Background: Health care workers continue to experience heightened levels of distress and burnout, which contribute to higher levels of job dissatisfaction, turnover intentions, presenteeism, and staffing shortages. Objective: The aim of this study was to examine how participation in the StressPal Frontline: Essential Resilience Self-Care and Burnout Prevention program influenced health care workers’ stress and resilience. The study also sought to identify specific measures of perceived stress and resilience that were most affected by participation in the program and to explore whether pre-and-post differences varied based on participant characteristics. The StressPal Frontline program is a digital resilience intervention specifically developed for health care workers to enhance psychological flexibility and stress resilience. The self-paced training program, designed for approximately a 6-week period, consists of brief modules, follow-up resources, and a peer engagement community. Methods: A pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design was used to assess the effectiveness of the StressPal Frontline program in reducing stress and building resilience among 76 health care workers who voluntarily joined and completed the program. Outcome measures included the Perceived Stress Scale and the Brief Resilience Scale to assess participants’ perceptions of stressful situations and their ability to bounce back from stress. Descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, paired-samples 2-tailed test, and multiple regression analysis were conducted. The paired-samples test was calculated at the scale level and item level to evaluate the statistical significance of pretest and posttest mean differences, and the Cohen statistic was used as a measure of effect size. Statistical analysis for this study was conducted in Excel (Microsoft), SPSS (IBM Corp), and Jamovi (jamovi project). Results: The results indicated a 1.53-point reduction in the Perceived Stress Scale score after participating in the StressPal Frontline program, suggesting a statistically significant decline in average perceived stress due to participation in the program (=.004). The corresponding value of Cohen was 0.34, suggesting a small-to-medium effect of the intervention, StressPal Frontline program, in reducing perceived stress. For the Brief Resilience Scale, pre-and-post difference was not significant at the scale level (=.07); however, item-level analysis found significant increases in participants’ perception of their ability to bounce back quickly after hard times and handle difficult situations. No significant differences were found in outcome measures based on age, race, ethnicity, professional role, or practice setting. Conclusions: The StressPal Frontline program was associated with positive outcomes in reducing perceived stress. Our study also found no statistical differences in outcomes among participants of different age groups, races, ethnicities, occupations, genders, and practice settings. This is an important finding, as it indicates that the StressPal Frontline program may provide positive benefits for reducing stress across professions, settings, and individual characteristics. This program, along with other resources, could be implemented by health care organizations to support workers’ professional development, behavioral health, and well-being.
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STAT+: White House reviewing top contenders to lead FDA
WASHINGTON — The top contenders to lead the Food and Drug Administration have been sent to the White House for a final review and decision, according to a person familiar with the process.
The finalists include Heidi Overton, a White House adviser; Jeffrey Vacirca, an oncologist and health system executive; and Stephen Ferrara, a health affairs official at the Defense Department.
STAT+: Mass General Brigham, nurses called to talk at State House amid biggest nursing strike in Mass.
BOSTON — Governor Maura Healey has summoned the state’s largest health system and its striking nurses to the State House on Wednesday in an attempt to broker a new contract, according to the Massachusetts Nurses Association.
The calling of the late-afternoon meeting came hours after a boisterous start to Massachusetts’ biggest-ever nurses strike, and the first at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Mayor Michelle Wu also helped arrange the meeting, the union said.
Thousands of Brigham nurses and supporters poured onto Francis Street near the hospital starting at 7 a.m., shaking cowbells, banging on plastic buckets and cheering at a deafening chorus of supportive honks from passing cars. The nurses, sporting “Union Strong” and “Brigham Nurses United” shirts, waved signs calling out management. “Value Nurses Like You Value Your Bonu$e$,” one sign read.
Impact of an Artificial Intelligence–Powered Clinical Decision Support System for Acute Kidney Injury Prevention in the Intensive Care Unit: Single-Center Uncontrolled Before-and-After Implementation Study
Background: Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a frequent and serious complication among hospitalized patients, particularly in critical care settings, where its incidence can exceed 50%. AKI is associated with increased mortality, prolonged hospitalization, dialysis dependence, and higher health care costs. Although the KDIGO (Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes) guidelines emphasize supportive care, hemodynamic optimization, and avoidance of nephrotoxins, their implementation remains inconsistent, partly due to the lack of timely risk stratification. Recent advances in artificial intelligence have enhanced early prediction and detection of AKI, offering new opportunities to improve patient outcomes and intensive care unit (ICU) efficiency. The U-Care Renal Platform (UCRP; U-Care Medical S.r.l), a Conformité Européenne (CE)–marked artificial intelligence–powered medical device, integrates directly with the ICU electronic health record to continuously analyze patient data and predict the risk of moderate or severe AKI within 24 hours, providing actionable, guideline-based recommendations. While the predictive performance of UCRP has been validated previously, its real-world impact on clinical and operational outcomes in the ICU remains underexplored. Objective: This single-center uncontrolled before-and-after implementation study aims to evaluate the association between UCRP implementation and selected ICU clinical and operational outcomes in routine practice at SCIAS Hospital, Barcelona. Methods: This study was conducted as a retrospective service evaluation of a workflow-embedded clinical decision support system between March 2023 and March 2025. It included 202 postsurgical adult ICU patients. Outcomes of interest were assessed by comparing preimplementation and postimplementation periods. Months during which the UCRP was inactive were excluded from the analysis (total excluded duration: 10 months; 5 in the preimplementation period and 5 in the postimplementation period). The outcomes included the incidence of moderate-to-severe AKI (KDIGO stages 2 and 3), the use of nephrotoxic medications, the frequency of hypotensive episodes among patients with AKI, and the ICU length of stay. Results: During the postimplementation period, lower rates of moderate-to-severe AKI (9/99, 9.1% vs 12/103, 11.7%), nephrotoxic drug administration, and hypotensive episodes among patients with AKI were observed compared with the preimplementation period. Conclusions: Integration of the UCRP into ICU workflows was associated with differences in selected AKI-related process and intermediate clinical outcomes in this single-center uncontrolled before-and-after implementation study. However, given the study design, causal relationships cannot be established, and the findings should be interpreted as preliminary signals requiring confirmation in larger, controlled, and multicenter studies, including patient-centered outcomes.
