Latest News Releases 6 April

Bee products such as honey, pollen, and propolis loaded thin films were evaluated according to their potential as wound dressing material with different physicochemical analyses such as chemical structure, morphology, water retention capacity, wettability, degradability and water vapour permeability. The results obtained varied according to the type of bioactive substance. The contact angle and water vapour permeability properties of chitosan: gelatin films selected as control films were improved by adding bioactive substances. In addition, when evaluated in terms of biological properties, it was observed that the bee products loaded thin films exhibited high antioxidant and antibacterial activity.

A significant discovery has identified a missing "gatekeeper" protein as the root cause of dry mouth in Sjögren's syndrome — a finding that could change the way the disease is treated. 

The molecular world of bitter compounds has so far only been partially explored. Researchers at the Leibniz Institute for Food Systems Biology at the Technical University of Munich in Freising and the Leibniz Institute of Plant Biochemistry in Halle (Saale) have now isolated three new bitter compounds from the mushroom Amaropostia stiptica and investigated their effect on human bitter taste receptors. In doing so, they discovered one of the potentially most bitter substances known to date. The study results expand our knowledge of natural bitter compounds and their receptors, thus making an important contribution to food and health research.

Based on data in the European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register and the life cycle approach, the Amalur EIS environmental information system, created by the Ekopol group of the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), enables environmental impacts at national, regional and/or municipal level to be analysed. The researchers also analysed the results of data collected at industrial plants in the Basque Country between 2007-2022.

Body signals such as heartbeat and breathing accompany us constantly, often unnoticed as background noise of our perception. Even in the earliest years of life, these signals are important as they contribute to the development of self-awareness and identity. However, until know little has been known about whether and how babies can perceive their own body signals. A recent study from Wiener Kinderstudien Lab at the University of Vienna demonstrates for the first time that babies as young as 3 months can perceive their own heartbeat. In addition, the team, headed by researchers from the University of Vienna, together with colleagues from the University of Potsdam and Royal Holloway University of London, also investigated for the first-time infants’ perception of their own breathing and found developments during the first two years of life. The results are now published in the prestigious journal eLife.

A team of researchers at Gladstone Institutes has released a novel computational tool called CHOIR that can improve the detection of "off-key" cells. CHOIR, short for “cluster hierarchy optimization by iterative random forests,” categorizes thousands or even millions of cells into separate, biologically distinct groups, helping home in on specific cell types or conditions that may underlie disease.

As artificial intelligence (AI) rapidly integrates into health care, a new study by researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai reveals that all generative AI models may recommend different treatments for the same medical condition based solely on a patient’s socioeconomic and demographic background. Their findings, which are detailed in the April 7, 2025 online issue of Nature Medicine [DOI: 10.1038/s41591-025-03626-6], highlight the importance of early detection and intervention to ensure that AI-driven care is safe, effective, and appropriate for all.

The Last of Us is back on April 13 and this season is more realistic than ever.

The trailer for the hit HBO series appears to show the “zombie fungus” cordyceps infecting humans by releasing air-borne spores, instead of through tentacles—closer to scientific reality. And it’s not the only thing the show gets right.