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A lesser-known SARS-CoV-2 protein may offer clues to long COVID symptoms

Six years after the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, scientists are still uncovering surprising ways the virus can wreak havoc on the body. A new UCLA study published in Science Advances describes a previously unrecognized way the SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein—a structural protein less familiar than the spike protein that has dominated public attention and much vaccine research—can push the immune system into dangerous overdrive.

The nucleocapsid protein’s main job is to package and protect the virus’s genetic material. Like several other coronavirus proteins, it’s also known to suppress the body’s early antiviral defenses, helping the virus get a foothold.

Scientists led by virologist Melody Li set out to see whether SARS-CoV-2’s version of this immune-dampening protein worked the same way as those found in SARS and MERS, earlier coronaviruses known to cause severe disease.

“Coronaviruses are notorious for encoding proteins that antagonize the body’s natural antiviral defenses,” said Li, an associate professor of microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics and member of the UCLA Broad Stem Cell Research Center. “When SARS-CoV-2 first appeared, almost nothing was known about it, so we wanted to find out whether it was using the same playbook.”

A hidden protein with an outsized effect

The project led the researchers to a less-explored question: how the nucleocapsid protein behaves inside macrophages. These immune cells patrol tissues for signs of infection and release chemical signals called cytokines and chemokines to rally the body’s defenses.

What they found upended their original hypothesis. The nucleocapsid protein appeared to be a “double-edged sword,” Li said. While it still suppressed signals that trigger an early antiviral response, it also amplified inflammatory pathways in macrophages, which can fuel tissue-damaging immune responses.

“We set out looking for a protein that suppresses the immune response, and we found the opposite,” said Zhenlan Yao, co-first author of the study and a former postdoctoral researcher in Li’s lab, who will soon begin a research assistant professorship at Hong Kong University. “It was surprising, but it lines up with what we already know about COVID-19: The virus dampens the immune response early on, then overactivates it later—and that’s when a lot of the tissue damage happens.”

The researchers examined nucleocapsid proteins from several SARS-CoV-2 variants, as well as from SARS-CoV-1 and MERS-CoV, and found the pro-inflammatory effect was conserved across pathogenic coronaviruses—with the delta variant’s version proving by far the most inflammatory.

“It’s a bit like a thief trying to slip past a bank’s security system, but instead of staying quiet, it trips the alarm,” Li said. “We don’t think these viruses intend to do this—a virus’s whole goal is to spread, not to make its host severely sick. But this looks like an unintended side effect that, in the case of COVID, ends up fueling the disease.”

In the body, that immune “alarm” does not stay confined to macrophages. When these cells become overactivated, they release inflammatory signals that can affect nearby tissues, including the cells that line blood vessels.

Cracks in the body’s protective barriers

To investigate whether those effects could help explain COVID-19 complications involving the brain and heart, the team turned to two human cell-based models: a stem cell-derived model of the blood-brain barrier and a model of the coronary artery lining.

These barriers are made of endothelial cells, which line blood vessels and help control what passes from the bloodstream into surrounding tissues. In the brain, this barrier is especially tight, helping protect delicate neural tissue from pathogens, toxins and other harmful substances.

When the researchers exposed both models to fluid containing signals from macrophages producing the delta variant’s nucleocapsid protein, the heart barrier broke down significantly—a phenomenon known as vascular leakage.

Because the heart depends on tight, selective blood vessel linings to function normally, the finding points to a possible mechanism that could help explain the cardiac injury seen in severe cases of COVID-19.

Rethinking how severe COVID-19 is treated

The findings also suggest a path toward more targeted COVID-19 treatments.

Severe cases can be treated with broad anti-inflammatory drugs like corticosteroids, which dampen harmful inflammation but do not specifically target the viral mechanisms that may be driving it. A therapy or vaccine that targets the nucleocapsid protein, Li said, could potentially rein in hyperinflammation more precisely and, in doing so, help protect the blood vessel barriers that support brain and heart health.

And because macrophages play a similar double-edged role in many infections beyond COVID-19, she said, the same mechanism could turn out to matter well beyond this one virus.

“It’s critical to keep studying COVID-19 so that we can constantly improve patient care—not everyone responds well to vaccines, and people who are immunocompromised often have limited treatment options,” said Pablo Alvarez, co-first author of the study and a former graduate student in Li’s lab. “These studies can also help us prepare for future coronavirus outbreaks.”

News Staff by — August 06, 2026 By News Staff in Global News
Why do people’s pupils dilate when they’re surprised? Researchers explain

When people encounter new information that challenges their expectations, their pupils are likely to dilate. This physiological response is a sign that something is happening in the brain to help the person adapt to the new situation, according to a study led by Brown University researchers.

