Stem cell therapy reverses heart failure in 90% of landmark trial patients

A landmark Chinese trial at Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital found that iPSC-derived stem cell therapy reversed severe heart failure in 90% of patients, inducing new heart tissue growth and restoring function. In space, JWST observations of the early-universe object MoM-BH*-1 suggest a dense hydrogen cocoon can make an accreting black hole masquerade as a giant star, hinting at a new class of cosmic object. Other advances include a vision chip that converts light directly into tokens with 10x energy efficiency, and a study suggesting life's last universal common ancestor may have predated life itself.

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Stem cell therapy reverses heart failure in 90% of trial patients Researchers at Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital injected iPSC-derived heart muscle cells into 10 patients with severe heart failure, inducing new tissue growth and restoring function in nine. The landmark trial offers a potential alternative to scarce heart transplants. 1

JWST finds 'black hole star' hidden by dense hydrogen cocoon The early-universe object MoM-BH*-1 radiates ~100 billion times the Sun's luminosity yet looks like a giant star, because a dense hydrogen envelope reprocesses the light from a feeding black hole. The finding, published in Nature, suggests a new class of cosmic object bridging stars and black holes. 2 3

Vision chip converts light directly into tokens, 10x more efficient A Chinese-led team built a vision chip that performs 'physical tokenization,' sensing, storing, and computing in the analog domain to eliminate data movement. It achieved 87.3% image-recognition accuracy with over 10x energy efficiency, promising for edge AI and drones. 4

Life's last universal common ancestor may predate life itself A study in Science Advances argues LUCA was not a primitive cell but a chemical system in hydrothermal vents, with the two earliest lineages of life arising independently from it. This suggests life may have begun twice, blurring the line between life and non-life. 5

Physicists pinpoint ideal crystal site for ultra-accurate nuclear clock Researchers mapped the four sites thorium-229 atoms can occupy in a crystal and identified one near-ideal for building a nuclear clock up to 10x more precise than atomic clocks. The work in Science could lead to robust, portable timekeeping devices. 6

Bifacial ladder polymers achieve 90% spin selectivity in films Chemists built rigid double-stranded polymers with two distinct molecular faces, showing circular dichroism over 100x stronger than monomeric analogues. The bifacial architecture enables chirality-induced spin selectivity exceeding 90%, with opposite signs for each enantiomer. 7

AI tool DANDELION uncovers overlooked genes driving asthma Researchers at UChicago and Columbia developed a computational tool that identifies 'central' disease genes from complex genetic interactions. DANDELION could accelerate drug targeting for asthma and other polygenic diseases. 8

Brain organoids survive and mature for over five years An international team maintained brain organoids for more than five years, allowing unprecedented study of long-term neural development and maturation. The achievement opens new avenues for modeling neurological disorders. 9

Senescence study reveals how 'undead' cancer cells trigger inflammation Rockefeller researchers mapped gene expression and epigenetic changes showing how drug-induced senescence unfolds in stages, driving cancer-promoting inflammation. The findings suggest strategies to tune therapies and avoid side effects in liposarcoma and ER-positive breast cancer. 10