News of eight infections and three deaths so far due to an emerging zoonotic virus has brought back unhappy memories of the early days of SARS-CoV-2. At a press conference on Thursday, officials from the WHO did their best to calm the public’s fears that the MV Hondius, the ship currently heading to the Canary Islands with its remaining passengers plus assorted medical, WHO and European Center for Disease Prevention and Control staff, is the 2026 version of the Diamond Princess.

A major challenge in tissue engineering is not only achieving the correct cellular organization of an engineered tissue, but also expanding it to a clinically useful size after implantation. Researchers from the Wyss Institute at Harvard University have developed a synthetic biology platform that genetically programs tissues to grow large organ implants on demand. Building on a 2017 study suggesting engineered liver tissues could respond to regenerative signals released after injury, the researchers set out to identify and harness those cues.

“If we could figure out what those signals were, we could synthetically drive these factors locally in an implant to control its growth ourselves,” first author Amy Stoddard told BioWorld. Stoddard is a postdoctoral researcher at the Wyss Institute.

Parkinson’s disease (PD) involves the progressive loss of dopaminergic neurons, particularly in the substantia nigra. This neurodegeneration is linked to the abnormal accumulation of α-synuclein, a protein that forms toxic aggregates and spreads between cells, damaging them. At the 20th International Conference on Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Diseases (AD/PD), held from March 17 to 21, 2026, in Copenhagen, several strategies were presented that aim to modify the course of the disease and offer real alternatives to purely symptomatic treatments.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common form of primary liver cancer, representing approximately 75-85% of all cases. Often considered preventable, primary liver cancer ranks as the sixth most frequently diagnosed cancer and the third leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide. Through a multi-institutional effort, researchers have identified activated ATF6α as a driver of HCC that suppresses immune defenses, predicts response to immune checkpoint therapy, and represents a potential target for intervention.

BioWorld covers the Trump administration’s latest policy decisions and actions affecting the life sciences sector, as well as their impacts across the globe.