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Nurses can deliver hospital care just as well as doctors, review finds

Nurses can safely deliver many services traditionally performed by doctors, with little to no difference in deaths, safety events, or how patients felt about their health, according to a new review, appearing in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. In some cases, nurse-led care even outperformed doctor-led care.

Health care services are facing pressure due to an aging population, complex health needs, long waiting lists, and doctor shortages. Receiving care from nurses, rather than doctors, has been proposed as one way to improve access to hospital services for patients who may otherwise face long waits.

A group of researchers from Ireland, United Kingdom, and Australia evaluated nurse-doctor substitution in inpatient units and outpatient clinics, analyzing 82 randomized studies involving over 28,000 patients across 20 countries.

Studies included advanced nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists and registered nurses substituting for junior or senior doctors across specialties such as cardiology, diabetes, cancer, obstetrics/gynecology, and rheumatology.

Nurse-led hospital care matches doctor-led care for safety and effectiveness

The review found little to no difference between nurse-led and doctor-led care for critical outcomes, including mortality, quality of life, self-efficacy, and patient safety events.

While most clinical outcomes showed no difference between groups, nurses may achieve better outcomes in some areas, including diabetes control, cancer follow-up, and dermatology. Doctor-led care performed slightly better in a small number of sexual health and medical abortion follow-up services.

“Our findings show that nurse-led services provide care that is just as safe and effective as doctor-led services for many patients,” said lead author Professor Michelle Butler from Dublin City University. “In some areas, patients actually experienced better outcomes when nurses led their care.”

The models of substitution varied widely, with different grades of nurses operating autonomously, under supervision, or following specialized protocols. There were also differences in training, level of responsibility, and mode of substitution, all of which may influence outcomes.

Butler added, “In some cases, patients had earlier, more frequent, or on-demand appointments with nurses, or had an additional educational component to their care, which may have helped to improve their outcomes.”

Evidence on direct costs was limited and varied across studies, partly due to differences in reporting methods, currencies and time periods. Seventeen studies reported reduced costs for nurse-led care, while nine suggested higher costs due to longer consultations, referrals, or prescription differences.

Not a one-size-fits-all solution

However, nurse-doctor substitution is not a one-size-fits-all approach. The authors caution that these interventions should always be interpreted within context.

“Nurse substitution isn’t simply a one-for-one replacement,” said Timothy Schultz, senior author and researcher from Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute.

“To work well, these services need the right training, support and models of care, but the evidence shows patients are not disadvantaged and can benefit in meaningful ways.”

Expanding nurse-led services may help address doctor shortages, but the authors urge that policymakers should consider the impact of these interventions on the nursing workforce, including training and organization.

While the evidence base was substantial, the authors note important gaps. Most studies were from high-income countries, with the majority (39%) conducted in the United Kingdom.

The authors call for more studies across specialties, nurse roles and patient types not yet evaluated, as well as stronger consistency in how outcomes are measured. They also highlight the need for more research in low- and middle-income countries, where nurse-led roles could potentially improve access to care in regions facing doctor shortages.

News Staff by — February 12, 2026 By News Staff in Global News
Study finds PM2.5-linked cardiovascular deaths fell 45% since 2001, disparities persist

Clean air laws have led to a significant reduction in long-term exposure to fine particulate air pollution across much of the United States over the past two decades, yet tens of thousands of Americans still die each year from cardiovascular disease linked to polluted air. A new study led by researchers at the Yale School of Public Health (YSPH) shows that air pollution-related cardiovascular deaths are increasingly concentrated among traditionally underserved communities and driven by specific chemical components rather than overall pollution levels.

The authors say their work offers insights for more precise and equitable air pollution control strategies that target not only how much pollution is in the air, but what it’s made of and who is most affected.

The research, published in the journal Science Advances, finds that cardiovascular deaths attributable to fine particulate matter, known as PM2.5, fell nearly 45% between 2001 and 2020. But the decline has been uneven across regions and racial and ethnic groups, and progress has stalled in recent years, the authors say. Crucially, the study shows that a handful of PM2.5 components account for most of the current health burden.

“Air quality regulations have worked, but they’ve worked unevenly,” said Dr. Kai Chen, Ph.D., associate professor of environmental health sciences at YSPH and the study’s senior author. “Our study shows that even at relatively low levels of overall PM2.5, specific components continue to drive cardiovascular mortality.”

