Three researchers from Pennington Biomedical Research Center served on the Lancet Commission on Clinical Obesity, a global group that generated a new approach to diagnosing clinical obesity. The diagnosis is based on evaluations in addition to body mass index, or BMI, such as measures of excess body fat and objective signs and symptoms of ill health at the individual level. The Lancet Commission on Clinical Obesity was made up of 56 individuals from around the world, including Dr. John Kirwan, Executive Director and George A. Bray, Jr. Endowed Super Chair in Nutrition; Dr. Eric Ravussin, LSU Boyd Professor and Douglas L. Gordon Chair in Diabetes and Metabolism; and Dr. Philip Schauer, Director of the Metamor Institute and United Companies Life Insurance Co./Mary Kay and Terrell Brown Chair.

Three-quarters of medical facilities in Mariupol sustained damage during Russia’s siege of 2022, with some evidence that the attacks may have been intentionally targeted, per study using satellite imagery.

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have described the neurodegeneration that occurs in the nervous system of the bowel in Batten disease, a rare and fatal genetic condition. In their latest study, a team led by Jonathan Cooper, PhD, professor of pediatrics at WashU Medicine, showed that gene therapy to the bowel in mice modeling Batten disease reduced symptoms and extended lifespan.

In a study of characters from the Marvel and DC cinematic universes, the amount of potentially traumatic events a character experienced in childhood—as measured with a real-life questionnaire—had no bearing on whether they were a hero or villain. Julia Wigmore of the University of Calgary, Canada, and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS One on January 15, 2025.