The world’s first academic review into bamboo consumption has identified a surprising range of health benefits, including helping control blood sugar, fighting inflammation, improving gut health and acting as an antioxidant.

The review, which involved researchers from Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) in England, is the first to collate and analyse all published research into the consumption of bamboo, which is the fastest growing plant on earth.

Cambridge, Massachusetts, January 14, 2025 - Insilico Medicine (“Insilico”, HKEX:03696), a clinical-stage biotechnology company driven by generative artificial intelligence (AI), today announced the demonstration of its Nach01 multimodal foundation model deployed on Microsoft Discovery, Microsoft’s science-focused platform designed to accelerate research and development through agentic AI. This collaboration highlights Microsoft Discovery’s extensibility with third-party AI models and illustrates how R&D organizations can adopt unified, AI-native workflows for computational drug discovery. By orchestrating secure, multi-step investigations within a Microsoft Azure-native environment, the demonstration underscores key benefits—including enhanced transparency, improved reproducibility, and scalable deployment—empowering scientific teams to streamline and advance discovery processes with great assurance.    

Alcohol use is widespread and alcohol use disorder (AUD) causes substantial harm. AUD affects 29 million individuals and causes more than 140,000 deaths annually in the U.S. alone. Individuals with AUD also often struggle with cognitive deficits, particularly in memory, attention, and cognitive flexibility, which can further undermine recovery. Current drug options are limited, and only modestly effective, so more efficacious and better-tolerated options are urgently needed.

Researchers at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine report for the first time that guanfacine, a selective alpha-2 adrenergic drug already used clinically for ADHD, reduces heavy alcohol consumption and improve certain alcohol-related cognitive deficits in an experimental model, without the sedation and dangerous drops in body temperature seen with older alpha-2 drugs such as clonidine.

Venetia Zachariou, PhD, Edward Avedisian Professor and chair of pharmacology, physiology & biophysics at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, has been named a Class of 2025 Fellow of the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (ASPET). Selection as a Fellow is an honor bestowed to the most distinguished members of the organization. Fellows are recognized for their meritorious efforts to advance pharmacology, through their scientific achievements, mentorship and service to the Society. Zachariou is one of 17 new Fellows.

Cardiovascular disease remains a major concern in cities, with poor outcomes and high societal cost often driven by unequal access to healthcare. 

A pan-European consortium of 34 international partners launches an ambitious project to reduce the burden of urban cardiovascular disease. 

The initiative will focus on obesity, high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol and diabetes, which are common yet treatable causes of death, heart disease, stroke and vascular dementia.