PM2.5 is a complex mixture of fine particles produced by sources such as power plants, vehicles, agriculture, wildfires, and dust. While air quality standards focus on total PM2.5 concentrations, the Yale team analyzed six major components—sulfate, ammonium, black carbon, organic matter, nitrate, and soil dust—to determine which ones were most strongly associated with cardiovascular deaths across more than 3,100 U.S. counties.

Using two decades of nationwide mortality and pollution data, the researchers estimated that PM2.5 contributed to about 42,000 cardiovascular deaths in 2001, declining to roughly 23,500 deaths by 2020. Much of that improvement was driven by reductions in sulfate and ammonium, particles closely linked to coal-fired power plants and agricultural emissions.

“Sulfate and ammonium accounted for nearly three-quarters of the decline in PM2.5-attributable cardiovascular deaths over the study period,” said Dr. Ying Hu, Ph.D., the study’s lead author and a postdoctoral researcher in environmental health sciences at YSPH. “But as those components declined, others, such as black carbon, became increasingly important contributors.”

By 2020, black carbon, a component of soot produced by traffic, diesel engines, and burning, had emerged as the largest contributor to PM2.5-related cardiovascular mortality nationwide, according to the study.

Racial disparities widen

The study also identified persistent and widening racial and ethnic disparities. Although PM2.5-related cardiovascular death rates declined for all groups, non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic populations experienced slower improvements than non-Hispanic white populations. Differences in population growth also contributed to this trend. Non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic populations grew faster than the non-Hispanic White population, which further widened disparities in PM2.5-related deaths.

The researchers also examined how the contribution of individual PM2.5 components to cardiovascular deaths differed across racial and ethnic groups. Compared with non-Hispanic whites, non-Hispanic Blacks were disproportionately affected by black carbon and sulfate, while Hispanic populations faced higher burdens from black carbon, dust, and organic aerosols, which are compounds released into the air by wildfires, fossil fuel consumption, soil disturbance, and other activities.

“These disparities reflect decades of structural and environmental inequities,” Dr. Chen said. “Communities of color are more likely to live near highways, industrial facilities, and other pollution sources, resulting in disproportionately higher exposure to air pollution. What’s more, they also experience systemic disparities in health care access and endure higher baseline cardiovascular risk factors, contributing to the higher burden of PM2.5-related cardiovascular deaths.”

The researchers hope their findings lead to more targeted air pollution control policies that focus on the impact of individual chemical components rather than overall pollution levels, especially as gains in U.S. air quality have slowed in recent years.

“If we want to keep reducing cardiovascular deaths and close racial and regional gaps, we need targeted strategies,” Dr. Chen said. “That means addressing PM2.5 components such as sulfate and black carbon from fossil fuel combustion and ammonium from agricultural emissions—not just lowering the average PM2.5 concentration.”

News Staff by — February 12, 2026 By News Staff in Global News
Drones can offer a faster, more precise way to measure blackberry flowering

For blackberry breeders, white and pink flowers on blackberry plants are more than something to admire; they are a key early measure of the season’s productivity.

However, getting an idea of how many flowers are on the plants can be time-consuming and subjective, which results in data inconsistencies. What if a drone could do it with a camera?

That’s the question agricultural engineers at the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station are trying to answer in collaboration with the Department of Horticulture. So far, they have proven the concept.

Cengiz Koparan, assistant professor of precision agriculture technology, worked with Akwasi Tagoe, a graduate student in the Department of Agricultural Education, Communications and Technology, to develop a system for measuring flower density using a camera-equipped drone. They call the measurement the flower-to-vegetation ratio, or FVR for short, which was validated by comparing the results to human counts.

“Now we can quantify flower coverage and vegetation coverage with a standardized measurement,” said Koparan, who works in the departments of Agricultural Education, Communications and Technology and Biological and Agricultural Engineering. “We also now know the flowers produced per given vegetation for a specific variety. It gives us a little bit more insight about the phenotype.”

A phenotype refers to the set of characteristics of a plant variety observed under specific environmental conditions.

Although the task may appear simple on the surface, there are multiple layers of complexity woven into the project of decoding natural phenomena with digital tools. Overcoming that complexity required rethinking how drone imagery could be processed and interpreted.