“Pupil dilation signals a spike in arousal, and our findings support the idea that these rapid fluctuations in arousal are doing something useful in the brain,” said study author Matt Nassar, an associate professor of neuroscience and of cognitive and psychological sciences at Brown. “They’re enabling us to deal with a world that often changes from one context to another context.”

Nassar is part of a research team at Brown’s Carney Institute for Brain Science that studied the function and purpose of spikes in physical alertness. Their findings, published in Nature Human Behaviour, show that the spikes are a signal of the brain’s transition into a new mode, instantly changing how the person perceives and learns from what is happening around them.

Tracking the brain’s reset signal

Surprising events elicit activity in the part of the brain known as the locus coeruleus, which is the primary source of norepinephrine, the chemical messenger that drives the body’s fight-or-flight stress response. This activity is correlated with a change in pupil diameter as well as with specific brain waves measured by electroencephalography (EEG). Despite many studies showing spikes in norepinephrine and other markers of arousal in response to surprising events, the function of these physical signals and how they might shape behavior has been unclear, Nassar said.

The team designed an experiment involving colored squares on a screen, during which participants repeatedly made predictions about what they were about to see. Participants were then shown a new set of squares, reported what they saw and made new predictions about what they would see next. During this time, the researchers collected physiological data, including changes in pupil diameter and EEG signals.

“We wanted to capture the phenomenon associated with two overarching ideas about how the arousal system affects behavior,” said study co-author Harrison Marble, who earned a bachelor’s degree in neuroscience from Brown in 2023 and is now a research assistant and manager in Nassar’s lab. “One of them is related to learning, and the other is related to perceptual bias.”

The experiment included 63 participants, resulting in 57 EEG datasets and 60 pupil measurement datasets.

When surprise clears expectations

The researchers found that surprising colors—those that didn’t match predictions—elicited pupil dilation and amplified certain brain waves. They also found that these measurements were related to reductions in bias and adjustments in learning: When images looked like what the participants thought they were going to see, participants were biased toward their expectations. Yet pupil and brain measurements showed that participants were also able to learn from unexpected results and adjust their subsequent predictions accordingly.

In surprising situations, the researchers found, the norepinephrine spike is almost like a refresh mechanism—it’s a sign the brain is adjusting to new information that changes expectations.

“The brain holds on to some mental context, and then when it recognizes that you’re in a new situation, you replace that context,” Nassar said. “Changes in pupil diameter, as well as specific EEG readings, are external markers showing that the brain is loading that new context. This both limits the effect that the previous context has on perception and also provides a clean slate, unencumbered by previous expectations, thereby allowing one to learn faster.”

News Staff by — August 06, 2026 By News Staff in Global News
Laser scanning may help prevent urban trees from falling

For the first time, a group of biologists and engineers from the University of São Paulo (USP) in Brazil applied LiDAR (light detection and ranging) technology to investigate the health of trees and optimize pruning with the aim of reducing the risk of trees falling. This laser-sensing technology creates a “point cloud,” a kind of 3D digital mold consisting of millions of coordinates that reproduces the plant’s exact architecture in a computer.

The researchers used this replica to apply a pruning algorithm based on “topological optimization.” The technique simulates wind strength in a tree model to identify regions of the plant with the greatest mechanical vulnerability (compliance). In this manner, the system calculates exactly which branches must be cut so the tree can redistribute stress and become stronger and more balanced. The group’s ultimate goal is to use LiDAR and other available techniques to create a pruning app that will make trees less susceptible to wind, thus reducing the risk of falling.

This problem is well known. In December 2025, winds exceeding 90 km/h (56 mph) swept through São Paulo and surrounding areas. The result: 1,327 reported incidents of fallen trees in the São Paulo Metropolitan Area, including incidents resulting in injuries. More than 2 million inhabitants were left without power.

“Improper pruning leaves trees vulnerable to wind, which can uproot or break trunks and branches, especially in isolated trees, at high speeds. The problem is exacerbated by wind tunnels, known as urban canyons. Gusts of wind, rain and temperature fluctuations during the rainy season increase the risk of trees falling, especially in the case of poorly managed or diseased trees,” summarizes Marcos Silveira Buckeridge, coordinator of the Laboratory of Ecological Plant Physiology (LAFIECO) in the Department of Botany at the University of São Paulo’s Institute of Biosciences (IB-USP) and co-author of a paper published in May in the journal Trees: Structure and Function.

The study began with an informal conversation between Buckeridge and Emílio Carlos Nelli Silva of the Department of Mechatronics and Mechanical Systems Engineering at USP’s Engineering School (POLI). “I asked if it’d be possible to develop a better pruning method by studying the balance of trees. He said we could develop a set of equations for that.” The pair also invited Marcelo Knörich Zuffo, from the Department of Electronic Systems Engineering at POLI-USP, who has extensive experience with LiDAR.

The first author of the article, Luís Otávio Trotti Martins Guedes de Souza, was supervised by Nelli Silva at POLI-USP.

