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Category: health – Page 2

AI model powers skin cancer detection across diverse populations

Researchers at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine have developed a new approach for identifying individuals with skin cancer that combines genetic ancestry, lifestyle and social determinants of health using a machine learning model. Their model, more accurate than existing approaches, also helped the researchers better characterize disparities in skin cancer risk and outcomes.

The research is published in the journal Nature Communications.

Skin cancer is among the most common cancers in the United States, with more than 9,500 new cases diagnosed every day and approximately two deaths from skin cancer occurring every hour. One important component of reducing the burden of skin cancer is risk prediction, which utilizes technology and patient information to help doctors decide which individuals should be prioritized for cancer screening.

Bacterial Rtc repair system provides new target in fight against resistant infections

The discovery of a new mechanism of resistance to common antibiotics could pave the way for improved treatments for harmful bacterial infections, a study suggests. Targeting this defense mechanism could aid efforts to combat antimicrobial resistance (AMR), one of the world’s most urgent health challenges, researchers say.

The work appears in Nature Communications.

Findings from the study reveal how a repair system inside some bacteria plays a pivotal role in helping them survive commonly used antibiotics. Many of these drugs work by targeting the production of proteins essential for and survival.

Anxiety disorders tied to low levels of an essential nutrient in the brain

People with anxiety disorders have lower levels of choline in their brains, according to research from UC Davis Health.

The study, published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, analyzed data from 25 studies. The researchers compared the levels of neurometabolites—chemicals produced during —in 370 people with to 342 people without anxiety.

They found the level of choline—an essential nutrient—was about 8% lower in those with anxiety disorders. The evidence for low choline was especially consistent in the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain that helps control thinking, emotions and behavior.

Triggering cell death in metastatic melanoma may pave the way for new cancer treatments

Metastatic melanoma cells that have spread to lymph nodes survive by relying on a protein called ferroptosis suppressor protein 1 (FSP1)—a surprising metabolic dependency that could open the door to a new class of cancer treatments, according to a new study led by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

The researchers say the study, published in Nature, not only highlights the therapeutic potential of drugs that inhibit FSP1, but also offers new ways to understand cancer and its vulnerabilities.

Ferroptosis is a form of cell death driven by excessive lipid oxidation in cell membranes. When this occurs, the cell’s structural integrity collapses, leading to death. Cancer cells rely heavily on antioxidant proteins like FSP1 to prevent ferroptosis.

Stenting all blocked arteries outperforms culprit-only treatment approach, study shows

Opening all blocked arteries with stents in patients with a heart attack, known as complete revascularization, reduces the risk of death from cardiovascular causes, death from any cause and future heart attacks compared with opening only the culprit artery causing the heart attack according to a new, large international study led by researchers at the Population Health Research Institute (PHRI), a joint organization of McMaster University and Hamilton Health Sciences.

The results were published simultaneously in The Lancet and presented in a Late-Breaking Clinical Science Featured Research Session at the American Heart Association’s 2025 Scientific Sessions in New Orleans, Louisiana, on November 9, 2025.

“Cardiologists face a dilemma when a patient has a heart attack and multiple coronary artery blockages are found: should they treat only the artery causing the , or perform complete and open all blocked arteries, including the bystander arteries?” said Shamir R. Mehta, study chair, PHRI senior scientist, interventional cardiologist at McMaster University.

Waist-to-height ratio outperforms BMI in predicting heart disease risk

The ratio of a person’s waist measurement compared to their height is more reliable than body mass index (BMI) at predicting heart disease risk, according to new research from UPMC and University of Pittsburgh physician-scientists.

This finding, published in The Lancet Regional Health—Americas, could reshape how clinicians and the public assess cardiovascular risk, especially for people who don’t meet the classic definition of obesity.

The team analyzed data from 2,721 adults who had participated in the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Adult Health (ELSA-Brasil). The individuals had no cardiovascular disease at baseline and were followed for more than five years.

Analysis of 14 million children finds COVID-19 infection poses greater heart complication risk than vaccination

A new study shows children and young people face long-lasting and higher risks of rare heart and inflammatory complications after COVID-19 infection, compared to before or without an infection. Meanwhile, the COVID-19 vaccination was only linked to a short-term higher risk of myocarditis and pericarditis.

The study is the largest of its kind in this population, and is published in The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health. It was led by scientists at the Universities of Cambridge and Edinburgh, and University College London, with support from the BHF Data Science Center at Health Data Research UK.

Principal author Dr. Alexia Sampri, University of Cambridge, said, “Our whole-population study during the pandemic showed that although these conditions were rare, children and young people were more likely to experience heart, vascular or inflammatory problems after a COVID-19 infection than after having the vaccine—and the risks after infection lasted much longer.”

Mechanoluminescent sensors with dual-function polymer shell offer eco-friendly, high-resolution control

Mechanoluminescent (ML) materials are attractive for haptic interface sensors for next-generation technologies, including bite-controlled user interface, health care motion monitoring, and piconewton sensing, because they emit light under mechanical stimulation without an external power source. However, their intrinsically broad emission spectra can degrade resolution and introduce noise in sensing applications, necessitating further technological development.

Addressing this knowledge gap, a team of researchers from the Republic of Korea and the UK, led by Hyosung Choi, a Professor at the Department of Chemistry at Hanyang University, and including Nam Woo Kim, a master’s student at Hanyang University, recently employed a chromatic filtration strategy to pave the way to high-resolution ML haptic sensors. Their findings are published in the journal Advanced Materials.

In this study, the team coated the conjugated polymer poly(9,9-dioctylfluorene-alt-benzothiadiazole) (F8BT) onto ZnS: Cu to selectively suppress emission below 490 nm, narrowing the full width at half maximum from 94 nm to 55 nm.

As brain organoids grow increasingly complex, leading scientists and bioethicists call for global oversight

In an effort to address these ethical grey areas, 17 leading scientists and bioethicists from five countries are urging the establishment of an international oversight body to monitor advances in the rapidly expanding field of human neural organoids and to provide ethical and policy guidance as the science continues to evolve. The call to action, published Thursday in Science, comes as U.S. government agencies are making new investments in organoid science aimed at accelerating drug discovery and reducing reliance on animal models of disease.

In September, the National Institutes of Health announced $87 million in initial contracts to establish a new center dedicated to standardizing organoid research. The move followed an earlier pledge by both the NIH and the Food and Drug Administration to reduce, and possibly replace, testing on mice, primates, and other animals with other methods — including organoids and organ-on-a-chip technologies — for developing certain medicines.

Government promotion of human stem cell models more broadly will only increase the recruitment of new researchers into the field of neural organoids, which has seen an explosion from a few dozen labs a decade ago to hundreds around the world now, said Sergiu Pasca, a pioneering neuroscientist and stem cell biologist at Stanford University who co-authored the Science commentary.

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