new research a

Suggested Searches

• Climate Change
• Expedition 64
• Mars perseverance
• SpaceX Crew-2
• International Space Station
• View All Topics A-Z

Humans in Space

Earth & climate, the solar system, the universe, aeronautics, learning resources, news & events.

Work Is Under Way on NASA’s Next-Generation Asteroid Hunter

Webb Finds Early Galaxies Weren’t Too Big for Their Britches After All

New NASA Study Tallies Carbon Emissions From Massive Canadian Fires

• Search All NASA Missions
• A to Z List of Missions
• Upcoming Launches and Landings
• Spaceships and Rockets
• Communicating with Missions
• James Webb Space Telescope
• Hubble Space Telescope
• Why Go to Space
• Commercial Space
• Destinations
• Living in Space
• Explore Earth Science
• Earth, Our Planet
• Earth Science in Action
• Earth Multimedia
• Earth Science Researchers
• Pluto & Dwarf Planets
• Asteroids, Comets & Meteors
• The Kuiper Belt
• The Oort Cloud
• Skywatching
• The Search for Life in the Universe
• Black Holes
• The Big Bang
• Dark Energy & Dark Matter
• Earth Science
• Planetary Science
• Astrophysics & Space Science
• The Sun & Heliophysics
• Biological & Physical Sciences
• Lunar Science

Citizen Science

• Astromaterials
• Aeronautics Research
• Human Space Travel Research
• Science in the Air
• NASA Aircraft
• Flight Innovation
• Supersonic Flight
• Air Traffic Solutions
• Green Aviation Tech
• Drones & You
• Technology Transfer & Spinoffs
• Space Travel Technology
• Technology Living in Space
• Manufacturing and Materials
• Science Instruments
• For Kids and Students
• For Educators
• For Colleges and Universities
• For Professionals
• Science for Everyone
• Requests for Exhibits, Artifacts, or Speakers
• STEM Engagement at NASA
• NASA's Impacts
• Centers and Facilities
• Directorates
• Organizations
• People of NASA
• Internships
• Our History
• Doing Business with NASA
• Get Involved

NASA en Español

• Aeronáutica
• Ciencias Terrestres
• Sistema Solar
• All NASA News
• Video Series on NASA+
• Newsletters
• Social Media
• Media Resources
• Upcoming Launches & Landings
• Virtual Guest Program
• Image of the Day
• Sounds and Ringtones
• Interactives
• STEM Multimedia

FAQ: NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test Return Status

NASA’s Europa Clipper Gets Set of Super-Size Solar Arrays

NASA, Boeing Optimizing Vehicle Assembly Building High Bay for Future SLS Stage Production

NASA Seeks Input for Astrobee Free-flying Space Robots

NASA Funds Studies to Support Crew Performance on Long-Duration Missions

NASA JPL Developing Underwater Robots to Venture Deep Below Polar Ice

NASA Project in Puerto Rico Trains Students in Marine Biology

Eclipse Soundscapes AudioMoth Donations Will Study Nature at Night

NASA’s Roman Space Telescope to Investigate Galactic Fossils

Hubble Observes An Oddly Organized Satellite

NASA G-IV Plane Will Carry Next-Generation Science Instrument

NASA Develops Pod to Help Autonomous Aircraft Operators 

NASA Composite Manufacturing Initiative Gains Two New Members

First NASA-Supported Researcher to Fly on Suborbital Rocket

How Do I Navigate NASA Learning Resources and Opportunities?

Cassiopeia A, Then the Cosmos: 25 Years of Chandra X-ray Science

Preguntas frecuentes: estado del retorno de la prueba de vuelo tripulado boeing de la nasa.

Astronauta de la NASA Frank Rubio

Diez maneras en que los estudiantes pueden prepararse para ser astronautas

Nasa awards intuitive machines lunar south pole research delivery.

Tiernan P. Doyle

• NASA Headquarters

A new set of NASA science experiments and technology demonstrations will arrive at the lunar South Pole in 2027 following the agency’s latest CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative delivery award. Intuitive Machines of Houston will receive $116.9 million to deliver six NASA payloads to a part of the Moon where nighttime temperatures are frigid, the terrain is rugged, and the permanently shadowed regions could help reveal the origin of water throughout our solar system.

Part of the agency’s broader Artemis campaign, CLPS aims to conduct science on the Moon for the benefit of all, including experiments and demos that support missions with crew on the lunar surface.

“This marks the 10th CLPS delivery NASA has awarded, and the fourth planned for delivery to the South Pole of the Moon,” said Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for exploration, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters in Washington. “By supporting a robust cadence of CLPS flights to a variety of locations on the lunar surface, including two flights currently planned by companies for later this year, NASA will explore more of the Moon than ever before.”

NASA has awarded Intuitive Machine’s four task orders. The company delivered six NASA payloads to Malapert A in the South Pole region of the Moon in early 2024. With this lunar South Pole delivery, Intuitive Machines will be responsible for payload integration, launch from Earth, safe landing on the Moon, and mission operations.

“The instruments on this newly awarded flight will help us achieve multiple scientific objectives and strengthen our understanding of the Moon’s environment,” said Chris Culbert, manager of the CLPS initiative at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. “For example, they’ll help answer key questions about where volatiles – such as water, ice, or gas – are found on the lunar surface and measure radiation in the South Pole region, which could advance our exploration efforts on the Moon and help us with continued exploration of Mars.”

The instruments, collectively expected to be about 174 pounds (79 kilograms) in mass, include:

• The Lunar Explorer Instrument for Space Biology Applications will deliver yeast to the lunar surface and study its response to radiation and lunar gravity. The payload is managed by NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, California.
• Package for Resource Observation and In-Situ Prospecting for Exploration, Characterization and Testing is a suite of instruments that will drill down to 3.3 feet (1 meter) beneath the lunar surface, extract samples, and process them in-situ in a miniaturized laboratory, to identify possible volatiles (water, ice, or gas) trapped at extremely cold temperatures under the surface. This suite is led by ESA (European Space Agency). 
• The Laser Retroreflector Array is a collection of eight retroreflectors that will enable lasers to precisely measure the distance between a spacecraft and the reflector on the lander. The array is a passive optical instrument and will function as a permanent location marker on the Moon for decades to come. The retroflector array is managed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. 
• The Surface Exosphere Alterations by Landers will investigate the chemical response of lunar regolith to the thermal, physical, and chemical disturbances generated during a landing, and evaluate contaminants injected into the regolith by the lander. It will give insight into how a spacecraft landing might affect the composition of samples collected nearby. This payload is managed by NASA Goddard.
• The Fluxgate Magnetometer will characterize certain magnetic fields to improve the understanding of energy and particle pathways at the lunar surface and is managed by NASA Goddard.
• The Lunar Compact Infrared Imaging System will deploy a radiometer – a device that measures infrared wavelengths of light – to explore the Moon’s surface composition, map its surface temperature distribution, and demonstrate the instrument’s feasibility for future lunar resource utilization activities. The imaging system is managed by the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Under CLPS, multiple commercial deliveries to different geographic regions will help NASA conduct science and continue working toward a long-term human presence on the Moon. Future deliveries will include sophisticated science experiments, and technology demonstrations as part of the agency’s Artemis campaign. Two upcoming CLPS flights slated to launch near the end of 2024 will deliver NASA payloads to the Moon’s nearside and South Pole, including the Intuitive Machines-2 delivery of NASA’s first on-site demonstration of searching for water and other chemical compounds 3.3 feet below the surface of the Moon, using a drill and mass spectrometer.

Learn more about CLPS and Artemis at:

https://www.nasa.gov/clps

Karen Fox Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1275 [email protected]

Laura Sorto / Natalia Riusech       Johnson Space Center, Houston 281-483-5111 [email protected] / [email protected]

Related Terms

• Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS)
• Commercial Space Programs
• Earth's Moon
• Johnson Space Center

• Skip to main content
• Keyboard shortcuts for audio player

Research News

• Subscribe to Health Newsletter

A white-browed sparrow weaver inspects a roost under construction, after just receiving some grass brought by another member of its group. Maria Cristina Tello-Ramos hide caption

When birds build nests, they're also building a culture

August 29, 2024 • Nest-building isn’t just instinct. Birds can learn from others, letting groups within one species develop their own distinctive nest-building traditions.

Shells, composed mostly of invasive zebra mussels pile up at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in Michigan. The Nonindigenous Aquatic Nuisance Species Control and Prevention Act of 1990 and the United States Geological Survey's Nonindigenous Aquatic Species database were created in response to this mussel. corfoto/Getty Images hide caption

Here's what's missing from the invasive species narrative

August 28, 2024 • At first glance, the whole narrative of aquatic invasive species may seem straightforward: A bad non-native species comes into a new ecosystem and overruns good native species. But the truth? It's a little more complicated. To tear down everything we thought we knew about invasive species and construct a more nuanced picture, host Emily Kwong talks to experts Ian Pfingsten, who works on the United States Geological Survey's Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database, and Nicholas Reo, a Canada Excellence Research Chair in Coastal Relationalities and Regeneration.

Many people get into their phones when they're bored, then scroll through social media in the hopes of alleviating that boredom. But new research suggests that swiping from video to video might increase boredom, not alleviate it. Tippapatt/Getty Images hide caption

Scrolling might make you MORE bored, not less

August 23, 2024 • Have you ever scrolled through a TikTok without finishing it? Switched between YouTube videos halfway through one or the other? Pressed "fast forward" on a Netflix episode that just wasn't holding your interest? That habit is called "digital switching" — and it might be causing the exact thing you're trying to avoid: boredom. Emily and Regina break that and more of the week's news down with the help of All Things Considered 's Ailsa Chang.

Invasive cane toads like this one have fanned out across Australia, killing numerous predators in their wake, including freshwater crocodiles. Joshua Prieto/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images hide caption

To save wild crocodiles in Australia, scientists gave them food poisoning

August 16, 2024 • Freshwater crocodiles die every year in Australia from eating poisonous cane toads that humans introduced to the continent. Now scientists have found a way to teach the crocs to avoid the toxic toads.

Saving freshwater crocodiles — by teaching them to not eat poisonous toads

Conservation biologist Gliselle Marin carefully untangles a bat from a net in Belize during the annual Bat-a-thon. Her fanny pack is decorated with printed bats. Luis Echeverría for NPR hide caption

Goats and Soda

This scientist has a bat tat and earrings. she says there's a lot to learn from bats.

August 12, 2024 • Gliselle Marin joins the “Bat-a-thon,” a group of 80-some bat researchers who converge on Belize each year to study these winged mammals.

A scientist in Belize hopes bats can galvanize locals to protect their forests

Researchers glued cameras and tracking instruments to small pieces of neoprene, that they then glued to the fur of the sea lions Nathan Angelakis hide caption

Scientists attach video cameras to sea lions to map the ocean floor

August 9, 2024 • How do you study unmapped areas of the ocean and identify critical habitat for an endangered species? You include the study animal in the scientific process! Researchers from the University of Adelaide fitted endangered Australian sea lions with cameras and tracking devices to better understand where they spent their time. The information could help scientists protect critical sea lion habitat and could give researchers a new tool for mapping the ocean.

"Everything that we are as human beings is in our brain," Dr. Theodore Schwartz says. Brian Marcus /Penguin Randomhouse hide caption

Health Care

For this brain surgeon, the operating room is 'the ultimate in mindful meditation'.

August 5, 2024 • Dr. Theodore Schwartz has been treating neurological illnesses for nearly 30 years. He says being a brain surgeon requires steady hands — and a strong bladder. His new book is Gray Matters.

New blood tests that help detect Alzheimer's disease are opening up a new era in diagnosis and treatment, doctors say. Marcus Brandt/picture alliance/Getty Images hide caption

Shots - Health News

New blood tests can help diagnose alzheimer's. are doctors ready for what's next.

August 2, 2024 • A new generation of blood tests can help diagnose Alzheimer’s disease. But many doctors don’t yet know how to use them.