The researchers scanned a rosewood tree (Tipuana tipu) located on USP’s Butantã campus. This tree is commonly used in urban landscaping. “The scanner is mounted on a tripod near the base of the tree, which must be well lit. Weather conditions must be favorable. After completing the scan at the first point, the scanner must be moved to another position near the tree, and this process is repeated until enough perspectives have been captured to generate a complete point cloud of the object,” Buckeridge explains.

A point cloud of 30 million points was formed to capture the tree’s shape. “Using this, Luís Otávio began developing the equations. The leaves were removed from the 3D images, leaving only the trunk. Then, we applied wind from various directions and observed the tree’s sensitivity.”

This exposure to wind is accurately modeled using finite element method (FEM) simulations, which help predict how trees respond to stresses such as wind and temperature.

The results show that pruning a branch creates topological asymmetry and makes the tree more vulnerable to wind. “This article is important because it’s a proof of concept, using mathematical equations to demonstrate that it’s possible to use LiDAR for this purpose.” The biologist states that mathematical modeling is well suited to predicting whether a tree might fall. “The problem is that scanning a single tree with the level of detail used in this paper takes 40 minutes.”

In this case, the scanned tree is located in a wind tunnel. There are neighboring trees on its sides, but none behind or in front of it. Therefore, it is directly exposed to the wind. “We found that it’s stronger on the sides where it has no contact with neighboring trees. A cluster of intertwined trees is more resistant than a single tree because the branches help dissipate the wind. We haven’t yet performed calculations on wind dissipation through the leaves, but we intend to.”

The pruning algorithm based on topological optimization recommends removing material (e.g., branches or parts of the tree) based on the stress distribution obtained through FEM. The team aims to minimize structural weaknesses by ensuring that no more than 20% of the tree’s total mass is removed during pruning. According to Nelli Silva, topological optimization prioritizes regions with greater mechanical flexibility, resulting in a balanced, resistant structure. In other words, pruning calculated by the algorithm improves the tree’s response to wind, especially in cases where the tree is unbalanced due to fallen branches or disease.

Buckeridge states that the methodology can be applied to eudicotyledonous angiosperms (the largest group of flowering plants on the planet, encompassing beans, soybeans, oranges and strawberries, as well as roses, ipes and sunflowers), which have a classic structure of branches and twigs. “I can’t extend this method to palm trees, for example,” he says. However, the author emphasizes that human labor in pruning remains essential. “We aren’t talking about replacing humans in pruning work, but rather providing a tool to facilitate it and, at the same time, make the tree more resilient.”

He mentions a project in São Paulo that is using the technique to scan all 650,000 street trees. “Perhaps it wouldn’t be possible to do it [on a large scale] as precisely as we did in this study, which assessed a single tree,” Buckeridge ponders. Nevertheless, he argues that the strategy would still be able to estimate the plant’s health.

For now, the LiDAR technique is being used only for tree monitoring and cataloging, not to guide pruning.

Roots, movement and water

The article does not include data on tree roots. However, approximately 30% of tree falls in the city of São Paulo are root-related. “That’s an important point that we address in another paper, which has already been submitted. In it, we compare trees in a parking lot, on the sidewalk and in a park. A former student of mine, Aline Cavalari, a professor at UNIFESP [Federal University of São Paulo], is leading these studies.”

He explains that the root data are obtained using ground-penetrating radar. “It’s a kind of wheel that we roll around the tree to ‘see’ the roots. In that study, published in Trees, we included an adjustment in the calculation to account for the exclusion of the roots. But that’s a challenge: we’ll have to include the roots.”

The biologist says the ideal solution would be to develop an app that considers most factors contributing to a tree’s risk of falling, such as the expansion and contraction of wood in response to temperature. “That property of wood isn’t yet factored into the models. But now, we’ve purchased several dendrometers—devices that measure expansion and contraction—which is also related to the presence of water, an important factor in the risk of a tree falling. When it rains all week, the tree’s weight increases dramatically, as does the probability of it falling, but we still can’t calculate that. It’s possible to factor water, weight and everything else into the equations. But processing all of that computationally will be quite a challenge. It’s a problem we’ll have to tackle.”

Other uses for LiDAR

The scientists have been conducting various experiments on trees on the USP campus. Trees with existing issues, such as being hollow inside, having dying roots or dying canopies, are more vulnerable, and the team is trying to map this vulnerability.

“On ‘the street of banks’ [Avenida Professor Luciano Gualberto], we’re examining each tree individually to assess its health and the danger it poses. We’ve already finished half. Now, we’re going to use LiDAR to map that inventory. We bought a small device with suction cups that attaches to the car. Traveling at 20 kilometers per hour (12 mph), we can map all the trees on the street. We can tell if they have holes in their trunks, for example. The accuracy is down to the centimeter,” Buckeridge says. He is assisted by mathematician Roberto Hirata in the image-recognition work.

