Long-term GLP-1 exposure drives phosphorylation of a key protein, resulting in massive changes in gene expression and partial reprogramming of pancreatic beta cells.
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Brain circuit remembers stresses to help shape reactions to them
Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have identified a previously overlooked brain circuit that helps explain how prior adversity can make the brain more reactive to future stress.
The study, published Sept. 30 in Nature and conducted in mice, identifies a small, deep brain structure called the anterior hypothalamic nucleus (AHN) as a critical hub that scales the brain’s response to threatening events. The research team found that dialing its activity up or down directly altered how strongly the animals responded to stress.
“Why do some people develop debilitating mental health conditions in response to stress while others do not? One known risk factor for heightened stress sensitivity is a history of prior stress, such as early childhood adversity or adult traumatic stress. However, at a biological level, we still do not fully understand why this is the case,” says Zachary Pennington, Ph.D., lead author of the paper, who conducted the research as a postdoctoral fellow in the Cai Lab at Mount Sinai and is now an assistant professor of psychology and a member of the Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health at the University of British Columbia.
U.S. to lend $4.2 billion to Vistra to boost nuclear power output, source says
U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright will announce the loan on Monday at Vistra’s nuclear plant along Lake Erie in Ohio, the person said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The loan would be used to boost power output, or “uprate” at least three of Vistra’s four nuclear stations, which can be done without requiring new licenses from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The Department of Energy and Vistra did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Google Suncatcher’s Next Act: 2 Satellites by 2027
Planet built its business on Earth-imaging satellites, not AI accelerators, which makes the pairing worth a second look. The company’s own statement on the deal frames it less as a subcontracting job and more as co-ownership of the research question. Planet said it was pleased to announce its participation in Google’s Project Suncatcher, calling it a bold research initiative to explore building scalable machine learning compute systems in space, according to Planet’s own announcement.
Planet brings something Google doesn’t have in-house at scale: a working satellite bus manufacturing line and an existing relationship with launch providers. Google supplies the chips and the machine learning workload. Planet supplies the spacecraft, the power system, and the operational experience of actually running satellites day to day. Satellite imaging companies like Planet already solved a version of this problem, keeping sensors cool, powered, and pointed correctly in orbit, which is a large part of what an AI-compute satellite also needs. That division of labor is probably why the partnership extends into the 2027 mission rather than ending after MVP.
The hardest unsolved problem in orbital computing isn’t the chips, it’s the wiring. Training large models on Earth depends on extremely fast links between GPUs and TPUs sitting centimeters apart in the same rack. Spread that same cluster across satellites orbiting hundreds of kilometers apart, and the interconnect problem changes entirely. Google’s answer is optical: the satellites will communicate via lasers, according to Google’s fact sheet, rather than conventional radio-frequency links.
Life Biosciences to Present First-in-Human Data from Ongoing Phase 1 Trial Evaluating ER-100 in Optic Neuropathies at Eyecelerator 2026
BOSTON, October 1, 2026 – Life Biosciences (“Life Bio”), a biotechnology company pioneering cellular rejuvenation medicines to reverse diseases of aging, today announced that the company will present new interim data from its Phase 1 clinical trial of ER-100 in patients with glaucoma in an oral session at Eyecelerator @ American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) 2026 being held in New Orleans, LA on October 8, 2026.
“People living with age-related vision loss like the two optic neuropathies we are currently focused on, open-angle glaucoma (OAG) and non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION), have no therapeutic options that address the underlying damage to retinal ganglion cells. With ER-100, we are testing whether we can restore these cells to a more youthful state, not just slowing vision loss but potentially reversing it,” said Sharon Rosenzweig-Lipson, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer of Life Bio. “Being selected to present initial data from our Phase 1 study at Eyecelerator @ AAO is a meaningful validation of the impact of our work and we look forward to sharing our learnings with the broader scientific community.”
The Phase 1 first-in-human trial is evaluating the safety and tolerability of ER-100 in patients with optic neuropathies, with additional endpoints assessing visual function. ER‑100 is the first clinical candidate from Life Bio’s Epigenetic Restoration platform, which uses controlled expression of three transcription factors, OCT4, SOX2 and KLF4 (OSK) to restore cellular function by resetting the epigenetic code to induce more youthful patterns of gene expression.
US Seaglider targets 180 mph speeds with shore or ship charging
The US Marine Corps Warfighting Lab has expanded its collaboration with electric Seaglider developer REGENT Craft, adding $5 million for prototype capability demonstrations and command-and-control integration.
The extension, announced September 30, brings the partnership’s total value to $19.25 million.
The latest phase includes six deliverables focused on demonstrating the full-scale Seaglider prototype in operationally relevant environments and advancing its integration into defense operations.