Alzheimer's blood tests

Some researchers say the African coral tree has a racial slur embedded in its name. This month, scientists at an international meeting voted to have that epithet removed. tree-species/Flickr hide caption

Some plant names can be racist. Scientists are looking to rename them

July 31, 2024 • An international group of researchers has voted to modify the scientific names of more than 200 plant species whose names carry a derogatory word.

Researchers are revising botanical names to address troubling connotations

A key protein called Reelin may help stave off Alzheimer's disease, according to a growing body of research. GSO Images/The Image Bank/Getty Images hide caption

A protein called Reelin keeps popping up in brains that resist aging and Alzheimer’s

July 29, 2024 • Early in life, the protein Reelin helps assemble the brain. Later on, it appears to protect the organ from Alzheimer’s and other threats to memory and thinking.

Alzheimer's resilience

There are over eight hundred species of leeches, but researchers estimate that only ten percent of all leeches are terrestrial. Auscape/Contributor/Getty Images hide caption

We hate to tell you this, but there are leeches that can jump

July 29, 2024 • Generally, we at Short Wave are open-minded to the creepies and the crawlies, but even we must admit that leeches are already the stuff of nightmares. They lurk in water. They drink blood. There are over 800 different species of them. And now, as scientists have confirmed ... at least some of them can jump!

Two chimpanzees groom each other — a behavior that can involve several gestures. Anup Shah/Getty Images hide caption

What chimpanzee gestures reveal about human communication

July 26, 2024 • Chimpanzees are humans' closest living relatives. But does much of their communication resembles ours? According to a new study published earlier this week in the journal Current Biology , chimpanzees gesture back-and-forth in a similar way to how humans take turns speaking. The research presents an intriguing possibility that this style of communication may have evolved before humans split off from great apes, and tells researchers more about how turn-taking evolved.

Project RattleCam lets people observe rattlesnakes with a live webcam. Scott Boback hide caption

Watch a livestream of Colorado’s ‘mega den’ of pregnant rattlesnakes

July 24, 2024 • On a rocky hillside in Colorado is a “mega den” of hundreds of rattlesnakes — along with cameras livestreaming the whole thing.

 Pregnant Rattlesnakes Webcam

Glyptodonts were giant, armadillo-like shelled mammals that went extinct about 10,000 years ago. A study reveals that cut marks on a glyptodont fossil in South America could have been made by humans a little over 20,000 years ago. Daniel Eskridge/Stocktrek Images/Science Source hide caption

When did humans get to South America? This giant shelled mammal fossil may hold clues

July 23, 2024 • A fossil of an armadillo-like mammal appears to bear cut marks from butchering by humans, suggesting people were living in South America at least 20,000 years ago, even earlier than once thought.

Ancient Armadillos

Once completed, India's National River Linking Project will transfer an estimated 200 billion cubic meters of water around the country each year. STRDEL / Stringer/Getty Images hide caption

India's plan to reroute rivers could have unintended consequences on rainfall

July 19, 2024 • More than a hundred years ago, a British engineer proposed linking two rivers in India to better irrigate the area and cheaply move goods. The link never happened, but the idea survived. Today, due to extreme flooding in some parts of the country mirrored by debilitating drought in others, India's National Water Development Agency plans to dig thirty links between rivers across the country. It's the largest project of its kind and will take decades to complete. But scientists are worried what moving that much water could do to the land, the people — and even the weather. Host Emily Kwong talks to journalist Sushmita Pathak about her recent story on the project.

In 2022, a large, unexpected rogue wave struck the Viking Polaris, breaking windows. One passenger died and others were injured. Alexis Delisi/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

Rogue waves can strike without warning. These scientists found a way to predict them

July 18, 2024 • Scientists have created a new tool that can give 5 minutes advance warning of a dangerous rogue wave in the ocean.

A study finds that psilocybin can desynchronize networks in the brain, potentially enhancing its plasticity. Sara Moser/Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis hide caption

A scientist took a psychedelic drug — and watched his own brain 'fall apart'

July 18, 2024 • Scientists scanned the brains of people who took psilocybin, including a member of the research team. The scans showed how the drug disrupts key networks, potentially enhancing brain plasticity.

A prominent brain scientist took psilocybin as part of his own brain study

Crows can be trained to count out loud much in the way that human toddlers do, a study finds. Andreas Nieder/Universal Images Group Editorial hide caption

Crows can count out loud like human toddlers — when they aren't cheating the test

July 18, 2024 • A study finds that carrion crows can be taught to count and make vocalizations that indicate the number counted, much in the same way that human toddlers do.

Crows can count vocally like toddlers, research shows

An image released by the FDA shows bottles containing tianeptine and other compounds. Authorities have urged gas station store owners and others not to sell the products, with names like Neptune's Fix, Za Za and Tianaa, citing serious health risks. FDA hide caption

8 things to know about the drug known as 'gas station heroin'

July 14, 2024 • For decades, tianeptine was used to treat depression, even though no one knew how it worked. But it turns out it's a type of opioid, and the U.S. is facing a spike in abuse of "gas station heroin."

Researchers found that AI could increase the creativity of individual writers, but it also led to many similar stories. Moor Studio/Getty Images hide caption

Research shows AI can boost creativity for some, but at a cost

July 12, 2024 • Amateur writers using AI tools produced stories that were deemed more creative, but the research suggests the creativity of the group overall went down.

The star cluster Omega Centauri contains millions of stars. The movement of some stars suggests that an intermediate-sized black hole lies at its center. NASA/ESA/STScI/AURA hide caption

Astronomers spot a mysterious black hole nestled in a cluster of stars

July 10, 2024 • A report from Nature shows that astronomers may have found a medium-sized black hole, a kind they've long looked for.

Astronomers spot a mysterious black hole nestled in a cluster of stars.

Some ants, like the Florida carpenter ant, treat the injured legs of comrades, and will even perform medical amputations when necessary. Zen Rial/Getty Images hide caption

Like humans, these ants can perform leg amputations to save lives

July 10, 2024 • Some ants herd aphids. Some farm fungi. And now, scientists have realized that when an ant injures its leg, it sometimes will turn to a buddy to perform a lifesaving limb amputation. Not only that — some ants have probably been amputating limbs longer than humans! Today, thanks to the reporting of ant enthusiast and science correspondent Nell Greenfieldboyce, we behold the medical prowess of the ant.

Every print subscription comes with full digital access

Science News

Zapping sand to create rock could help curb coastal erosion

Low voltages generated minerals that help bind the sand into erosion-resistant rock, offering hope for shorelines ravaged by waves.

The world’s fastest microscope makes its debut

Old books can have unsafe levels of chromium, but readers’ risk is low.

Mantle waves buoy continents upward and bedeck them with diamonds

A phenomenon occurring deep underground may explain how vast plateaus form far away from tectonic plate boundaries.

Extreme heat and rain are fueling rising cases of mosquito-borne diseases

National geographic’s ‘oceanxplorers’ dives into the ocean’s mysteries.

People with food and other allergies have a new way to treat severe reactions

A new epinephrine nasal spray gives people a needle-free way to treat severe allergic reactions to food, insect venom and drugs.

More than 100 bacteria species can flourish in microwave ovens

Here’s how an arthropod pulls off the world’s fastest backflip.

While airborne, globular springtails can reach a spin rate of 368 rotations per second, high-speed camera footage shows.

A fluffy, orange fungus could transform food waste into tasty dishes

In a first, these bats were found to have toes that glow.

This intricate maze connects the dots on quasicrystal surfaces

The winding loop touches every point without crossing itself and could help make a unique class of atomic structures more efficient catalysts, scientists say.

Scientists find a naturally occurring molecule that forms a fractal

How two outsiders tackled the mystery of arithmetic progressions.

The possibilities for dark matter have just shrunk — by a lot 

The LZ dark matter experiment has ruled out weakly interacting massive particles, or WIMPs, with a wide range of properties.

Zigzag walls could help buildings beat the heat

Science & society.

The fungus thrives on everything from soy pulp to bland custards, turning them into digestible foods with a surprisingly pleasant flavor.

‘Turning to Stone’ paints rocks as storytellers and mentors

2 spacecraft caught the waves that might heat and accelerate the solar wind.

Data from NASA’s Parker Solar Probe and ESA’s Solar Orbiter might have cracked an enduring solar riddle. But not everyone yet agrees.

The Webb telescope’s peek into a stellar nursery finds baby planets too

The historic ‘wow’ signal may finally have a source. sorry, it’s not aliens.

Scientists want to send endangered species’ cells to the moon

Climate change is threatening Earth’s biodiversity banks. It might be time to build a backup on the moon.

Can we train AI to be creative? One lab is testing ideas

Want to spot a deepfake the eyes could be a giveaway.

Trustworthy journalism comes at a price.

Scientists and journalists share a core belief in questioning, observing and verifying to reach the truth. Science News reports on crucial research and discovery across science disciplines. We need your financial support to make it happen – every contribution makes a difference.

Subscribers, enter your e-mail address for full access to the Science News archives and digital editions.

Not a subscriber? Become one now .

Suggestions or feedback?

MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology

• Machine learning
• Sustainability
• Black holes
• Classes and programs

Departments

• Aeronautics and Astronautics
• Brain and Cognitive Sciences
• Architecture
• Political Science
• Mechanical Engineering

Centers, Labs, & Programs

• Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL)
• Picower Institute for Learning and Memory
• Lincoln Laboratory
• School of Architecture + Planning
• School of Engineering
• School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences
• Sloan School of Management
• School of Science
• MIT Schwarzman College of Computing

Download RSS feed: News Articles / In the Media / Audio

A framework for solving parabolic partial differential equations

A new algorithm solves complicated partial differential equations by breaking them down into simpler problems, potentially guiding computer graphics and geometry processing.


August 28, 2024

Read full story →

Scientists find neurons that process language on different timescales

In language-processing areas of the brain, some cell populations respond to one word, while others respond to strings of words.

August 26, 2024

Study of disordered rock salts leads to battery breakthrough

A new family of integrated rock salt-polyanion cathodes opens door to low-cost, high-energy storage.

August 23, 2024

Toward a code-breaking quantum computer

Building on a landmark algorithm, researchers propose a way to make a smaller and more noise-tolerant quantum factoring circuit for cryptography.

Study reveals the benefits and downside of fasting

Fasting helps intestinal stem cells regenerate and heal injuries but also leads to a higher risk of cancer in mice, MIT researchers report.

August 21, 2024

MIT engineers’ new theory could improve the design and operation of wind farms

The first comprehensive model of rotor aerodynamics could improve the way turbine blades and wind farms are designed and how wind turbines are controlled.

AI assistant monitors teamwork to promote effective collaboration

An AI team coordinator aligns agents’ beliefs about how to achieve a task, intervening when necessary to potentially help with tasks in search and rescue, hospitals, and video games.

August 19, 2024

MIT study explains why laws are written in an incomprehensible style

The convoluted “legalese” used in legal documents conveys a special sense of authority, and even non-lawyers have learned to wield it.

More durable metals for fusion power reactors

MIT researchers have found a way to make structural materials last longer under the harsh conditions inside a fusion reactor.

MIT engineers design tiny batteries for powering cell-sized robots

These zinc-air batteries, smaller than a grain of sand, could help miniscule robots sense and respond to their environment.

August 15, 2024

New open-source tool helps to detangle the brain

The software tool NeuroTrALE is designed to quickly and efficiently process large amounts of brain imaging data semi-automatically.

August 14, 2024

LLMs develop their own understanding of reality as their language abilities improve

In controlled experiments, MIT CSAIL researchers discover simulations of reality developing deep within LLMs, indicating an understanding of language beyond simple mimicry.

Study: Rocks from Mars’ Jezero Crater, which likely predate life on Earth, contain signs of water

The presence of organic matter is inconclusive, but the rocks could be scientists’ best chance at finding remnants of ancient Martian life.

An implantable sensor could reverse opioid overdoses

The new device, which can be implanted under the skin, rapidly releases naloxone when an overdose is detected.

