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

Medicine & Health

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 23-Dec-2025 00:11 ET (23-Dec-2025 05:11 GMT/UTC)

American College of Chest Physicians leads landmark effort to improve access to lifesaving noninvasive ventilation for patients with COPD

American College of Chest Physicians
Business Announcement

CHEST efforts lead to a CMS proposal that includes substantial changes to federal coverage guidelines for NIV devices used in the home.

New implant restores blood pressure balance after spinal cord injury

University of Calgary
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Results from two studies find new implant restores blood pressure balance after spinal cord injury. In a rare double publication in both Nature and Nature Medicine, a pair of landmark studies by Dr. Aaron Phillips, PhD, UCalgary, Dr. Grégoire Courtine, PhD, EPFL, and Dr. Jocelyne Bloch, MD, UNIL, describe the development of a targeted therapy to address blood pressure regulation in 14 participants across four clinical studies conducted at three separate medical centers in Canada, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. The implantable neurostimulation system evaluated in these studies was developed by ONWARD Medical. The company recently received FDA approval to initiate a pivotal trial of this therapy, which is expected to involve approximately 20 leading neurorehabilitation and neurosurgical research centers across Canada, Europe and the United States.

Journal: Nature
Funder: Eurostars, DARPA, Medtronic, Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs through the Spinal Cord Injury Research Program, Brain Canada, ONWARD Medical, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Swiss National Science Foundation

UC Riverside startup secures grant to advance cancer therapy

University of California - Riverside
Grant and Award Announcement

Armida Labs, Inc., a University of California, Riverside startup company, has been awarded a $2.25 million Small Business Innovation Research grant from the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health. The grant will support preclinical investigational new drug (IND) application studies, which are critically required before human clinical trials can be initiated.

Funder: NIH/National Cancer Institute

Researchers reveal how autism-linked mutation triggers PTSD-like fear

Institute for Basic Science
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Until now, most evidence for PTSD-like symptoms in ASD has relied on self-reports, leaving the underlying brain mechanisms unclear. In a new study, researchers led by Professor KIM Eunjoon at the Institute for Basic Science (IBS) have uncovered how an ASD-related mutation in the Grin2b gene, which encodes the GluN2B subunit of NMDA receptors, disrupts brain circuits that normally extinguish fear. Their findings, published in Science Advances, provide the first detailed mechanistic explanation for why ASD increases PTSD risk.

Journal: Science Advances
Funder: Institute for Basic Science

Temporary medical centers in Gaza known as "Medical Points" (MPs) treat an average of 117 people daily with only about 7 staff per MP

PLOS
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Temporary medical centers in Gaza known as "Medical Points" (MPs) treat an average of 117 people daily with only about 7 staff per MP, filling a critical role despite severe staffing and supply shortages (with insulin and cancer treatments unavailable in over 90% of cases, for instance).

Journal: PLOS Global Public Health

Rates of alcohol-induced deaths among the general population nearly doubled from 1999 to 2024

PLOS
Peer-Reviewed Publication

In an analysis by race, sex, age, and geography, alcohol-induced death rates in 2024 are nearly double those in 1999, with a sharp increase at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Although rates are higher for men, the largest increase in alcohol-induced deaths over the full 25-year period occurred in females aged 25-34, according to a study published on September 17 by Dr. Tony Wong and colleagues at UCLA in the open-access journal PLOS Global Public Health.

Journal: PLOS Global Public Health

PLOS One study: In adolescent lab animals exposed to cocaine, High-Intensity Interval Training boosts aversion to the drug

University at Buffalo
Peer-Reviewed Publication

In a new study published today in PLOS One, Thanos, PhD, senior research scientist in the Clinical and Research Institute on Addictions in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at UB, and co-authors reveal that high-intensity interval training (HIIT) was more effective than moderate exercise in making adolescent lab animals avoid cocaine.

Journal: PLOS One
Funder: SUNY Research Foundation