“We sought to turn drone imagery into actionable data for growers and breeders,” Tagoe said. “By quantifying flowers and canopy growth using open-source software, and subsequently computer vision, we look forward to moving from manual counting to scalable, real-time decision support that improves yield prediction and agricultural systems management.”

Flower Power

While it was known that flower density and vegetation coverage are important indicators individually for identifying plant characteristics, including yield potential, Koparan said the combined FVR measurement was developed out of necessity based on how flying drones “see” the varying landscape.

“Our goal is to produce a drone navigation planning system that will allow farmers to just push a button, and the drone will do the rest,” Koparan said.

The same concept is being applied in Koparan’s lab to instantaneous mapping of soybean crop injury, plant vigor and biomass estimation of corn, weedy rice detection and mapping for robotic weedy rice management.

An Eye in the Sky

In their proof-of-concept study, it was found that the images could be used to estimate floral initiation and timing, which offered insights for planning crosses and potentially forecasting harvest periods for growers.

Koparan and his collaborators published the results of their proof-of-concept use of drones to quantify blackberry flower coverage in the journal AgriEngineering in November 2024. The American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineering also published their work as a conference paper for the 2025 ASABE Annual International Meeting in July 2025. Koparan noted that additional results, including work on yield prediction, are in the works.

A co-author of the studies was Margaret Worthington, director of the Arkansas Fruit Breeding Program for the experiment station and an associate professor of fruit breeding and genetics for the Department of Horticulture.

Other co-authors included Alexander Silva Cordoba, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Horticulture; Aurelie Poncet, formerly an assistant professor in the Department of Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences; Dongyi Wang, an assistant professor in the departments of Biological and Agricultural Engineering and Food Science; and Donald Johnson, a University Professor in the Department of Agricultural Education, Communications and Technology.

The departments of Agricultural Education, Communications and Technology; Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences; Food Science; and Horticulture are in the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences at the U of A. The Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering is in the College of Engineering.

Ground Truthing

The next step in this research for Tagoe is looking at the relationship between yield data and the flower counts per research plot. If the correlation between yield and flower count is high, Worthington said she could use the data to better select the best genotype to enter replicated yield trials and increase the chances of finding a “winning cultivar.”

“I’m excited to see how this method correlates to our yield data, and I hope that we would eventually be able to predict yield potential on hundreds of selections based on an index of flower number and berry size,” Worthington said.

News Staff by — February 12, 2026 By News Staff in Biotechnology Today
DNA-binding proteins from volcanic lakes could improve disease diagnosis

Scientists have uncovered new DNA-binding proteins from some of the most extreme environments on Earth and shown that they can improve rapid medical tests for infectious diseases. The work has been published in Nucleic Acids Research. The international research team, led by Durham University and working with partners in Iceland, Norway and Poland, analyzed genetic material from Icelandic volcanic lakes and deep-sea vents more than two kilometers below the surface of the North Atlantic Ocean.

Nature is the world’s largest source of useful enzymes, but many remain undiscovered. By using next-generation DNA sequencing, the researchers were able to search huge databases containing millions of potential proteins.

This approach allowed them to identify previously unknown proteins that bind to single-stranded DNA and remain stable under harsh conditions such as high temperatures, extreme pH or high salt levels.

The newly discovered proteins were carefully studied using a range of laboratory techniques. The team showed that they are unusually robust, with the high thermal stability needed for use in biotechnology and medicine.

The scientists also determined their three-dimensional structures at high resolution, providing detailed insight into how the proteins work and allowing future optimization through protein design.

Boosting rapid tests for infections

One of the new DNA-binding proteins was shown to improve diagnostic tests based on loop-mediated isothermal amplification, known as LAMP. These tests can detect genetic material from viruses, bacteria or parasites without the need for complex laboratory equipment.

The added protein made the tests faster and more sensitive, improving the detection of RNA from viruses such as SARS-CoV-2, as well as DNA from other infectious agents.

The findings highlight the value of exploring extreme environments for new biological tools.

Broader impact for biotech and AI

Lead investigator of the study, Professor Ehmke Pohl of Durham University, said, “This work highlights the enormous potential of bioprospecting from extreme habitats. The results are not only important for the bioeconomy, but they also provide the basis for all Artificial Intelligence (AI) methods in protein structure prediction and protein design.”