MIT researchers use large language models to flag problems in complex systems

The approach can detect anomalies in data recorded over time, without the need for any training.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA, USA

• Map (opens in new window)
• Events (opens in new window)
• People (opens in new window)
• Careers (opens in new window)
• Accessibility
• Social Media Hub
• MIT on Facebook
• MIT on YouTube
• MIT on Instagram

Osteoarthritis Breakthrough: New Research Shows That the Condition May Be Treatable and Reversible

Existing therapies for osteoarthritis focus on symptom relief instead of tackling the root cause of the disease. However, recent research conducted by the University of Adelaide has shown the condition may be treatable and reversible.

Osteoarthritis involves the breakdown of cartilage and surrounding joint tissues and is the most common form of arthritis in Australia, with 20% of individuals over 45 years old suffering from it.

It is a long-term and progressive condition that affects people’s mobility and has historically had no cure. Its treatment cost the Australian health system an estimated $3.9 billion in 2019-20.

Groundbreaking Research on Stem Cells

Often described as a ‘wear and tear’ condition, factors such as aging, obesity, injury, and family history contribute to the progression of osteoarthritis.

University of Adelaide researchers discovered a novel population of stem cells – marked by the Gremlin 1 gene – responsible for the progression of osteoarthritis.

Treatment with fibroblast growth factor 18 (FGF18) stimulated the proliferation of Gremlin 1 cells in joint cartilage in mice, leading to significant recovery of cartilage thickness and reduced osteoarthritis.

Gremlin 1 cells present opportunities for cartilage regeneration and their discovery will have relevance to other forms of cartilage injury and disease, which are notoriously challenging to repair and treat.

It challenges the categorization of osteoarthritis as wear and tear.

A Paradigm Shift in Osteoarthritis Treatment

“The findings of our study reimagine osteoarthritis not as a ‘wear and tear’ condition but as an active, and pharmaceutically reversible loss of critical articular cartilage stem cells,” said the University of Adelaide’s Dr Jia Ng from the Adelaide Medical School, who co-led the study.

“With this new information, we are now able to explore pharmaceutical options to directly target the stem cell population that is responsible for the development of articular cartilage and progression of osteoarthritis.”

While Dr Ng describes current treatments for osteoarthritis as a “Band-Aid approach”, this new understanding could lead to a pharmaceutical treatment that reverses osteoarthritis and helps to address health outcomes associated with the disease.

“Known comorbidities of osteoarthritis include heart, pulmonary, and kidney disease, mental and behavioral conditions, diabetes, and cancer,” said Dr. Ng.

“Our study suggests that there may be new ways to treat the disease rather than just the symptoms, leading to better health outcomes and quality of life for people who suffer from osteoarthritis.”

Towards Human Trials and Treatment Accessibility

Though this discovery is limited to animal models, Dr Ng said there are genetic similarities to human samples, and human trials are ongoing.

“We look forward to the outcome of these trials and to contribute to the better understanding of a pharmaceutical mechanism to treat osteoarthritis,” she said.

Results of a five-year clinical trial study using FGF18, known clinically as Sprifermin, were published in 2021 with potential long-term clinical benefit and no safety concerns.

Phase 3 of the Sprifermin trial is ongoing, and researchers envision public access to this treatment soon.

Reference: “Loss of Grem1-lineage chondrogenic progenitor cells causes osteoarthritis” by Jia Q. Ng, Toghrul H. Jafarov, Christopher B. Little, Tongtong Wang, Abdullah M. Ali, Yan Ma, Georgette A. Radford, Laura Vrbanac, Mari Ichinose, Samuel Whittle, David J. Hunter, Tamsin R. M. Lannagan, Nobumi Suzuki, Jarrad M. Goyne, Hiroki Kobayashi, Timothy C. Wang, David R. Haynes, Danijela Menicanin, Stan Gronthos, Daniel L. Worthley, Susan L. Woods and Siddhartha Mukherjee, 31 October 2023,  Nature Communications . DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-42199-1

Related Articles

Why do short lung infections lead to long-lasting lung damage, groundbreaking treatment for severe covid-19 using stem cells – “it’s like smart bomb technology in the lung”, new scientific study shows fish oil may help treat depression, new stem cell-based topical solution helps bald people regrow hair, stem cell technology rejuvenates old human cells by wiping their dna clean, osteoarthritis treatment breakthrough: drug combo reverses arthritis in animal study, zika virus vaccine breakthrough – could lead to global elimination of the disease, researchers reverse diabetes in a mouse model using modified stem cells, engineered stem cells suppress hiv in living tissues, 13 comments.

I haven’t read the study yet, but this is very exciting. Current treatments are lifestyle changes, NSAID, turmeric, glucosamine with chondroitin (or more effective formulations of it like NEM), cold therapy, maybe steroids, but ultimately whole-joint replacement. All of that works a little with complications like blood-thinning or muscle pain, but fixing the problem instead would work much better, thank you.

The exciting things are that they’re already doing Phase 3 trials, so this is closer to market than most exciting scientific developments. Also, “recovery of cartilage thickness” is entirely new, where I believe previous trials on sprifermin only found it could stop disease progression, preventing future cartilage loss. If I find additional information in the study, I’ll comment again later.

Articles like this are exactly why I read SciTechDaily, daily.

Request more information about backpain arthritis treatments, I am suffering from this diseases. Many thanks

Pain unbearable please help

Please send information suffering with osteoarthritis

Good day kindly firward me more info

Im very intrested in all the ingo that i read please send me more info

How much is it?

I would like to know mote about this deases amd how to treat it l am 71 years of age and lhave been living with it both knees ,l suffer a lot cause l m alone ,please let me know what l can use to help me.

I suffer from this ailment and would like to know more about it and it’s treatment.

Please help with more info , I have tried almost everything on the market , I have been suffering for 14years with osteoarthritis , on my knees , hipsc, fingers my back . I am 54years old .

Very interesting as I suffer with osteoporosis and osteoarthritis.

Everybody who commented, Y’all need to see your doctors and physiotherapists and occupational-therapists. Also (Or) research, look it all up, become expert. I mentioned a number of treatments to research. Sadly as the article says, it’s terminal, but only for now as medicine is working on it. There’s also promising stem cell treatments, but they’re questionable for now. Learn as much as you can until a breakthrough is available, and this is a great site for watching the progress.

If scitechdaily is reading this, one of those scitechdaily-created articles like “Pumpkin Power”, but summarizing research on joint health, it could help readers…evidentiated things like collagen, turmeric, kratom, and exercise. If anyone from science is reading this, there’s real people in pain your research can help. If anyone from pharma is reading this, when you sell a non-invasive osteoarthritis cure that works, everyone here will throw money at you as hard as you want.

I did read the study afterward, and it was interesting. I didn’t read anything notable to add, so the article seems well written. Props to the University of Adelaide on that, as well as the authors and their nearly-dozen universities and clinics.

please send info on availability of this treatment since I have severe osteoarthritis and less than 30% cartilage in my right shoulder due to working out (weightlifting) throughout the years.

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.

OpenAI, Anthropic sign deals with US govt for AI research and testing

• Medium Text

Sign up here.

Reporting by Harshita Mary Varghese in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli and Shreya Biswas

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. , opens new tab

Elon Musk's X braces for shutdown in Brazil as spat with judge intensifies

Social media giant X said on Thursday it expects Brazil's top court to order it to shut down, as a pitched legal battle plays out over compliance with local laws and owner Elon Musk's insistence the platform is being punished for resisting censorship.

• Share full article

Advertisement

Supported by

Scientists Have a New Theory About Why Orcas Are Attacking Boats

A pod of orcas damaged a boat and left its two-person crew stranded. It was the latest in a string of attacks that research suggests could be used for hunting practice.

By Lynsey Chutel

Reporting from London

The orcas have struck again — this time ramming a sailboat off Spain’s northwest coast, rescue workers said on Tuesday.

A pod of orcas damaged the rudder of a sailboat, leaving its two-person crew stranded in the waters off Cape Finisterre Sunday, according to an emailed statement from the rescue workers. It is the latest in a string of attacks by pods of orcas swimming around the Iberian Peninsula.

While the sailboat, the Amidala, did not sink, pods of orcas have sunk several vessels in recent years. Researchers still do not know whether the attacks are playful or malicious, but a new theory based on studying the troublesome pods of orcas suggests that they could be using the boats as practice targets for new hunting techniques. Other competing theories still exist.

Regardless of the orcas’ intentions, the behavior is enough to worry sailors journeying in the highly trafficked waters around North Africa, Spain and Portugal.

The Amidala, manned by a crew of two Belgians, encountered an unknown number of orcas on Sunday afternoon. They sent a mayday distress call to the Finisterre Maritime Rescue Center, which towed the vessel back to shore, the center said.

The sailboat’s damaged rudder, and poor weather conditions in the area, made the rescue more arduous, with waves reaching up to nearly 10 feet and winds hitting speeds of 40 miles per hour. A female crew member on the Amidala suffered injuries to her hand as the sailboat was being towed, and she was transferred to a rescue vessel, the rescue center said. After more than four hours, the Amidala made it back to shore.

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and  log into  your Times account, or  subscribe  for all of The Times.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber?  Log in .

Want all of The Times?  Subscribe .

News Center

Northwestern receives $55 million to advance health research.

The Northwestern University Clinical and Translational Sciences (NUCATS) Institute has received $55 million in National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding to accelerate development, evaluation and implementation of improved healthcare interventions.

The seven-year award is the largest active research grant at Northwestern and extends a legacy of NIH funding that began when the institute launched in 2008.

“Clinical and translational research does not happen in a bubble, it requires dedicated investigators and members of the public to advance human health,” said Richard D’Aquila, MD , the Howard Taylor Ricketts, MD, Professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases and senior associate dean for clinical and translational research. “With generous support from the NIH and Northwestern, we will continue to work alongside our exceptional coalition of community and health system partners to help build a better framework for innovating and implementing discoveries in ever more inclusive ways.”

Co-led by principal investigators D’Aquila; Sara Becker, PhD , the Alice Hamilton Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences , and Clyde Yancy, MD, MSc , chief and Magerstadt Professor of Cardiology in the Department of Medicine, the Institute maintains its place as an anchor for Northwestern’s research enterprise.

“The collection of extraordinary faculty and staff who will manage this iteration of NUCATS are a testament to the transformational mindsets held by the institute’s leadership,” said  Eric G. Neilson, MD , vice president for Medical Affairs and Lewis Landsberg Dean. “This funding allows us to further advance our mission of improving human health by investigating the mechanisms that drive the translation of discoveries toward real-world treatments.”

Awarded by the NIH National Center for Advancing Translational Science, the grant will fund activities that cultivate a culture of inclusive excellence to better capitalize on the full range of existing talent while enabling effective translation of discoveries for diverse populations. The Institute is also positioned to infuse implementation science methods into work across the translational continuum to improve public health and meet the needs of all.

“Implementation science can help us to accelerate and catalyze the uptake of evidence-based practice into routine clinical care,” said Becker, also director of Northwestern’s Center for Dissemination and Implementation Science (CTSA). “Northwestern is a national leader in this space. The NUCATS Institute will become a model CTSA hub that advances inclusive, innovative and implementable solutions to the evolving challenges that impede scalable public health progress.”

Yancy’s research in cardiology and health disparities addresses optimal treatment of heart failure. A seminal contribution was revealing that the predominant cause of heart failure among Black people is hypertension rather than the ischemic heart disease that is most often the putative cause in non-Black patients. His groundbreaking work informed how to optimize treatment strategies for Black patients including the first ever FDA-approved therapy for Black patients.

“Diversity in the biomedical workforce is more than representativeness; it is rather about excellence, diverse ideas and unique strategies that will enrich our ability to provide care for the entire population,” said Yancy, who is also vice dean for Diversity and Inclusion. “By addressing inequities with intentionality, we are positioned to understand and then overcome persistent systemic limitations that hurt those underrepresented and underserved and in turn impair best health for everyone. We commit to responsibly and courageously leading the path to inclusive excellence and belongingness.”

