Tomorrow's world
Every aspect of our daily lives will be transformed by technology, from sensors and robotics to nanotechnology — while a changing climate and emerging microbial threats reshape the risks we face.
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Tomorrow's world posts, most recent first.
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Item new preprint
An Amish founder-population cohort links genomes and cognition in 3,978 older adults
The Collaborative Amish Aging and Memory Project has enrolled 3,978 older Amish adults in Ohio and Indiana, 2,928 with consensus-adjudicated cognitive status, alongside multigenerational pedigrees, whole-genome sequencing and plasma biomarkers, and reports no findings beyond its composition.
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Item new preprint
Bacteria in wastewater tracked community COVID-19 rates alongside viral load
A preprint reports that bacterial genera in wastewater, including gut commensals depleted during SARS-CoV-2 infection, tracked community COVID-19 case rates and predicted future rates slightly better than viral gene copies, though it gives no sample size or period.
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Item new preprint
Uvira's 2020 cholera vaccination campaign averted an estimated 56% of infections
A Bayesian model fitted to seven years of enhanced cholera surveillance in Uvira, Democratic Republic of the Congo, estimates that a 2020 oral vaccination campaign reaching 66% coverage averted 56% (95% CrI 34-81) of infections and deaths over the following three years.
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Item refines peer-reviewed
Bempedoic acid cut LDL-C 17.5% in routine use and a quarter stopped within three months
In 641 patients at seven German lipid clinics, adding bempedoic acid lowered LDL-C by a mean 17.5% at three months, though 34.0% had a suspected adverse event and 26.7% had stopped the drug by follow-up.
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Item confirms peer-reviewed
Telehealth-supported hepatitis C care was costed at 69% below specialist care
A cost model of the Cherokee Nation's hepatitis C ECHO telehealth programme put care at $1412 per patient against $4534 under conventional specialist care, on that one system's own accounts for 2016 to 2020.
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Item refines peer-reviewed
Shared genetic risk across cancers appears only in specific regions, not genome-wide
An analysis of 16 cancers plus a pan-cancer phenotype found only 20 genome-wide correlated cancer pairs but 82 genomic regions with shared local effects across 66 pairs, with cross-cancer polygenic score associations concentrated in immune and inflammatory pathways.
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Item confirms peer-reviewed
RSV hospitalisations in older Brazilians rose after 2020, with case fatality 21-31%
National surveillance records show RSV-associated severe acute respiratory infection hospitalisations in Brazilians aged 60 and over rose from under 1 to over 15 per 100,000 between 2013 and 2024, with in-hospital case fatality of 21-31% and a mean stay of 12.9 days.
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Item refines peer-reviewed
Scotland's post-pandemic invasive strep A surge involved no new hypervirulent clone
Surveillance of 3,408 invasive group A streptococcus infections in Scotland from 2014 to 2024, with whole-genome sequencing of 404 emm1 isolates, found the late-2022 surge coincided with influenza and RSV activity rather than a genetically distinct clone.
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Item new preprint
Daraxonrasib is estimated at $500,637 per QALY in pancreatic cancer at US launch price
A modelled economic evaluation of daraxonrasib in previously treated metastatic pancreatic adenocarcinoma estimated 0.506 additional QALYs at an incremental cost of $253,171, or $500,637 per QALY at the $39,800 monthly launch price, in a preprint not yet peer reviewed.
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Item refines peer-reviewed
Cancer polygenic scores were weaker in African-ancestry than European-ancestry veterans
Among 560,287 US veterans, all 13 cancer-specific polygenic risk scores were associated with their own cancer in European-ancestry participants (OR 1.05 to 1.70 per standard deviation), but only 5 of 13 reached significance in African-ancestry participants, with smaller effects (OR 1.01 to 1.48).
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Item refines preprint
Self-guided lipid app cut LDL-cholesterol by 3.9% more than usual care over six months
In a pragmatic online trial of 278 adults with LDL-cholesterol above their risk-adapted target, a fully self-guided lifestyle app added to usual care reduced LDL by 3.9% more than usual care alone at six months, with 41.7% versus 23.8% achieving a fall of at least 10%.
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Item new peer-reviewed
Fine particulate matter shows no association with ovarian cancer across pooled cohorts
A systematic review of 145 studies of environmental chemical exposures and gynaecologic cancers found no pooled association between PM2.5 and ovarian cancer (HR 1.02 per 5 µg/m³, 95% CI 0.91–1.13) and only a marginal one for endometrial cancer (HR 1.02, 95% CI 0.99–1.05).
