Untitled

A research team led by Professor Jin Yong Lee from the Department of Chemistry of Sungkyunkwan University, with co-first author HyoungChul Ham, and in collaboration with research teams from Korea University and the National University of Singapore, has developed a next-generation phototherapeutic agent, "NDI-COE." This agent induces pyroptosis (inflammatory cell death) in hypoxic tumor tissues by directly oxidizing intracellular water. The oligoelectrolyte was designed to overcome the oxygen-dependency limits of conventional photodynamic therapy by intercalating into the cell membrane to oxidize water. The research is published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

Long after the high is gone, illegal drugs linger in the environment. Cocaine and its breakdown products, for example, are found in rivers and lakes worldwide. And like children living with secondhand smoke, wildlife in polluted waters—including tiny crustaceans, fish, and even sharks—can’t help but take up these drugs. Less is known about the impact. In laboratory studies, water fleas exposed to cocaine swim faster and crayfish will venture behind their hiding places, a risky behavior in nature. Now, a research team has conducted the first experiment with fish in the wild. The findings, published today in Current Biology, show salmon exposed to cocaine and its main byproduct roam more widely. “It is an important and very interesting study,” says Mark Servos, an ecotoxicologist at the University of Waterloo who was not involved.

everyone's heard of this, right? per ap article of apr 8, 2026:

Found in everything from protein bars to energy drinks, erythritol has long been considered a safe alternative to sugar. But research suggests this widely used sweetener may be quietly undermining one of the body's most crucial protective barriers – with potentially serious consequences for heart health and stroke risk. A study from the University of Colorado suggests erythritol may damage cells in the blood-brain barrier, the brain's security system that keeps out harmful substances while letting in nutrients.

After a decade of work, researchers are closer than ever to a key breakthrough in kidney organ transplants: being able to transfer kidneys from donors with different blood types than the recipients, which could significantly speed up waiting times and save lives. A team from institutions across Canada and China has managed to create a 'universal' kidney, which can, in theory, be accepted by any patient. Their test organ survived and functioned for several days in the body of a brain-dead recipient, whose family consented to the research.

I never thought I would write these words… 😔

I never imagined waking up to endless screams,

Running barefoot through smoke and fire,

Searching for my mother among the rubble,

Only to find nothing but silence… a heavy silence telling me that no one will answer me anymore. 💔

In one moment, everything changed.

Our home became a memory, my mother’s embrace became the past,

And my father's face, now absent, is the last thing I hold in my memory.

They’re gone… and left my heart burdened with unspoken grief. 😢

But despite everything, we are still here… trying.

I survived with my younger siblings.

Yes, we survived… but who are we after survival?

Children without warmth, without a roof, with no place to return to.

We were displaced to an unknown place, carrying a bag empty of everything… except pain. 🥀

We slept in the open, waking every morning to a life that holds nothing for us,

But despite everything… we keep trying. 💪

I write to you today not to cry, but to ask for hope. 🌱

I ask you to be a small light in this vast darkness,

To extend a hand that can mend what the war has broken in us.

Your donation will give my siblings a chance to sleep safely,

It will provide us with food, shelter, and maybe even a new beginning. 💖

✅️Vetted by @gazavetters, my number verified on the list is ( #586 )✅️

Any amount, no matter how small, is big for us

It’s a prayer, it’s love, it’s life. 🌟

In conclusion...

From my heart, and from the hearts of my little siblings,

Thank you to everyone who has donated,

Thank you to everyone who has read,

Thank you to everyone who has shared.

We may have a new way of protecting against COVID-19 that checks almost all the boxes: It's effective, it's affordable, it's easy to apply, it's already approved as safe for public use, it's available without prescription… and it's called azelastine. This nasal spray has been available over the counter for decades now, under a variety of brand names, in over 70 countries. It's used to treat several allergies, including hay fever, and a new trial into its effectiveness at preventing COVID-19 was launched after promising results in lab tests and people with a SARS-CoV-2 infection.

From fabricated research to paid authorships and citations, organized scientific fraud is on the rise, according to a new Northwestern University study. By combining large-scale data analysis of scientific literature with case studies, the researchers led a deep investigation into scientific fraud. Although concerns around scientific misconduct typically focus on lone individuals, the Northwestern study instead uncovered sophisticated global networks of individuals and entities, which systematically work together to undermine the integrity of academic publishing.