As one of more than 60 NIH Clinical and Translational Science Award-funded hubs, the NUCATS Institute is now charged with adding to generalizable knowledge about how to best accelerate new ideas and interventions into impact that improves health for all. The NIH calls this new charge conducting clinical and translational science, distinguishing it from an earlier charge to provide resources for all clinical and translational research.

“A core principle of translational science is to understand common causes of inefficiency and failure in translational research projects. One of the additional areas we will focus on — in collaboration with Northwestern’s Innovation and New Ventures Office and other partners — is better helping academic innovators to move discoveries from the laboratory through clinical trials and toward commercialization,” D’Aquila said.

Northwestern University and its affiliates the Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and its Stanley Manne Children’s Research Institute , Shirley Ryan AbilityLab and Northwestern Medicine comprise the NUCATS Institute. Clinicians and investigators at each affiliate are Northwestern faculty members and the partnering entities share a jointly operated, markedly grown academic medical center campus where faculty and trainees’ education, care and research activities cultivate a learning health system. The affiliates also have broad regional networks of sites/providers, facilitating community outreach. The NUCATS Institute will continue to serve as the glue that collaboratively aligns translational research and advances translational science across the four hub components.

The new CTSA activities are funded by NCATS grant UM1TR005121.

Related Posts

Oncoprotein activity increases prostate cancer progression, older adults in illinois at increased risk for suicide, understanding structural drivers of hiv and substance use.

Comments are closed.

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.

• SUGGESTED TOPICS
• The Magazine
• Newsletters
• Managing Yourself
• Managing Teams
• Work-life Balance
• The Big Idea
• Data & Visuals
• Reading Lists
• Case Selections
• HBR Learning
• Topic Feeds
• Account Settings
• Email Preferences

Research: How to Build Consensus Around a New Idea

• Devon Proudfoot
• Wayne Johnson

Strategies for overcoming the disagreements that can stymie innovation.

Previous research has found that new ideas are seen as risky and are often rejected. New research suggests that this rejection can be due to people’s lack of shared criteria or reference points when evaluating a potential innovation’s value. In a new paper, the authors find that the more novel the idea, the more people differ on their perception of its value. They also found that disagreement itself can make people view ideas as risky and make them less likely to support them, regardless of how novel the idea is. To help teams get on the same page when it comes to new ideas, they suggest gathering information about evaluator’s reference points and developing criteria that can lead to more focused discussions.

Picture yourself in a meeting where a new idea has just been pitched, representing a major departure from your company’s standard practices. The presenter is confident about moving forward, but their voice is quickly overtaken by a cacophony of opinions from firm opposition to enthusiastic support. How can you make sense of the noise? What weight do you give each of these opinions? And what does this disagreement say about the idea?

• DP Devon Proudfoot is an Associate Professor of Human Resource Studies at Cornell’s ILR School. She studies topics related to diversity and creativity at work.
• Wayne Johnson is a researcher at the Utah Eccles School of Business. He focuses on evaluations and decisions about new information, including persuasion regarding creative ideas and belief change.

Partner Center

March 25, 2019

The Adult Brain Does Grow New Neurons After All, Study Says

Study points toward lifelong neuron formation in the human brain’s hippocampus, with implications for memory and disease

By Karen Weintraub

Cerebral cortical neuron.

Getty Images

If the memory center of the human brain can grow new cells, it might help people recover from depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), delay the onset of Alzheimer’s, deepen our understanding of epilepsy and offer new insights into memory and learning. If not, well then, it’s just one other way people are different from rodents and birds.

For decades, scientists have debated whether the birth of new neurons—called neurogenesis—was possible in an area of the brain that is responsible for learning, memory and mood regulation. A growing body of research suggested they could, but then a Nature paper last year raised doubts.

Now, a new study published in March in another of the Nature family of journals— Nature Medicine —tips the balance back toward “yes.” In light of the new study, “I would say that there is an overwhelming case for the neurogenesis throughout life in humans,” Jonas Frisén, a professor at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, said in an e-mail. Frisén, who was not involved in the new research, wrote a News and Views about the study in the March issue of Nature Medicine .

On supporting science journalism

If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing . By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.

Not everyone was convinced. Arturo Alvarez-Buylla was the senior author on last year’s Nature paper, which questioned the existence of neurogenesis. Alvarez-Buylla, a professor of neurological surgery at the University of California, San Francisco, says he still doubts that new neurons develop in the brain’s hippocampus after toddlerhood.

“I don’t think this at all settles things out,” he says. “I’ve been studying adult neurogenesis all my life. I wish I could find a place [in humans] where it does happen convincingly.”

For decades, some researchers have thought that the brain circuits of primates—including humans—would be too disrupted by the growth of substantial numbers of new neurons. Alvarez-Buylla says he thinks the scientific debate over the existence of neurogenesis should continue. “Basic knowledge is fundamental. Just knowing whether adult neurons get replaced is a fascinating basic problem,” he says.

New technologies that can locate cells in the living brain and measure the cells’ individual activity, none of which were used in the Nature Medicine study, may eventually put to rest any lingering questions.

A number of researchers praised the new study as thoughtful and carefully conducted. It’s a “technical tour de force,” and addresses the concerns raised by last year’s paper, says Michael Bonaguidi, an assistant professor at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine.

The researchers, from Spain, tested a variety of methods of preserving brain tissue from 58 newly deceased people. They found that different methods of preservation led to different conclusions about whether new neurons could develop in the adult and aging brain.

Brain tissue has to be preserved within a few hours after death, and specific chemicals used to preserve the tissue, or the proteins that identify newly developing cells will be destroyed, said María Llorens-Martín, the paper’s senior author. Other researchers have missed the presence of these cells, because their brain tissue was not as precisely preserved, says Llorens-Martín, a neuroscientist at the Autonomous University of Madrid in Spain.

Jenny Hsieh, a professor at the University of Texas San Antonio who was not involved in the new research, said the study provides a lesson for all scientists who rely on the generosity of brain donations. “If and when we go and look at something in human postmortem, we have to be very cautious about these technical issues.”

Llorens-Martín said she began carefully collecting and preserving brain samples in 2010, when she realized that many brains stored in brain banks were not adequately preserved for this kind of research. In their study, she and her colleagues examined the brains of people who died with their memories intact, and those who died at different stages of Alzheimer’s disease. She found that the brains of people with Alzheimer’s showed few if any signs of new neurons in the hippocampus—with less signal the further along the people were in the course of the disease. This suggests that the loss of new neurons—if it could be detected in the living brain—would be an early indicator of the onset of Alzheimer’s, and that promoting new neuronal growth could delay or prevent the disease that now affects more than 5.5 million Americans.

Rusty Gage, president of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and a neuroscientist and professor there, says he was impressed by the researchers’ attention to detail. “Methodologically, it sets the bar for future studies,” says Gage, who was not involved in the new research but was the senior author in 1998 of a paper that found the first evidence for neurogenesis. Gage says this new study addresses the concerns raised by Alvarez-Buylla’s research. “From my view, this puts to rest that one blip that occurred,” he says. “This paper in a very nice way… systematically evaluates all the issues that we all feel are very important.”

Neurogenesis in the hippocampus matters, Gage says, because evidence in animals shows that it is essential for pattern separation, “allowing an animal to distinguish between two events that are closely associated with each other.” In people, Gage says, the inability to distinguish between two similar events could explain why patients with PTSD keep reliving the same experiences, even though their circumstances have changed. Also, many deficits seen in the early stages of cognitive decline are similar to those seen in animals whose neurogenesis has been halted, he says.

In healthy animals, neurogenesis promotes resilience in stressful situations, Gage says. Mood disorders, including depression, have also been linked to neurogenesis.

Hsieh says her research on epilepsy has found that newborn neurons get miswired, disrupting brain circuits and causing seizures and potential memory loss. In rodents with epilepsy, if researchers prevent the abnormal growth of new neurons, they prevent seizures, Hsieh says, giving her hope that something similar could someday help human patients. Epilepsy increases someone’s risk of Alzheimer’s as well as depression and anxiety, she says. “So, it’s all connected somehow. We believe that the new neurons play a vital role connecting all of these pieces,” Hsieh says.

In mice and rats, researchers can stimulate the growth of new neurons by getting the rodents to exercise more or by providing them with environments that are more cognitively or socially stimulating, Llorens-Martín says. “This could not be applied to advanced stages of Alzheimer’s disease. But if we could act at earlier stages where mobility is not yet compromised,” she says, “who knows, maybe we could slow down or prevent some of the loss of plasticity [in the brain].”

Published on 

 New Northeastern lab plumbs the mysteries of the ticks and bacteria that cause Lyme 

Constantin Takacs of Northeastern loves to study black-legged deer ticks and Borrelia burgdorferi, which is good news for everybody else

A sign at the entrance to the newly established laboratory of Northeastern University assistant biology professor Constantin Takacs warns visitors of the tiny menaces that dwell within.

“There are ticks present in the space,” it says. “Do not enter this room without the knowledge and permission of the Takacs lab.”

To make sure the poppyseed-sized black-legged ticks recently arrived from a breeding facility don’t escape, the doorway to the testing room is lined with a white double-sided sticky mat.

The precautions are meant to ensure researchers’ safety as they use new techniques to follow Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacterium that causes Lyme disease, inside the tick over the course of the tick’s two-year life cycle.

With cases of Lyme disease spreading and outpacing mosquito-borne illnesses in the U.S., it’s more important than ever to explore the cycle of disease and potential ways to interrupt it, Takacs says.

The little-understood tick

“We need to understand how the (Lyme disease bacteria) function and how they’re transmitted by ticks. And, therefore, we need to understand the tick itself,” he says.

Surprisingly little is known about black-legged or deer ticks, despite them being a vector, or carrier, of Lyme, a disease for which 476,000 people are treated annually, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention .

The vector biology field has been driven by mosquitoes. “In other parts of the world, the mosquito is far more important as a disease vector than ticks are,” Takacs says. “But here, right now, it’s ticks that transmit most of the vector-borne disease.”

Lyme disease is not only endemic in the heavily populated Northeast, mid-Atlantic and upper Midwest states, but the pathogen that causes it can stick around in the infected host for a long time.

“If you take a lab mouse and you infect it (with Borrelia burgdorferi) and you don’t treat it with an antibiotic, it’s infected for life,” Takacs says.

Deer ticks are also tough customers, able to live months in the lab without a meal and yet still transmit Lyme disease.

These are the sort of biological facts that intrigue Takacs but sound like the stuff of zombie horror movies to almost anyone who has ever taken a walk in the woods or fields where ticks dwell.

‘A lot of ticks will die for science’

A major challenge facing tick researchers is the small size of the creature, which like a spider has eight legs as an adult and so is considered an acarid rather than an insect like the mosquito.

The larvae of black-legged ticks, also known as deer ticks, resemble dust, Takacs says. The nymphs that they molt into are the size of a poppy seed, while adults are typically  compared to sesame seeds.

But tools new to the scientific community such as dissection stereo microscopes are giving Takacs and his researchers highly amplified views of nymphal ticks that arrived this summer from Oklahoma State University.

Using the microscope, which has a camera attached, postdoctoral research associate Chris Zinck shows a visitor how to look beyond the glint of a live tick’s hard outer body to see everything from its midgut to the hooks that anchor into their host victim’s skin. 

Scientists want to know “What’s happening to the tick during its life cycle?” he says.

 “A lot of that starts with what we can see,” says Zinck, who like Takacs wears a white lab coat and gloves instead of the traditional blue to better spot escaped ticks.

Zinck recently successfully dissected a nymphal tick after immobilizing it on a metal table chilled to 4 degrees Celsius. Ticks don’t like cold temperatures, so chilling them makes them easier to handle for dissection and other purposes.

 “A lot of ticks will die for science,” Takacs says.

Blood meals

But first, the ticks will be fed a blood meal at every stage of their life, starting with larvae feeding on lab mice infected with Borrelia burgdorferi, Takacs says.

