The Lundquist Institute (TLI) and its start-up company Vitalex Biosciences (Vitalex) are pleased to announce that the second-generation fungal vaccine candidate known as VXV‑01, which was developed using a proprietary TLI vaccine technology platform, is poised to move forward in development up to and including Phase 1 clinical evaluation — enabled by a major contract awarded to a collaboration  consortium of Vitalex and Appili Therapeutics (TSX: APLI; OTCPink: APLIF). The contract from the National Institute of Health’s (NIH) National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) is valued at up to US $40 million. It will support the development of VXV-01 from manufacturing and non-clinical studies through two Phase 1 clinical trials. This contract represents a significant milestone for The Lundquist Institute’s vaccine research program. 

A research paper by scientists at the Beijing Institute of Technology proposed a brain–machine hybrid intelligent system for sound target detection (STD), featuring a neuroanatomy-informed EEG decoding network and an adaptive confidence-based fusion strategy to address poor robustness and limited generalization of existing methods under low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) conditions or with unseen target classes.

The new research paper, publishede journal Cyborg and Bionic Systems, presented the development, validation, and optimization of the hybrid system, demonstrating that integrating neuroanatomical priors into EEG decoding and fusing brain-machine decisions can significantly enhance STD performance in complex acoustic environments.

SAN ANTONIO — December 15, 2025 — Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) has received $1.75 million in funding from the ENERGYWERX program to support a set of hydrogen-related projects. The eight projects focus on testing components for the hydrogen industry to improve energy infrastructure and support the use of this clean-burning fuel.

Harvard engineers, as part of Project CETI, have built an open-source bio-logger that adheres to sperm whales and records high-fidelity, multi-channel audio plus rich behavioral and environmental data. The data are tailored for machine learning analysis so that researchers can better understand whale communication.

New findings shed light on the mechanisms behind a natural purification process and identify the key microbial “teammates” that enable mosses to remove metals from water. A promising moss species was discovered in abandoned mine sites where few other plants survive. Upcoming tests will evaluate their performance in iron-rich forest drained ditches. 

In an Annenberg Public Policy Center white paper, biostatistician Jeffrey Morris of the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine analyzes the U.S. vaccine safety monitoring system and suggests how its components, including VAERS, can be improved.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and University of Michigan have created the world’s smallest fully programmable, autonomous robots: microscopic swimming machines that can independently sense and respond to their surroundings, operate for months and cost just a penny each. Barely visible to the naked eye, the robots are smaller than grains of salt and could advance medicine, manufacturing and more.

To address the global environmental and climate crisis and advance the UN SDGs, it is essential to fully leverage Earth observations (EO) through the integration of atmospheric, hydrological, cryospheric, lithospheric, ecological, and socio-economic data. Based on discussions from the 2023 “Towards Global Earth Observatory” workshop, this paper highlights the fragmented nature of current EO and data repositories and emphasizes the need for a more coordinated global Ground-Based Earth Observatory (GGBEO). We summarize the status of key in-situ and ground-based remote sensing systems and outline the actions required to build an integrated GGBEO with interoperable data repositories, unified observation networks, and sustainable long-term support.