As a new generation of biomaterials, biodegradable zinc (Zn)-based implants hold substantial promise for clinical use due to their favorable biocompatibility and controllable degradation behavior. This review summarizes recent progress in Zn-based implants, focusing on the physiological roles of Zn, current Zn-based implant systems, and relevant applicable standards. To address the critical challenges faced in practical applications, such as optimizing corrosion rate, antibacterial performance, and biocompatibility, researchers have employed innovative strategies, including alloying (e.g., Zn-Mg, Zn-Mn, Zn-Li), surface modifications, and functional coatings. Meanwhile, a detailed overview is provided of in vitro and in vivo degradation evaluation systems, advances in preclinical animal studies, and the status of clinical trials, together with regulatory requirements for biodegradable metals set by domestic and international authorities. Key mechanistic and translational bottlenecks that currently limit clinical adoption are identified, together with critical directions for the rational design and standardized evaluation of next-generation Zn-based implants.  

Targeting the critical complications of thromboembolism and device-related infection in long-term left ventricular assist devices (LVADs), we developed a facile, one-step rapid co-polymerization strategy based on mussel-inspired polyphenol chemistry to construct a copper-integrated polydopamine/tannic acid (Ti/PDT(Cu)) nanocomposite coating. By incorporating tannic acid, we synergistically accelerated dopamine oxidative polymerization and drastically shortened the fabrication period. This approach constructs a robust dual-crosslinked network through covalent/hydrogen bonds and metal-phenolic coordination, endowing the coating with a uniform nanoscale roughened structure, excellent hydrophilicity, and superior long-term structural integrity in physiological environments. Crucially, the optimized coating design overcomes the inherent drawbacks of conventional PDA-Cu systems—such as uncontrollable ion burst release and poor physiological stability. It provides durable, broad-spectrum bactericidal efficacy while enabling sustained, endothelium-mimicking catalytic nitric oxide generation.

Cell therapy has emerged as a transformative approach to cancer treatment, advancing significantly beyond initial CAR-T cell successes in hematologic malignancies. The field now encompasses diverse platforms including TCR-T cells, tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes, gamma delta T cells, CAR-NK cells, and CAR-macrophages, with expanding applications toward solid tumors. A notable shift is occurring from autologous to allogeneic "off-the-shelf" therapies, with CAR-NK and CAR-NKT cells demonstrating clinical potential due to reduced immunogenicity and graft-versus-host disease risk. In vivo engineering technologies offer cost and manufacturing advantages by eliminating complex ex vivo procedures. Despite progress, significant challenges persist, including tumor heterogeneity, immunosuppressive microenvironments, and therapy-related toxicity. Future advancement will depend on novel target discovery, improved toxicity management, scalable manufacturing, and integration of multiomics, artificial intelligence, and synthetic biology approaches.

Precision medicine requires understanding how general treatment effects from randomized clinical trials should be applied to individual patients.

Ongoing engineering strategies, including cytokine armoring, metabolic reprogramming, and resistance ... CRISPR promotes the long-term efficacy of CAR T cells ...

Sail Biomedicines is advancing RNA therapeutics through innovative circular RNA constructs, known as Endless RNA (eRNA), paired with targeted nanoparticle delivery systems. Unlike conventional linear mRNA, which degrades rapidly due to exposed ends, eRNA's circular design eliminates vulnerable endpoints, enabling sustained therapeutic protein expression while maintaining the transient nature essential for safety. This breakthrough addresses critical limitations in mRNA therapeutics, particularly for applications requiring extended but controlled protein expression, such as CAR-T cell programming and immune modulation. The combination of eRNA technology and precision delivery mechanisms represents a significant advancement in expanding the therapeutic potential and clinical applicability of RNA-based medicines.

