New research investigates the link between insomnia, anxiety, and depression

Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience - KNAW

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Infographic: New research reveals brain circuits linking insomnia, anxiety and depression

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Credit: Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience

New research from the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience maps the similarities and differences between the three most common brain disorders.

Insomnia, depression, and anxiety are the most common mental disorders. Treatments are often only moderately effective, with many people experiencing returning symptoms. This is why it is crucial to find new leads for treatments. Notably, these disorders overlap a lot, often occurring together. Could there be a shared brain mechanism behind this phenomenon?

Siemon de Lange, Elleke Tissink, and Eus van Someren, together with their colleagues from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, investigated brain scans of more than 40.000 participants from the UK Biobank. Elleke Tissink: ‘In our lab, we explore the similarities and differences between insomnia, anxiety, and depression. Everyone looks at this from a different perspective: some mainly look at genetics and in this study, we look at brain scans. What aspects are shared between the disorders, and what is unique to each one?

Overlap and differences

 ‘We investigated many different aspects, like the structure and connectivity of the brain tissue. In all three disorders, we observe a reduced surface area of the cerebral cortex, a smaller thalamic volume, and weaker connectivity between different brain regions.’

‘In addition, some abnormalities are unique to each disorder. For example, the severity of insomnia appears to be more closely related to smaller volumes in the brain areas associated with reward. The severity of depression, on the other hand, seems to be more strongly related to a thinner cerebral cortex in brain areas associated with language and emotion. Instead, anxiety is more severe with weaker amygdala reactivity and functional connectivity between regions where dopamine, glutamate, and histamine play a crucial role in communication.

Similar brain circuit

But what can we ultimately do with this information? Tissink continues: ‘The regions seem separate from each other, but when you map them out together, they all turn out to be part of the same circuit (amygdala–hippocampus–medial prefrontal cortex circuit). So, even though they are distinct areas, they all appear to represent different pieces of vulnerability within the same puzzle.’

‘A lot of research has been done on the overlap between anxiety and depression, but insomnia is often forgotten. This is the first time that we have investigated all three disorders at the same time, on such a big scale. De comorbidity is extremely high: people may experience these disorders in different stages of their lives, or experience them all at once. There is a lot of discussion about the underlying mechanisms. The treatment of insomnia, for example, sometimes also improves depression – but why? By further investigating this question, we hope to find new leads for follow-up research, as well as better treatments.’

Source: Nature Mental Health

 

Research explores how the EU can improve its regulatory framework to drive pharmaceutical innovation

Bayes Business School research examines how European pharmaceutical framework can establish competitive advantages for improved access to new medicines.

City St George’s, University of London

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New research from Bayes Business School, in collaboration with biopharmaceuticals company Merck KGaA, suggests member states from the European Union (EU) must work more closely together, provide better incentives for the development of new medicines and approve access to medicines quicker than other international regulators, if it is to attract greater investment from pharmaceutical companies.

The pharmaceutical industry is a highly competitive market races for innovation, approval and rollout. National and regional regulatory frameworks are vital for fostering effective innovation, creating ecosystems to attract large pharmaceutical companies to develop biological and orphan drugs locally. Regulatory ecosystems, including those from the US (FDA), Europea Union (EMA), UK (MHRA), China (NMPA) and Japan (PMDA) are all in competition to approve innovative medicines, but must also work together to achieve global aims – particularly in crises as seen during Covid.

Current trends indicate that these pharmaceutical companies favour the US and other ecosystems over Europe for first submissions to develop drugs, due to faster average approval times, regulatory support and stronger incentives.

The qualitative research was led by Stefan Haefliger, Professor of Strategic Management and Innovation at Bayes, and Pedro Franco, Bayes alumnus (Executive MBA, 2023) and Head of Europe Global Regulatory and Scientific Policy at Merck KGaA. It aimed to explore reasons why leading pharmaceutical companies favoured other markets, and what the European Union could do to gain competitive advantages over these to reestablish its global reputation. The study involved interviews with 47 senior practitioners in the pharmaceuticals industry, from across 19 nationalities.

