news 2025

Juvenile fibromyalgia is a chronic pain disorder that mainly affects adolescent girls. A study led by the University of Barcelona shows that resilience - the ability to cope adaptively with adversity - does not reduce the physical symptoms of this chronic disease, but could act as a protective factor at the emotional and brain level.

The Cambrian explosion was an extraordinary phenomenon in the evolution of life on the planet that led to the emergence of many animal phyla and the diversification of species. During this period, some 530 million years ago, most of the basic body plans of organisms that have survived to the present day emerged.

A research team at the University of Barcelona has shown how artificial intelligence (AI) models can detect personality traits from written texts, and for the first time has managed to analyse in detail how these systems make decisions. These results, published in the journal PLOs One , open up new perspectives for understanding how personality manifests itself in natural language and also how more transparent and reliable automatic detection tools can be built.

Researchers identify a protein that may help improve the treatment of obesity and cardiovascular disease Obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases are increasingly present in the population. Brown adipose tissue has a protective function against these prevalent diseases, as it burns calories and can produce body heat from fat.

In just over 20 years, the northward shift of the subtropical jet stream - a high-altitude airflow - caused by climate change has reduced primary production in the northwestern Mediterranean by about 40%. This marked reduction - the highest ever described - affects the base of the marine food web and could significantly impact living resources, ecosystem health and marine dynamics in this region of the Mediterranean.

According to the results of the European scientific project InnovaWorking The 4-day working day can increase productivity, improve work-life balance and retain talent when there is a real commitment on the part of the company that promotes it. These are some of the conclusions of InnovaWorking, a European scientific project coordinated by the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M), which presented today in the European Parliament its research results on innovative working time policies that have been negotiated between unions and employers in different countries of the European Union.

An international team of scientists has published a new report that moves towards a better understanding of the behaviour of some of the heaviest particles in the universe under extreme conditions, which are similar to those just after the big bang. The paper, published in the journal Physics Reports , is signed by physicists Juan M. Torres-Rincón, from the Institute of Cosmos Sciences at the University of Barcelona (ICCUB), Santosh K. Das, from the Indian Institute of Technology Goa (India), and Ralf Rapp, from Texas A&M University (United States).

The study provides a genomic map of the molecular mechanisms that enable this process, with potential implications for regenerative medicine. The mammalian liver has an extraordinary regenerative capacity, capable of fully restoring its mass and function after injury or partial resection. A study led by researchers at the University of Barcelona has identified the DNA regions that activate the regeneration of this organ.

Cohesin is a protein that forms a ring-shaped complex which wraps and alters the DNA molecule shape. It moves through the DNA and creates specific loops in the genetic material which determine the architecture of the genome and gene expression. Some mutations in the genes of the cohesion complex are responsible for rare diseases (cohesinopathies), such as the Cornelia de Lange syndrome (SCdL) or Roberts syndrome, which affect several organs and cause malformations during development.

A research team at the University of Barcelona's Institute of Neurosciences (UBneuro) has discovered new molecular mechanisms related to the cognitive decline associated with Alzheimer's disease, the most common dementia. This study, carried out on animal models with the disease, describes for the first time the decisive role of the RTP801 protein in cells known as astrocytes during the progression of this neurodegenerative disease.

Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) and Universidad de Cádiz have carried out a study aimed at understanding and addressing the problem of rural depopulation. To tackle this issue, the researchers propose an approach in which the set of policies, regulations and strategies that organize urban and rural development are integrated into the design of local development policies.

When the workload on the heart increases, the ventricular wall may thicken too, known as cardiac hypertrophy . This is an adaptive response that reduces pressure on the heart and maintains the activity of this vital organ. It is often a reversible process that does not cause serious effects on the structure or function of the heart, but if the factor causing cardiac overload becomes chronic, it can lead to pathological hypertrophy with more serious effects (dilatation of the ventricular cavities, alterations in cardiac function, heart failure, etc.

An international study led by the UB has shown cognitive and analgesic effects in early mouse trials. A study published in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry presents a new family of candidate compounds for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease and pain, which have shown promising effects in animal models.

Walking mobility is fundamental to urban sustainability and quality of life in any city, but there are few studies on how pedestrians move through public space and what urban and social factors influence this. A new study by researchers from the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), the University of Barcelona and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) has found that, in the case of Barcelona, pedestrian behaviour varies greatly from one neighbourhood to another.

Photoactivable drugs are activated when irradiated by a beam of light - via an optical fibre - thus generating a controlled and local therapeutic effect on target tissues.

Breakthrough achieved by UC3M and Harvard scientists A team of scientists from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) and Harvard University have experimentally demonstrated that it is possible to reprogram the mechanical and structural behaviour of innovative artificial materials with magnetic properties, known as metamaterials, without the need to modify their composition.

A study led by Paolo Padoan, ICREA research professor at the Institute of Cosmos Sciences of the University of Barcelona (ICCUB), is challenging the understanding of planetary disk formation around young stars. The paper, published in Nature Astronomy, reveals that the environment plays a crucial role in determining the size and lifetime of these planetary disks, which are the sites of planet formation.

A study co-led by the UB lays the chemical foundations that will allow the production of tailored alginates to meet the production demand in different industrial sectors Every year, thousands of tonnes of brown algae are extracted from the seabed to obtain compounds such as alginates, a polymer composed of sugars that has high density and strength, offering potential biotechnological applications.

Eighty-five percent of diagnosed cases of lung cancer are non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). In this group, 5% of patients show molecular alterations in the ALK gene involved in cell multiplication.

It shows neuroprotective and anti-inflammatory effects in animal models of the disease. Alzheimer's disease, the most common cause of dementia, is currently incurable. The current drugs available have very limited efficacy and only in mild stages of the disease. A team from the University of Barcelona has developed a promising therapeutic candidate to treat this disease, which affects more than 800,000 people in Spain.