“In order to follow the bacterium inside a tick, we have to let the tick grow as it naturally does, so we have to feed the tick. And the only way we can feed the tick is by putting it on a mouse,” Takacs says.

In a literal feedback loop, the tick acquires the bacterium by feeding on an infected mouse, he says.

Featured Stories

Back to School 2024: Students’ guide to essential move-in resources, Welcome Week activities and more

Unexploded ordnances still litter the seafloor worldwide. Northeastern engineers are trying to sniff them out.

Double Husky innovates with Wishing Well, a community-centric finance app for social empowerment

How dangerous is EEE? Northeastern experts urge caution as mortality rate could exceed 50%

Staining tick body parts with a special dye will allow researchers to see how the Lyme bacteria interacts with the tick’s anatomy as the pathogenic agent moves from gut to salivary gland and mouth and back again during and between feeding cycles, Takacs says.

Weird, and resilient, ticks

Once infected, the tick is able to transmit Lyme to mice, as well as other mammals including deer, dogs and humans.

One of the goals of the research is to disrupt tick anatomy or interactions to see whether that stops transmission of the bacteria, Takacs says.

It helps that scientists came up with a more complete iteration of the genome of the black-legged deer tick in early 2023, opening the way for the creation of genetic targets to reduce Lyme and other tick-borne diseases.

Takacs says his spirochete and vector biology lab at Northeastern will apply genetic modification techniques on ticks as well as on the bacteria that causes Lyme disease.

The twin-armed approach is aided by his training in both bacteriology and eukaryotic biology, which is the study of any cell with a clearly defined nucleus, including mice and ticks, Takacs says.

“I’m kind of straddling both worlds because I understand the bacterium, the microbe, but also the host. I like to study their interaction by looking at both angles,” he says.

Takacs, who came to Northeastern in January of 2023, says his fascination with Borrelia burgdorferi has only grown since his postdoctoral research days at Yale and Stanford.

 Borrelia burgdorferi is a spiral-shaped bacterium called a spirochete. Another example of a spirochete is the one that causes syphilis, but borrelia is different enough to be labeled weird and almost certainly is unique in the world of bacteria.

In bad news for the body’s natural immune defenses, Borrelia burgdorferi has an “antigenic variation mechanism” that allows the bacteria to change a protein on their surface, Takacs says.

The surface protein is “akin to the armor of the organism,” he says. “It changes continuously. By the time the host immune system starts to attack the armor, the bacteria has changed the nature of the armor.”

This is different from the way most bacteria and pathogens enter the body and make a person feel ill. 

“After a week or two, your immune system is going to kill the pathogen. Think about the last cold you had. Well, Borrelia burgdorferi is going to stay inside you for many months.”

In the case of the lab mouse, which can live one to five years, that’s for life, Takacs says.

Another way that the Lyme spirochete stands out from the rest of the bacterial crowd is by having more than 15 linear and circular plasmids in addition to one large linear chromosome. 

Takacs says scientists theorize Borrelia burgdorferi evolved to have many genome segments so it could infect a variety of animal species.

Ticks on dinosaurs and Lyme in a mummy

Black-legged ticks are also resilient, almost shockingly. 

“You can take a tick and put it in a jar at room temperature on the shelf. And as long as it doesn’t get dry, a year later, it’s still alive,” Takacs says.

Not only that, “It still has the same number of spirochetes,” he says. “It’s still able to transmit Lyme disease.”

Perhaps it’s no surprise that ticks and the Lyme spirochete are so tough, seeing as they have been around for millenia.

Ticks have been discovered in the fossils of feathered dinosaurs , while evidence of Lyme disease was found in the 5,300-year-old mummified remains of Otzi “the Ice Man.”

Lyme can affect the joints, heart and brain

The most common symptoms of Lyme are fever, fatigue, joint pains and a rash, although not every sufferer gets the rash.

Untreated, the Lyme spirochete can get into skin, heart tissue, joints and the outermost layer of protective tissue surrounding the brain and spinal cord, Takacs says.

“If you think about the symptoms of Lyme disease, you get a match between where the bacteria go and where there’s pathology,” he says.

The CDC says people treated in the early stages of Lyme disease with appropriate antibiotics usually experience a full recovery although it estimates that  5% to 10% of Lyme patients have persistent symptoms after early treatment.

In the meantime, the Global Lyme Alliance says that as many as 2 million Americans could suffer post-treatment disability. 

The search for better Lyme treatment has led Northeastern University Distinguished Professor of Biology Kim Lewis to develop an antibiotic treatment he says is more targeted to borrelia than broad spectrum antibiotics currently in use such as doxycycline.

Lewis says the antibiotic, Hygromycin A, could also mop up residual pathogens. It is currently in clinical trials in Australia.

Takacs believes potential solutions lie in understanding the complex interactions between Borrelia burgdorferi, black-legged ticks and host animals such as lab mice.

Black-legged deer ticks also transmit other but less common  diseases than Lyme, including the bacterial illness anaplasmosis; babesiosis, which is transmitted by a parasite; and Powassan, which is a viral disease.

Tick habitat is expanding. But this is still “sort of an area of mystery,” he says.

Cynthia McCormick Hibbert is a Northeastern Global News reporter. Email her at [email protected] or contact her on X/Twitter @HibbertCynthia .

• Copy Link Link Copied!

Program is transforming youth music education and amplifying diverse voices

Beyond Creative @ NU gives high schoolers a crash course in making music, ending with the creation of a full album.

Math can be intimidating — unless your professor is Solomon Jekel

During a four-decade tenure, the Northeastern mathematics professor has helped students take their love of numbers in many directions.

Behind the scenes in NBC’s Olympics research room: ‘Gold Zone,’ obscure badminton rules and trivia for Peyton Manning

Northeastern University data science graduate Claire Dudley has spent the past three weeks unearthing statistics and stories for Paris.

How these Northeastern researchers are rewriting the immigration-crime narrative

Ramiro Martinez and Jacob Stowell say their research has disproved assertions that immigration exposes communities to increases in crime.

This artist spent two weeks on a tall ship in the frigid Arctic researching extreme climates and life cycles

Art and design professor Julia Hechtman did a residency on a tall ship in the Arctic Circle, seeking inspiration in the frigid landscape.

Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World

Read our research on:

Full Topic List

Regions & Countries

• Publications

Our Methods

• Short Reads
• Tools & Resources

Read Our Research On:

Why Many Parents and Teens Think It’s Harder Being a Teen Today

Key things to know about u.s. election polling in 2024, americans’ experiences with local crime news.

More Americans get news and information about crime than any other local topic except the weather. But how they get that news – and how they react to it – varies widely.

The link between local news coverage and Americans’ perceptions of crime

The political values of harris and trump supporters, as rfk jr. exits, a look at who supported him in the 2024 presidential race, sign up for our weekly newsletter.

Fresh data delivered Saturday mornings

Latest Publications

From ‘traditional’ to ‘open-minded,’ how americans describe themselves.

Roughly six-in-ten Republicans (58%) describe themselves as traditional, but just 19% of Democrats say the same.

Roughly three-quarters of adults (77%) say they often or sometimes get local news and information about crime.

Most U.S. adults say they are interested in several types of local crime coverage, but far fewer say this information is easy to find.

Polls are more useful to the public if people have realistic expectations about what surveys can do well – and what they cannot.

Many around the globe say it’s important their leader stands up for people’s religious beliefs

Adults in Indonesia, Bangladesh and the Philippines are the most likely to say it is important to have a leader who stands up for people with their religious beliefs.

All publications >

Most Popular

Sign up for the briefing.

Weekly updates on the world of news & information

Election 2024

Harris energizes democrats in transformed presidential race.

The share of voters who strongly support Kamala Harris is nearly 20 points higher than the share who felt this way about Joe Biden in July.

10 facts about Democrats in the U.S.

10 facts about republicans in the u.s., joe biden, public opinion and his withdrawal from the 2024 race, how latino voters view the 2024 presidential election.

All Election 2024 research >

Quiz: Test your polling knowledge

The hardships and dreams of asian americans living in poverty, what public k-12 teachers want americans to know about teaching, how people in 24 countries think democracy can improve.

All Features >

International Affairs

How mexicans and americans view each other and their governments’ handling of the border.

Mexicans hold generally positive views of the United States, while Americans hold generally negative views of Mexico – a reversal from 2017.

72% of Americans say the U.S. used to be a good example of democracy, but isn’t anymore

A median of 40% of adults across 34 other countries surveyed in 2024 say U.S. democracy used to be a good example for other countries to follow.

Most People in 35 Countries Say China Has a Large Impact on Their National Economy

Large majorities in nearly all 35 nations surveyed say China has a great deal or a fair amount of influence on their country’s economic conditions.

In some countries, immigration accounted for all population growth between 2000 and 2020

In 14 countries and territories, immigration accounted for more than 100% of population growth during this period.

All INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS RESEARCH >

Climate, Energy & Environment

Americans’ extreme weather policy views and personal experiences.

Reports of extreme weather are common but vary by party. Most favor stricter building standards in high-risk areas but not building bans or forced relocations.

Majority of Americans support more nuclear power in the country

Americans remain more likely to favor expanding solar power (78%) and wind power (72%) than nuclear power (56%).

U.S. adults under 30 have different foreign policy priorities than older adults

Americans’ views differ by age on whether measures like addressing climate change and preventing terrorist attacks should be top foreign policy priorities.

All Climate, Energy & Environment RESEARCH >

News Media Trends

How americans get local political news.

Most U.S. adults follow news about local government and politics, yet only a quarter are highly satisfied with the quality of coverage.

How Americans Get News on TikTok, X, Facebook and Instagram

X is still more of a news destination than these other platforms, but the vast majority of users on all four see news-related content.

Americans’ Changing Relationship With Local News

More Americans now prefer to get local news online, while fewer turn to TV or print. And most say local news outlets are important to their community.

More than half of Americans are following election news closely, and many are already worn out

More than half of Americans (58%) say they are following news about candidates for the 2024 presidential election very or fairly closely.

More Americans want the journalists they get news from to share their politics than any other personal trait

Most Americans say it is not important that the news they get comes from journalists who share their political views, age, gender or other traits.

All News Media Trends RESEARCH >

U.S. Surveys

Pew Research Center has deep roots in U.S. public opinion research. Launched as a project focused primarily on U.S. policy and politics in the early 1990s, the Center has grown over time to study a wide range of topics vital to explaining America to itself and to the world.

International Surveys

Pew Research Center regularly conducts public opinion surveys in countries outside the United States as part of its ongoing exploration of attitudes, values and behaviors around the globe.

Data Science

Pew Research Center’s Data Labs uses computational methods to complement and expand on the Center’s existing research agenda.

Demographic Research

Pew Research Center tracks social, demographic and economic trends, both domestically and internationally.

All Methods research >

Our Experts

“A record 23 million Asian Americans trace their roots to more than 20 countries … and the U.S. Asian population is projected to reach 46 million by 2060.”

Neil G. Ruiz , Head of New Research Initiatives

Key facts about asian americans >

Methods 101 Videos

Methods 101: random sampling.

The first video in Pew Research Center’s Methods 101 series helps explain random sampling – a concept that lies at the heart of all probability-based survey research – and why it’s important.

Methods 101: Survey Question Wording

Methods 101: mode effects, methods 101: what are nonprobability surveys.

All Methods 101 Videos >

Add Pew Research Center to your Alexa

Say “Alexa, enable the Pew Research Center flash briefing”

Signature Reports

Race and lgbtq issues in k-12 schools, representative democracy remains a popular ideal, but people around the world are critical of how it’s working, americans’ dismal views of the nation’s politics, measuring religion in china, diverse cultures and shared experiences shape asian american identities, parenting in america today, editor’s pick, how the origins of america’s immigrants have changed since 1850, what’s new with you what americans talk about with family and friends, same-sex marriage around the world, electric vehicle charging infrastructure in the u.s., who are you the art and science of measuring identity, immigration & migration, asian americans: a survey data snapshot, the religious composition of the world’s migrants, what we know about unauthorized immigrants living in the u.s., cultural issues and the 2024 election, social media, how americans navigate politics on tiktok, x, facebook and instagram, whatsapp and facebook dominate the social media landscape in middle-income nations, how teens and parents approach screen time, majorities in most countries surveyed say social media is good for democracy.