Another experiment is being conducted on Avenida Professor Mello Moraes. There, the team—including postdoctoral researcher Fernanda Mendes de Rezende and undergraduate research student Jonatas da Silveira—found sibipiruna trees (Caesalpinia pluviosa) infected with Ganoderma, a fungus that typically grows on the underside of tree trunks.

“With the help of PD Instrumentos, we used a penetrometer to measure the wood’s resistance and determine if there are cavities in the trunk, as well as an ultrasound device to supplement the data. In this case, you tap the trunk with a small hammer, and the ultrasound device captures the returning echo.”

According to the researcher, the team found five infected trees with cavities and five unaffected trees. “Using these two techniques together already yields incredible results. Now, we’re going to use LiDAR to see the differences between them and study the best way to cross-reference the data. If we use LiDAR to examine the canopies and find visible evidence of the trees’ health—or lack thereof—we’ll be able to develop a diagnostic protocol that considers various possibilities. In other words, we’re using LiDAR in a variety of ways.”

Universal markers

There are researchers studying tree biochemistry to find markers that reveal susceptibility. One such researcher is Bruno Viana Navarro. “We’re starting to collect samples to analyze the trees biochemically, with the aim of discovering universal vulnerability markers—that is, markers that can be used across various species. I think it’s possible to find universal markers because there’s basic physiology that all trees share, even palm trees,” Buckeridge explains.

According to Buckeridge, one can seek answers by examining sugars, alcohols, secondary metabolites or even gene expression in the case of a search for genetic markers.

News Staff by — August 06, 2026 By News Staff in Biotechnology Today
Powerhouses for fake meat: Muscle protein can now be grown in chloroplasts of lettuce and tobacco plants

Livestock farming requires valuable land to grow fodder, uses vast amounts of freshwater and contributes to global warming through methane and nitrous oxide emissions. And, for many consumers it is important to prevent animal suffering. For these reasons, the global market for meat alternatives is currently worth €6.7 billion to €8.1 billion per year and is projected to grow 8.1% to 12.3% each year over the next decade.

One common method for producing fake meat is microbial engineering, in which genes coding for animal proteins are inserted into the genomes of bacteria or yeast for mass production in bioreactors. But now, scientists have developed a promising alternative as a proof of principle.

“Here we show that plants can be engineered to produce the animal protein myoglobin (Mb) in their chloroplasts, the energy factories for photosynthesis. This could provide a more sustainable way to produce an important ingredient for plant-based meat products,” said Dr. Alexia Groff, a researcher at Imperial College London.

The results are published in Frontiers in Plant Science.

Beefing up plants

Myoglobin is an important component of the heart and skeletal muscle of vertebrates. Myoglobin is rich in iron, which is why meat has a metallic and umami flavor, while the oxygen bound to it gives meat its red color. Groff and colleagues first cloned the genes for pig and cattle myoglobin.

They then used a so-called “gene gun” to physically shoot copies of the genes into the chloroplasts of tobacco and lettuce seedlings in the laboratory. Tests confirmed that some seedlings had subsequently integrated the gene into the short, ringlike genome of their chloroplasts. The plants were then grown to adulthood, flowered and set seed, with their offspring inheriting the transgene.

For comparison, the authors also inserted the gene into the much larger nuclear genome of both plant species, as well as into the chloroplast of the unicellular alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.

“Due to their bacterial ancestry and their high number of copies per cell, chloroplasts are generally much better at making large amounts of protein than the cell nucleus,” said Groff. “Here, we used tobacco because it is the best model plant for developing this technology, and lettuce because it is an edible crop that could eventually be used for food ingredient production.”

Measurements by liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry showed that myoglobin yields were approximately 800 mg per kilogram dry weight of tobacco and 810 mg per kilogram dry weight of lettuce. This was at least three times higher than the yield from tobacco plants with the transgene spliced into the nuclear genome. Real meat contains between 8.1 and 11.2 mg myoglobin per gram dry weight.

“Despite this, plant cultivation is far more resource-efficient than livestock production; consequently, plant-derived Mb could achieve protein yields per hectare that rival—or even potentially exceed—those of animal agriculture, while also benefiting from substantially lower water use and greenhouse gas emissions,” the authors wrote.

Planting a seed for future production

What are the next steps before the discovery can be commercialized? “The myoglobin could be extracted from leaves and purified using industrial protein purification methods. Since it is identical to animal myoglobin, it could then be added as an ingredient to plant-based meat products to improve their color, flavor and nutritional value,” explained Groff.

“We hope that edible lettuce, modified to express myoglobin, could also one day serve as a heme-iron-enriched biofortified food, depending on legislative approval,” added co-author Dr. Kyoko Morimoto, chief scientific officer at Kyomei, a Cambridge-based plant biotechnology startup.