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STAT+: In private meeting, Trump officials push to onshore generic drugmaking
WASHINGTON — Last week, pharmaceutical leaders filed into a meeting room in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, next to the White House, for a meeting with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and HHS Chief Counsel Chris Klomp.
The administration officials had a message for the industry: It’s time to bring production of essential medications back to the U.S. — or at least closer to home.
The meeting, described by an administration official and two people familiar with the event, focused on increasing U.S. control of the supply chains for the 86 medicines deemed essential by the health department’s Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response.
EmTech AI 2026: The Rise of the AI Platform
Bryan Johnson’s chronic disease is notoriously difficult to diagnose
Longevity entrepreneur Bryan Johnson shared some bad news on social media recently. “I have an autoimmune disease. My stomach is eating itself,” he wrote on X. The good news? “I’m going to try and solve it.”
The disease in question is autoimmune gastritis, a chronic inflammatory condition in which antibodies destroy acid-producing cells in the stomach, which prevents people from absorbing iron. It’s not in itself a fatal disease, but it is linked to an increased risk of stomach cancer and, eventually, to deficiencies in vitamin B12, which in turn causes anemia and neurological complications.
Astrocytes Preserve Memory Persistence Through Ankyrin-2 Protein in Mice
Although scientists have long studied how memories are formed in the brain, how certain memories persist over time for learning and cognitive function remains unclear.
A new study published in Nature Communications titled, “Astrocytic ankyrin-2 enables memory persistence in the mouse hippocampus,” suggests that astrocytes play a critical role in long-term memory through the regulatory protein ankyrin-2 (Ank2).
Removing Ank2 function led to significantly impaired memory in mice after after two weeks. Under normal conditions, these mice showed standard locomotion, sociability, and recent memory immediately after learning.
Astrocytes lacking Ank2 formed significantly less physical contacts with nearby engram neurons, the specialized neurons for memory storage. Additionally, the maintenance of long-term potentiation (LTP) was impaired while normal synaptic transmission remained intact. The findings suggest that astrocytes stabilize the neural circuits required for preserving memories long after they are formed.
On the molecular level, researchers found that Ank2 is required for brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) signaling through the astrocytic TrkB.T1 receptor and IP3R2-mediated calcium signaling. In the absence of Ank2, calcium signaling weakened, astrocytes failed to undergo normal structural remodeling, and showed reduced ability to maintain contacts with memory-encoding neurons.
The researchers further demonstrated that hippocampal BDNF infusion normally strengthens long-term memory persistence, but this effect disappeared when astrocytic Ank2 was deleted, showing that Ank2 is essential for BDNF-dependent memory stabilization.
To determine whether astrocytic BDNF signaling alone is sufficient to enhance memory, the team developed an optogenetic tool called Opto-T1. Activation of this pathway promoted astrocyte remodeling, maintained long-term potentiation, and significantly enhanced remote memory without affecting recent memory.
“Our findings show that astrocytes are not passive support cells, but active regulators that determine how long memories last,” said Wuhyun Koh, PhD, senior research fellow at Institute for Basic Science (IBS) and corresponding author of the study. “By identifying Ank2 as a key regulator of astrocyte remodeling and BDNF signaling, we have uncovered a new mechanism that helps stabilize long-term memories and opens new avenues for understanding and potentially treating memory disorders.”
The researchers indicate the study provides a new framework for understanding how astrocytes contribute to neurological diseases.
The post Astrocytes Preserve Memory Persistence Through Ankyrin-2 Protein in Mice appeared first on GEN – Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News.
