Medical Xpress news

Medical Xpress / CRISPR screen uncovers hundreds of genes required for brain development

Which genes are required for turning embryonic stem cells into brain cells, and what happens when this process goes wrong? In a new study published today in Nature Neuroscience, researchers led by Prof. Sagiv Shifman from ...

Jan 5, 2026 in Genetics
Medical Xpress / Neuroscientists devise formulas to measure multilingualism

More than half of the world's population speaks more than one language—but there is no consistent method for defining "bilingual" or "multilingual." This makes it difficult to accurately assess proficiency across multiple ...

Jan 5, 2026 in Neuroscience
Medical Xpress / Food insecurity tied to increased long COVID risk in kids

New research led by Mass General Brigham investigators suggests that long COVID is more prevalent in school-aged children and adolescents who experience economic instability and adverse social conditions. The multi-center, ...

Jan 5, 2026 in Pediatrics
Medical Xpress / Medications may help the aging brain cope with surgery and memory impairment

Simple pharmaceutical interventions could help older brains cope with memory impairment and recovery after surgery, new studies in mice suggest.

Jan 5, 2026 in Neuroscience
Medical Xpress / Molecular mechanism reveals how viral infection triggers aggressive leukemia

Researchers at Kumamoto University have uncovered a previously unknown molecular mechanism by which human T-cell leukemia virus type I (HTLV-1) drives the development of adult T-cell leukemia-lymphoma (ATL), one of the most ...

Jan 5, 2026 in Oncology & Cancer
Medical Xpress / Back pain is linked to worse sleep years later in men over 65

About half of older men suffer from sleep problems, back pain or both, according to Soomi Lee, associate professor of human development and family studies at Penn State. Lee recently led a study to investigate whether one ...

Medical Xpress / GLP-1 drugs might help quell sleep apnea, study suggests

A good night's sleep might be an additional benefit some gain from taking weight-loss drugs like Ozempic and Zepbound, a new study says.

Jan 5, 2026 in Overweight & Obesity
Medical Xpress / 'Forever chemicals' common in cosmetics, but FDA says safety data are scant

Federal regulators have released a mandated report regarding the presence of "forever chemicals" in makeup and skincare products.

Jan 5, 2026 in Health
Medical Xpress / Tangled scar tissue may set stage for dangerous placenta condition

Placenta accreta spectrum (PAS) used to be a rare pregnancy condition, but it now affects roughly 14,000 pregnancies annually, posing a major cause of maternal death. Yet why it happens is still not well understood. Placenta ...

Medical Xpress / High-dose risankizumab trial tests staying power against psoriasis

Oregon Medical Research Center in Portland, Oregon, has led a phase 2 trial in moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis that paired higher-than-approved doses of risankizumab with extended follow-up and found high early skin clearance ...

Jan 2, 2026 in Immunology
Medical Xpress / Creating cells that help the brain keep its cool

Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have created a method that makes it possible to transform the brain's support cells into parvalbumin-positive cells. These cells act as the brain's rapid-braking system and are significantly ...

Jan 2, 2026 in Neuroscience
Medical Xpress / Potential biomarker linked to multiple sclerosis progression and brain inflammation

A new University of Toronto-led study has discovered a possible biomarker linked to multiple sclerosis (MS) disease progression that could help identify patients most likely to benefit from new drugs.

Jan 2, 2026 in Neuroscience