From jet lag and poor sleep to exercise and chronic stress, this review unpacks how everyday lifestyle factors can disrupt gut microbial rhythms and why these changes may matter for metabolism, immunity, and long-term disease risk. Study: Emerging Roles of Modern Lifestyle Factors in Microbiome Stability and Functionality. Image Credit: Kateryna Kon / Shutterstock A … Read more
Jan 26 2026 University of California San Diego-led team has discovered that restoring a key cardiac protein called connexin‑43 in a mouse model can dramatically improve heart function and extend survival in several inherited forms of arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy (ACM). The research suggests that a single gene therapy might someday help a wide range of ACM … Read more
Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center have developed a new way to predict how cancer cells evolve by gaining and losing whole chromosomes, changes that help tumors grow, adapt and resist treatment. In a study published in Nature Communications, scientists describe a computational approach called ALFA-K that uses longitudinal, single-cell data to reconstruct how cancer cells move through different chromosome states over time and identify which configurations … Read more
New study shows that cancer damages its own DNA by pushing key genes to work too hard. Researchers found that the most powerful genetic “on switches” in cancer cells, called super-enhancers, drive unusually intense gene activity. That high gear creates stress on the DNA and can cause dangerous breaks. Cancer cells can often repair this … Read more
A team of researchers led by scientists from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University, and the Department of Veterans Affairs has conducted the largest and most comprehensive genome-wide association study (GWAS) to date of schizophrenia in individuals of African ancestry. The study, published January 21 in Nature, identified … Read more
Organoids are three-dimensional miniature models of organs, grown in a dish. They have become a valuable tool for studying human development, organ regeneration, function, and disease progression. Organoids derived from patient tissues or created through cell and genetic engineering allow researchers to investigate how specific proteins or their variants affect these processes. However, current approaches … Read more
Even at relatively low pollution levels, chronic exposure to fine particles and nitrogen dioxide was linked to higher disease risk, faster functional decline, and greater need for invasive ventilation in people with motor neuron disease. Study: Long-Term Exposure to Air Pollution and Risk and Prognosis of Motor Neuron Disease. Image Credit: Kateryna Kon / Shutterstock … Read more
Light is a universal stimulus that influences all living things. Cycles of light and dark help set the biological clocks for organisms ranging from single-celled bacteria to human beings. Some bacteria use photosynthesis to convert sunlight into energy just like plants, but other bacteria sense light for less well-known functions. In 2019, Sampriti Mukherjee, PhD, and … Read more
New evidence from Indian patients shows that severe COVID-19 is associated with distinct mitochondrial methylation signatures and altered mitochondrial proteins, pointing to disrupted energy metabolism as a key feature of critical illness. Study: SARS-CoV-2 altered mitochondrial DNA methylation in Indian COVID-19 patients. Image Credit: CI Photos / Shutterstock A recent study published in the journal Scientific … Read more
A team from the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences and the Institute of Neurosciences at the University of Barcelona (UBneuro) has applied advanced artificial intelligence techniques to better understand why Huntington’s disease can begin at very different ages in patients. This hereditary neurodegenerative condition, which causes motor, cognitive, and psychiatric impairments, is caused by … Read more