Topic: Healthy Aging

Health & MedicineOctober 20, 2026

Cell identity competes with surface tension to determine stromal organization in tumor spheroids beyond the CAF shell paradigm.

Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) are often found forming a peripheral stromal barrier around tumors. Here, this paradigm is challenged using microfabricated 3D cancer-CAF spheroid models combined with quantitative magnetic force tensiometry. A surface tension atlas is established for eight cancer cell lines, three CAF populations, and heterotypic tumor-CAF assemblies, spanning nearly two orders of magnitude. Surface tension is first shown to govern spheroid morphology and modulate drug respo

Health & MedicineOctober 14, 2026

Sexual dimorphism in epidermal stem cell dynamics.

The epidermis is a stratified epithelium comprising proliferative basal cells and differentiated suprabasal cells that are continuously renewed throughout life. Conflicting theories have been proposed regarding the heterogeneity of the basal cell layer, with some studies proposing that all proliferative cells have self-renewal potential during homeostasis 1-5 . Meanwhile, others posit a model in which stem cell differentiation occurs through an intermediate transit-amplifying-like progenitor sta

Physical/TechOctober 13, 2026

Convergent innovation of (crypto)vivipary via asymmetric dismantling of seed desiccation and dormancy machinery.

Cryptovivipary and vivipary, referred to as (crypto)vivipary, occur across multiple angiosperm lineages and enable embryos to continue developing before dispersal. Yet, this trait raises a fundamental question: how are seed-specific abscisic acid (ABA) responses modulated to support continuous embryonic growth without compromising ABA-dependent vegetative stress tolerance? Here, integrating phylogenomic analyses of independently evolved (crypto)viviparous lineages with spatiotemporal transcripto

Health & MedicineOctober 13, 2026

Phenotypic screening identifies kenpaullone as a prolymphangiogenic compound to improve heart repair following myocardial infarction.

Myocardial infarction (MI) induces cardiac muscle death and its subsequent replacement by a noncontractile fibrotic scar, which underlies progression to heart failure. Current treatments restore blood flow and assist with cardiac workload but do not promote regeneration. We have previously shown endogenous growth of the cardiac lymphatic system following MI and further stimulation with the lymphatic endothelial specific mutated Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor-C (VEGF-C) isoform, VEGFC-C156S,

EnvironmentOctober 13, 2026

Atomic-scale spin sensing of a 2D d-wave altermagnet via helical tunneling.

Altermagnets simultaneously possess momentum-dependent nonrelativistic spin splitting and zero net magnetization (1-6). Their defining crystalline symmetry connects opposite-spin sublattices in real space and imposes alternating spin polarization on the symmetry-related electronic states in momentum space (1-3). Identifying such an order and its associated spin response therefore calls for atomic-scale spin-sensitive measurements in both real and momentum space, an experimental milestone yet to

Artificial IntelligenceOctober 13, 2026

Human-artificial intelligence collaboration for comanaging epilepsy in real time.

One-third of the world's 70 million people with epilepsy have seizures uncontrolled by medication, and implantable devices are a promising treatment. These devices can detect impending seizures, missed medication and impaired cognition, but, like most medical devices, they cannot share this information with patients in real time. This is a missed opportunity for devices to learn from clinical events and teach patients how their behaviors affect their health. Here we present a device platform tha

Health & MedicineOctober 11, 2026

Strengthening health systems to prioritise, provide care, and prevent osteoarthritis: a roadmap for global health policy.

By 2050, almost 1 billion people are expected to live with osteoarthritis-a disabling musculoskeletal condition with currently no cure. Despite its burden and costs, osteoarthritis remains largely invisible in national and global health agendas, is poorly integrated within service models for other chronic health conditions, and is frequently perceived as inevitable with ageing and associated with limited therapeutic options. This context drives an osteoarthritis identity problem that fuels frust

Health & MedicineOctober 8, 2026

Volatile eutectics to tailor crystallization for perovskite optoelectronics

Improvements to the radiative efficiency of halide perovskite thin films are necessary to approach fundamental solar cell performance limits. We tailored perovskite crystallization by leveraging the eutectic interaction between zinc bromide and methylammonium chloride additives. The resulting films had high photoluminescence quantum yield and charge carrier decay times and low surface recombination velocity. Nanoprobe x-ray microscopy revealed local melting of the eutectic at grain boundaries du

Health & MedicineOctober 6, 2026

Cellular remodeling during reversible life-stage transition in sessile ciliates: Genomic and transcriptomic insights.

