Now, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded $16.4 million over five years to establish a new U19 “Cooperative Center for Rational HCV Vaccine Design & Evaluation,” which will bring together scientists across Scripps Research, the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), the University of Pennsylvania, and the Oregon National Primate Research Center (ONPRC) to uncover how the virus escapes immune responses and create vaccine candidates designed to trigger strong antibody and T cell immune protection.

Non-drug and non-surgical treatments for low back pain, including psychological support, exercise and self-management strategies are cost-effective interventions, according to a study published October 27^th in the open access journal PLOS Medicine by Manuela Loureiro Ferreira from the George Institute for Global Health, Australia, and colleagues.

The prevalence of wildfires and co-occurring power outages is increasing in the United States. A study published October 27^th in PLOS Medicine by Lauren Blair Wilner, University of Washington, USA, and colleagues suggests public safety power shutoffs aimed at preventing wildfires are associated with an increased risk of acute respiratory illness.

University of Missouri researchers are taking a closer look at why some people infected with influenza spread the virus more efficiently than others — and why some exposed individuals become infected while others do not.

From October 19 to 20, the Seventh Beijing Forum on Evidence-Based Medicine and the 2026 eCMTA Journal Academic Symposium were held at Beijing University of Chinese Medicine (BUCM). 

To uncover how endothelial cells, the inner linings of blood vessels. change over the course of a lifespan, an international research team led by Laura de Rooij at the CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences has created the Human Aging Endothelial Cell Atlas, the first comprehensive atlas of vascular aging. By analyzing gene activity data from more than 375,000 human cells across 290 samples and 12 tissues, the scientists reveal that aging affects different parts of the vascular system in distinct ways. The study, published in Nature Aging (DOI 10.1038/s43587-026-01247-3), provides new insights into the biological processes underlying vascular aging and a valuable resource for future research into age-related diseases and vascular repair.