The most commonly identified reasons given by experts for companies choosing the US over the EU included:

• Lower prices in the EU, which restrict revenues and margins for pharmaceutical companies.
• The EU’s smaller market size compared to the US.
• Complications in post-approval access to medicines due to differing reimbursement systems across EU countries.
• Rising costs in the EU, including taxes and research & development, are disincentivising production.
• Insufficient access to capital, resources and expertise.
• Fewer clinical trials in European countries due to regulatory restrictions.

The study also revealed measures that could help the European regulatory ecosystem establish competitive advantages through leveraging strengths. These included introduction of regulatory sandboxes, joint scientific advice for drug-devices, the introduction of electronic product information, and simplification of the existing regulatory system and unlimited marketing authorisation – which avoids pharmaceutical companies to renew licences every five years.

Professor Haefliger said:

“It is widely recognised that the European drug dispersion has fallen behind that of the US and others. Indeed, the UK’s development and rapid deployment of the Oxford Astra-Zeneca vaccination during Covid was celebrated by Eurosceptics as a ‘Brexit dividend’ – following the UK regulatory framework’s aggressive strategy after departure from the trading bloc.

“Pharmaceuticals are also a hot talking point right now, with President Trump’s recent tariff announcements causing a stir in Ireland and across the EU – amid fears that industry giants such as Johnson & Johnson may look to relocate instead of paying costly sums to export their products to the US market.

“Our study is supported by findings of the 2024 Draghi Report, that laid bare the EU’s stagnation in pharmaceutical growth and urged reform in regulatory processes, capital access, and technological adoption.

“While many individuals in our study cite the lack of synergy between EU members as a reason for their reluctance to develop drugs in Europe, there remains a highly diverse pool of expertise – and certainly the potential to become a more attractive proposition.

“Without significant changes, however, the EU risks falling further behind its competitors in attracting pharmaceutical innovation, investment, and leading research talent.”

‘Competition of regulatory ecosystems in approving medicines: Policy implications in the case of Europe’ by Pedro Franco and Professor Stefan Haefliger is published in Drug Discovery Today.

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Journal

Drug Discovery Today

Method of Research

Survey

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Competition of regulatory ecosystems in approving medicines: policy implications in the case of Europe

 

Evolutionary rescue: The solution for microbial communities to survive environmental stress is self-sufficiency

A UMA scientist reveals it by using a synthetic laboratory model based on two genetically engineered strains of the intestinal bacteria Escherichia coli

University of Malaga

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A UMA scientist reveals it by using a synthetic laboratory model based on two genetically engineered strains of the intestinal bacteria Escherichia coli. This study, published in the prestigious journal Nature Communications, reveals that, when facing extreme environmental changes, cooperation can be broken as a strategy to avoid extinction

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Credit: University of Malaga

Microorganisms –defined as very small living beings, invisible to the naked eye, comprising bacteria, fungi, viruses or others– naturally compete and cooperate in nature for survival. However, does ‘environmental stress’ to which they are subjected due to global changes, such as global warming, sea level rise or air pollution, affect them and to what extent?

Ignacio J. Melero-Jiménez, a researcher at the Department of Botany and Plant Physiology of the University of Malaga, has collaborated with an international scientific team that has shown, based on an experimental system that reproduces a mutualistic microbial community, that the most common evolutionary solution for two co-dependent organisms to survive extreme environmental change could be to become self-sufficient. 

This phenomenon is known as ‘evolutionary rescue’: a rapid genetic adaptation that allows organisms to avoid extinction in critical situations. In this case, mutualism is broken as an evolutionary solution to avoid extinction. The results of this study have been recently published in the scientific journal Nature Communications.