Unraveling mechanisms driving dramatic life-stage transitions in response to environmental stress is central to understanding cellular adaptation. We studied a distinctive group of sessile ciliates that undergo profound morphological and organellar remodeling when transitioning from sessile trophonts to motile telotrochs. We generated chromosome-level genomes for two colonial species ( Campanella sinica , Epistylis hentscheli ) and one solitary species ( Vorticella campanula ), revealing genome

EnvironmentOctober 6, 2026

Fragmentation outweighs forest cover in shaping land surface temperature across half of global forests.

Forests are widely recognized for their significant role in climate change mitigation. Global landscape-scale assessments have focused mainly on how forest cover (FC) affects temperature. Yet, changes in forest area are generally accompanied by altered fragmentation, and both the independent effect of fragmentation on forest thermal environments and its contribution relative to FC remain insufficiently understood. We disentangled the respective relationships of fragmentation and FC with land sur

Artificial IntelligenceOctober 6, 2026

An open vision-language model for diverse medical applications

Abstract Artificial intelligence has high potential for impact in healthcare applications, but its training and deployment are challenging due to diverse data, a complex spectrum of possible tasks and important privacy needs. High-performing foundation models that enable data-efficient fine-tuning for diverse downstream tasks can meaningfully accelerate development in this domain. We introduce MedGemma, a collection of medical vision-language foundation models based on Gemma 3. MedGemma demonstr

Physical/TechOctober 1, 2026

Reframing menopause and menopause hormone therapy as opportunities for healthy aging

Menopause is an important biological transition with up to 72 symptoms that shapes aging trajectories across organs and encompasses ~40% of the female lifespan. Although menopause awareness is increasing, research on strategies for menopause symptom management and optimizing health in the postmenopausal period is lacking. This Review highlights that menopause characteristics, such as type, timing, and symptom burden, influence health outcomes and later-life disease risk. Similarly, menopause hor

Health & MedicineOctober 1, 2026

Constitutive sporulation in wild fission yeast enhances insect-mediated survival

Sexual reproduction is generally considered costly for unicellular organisms and is typically induced in yeast only under nutrient limitation. However, wild strains of Schizosaccharomyces japonicus isolated from fruit flies in Japan exhibit constitutive sporulation even under nutrient-rich conditions. Here, we investigated the ecological and evolutionary significance of this unusual phenotype. We demonstrate that spores produced under nutrient-rich conditions survive passage through the digestiv

Health & MedicineSeptember 30, 2026

Osteoclasts intercept meningeal lymphatic paths for dural metastasis.

Dural metastasis (DM)-a devastating complication of advanced malignancies such as breast and lung cancers-is defined by tumour cell infiltration into the dura mater and presents unique clinical challenges distinct from brain metastasis 1,2 . Our study unveils a, to our knowledge, previously unrecognized role of meningeal lymphatic dysfunction in DM pathophysiology, providing a new conceptual framework for this unique form of metastatic disease. Distinctive cranial erosion patterns, identifi

Physical/TechSeptember 29, 2026

Leveraging room-temperature plastic deformation for tailoring inorganic thermoelectrics.

Mg 3 (Sb, Bi) 2 has emerged as a promising material due to its favorable combination of high thermoelectric performance and ductility. However, a key question remains regarding how plastic deformation affects its thermoelectric properties. Here we investigate the evolution of deformation-induced defects and their influence on the transport and mechanical properties of Mg 3 (Sb, Bi) 2 . Compressive deformation introduces high densities of dislocations and deformation twins, accompanied by a prono

Health & MedicineSeptember 25, 2026

Bright monomeric fluorescent protein elite-niRFP704 for two-channel near-infrared STED nanoscopy.

