When Amy Aungst was growing up, she saw nearly every person on her mother’s side of the family struggle with Huntington’s disease. This included her grandfather, mother and three uncles.

In 2015, at age 26, she found out that she has the genetic mutation that causes Huntington’s disease, but has yet to experience symptoms. This clarity helped her plan for a family and guided her decision to participate in research studies, which have been supported in part by the National Institutes of Health, to help investigators better understand the condition and move closer to identifying new types of treatment to help people like her live better and longer.

“I really want a different outcome for Huntington’s disease,” says Aungst. “I’ve seen it affect my whole family my whole life.”

Purdue University researcher Andrea Kasinski is leading work on the relationship between microRNAs — small, non-coding segments of RNA — and cancer, including developing a modified microRNA that curbs at least three genes known to drive cancer and therapy resistance. MicroRNAs can block multiple molecular paths that cancer cells use to grow and spread, a substantial advantage over the most advanced medicines available. Kasinski is developing the modified microRNA she designed in the lab and through LigamiR Therapeutics (a company she founded to advance RNA therapeutics) to target for triple-negative breast cancer, ovarian cancer, and non-small cell lung cancer. 

Researchers at the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) will share their discoveries and innovations at DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) Energy Innovation Summit in San Diego, California, April 7-9. ARPA-E funds high-risk, high-impact energy technologies that can be quickly and meaningfully advanced to catalyze bleeding-edge energy research.

Former NBA champion Dirk Nowitzki was honored Monday, March 23, during The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center’s A Conversation With a Living Legend^® Dallas. MLB great and former Living Legend honoree Clayton Kershaw joined Nowitzki in bringing together a distinguished audience of donors and supporters united in the mission to end cancer.

The stockpile of German ammunition left in Norway in 1945 could have been cleared and dismantled by the Germans. Norway declined and began dumping it in Lake Mjøsa and other lakes instead.

The NYU Langone Transplant Institute, which launched in March 2016, celebrates a decade of saving lives and transplanting over 4,270 organs while maintaining the highest quality standards in the nation.

Caribbean coral reefs are on the brink of collapse. Disease and fatal bleaching, particularly in 2023, have claimed many victims, and with parent colonies becoming scarce, there is a lack of offspring. Even human-assisted breeding faces a major problem: the threat of inbreeding and the resulting weakening of generations to come. To address this, SECORE has launched a new program to establish a network that facilitates the exchange of genetic material between regions: the Caribbean Coral Larvae Exchange Program.

The University of Tennessee, Knoxville convened the inaugural AI Tennessee Summit in Nashville (March 25–26), bringing government, industry, and academic leaders together to discuss AI challenges and opportunities statewide. Through its AI Tennessee initiative, UT is coordinating research, education, and workforce development, expanding applied AI programs, certificates, and industry partnerships to strengthen Tennessee’s AI talent pipeline.