JUST PUBLISHED: oxygen permeable dextran nanogels as a hemoglobin-based oxygen carrier
Click here to read the latest free, Open Access article from Biomaterials Research.
Get the latest international news and world events from around the world.
The first personalized brain repair for Parkinson’s
Parkinson’s disease has been a repetitive pattern of tremors, stiffness, slowing movement and an eventual dependence on medications that soften (but never stop) the decline. But what if that script is no longer fixed? What if the brain, instead of being carefully managed as it deteriorates, could actually be rebuilt from the patient’s own biology?
These questions are no longer purely theoretical. In early clinical data presented at the AD/PD 2026 International Conference in Copenhagen, San Diego-based biotech Aspen Neuroscience shared results suggesting an unusual finding in neurodegenerative disease: early signs of restoration [1]. Not slowing, not masking, but restoring.
At the center of Aspen’s approach is a radical idea of using the patient’s own cells as raw material to rebuild what Parkinson’s has taken away.
Understanding how lasers can rapidly magnetize fusion plasmas
The mechanism that can cause a rapidly expanding plasma—the superhot state of matter harnessed in fusion energy systems—to spontaneously generate its own magnetic fields was identified through a new set of simulations. This improves our understanding of naturally occurring plasmas in our universe and advances the development of fusion systems based on an approach called direct-drive inertial fusion.
In a direct-drive inertial fusion system, powerful lasers compress a small, fuel-filled capsule, heating it until fusion reactions occur. Unexpected magnetic fields can change how heat moves through the plasma in ways that existing simulation tools can miss. Accurate simulations are critical to designing fusion systems that will behave as expected and deliver net energy on a long-term basis.
In laboratory experiments, researchers found that high-powered lasers can vaporize a solid target in an instant, turning it into plasma that rapidly expands. Experiments have repeatedly detected very strong magnetic structures emerging from this expanding plasma, but the precise origin of these fields has long been a matter of debate.
Brain-based index may reveal Alzheimer’s risk patterns in adults as young as 30
Over the past few decades, neuroscientists and medical researchers worldwide have been trying to leverage available health records, brain scans and other medical data to uncover biological markers associated with the onset of specific diseases or neuropsychiatric disorders. The identification of these biomarkers could help to devise new tools to predict the risk that individual patients will develop a specific condition, allowing doctors to intervene early, preventing or delaying its emergence or slowing down its progression.
Researchers at the University of Texas Health Science Center, UTHealth Houston School of Behavioral Health Sciences, Keck School of Medicine of USC, and University of Maryland School of Medicine recently devised a new brain-based index that could be used to track early risk factors that, in specific people, may lead to the development of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). AD is a progressive neurodegenerative condition that prompts the deterioration and death of brain cells, leading to progressive memory loss and a decline in mental functions. AD has very limited treatment options after the diagnosis but the brain changes that culminate in AD take decades, thus suggesting that public effort should be focused on prevention.
The researchers devised an index that could be used to quantify patterns in a person’s brain that measure the similarity to those observed in individuals diagnosed with AD and followed as a part of the research studies such as Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI). This index, introduced in a paper published in Molecular Psychiatry, was derived by performing a mega-analysis of publicly available brain imaging data collected from people with and without AD.
Inside the brains of 800 incarcerated men: High psychopathy linked to expanded brain surface area
People with high levels of psychopathic tendencies are often incapable of feeling empathy for other people. From a brain science perspective, empathy isn’t a single emotion but a multi-part neural process. It involves brain systems that help us share others’ feelings, understand their perspectives, and even mentally step into their experience.
The bigger picture is, however, still blurry as we lack large-scale studies that map how different features of brain structure link to both empathy and psychopathy, especially in incarcerated populations.
A recent study published in Biological Psychiatry Global Open Science investigated how personality is reflected in the brain by turning to something measurable—the brain’s physical structure.
JWST pins down the origins of a planetary odd couple
Across the Milky Way galaxy, a planetary odd couple is circling a star some 190 light years from Earth. A normally “lonely” hot Jupiter is sharing space with a mini-Neptune, in a rare and unlikely pairing that’s had astronomers puzzled since the system’s discovery in 2020.
Now MIT scientists have caught a glimpse into the atmosphere of the mini-Neptune, which is circling inside the orbit of its Jupiter-sized companion, and discovered clues to explain the origins of this unusual planetary system.
In a study appearing in Astrophysical Journal Letters, the scientists report on new measurements of the mini-Neptune’s atmosphere, made using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). It is the first time astronomers have measured the composition of a mini-Neptune that resides inside the orbit of a hot Jupiter.
Three billion years ago, Earth’s life relied on a rare metal
A collaborative team of scientists has discovered that life on Earth over three billion years ago relied on the metal molybdenum, which was incredibly scarce in the environment at the time. The study, published in Nature Communications, is the first to show that molybdenum was used by ancient life this far back in our planet’s history.
On Earth today, molybdenum helps speed up vital biochemical reactions in cells. The metal is a component of essential enzymes that drive several major biological reactions in organisms. This is not only important for individual organisms, but also biogeochemical cycles, such as the nitrogen cycle, which affect our entire planet. Without molybdenum, those important reactions could still happen in nature, but they would be too slow to sustain life.
“Molybdenum sits at the catalytic center of enzymes that run major carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur reactions,” explained Betül Kaçar, head of the Kaçar Lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and senior author on the study. Kaçar leads MUSE, a NASA Interdisciplinary Consortia for Astrobiology Research (ICAR) at UW-Madison.
‘Solar-blind’ 2D heterostructure delivers 422-fold responsivity gain for UV sensing
Photodetectors remain a critical component in the development of advanced electronics and photonics, particularly in the role of signal readout through the conversion of photons into electrons. These digital imaging components are ubiquitous in sensors, cameras, adaptive displays, telecommunications, LiDAR systems, health monitoring wearables, and oximeters.
In the quest toward the next generation of optoelectronic devices, the spotlight lands upon ultrathin 2D materials with improved performance for integrated circuits and wearable electronics. In a recent study published in ACS Applied Electronic Materials, a team of researchers led by Haizhao Zhi and Eng Tuan Poh introduced a series of wide bandgap 2D materials—transition metal thio(seleno)phosphates into the light.
The team focused on manganese thiophosphate (MnPS3), a wide-bandgap semiconductor that is naturally “solar-blind,” meaning it is highly sensitive to UV light while remaining transparent to much of the visible spectrum. While MnPS3 is an excellent candidate for UV sensing, its performance as a standalone material is often limited by low carrier mobility—it acts almost like a “near-perfect insulator.”
Inexpensive material compresses light, paving the way for photonic microcircuits in the terahertz range
A two-dimensional lamellar crystal composed of atomically thin layers of lead iodide (PbI2) could be used to manufacture a new generation of circuits that use light and mechanical vibrations (rather than electrons) to transmit information in the terahertz frequency range.
Researchers at the Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials (CNPEM), in partnership with colleagues from the University of Lille (France) and other international institutions, have studied this technology and published their findings in Nature Communications.
The terahertz band corresponds to a low-energy region of the electromagnetic spectrum situated between infrared and microwaves. Despite this, it is considered crucial for developing high-speed communication technologies.