Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have developed silk iron microparticles (SIMPs)—magnetic, biodegradable carriers designed to deliver therapies directly to disease sites like aneurysms or tumors. The particles are created by chemically bonding iron oxide nanoparticles to regenerated silk fibroin using glutathione, enhancing their magnetic responsiveness while maintaining biocompatibility. These nanoscale carriers, roughly one-hundred-thousandth the width of a human hair, can potentially be guided externally to precise locations in the body. The platform enables localized delivery of therapeutic agents such as extracellular vesicles, regenerative factors, or drugs, offering a minimally invasive approach to treating conditions like abdominal aortic aneurysms and expanding the potential for targeted therapies in regenerative medicine.

Decades of research have gone into developing effective dengue vaccines to protect the world’s population against Dengue fever—a global health threat. In spite of this, there are significant challenges to this problem. This Pediatric Investigation review explores the status, efficacy, safety, and limitations of current dengue vaccines, while highlighting main themes for future research, like antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE), region-specific vaccine formulations, and advanced vaccine platforms, to build an era of dengue-free world.

A newly published study in the Journal of Medical Entomology provides critical insights into the emergence of babesiosis in the Mid-Atlantic region, documenting human cases and the presence of Babesia microti in local tick populations.