Eat, explore, rest: a leptin-sensing brain circuit helps overcome anxiety to meet vital needs
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Updates every hour. Last Updated: 26-Dec-2025 01:11 ET (26-Dec-2025 06:11 GMT/UTC)
A research team at the University of Cologne and University Hospital Cologne identifies a circuit in the brain that counteracts anxiety and helps to restore balanced behaviour. The result could contribute to developing treatment options for anorexia nervosa, one of the deadliest mental illnesses / publication in “Nature Neuroscience”
Perovskite materials offer exceptional optoelectronic properties for photodetectors, but precise patterning is critical to optimize their performance. This review surveys five key patterning strategies—template-guided growth, inkjet printing, vapor deposition, seed-induced growth, and photolithography—highlighting their roles in controlling perovskite microstructures. The resulting patterned films enable high-sensitivity photodetectors across zero- to three-dimensional architectures, facilitating breakthroughs in flexible wearables and biomimetic vision systems. These advances pave the way for next-generation imaging, health monitoring, and human-machine interfaces.
A new clinical trials shows that pembrolizumab, a drug that utilizes the body’s immune system to target and eliminate cancer cells, appeared to reduce the risk of distant metastases for an aggressive form of skin cancer when given immediately after surgery, but did not significantly reduce the overall risk of recurrence, which was a co-primary endpoint of the trial. The randomized phase 3 trial called STAMP or EA6174, is the largest clinical study to date evaluating pembrolizumab as adjuvant therapy for Merkel cell carcinoma, an extremely aggressive disease, with fewer than half of patients surviving 5 years after diagnosis.
According to a recent study, 44% of people with chronic conditions who responded to a population-based survey experienced medication-related burden (MRB). The burden was most common among people with diabetes, heart disease, rheumatic disease or some other musculoskeletal disorder. The greatest burden was caused by factors associated with health care, such as fragmented care and the cost of medicines, as well as adverse drug reactions or concerns about them.
During fertilisation, the egg cell and the sperm are bound together by, among other things, two specific proteins. Researchers have now demonstrated that this represents a special type of binding, because – counterintuitively – it becomes stronger rather than weaker in response to tensile forces. One of the specific causes of infertility is associated with a genetic mutation in one of these proteins. Now, new insights could help researchers to develop diagnostic tests and fertility treatments.