News Staff by — August 06, 2026 By News Staff in Biotechnology Today
Lilly confident in slow and steady Foundayo launch, as ex-US sales shine

Foundayo clocked $98 million in sales in Q2, the first quarter it was available, compared to Novo’s $355 million for the same sales period.

After entering the obesity market and soundly stealing market share from rival Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy, Eli Lilly isn’t used to being behind. But Foundayo, the Indiana pharma’s new obesity pill, is a different beast.

After receiving FDA approval on April 1, Lilly has seen slow uptake as it introduces patients and caregivers to a completely new product. Novo, on the other hand, had simply captured its successful injectable GLP-1 in a pill.

“We’re making pretty meaningful progress on the Foundayo performance and building out the brand,” said Ilya Yuffa, president of Lilly USA and global customer capabilities, on the company’s second quarter earnings call Wednesday.

Foundayo clocked $98 million in sales in Q2, the first quarter it was available, compared to Novo’s $355 million for the Wegovy pill for its initial sales period. Approved in December 2025, the Wegovy pill rose to $496 million for the second quarter, Novo reported Tuesday afternoon. Foundayo narrowly missed consensus estimates, but analysts weren’t surprised by the weakness.

Lilly has focused on building brand awareness in Foundayo, educating doctors on the drug’s profile, offering access and affordability for patients, and reaching consumers directly, Yuffa explained.

The drug is undoubtedly growing, he insisted. Volume has doubled from just a month ago and nearly one in four patients are choosing Foundayo for initial starts.

“We’re starting to see an inflection point on Foundayo now,” Yuffa said.

But that’s just in the U.S. Analysts pointed to Foundayo’s performance elsewhere as a particular strong point. “Although Foundayo U.S. disappointed, Foundayo ex-U.S. (solely sales in UAE), is an indicator of Foundayo’s ex-U.S. potential,” Leerink Partners’ Senior Research Analyst David Risinger said.

The therapy brought in $31 million in the UAE in the second quarter, “which bodes well for Foundayo’s global potential,” according to Leerink.

Without the ex-U.S. sales for Foundayo, RBC Capital Markets wondered if Lilly’s overall results would have been so strong. “Foundayo’s U.S. performance remains uncertain,” the firm wrote.

Foundayo launched with about 8,000 subscribers but has now grown that to 36,000, RBC noted.

A ‘blowout’ performance

Otherwise, Leerink dubbed Lilly’s second quarter performance a “blowout.” The company notched $23 billion in revenue and raised its outlook to a range of $85 to $87 billion, as compared to $82 to $85 billion previously projected.

Lilly executed a number of transactions in the second quarter, including buying Orna Therapeutics, Ajax Therapeutics, Centessa Pharmaceuticals and Kelonia Therapeutics. Lilly has also since picked up psychedelics biotech AtaiBeckley, diving deeper into neuroscience.

Analysts asked for insight into Lilly’s revived interest in psychiatry during the call, as well as a triple-acquisition in vaccines from earlier in the year. Jacob Van Naarden, president of Lilly Oncology and head of corporate business development, said the company is are simply seeking out unmet needs.

“What these two areas have in common is just the immense unmet need that still remains, and that really is the throughline of all of the work that we do, both internally and through business development,” he said. “It’s not actually that different, frankly, than the many other deals that we’ve done year to date.”

Van Naarden, as well as CEO David Ricks, hinted on the call that more deals could be in the future but were fairly mum on specifics.

“Whether we continue to build more around infectious diseases and psychiatry specifically … I don’t want to forward-look too much on that because we’ll be opportunistic based on what we see that’s available for acquisition and partnering,” Van Naarden said.

News Staff by — August 06, 2026 By News Staff in Bio Space
Novo CEO sees innovation as a matter of survival amid pipeline setbacks

Novo Nordisk CEO Maziar Mike Doustdar on a second quarter earnings call argued that failure is par for the course in the drug development business. The Danish pharma is focused on building out its pipeline to move past recent clinical roadblocks.

To bounce back from a series of clinical stumbles, Novo Nordisk is leaning heavily on its innovation engine and an early-stage pipeline that could set the pharma up for long-term growth.

“We stay alive—or not—based on our ability to innovate,” Doustdar told reporters during a press call early Wednesday morning to present the Danish pharma’s second quarter earnings results. He additionally alluded to “really good early signs” of innovation but declined to provide further details “because they’re early pipeline products.”

Still, Doustdar appeared to be highly confident in these up-and-coming prospects. “In terms of the magnitude of the assets and areas we would like to operate in—as well as the speed of operations—we will be second to none,” he said.

These assertions come just days after Novo suffered a surprise late-stage blow when the IL-6 inhibitor ziltivekimab failed the Phase 3 ZEUS trial, unable to significantly lower the risk of major adverse cardiovascular events in patients with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease and inflammation.