Biotechnology companies are constantly searching for enzymes that can work reliably under demanding conditions, and proteins from hot springs or deep oceans are well suited to this role.

The results will also support wider efforts in protein prediction and design, including the development of artificial intelligence methods that rely on diverse real-world examples.

Next steps and commercial prospects

The team is now continuing the search for further DNA-binding proteins, with new candidates already identified and under investigation. Improved versions of these proteins are being designed, and new LAMP tests are being developed for neglected tropical diseases such as leishmaniasis and Chagas disease, in collaboration with researchers in Durham University’s Biosciences Department.

Work is also under way with the Norwegian biotechnology company ArcticZymes to explore commercial applications.

News Staff by — February 12, 2026 By News Staff in Biotechnology Today
In Vivo Is Having a Moment as Cell and Gene Therapy Sector Gathers in San Diego

A recurring theme Tuesday morning at Phacilitate’s Advanced Therapies Week was the quickly emerging potential of in vivo approaches to cell and gene therapy—a trend also reflected in recent investments by Eli Lilly and Regeneron.

In vivo cell and gene therapy is en vogue at Phacilitate’s Advanced Therapies Week in San Diego this week, a theme that reflects a recent rush of activity in the space, including Eli Lilly’s $2.4 billion acquisition of Orna Therapeutics on Monday.

“In vivo is the new allogeneic,” Susan Nichols, CEO of Propel Bio, a commercialization acceleration partner, said during Tuesday’s kickoff session, which convened Phacilitate’s advisory board to discuss 2025: What Worked. What Didn’t. What Comes Next?

While ex vivo cell therapy involves extracting patient cells, modifying or engineering them outside the body and then reinfusing them into the patient, in vivo approaches deliver the therapeutic payload directly into the patient’s body, bypassing this step.

In vivo cell and gene therapies have “huge promise [and] heavy investment,” Nichols continued, though she added that human data is limited for now. “As one advisor put it, in vivo approaches are full of promise, but the investment momentum is outpacing the clinical data.”

While in vivo cell and gene therapy (CGT) approaches might be early-stage, Big Pharma—including obesity darling Eli Lilly—is buying in. In the past, issues around accessibility had limited Lilly’s interest in the modality.

“The data is amazing,” Lilly CEO David Ricks told Reuters in 2019, “but practically, it’s not reaching many people.”

Lilly appears to believe that Orna’s technology, which uses circular RNA paired with novel lipid nanoparticles to enable a patient’s own body to generate cell therapies, can solve this challenge.

“We look forward to working with Orna colleagues to potentially unlock an entirely new class of genetic medicines and cell therapies for patients who today have limited or no treatment options,” Francisco Ramírez-Valle, head of Immunology Research and Early Clinical Development at Lilly, said in a statement.

Negating the Need for Chemotherapy

Victoria Gray, a patient advocate who was the first person with sickle cell disease (SCD) to be treated with Vertex Pharmaceuticals’ and CRISPR Therapeutics’ CRISPR-based gene editing treatment Casgevy, told BioSpace that in vivo gene therapy could be available to more people because it negates the need for immunosuppressive chemotherapy.

“I would love to see the science advance for patients like myself” who are currently required to undergo a conditioning regimen with a chemotherapeutic agent, Gray said during a patient advocacy session at Advanced Therapies Week on Tuesday. That agent, busulfan, is used to destroy the defective blood stem cells in the bone marrow to make way for the edited cells. Both Casgevy and Genetix Bio’s (formerly bluebird bio) Lyfgenia come with this caveat. “That was the hardest part for me,” Gray said.

Kristen Hege, former senior vice president of Early Clinical Development, Hematology/Oncology & Cell Therapy at Bristol Myers Squibb, emphasized the long-term impact of lymphodepletion treatment.

“When we think about in vivo gene therapy, I think a lot of people talk about patient access, cost of goods, but there’s more than that,” she said during a session titled: We’ve solved for science. What now? The chemotherapy that’s required before the infusion of ex vivo CAR T cells can cause immune suppression that can last for weeks, she continued. This can “increase the risk of infection, and we don’t really talk about it, but [can also] cause leukemia. Eliminating the need for lymphodepleting chemotherapy, if it pans out with in vivo, could be another real advantage.”