The research, conducted for more than two years, is the result of a postdoctoral stay of the UMA scientist, supported by the Margarita Salas Fellowship. The experimental works were initially carried out at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel) under the coordination of the researcher Jonathan Friedman and, subsequently, the genetic analysis and data processing took place at the Center for Plant Biotechnology and Genomics of the UPM-INIA/CSIC in Madrid, under the leadership of the specialist Alejandro Couce.

Genetic engineering

Together with five authors from these two scientific institutions, Melero-Jiménez has explored how microbial communities evolve when facing extreme stress conditions. For this purpose, they used a synthetic model based on two genetically engineered strains of the intestinal bacteria Escherichia coli, designed to depend strictly on each other: each strain produces an essential amino acid that the other needs to survive.

Specifically, the experimental phase of the study consisted in culturing these microbial communities under controlled laboratory conditions and subjecting them to situations of severe environmental stress, with the aim of observing how they responded evolutionarily over time. 

Experimental evolution, genome sequencing and phenotypic analyses

“We exposed these communities to different conditions of lethal stress and monitored their growth over multiple generations. For comparison, we used an ancestral strain that did not depend on any partner to survive. Interestingly, we observed that when mutualistic communities underwent stress the quickest evolutionary solution was to break down the mutualism,” says the UMA scientist.

The expert explains that they used an experimental evolution approach to analyze how the microbial community responded to stress. Interestingly, during the experiment they observed that, instead of strengthening mutualism, this breaks down under extreme conditions. In order to understand the mechanisms behind this breakdown, genetic and phenotypic techniques were used. The results were surprising: dependence on each other made these bacteria more vulnerable to stress. Instead, those who managed to fend for themselves were more likely to survive.

This finding suggests that while mutualism may be beneficial in a stable environment, it can become a disadvantage when conditions become adverse. Thus, it raises a big question: If cooperation is so common in nature, why does it seem so fragile when conditions change? “This research gives us new clues to understand how far cooperation between microbes can go when the environment becomes hostile”, concludes Melero-Jiménez.

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Melero-Jiménez, I. J., Sorokin, Y., Merlin, A., Li, J., Couce, A., & Friedman, J. (2025). Mutualism breakdown underpins evolutionary rescue in an obligate cross-feeding bacterial consortium. Nature Communications. DOI:  10.1038/s41467-025-58742-1.

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Journal

Nature Communications

DOI

10.1038/s41467-025-58742-1 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Mutualism breakdown underpins evolutionary rescue in an obligate cross-feeding bacterial consortium

 

AGU and AMS join forces on special collection to maintain momentum of research supporting the US National Climate Assessment

Science societies take action after NCA authors' dismissal this week

American Meteorological Society

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American Meteorological Society logo

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Credit: American Meteorological Society

The American Geophysical Union (AGU), the world’s largest association of Earth and space scientists, and the American Meteorological Society (AMS), the professional society for atmospheric and related sciences and services, invite manuscripts for a new, first-of-its-kind special collection focused on climate change in the United States. This catalog of over 29 peer-reviewed journals covers all aspects of climate, including observations, projections, impacts, risks, and solutions.

This effort aims to sustain the momentum of the sixth National Climate Assessment (NCA), the authors and staff of which were dismissed earlier this week by the Trump Administration, almost a year into the process. Congressionally mandated, the NCA draws on the latest scientific research to evaluate how climate change is affecting the United States. The new special collection does not replace the NCA but instead creates a mechanism for this important work to continue.

“It’s incumbent on us to ensure our communities, our neighbors, our children are all protected and prepared for the mounting risks of climate change,” said AGU President Brandon Jones. “This collaboration provides a critical pathway for a wide range of researchers to come together and provide the science needed to support the global enterprise pursuing solutions to climate change.”

This special collection is a unique and open opportunity for the scientific community to share their work in support of any U.S.-based scientific assessment. AGU and AMS invite other organizations that are publishing scholarly journals to join and help build the scope of this inclusive collaboration.