Ziltivekimab is a key part of Novo’s strategy of branching out to obesity-adjacent indications, looking to stand out in the cardiometabolic arena as key rival Eli Lilly cements its leadership status in the weight loss game.

In February, Novo suffered back-to-back defeats at the hands of Lilly, with two head-to-head trials pointing to the superiority of the Indiana pharma’s assets. The Phase 3 REDEFINE 4 trial, for instance, showed that Novo’s next-generation obesity candidate CagriSema elicited weaker weight loss than the FDA-approved Zepbound. Then, the late-stage ACHIEVE-3 study demonstrated that Lilly’s Foundayo led to better blood sugar control and weight reduction than Novo’s oral semaglutide.

Doustdar on Wednesday’s call didn’t seem too bothered by these events. “It’s true that we have had a couple of setbacks recently on R&D,” he told reporters. “But that’s part of, and the nature of, this industry. If you don’t like setbacks and you don’t like failure, don’t get into the pharma industry.

“We need to learn from the failures and reinvent ourselves again,” Doustdar continued, noting that for each of these setbacks, Novo is working to “demonstrate that we can progress multiple times more the innovations and bring them into the hands of the patients.”

To this end, the CEO on the call also confirmed that Novo is on the lookout for external opportunities. “I believe strongly that we need bolt-on acquisitions to complement what we are doing ourselves,” he said.

In house, the Danish giant had some clean up to do around the edges of the pipeline. The pharma revealed that it had ended work on the oral cannabinoid receptor blocker monlunabant, which was in mid-stage development for obesity. The drug came from Novo’s $1 billion acquisition of Inversago Pharma in August 2023. In September 2024, Novo revealed that the drug had spurred weight loss in a Phase 2a trial but also reported mild- to- moderate neuropsychiatric side effects.

In the second quarter, Novo reported net sales of DKK 78.5 billion ($12.1 billion), representing a 3% year-on-year increase and landing ahead of analysts’ expectations. Delivering a narrow miss, however, was oral Wegovy, which made DKK 3.22 billion ($496 million) in the quarter, 2% below consensus.

U.S.-listed shares of the company slid nearly 6% before the opening bell on Wednesday to $44.28.

Nevertheless, Novo’s strong performance in the first half of the year, particularly within the GLP-1 franchise, emboldened the pharma to lift its full-year outlook. The Danish drugmaker now expects sales to remain flat or drop by just 6%, as opposed to prior guidance of a 4% to 12% decrease.

News Staff by — August 06, 2026 By News Staff in Bio Space
How the brain’s electrical signatures shift as tinnitus becomes chronic

Ears are built to listen to sounds from the world around us, but for some people, the sound comes from within. Tinnitus causes people to hear ringing or other noises in one or both ears or in their heads, even when there is no actual sound outside. While tinnitus is frequently associated with hearing loss, a substantial proportion of individuals with clinically normal hearing thresholds still experience it, and the underlying mechanism remains murky to scientists. A recent study investigated how brain network patterns change as tinnitus progresses from a new condition to a long-term chronic one in people with clinically normal hearing.

After recording the electrical activity in the brains of people with acute and chronic tinnitus, the researchers found that the two conditions have very different neurophysiological profiles. People with recent-onset tinnitus showed an imbalance between two important brain networks: the salience network, which detects salient or potentially threatening signals, and the executive control network, which supports attention and decision-making. The brain significantly increases its focus on the former while decreasing the latter’s activity. Those with chronic tinnitus showed much more balanced switching between these networks, meaning the brain began to adapt rather than worsen.

The findings are published in iScience.

Tracking shifts in neural networks

About 10% to 15% of adults worldwide live with the distressing neurological condition. Most studies looking into neurological changes associated with tinnitus focus on participants with hearing loss. This made it nearly impossible to tell whether the observed brain changes were caused by tinnitus itself or simply by the brain reacting to hearing loss.

In people with normal hearing test results, tinnitus often traces back to subtle inner-ear changes that standard tests can’t detect. It is driven by cochlear synaptopathy, in which connections between inner hair cells and auditory nerve fibers are lost. Along with phantom sounds, this can result in high-frequency hearing loss above 8 kHz, a range that regular tests don’t check. These small changes in the ear can lead to bigger changes in the brain, disrupting how key networks function when the condition is new and acute versus when it becomes chronic.

In this study, the researchers directly compared neurological changes at different stages of the condition in people with normal hearing. The team recruited 45 participants and divided them into three equal groups of 15: acute tinnitus, chronic tinnitus and healthy controls with no tinnitus. Brain activity was recorded using a 64-channel electroencephalography (EEG) cap, which captured rapid, millisecond-long snapshots of the brain’s electrical activity. The researchers focused on four EEG microstate maps—Classes A, B, C and D—which correspond to the auditory, visual, salience and executive networks, respectively.

