Research News

Associate Professor at the University of Oulu Teemu Myllylä, a leading expert in biomedical engineering, recently discussed his team’s groundbreaking work in brain health monitoring and early detection of neurodegenerative diseases at the recent 6G-enabled sustainable society event. Their research focuses on wearable technologies and direct sensing techniques for neurohydrodynamics, which have the potential to revolutionise the early diagnosis and treatment monitoring of Alzheimer’s disease.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended a new vaccine, R21/Matrix-M, for the prevention of malaria in children. The recommendation follows advice from the WHO: Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE) and the Malaria Policy Advisory Group (MPAG) and was endorsed by the WHO Director-General following its regular biannual meeting held on 25-29 September.

How are environmental changes, loss of biodiversity, and the spread of pathogens connected? The answer is a puzzle. Researchers from Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin have now described one piece of that puzzle in the journal eLife,* showing that the destruction of tropical rainforests harms the diversity of mosquito species. At the same time, more resilient species of mosquitoes become more prevalent – which also means the viruses they carry are more abundant. If there are many individuals of a given species, those viruses can spread quickly.

A new injectable solution that self-assembles into a gel under the right conditions could help manage HIV unlike any currently available methods, researchers have found.

The gel releases a steady dose of the anti-HIV drug lamivudine over six weeks, suggesting people living with HIV could have new therapy that doesn't require a daily pill regimen to prevent AIDS.

Antibiotic resistant bacteria are a threat to human lives, and yet the development of new drugs to treat bacterial infections is slow. A group of proven drugs used in cancer treatment for decades could possibly be the solution. A new class of antibiotics is now being developed by researchers at Linköping University in Sweden.

Ceftazidime in combination with avibactam is a last-line antibiotic, to be used as a targeted therapy for certain carbapenem-resistant Gram-negative infections and not to be used as an empirical therapy. But the antibiotic recently lost its exclusivity and became a generic drug in India. And scientists from ICMR are foreseeing certain potential adverse implications of introducing generic versions of ceftazidime/avibactam into the Indian market.

A research team led by scientists from City University of Hong Kong (CityU) has achieved a significant breakthrough by inventing a new class of near-infrared-activated photo-oxidants that can effectively kill cancer cells without requiring oxygen. The photo-oxidants induce a unique form of cancer cell death that can overcome cancer cell resistance. The findings offer a new strategy, called ‘photo-oxidation therapy’, and provide a promising direction for the development of anti-cancer drugs.

Max Planck Scientists from Dortmund show how the signaling molecules BMP and FGF act as antagonists during embryonic development and thus guide cell differentiation

A research team at the University of Basel and the SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics uncovered a treasure trove of uncharacterized proteins. Embracing the recent deep learning revolution, they discovered hundreds of new protein families and even a novel predicted protein fold.