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New open-science consortium seeks to quantify joy as a biological input with real and measurable healthspan relevance. Frontier Towers, San Francisco, has become an unexpectedly apt setting for an experiment that edges longevity medicine into new conceptual terrain. A consortium featuring neurotechnology firms, AI platforms, decentralised research groups and what might broadly be termed the city’s evidence-inclined biohacking community has launched what it calls the first attempt to create a unified metric for joy, connection and synchrony. The initiative, known as JoyScore, draws on the growing body of research that positions social and emotional experiences as influential modulators of stress…

Air: A person can typically survive only 3 to 6 minutes without air before irreversible brain damage occurs. Water: Survival is limited to 3 to 7 days without water, depending heavily on temperature and activity. Food: A person with access to water can survive for 30 to 60 days without food, utilizing stored fat and protein reserves. The human body is an incredible survival machine, equipped with intricate biological processes that allow it to adapt to immense stress. However, these systems have hard, non-negotiable limits. When faced with the absence of the three fundamental pillars of life-air, water, and food-the…

Credit: OGphoto/Getty Images An analysis of prior research published in Nature Reviews Endocrinology has identified estrone, the dominant estrogen present in women after menopause, as the key driver of the inflammation, tumor progression, and metastasis of estrogen receptor–positive (ER+) breast cancer in postmenopausal women with obesity. The analysis describes how estrone that is produced in adipose tissue may create a tumor-promoting environment that differs significantly from the effects of premenopausal 17β-estradiol. According to lead author Joyce Slingerland, MD, PhD, co-leader of the Cancer Host Interaction Program at Georgetown University’s Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, estrone’s emergence as the primary estrogen after…

With the advent of AI-powered protein design tools, protein-based therapeutics may no longer be constrained by the limits imposed by natural selection. Protein-based therapeutics have been tremendously successful, with a global market of about $375 billion and growing. These products include antibodies, hormones, enzymes, and many others, even engineered molecules like antibody-drug conjugates or bispecifics. Still, proteins pose significant challenges for drug developers. They are spectacularly effective at what they do because they have evolved within living systems over millennia, but the flip side of that is that they are difficult to extensively customize due to their complex three-dimensional folding…

Q | Write a brief introduction to yourself including the lab you work in and your research background. I am Munyaradzi Tinarwo, a postdoctoral research fellow in the Biopharming Research Unit (BRU) at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Our lab focuses on developing vaccines and reagents using plant expression systems. My research background includes developing mRNA and protein-based vaccines, creating diagnostic assays, and applying biopharming approaches to produce high-value biopharmaceuticals.Q | How did you first get interested in science and/or your field of research? Growing up in a rural area in Zimbabwe, I was inspired in second grade…

Cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of mortality worldwide, yet its pathogenesis is not fully understood, hindering the development of effective early diagnostics and treatments. Despite mainstream treatments targeting traditional risk factors such as cholesterol levels, many patients face cardiovascular events. Emerging evidence suggests that chronic inflammation and the gut microbiome contribute to the development of atherosclerosis, thereby helping to identify early markers of the condition in asymptomatic individuals. Recent findings published in Nature1 show that the gut microbiota-derived metabolite imidazole propionate contributes to atherosclerosis and might be a useful marker of early active atherosclerosis. Using an unbiased metabolomics approach,…

Credit: National Institutes of Health/Stocktrek Images/Getty Images A study published in Cell by researchers at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital unveils a previously unknown form of cell death—mitoxyperilysis—that arises when innate immune activation converges with metabolic disruption. Beyond illuminating a fundamental biological process, the team demonstrated that this pathway can be exploited to shrink tumors in vivo, offering a new direction for cancer therapy. The discovery emerged from the laboratory of Thirumala-Devi Kanneganti, PhD, director of the St. Jude Center of Excellence for Innate Immunity and Inflammation. Her group has long studied how immune and metabolic stresses shape inflammatory cell…

A new paper published in Science Translational Medicine describes an experimental drug capable of repairing DNA damage caused by disease. Developed by scientists at Cedars-Sinai, the potential treatment is a prototype for a new class of medications that fix tissue damage caused by heart attacks, inflammatory disease, and other conditions. Details of the drug, dubbed TY1, can be found in the paper titled “Augmentation of DNA exonuclease TREX1 in macrophages as a therapy for cardiac ischemic injury.”   According to its developers, TY1 is a laboratory-made version of an RNA molecule that naturally exists in the body. It works by enhancing the…

Defects in centrioles of mice sperm prevented the formation of a proper flagellum that powers sperm motility, resulting in infertility.Image credit:© iStock.com, Andrei ApoevNearly eight to 12 percent of couples all over the world face fertility issues, with male infertility accounting for almost 50 percent of the cases.1 A common cause of male infertility is errors during the development of sperm cells, or spermatogenesis, that impede sperm from swimming toward egg cells to fertilize them. The centriole, an organelle that forms the spindle fibers needed for cell division and flagella that power sperm motility, undergoes major changes during spermatogenesis, aiding…

Yes, chicken and rice are generally very healthy and an excellent staple meal, provided it is prepared correctly. Healthy: The combination offers a balanced mix of high-quality lean protein (chicken) and energy-rich carbohydrates (rice), making it ideal for muscle gain and weight management. Preparation Matters: Choose grilled or baked chicken and brown rice (for added fiber). Avoid frying and excessive use of high-sugar or high-sodium sauces. Balance: To make it a complete meal, always add vegetables (like broccoli) and healthy fats (like avocado). Chicken and rice is perhaps the most popular and versatile meal combinations on the planet. This simple…