EurekAlert! News by Subject: Medicine & Health - News by Subject: Medicine & Health

Medicine & Health

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 27-Dec-2025 00:11 ET (27-Dec-2025 05:11 GMT/UTC)

Nanowire breakthrough reveals elusive astrocytes

Johns Hopkins University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Scientists have engineered a nanowire platform that mimics brain tissue to study astrocytes, the star-shaped cells critical for brain health, for the first time in their natural state.

Journal: Advanced Science
Funder: Air Force Office of Scientific Research

Blood protein profiles can predict mortality

University of Surrey
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Elevated levels of five proteins in our blood can help predict risk of mortality, a new study from the University of Surrey finds. Scientists believe the proteins (PLAUR, SERPINA3, CRIM1, DDR1 and LTBP2), that play key roles in the development of diseases such as cancer and inflammation, may also contribute to the risk of dying. Findings could help clinicians identify individuals most at risk from mortality and lead to earlier medical interventions.

Journal: PLOS One

Synthetic stress hormone dexamethasone could reduce breast cancer metastases

University of Basel
Peer-Reviewed Publication

The drug dexamethasone supplements cancer treatments to alleviate side effects of chemotherapy such as nausea or inflammation. Researchers at the University of Basel, Switzerland, have now discovered that it also fights metastases in certain types of breast cancer.

Journal: EMBO Molecular Medicine

Rejuvenating the blood: A new pharmacological strategy targeting RhoA in haematopoietic stem cells

IDIBELL-Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute
Peer-Reviewed Publication

According to the results published in Nature Aging, ex vivo treatment of blood stem cells with the drug Rhosin leads to blood stem cell rejuvenation and helps produce healthier blood cells once transplanted back in the bone marrow.

Previously, Dr M. Carolina Florian and her team proved the central role of blood stem cells in the aging of the whole body, suggesting blood rejuvenation as an important biomedical strategy to extend healthspan and lifespan and prevent age-related diseases.

Biomedical rejuvenation strategies that target aging and its detrimental health effects will be essential in the future scenario of an aging population: by 2050, the population over 60 years of age will have doubled.

Journal: Nature Aging

AI learns from the tree of life to support rare disease diagnosis

Center for Genomic Regulation
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers have developed the first AI model able to support the diagnosis of diseases that are "as rare as one". The model, popEVE, uses the vast evolutionary record of life on Earth, meaning it can work with the patient's genetic information alone to help reach a diagnosis without family data. The tool has the potential to transform how doctors diagnose genetic disease.

Journal: Nature Genetics

International study finds gene linked with risk of delirium

University of Edinburgh
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A major genetic risk factor for delirium has been identified in a landmark study that analysed the DNA of more than one million people worldwide.

Journal: Nature Aging
Funder: Dunhill Medical Trust

Cities missing out on nature-based solutions that could boost climate resilience, global experts warn

University of Surrey
Peer-Reviewed Publication

With climate change expected to intensify heatwaves, flooding and air pollution in cities worldwide, why are we not tapping into the full potential of nature-based solutions? An international study led by the University of Surrey’s Global Centre for Clean Air Research (GCARE) in collaboration with 86 specialists across 11 countries explores the current barriers hindering the implementation of green and blue infrastructure (GBI) that could help build climate resilience – such as parks, trees, rivers, wetlands and green roofs.

Journal: The Innovation