"The National Climate Assessment is a comprehensive, rigorous integration and evaluation of the latest climate science knowledge that decision makers — from government at all levels to private enterprise — need in order to understand the world in which we live," said AMS President David J. Stensrud. "Our economy, our health, our society are all climate-dependent. While we cannot replace the NCA, we at AMS see it as vital to support and help expand this collaborative scientific effort for the benefit of the U.S. public and the world at large."

NOTE: Submission details are forthcoming and will be posted and shared across all AGU and AMS platforms.

About the American Geophysical Union

The American Geophysical Union (www.agu.org) is a global community supporting more than half a million scientists, advocates, and professionals in Earth and space sciences. Through broad and inclusive partnerships, AGU aims to advance discovery and solution science that accelerate knowledge and create solutions that are ethical, unbiased and respectful of communities and their values. Our programs include serving as a scholarly publisher, convening virtual and in-person events and providing career support. We live our values in everything we do, such as our net zero energy renovated building in Washington, D.C. and our Ethics and Equity Center, which fosters a diverse and inclusive geoscience community to ensure responsible conduct. 

About the American Meteorological Society

The American Meteorological Society (www.ametsoc.org) advances the atmospheric and related sciences, technologies, applications, and services for the benefit of society. Founded in 1919, AMS has a membership of around 12,000 professionals, students, and weather enthusiasts. AMS publishes 12 atmospheric and related oceanic and hydrologic science journals; sponsors more than 12 conferences annually; and offers numerous programs and services. 

 

How mid-Cretaceous events affected marine top predators

European Geosciences Union

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3D models of the skull of typical species before (top) and after (bottom) the Cenomanian-Turonian transition: the fast ichthyosaur Sveltonectes insolitus (top) and the large mosasaurid Mosasaurus hoffmanni 

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Credit: Valentin Fischer, Francesco Della Giustina

Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous oceans are known for enormous and fierce predators like pliosaurids with 2-meter-long jaws, toothy thalattosuchia crocodyliforms, and fast, fish-like ichthyosaurians. Then, during the middle Cretaceous, the fossil record shows an abrupt change . Ichthyosaurs, thalattosuchians, and pliosaurids disappeared. Meanwhile, mosasaurs, plesiosaurs, and sharks diversified and expanded. What changed to cause species that had ruled the oceans for millions of years to suddenly die out and new species to evolve?

According to a new study to be presented at the General Assembly of the European Geosciences Union next week, it was likely a period of ocean anoxia and climate volatility related to the hottest interval of the last 541 million years. This interval, known as the Cenomanian/Turonian transition, experienced the highest carbon dioxide concentrations during the Cretaceous, as well as disturbances in nutrients like sulphur and iron in the oceans. This transition is associated with a shift in top predators, creating the unique and somewhat short-lived oceanic food webs of the Late Cretaceous, according to Valentin Fischer of the Université de Liège in Belgium and his colleagues.

As Fischer and the team will report on Thursday, 01 May, at 11:25 CEST, they combined data on the phylogenetic relationships of hundreds of marine reptile lineages to analyze how extinctions were distributed in the tree of life. Then, they used the largest sample of 2D and 3D data on marine reptiles ever assembled to analyze the effect of these extinctions on the predatory capabilities of Cretaceous marine reptiles.

“Our analyses showed that the Cenomanian-Turonian transition is associated with elevated rates of extinction and that these extinctions disproportionally targeted some groups of large and fast predators, in a stepwise manner,” Fischer says.

For example, skull shapes of predators were significantly different before and after the transition, “notably resulting in distinct bite force”, he says. ​

Want to learn more about how marine predators changed during the mid-Cretaceous extinction event? Check out the SSP1.2 session on mass extinctions in Earth’s history at EGU 2025 on Thursday, 01 May, starting at 08:30 CEST.

Dr. Valentin Fischer will be available to journalists after the session.

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Original publication:

Fischer, V., Della Giustina, F., Bennion, R., and MacLaren, J.: How mid-Cretaceous events affected marine top predators, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-3100, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-3100, 2025.