901 E St. NW, Suite 300 Washington, DC 20004 USA (+1) 202-419-4300 | Main (+1) 202-857-8562 | Fax (+1) 202-419-4372 |  Media Inquiries

Research Topics

• Email Newsletters

ABOUT PEW RESEARCH CENTER  Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. Pew Research Center does not take policy positions. It is a subsidiary of  The Pew Charitable Trusts .

© 2024 Pew Research Center

McComas concludes service as vice president for PPPL as NASA mission nears launch

David McComas

David McComas, Princeton University’s vice president for the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), will conclude his PPPL leadership role to focus on the successful completion and launch of NASA’s Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP). McComas is the principal investigator for the IMAP mission, which is scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral next year to advance understanding of the space environment in our solar neighborhood.

Peter Schiffer, Princeton’s dean for research and the Class of 1909 Professor of Physics, will succeed McComas as vice president for PPPL, a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory managed by Princeton University. Schiffer will maintain his dean for research role. The transition will take place on Sept. 2. 

“I am grateful to David McComas for stewarding the University’s relationship with the Plasma Physics Laboratory and the Department of Energy so conscientiously over the past eight years,” said Princeton President Christopher L. Eisgruber. “Dave’s outstanding scientific acumen, administrative skill and personal integrity have benefited us tremendously over the course of his tenure. I wish him well as he devotes himself full-time to his research program, and I look forward to working with Peter Schiffer as he adds this new role to his portfolio.”

Peter Schiffer

As PPPL vice president since 2016, McComas has served as a liaison between senior University leadership, the laboratory and the Department of Energy. At Princeton, his executive leadership has included service as a member of the President’s cabinet and the Executive Compliance Committee.

PPPL conducts essential research using plasma — the fourth state of matter — to solve some of the world’s toughest science and technology challenges, including the development of fusion energy as a clean, safe and virtually limitless power source.

“I feel great about the contributions I made in overseeing PPPL as a University vice president, but I also feel that after eight and a half years, it’s time for me to focus on my other primary job,” he said. “PPPL is vital to the national interest, and it’s also vital to the national interest that we get IMAP launched and working perfectly. It’s critical for NASA heliophysics and space science, and as the principal investigator, I’m responsible for the entire mission.”

Since coming to Princeton, McComas has been a half-time vice president and half-time professor of astrophysical sciences. As he transitions to a full-time role on the astrophysics faculty, he will continue leading his roughly 35-person research team, teaching his unique space physics undergraduate lab, and serving as the mission leader for IMAP and other NASA missions and instruments . After he steps down as vice president, McComas will be a special adviser to the provost and continue to serve on the boards of directors for both PPPL and Brookhaven National Laboratory.

“Dave’s expertise has been timely, important and valued,” said Princeton Provost Jennifer Rexford, who is also the Gordon Y.S. Wu Professor in Engineering. “PPPL’s research mission, working toward an efficient and clean energy source, is critically important for humanity. Dave is a deep scientist in his own right, and he also understands all the engineering and operational issues involved in working at the leading edge of technology.”

Schiffer was the logical choice to succeed him as vice president for PPPL, Rexford said.

She noted that the scope of research at PPPL has diversified in the past several years, incorporating research into microelectronics, quantum sensors and devices, and sustainability science.

“The widening of the research going on at the Lab has increased opportunities for connection with campus,” she said. “That stronger connection benefits from going through the Office of the Dean for Research.”

Leadership at PPPL

Over the past eight years, McComas has worked with University and PPPL leadership to strengthen the connections between the Lab and the campus. “PPPL is an important part of the future of the University,” McComas said. “The University is interested in advances that make a huge difference for humanity, and it has a very long view of things. That’s exactly what fusion energy needs.”

McComas is a renowned space physicist and the principal investigator on multiple NASA instruments and missions. He holds seven patents and has published more than 800 peer-reviewed papers with more than 50,000 citations . Prior to coming to Princeton, he served in a variety of leadership roles at Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Southwest Research Institute.

In addition to overseeing PPPL’s research mission, he has secured two contract extensions with the DOE and led the international search that brought the renowned fusion scientist Sir Steven Cowley to PPPL as its director.

“Dave has been a steadfast partner during a period of rapid expansion at the Laboratory,” said Cowley, who is also a professor of astrophysical sciences at the University. “PPPL is tackling global issues in the nation’s interest, contributing to a sustainable future while driving scientific innovation forward. Dave’s inventive mindset, coupled with his strong organizational leadership, has been an asset to PPPL during a critical time.”

With fusion energy at an inflection point, “it’s an exciting time at  PPPL ,” McComas said.   Unprecedented numbers   of public-private partnership grants are helping to advance fusion science and engineering at the Lab, he said, adding that the growing number of private companies working in the sector indicates that investors are confident that technologies are advancing toward bringing fusion energy to the national grid.

McComas and IMAP

Several months ago, as McComas saw both of his major responsibilities — PPPL and IMAP — coming to critical points, he felt that it was time to focus his energies on the space physics to which he has devoted his academic career.

IMAP’s mission is to explore our solar neighborhood, by decoding the messages in particles captured from the Sun and from beyond our cosmic shield, the heliopause . After its launch , IMAP will provide extensive new observations of the inner and outer heliosphere and answer two of the most important topics in space physics today: how energetic particles are accelerated in the solar wind, and how the solar wind interacts with the local interstellar medium.

The roughly $750 million IMAP mission carries 10 cutting-edge scientific instruments and will launch from Cape Canaveral in 2025 on a Falcon 9 Heavy rocket. In addition to resolving fundamental scientific questions, IMAP will make real-time observations of the space environment a million miles sunward of the Earth, providing critical advance warning of impending space weather events.

In his career, McComas has led the TWINS and IBEX space physics missions as well as instruments for numerous other missions, including Parker Solar Probe to the sun, the Advanced Composition Explorer to study spaceborne energetic particles, Ulysses to view the sun from outside the ecliptic, New Horizons to and past Pluto, Juno to Jupiter, and Cassini to Saturn.

Among many other honors, he has received the Arctowski Medal from the National Academy of Sciences, the Distinguished Scientist Award from the Scientific Committee on Solar-Terrestrial Physics of the International Science Council , and the NASA Exceptional Public Service Medal. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society, the American Geophysical Union and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Schiffer and PPPL

With an active research program in the Department of Physics in addition to his administrative roles, Schiffer is an eminent condensed matter physicist who holds a Ph.D. from Stanford University and a B.S. from Yale.

Prior to coming to Princeton in 2023, he served as a member of the faculty and an administrator at Yale University, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Pennsylvania State University. He currently also serves on the governing board of the American Physical Society and previously served as a senior fellow with the Association of American Universities.

Schiffer leads the Office of the Dean for Research, which supports the Princeton research enterprise by expanding access to funding and other resources, building research relationships with external partners, facilitating regulatory and policy compliance, and supporting innovation, entrepreneurship and the development of intellectual property.

He said he looks forward to continuing PPPL’s long legacy of research in the nation’s service, expanding its academic affiliation with the University and building on its importance as a regional economic hub. “Princeton has been the steward of the Lab since it was founded back in the ’50s,” Schiffer said. “It is part of the University’s scientific legacy and tradition to have PPPL as a critical part of our overall research portfolio; it provides research opportunities for undergrads, graduate students and postdocs. With its hundreds of employees and global scientific reputation, PPPL also has a big economic footprint within our community.”

He continued: “PPPL is a very important part of Princeton’s intellectual ecosystem, and we’re honored to have the opportunity to manage the Lab for the nation and support the great science that comes out of it.”

Related Stories

VP David McComas receives the 2022 Distinguished Scientist Award .

Princeton’s David McComas has received the 2022 Distinguished Scientist Award “for original research, technical leadership and wide-ranging discoveries" from the Scientific Committee on Solar-Terrestrial Physics, part of the International Science Council.

Princeton’s McComas will lead IMAP, a NASA mission to study the heliosphere .

Astrophysicist David McComas will be the principal investigator for the IMAP mission to study the heliosphere.

NASA’s Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe mission enters design phase .

IMAP, a Princeton-led mission to study the interaction of the solar wind with the ancient cast-off winds of other stars, has completed a critical NASA review and is now moving closer toward a scheduled launch in 2024.

Princeton in space: Princeton-led instrument prepares to ‘kiss the sun’ .

On Aug. 11, NASA will launch a spacecraft carrying a Princeton-led instrument that will fly repeatedly through the sun's atmosphere, getting closer to our star than any human-made spacecraft in history.

Poland will build instrument for Princeton-led mission to study interplanetary space .

NASA and Poland will cooperate on a NASA mission, the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP), which is led by Princeton's David McComas.

Princeton in space: NASA’s IMAP mission clears critical hurdle to launch .

A NASA review board considered all aspects of the mission design and said that the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe, led by Princeton's David McComas, is 'good to go.'

Princeton's David McComas among honorees for Earth, planetary and space science advances .

The European Geosciences Union announced today that David McComas is a recipient of the 2022 Hannes Alfvén Medal for his outstanding scientific contributions towards the understanding of plasma processes in the solar system and other cosmical plasma environments.

• Download PDF
• Share X Facebook Email LinkedIn
• Permissions

Conducting Research in the New Abortion Care Policy Landscape

• 1 University of Michigan Ford School of Public Policy, Ann Arbor
• Research Letter A Cautionary Note on Trends in Maternal Death Post- Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Amanda Jean Stevenson, PhD; Leslie Root, PhD JAMA Network Open

The public policy chaos fueled by the June 2022 Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization Supreme Court decision has created a critical need for objective and high-quality abortion policy evaluation research. Stevenson and Root 1 rose to this challenge by conducting a convincing analysis of recent trends in maternal mortality, motivated in part by pro-life advocate claims that the recent observed decline in pregnancy-related death is the counterintuitive result of more restrictive abortion policies post– Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health . Using 5.75 years of monthly national maternal mortality data from January 2018 through September 2023, their decomposition approach considered spikes in mortality from COVID-19 and potential seasonal fluctuations in maternal deaths. The findings clearly demonstrate that the observed decline in maternal mortality after the 2022 Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health ruling is the result of a resolution of the COVID-19 mortality shock, not because of new restrictive abortion laws being passed by state legislatures.

This work is among the first published analyses of the potential effects of restrictive state abortion policies in the post– Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health aftermath. Additional research on a wide array of potential outcomes needs to be conducted to fully understand the range and magnitude of the outcomes of state-level abortion policies. Based on a plethora of prior research regarding unintended pregnancy and abortion, reduced access to abortion care is thought to decrease the incidence of abortion but also increase the risk and incidence of myriad adverse maternal and infant health outcomes. 2 Restrictive abortion policies are also expected to increase child poverty, increase the number of families that experience serious financial instability or hardship, and put additional pressures on underresourced social welfare systems. 2 In addition, there is great concern that restrictive abortion laws will negatively impact physician choice regarding where to train or practice and the availability of obstetric care across states. 3

After major public policy reforms, it is common for stakeholders—proponents and opponents alike—to look for positive and negative policy effects immediately. While easy to conduct, armchair policy impact pontification is fraught with error and false conclusions. Identifying the impact of public policy change is not a simple task. Besides the obvious cautionary chant that correlation is not causation, evaluating the degree to which public policy shifts are having both intended and unintended consequences requires sound approaches to methods, timely access to quality data, and sophisticated statistical analyses that control for underlying trends and confounding factors. 4

Furthermore, there is often discussion and debate among researchers themselves regarding how to investigate the effects of important public health, medical, and health care interventions and policies. The convening of expert panels or working groups to provide guidance regarding research priorities and best approaches to research design, data or measurement, and analyses on specific topics is long-standing. It can provide essential scientific direction to emerging issues, including ones fraught with political controversy. For example, the National Academy of Medicine has convened many methods-focused committees in challenging areas of research, including reports such as Priorities for Research to Reduce the Threat of Firearm-Related Violence (2013) and A Framework for Assessing Mortality and Morbidity After Large-Scale Disasters (2020).

