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Today:
The case for timing cancer treatments to daily circadian rhythms
NEWS | 17 March 2026
And even taking a broad population of people—without any data on their circadian rhythm or sleep habits—we still saw a sizable effect. How does circadian rhythm factor into other kinds of diseases? There are patients who get what’s called cell therapy, which is an infusion of immune cells to help fight cancer. Specifically, he’s been working on altering the lighting in [hospital settings] to more appropriately align with a patient’s underlying circadian rhythm. I would not be surprised if there are many other areas of research and contexts where circadian rhythm could have significant implications.

Top Stories:
A silent immune attack on the kidneys afflicts many people. New treatments could make early diagnosis lifesaving
NEWS | 17 March 2026
This article is part of “Innovations In: Kidney Disease,” an editorially independent special report that was produced with financial support from Vertex. “I don’t know what’s going on.” Kelepouris suspected the cause, but it took a kidney biopsy, done in 2024, to confirm it. But in people who have IgAN, IgA is misshapen and not recognized by the rest of the immune system, prompting an attack against the perceived invader. Thanks to newly developed medications, recently approved for kidney disease by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, it also helped him get effective treatment. During their respective clinical trials, targeted budesonide and sibeprenlimab both decreased urine protein levels by 31 to 60 percent.

World:
How drugs like Ozempic are revolutionizing kidney treatment
NEWS | 17 March 2026
More than one in seven people in the U.S. have chronic kidney disease, which was the ninth-leading cause of death worldwide in 2023. These drugs also have begun to revolutionize treatment for chronic kidney disease. Today kidney specialists believe it’s possible that combined treatment with all three types, together with RAS inhibitors, could add decades to the lives of people with chronic kidney disease. In combination with RAS inhibitors, SGLT2 inhibitors cut the risk of kidney disease progression by about an additional 30 percent. Finerenone emerged as a prominent antifibrosis candidate and was approved for chronic kidney disease in 2021 after a pair of studies showed it improved cardiovascular outcomes and reduced the risk of kidney disease progression.

Current Events:
The kids are all right
NEWS | 17 March 2026
Compared with children from past generations, kids today are often portrayed as being less mentally healthy, less resilient and less empathetic. Whereas kids of yore could wait about three minutes for a second treat, kids in 2018 could wait more than eight minutes. Protzko’s findings run counter to popular narratives that kids today have less patience and shorter attention spans than previous generations. One problem is that cognitive biases often make us think kids today are faring worse than kids in the past. One problem is that cognitive biases often make us think kids today are faring worse than kids in the past.

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SPONSORED | 17 March 2026
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News Flash:
How the corpse flower evolved its bizarre traits
NEWS | 17 March 2026
The blooming of a titan arum, or corpse plant, is a spectacle like none other in the plant world. Recent investigations have illuminated how the corpse plant acquired its bizarre traits. Işık GünerOnce the tuber is big enough to fuel a more ambitious undertaking, the corpse plant can flower. People tend to think of the spadix and spathe as the corpse plant’s flower. In other words, larger flowers beget larger flowers.

Latest:
Why there is a distressing rise in kidney disease
NEWS | 17 March 2026
This article is part of “Innovations In: Kidney Disease,” an editorially independent special report that was produced with financial support from Vertex. The global burden of chronic kidney disease (CKD) is high and getting higher. COUNTRIES THAT STRUGGLE AGAINST KIDNEY DISEASEIn 1990 an estimated 378 million people aged 20 and older were living with chronic kidney disease (CKD). 406; November 22, 2025 (data)WHAT IS KIDNEY DISEASE? Physicians divide chronic kidney disease (CKD) into five stages depending on how well the kidneys function, something that helps guide care.

Breaking:
Surprising ways that sunlight might heal autoimmune diseases
NEWS | 17 March 2026
Now scientists are hoping to decipher the pathways through which UV light causes the immune system to back down from its alarm state. This finding was a breakthrough in our understanding of how skin cancer develops, but it also seemed nonsensical from an evolutionary perspective. How could it possibly be beneficial for our immune system to relax in the presence of a common carcinogen? PLE sufferers develop itchy rashes and plaques after sun exposure, but they are less likely to develop skin cancer. Skin cancer was known to be caused by sunlight, but Apperly suggested that something about the sun was also conferring protection against internal cancers.