Indeed, the approach is catching on. In addition to Lilly, Regeneron also recently bought into the in vivo approach, linking up with Cambridge, Mass.–based Tessera Therapeutics late last year. The partnership is aimed at advancing the in vivo editor TSRA-196 for alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency (AATD). Tessera is also developing a gene writer for SCD, Cell & Gene.com reported in January 2025, aiming to directly correct the mutation that causes cells to sickle through a one-time IV treatment.

But the potential advantages don’t stop with access and tolerability, according to Hege.

“Regulations are often built around what you can measure, and if you can measure it, then you’re required to measure it. Or if you can control it, then you’re required to control it,” she said. “I think that’s been one of the challenges for ex vivo manufacturing, because there’s a lot of things that you can measure and control.”

With in vivo approaches, Hege continued, “What happens in the patient is beyond your control, and therefore you’re not held to a standard” in terms of pharmacodynamic, phenotypic and gene expression endpoints as part of the product characterization.

“Belief is currently leading data, not following it,” Nichols said of in vivo treatments during her presentation.

Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical has long stood behind in vivo gene therapy. The rare disease–focused biotech presented new data last week from two trials of its novel in vivo AAV9 gene therapy UX111 at the WORLDSymposium 2026. The candidate, in development for Sanfilippo A syndrome, sustained cognitive improvements over up to eight years of follow-up, according to Ultragenyx’s Feb. 3 press release.

UX111 was rejected by the FDA in July 2025, but clinical data was not the issue. Rather, the agency wanted to see “improvements” in “certain aspects” of the therapy’s chemistry, manufacturing and controls,” Ultragenyx said in its announcement of the complete response letter.

“Regulation is no longer the gating issue,” Nichols concluded.

News Staff by — February 12, 2026 By News Staff in Bio Space
FDA Refuses To Review Moderna’s mRNA Flu Vaccine, Claims Trial Inadequacies

After receiving a letter directly from CBER Director Vinay Prasad, Moderna said the FDA had previously signed off on the use of a licensed flu vaccine as a comparator for a Phase 3 study of mRNA-1010.

The FDA has declined to even consider Moderna’s application for the investigational mRNA flu vaccine mRNA-1010, a move that comes amid controversial immunization policies from the Trump administration.

The refusal-to-file letter (RTF) was signed by Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) Director Vinay Prasad himself, who has been vocal about tightening regulations on vaccines. In the RTF, the regulator claimed that Moderna failed to support mRNA-1010’s application with an “adequate and well-controlled” trial, according to the company’s Tuesday news release. Specifically, Moderna’s comparator group “does not reflect the best-available standard of care,” Prasad said in the letter, which Moderna published in full on its website.

In a statement on Monday, CEO Stéphane Bancel hit back at the FDA’s decision to refuse a review: “This decision by CBER, which did not identify any safety or efficacy concerns with our product, does not further our shared goal of enhancing America’s leadership in developing innovative medicines.”

William Blair analysts said the rebuff represents a major blow to the already struggling vaccine maker’s financial goals. “The RTF letter for mRNA-1010 represents a big hit to the company’s vaccine franchise and its prospect of achieving its breakeven guidance in 2028,” the analysts wrote in a Wednesday morning note.

Moderna’s shares were down 10% $37.76 in premarket trading Wednesday morning.

And it’s not just mRNA-1010 that could be affected by the FDA’s decision, with analysts at Jefferies noting that the RTF could impact the timing of a potential U.S. refiling of mRNA-1083, Moderna’s combination shot for COVID-19 and flu.

In May 2025, the company pulled its approval application for mRNA-1083 and decided to wait for data from mRNA-1010 before resubmitting. The company, Jefferies said on Tuesday, was “planning to seek [additional] FDA guidance” after the mRNA-1010 submission. But after the RTF, the path forward could change, Jefferies speculated in a note to investors.

William Blair agreed. “We will know more after the Type A meeting minutes are issued, but this is a substantial hit to the probability of success for mRNA-1010, and in turn mRNA-1083’s (combo flu/COVID vaccine) U.S. approvability, in our view.”