There is a crucial need for investment in scientific discourse regarding how best to investigate the wide range of potential medical, public health, and social welfare effects of public policy related to abortion care. 5 An organization with authority and resources, such as the Department of Health and Human Services, the National Academy of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, or a foundation with a health-related mission, should quickly convene an ad hoc panel of experts to produce a nonpartisan, nonideological consensus document that provides guidance for objective public policy evaluation research associated with state-level restrictive abortion care policies. Such a panel could help create a priority research agenda for funders and provide guidance regarding data or measurement, research designs, statistical analyses approaches, and other methodology issues. This includes guidance for taking advantage of state differences in policy design, timing, and state contextual factors (eg, state Medicaid policy) and for subpopulation analyses since restrictive abortion laws are likely to have differential effects based on race or ethnicity, age, socioeconomic status, and geography.

In summary, the analysis by Stevenson and Root 1 provides a convincing assessment of an issue regarding abortion policy: the recent decline in maternal mortality after the Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health ruling may be the result of a decrease in COVID-19–related maternal death rather than state legislatures’ new power to ban or severely restrict abortion care. However, there are many other important research questions regarding the health and social effects of the new abortion policy regime in the US. Investments in public policy evaluation research must be made quickly, including guidance for a priority research agenda and associated objective research designs, methods, and analysis approaches. Otherwise, the erroneous musings of amateur analysts of all ideological perspectives are likely to obscure a deep understanding of the actual effects of restrictive abortion policies on individuals and on population health outcomes, including medical care access, maternal and infant health, and the social welfare of families and children.

Published: August 27, 2024. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.30000

Open Access: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CC-BY License . © 2024 Lantz PM. JAMA Network Open .

Corresponding Author: Paula M. Lantz, PhD, MS, University of Michigan Ford School of Public Policy, 735 S State St, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-3091 ( [email protected] ).

Conflict of Interest Disclosures: None reported.

See More About

Lantz PM. Conducting Research in the New Abortion Care Policy Landscape. JAMA Netw Open. 2024;7(8):e2430000. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.30000

Manage citations:

© 2024

Select Your Interests

Customize your JAMA Network experience by selecting one or more topics from the list below.

• Academic Medicine
• Acid Base, Electrolytes, Fluids
• Allergy and Clinical Immunology
• American Indian or Alaska Natives
• Anesthesiology
• Anticoagulation
• Art and Images in Psychiatry
• Artificial Intelligence
• Assisted Reproduction
• Bleeding and Transfusion
• Caring for the Critically Ill Patient
• Challenges in Clinical Electrocardiography
• Climate and Health
• Climate Change
• Clinical Challenge
• Clinical Decision Support
• Clinical Implications of Basic Neuroscience
• Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmacology
• Complementary and Alternative Medicine
• Consensus Statements
• Coronavirus (COVID-19)
• Critical Care Medicine
• Cultural Competency
• Dental Medicine
• Dermatology
• Diabetes and Endocrinology
• Diagnostic Test Interpretation
• Drug Development
• Electronic Health Records
• Emergency Medicine
• End of Life, Hospice, Palliative Care
• Environmental Health
• Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion
• Facial Plastic Surgery
• Gastroenterology and Hepatology
• Genetics and Genomics
• Genomics and Precision Health
• Global Health
• Guide to Statistics and Methods
• Hair Disorders
• Health Care Delivery Models
• Health Care Economics, Insurance, Payment
• Health Care Quality
• Health Care Reform
• Health Care Safety
• Health Care Workforce
• Health Disparities
• Health Inequities
• Health Policy
• Health Systems Science
• History of Medicine
• Hypertension
• Images in Neurology
• Implementation Science
• Infectious Diseases
• Innovations in Health Care Delivery
• JAMA Infographic
• Law and Medicine
• Leading Change
• Less is More
• LGBTQIA Medicine
• Lifestyle Behaviors
• Medical Coding
• Medical Devices and Equipment
• Medical Education
• Medical Education and Training
• Medical Journals and Publishing
• Mobile Health and Telemedicine
• Narrative Medicine
• Neuroscience and Psychiatry
• Notable Notes
• Nutrition, Obesity, Exercise
• Obstetrics and Gynecology
• Occupational Health
• Ophthalmology
• Orthopedics
• Otolaryngology
• Pain Medicine
• Palliative Care
• Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
• Patient Care
• Patient Information
• Performance Improvement
• Performance Measures
• Perioperative Care and Consultation
• Pharmacoeconomics
• Pharmacoepidemiology
• Pharmacogenetics
• Pharmacy and Clinical Pharmacology
• Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
• Physical Therapy
• Physician Leadership
• Population Health
• Primary Care
• Professional Well-being
• Professionalism
• Psychiatry and Behavioral Health
• Public Health
• Pulmonary Medicine
• Regulatory Agencies
• Reproductive Health
• Research, Methods, Statistics
• Resuscitation
• Rheumatology
• Risk Management
• Scientific Discovery and the Future of Medicine
• Shared Decision Making and Communication
• Sleep Medicine
• Sports Medicine
• Stem Cell Transplantation
• Substance Use and Addiction Medicine
• Surgical Innovation
• Surgical Pearls
• Teachable Moment
• Technology and Finance
• The Art of JAMA
• The Arts and Medicine
• The Rational Clinical Examination
• Tobacco and e-Cigarettes
• Translational Medicine
• Trauma and Injury
• Treatment Adherence
• Ultrasonography
• Users' Guide to the Medical Literature
• Vaccination
• Venous Thromboembolism
• Veterans Health
• Women's Health
• Workflow and Process
• Wound Care, Infection, Healing

Get the latest research based on your areas of interest.

Others also liked.

• Register for email alerts with links to free full-text articles
• Access PDFs of free articles
• Manage your interests
• Save searches and receive search alerts

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

• View all journals
• Explore content
• About the journal
• Publish with us
• Sign up for alerts
• Year in Review
• Published: 23 December 2022

11 clinical trials that will shape medicine in 2023

• Carrie Arnold 1 &
• Paul Webster 2  

Nature Medicine volume  28 ,  pages 2444–2448 ( 2022 ) Cite this article

134k Accesses

7 Citations

802 Altmetric

Metrics details

An Author Correction to this article was published on 27 February 2023

This article has been updated

Nature Medicine asks leading researchers to name their top clinical trial for 2023, from cervical and prostate cancer screening to new drugs for Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease.

2022 has been a rollercoaster year for biopharma, as it has faced an industry-wide slowdown and late-stage clinical trial failures, as well as breakthroughs and regulatory approvals.

COVID-19 has continued to disrupt nearly all aspects of clinical trial infrastructure, from patient recruitment to supply chains, but despite this, 2023 promises to bring many new readouts from different branches of medicine (Table 1 ).

We asked 11 leading experts for their top clinical trials to watch in the coming year.

A diabetes drug for Parkinson’s disease

Roger Albin: For both purely scientific issues and clinical practice issues, the phase 3 trial for exenatide in Parkinson’s disease is a very attractive trial. It has the big advantage of being a repurposed drug that is already widely used in older patients. If there were a positive result, it is something that could be really adopted into clinical practice in a very practical way. The drug had reasonable preclinical data and some promising phase 2 data, and in the Parkinson’s disease world, in which there is not an animal model for really great predictive validity, this is probably about as good as it gets. The community is looking for unequivocal results, whether positive or negative. A clear positive response would be great, but a clear negative response is actually just as important.

Roger Albin is a professor of neurology and co-director of the Movement Disorders Clinic in the Department of Neurology at the University of Michigan Medical School .

ADC for ovarian cancer

Robert L. Coleman: The most imminent and important upcoming trial result expected in my field in 2023 is mirvetuximab soravtansine, from ImmunoGen. This received accelerated approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on 14 November, based on results of a single-arm trial that enrolled 106 patients with platinum-resistant ovarian cancer whose tumors had high expression of folate receptor-α and who had been treated with up to three prior regimens, at least one of which included bevacizumab (Avastin).

Under accelerated approval, the sponsor can market their drug under the indication agreed to by the FDA — in this case, patients with recurrent, platinum-resistant ovarian cancer. For the drug to move from accelerated approval to regular approval, a confirmatory trial needs to be conducted to confirm the overall safety and efficacy of the agent of interest. In this case, initial results for the confirmatory phase 3 MIRASOL trial are expected in early 2023.

This drug is an antibody–drug conjugate (ADC); these agents are already being used for the treatment of several solid and liquid tumors, but this is the first for ovarian cancer. It will be aligned with a companion diagnostic test that mirrors the expression in tumors needed for clinical trial eligibility. We expect about one-third of patients with recurrent, platinum-resistant ovarian cancer to have high expression of folate receptor-α. The ADC field is expanding rapidly, with trastuzumab deruxtecan approved in April 2022 for use against breast cancer, but it has been a long time since a new cytotoxic agent has been approved for ovarian cancer. Among treatments for gynecological cancers, this is only the second ADC approved so far, after Tisotumab vedotin (in September 2021) for patients with recurrent previously treated cervical cancer. Now we have one in ovarian cancer. Several other ADCs are in development, and successful approval will provide a solid framework for clinical trials evaluating novel combinations in several disease settings.

Robert L. Coleman is chief scientific officer at US Oncology Research .

CRISPR–Cas9 for muscular dystrophy

Simone Spuler: Muscle stem cells are the only cells that can regenerate muscle. In patients who have a genetic muscular dystrophy in which muscle wastes for genetic reasons, these stem cells carry mutations, but these mutations can now be corrected with CRISPR–Cas9 and other tools. Correcting muscle stem cells means muscle can be rebuilt, which was not been previously possible whatsoever in these muscular dystrophies.

Muscular dystrophies are a group of about 50 different diseases that lead young people and children to lose their ability to walk, or to breathe, and make them wheelchair-bound within a couple of years. We are working with corrected muscle stem cells able to rebuild muscles and we will test this in a trial called bASKet. In the bASKet trial , there are two major questions. The first is about safety. We would like to see that nothing happens to the patients that makes the disease worse, such as a gene encoding a tumor suppressor being switched on. We do all kinds of preclinical safety tests to preclude that possibility. New proteins will be made by these stem cells, which probably have not been seen by the patient’s immune system, so it could attack this foreign protein. We will inject the cells that are repaired into the patient in an autologous manner, and check a few months later to see if new muscle is built. The second question we are addressing is about clinical improvement. This is something the regulatory agencies asked us to do. We hope to have the first data a few months after we begin treating patients in June and July 2023.

Simone Spuler leads the myology research group and the Outpatient Clinic for Muscle Disorders at the Experimental and Clinical Research Center, a joint institution established by the Max Delbrück Center and the Charité–Universitätsmedizin, in Berlin, Germany .

Cervical cancer screening in the vaccinated

Karen Canfell: Prophylactic vaccines against human papilloma virus (HPV), first rolled out 15 years ago, protect women against cervical cancer and are now routinely offered to young girls in most high-income countries. As time moves on, more women who were vaccinated as girls become eligible for cervical cancer screening, and it is important to understand the most effective screening approaches in a vaccinated population. This trial is important, as it is the first large-scale randomized controlled trial internationally that will assess primary HPV screening in a population that is heavily vaccinated against HPV. The findings from the secondary randomization will assess newer approaches for managing HPV-positive women, which will be important for cervical screening programs that are transitioning to primary HPV testing. The COMPASS trial is also assessing new next-generation HPV testing platforms and technologies for triage testing, which are expected to improve the overall performance of HPV testing at a program level.

Karen Canfell is chair of the Cancer Screening and Immunisation Committee of Cancer Council Australia .

