This archive covers milestones and breakthroughs from the scientific and academic world — researchers, universities, and institutions whose work advances human knowledge. Stories here highlight discoveries, studies, and scholarly efforts that point toward a better future.
Researchers at Sweden’s Chalmers University of Technology have developed an incredibly efficient way to recycle metals from spent batteries, and at the same time minimize the loss of valuable raw materials such as nickel, cobalt and manganese. No expensive or harmful chemicals are required in the process.
Researchers at the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute at La Trobe University in Australia have found that how a patient responds to cancer comes down to how effective a group of immune cells in the large bowel are.
Bioprinted skin combining all six primary skin cell types has, for the first time, been successfully grafted onto wounds in pre-clinical trials — closing them faster and with noticeably less scarring. Researchers at Wake Forest layered keratinocytes, fibroblasts, adipocytes, melanocytes, and two other cell types into a three-layer structure mirroring real skin, then watched it grow blood vessels and integrate naturally with surrounding tissue. A larger graft, roughly two inches square, worked on a pig model — a meaningful step toward the kind of scale human patients actually need. For burn survivors and others who simply don’t have enough healthy skin to donate, a lab-grown alternative made from their own cells could transform one of medicine’s most painful, limited tools into something closer to true regeneration.
The R21/Matrix-M vaccine, developed at Oxford University, is expected to offer countries a cheaper and more readily available option than the world’s first shot against the parasitic disease.
Gay received her Ph.D. in government from Harvard in 1998 and joined the Harvard faculty in 2006. She previously served as Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. She is now the President of perhaps the world’s most prestigious university.
“For the first time, it is possible for water, produced by sunlight, to be even cheaper than tap water,” said Lenan Zhang, a research scientist from the team from MIT and Shanghai Jiao Tong University. “This opens up the possibility for solar desalination to address real-world problems.”
Researchers at the University of North Carolina have developed an AI model that can predict in real-time whether or not cancerous tissue has been fully removed during breast cancer surgery. The model performed as well as, or better than, human doctors.
A tooth regrowth drug has entered human clinical trials in Japan, offering a potential third option alongside dentures and implants. The treatment works by blocking USAG-1, a gene that acts as a natural brake on tooth development, freeing the body to grow new teeth on its own. Researchers confirmed the approach first in mice, then in ferrets, before moving to people, and a pediatric trial is planned for children with anodontia, a rare condition that leaves six or more teeth missing. Dr. Katsu Takahashi, who has chased this idea since 2005, hopes for regulatory approval by 2030. With oral disease affecting some 3.5 billion people worldwide, regrowing real teeth could reshape dental care far beyond Japan.
Researchers from the University of Chicago have created a new vaccine that can effectively treat these debilitating diseases in a way that doesn’t require suppressing the entire immune system and thus prevents a variety of negative side effects.
A genetically modified pig kidney kept working inside a human body for 61 days at NYU Langone Health — the longest a non-human organ has ever functioned in a person. Surgeons used a simplified approach, transplanting a kidney from a pig with just one gene edit and leaving the thymus gland attached to help the recipient’s immune system accept it. Around 100,000 Americans are on the kidney waitlist at any given time, and researchers hope pig organs could one day help close that gap. The team is now preparing for clinical trials pending FDA approval. For the thousands waiting on a kidney that may not arrive in time, this is real, tangible hope.
