly operate at the level of broad cross-instrument latent factors, with only one locus showing significantly heterogenous effects across measurement instruments (Supplementary Tables 22 – 24 and Extended Data Fig. 4). Notably, genetic associations with agreeableness were less consistent across cohorts (Table 1), explaining in part why agreeableness exhibited lower heritability than other traits in the meta-analytic GWAS. In the Estonian Biobank, in which the personality of the participants was assessed both by their self-report (n = 73,983) and by reports by close others (n = 20,269), we found strong genetic overlap between rater perspectives (mean rg = 0.84, mean s.e. = 0.12), indicating that the genetic architecture of personality is not an epiphenomenon of self-perception. In sex-stratified analyses of neuroticism in the UK Biobank cohort, X-chromosome-linked h2SNP did not differ between male individuals (n = 168,989; h2SNP, X = 0.23%; s.e. = 0.04%) and female individuals (n = 198,139; h2SNP, X = 0.18%; s.e. = 0.03%; Pdifference = 0.33). The dosage compensation ratio (\(\hat{{m{\gamma }}}\) = 1.26, s.e. = 0.30) was intermediate between no compensation (0.5) and full compensation (2.0) but was estimated relatively imprecisely. Genetic effects were correlated near-unity across sex (rg = 0.96; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.81–1.10).

Biological follow-up of GWAS signals indicated that enriched gene sets intersected across the Big Five (mean enrichment rank-order ρ = 0.72; Extended Data Fig. 5), providing evidence for trait-overlapping molecular and cellular systems in personality neurobiology despite only modest genetic correlations (Fig. 1f). Consistent with theories of personality development that emphasize the prefrontal cortex38,39, genetic associations for each Big Five trait, except for agreeableness, were enriched in genes expressed in the prefrontal cortex (among these, top lead SNPs implicate RCE1, FOXP2 and SEMA6D, indicated in Fig. 1; Supplementary Tables 25–34). All traits demonstrated strong enrichment in protein-truncating variant-intolerant gene sets specifically expressed in neurons (such as ARNTL, TCF4 and NEGR1; Fig. 1).

REACT: Use of Imaging to Detect Silent Atherosclerosis in Early Adulthood

Silent atherosclerosis is detectable using imaging in early adulthood, with age-and sex-associated increases in prevalence across arterial territories and significant increases in plaque volume, based on results from the REACT trial presented at ESC Congress 2026 and simultaneously published in NEJM. The findings suggest the use of imaging from early adulthood “may provide an opportunity to improve primary prevention strategies and reduce the substantial burden of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease,” researchers said.

REACT enrolled nearly 17,000 adults without known atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (mean age 45; 51% women) from Denmark and Spain and placed them in five prespecified age strata that included a balanced number of men and women. Three-dimensional vascular ultrasonography of the carotid and femoral arteries, as well as coronary computed tomographic angiography (CCTA), were used to asses silent atherosclerosis at baseline.

Overall findings showed silent atherosclerosis was present in 57% of all the participants. Broken down by age, atherosclerosis was present in nearly 9% of men and 7% of women in the youngest age stratum (18 to 29 years), with prevalence increasing with age. Approximately 9 out of 10 individuals between the ages of 60 and 70 had atherosclerosis, researchers said.

InPatient Multimodal Intensive Neurorehabilitation and Care Improve Motor and NonMotor Functions in the Moderately Advanced Stages of Parkinson’s Disease: A Retrospective Study in a U.S. Facility

Background: Previous studies, mostly performed in European centers, have shown that in-patient multimodal intensive rehabilitation treatments lasting for two to four weeks can improve both motor and non-motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease (PD) with long-lasting effects. Here, we ascertain the effects of a similar in-patient program in a U.S. center with a retrospective study in a cohort of 153 patients in the moderately advanced stage of PD. Methods: We compared indices of motor and non-motor functions before and immediately after such treatment and investigated the possible differences between men and women. We used the available records of the Beck Depression Inventory, PDQ39, PD Sleep Scale, Timed Up and Go, Vocal Volume, Voice Handicap, and total UPDRS scores. Results: We found that at the end of treatment, which lasted an average of 14 days, all outcome measures significantly improved independently of sex. Conclusions: These results confirm the previous findings with a similar in-patient approach in European centers. They further suggest that this in-patient treatment is a care model that is feasible in U.S. centers and can provide a more immediate benefit to the motor function and quality of life of patients with moderately advanced PD.

