Hakim Tanveer

26/01/2026

Researchers who discovered the master switch that prevents the human immune system from attacking itself.

And they just won the Nobel.

The 2025 Nobel Prize in Medicine has been awarded to Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell, and Shimon Sakaguchi for their groundbreaking work on peripheral immune tolerance.

While the immune system is a powerful defense against external pathogens, it requires precise regulation to avoid damaging the body's own organs. Sakaguchi first identified a specialized group of 'regulatory T cells' that act as a biological brake on immune responses. This discovery was completed when Brunkow and Ramsdell identified the FOXP3 gene as the master switch governing these cells, a finding initially made while studying a rare and fatal autoimmune disorder in children.

By revealing how the body maintains this delicate internal balance, these laureates have provided the foundation for a new era of medical treatment. Their work explains the biological origins of autoimmune diseases and has led to the development of therapies that are currently being explored to treat chronic conditions, improve organ transplant success, and even reprogram the immune environment around tumors to fight cancer. These discoveries represent a fundamental shift in immunology, moving beyond simple defense to a sophisticated understanding of how the body governs its own cellular power.

source: Nobel Prize Outreach AB. (2025). The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2025. Nobel Prize Press Release.

26/01/2026

26/01/2026

A room full of infected patients failed to spread the flu to others in the room with them, in new study..

In a study that sounds like the beginning of a pandemic thriller, researchers from the University of Maryland placed flu-infected college students in a confined hotel room with healthy volunteers.

Despite hours of shared air and close contact without masks, not a single healthy participant contracted the virus. The results, published in PLOS Pathogens, challenge long-held assumptions about how easily the flu spreads in indoor settings. While the infected donors had high viral loads in their nasal passages, the lack of transmission suggests that simple proximity may not be the primary danger factor we once believed.

The key to this unexpected outcome lies in three factors: airflow, coughing, and participant age. Because the infected students coughed infrequently, significantly less virus was aerosolized into the environment. Meanwhile, constant air circulation from heaters and dehumidifiers diluted the remaining viral particles, preventing them from reaching infectious concentrations. These findings emphasize that improving indoor air quality through ventilation and portable purifiers may be just as vital as physical distancing. For those in high-risk environments, the study reinforces that while air quality is a powerful shield, an N95 mask remains the gold standard defense when coughing is present.

source: University of Maryland. (2026). Evaluating modes of influenza transmission (EMIT-2): Insights from lack of transmission in a controlled transmission trial with naturally infected donors. PLOS Pathogens.

26/01/2026

Research shows eating meat daily boosts your chances of reaching 100.

New advice on eating for a long life often highlights plant-based diets, but new research from China suggests meat may also play a role in helping some people reach their 100th birthday.

Drawing on health data from more than 5000 adults who were at least 80 years old in 1998 and had no major chronic diseases, researchers found that those who ate meat were more likely to become centenarians than those who followed largely plant-based diets.

This effect was especially clear among people who were underweight, defined as having a body mass index below 18.5. In that group, about 24 per cent of vegetarians reached 100, compared with nearly 30 per cent of meat eaters, with daily meat consumption linked to even higher odds of living to 100. The pattern did not hold for people of higher body weight.

The findings add nuance to a complex picture. While cutting back on meat has been associated with longer life and lower risks of heart disease, meat also supplies proteins and nutrients that support muscle and bone strength—factors that may be particularly important for frail, underweight older adults. The study also found that regularly eating vegetables was linked with greater longevity overall, reinforcing the idea that balance and nutritional adequacy matter more than strictly avoiding animal foods. Experts caution that the results, drawn from older adults in China, may not directly apply to other populations and should not by themselves prompt people to overhaul their diets. Instead, they argue that both vegetarian and meat-based patterns can be healthy if they emphasise whole grains, fruits, vegetables and limited salt, sugar and saturated fat, and that more research is needed before declaring any one way of eating as the clear path to a longer life.

References (APA style)

Lesté-Lasserre, C. (2026, January 16). Meat may play an unexpected role in helping people reach 100. New Scientist.