A protective layer that is extremely picky about not letting harmful substances in can sometimes also keep useful things from entering the very space it is meant to protect. The body’s blood-brain barrier (BBB) is one such case. Designed to keep harmful toxins and pathogens in the bloodstream from making their way into the brain while still allowing essential nutrients to pass through, the BBB has become a formidable foe for drugs that need to be delivered to the brain.

High blood pressure affects nearly 1 in 8 people worldwide, and its impact goes far beyond a number on a blood pressure monitor. It can quietly damage the heart, kidneys and brain, making it one of the world’s biggest preventable health threats.

PROVIDENCE, R.I., Aug. 18, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — GT Medical Technologies, Inc., a medical device company dedicated to improving the lives of patients with brain tumors, announced today that new data from a multi-institutional feasibility clinical trial across 15 institutions nationwide presented by Clark Chen, M.D., Ph.D., professor and director of the Brain Tumor Program at Brown University Health, suggest that a novel radiation therapy device may help improve outcomes for patients newly diagnosed with glioblastoma, one of the deadliest forms of brain cancer.

Researchers from Houston Methodist and the University of Cambridge have developed a flexible device that wraps around the spinal cord and can simultaneously interpret multiple signals related to movement, sensation and internal body functions. The research demonstrates that a single device may be capable of restoring lost functions after spinal cord injury.

Researchers from the UT and Radboudumc have steered a tiny screw-shaped robot through real brain tissue, controlled only by a magnet outside the body. The test used sheep brain tissue in the lab. The team built a model that predicts exactly when such a robot loses control, a step towards treating stroke and tumors deep in the brain without open surgery. The study is published in the journal Advanced Science.

For patients facing a diagnosis of glioblastoma—one of the most aggressive and devastating forms of brain cancer—the standard path forward has long meant invasive open-skull surgery and a daunting prognosis.