Millions of people in the U.S. are affected by diabetic retinopathy, a complication of diabetes that affects the eyes. The condition is caused by damage to the blood vessels in the retina, the light-sensitive tissue at the back of the eye. At first, diabetic retinopathy might not cause any symptoms, or the problems might be mild. However, if the underlying diabetes remains poorly managed, it can lead to blindness.

In a new study, University of Michigan researchers showed that treatment with the molecule norrin can prevent vision loss in diabetic rats. The study is published in the journal Diabetes.

Diabetic retinopathy treatment
Current therapies for diabetic retinopathy target vascular endothelial growth factor, or VEGF, a protein that causes new blood vessels to form.

VEGF a...

As artificial intelligence systems become increasingly capable of working on their own, keeping them focused on their designated tasks is a growing challenge.

University of Florida computer science professor Sumit Jha, Ph.D., is working to keep agents from “going rogue.” Jha and his team have developed a system that can detect when an AI model begins to from its assigned task and steer it back without retraining the model or adding significant computing demands.

The research comes as news reports have chronicled AI agents gaining more autonomy and occasionally behaving in ways their developers did not intend...

Scientists have recreated a primordial state of matter from the dawn of the universe by colliding oxygen nuclei at nearly the speed of light. The surprising results show that this exotic substance can form in smaller, lower-energy collisions than previously demonstrated, challenging the known boundaries of early-universe physics.

New findings from the STAR experiment at the Re...

Scientists have long known that diet shapes the immune system. Now, a UC San Francisco team has found that even a brief dietary change can substantially change how the body responds to skin irritation, at least in mice.

When scientists fed mice a high-fat diet for just a few days, the mice had a much worse reaction to an irritating cream. And the skin stayed on alert even after the mice returned to a low-fat diet and the inflammation cleared, responding more strongly the next time it was exposed to the cream.

The findings suggest that short-term diet may have just as much an effect as body weight when it comes to inflammation.

“Long-term dietary habits absolutely matter for health, but our study ...