Identification of Nuclear Genetic Loci Linked to Clinical Features of the m.3243AG Mitochondrial DNA Variant

Background and ObjectivesMitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) disorders exhibit striking clinical variability that is poorly explained by known factors such as variant heteroplasmy, age, or sex. Nuclear genetic modifiers likely play a significant role in this…

Throwing Like a Girl: Is Biology Allowed to Explain Anything?

Fausto-Sterling is not an incidental figure in modern debates about sex. Her famous 1993 essay The Five Sexes helped popularize the idea that the familiar male-female binary is biologically inadequate. She proposed additional “sexes” based on intersex conditions and argued more broadly that sex should be understood as a continuum.

Those arguments became enormously influential. In our view, they also created lasting confusion by encouraging people to mistake variation in sexual development for evidence that biological sex itself is not binary. But when it comes to sexual reproduction, the distinction is straightforward: females are organized around producing ova and males around producing sperm. There is no third gamete type or reproductive role, and intersex conditions do not create one.

One of us has examined these arguments in an essay for Skeptic. Other evolutionary biologists, including Colin Wright, have also offered detailed treatments of the issue.

CyberTipline Report

“undress” feature led to real victims and real lawsuits. In late 2025, Elon Musk’s xAI added an image-editing feature to Grok that let users strip clothing from photos of real people. It was quickly used to sexualize both adults and children. Researchers estimated it produced millions of sexualized images — including tens of thousands depicting apparent children — in less than two weeks. Rather than shutting the feature down, xAI restricted it to paying subscribers. That decision is now central to multiple lawsuits, including one where a stepfather allegedly used the tool to generate roughly 7,000 sexual images and videos of his stepdaughter from a single childhood photo. Several countries opened investigations or temporarily restricted xAI’s tools over this.

Other major AI companies — including OpenAI, Google, Meta, and Anthropic — have faced general scrutiny over training-data practices and content-moderation gaps, but at the time of writing there isn’t a documented, specific incident for each of them on the scale of the three above. Be skeptical of anything that lists all the big AI labs as equally implicated without pointing to a specific report or case — much of what circulates about this topic treats “researchers have shown filters can be bypassed” (true of nearly every AI safety system, for nearly every kind of harmful content) as if it were the same thing as a documented incident. It isn’t.

National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s CyberTipline is the nation’s centralized reporting system for the online exploitation of children. The public and electronic service providers can make reports of suspected online enticement of children for sexual acts, child sexual molestation, child sexual abuse material, child sex tourism, child sex trafficking, unsolicited obscene materials sent to a child, misleading domain names, and misleading words or digital images on the internet. Every child deserves a safe childhood.

Telomere-to-telomere brown rat genome could sharpen disease research models

Researchers have created the most complete genetic profile of the brown rat to date, according to a UTHealth Houston-led team, paving the way for scientists to more accurately investigate genetic links to conditions like heart disease, kidney disease, high blood pressure and stroke.

The research, published in Cell Genomics, was led by corresponding author Peter Doris, Ph.D., director of the Center for Human Genetics at The Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine within McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston.

The assembly of the brown rat’s genome provides a complete genetic fingerprint and reveals that the brown rat’s DNA is more complex than scientists previously understood. In addition to uncovering more than 60 new genes, many of which were previously difficult to sequence and are thought to play a role in immunity and other biological processes, the team discovered that brown rat sex chromosomes differ significantly from those in humans.

Comorbidities and Outcomes in People with Functional Neurological Disorder

In this cohort study, we retrospectively analyzed a large FND cohort using TriNetX, a federated health research platform aggregating electronic health records from approximately 160 million individuals across 143 health care organizations in 17 countries. Diagnoses follow standardized clinical coding. Reporting adhered to the STROBE guideline. This study was exempt from IRB review and informed consent given the use of deidentified data, according to the Common Rule (45 CFR §46) and UK regulations from the Health Research Authority.

Demographics and lifetime comorbidities were extracted for patients with an initial F44.4-F44.7 diagnosis between 1995 and 2024. Clinical outcomes were compared between matched cohorts with an initial diagnosis between 2015 and 2024 to reflect contemporary care for all FND vs multiple sclerosis (MS; G35), FND-motor vs MS, and FND-seizure vs epilepsy (G40), controlling for age, sex, race, and ethnicity via propensity score matching, testing 2-sided z tests on absolute risk differences at a significance level of P .05 after Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons, and calculating odds ratios with 95% CIs. Data extraction and analyses were performed in April 2025 on the web-based interface TriNetX LIVE. Full methods are described in eMethods 1 to 3 in Supplement 1.

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