A first-of-its-kind study explored whether more accessible technologies – foot-mounted wearable sensors and a 3D depth camera – could accurately measure how people walk, offering a practical alternative to traditional gait analysis tools. Gait, or walking pattern, is a key health indicator used to detect fall risk, monitor rehabilitation and identify early signs of conditions like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. Traditional systems like the Zeno™ Walkway, the gold standard for gait analysis, are accurate but expensive, bulky and not easily used outside of lab settings.

Wits Professor Stephen Tollman has joined the Africa Task Force on Brain Health, part of the Davos Alzheimer’s Collaborative. With dementia set to affect over one million South Africans, the new “6x5 Plan” aims to strengthen brain health systems, harness digital tools, and drive advocacy across Africa.

For decades, scientists have thought they understood the biochemical machinery that causes asthma—inflammation in the lungs that constricts airways and makes it hard to breathe. But researchers from Case Western Reserve University think "leukotrienes"—chemicals that get released from white blood cells when something irritates your lungs or you inhale an allergen—may not be the bad actors after all.

A new review in Molecular Biomedicine reveals how intricate regulation of cholesterol metabolism connects cellular lipid homeostasis to diseases such as atherosclerosis, fatty liver, and Alzheimer's disease—and explores next-generation therapeutic strategies including gene editing, RNA drugs, and gut microbiota modulation.