With a Kobe University-developed procedure, induced pluripotent stem cells can now be frozen directly in their dishes without losing their viability or undifferentiated state after thawing. This marks a significant step for research automation, personalized medicine and drug discovery research.

A research team led by Prof. Tao Jiang and Prof. Jing Li from State Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Biosecurity, Academy of Military Medical Science, in collaboration with Prof. Shi-Shun Zhao from College of Mathematics, Jilin University and Prof. Jianwei Wang from NHC Key Laboratory of Systems Biology of Pathogens and Christophe Merieux Laboratory, National Institute of Pathogen Biology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, developed a viral risk prediction framework named GIVAL based on the pre-trained viral protein language model vBERT. This study proposes a general intelligent prediction method for assessing adaptation risks of unknown viruses.

A pre-school diet and physical activity programme does not improve children’s calorie intake or overall physical activity levels in nursery settings, a new University of Bristol-led study has found.  The research published in The Lancet Regional Health - Europe today [17 December] highlights the need for policy-led rather than intervention-led approaches to improving young children’s health.

A higher dose of the antibiotic rifampicin does not improve survival rates for patients with tuberculous meningitis. This severe form of tuberculosis causes inflammation of the brain membranes, and half of the patients die. These findings come from a large international study conducted by Radboud university medical center and its international partners. The research has now been published in the scientific journal New England Journal of Medicine.