The frontiers of xenotransplantation have been further extended with a pig-to-human lung transplant, the first time an organ that is directly exposed to the external environment – with the associated risk of respiratory pathogens – has been transplanted. The genetically modified pig lung remained viable and functional for nine days, after it was transplanted into a 39-year-old man who was declared brain dead following a hemorrhagic stroke.

Deficiencies in interferon-stimulated gene 15 (ISG15), a protein that normally regulates the immune response, causes mild but persistent inflammation. However, its absence also provides an unexpected advantage by increasing resistance to viral infections. Inspired by this condition and using mRNA technology, scientists at Columbia University and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have developed a broad-spectrum antiviral platform.

On Thursday, the Supreme Court handed the Trump administration another significant victory in its attempts to defund NIH-sponsored research. In a 5-4 decision, the justices paused the June 16 order of U.S. District Judge William Young to restore funding for hundreds of canceled NIH research grants focusing on gender and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). The funding had first been cut through a series of executive orders shortly after President Donald Trump resumed power in January.

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a generative AI model that was able to generate novel antibiotic structures from either chemical fragments or de novo, starting from ammonia, methane, water or no starting point at all. In a study that was published online in Cell, the team tested two dozen of more than 10 million structures that were proposed as potential antibiotics by the model.

An investigation of the epidemiology and clinical characteristics of neuropathic pain in the UK Biobank has led to the discovery of a new pain gene and potential analgesic drug target in the peripheral nervous system. The gene, SLC45A4 (solute carrier 45A4), codes for a transporter that is involved in trafficking polyamines known to be involved in pain, across the cell membrane.

A little-known tissue composed of a cluster of immune cells could offer novel insights into the development of neurological disorders. Meninges' immune system changes with age and neurodegeneration. Are they protecting the brain or fueling disease?

German researchers have cracked the decades-long mystery of why males are more susceptible to acute kidney injury than females, demonstrating that estrogen has a protective effect in females.

The U.K. Medicines and Healthcare products Agency (MHRA) is calling for more research into the vaginal microbiome as a way to redress the historic under-representation of women in clinical studies, which it said has contributed to “critical shortcomings” in understanding of female-specific conditions.

Experimental drugs that directly inhibit the NSD2 enzyme have shown potential as an effective strategy against hard-to-treat cancers, such as lung and pancreatic tumors driven by KRAS mutations. The therapeutic mechanism involves reversing a histone H3 methylation that promotes open chromatin and the expression of oncogenes.