The Mediterranean diet for weight loss

Jordi Salas Salvadó: No study has ever demonstrated that weight loss and maintenance using an energy-reduced healthy diet and physical activity lowers the risk of cardiovascular disease in people who are overweight or who have obesity. The Look AHEAD trial in the USA, conducted in people with diabetes, has been discontinued owing to lack of efficacy in reducing the risk of cardiovascular events and mortality after approximately 10 years of follow-up, despite achieving significant differences between interventions in long-term weight loss.

We hypothesize that an intensive lifestyle-intervention program aimed at weight loss and based on the traditional Mediterranean diet is a sustainable long-term approach for achieving weight loss in overweight and obese adults, and that the lifestyle changes achieved will have a beneficial effect on cardiovascular morbidity and mortality.

Jordi Salas Salvadó is a Distinguished Professor of Nutrition at Rovira i Virgili University and Principal Investigator at CIBER-Obn Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Spain .

Safe treatment for sleeping sickness

Olaf Valverde: In 2023, we will receive the complete results of our clinical trial testing of a breakthrough, all-oral, safe medicine for treating the variant of sleeping sickness caused by Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense . Also known as human African trypanosomiasis, this neglected parasitic disease transmitted by the bite of the tse tse fly causes severe neuropsychiatric disorders. In contrast to T. brucei gambiense , for which humans are considered the primary reservoir, T. brucei rhodesiense is highly zoonotic, with animals and livestock considered the primary reservoir. It is endemic in eastern and southern Africa, evolves quickly, and can kill in weeks to months if left untreated.

For decades, doctors in endemic countries had to treat sleeping sickness by using melarsoprol, an arsenic derivative so toxic that it killed 5% of patients. Our organization started developing a series of improved drugs, and in 2018 registered fexinidazole, a safe and effective first all-oral drug for the variant of the disease caused by T. brucei gambiense . But for patients with the variant caused by T. brucei rhodesiense , doctors still have to use the dreaded melarsoprol for advanced cases. This clinical trial is assessing the efficacy of fexinidazole for sleeping sickness caused by T. brucei rhodesiense , in comparison with the efficacy of the existing drugs melarsoprol and suramin. Full results will be presented to the European Medicines Agency in 2023, and we expect to get a favorable opinion.

Olaf Valverde is the clinical project leader of the human African trypanosomiasis team of the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative .

Circulating tumor cells

Nicola Aceto: My lab is interested in metastasis. More than 90% of people with cancer die when metastasis happens. It is a big unsolved problem. We recently found that metastasis is driven mostly by clusters of circulating tumor cells (CTCs), which are multicellular aggregates of tumor cells that depart from the existing tumor , circulate in the bloodstream , and then metastasize. This finding challenged the prevailing dogma in the metastasis field, as until a few years ago, people thought metastasis happened one cell at a time. Thanks to new technologies, we could finally investigate blood samples from patients and in animal models, which allowed us to identify CTC clusters.

We have also found that there are drugs, such as digoxin, that have the ability to dissociate these cells and dissolve the clusters, which shuts down metastasis in preclinical models. We have now set up a small phase 1 trial as a proof of mechanism. We screen the blood of patients with advanced metastatic breast cancer, and when we find CTC clusters, we give the patients the drug for 3 weeks, during which time we measure the abundance and features of the clusters. Digoxin is a well-known drug used to treat heart conditions, but it has this beautiful side effect. Should the trial be successful, we envision the generation of improved cluster-dissociating molecules, able to achieve full cluster dissolution and specifically designed to treat cancer. This is the next ambitious goal: enabling a novel cancer-treatment modality that is aimed at blocking the spread of cancer.

Nicola Aceto is an associate professor of molecular oncology at ETH Zurich .

Lecanemab for Alzheimer’s disease

Allan Levey: In 2023, I expect to see more peer-reviewed publications and data on lecanemab, an investigational monoclonal antibody to amyloid-β protofibrils, for the treatment of mild cognitive impairment with Alzheimer’s disease. The developer, Eisai, announced positive topline results from their large global phase 3 confirmatory Clarity AD clinical trial of lecanemab in late September. We saw extensive data on lecanemab at the Clinical Trials on Alzheimer’s Congress in late November and early December 2022 and a landmark publication in the New England Journal of Medicine was published on 29 November 2022.

Much data have been made available for scrutiny and independent, secondary analyses with the publication. Eisai is expected to file an application with the FDA for traditional approval in the USA and marketing-authorization applications in Japan and Europe by the end of March 2023. This is a pivotal phase 3 trial that most experts consider a huge game-changer for this field. In Alzheimer’s disease, there are no disease-modifying treatments that are clearly proven (aducanumab has been approved, despite uncertain clinical efficacy). Until recently, evidence for disease modification has been lacking, despite an industry-wide focus on amyloid-based therapies for many years.

With this new lecanemab study, the results of the phase 3 study show a significant reduction in clinical progression, confirming the results of an earlier phase 2 study. All primary and secondary endpoints, including dementia severity, cognition and functional abilities, were met. The second issue is that safety has been a huge concern with previous treatments given accelerated approval. The results for lecanemab indicate that its safety is much better, although there were adverse events. These are the reasons it is a game changer. Additional important insights will be gleaned about the magnitude and duration of benefits, and a more palatable and scalable form of subcutaneous dosing when more data and analysis are published in 2023.

Allan Levey is a professor and chair of the Department of Neurology at Emory University’s School of Medicine, and director of the Emory University Goizueta Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center .

COVID-19 vaccination and HIV

Glenda Gray: In December 2021, we began a trial to enroll almost 14,500 participants in more than 50 research clinics in eight sub-Saharan African countries. The Ubuntu multicenter phase 3 clinical trial will assess the efficacy of the mRNA-1273 (Moderna) vaccine against COVID-19 in adults infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) or with other comorbidities that increase the risk of severe COVID-19. This trial will include a smaller number of HIV-negative people.

There is an urgent need to characterize infection and viral clearance in people who are immunocompromised, which will be assessed in our study . The results, which we expect in 2023, should indicate how many doses of vaccine are needed for adults living with HIV, as well as in adults with other health conditions that may put them at risk for severe COVID-19. We are also expecting data on whether people who have been infected with the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, and therefore probably have some immunity, need as many vaccine doses as those without prior infection. We also want to know if the original Moderna vaccine is inferior to the new bivalent one, which includes the spike protein from a SARS-CoV-2 variant of concern. This direct comparison of mRNA-1273 against the bivalent vaccine should give us insight into the utility of variant-specific vaccines. We hope that when these results are published next year, they will help to refine an optimal vaccine strategy and the best regimen for HIV-infected people.

Glenda Gray is president and CEO of the South Africa Medical Research Council .

Gene editing for sickle-cell disease

Luigi Naldini: We are all waiting for the first long-term data from gene-editing strategies in sickle-cell disease and thalassemia. There have been preliminary reports of efficient editing . The key question is whether these gene grafts remain stable. We have seen very safe stable long-term grafts of stem cells treated with lentiviral vectors, and prolonged safety, but will this be the same for gene-editing tools?

We may soon be seeing the interim results in 2023 of a multi-center sickle-cell disease trial of gene editing sponsored by CRISPR Therapeutics and Vertex Pharmaceuticals. This is a single-arm, open-label, multi-site, single-dose phase 1/2/3 study in people with severe sickle-cell disease. The study is evaluating the safety and efficacy of autologous CRISPR–Cas9-modified CD34 + human hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells. Participants receive a single infusion of these cells through a central venous catheter. The top outcome of interest would be participants who have not experienced any severe vaso-occlusive crisis for at least 12 consecutive months. It will be crucial to verify the long-term stability and polyclonal composition of the graft without the emergence of adverse events. Beyond this, what we are looking forward to seeing is the first clinical testing of what we call ‘writing back’ genes; that is, correcting genetic mutations by introducing editing of longer sequences, which has not been clinically achieved yet. We and others are actively working closely on that.

Luigi Naldini is a professor of cell and tissue biology and of gene and cell therapy at the San Raffaele University School of Medicine, and scientific director of the San Raffaele Telethon Institute for Gene Therapy, Milan, Italy .

Reducing harm from prostate cancer screening

Anssi Auvinen: The evidence surrounding testing for the marker PSA (prostate-specific antigen) is full of conflict, as the test may detect prostate cancer but at the expense of treating cancers with little threat to health. We aim to detect only clinically relevant, aggressive prostate cancer while minimizing the diagnosis of clinically unimportant, low-risk cancers that would constitute over-diagnosis (meaning that they would not progress even if left undetected and untreated). A previous trial showed benefits that were comparable to those of other cancer screening programs, but we wanted to put more effort into harnessing recent developments to reduce harm, including over-diagnosis and unnecessary biopsies.

Anssi Auvinen is a professor of health sciences at Tampere University, Finland .

Change history

27 february 2023.

A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-023-02262-2

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Freelance writer, Richmond, VA, USA

Carrie Arnold

Freelance writer, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Paul Webster

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Paul Webster .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article.

Arnold, C., Webster, P. 11 clinical trials that will shape medicine in 2023. Nat Med 28 , 2444–2448 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-022-02132-3

Download citation

Published : 23 December 2022

Issue Date : December 2022

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-022-02132-3

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

Quick links

• Explore articles by subject
• Guide to authors
• Editorial policies

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

New ocean acidification maps of U.S. waters

• August 21, 2024
• Download Cover Image

Online dashboard makes it easy to see how chemical changes differ in various locations

Researchers from NOAA have produced a new online dashboard on the National Marine Ecosystem Status website that shows how ocean acidification is impacting eleven different marine ecosystems in the U.S.

These graphs, charts and mapped products, which were also described in a recent paper for Nature Scientific Data , provide a resource to fisheries and natural resource managers and deliver simple snapshots of ecosystem status with respect to ocean acidification.

“The dashboard provides regional context for anyone who wants to know how ocean acidification is progressing in U.S. coastal ecosystems,” said Dr. Jon Sharp, who led the work at the University of Washington Cooperative Institute for Climate Ocean and Ecosystem Studies and NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory.

Ocean acidification occurs because our ocean is absorbing an increased amount of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) from the atmosphere.

Since the Industrial Revolution, the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide has increased by almost 50 percent due to human activities like the burning of fossil fuels and land use change. The ocean absorbs about 25 percent of the CO 2 released to the atmosphere causing a fundamental change in the chemistry of the ocean. While the ocean isn’t acidic, the chemical change is increasing the ocean’s acidity enough to impact some marine life and the people who depend on healthy ecosystems.

Ocean acidification can make it difficult for creatures such as oysters and clams to build and maintain shells, made up of calcium carbonate. Acidification also affects other species vital to the marine ecosystem, including reef-building corals and some plankton eaten by fish and whales. The new ocean acidification dashboard shows trends in calcium carbonate saturation state, a measure of the concentration of these mineral building blocks for shells and skeletons.

The new ocean acidification dashboard uses data products created from surface ocean CO 2 observations, gridded observational data products, two machine learning techniques and algorithms trained on a global ocean database of carbonate chemistry measurements. The end result is a suite of maps and graphs that show trends in acidification over time and space for marine ecosystems in U.S. waters.

“There’s a clear overall trend – our coastal waters are increasing in acidity, although there’s some regional variability,” said Sharp. “Areas closer to shore and high-latitude regions are more variable. Low-latitude regions with lots of open ocean, like the Hawai’i-Pacific Islands Region, show more steady changes over time.”

The indicators include pH, CO 2 partial pressure that tells us how much carbon dioxide is in the water, and calcium carbonate saturation states for monthly timesteps from 1998-2022. The sourced data were from the Surface Ocean CO2 Atlas (SOCAT) , and funding for this project was provided by NOAA’s Ocean Acidification Program . Learn more about what we measure for ocean acidification including the variables used as indicators for this public tool.

Media contact: Alison Gillespie, [email protected], (202) 713-6644

Announcing Dr. Sarah Cooley as OAP’s Director

Biden-Harris Administration, NOAA issue National Heat Strategy, provide $200K for extreme heat preparedness

Why is the North Pacific warming so fast?

NOAA, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency agree to share ocean exploration data

Popup call to action.

A prompt with more information on your call to action.