About one in five  American adults have osteoarthritis, the most common form of arthritis,  according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. No treatment, however, exists to target the causes of the disease or to reverse or halt the damage the disease does to joints. Medications currently on the market only to help patients manage symptoms like joint pain, stiffness and mobility issues. In an effort to learn more about the genetic underpinnings of the condition –which is expected to afflict 1 billion people worldwide by 2050 – a team of international researchers conducted the largest genome-wide association study ever performed on osteoarthritis.

Virginia Tech researchers developed a saliva-based AI screening method that could flag patients at risk for dangerous side effects from a widely used chemotherapy drug. The drug, 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), has been in use since the 1950s — making it one of the oldest chemotherapy agents still used today.  It remains a cornerstone of cancer treatment, used in nearly a third of chemotherapy treatments for colorectal, breast, head and neck, pancreatic, and stomach cancers.

Bacteria naturally present in the human intestine (known as the gut microbiota) can transform cholesterol-derived bile acids into powerful metabolites that strengthen anti-cancer immunity by blocking androgen signaling, according to a preclinical study led by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators. The study was published on April 15 in Cell.