The collected data were then analyzed using dynamic functional network (DFN) analysis, which examined how effectively different parts of the brain within the microstates communicated and at what speeds, or frequency bands, ranging from slow delta waves to fast gamma waves.

The team found that tinnitus is not a fixed condition but a dynamic process in which the brain reorganizes itself as the disorder progresses. During the early stage of tinnitus (less than 6 months), the brain is in a state of imbalance and hypervigilance. The salience network becomes more active, while the executive network becomes less active.

As tinnitus becomes chronic, the brain undergoes compensatory rebalancing to find a new normal. Its activity patterns become more stable over time, shifting from high-frequency activity to low-frequency waves (delta and beta bands) in the executive and auditory networks, thereby regaining control over the phantom sound experienced by those with the condition.

While standard static connectivity analysis found no differences between groups, the dynamic approach did, suggesting that tinnitus’s neural signatures are fleeting rather than constant. The study’s approach was able to glimpse how the brain reorganizes its networks in real time. The distinct signatures across tinnitus stages revealed in the findings not only offer new insights into the disorder’s underlying mechanisms but also could act as biomarkers to help clinicians distinguish recent-onset from chronic tinnitus and tailor care accordingly.

News Staff by — August 05, 2026 By News Staff in Global News
Implant design helps fight ovarian cancer from the inside

Researchers have developed an implant that could deliver next-generation therapies for ovarian cancer precisely where they are needed while simultaneously monitoring how the disease responds.

The project was carried out by a team at CÚRAM, the Research Ireland Centre for Medical Devices based at the University of Galway, along with collaborators from the University of Minnesota, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Wyss Institute.

The research was published in the journal Device. It showed how the team developed a flexible, porous implant designed to sit inside the peritoneal cavity—the space surrounding the abdominal organs in a woman’s body where ovarian cancer predominantly occurs. The device is designed to connect to an external port through the skin so it can be replenished with therapeutic agents as often as needed without requiring further surgery.

Dr. Aoibhín Sheedy, a Ph.D. graduate with CÚRAM at the University of Galway and lead researcher on the project, said, “One of the most frustrating aspects of treating ovarian cancer is that we know localized delivery of therapy works better, but the tools we’ve had until now weren’t built for the job. We designed this implant with ovarian cancer patients in mind. We wanted an implant that can deliver living cell therapies repeatedly, reliably and with real precision to the tumor site.”

Built for repeated local treatment

Ovarian cancer is often diagnosed at late stages, as symptoms such as bloating, pain and pelvic pressure are nonspecific and can be overlooked. Treatment often involves surgery to remove as much of the tumor as possible, but targeted treatments and effective methods of detecting recurrence are currently unavailable. There is a critical need for new therapeutic approaches for ovarian cancer.

The implant is made from a flexible biomaterial that conforms naturally to the body’s internal contours. Its porous membrane allows therapeutic cargo to diffuse gently and evenly into the surrounding tissue, reducing the risk of mechanical complications.

In preclinical studies, the implant remained fully functional for up to 70 days with no implant-related complications and showed significantly better tumor control over time than conventional treatments. The team has designed this implant to deliver living cell therapies, the most challenging type of therapy to deliver, but it could be used to deliver a range of cell- or non-cell-based therapies.

Dr. Martin Felices, co-senior author and associate professor of medicine at the University of Minnesota, said, “The tricky part about working with novel therapies, such as immunotherapies, in the setting of ovarian cancer is that repeated delivery is done with outdated materials that are not designed for this setting. It is also very difficult to sample through these systems. The delivery system, created by Dr. Eimear Dolan’s laboratory, allows for safer repeated delivery of cellular and biologic therapies in the context of the peritoneal cavity. It also allows us to sample the effects of those therapies in the tumor microenvironment in real time, which is extremely exciting.”

Sampling the tumor environment

A key feature of the implant is its monitoring capability. By applying gentle suction through the same external port, a sample of fluid can be drawn from inside the peritoneal cavity during treatment without any additional procedure.

Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Galway Dolan, and co-lead on the research, said, “What excites us most is the two-way nature of this approach. It doesn’t just deliver living cell therapies, it lets us create a picture of what’s happening inside the peritoneal space. Clinicians could use this to track how the immune cells are performing, whether the tumor is responding, and then adapt treatment accordingly. That kind of real-time intelligence is something we’ve never had access to before in this setting.”

The researchers envision that the implant would be put in place during the initial surgery patients undergo to remove as much tumor tissue as possible, allowing it to then address any residual disease in the weeks and months that follow. The ultimate aim would be to leave the implant in long term to allow for local monitoring of disease recurrence and early retreatment if required.

