Radically different
Nature Neuroscience, Published online: 07 April 2026; doi:10.1038/s41593-026-02255-7
This study shows that cerebellar circuits learn and encode prior probabilities of event timing. Cell-type-specific neural activity reflects environmental statistics and guides predictive motor behavior, providing support for neural Bayesian inference.
An experimental HIV prevention pill being developed by Merck could be mass produced for less than $5 per patient a year according to a new analysis. Advocates argue the low cost means the company should find it easier to license the drug so that low- and middle-income countries can gain easy access.
The pill, dubbed MK 8527, is currently undergoing a pair of late-stage clinical trials that are expected to determine whether the medicine can lower HIV transmission when given to people at high risk of infection. The results are due in the latter half of 2027, according to separate postings on ClinicalTrials.gov.
Already, the pill is generating considerable interest after Merck released mid-stage results last summer showing its drug holds promise. In addition to being safe and effective, the study found it could protect against infection, a form of prevention known as pre-exposure prophylaxis or PrEP, within 24 hours after being taken. Merck noted the pill works in a novel way.
Every year, the Genetics Society of America bestows the Elizabeth W. Jones Award for Excellence in Education, recognizing someone who has helped the public better understand the science of DNA. It’s understood to be a lifetime achievement award; past recipients tend toward retirement age with decades of work behind them and stacks of textbooks to their names.
When this year’s winner, Brian Donovan, was announced at the end of February, many geneticists and science educators found it hard to celebrate the news. Not because he’s undeserving of the honor. Far from it. But because it seemed to confirm what many feared: that Donovan’s incandescent research career was over before it had barely begun.
WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration used the president’s budget to propose policies aimed at encouraging domestic development and manufacturing of drugs.
FDA Commissioner Marty Makary has said the agency needs “giant, big ideas” to counter China’s dominance in early-stage clinical development of drugs. Among the FDA’s ideas are proposals to make it easier to run early-stage trials in the U.S. and to hand an advantage to U.S.-based generics manufacturers.
The Trump administration has been using a variety of policy levers to try and bring drug manufacturing to the U.S. For example, many of the brand drugmakers that struck deals to lower U.S. prices also promised to increase domestic manufacturing, under the threat of tariffs.
For her new research on the brain’s plumbing system, neuroscientist Maiken Nedergaard had to hone many techniques. Among them — coaxing her lab mice into restful sleep, even as they lay on microscope beds with tiny fiberoptic wires threaded into their brains.
“It was really hard to get the mice to sleep naturally,” said Nedergaard, who spent weeks cuddling the animals in her hands, so they’d learn to feel safe. “But then we said, ‘we really want to not have them disturbed.’”
The reason for this care? Nedergaard studies the glymphatic system, which removes waste from the brain during sleep, so ensuring her test subjects achieve a restorative snooze is central to her work.
An abdominal aortic aneurysm is a life-threatening vascular condition with limited treatment options.
Now, researchers from the University of Michigan Frankel Cardiovascular Center have identified a driving force behind the condition, opening up a potential target for new therapies. Their paper uncovering the causal link between triglycerides and abdominal aortic aneurysms won the STAT Madness 2026 popular vote.
Triglycerides have long been considered a biomarker for vascular disease. But using three different mouse models, the Michigan team demonstrated that the common type of fat plays a direct role in aneurysm development, and that lowering triglyceride levels with certain drugs can stop them from forming and rupturing.