Moderna backed its application for mRNA-1010 with several late-stage studies, the company said last month. One of which, announced in June 2025, compared the investigational shot against a currently licensed, standard-dose seasonal flu vaccine. Data showed that Moderna’s candidate was 26.6% more effective than the comparator vaccine at preventing flu in adults 50 years and up.

The company pointed out in its news release that the FDA’s own regulation on the use of adequate and well-controlled studies, as well as guidance for flu vaccine development, do not “contain any reference to the use of a comparator reflecting the ‘best-available standard of care.’”

Moderna likewise argued that the refusal “is inconsistent with previous written communications” with CBER, which had found a standard-dose flu shot to be an “acceptable” comparator. “It should not be controversial to conduct a comprehensive review of a flu vaccine that uses an FDA-approved vaccine as a comparator in a study that was discussed and agreed on with CBER prior to starting,” Bancel said in his statement.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced in May 2025 that all new vaccines would require placebo-controlled trials, a move that experts widely questioned. “HHS’s judgment appears questionable and risky, in our view,” Leerink Partners wrote at the time, adding that “placebo-controlled trials are unnecessary and unethical for many populations.”

In a statement to STAT News, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services said that “the FDA generally does not comment on regulatory communications to individual sponsors.”

Tuesday’s rebuff to Moderna compounds the already-mounting worries that vaccine developers face in the U.S., fueled largely by controversial policies under the Trump administration. In addition to the new placebo requirement, Prasad suggested the agency would enact stricter regulations for COVID-19 vaccines, after falsely claiming that at least 10 children had died from the shots.

Over at the CDC, recommendations for vaccine use have also been shifting. Last month, the agency unilaterally scrapped the recommendation that children be immunized against flu and five other diseases. In December 2025, the CDC also pushed back infant hepatitis B vaccination from being given at birth to two months of age.

As a result of these policy headwinds, Moderna announced late last month that it will no longer invest in Phase 3 vaccine studies—though it remains unclear if this directive will only affect its infectious disease programs or will apply broadly to its entire vaccine portfolio.

“You cannot make a return on investment if you don’t have access to the U.S. market,” Bancel told Bloomberg at the time.

News Staff by — February 12, 2026 By News Staff in Bio Space
Robotic medical crash cart eases workload for health care teams

Health care workers have an intense workload and often experience mental distress during resuscitation and other critical care procedures. Although researchers have studied whether robots can support human teams in other high-stakes, high-risk settings such as disaster response and military operations, the role of robots in emergency medicine has not been explored.

Enter Angelique Taylor, the Andrew H. and Ann R. Tisch Assistant Professor at Cornell Tech and the Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science. She is also an assistant professor in emergency medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine and director of the Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Lab (AIRLab) at Cornell Tech.

In a pair of articles published at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN) in August 2025, Taylor and her collaborators at Weill Cornell Medicine, associate professor Kevin Ching and assistant professor Jonathan St. George, described research on their new robotic crash cart (RCC)—a robotic version of the mobile drawer unit that holds supplies and equipment needed for a range of medical procedures.

“Health care workers may not know or may forget where all the various supplies are located in the cart drawers, and often they’re kind of shuffling through the cart,” Taylor said. This can cause delays during emergency procedures that require iterative tasks with precise timing, exacerbating medical errors and putting patients at risk, she noted.

To create the RCC, Taylor and her team outfitted a standard cart with LED light strips, a speaker, and a touchscreen tablet integrated with the Robot Operating System. This middleware connects computer programs to robot hardware, enabling them to work together to provide users with verbal and nonverbal cues.

During an emergency procedure, a user can request the location of a supply on the tablet. Then the lights around the drawer with that supply blink, or a spoken instruction plays through the speaker. Users can also receive prompts to remind them about necessary medications and recommend supplies.

In their article, “Help or Hindrance: Understanding the Impact of Robot Communication in Action Teams,” Taylor’s team conducted pilot studies of the RCC. One pilot involved 84 participants, aged 21 to 79, about half of whom had a clinical background. Working in groups of 3 to 4, they conducted a series of simulated resuscitation procedures with a manikin patient using three different carts: a RCC with blinking lights for object search and spoken task reminders, a RCC with blinking lights for task reminders and spoken language for object search, or a standard cart.

The team found that participants preferred the RCC that provided verbal and nonverbal cues over no cues with the standard cart—rating it lower in terms of workload and higher in usefulness and ease of use.