New research on Monday contradicted the commonly held idea that males dominate females among primates, revealing far more nuanced power dynamics in the relationships of our close relatives. "For a long time we have had a completely binary view of this issue: we thought that a species was either dominated by males or females – and that this was a fixed trait," Elise Huchard, a primatologist at the University of Montpellier in France, told AFP. "Recently, this idea has been challenged by studies showing that the truth is much more complicated," said the lead author of a new study published in the journal PNAS.

The substances behind the slimy strings from okra and the gel from fenugreek seeds could trap microplastics better than a commonly used synthetic polymer. Previously, researchers proposed using these sticky natural polymers to clean up water. Now, they report in ACS Omega that okra and/or fenugreek extracts attracted and removed up to 90% of microplastics in ocean water, freshwater and groundwater. Rajani Srinivasan and colleagues have been exploring nontoxic, plant-based approaches to attract and remove contaminants from water. In one set of lab experiments, they found that polymers from okra, fenugreek and tamarind stick to microplastics, clumping together and sinking for easy separation from water.

By using antibodies from a human donor with a self-induced hyper-immunity to snake venom, scientists have developed the most broadly effective antivenom to date, which is protective against the likes of the black mamba, king cobra, and tiger snakes in mouse trials. Described in the journal Cell, the antivenom combines protective antibodies and a small molecule inhibitor and opens a path toward a universal antiserum.

This guy Tim Friede wasn’t any kind of researcher or doctor. He was just a snake collector who thought it would be cool to try and become immune to snake venom by injecting small amounts and working up. For 18 goddamn years. He nearly died at least once.

Later, actual scientists heard about him and realized that since he survived his blood must be full of antibodies that neutralize many kinds of snake venoms. Using a sample of his blood they were able to develop an antibody cocktail that seems to be effective against many types of tropical snake bites, a sort of universal antivenom.

For roughly one in every hundred people, food containing even the smallest amounts of gluten can deliver a gutful of hurt and pose severe risks to their health. While a domino effect of immunological reactions can be traced back to their genetic roots, a number of contributing factors are also involved, making it difficult to map the precise chain of events that causes celiac disease. Using transgenic mice, an international team led by scientists from McMaster University in Canada has identified a crucial role played by the very cells making up the gut's lining, describing a major stepping stone that could lead to new therapies.

Researchers have discovered that Daphne pseudomezereum (commonly known as Onishibari) contains a substance inhibiting replication of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The plants were cultivated at the Medicinal Plant Garden of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Toho University. This finding is expected to lead to the discovery of drug seeds for novel drugs with superior anti-HIV activity. A paper reporting this study was published in the journal Phytochemistry. The research group was led by Professor Wei Li from the Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Toho University, in collaboration with the Duke University Medical Center in the United States. The Thymelaeaceae family consists of over 53 genera and 800 species distributed worldwide, except in polar and desert regions. These plants contain diterpenoids, which exhibit significant biological activities, including anticancer, anti-HIV, and analgesic effects.

In an Australian first, researchers have described a new species of 15-million-year-old fossilized freshwater fish, Ferruaspis brocksi, that shows preserved stomach contents as well as the pattern of coloration. The team was led by Australian Museum and UNSW Sydney paleontologist Dr. Matthew McCurry. The work is published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. Named after Professor Jochen J. Brocks from the Australian National University, who discovered several of the fossilized species at the Australian Museum's McGraths Flat fossil site near Gulgong, NSW, Ferruaspis brocksi is the first fossil freshwater smelt (order Osmeriformes) to be found in Australia.

Researchers recently discovered that eight different psychiatric conditions share a common genetic basis. A new study has now honed in on some of those shared genetic variants to understand their properties. They found many are active for longer during brain development and potentially impact multiple stages, suggesting they could be new targets to treat multiple conditions. "The proteins produced by these genes are also highly connected to other proteins," explains University of North Carolina geneticist Hyejung Won. "Changes to these proteins in particular could ripple through the network, potentially causing widespread effects on the brain."

Major medical groups are proposing a change to how doctors diagnose obesity. In Tuesday's issue of The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, 58 international experts across a range of medical specialties and people with lived experience released a report proposing a new definition and diagnostic criteria for clinical obesity. They say the current medical approaches to diagnose obesity don't reliably assess an individual's health.  The international Commission on Clinical Obesity which proposed the new definitions called it a nuanced approach. Their report includes 18 diagnostic criteria for clinical obesity in adults and 13 criteria for children and adolescents.