Health

University of British Columbia researchers have developed an edible seaweed-derived coating that kept strawberries fresh for at least four days at room temperature, according to a study published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. The agar-based innovation addresses a major supply-chain hurdle for the fresh produce sector, where the UN Food and Agriculture … Read more

Systemic hurdles in oncology care are shifting rapidly, according to Mariana C. Stern, PhD, professor of clinical population and public health sciences at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. While decades of targeted public health investments have successfully narrowed long-standing survival gaps between Black and White patients—dropping a 34% mortality disparity down to 9% … Read more

Dostarlimab monotherapy as a first-line treatment produced a confirmed objective response rate of 27% in patients with PD-L1–positive recurrent or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, according to updated data from the phase 2 GALAXIES H&N-202 trial presented at the 2026 ASCO Annual Meeting. Researchers reported that efficacy varied significantly by PD-L1 expression levels, … Read more

Prediction market platforms Kalshi and Polymarket launched contracts allowing users to wager on clinical trial outcomes and Food and Drug Administration drug approvals. While proponents argue the markets provide transparent data, researchers and patients condemn the financial incentives as threatening trial integrity and mocking patient suffering. Prediction markets have rapidly expanded into sports, elections, and … Read more

Quaternary ammonium compounds, commonly known as QACs, are increasingly detected in human blood serum, breast milk, urine, and feces according to environmental health researchers studying common household and industrial disinfectants. Widely utilized since the 1940s as active ingredients in hand sanitizers, baby wipes, and hospital cleaning supplies, these pesticide-classified chemicals are now facing heightened scrutiny … Read more

Integrated multi omics approaches could strengthen precision medicine for gallbladder cancer by identifying robust biomarkers, distinct molecular subtypes, and actionable therapeutic targets, according to a narrative review published in Gene Reports (Mishra J et al., 2026;44:102592). Gallbladder cancer remains the most aggressive malignancy of the biliary tract, characterised by marked geographic variation, frequent late-stage diagnosis, … Read more

Benchling AI’s Hypothesis Generation combines public scientific literature with internal institutional memory to transform biomedical hypothesis creation from a generic literature review into a program-specific beginning point for laboratory experiments, according to platform details. For years, standard artificial intelligence demos in science have relied heavily on published papers to connect data and offer hypotheses. However, … Read more