“These results were exciting and achieved statistical significance, suggesting that the use of a robot is beneficial,” said Taylor. The article, by Taylor, Ph.D. student Tauhid Tanjim, and colleagues at Weill Cornell, was a Kazuo-Tanie Paper Award finalist, an honor given to the top three papers in their category at the conference.

In the second article, “Human-Robot Teaming Field Deployments: A Comparison Between Verbal and Non-verbal Communication,” the research team began testing the RCC under more realistic conditions. Participants were health care workers from across the United States, and actors played frantic family members during the simulations.

Similar to the pilot studies, Taylor, along with colleagues at Cornell and Michigan State University, found that the RCC reduced participant workload, depending on whether the robot provided verbal or non-verbal cues. However, they evaluated robots with only one type of cue, not both, and identified room for improvement, particularly in the robot’s visual cues. They are now studying health care workers’ impressions of an RCC with multimodal communication.

Taylor hopes that other research teams will start exploring how robots can support health care teams in critical care settings. To that end, Taylor and her colleague presented an article at the February 2025 Association for Computing Machinery/IEEE International Conference that offers a toolkit for researchers to build their own RCC.

The papers are all published on the arXiv pre-print server.

News Staff by — February 11, 2026 By News Staff in Global News
Specific brain signals rapidly eliminate body fat in mice

Researchers at WashU Medicine have identified a potent pathway that begins in the brain and leads to loss of all body fat without reducing food intake. The study is reported in Nature Metabolism.

The team—led by senior author Erica L. Scheller, DDS, Ph.D., an associate professor in the Division of Bone and Mineral Diseases in the Department of Medicine; Xiao Zhang, Ph.D., a former graduate student in Scheller’s lab who is now a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine; and Sree Panicker, a graduate student in Scheller’s lab—was inspired by a unique population of fat cells located deep within the skeleton.

“About 70% of our bone marrow is filled with fat that doesn’t respond to diet or exercise,” said senior author Scheller. “We wanted to figure out why.”

The team found that these special cells, called constitutive bone marrow adipocytes, expressed high levels of proteins that inhibit fat breakdown. This causes resistance to fat loss in day-to-day settings. “We call these cells stable adipocytes,” said Zhang, the study’s first author. In mice, sustained injection of leptin, a hormone, into the brain was able to unlock the stable adipocytes by putting the body into a state of low glucose and insulin. This reduced the inhibitors of fat breakdown, causing complete loss of body fat within days, even though the mice were still eating normally.

This pathway is so powerful that scientists caution against using it in humans until it is better understood. Stable adipocytes occur in places like the bone marrow, in the hands and feet, and around important glands. In severe wasting disorders, loss of fat within these cells is associated with bone fractures and reduced quality of life.

Scheller’s team hopes to prevent this loss and preserve health in patients with severe wasting disorders by defining the mechanisms of stable fat loss. Conversely, methods to activate fat loss from stubborn adipocytes may support future treatments for obesity.

News Staff by — February 11, 2026 By News Staff in Global News
Modulated UV-C light increases the shelf life of guavas, study shows

The application of modulated UV-C light to guavas—emitted in pulses or cycles rather than continuously—combated anthracnose. This fungal disease is caused by microorganisms belonging to the Colletotrichum gloeosporioides complex and triggers dark lesions on the fruit after harvest, reducing its shelf life. An article on the technique was published in the journal Horticulturae.

The disease usually manifests on the skin but can reach the pulp through injuries caused by insects, improper handling, or mechanical damage during transport. These factors, combined with inefficient post-harvest practices, contribute to an estimated 20% to 40% loss of total guava production in developing countries.

In this type of food, pathogen control has predominantly been carried out through the use of synthetic chemical pesticides, particularly fungicides. This involves immersing or spraying the fruit in a fungicide solution immediately after harvest, followed by drying and refrigerated storage.

“The chemicals used in post-harvest treatment end up causing chemical contamination, which is very harmful to human health, especially children, and to the environment. So, in this study … our goal was not only to provide an effective method of controlling this disease post-harvest, but also to develop a clean and sustainable technology that would leave no residue and preserve the integrity of the food,” says Daniel Terao, an agronomist and researcher at the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (EMBRAPA) who participated in the study.

