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Medicine & Health

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 28-Oct-2026 11:16 ET (28-Oct-2026 15:16 GMT/UTC)

Night shifts during pregnancy linked to heightened risk of young child’s neurodevelopmental abnormalities

BMJ Group
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Working night shifts during pregnancy is linked to a heightened risk of neurodevelopmental abnormalities detected by screening in the child by the age of 4, finds research published online in Occupational & Environmental Medicine.

Journal: Occupational and Environmental Medicine
Funder: Ministry of the Environment, Japan

3 out of 4 responses to UK smoke-free generation consultation were AI bot-generated

BMJ Group
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Three quarters of all the responses to the UK’s public consultation in 2023 on creating a smoke-free generation and restricting disposable vape sales were generated by AI bots, finds an analysis of publicly available data and Freedom of Information requests, published online in the journal Tobacco Control.

Journal: Tobacco Control
Funder: UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) for the Local Health and Global Profits consortium

What does voter suppression have to do with health?

University of California - Davis Health
Peer-Reviewed Publication

In a new article in JAMA, UC Davis psychiatrist Ruth Shim discusses how voting access is an overlooked social determinant of health.

Journal: JAMA Health Forum

New technology predicts which cancer treatments may work for pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL)

Emory Health Sciences
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), responsible for 75% of all pediatric leukemia diagnoses, requires immediate treatment-- often a combination of chemotherapy, targeted therapy, immunotherapy and bone marrow transplants. Clinicians today have no way of knowing whether the treatment will be successful. However, new technology from Emory University identifies which drug combinations and ratios will work better together, based on a real-time assessment of a patient's specific blood sample. A microfluidic assay, or a “lab-on-a-chip,” GradientScreen works by exposing leukemia cells to 3-drug combinations and measuring how many cancer cells survive. This technology can predict which patients will respond well to traditional interventions and which patients may benefit from alternative therapies.

Journal: Nature Biomedical Engineering

NIH awards $16.4 million to establish multi-institution hepatitis C vaccine development center

Scripps Research Institute
Grant and Award Announcement

Now, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded $16.4 million over five years to establish a new U19 “Cooperative Center for Rational HCV Vaccine Design & Evaluation,” which will bring together scientists across Scripps Research, the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), the University of Pennsylvania, and the Oregon National Primate Research Center (ONPRC) to uncover how the virus escapes immune responses and create vaccine candidates designed to trigger strong antibody and T cell immune protection.

Many non-drug and non-surgical therapies for low back pain are cost-effective

PLOS
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Non-drug and non-surgical treatments for low back pain, including psychological support, exercise and self-management strategies are cost-effective interventions, according to a study published October 27^th in the open access journal PLOS Medicine by Manuela Loureiro Ferreira from the George Institute for Global Health, Australia, and colleagues.

Journal: PLOS Medicine

Planned power shutoffs aimed at preventing wildfires may increase risk of acute respiratory illness

PLOS
Peer-Reviewed Publication

The prevalence of wildfires and co-occurring power outages is increasing in the United States. A study published October 27^th in PLOS Medicine by Lauren Blair Wilner, University of Washington, USA, and colleagues suggests public safety power shutoffs aimed at preventing wildfires are associated with an increased risk of acute respiratory illness.

Journal: PLOS Medicine

Breastmilk vesicles link maternal postnatal depression to offspring brain development

Nanjing University School of Life Sciences
Peer-Reviewed Publication

On October 27th, 2026, a collaborative team led by Chen Xi, Zhang Chen-Yu, and Chen Dijun at Nanjing University, together with Ji Chenbo at the Women's Hospital of Nanjing Medical University and Chen Zhangpeng at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, published a study entitled "Postnatal depression-associated breastmilk extracellular vesicles mediate intergenerational effects on offspring neurodevelopment" in Cell Metabolism. The study shows, for the first time, that changes in the miRNA cargo of breastmilk extracellular vesicles associated with postnatal depression can affect specific neural circuits in the offspring brain during early life and interfere with the maturation of newborn hippocampal neurons. It reveals an intergenerational pathway linking "maternal depressive state–breastmilk extracellular vesicle miRNAs–offspring neurodevelopment," offering new mechanistic insight into how the early-life environment shapes brain development and long-term brain health. The work highlights the importance of maternal mental health in the early developmental environment of infants.

Journal: Cell Metabolism

Why do some people spread the flu while others avoid infection? Mizzou researchers investigate

University of Missouri-Columbia
Grant and Award Announcement

University of Missouri researchers are taking a closer look at why some people infected with influenza spread the virus more efficiently than others — and why some exposed individuals become infected while others do not.

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