IntuitionLabs, founded in 2023 by Adrien Laurent, specializes in developing custom AI solutions for pharmaceutical and life science industries. The company leverages advanced artificial intelligence technologies to assist organizations in navigating complex clinical trial challenges, including the implementation of digital twins and virtual control methodologies. With over 25 years of enterprise software development expertise, IntuitionLabs helps life science companies optimize their clinical development processes through innovative AI applications. The organization emphasizes that any information provided is for educational purposes and recommends independent verification of critical details before implementation.

Recent advances in nanoparticle technology demonstrate significant therapeutic potential across multiple medical domains. Novel developments include intranasal nanoparticle adjuvants targeting the STING pathway, which generate robust mucosal and systemic immunity against coronaviruses while converting traditional flu vaccines into effective nasal formulations. Optimized lipid nanoparticle-based prime editing systems enable efficient gene editing and disease correction in human cells with improved delivery outcomes. Additionally, nanoparticles show promise in cancer treatment through enhanced accumulation near micrometastases, improved early-stage metastasis detection, and immunotherapeutic applications that trigger viral defense responses and activate B cell immunity. Further breakthroughs include nanovaccines enhancing dendritic cell communication for improved T cell activation and dual-acting lipid nanoparticles combining effector T cell stimulation with exhaustion inhibition, offering transformative approaches to previously difficult-to-treat malignancies.

This open-access protocol presents a comprehensive methodology for analyzing three-dimensional single-cell imaging of tumor-natural killer cell interactions within multi-cell-type tumor organoid models. Published in BMC Methods in June 2026, the research enables detailed visualization and characterization of dynamic cellular interactions at the individual cell level. The protocol advances understanding of immune cell behavior within complex tumor microenvironments by utilizing sophisticated imaging techniques combined with organoid technology. This approach facilitates investigation of natural killer cell cytotoxic mechanisms and tumor cell responses in physiologically relevant conditions, offering valuable insights for immunotherapy development and personalized cancer research applications.

One of the most promising approaches is in vivo CAR-T cell engineering using lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) loaded with mRNA to reprogram endogenous T cells ...

Organoid-based co-cultures are also being developed and screened for advanced immunotherapies. These include testing chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells, ...

Wound healing represents a complex physiological process crucial for treating chronic wounds such as diabetic foot ulcers, venous leg ulcers, and pressure sores. Recent research has identified galangin and related flavonoids as promising therapeutic agents due to their multifaceted bioactivities. These natural compounds effectively modulate inflammation, reduce oxidative stress, stimulate fibroblast proliferation, facilitate extracellular matrix remodeling, and inhibit microbial growth. Advanced wound care therapies now incorporate multiple mechanisms including growth factors, antimicrobial agents, anti-inflammatory drugs, and extracellular matrix modulators. The integration of galangin into therapeutic protocols represents a significant advancement in wound healing management, offering potential improvements in healing outcomes for patients with compromised wound repair mechanisms.

Penn State researchers have developed and tested CaroFlex, an innovative soft 3D-printed implant designed to reduce blood pressure through a novel therapeutic approach. The device attaches directly to the carotid artery without requiring surgical stitches, functioning by stimulating the baroreflex—a natural physiological mechanism that regulates blood pressure. Preliminary trials conducted on rodent models demonstrated promising results, with participants experiencing average blood pressure reductions exceeding 15 percent across multiple operational modes. This advancement represents a significant breakthrough in minimally invasive cardiovascular intervention technology, offering potential therapeutic benefits for hypertension management with reduced surgical complexity.

Natural killer cells have emerged as a promising immunotherapeutic platform for cancer treatment, offering advantages over traditional therapies by recognizing and eliminating tumor cells without prior sensitization. This review examines recent advances in NK cell engineering, including chimeric antigen receptor technology, cytokine armoring, and CRISPR-based genetic modifications that enhance specificity and antitumor efficacy. Multiple NK cell sources—peripheral blood, cord blood, cell lines, and induced pluripotent stem cell-derived platforms—provide diverse therapeutic options. Emerging approaches utilizing synthetic biology, nanotechnology, and metabolic reprogramming strengthen resistance to immunosuppressive tumor microenvironments. Preliminary clinical trials demonstrate promising efficacy and favorable safety profiles compared to CAR-T therapies, particularly in hematological malignancies. However, challenges regarding in vivo persistence and long-term durability require continued investigation to fully realize NK cell immunotherapy's potential.