The new treatment developed by EMBRAPA consists of a cylindrical device with a mirror and three internal UV-C germicidal lamps. One lamp emits rays of light perpendicular to the surface of the structure, creating a cylinder of light. The second lamp is strategically positioned toward the mirror to reflect on the guava. The third lamp faces the fruit directly.

This mechanism ensures the food is illuminated by the maximum amount of radiation, which is absorbed on the surface and converted into heat. This inactivates microorganisms.

“This allows for more precise control of the product’s interaction with the light and reduces light energy losses, controlling the fungus that causes the disease and minimizing damage to the food’s epidermis. In this way, natural resistance mechanisms are enhanced, which means that the fruit itself is activated against the attack of microorganisms, preserving the quality of the food and increasing its shelf life,” Terao explains.

According to the researcher, the results of the study were very promising for treating guavas and other fruits, but they only occurred in a laboratory environment.

The next step is to validate the technology under real conditions at the producer’s facility and adapt the modulated UV-C light application equipment to the fruit processing line. This will allow the technique to be applied in practice.

News Staff by — February 11, 2026 By News Staff in Biotechnology Today
Silent witnesses: Pets offer a fur-ensic tale

New research confirms the potential for police forensic investigators to carefully consider the presence of pets at crime scenes as a credible new avenue for finding and investigating DNA leads to solve the case. The Long-running research by Flinders University and Victoria Police experts demonstrates how dogs and cats can be tested for indirect DNA transfer at crime scenes from people other than householders or pet owners.

Heidi Monkman, Ph.D. student from Flinders University’s College of Science and Engineering, with Dr. Roland van Oorschot from the Victoria Police Forensic Services Department and Luke Volgin from the Forensic Science South Australia, are breaking new ground with their research on animal-mediated human DNA transfer. Their recent studies reveal that household pets may play a surprising role in solving crimes.

“Dogs and cats are present in the majority of households worldwide and they routinely interact with multiple people and environments. Our findings show that dogs and cats can act as intermediaries in human DNA transfer, which has significant implications for casework where animals are present,” says Dr. Monkman, a co-author of several forensic DNA science articles on the topic.

The research discovered that even short contact between pets and people of interest, including potential offenders, leave detectable traces of human DNA on pets. It also found cats and dogs carry and spread human DNA as they move around a home or to other locations, transferring it from one surface to another.

“Awareness and use of this phenomenon could offer investigators important clues when piecing together evidence in serious criminal cases,” says Monkman.

The studies involved controlled interactions between dogs, cats and volunteers in order to monitor DNA transfer in various scenarios. They found that owners’ DNA present on their pets can be picked up by mock offenders, potentially linking them to crime scenes. The DNA also can be transferred to locations that the owners never touched, possibly linking them to crime scenes where they were not present.

In the most recent article, “Investigation of human DNA transfer during mock dog-napping,” published in Forensic Science International, researchers examined human DNA transfer dynamics in a mock “dog-napping” scenario.

Five dogs were placed into five separate cars by a recruited handler. The vehicles were neither owned by the handler nor familiar to the animals or their owners. The dogs remained in a car for 20 minutes and then returned home, where sampling took place one hour later.

Flinders University Senior Lecturer in Forensic Science Dr. Mariya Goray—a co-author of the journal articles—says while pets have often been overlooked in forensic casework, this research highlights their potential critical role in the dynamics of DNA transfer.

“These findings highlight the need for forensic investigators to carefully consider the presence of pets at crime scenes both as a possible new avenue for investigative leads, but also as a possible mechanism for indirect transfer and contamination,” says Dr. Goray.

In another journal article, “The role of cats in human DNA transfer” in Forensic Science International: Genetics, 20 different cats were tested; quantifiable DNA was detected in 16 or 80% of the samples taken.

The third paper, titled “Paws for a moment: Investigation of bi-directional transfer of human DNA during a short human-dog interaction and subsequent indirect transfer,” is published in Science & Justice.

“While little is known about collecting and analyzing human DNA to and from cats, we are exploring the potential for cats and dogs to be silent witnesses, to act as vectors of contamination and transfer at residential crime scenes,” says Monkman. “We know about 60% of households currently have a pet, and up to 90% a pet at some stage. They are the most common pet in most countries around the world.”

News Staff by — February 11, 2026 By News Staff in Biotechnology Today