Category Health/Medical

Plant-based diets are good for you. They promote gut, immune, metabolic and cardiovascular health, in part by cultivating a diverse community of intestinal bacteria. These benefits have long been known to stem partly from the fiber in plant-based foods, which is processed by our commensal gut bacteria, and the often brightly colored “phytochemicals” plants produce to protect themselves from environmental threats. But much remains to be learned about how exactly the bugs in our bellies process the constituents of vegetables to such salubrious effect.

A pair of studies led by Ludwig Princeton’s Jenna AbuSalim and director Joshua Rabinowitz—one in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the other published in Nature Metabolism—shed new lig...

Results from a small clinical trial suggest it may be possible to reduce the risk of dementia by eating during fewer hours of the day. The pilot study, which involved a weight-loss program for older women with overweight or obesity, showed modest cognitive improvements among those who limited their daily eating window instead of just reducing their calorie intake.

“Losing weight alone will ward off some of the aging-related cognitive decline, and these data suggest that there may be additional benefits if you stop eating four hours before going to sleep and reduce food intake to 8–9 hours per day, compared with the usual eating window of 12 hours per day,” said Sue Shapses, Ph.D...

A new type of 3D-printable material developed by researchers at The University of Texas at Austin mimics human tissue’s ability to sort and filter, allowing certain molecules to pass through while keeping others out. This broad functionality means the material can be used in a variety of applications across medicine, water and robotics.

Current methods for building small tissue-like materials don’t scale to sizes that can make applications possible, the researchers say. The team overcame these issues of speed and scalability by jamming billions of tiny water droplets tightly together using simple mixing and centrifuge techniques to form large, tissue-like materials in just a few minutes...

Biomedical engineers at Duke University have developed an injectable biomaterial that helps transform the cavity left behind after a stroke caused by a blood clot into an environment more supportive of repair. By recruiting the body’s own immune cells, the treatment promoted the growth of new blood vessels, supported neural remodeling and improved motor performance in mice. The work appears in Cell Biomaterials.

Every year, millions of people experience strokes caused by blood clots, called ischemic strokes. Immediate treatments, including clot-dissolving drugs and mechanical removal of the clot, can restore blood flow and preserve threatened brain tissue. But these treatments cannot replace tissue that has already been lost.

Large strokes can result in substantial tissue loss a...