Neighborly help in the brain: Cerebral cortex networks rapidly reorganize to compensate for lost neurons

How the brain largely maintains its function when neurons are lost—this is what researchers at the University Medical Center Mainz, the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies (FIAS) and Hebrew University (Jerusalem) have deciphered. They show that neuronal networks in the cerebral cortex reorganize within a short period of time, with other nerve cells taking over the tasks of the lost neurons.

Evolutionary model for antibiotic resistance reveals dose timing critical to care

Cleveland Clinic researchers are working to improve the way we use evolutionary modeling to understand drug resistance. The study, published in Science Advances, uses a new type of evolutionary model called a “fitness seascape” to incorporate a patient’s dosage schedule into models that predict whether an infection will develop antibiotic resistance, and has found that inconsistent timing and missing early doses can lead to treatment failure.

Synergistic drug combinations explored for systemic sclerosis vasodilation

It is known that vasculopathy plays a pivotal role in the pathogenesis of systemic sclerosis (SSc). Vasoactive vasodilating drugs (VVD) are an option. The most recent treatment recommendations from EULAR—The European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology—note that advances in vasculopathy management for patients with SSc emphasize a treatment continuum for the use of various VVD, but also stress the need for trials to look for potential synergistic combinations as well as high-quality real-world data to build the evidence. New data shared at the 2025 EULAR congress in Barcelona may take a step in that direction.