<![CDATA[In the final episode, “Take-Home Messages: Clinical Confidence in Transitioning Patients to Cobenfy,” David Walling, PhD, explored how these findings add to the evolving evidence base for Cobenfy in schizophrenia, and what questions remain for future research.]]>
The Download: worms fight pollution, and geoengineering faces reality
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology.
Why worms (and microbes) are catching on as a manure pollution solution
Anthony Agueda, a third-generation California dairy farmer, pulls a rake through a bed of dark, wet wood chips to reveal a half-dozen squirming red earthworms. There are likely hundreds of thousands more wriggling just under the surface.
The worms and microbes are part of a “vermifiltration” system that cleans manure wastewater. The approach may dramatically cut methane, nitrous oxide, and water pollution.
Vermifiltration is just one of a variety of methods that farmers, companies, and scientists are employing to drive down manure pollution as the livestock industry faces growing pressure to address the environmental harms from one of the smelliest parts of the business.
Explore how the humble earthworm could reshape the future of sustainable farming.
—James Temple
MIT Technology Review Narrated: geoengineering gets a reality check
Solar geoengineering, the controversial idea that we could deliberately intervene in the climate system to counteract global warming, is moving beyond computer simulations and into the practical engineering challenges required to make it real.
Researchers are now working on aircraft, materials, and other systems for solar geoengineering. But as they delve into these details, they’re finding that even early deployment would require significant new infrastructure, time, and investment.
—James Temple
This is our latest story to be turned into an MIT Technology Review Narrated podcast, which we publish each week on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Just navigate to MIT Technology Review Narrated on either platform, and follow us to get all our new content as it’s released.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 The Trump administration has lifted restrictions on OpenAI’s GPT 5.6
The green light came after additional testing and meetings. (Axios)
+ OpenAI subsequently said it will launch widely tomorrow. (Bloomberg $)
+ The rollout had been delayed due to security concerns. (Verge)
+ Does AI know too much? (MIT Technology Review)
2 China is looking at curbing overseas access to its top AI models
Alibaba, ByteDance, and Z.ai attended meetings about the plan. (Reuters $)
+ Beijing is also weighing the security risks of open-weight AI. (SCMP)
+ And has issued a “backdoor” security alert over Claude Code. (CNBC)
3 European NATO allies have unveiled a $50 billion high-tech missile plan
They will engineer stealth and high-speed hypersonic weapons. (BBC)
+ Which can strike targets at least 300 km away. (Reuters $)
+ The Dutch and British are also developing amphibious ships. (Bloomberg $)
4 Meta is testing “super sensing” AI glasses that record every moment
It plans to disable privacy LEDs that alert people when they’re “on.” (FT $)
+ It’s also released an AI image generator. (NYT $)
+ Which lets anyone use your Instagram photos in AI images. (Wired $)
5 China’s DeepSeek is developing its own AI chip, sources say
It could reduce the company’s reliance on Nvidia and Huawei. (Bloomberg $)
+ DeepSeek V4 was a win for Chinese chipmakers. (MIT Technology Review)
6 Wikipedia is fighting to survive the internet’s next era
It’s under attack from MAGA, AI raids, and repressive regimes. (NYT $)
+ AI has given Wikipedia a language problem. (MIT Technology Review)
7 SpaceX plans to launch its first model coproduced with Cursor
The new frontier model could arrive as soon as this week. (Information $)
+ It’s built with AI startup Cursor, which SpaceX is buying for $60 billion. (FT $)
8 A new academic “humanizer” tool can erase signs of AI-written text
But researchers are very divided over its potential impact. (Nature $)
9 Scientists have detected a mystery chemical on Pluto and Titan
It appears to absorb light in a way we don’t currently understand. (Wired $)
10 A Waymo robotaxi reportedly called the cops on drinking teens
Officers then approached the vehicle with guns drawn. (404 Media)
Quote of the day
“Parents do you know where your teens are? Waymo does!”
—Local police post on Facebook that a Waymo in California called the cops on two teenagers for “drinking and shooting from the vehicle.”
One More Thing
MICHAEL BYERS
Your boss is watching
Dora Manriquez has spent nine years driving for Uber and Lyft, where every ride she accepts or rejects is tracked by the apps she relies on for work. Having found herself unable to score enough better-paying rides, she has had to file for bankruptcy.
App-based employers aren’t the only ones keeping a very close eye on workers today. Jobs today—whether in an office, a warehouse, or your car—can mean constant electronic surveillance with little transparency, and potentially with livelihood-ending consequences if your productivity flags.
All that data is shifting the relationships between workers and managers—and protections are lagging. Read the full story on the widening power imbalance it’s created.
—Rebecca Ackermann
We can still have nice things
A place for comfort, fun, and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line.)
+ Literary worlds collide in this marvellous Dr Seuss/Stephen King mashup.
+ A daring snorkeler saved a dolphin from a suckerfish—and then celebrated with its whole pod.
+ This clever musical project seamlessly constructs an original song from vocal snippets of 50 artists singing US city names.
+ A long-lost wallet from 1970 was recently unearthed, creating a cute time capsule from its owner’s high school years.