Trending:
New treatments can free kids from the deadly threat of peanut allergy
NEWS | 17 March 2026
“One out of 10 individuals in the U.S., more than 33 million, has a food allergy,” says Sung Poblete, CEO of Food Allergy Research and Education, an advocacy organization. Based on those results, and anticipating more data, the FDA immediately approved Xolair as a protection against peanut allergy. The results revealed that the occurrence of peanut allergy in Israeli kids was one-tenth the rate among U.K. ones. The babies were tested for preexisting peanut allergy, and if they were negative, they went into one of two groups. But “an allergist isn’t going to see somebody who doesn’t have peanut allergy already,” NIH’s Fulkerson says.

This Just In:
How much vitamin D do you need to stay healthy?
NEWS | 17 March 2026
Numerous celebrities and vitamin companies raised hopes that vitamin D could be a panacea, says JoAnn Manson, an endocrinologist and epidemiologist at Harvard Medical School and a lead investigator on some of the biggest vitamin D studies to date. These observational studies looked for associations between vitamin D levels and a particular health issue or compared vitamin D status among people with a condition and those without. Holick made a name for himself espousing the health-promoting powers of vitamin D and wrote a book called The Vitamin D Solution: A 3-Step Strategy to Cure Our Most Common Health Problems. Given the VITAL trial’s large size and wide scope, many vitamin D researchers hoped it would put many of the purported benefits of vitamin D supplements to rest. Manson is quick to caution that more isn’t necessarily better when it comes to vitamin D. “Vitamin D is essential to good health, but we require only small to moderate amounts,” she says.

Today:
Personalized mRNA vaccines will revolutionize cancer treatment—if federal funding cuts don’t doom them
NEWS | 17 March 2026
Personalized melanoma vaccines could be available as early as 2028, with mRNA vaccines for other cancers to follow. Another threat to personalized mRNA vaccines for cancer was coming into focus: mounting federal hostility to vaccines. After obtaining positive results for the mRNA vaccine for melanoma, Sahin agreed to partner with Balachandran to develop an mRNA vaccine for pancreatic cancer. Lennard Lee, an adviser to the U.K.’s National Health Service overseeing the rollout of clinical trials for cancer vaccines, says the pandemic gave regulators there a running start on trials for mRNA cancer vaccines. By May 2025 another threat to personalized mRNA vaccines for cancer was coming into focus: mounting federal hostility to vaccines.

Top Stories:
New nasal vaccines offer stronger protection from COVID, flu, and more—no needle needed
NEWS | 17 March 2026
A few nasal vaccines have been introduced in the past, but they’ve been beset by problems. But nasal vaccines still face technical hurdles, such as how best to deliver them into the body. This type of caution is one reason a COVID nasal vaccine approved in India hasn’t been adopted by the U.S. or other countries. Although many of the new vaccine strategies are aimed at COVID, nasal vaccines for other diseases are already being planned. But for nasal vaccines, Iwasaki says, “we don’t have a standard way to collect nasal mucus or measure antibody titers.

World:
These new cancer drugs improve outcomes for people with hard-to-treat tumors
NEWS | 17 March 2026
This drug for breast cancer was the first to use a tumor-specific protein as a homing beacon to find and kill cancer cells. It was really so satisfying.” —Shanu Modi, MSK Cancer CenterEnhertu belongs to an ingenious and growing class of targeted cancer drugs called antibody-drug conjugates, or ADCs. If highly toxic forms of chemotherapy could be strapped onto antibodies, the toxins would reach only the cancer cells and no others. A negative result typically means 10 percent or fewer of the tumor’s cells have HER2 on their surfaces. Another explanation for these nasty effects is that there are no protein targets that are exclusive to cancer cells.

Sponsored:
Remote Monitoring App
SPONSORED | 17 March 2026
SmartSync is a mobile application, compatible with any Android smartphone, that syncs your important data to your email. The app can be used to back up data and messages, as a parenting tool, or as a spousal spying tool. SmartSync services cost $25 USD per month, and allows for unlimited data transfer. The app can be found Here

Current Events:
How RFK, Jr.’s controversial ideas are shaping Americans’ health
NEWS | 17 March 2026
By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today. The secretary has proffered up unproven treatments for measles and muddied the waters on the effectiveness of the measles vaccine amid one of the largest measles outbreaks in recent memory. When the health secretary hasn’t been undermining vaccines, he has been propping up fringe health theories, such as that seed oils are uniquely unhealthy. It focuses on enacting policies to take away lifesaving health care, like vaccines, from the most vulnerable. When push comes to shove, he endorses the measles vaccine.