The near-infrared (NIR) spectral region is attractive for live-cell imaging, due to low autofluorescence and reduced phototoxicity. Some phytochrome-derived fluorescent proteins absorb and emit fluorescence in the NIR, but have short fluorescence lifetimes and relatively low quantum yields, requiring higher laser powers thus limiting their usefulness for live-cell superresolution microscopy. Using the bacterial phytochrome miRFP703 as a template, we screened for variants with longer fluorescence

Health & MedicineSeptember 25, 2026

Quantitative nanoscale imaging shows peptide-MHC I complexes are monomeric and spatially regulated in human dendritic cells.

Major histocompatibility complex class I (MHC I) molecules present antigenic peptides to cytotoxic T cells, a process central to immune surveillance. However, the nanoscale spatial organization of peptide-MHC I (pMHC I) on human dendritic cells (DCs), key initiators of cytotoxic T cell responses, remains largely unexplored. Here, we combine high-affinity soluble T cell receptors with DNA-based point accumulation for imaging in nanoscale topography (DNA-PAINT) to quantitatively map and count defi

Health & MedicineSeptember 25, 2026

Cannabinoid tolerance relies on CB 1 receptor ubiquitination by NEDD4L.

Cannabinoids, the active components of cannabis, exert numerous acute effects in the brain by engaging cannabinoid CB 1 receptors (CB 1 Rs). However, tolerance emerges rapidly after repeated drug exposure, undermining the efficacy of cannabinoid-based therapies and contributing to cannabis-associated adverse effects. Although the processes of CB 1 R short-term desensitization (i.e., receptor uncoupling and internalization) are well characterized, the mechanisms underlying CB 1 R long-term tolera

Health & MedicineSeptember 24, 2026

Prussian blue regulates ion dynamics in perovskite solar cells

Perovskite photovoltaics are limited by structural instabilities initiated during crystallization and amplified under operation. We report that a lattice-matched Prussian blue scaffold directs heterogeneous nucleation to produce highly oriented, strain-relaxed films. Its redox-active Fe–C≡N–Fe network mediates the conversion of Pb 0 and I 0 defects, and its rigid open framework suppresses A-site cation redistribution and the resulting electronic inhomogeneity under bias. This strategy yielded ch

Artificial IntelligenceSeptember 23, 2026

TRAM promotes Toll-like-receptor-free myddosome signal transduction.

In the Toll-like receptor (TLR) signal transduction pathways, activated receptors are present for mere minutes within the initial, membrane-proximal signalling complexes called proto-myddosomes 1 . Proto-myddosomes are rapidly released from TLRs to self-assemble (that is, mature) into enzyme-rich, cytosolic supramolecular organizing centres called myddosomes 2-4 . Myddosomes induce hours-long inflammatory gene expression 5-10 . The mechanism controlling proto-myddosome release and its effect on

Health & MedicineSeptember 23, 2026

Persistence of mucosal CAR-T cells and inflammatory remodeling in enterocolitis associated with BCMA CAR-T cell therapy.

B cell-targeted therapies are expanding across oncologic and autoimmune indications, yet their consequences for mucosal immunity remain incompletely examined. Here we define the pathophysiology of ciltacabtagene autoleucel chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cell-induced enterocolitis (EC) (CAR-T EC )-a severe complication of B cell maturation antigen-targeted CAR-T cell therapy in multiple myeloma. Using single-cell transcriptomics, flow cytometry and tissue imaging of intestinal bi

Health & MedicineSeptember 23, 2026

AI-based characterization of Alzheimer's disease phenotypes from population-scale single-cell data.

The complexity of Alzheimer's disease (AD) manifests in diverse clinical phenotypes, including cognitive impairment and neuropsychiatric symptoms. However, the etiology of these phenotypes remains elusive. To address this, the PsychAD project generated a population-level single-nucleus RNA sequencing dataset comprising over 6 million nuclei from the prefrontal cortex of >1,000 individual brains, covering a variety of disease phenotypes. Here, leveraging this dataset, we developed a com

Health & MedicineSeptember 23, 2026

Direct cell-to-cell transmission of retrotransposons.

