A novel treatment (MA-5) developed by a Tohoku University-led research team will soon undergo phase II clinical trials at four medical institutions across Japan. MA-5 could provide hope for patients with mitochondrial diseases – as there are currently no approved treatments available.

Researchers at Osaka Metropolitan University examined fibulin-5 present in plasma and found that its levels increase as liver fibrosis progresses.

A remarkable resistance to venom has been discovered in a frog that feasts on hornets despite their deadly stingers. This frog could potentially serve as a model organism for studies on mechanisms underlying venom tolerance.

An Osaka Metropolitan University-led research team studied 5-HT3A receptor deletion in mice to assess behavioral persistence.

Astronomers using the Subaru Telescope in Hawaiʻi have discovered a massive planet and a brown dwarf orbiting distant stars. The discoveries are the first results from OASIS (Observing Accelerators with SCExAO Imaging Survey), which combines space-based measurements with the Subaru Telescope’s advanced imaging to find hidden worlds. These discoveries in turn enable NASA’s upcoming Roman Space Telescope to test critical technologies for imaging Earth-like planets.

A research team from NIMS, Tohoku University and AIST has developed a new technique for controlling the nanostructures and magnetic domain structures of iron-based soft amorphous ribbons, achieving more than a 50% reduction in core loss compared with the initial amorphous material. The developed material exhibits particularly high performance in the high-frequency range of several tens of kilohertz—required for next-generation, high-frequency transformers and EV drive power supply circuits. This breakthrough is expected to contribute to the advancement of these technologies, development of more energy-efficient electric machines and progress toward carbon neutrality. This research was published in Nature Communications on September 3, 2025.

Male infertility is a major issue worldwide and its causes remain unclear. Researchers at the RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research (BDR) in Japan have now discovered a key structure in the germ cells of male mice that, when disturbed, leads to abnormal sperm tails and infertility. The discovery was made possible by the first observation of the mouse flagellar base structure using ultrastructure expansion microscopy and could explain some forms of infertility in human men. 

Iron is essential for rice plants, and its proper distribution to young leaves and developing grains depends on precise transport through the plant’s nodes. In a recent study, researchers from Japan identified and characterized OsIET1, an iron efflux transporter that directs iron into the vascular structures. Their findings shed light on the mechanisms by which plants distribute iron, paving the way for more resilient crops and strategies to manage iron deficiency. 

Researchers at Okayama University have developed a novel photochemical macrolactonization that converts hydroxyaldehydes into macrolactones (ring sizes 7–21) using in-situ generated acyl bromide intermediates under purple LED light. This radical light-driven method bypasses conventional activating agents and opens a versatile, efficient pathway for constructing complex natural product frameworks—a promising advance for drug discovery and macrolide synthesis.

A researcher from the University of Tokyo and a U.S.-based structural engineer developed a new computational form-finding method that could change how architects and engineers design lightweight and free-form structures covering large spaces. The technique specifically helps create gridshells, thin, curved surfaces whose members form a networked grid. The method makes use of NURBS surfaces, a widely used surface representation format in computer-aided design (CAD). It also drastically reduces computation cost — a task that previously took 90 hours on a high-end GPU completes in about 90 minutes on a standard CPU.