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DOI

10.5194/egusphere-egu25-3100 

 

How will 13 million farmers fight back against sea level rise? New global model simulates adaptation, migration, and survival in the face of climate crises

European Geosciences Union

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Researchers from the Institute for Environmental Sciences (IVM) at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam have unveiled DYNAMO-M, a groundbreaking global agent-based model that projects how farmers across the world’s coasts may respond to the growing threat of coastal flooding and salt intrusion due to sea level rise (SLR). The model, which will be presented at the EGU General Assembly 2025 in Vienna, offers new insights into the challenges faced by 13 million farming households globally.

Using decision-making logic rooted in discounted expected utility (DEU) theory, DYNAMO-M doesn’t just forecast physical impacts — it simulates real human choices: stay and absorb losses, adapt with salt-tolerant crops and elevated homes, or migrate inland. These decisions play out year by year, crop by crop, from 2020 through 2080, covering 23 major food crops in flood-prone areas worldwide. “Rising seas are forcing a decision: stay, adapt, or migrate,” says lead researcher Kushagra Pandey.

The stakes are enormous. Rising salinity and floodwaters are already slashing crop yields and farming income. DYNAMO-M identifies hotspots of future migration, with vulnerable coastal regions in Florida, New York, Oregon, Japan, China, the Philippines, and Italy likely to see major shifts in population and land use. Notably, the model also highlights areas within 1 in 100 year floodplains, which are at particular risk.

But it’s not all doom and displacement. The team also tested insurance schemes and government support policies in the model, revealing that smart interventions could significantly reduce the pressure to migrate and help communities stay and thrive despite the rising tides. “Small subsidies can significantly enhance adaptive capacity and reduce migration driven by sea-level rise,” continues Kushagra Pandey.

The findings push the frontier of climate risk modelling and offer actionable insights for governments, insurers, and global development agencies grappling with how to support frontline farming communities in a warming world. DYNAMO-M could be the missing link in understanding one of the most urgent and complex questions of our time: what happens when our farmlands flood — and the farmers have to choose what to do next.

For further information or inquiries, please contact Kushagra Pandey at kushagrapandey.bsky.social. The project website is www.coastmove.org.

Note to the media

When reporting on this story, please mention the EGU General Assembly 2025, which is taking place from 27 April – 02 May 2025. This paper will be presented in full [Session HS5.2.3] at EGU25 on Friday, 02 May, 09:03–09:05 (CEST) PICO spot 4, PICO4.10If reporting online, please include a link to the abstract: https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU25/EGU25-10487.html

More information:
The European Geosciences Union (EGU) is Europe’s premier geosciences union, dedicated to the pursuit of excellence in Earth, planetary, and space sciences for the benefit of humanity. It is a non-profit interdisciplinary learned association of scientists founded in 2002 with headquarters in Munich, Germany. The EGU publishes a number of diverse scientific journals, organizes several topical meetings, and runs education and outreach activities. Its annual General Assembly is the largest and most prominent European geosciences event, attracting over 18,000 scientists worldwide.

The EGU General Assembly 2025 is taking place in Vienna, Austria and online from 27 April – 02 May 2025. For more information and press registration, please visit EGU25 website.

About the EGU

The European Geosciences Union (EGU) is the leading organisation for Earth, planetary and space science research in Europe. With our partner organisations worldwide, we foster fundamental geoscience research, alongside applied research that addresses key societal and environmental challenges. Our vision is to realise a sustainable and just future for humanity and for the planet. The annual EGU General Assembly is the largest and most prominent European geosciences event, attracting over 19,000 scientists from all over the world. The meeting’s sessions cover a wide range of topics, including volcanology, planetary exploration, the Earth’s internal structure and atmosphere, climate, as well as energy and resources. For more information about the meeting please check media.egu.eu or follow EGU on social media.

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DOI

10.5194/egusphere-egu25-10487