Professor Melissa Gellar, professor of gynecologic oncology and associate director of clinical research at the Masonic Cancer Center at the University of Minnesota and co-lead on the research, said, “This work represents a shift in how we think about treating ovarian cancer, bringing therapy directly to the disease site while simultaneously learning from the tumor microenvironment in real time, which provides important insights to guide precision care.”

Potential beyond ovarian cancer

The research also highlights the possibilities of cross-disciplinary research. While further studies are needed before this approach reaches clinical trials, the team of engineers and clinicians believe its versatile design could ultimately benefit patients with other peritoneal cancers, including gastric, colorectal and pancreatic disease.

News Staff by — August 05, 2026 By News Staff in Global News
New biosynthetic pathway could expand production of high-value bio-based oils

Vegetable oils serve as critical feedstocks for biofuels and bioproducts by providing energy-dense hydrocarbon molecules. Some plants have evolved divergent enzyme sets to produce high-value unusual fatty acids with novel chain lengths or functional groups.

A new study by researchers at the Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation (CABBI) aims to elucidate and harness an unusual fatty acid biosynthetic pathway in the seeds of Orychophragmus limprichtianus to expand the synthetic biology toolbox for plant- and microbe-based bioproducts.

Researchers conducted advanced lipid analyses using TLC, GC-MS and LC-MS to identify and characterize the previously unknown fatty acid composition in seeds of O. limprichtianus. They combined biochemical assays and molecular biology with AI-guided protein structure modeling to better understand the molecular mechanism of the biosynthetic pathway. The proposed biosynthetic pathway was reconstructed in an engineered oilseed host to validate enzyme function in vivo.

Two enzymes drive the pathway

Unusual fatty acids in O. limprichtianus seeds were identified as C24–C28 keto-hydroxy fatty acids. This distinct lipid profile is driven by two divergent enzymes: fatty acid elongase 1 (FAE1) and 3-ketoacyl-CoA reductase (KCR1).

These findings revealed a biosynthetic pathway in which the plant system has acquired bacterial polyketide synthase (PKS)-like discontinuous elongation functionality.

Reconstruction points to industrial use
This work reveals unprecedented evolutionary plasticity in plant lipid metabolism, breaking traditional boundaries of fatty acid engineering. The researchers successfully reconstructed this pathway in an engineered oilseed host, establishing a powerful synthetic biology toolkit to produce high-value oil. This work provides a scalable bio-based source for industrial lubricants, supporting the bioeconomy.

News Staff by — August 05, 2026 By News Staff in Biotechnology Today
Field trials support oil-rich sorghum as a potential sustainable aviation fuel feedstock

In a new study by the Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation (CABBI), researchers evaluated oil sorghum lines in Nebraska and Illinois over two years to quantify genotype-by-environment effects on agronomic performance and triacylglycerol accumulation. The research is published in the Plant Biotechnology Journal.

The current domestic supply of plant-based oils is not adequate to meet the projected increase in domestic biofuel demand, including sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). In this context, engineered oil sorghum (OS) is being developed as a novel bioenergy crop that accumulates triacylglycerol (TAG) in its vegetative tissues. Field testing of new engineered OS lines is a key step in developing an ideal OS hybrid for SAF production.

The researchers assessed the physiological and agronomic performance of four OS lines across a range of environmental conditions in the potential growing region for OS.

Field trials across two states

Four engineered OS lines derived from TX430 grain (TxHO-2, TxHO-3) and Ramada sweet (RmHO-1, RmHO-2) sorghum genetic backgrounds were grown alongside wild-type (WT) lines in Nebraska and Illinois over two years (2023–2024) to quantify genotype-by-environment effects on agronomic performance and TAG accumulation.

TX430 OS lines averaged 15.0 g kg⁻¹ TAG in leaves and 12.3 g kg⁻¹ in stems, representing 25- and 13-fold increases over WT, respectively. Ramada OS lines averaged 26.1 g kg⁻¹ TAG in leaves and 12.3 g kg⁻¹ in stems, 25- and 13-fold increases over WT, respectively.

Biomass shaped oil yield

TX430 lines exhibited an average 18% reduction in biomass overall relative to WT. However, the line with the highest cumulative TAG (TxHO-2) did not differ significantly from WT. Ramada OS biomass yield was similar to WT. TAG yield was greatest in TxHO-2 (190 kg ha⁻¹) and RmHO-1 (335 kg ha⁻¹), with biomass yield differences, rather than TAG concentration, driving the difference between the two lines.

Nutrient removal (N, P and K) increased in TX430 OS lines but not in Ramada lines, while structural carbohydrates and ash concentrations were unaffected.

This work confirms vegetative lipid accumulation as a viable strategy for high-biomass sorghum, supporting its potential as a SAF feedstock. Future work is needed to optimize agronomic practices.

News Staff by — August 05, 2026 By News Staff in Biotechnology Today