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The obesity-microbiome story is more complicated than ‘good’ and ‘bad’ bacteria

This review finds that obesity is linked to reciprocal interactions between diet, the gut microbiome, microbial metabolites, and host metabolic pathways that influence appetite, insulin sensitivity, inflammation, and energy balance across the lifespan. It highlights diet as a particularly tractable way to influence this system, while emphasizing that microbiome changes associated with GLP-1 therapies remain difficult to separate from weight loss and that functional multi-omics approaches may help enable more personalized interventions.

3 Sep 2026

What your genes can, and cannot, tell us about your personality

A meta-analysis of 46 cohorts involving 611,037 to 1.14 million participants identified 1,260 lead genetic variants associated with the Big Five personality traits, including 824 in previously unlinked genomic regions. The associations were broadly consistent across cohorts and measurement contexts, while polygenic analyses linked personality-related genetics to health, behavior, psychopathology, and life outcomes, although effects were modest and could not predict individual behavior.

3 Sep 2026

Eight-year study reveals how molecular aging scripts differ individually

Aging does not appear to follow the same molecular script for everyone, according to an eight-year study of 335 women.

3 Sep 2026

Bridging science and family story to understand schizophrenia origins

Twin studies have placed the heritability of schizophrenia at roughly eighty percent for decades. Concordance between identical twins, who share the entire genome, does not reach fifty percent. Both figures are well established, and they do not fit together comfortably.

2 Sep 2026

Brain activity before stimulation predicts treatment responses

Brain stimulation can produce very different effects at different moments, even when the stimulus is delivered the exact same way.

14 Aug 2026

Higher doses of common fertility drug linked to pregnancy risks

Around one in six people experience infertility, with irregular or absent ovulation among the most common causes.

10 Aug 2026

Australian-first twin study aims to to unlock new insights into immune health

An Australian-first study of twins will seek to find out why two genetically similar people respond differently to infections, diseases and treatments.

4 Aug 2026

Flexible wireless sensors set to transform continuous health tracking

As chronic diseases surge and populations age worldwide, the critical inadequacy of hospital-centered, episodic physiological monitoring has never been more apparent.

16 Jul 2026

AI could accelerate commercialization of bio-based chemical manufacturing

The era of "biomanufacturing", in which microbes, not petroleum, produce chemical products, is one step closer. A KAIST research team has analyzed the key challenges limiting the commercialization of biomanufacturing and proposed an AI-driven strategy for industrialization.

13 Jul 2026

Machine learning redefines precision cancer therapy using smart radiopharmaceuticals

JMIR Publications released a feature News and Perspectives story on technological advances in oncology.

11 Jul 2026

AI-powered digital twins help train future mental health clinicians

Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania, New York University and Penn's Linguistic Data Consortium have received a two-year, $4 million grant from the Wellcome Trust to develop a scalable, AI-powered platform for training mental health clinicians.

9 Jul 2026

Molecular changes in the liver of space travelers provide clues about aging

What happens to the human body in space may help scientists create new anti-aging therapies.

7 Jul 2026

ADHD and autism traits share a common developmental spectrum

Research identifies a neurodevelopmental spectrum for ADHD and autism, emphasizing genetic links and their impact on cognitive and educational outcomes.

7 Jul 2026

Broad neurodevelopmental spectrum better predicts children's educational outcomes

A paper published in the leading journal Molecular Psychiatry on Friday 3 July at 1am British Summer time led by researchers from Queen Mary University of London and Royal Holloway, University of London challenges the way we think about neurodevelopmental conditions.

2 Jul 2026

Genetics play a bigger role than pregnancy in childhood obesity risk

Genetic factors primarily explain the link between parental and childhood BMI, with maternal obesity impacting birth weight more than later childhood obesity.

1 Jul 2026

AI and multiomics reveal how gut bacteria trigger colon cancer

Over the past two decades, high‑throughput sequencing has dramatically expanded our understanding of the gut microbiome's composition.

26 Jun 2026

Maternal blood test reveals prenatal methylation clues linked to autism risk

Researchers found that maternal plasma cell-free DNA methylation patterns in late pregnancy were associated with later autism diagnosis and maternal obesity in a high-likelihood ASD cohort. The findings suggest cfDNA may offer a minimally invasive way to study prenatal epigenetic changes linked to neurodevelopmental risk, but larger validation studies are needed.

25 Jun 2026

NIH funding supports development of AI tools to prevent HIV, hepatitis C and overdose

Natasha Martin, DPhil, professor and vice chief of Global Public Health in the Division of Infectious Diseases and Global Public Health at UC San Diego School of Medicine, has been awarded a five-year, $5.6 million Avant-Garde Award from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), one of the most prestigious and competitive NIH research awards.

23 Jun 2026

Digital heart twins could improve atrial fibrillation treatment planning

A cross-University paper led by researchers at Queen Mary University of London, published in the Journal of Physiology shows how better 'digital twins' could help doctors treating people with Atrial Fibrillation.

17 Jun 2026

Digital brain twin recreates brain activity in a toddler with autism

Researchers developed FEDE, a high-fidelity digital brain twin pipeline that combines MRI-derived anatomy with biophysical modeling to reconstruct brain structure and simulate EEG activity. In a single toddler with autism spectrum disorder, the model closely reproduced recorded brain activity and suggested possible patient-specific alterations in neural noise and excitatory-inhibitory balance.

14 Jun 2026