This article explores advanced delivery strategies for generating CAR-T cells directly within the body, a significant advancement in cancer immunotherapy. Researchers are engineering viral vectors and nanocarriers with T cell-targeting ligands to achieve precise genetic delivery while minimizing off-target effects. Key approaches leverage highly expressed T cell markers such as CD3, CD8, and CD28. Notable developments include Umoja's anti-CD3 modified lentivirus, which successfully generated anti-CD19 CAR cells in xenograft models, and CD3-targeted lipid nanoparticles that delivered CAR constructs to circulating T cells with sustained anti-tumor effects lasting 41 days. These in vivo engineering platforms demonstrate comparable efficacy to traditional ex vivo therapies while offering potential advantages in accessibility and manufacturing efficiency for cancer treatment.

Functional profiling is a precision oncology platform that assesses tumor response to drugs ex vivo, capturing dynamic phenotypic responses to therapeutic ...

Studies of alcohol’s effects on health have offered contradictory findings, with some suggesting a glass of red wine a day is beneficial and others saying even a drop of booze is too much. A new review attempting to clarify the risks finds more than 60 diseases, based on the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Diseases, are 100 percent attributable to consuming alcohol. But the review also finds that some of the damage can be slowed or reversed by cutting down or quitting drinking.

Cervical non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation (nVNS) has emerged as a practical neuromodulation approach with FDA clearance for primary headache disorders, yet questions persist regarding its efficacy. This comprehensive review synthesizes anatomical, biophysical, physiological, and clinical evidence demonstrating that nVNS reliably activates vagal pathways without surgical intervention. The analysis encompasses cervical vagus anatomy, biophysical mechanisms supporting target engagement, and computational modeling confirming recruitment of myelinated vagal fibers. Converging evidence from functional imaging, electrophysiology, immune studies, and autonomic biomarkers reveals consistent modulation of canonical vagal projection sites and parasympathetic activation. Sham-controlled randomized trials in cluster headache and migraine demonstrate nVNS superiority over placebo in both acute and preventive outcomes with favorable safety profiles, establishing a robust mechanistic and clinical foundation for this therapeutic approach.

Digital twins represent a paradigm shift in clinical trial methodology by enabling AI-generated virtual patient models trained on historical data to predict patient responses under control conditions. This innovation challenges the longstanding requirement for live placebo arms, reducing trial sizes, compressing timelines, and lowering costs while minimizing patient exposure to ineffective treatments. With regulatory validation from both the EMA and FDA, alongside real-world implementation by pharmaceutical leaders like Sanofi, digital twin technology has transitioned from theoretical to practical application. These individual-level computational models generate statistically valid comparative evidence without full randomization to placebo, fundamentally transforming drug development efficiency and ethical patient outcomes.

The integration of multiomics technologies with artificial intelligence represents a transformative paradigm in precision medicine and drug discovery. By combining genomic, transcriptomic, proteomic, and metabolomic analyses with advanced deep learning algorithms, researchers can decipher complex biological datasets and identify disease patterns with unprecedented precision. This synergistic approach accelerates target identification, optimizes lead compounds, and enhances clinical trial design across diverse therapeutic areas including oncology and neurodegenerative diseases. While challenges regarding data harmonization, reproducibility, and algorithmic bias remain, multiomics-AI integration enables hypothesis generation and data-driven discovery that fundamentally advances translational medicine. This convergence provides distinct competitive advantages in virtual screening, pharmacokinetic modeling, and safety assessment, heralding a new era in evidence-based therapeutic development.