NIBIB-funded researchers at Northwestern Universtiy have created the first highly mature neurons from human induced pluripotent stem cells, a feat that opens new opportunities for medical research and potential transplantation therapies for neurodegenerative diseases and traumatic injuries. Source: Science Daily.

NIH has launched the Home Test to Treat program, an entirely virtual community health intervention that will provide free COVID-19 health services—at-home rapid tests, telehealth sessions and at-home treatments—in selected communities.

Researchers report that they have developed a new experimental pipeline to combine bacterial therapy with current cancer drugs. Their study, which explores resistance to bacterial therapy at the molecular level, has achieved better treatment efficacy without additional toxicity in laboratory models. Source: Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science/Science Daily

Using a specialized MRI sensor, engineers have shown that they can detect light deep within tissues such as the brain. Source: Massachusetts Institute of Technology/Science Daily

A team of engineers has developed a photoacoustic patch that can monitor biomolecules in deep tissues, including hemoglobin. It can perform 3D mapping of hemoglobin with a submillimeter spatial resolution in deep tissues, down to centimeters below the skin, versus other wearable electrochemical devices that only sense the biomolecules on the skin surface. Source: University of California - San Diego/Science Daily

A new website from NIH is allowing people in the United States to anonymously report their rapid test results. Sharing your results on the site, called MakeMyTestCount.org, bolsters the information public health departments have about whether or not the COVID is spreading. Source: VeryWell Health

NIBIB-funded researchers are developing a new method to treat pancreatic cancer. In their study, they combined an injectable radioactive gel with systemic chemotherapy in multiple mouse models of the disease. The treatment resulted in tumor regression in all evaluated models, an unprecedented result for this genetically diverse and aggressive type of cancer.

Biomedical and genetic engineers have designed a small fluorescent protein that emits and absorbs light that penetrates deep into biological tissue. Tailored to wavelengths in the near-infrared (NIR) spectrum, this protein can help researchers capture deeper, cleaner, more precise biomedical images. Source: Duke University/Science Daily

Researchers led a large-scale global machine learning effort to securely aggregate knowledge from brain scans of 6,314 glioblastoma (GBM) patients at 71 sites around the globe and develop a model that can enhance identification and prediction of boundaries in three tumor sub-compartments, without compromising patient privacy. Source: University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine/Science Daily