Transposable elements are abundant in host genomes but are generally considered to be confined to the cell in which they are expressed, with the notable exception of endogenous retroviruses. Here, we identify a group of long terminal repeat (LTR) retrotransposons that infect the germline from somatic cells within the Drosophila ovary, despite lacking the fusogenic Envelope protein typically required for retroviral entry. Instead, these elements encode a short transmembrane protein, sORF2, which

Health & MedicineSeptember 18, 2026

Oligodendrocytes in central nervous system health and disease.

Oligodendrocytes are a specialized class of glial cells responsible for myelination, which sustains central nervous system (CNS) function. Though long considered a passive and static cell, the oligodendrocyte is now recognized to actively support axonal energy demands through metabolic provision, modify neural signaling in response to environmental stimuli through adaptive myelination, and repair or regenerate myelin following injury. However, oligodendrocytes become dysfunctional in aging and d

Health & MedicineSeptember 16, 2026

Developmental xenocortication using human-derived organoids in mice.

The inaccessibility of human brain tissue limits the study of human development and function, a challenge that human stem-cell-derived neural models are beginning to address 1,2 . Transplantation of neural organoids into rodent hosts enables the in vivo study of aspects of human neurodevelopment and circuit function, alongside behavioural phenotyping of the host animals. However, spatial limitations and competition with host circuits constrain the integration of neu

Artificial IntelligenceSeptember 16, 2026

Rapid patient-specific neural networks for X-ray to volume registration.

Advanced navigation techniques in image-guided interventions and surgical robotics require the rapid and precise alignment of three-dimensional (3D) preoperative volumes (such as computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging) to two-dimensional (2D) intraoperative images (such as X-ray fluoroscopy) 1,2 . However, existing 2D/3D registration methods fail to generalize across the broad spectrum of fluoroscopy-guided procedures: intensity-based optimizers require per-individual hyperparameter

Health & MedicineSeptember 15, 2026

Integrative modeling of the genome structure and dynamics in fission yeast.

Genome organization in the nucleus is highly structured and dynamic. Recent advances in genomic technology have enabled the measurement of genome-wide architecture and locus-specific motion, yielding contact maps and live-cell trajectories. However, these outcomes are derived from different modalities and are not directly comparable, with their quantitative integration being a key challenge. Here we establish a genome-wide live-cell imaging platform in fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe , t

Health & MedicineSeptember 15, 2026

Resolving cell lineages and gene functions in the developing mouse gastrointestinal tract using in utero transduction.

How diverse cell lineages emerge and are genetically regulated during organogenesis are central questions in understanding the developmental origins of disease. However, the mouse gut, including its intrinsic enteric nervous system (ENS) derived from migratory neural crest, has remained difficult to experimentally target. Here, we introduce an in utero lentiviral nano-injection strategy that enables early and efficient access to progenitor cells of all major cell types within the developing gut

Health & MedicineSeptember 15, 2026

Formin-1 maintains cochlear microtubule architecture required for hearing in humans and mice.

Formin proteins contribute to the cytoskeletal organization of multiple mammalian organ systems. Genetic defects in formins lead to neurologic, renal, reproductive, and cardiac disorders, but no human phenotype has been described for mutation of FMN1 , encoding formin-1, the first-identified formin. In an extended Palestinian kindred, autosomal recessive congenital hearing loss proved due to homozygosity for FMN1 c.2162-2A>G, which leads to aberrant splicing, nonsense mediated decay, and abse

Physical/TechSeptember 15, 2026

Imaging the Meissner effect in lanthanum hydride using diamond quantum sensors.

Lanthanum hydride has attracted significant attention in recent years due to its signatures of superconductivity at around 250 K. However, the required megabar pressures present extraordinary challenges in verifying its Meissner effect. Although nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond offer a solution, their application has been limited by insufficient working pressures. In this work, using a gaseous pressure-transmitting medium, the working pressure of NV centers is extended to nearly 180 GPa.