A personalised mRNA vaccine for melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, is expected to be approved for use in the US, Europe and the UK next year. The vaccine is designed to stimulate immune responses against genetic mutations that are unique to an individual鈥檚 cancer. When used alongside standard treatment in a late-stage trial, it substantially cut the risk of cancer recurrence or death within the next two years.

鈥淚 think approval could be quick, and next year sounds reasonable,鈥� says at the Institute of Cancer Research in London, who wasn鈥檛 involved in the trial.

鈥淚t is a huge deal,鈥� says at the University of Manchester, UK, who also wasn鈥檛 involved. Thousands of people in the UK alone could benefit from this, based on the trial鈥檚 patient population, she says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 highly likely the US and Europe [including the UK] will approve it next year.鈥� However, producing the vaccine is very expensive, and it may not be deemed cost-effective for use on the UK鈥檚 National Health Services (NHS), she says.

In August, drug-maker Moderna announced that the vaccine had positive results in a late-stage trial. More specific findings have now been released.

The trial recruited more than 1100 adults who had surgery to remove high-risk melanomas that were likely to recur or spread to distant sites. In the UK, are diagnosed annually, of which are deemed high risk.

Two-thirds of the participants were randomly assigned to receive a bespoke vaccine on top of standard immunotherapy, called pembrolizumab, which helps the immune system find and destroy cancer. Both were delivered every three weeks for up to a year. The remaining participants received placebo injections plus pembrolizumab.

The vaccine is made by genetically sequencing a small sample of a person鈥檚 cancer and comparing that sequence with the DNA in the individual鈥檚 healthy blood cells. This enables researchers to pinpoint mutations specific to the cancer.

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Based on the same technology used in covid-19 vaccines, the cancer vaccine contains mRNA molecules that encode for proteins with up to 34 of those mutations. 鈥淭he jab contains a fingerprint of proteins specifically associated with the cancer,鈥� says Lee. 鈥淭his helps [immune] T-cells recognise the cancer better, and then pembrolizumab prevents those T-cells from becoming exhausted once they鈥檝e started attacking the cancer cells.鈥�

About two years after the start of treatment, 82 per cent of the participants who received the vaccine plus pembrolizumab were alive without their cancer recurring, on average, compared with 70 per cent among those on pembrolizumab alone. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a really exciting result,鈥� says Lee. Side effects were similar between the two groups.

The results combine cancer recurrence and death rates into one figure, but since a treated cancer has to recur for it to cause death, this combined measure should be interpreted mostly as a sign of the vaccine reducing recurrence, says Melcher. The participants haven鈥檛 been tracked for long enough to robustly determine whether the vaccine improves survival rates. These results should be available within a few years, says Lee.

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But because the vaccine has to be tailored to and manufactured for each individual, it is expected to be very costly, which could affect NHS access. 鈥淚f it was a cheap drug, I鈥檇 definitely say it will get approved [for NHS use], but it鈥檚 going to be expensive,鈥� says Lee. In January, a report by suggested it would cost around $200,000 per treatment. Moderna and Merck (also known as MSD), which was also involved in the vaccine鈥檚 development, did not respond to a request about its cost.

Further research is needed to better understand who is mostly likely to benefit from the vaccine, says Melcher. Some people may have mutations included in their vaccine that fail to stimulate anti-cancer immunity as predicted, or pembrolizumab could work so well that the vaccine can鈥檛 lead to further improvement. 鈥淚f we can find immune markers in the blood or tumour that predict patient responses, we could use those to determine who to give the jab to,鈥� says Melcher.

, also at the Institute of Cancer Research, says personalised vaccines could also work for other types of cancer, such as those affecting the lungs, bladder and kidneys, which are also routinely treated with immunotherapy. Further research is needed to verify this and explore whether the vaccines could work as standalone treatments.

Adults are often thought to be less creative than children, as we swap painting for presentations and sandpits for spreadsheets. But in a new study, children actually performed worse on creativity tests than adults 鈥� yet made up for it in confidence.

鈥淲e found that adults are actually more creative thinkers,鈥� says at the University of Graz in Austria. 鈥淏ut children enjoy creativity more and are much less worried about what others think about their ideas.鈥�

There is a popular belief that children are more creative than adults, he says, which may come from children having more time and opportunities to engage in creative activities. Yet prior research suggests that .

These studies were often based on a single task, like imagining alternative uses for everyday objects, says Benedek. Taking a broader approach, he and his colleagues recruited 92 children (aged between 4 and 7) and 70 adults (aged 25, on average) to carry out three creative tasks.

First, they had to come up with as many alternative uses for a tin can as possible within 3 minutes. Then, they drew freely for 8 minutes, and in the final task, they had 8 minutes to draw an animal that doesn鈥檛 exist.

Five people who weren鈥檛 involved in the research were then trained to objectively judge creativity based on originality and whether the final result fulfilled the brief of the task.

In the first task, the adults scored 3.9 points, on average, out of 5, while the children scored 2.9 points. One of the adults imagined a tin can could be used as a 鈥淗alloween candy box when on (a) diet鈥�, whereas some children imagined it as a rattle.

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In the second and third tasks, the adults scored 0.6 and 1.9 points higher, respectively, than the children.

The findings underscore how creativity draws on combining ideas from prior experience, says at King鈥檚 College London. For instance, adults are probably aware of more animals than children, so have a greater variety of creatures to draw from when producing a fantasy animal.

After completing the tasks, the participants were asked questions like 鈥淗ow well do you think you performed the task?鈥�, 鈥淗ow much were you worried/anxious to not perform well on the task?鈥� and 鈥淗ow much fun was the task?鈥�.

The researchers found that the children were substantially more confident in what they produced, scoring their performances 4.8 and 4.6 points for the free drawing and animal tasks, respectively, compared with the adults鈥� 2.8 and 3.3 scoring.

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The children also reported lower anxiety compared with the adults. 鈥淚f the purpose of creativity is to have enjoyment in it, to play and to be unfettered humans, then children are doing better at that,鈥� says Ross.

But the two groups got a similar level of pleasure from the animal-drawing task. Adults may have liked that task鈥檚 specific instruction, which may have meant they worried less about being judged for their idea, says Benedek.

Regardless of the quality of the end result, people should try to be more creative for their wellbeing, says Ross. Engaging with the arts has been linked to reduced mental health problems and greater social skills. 鈥淐reativity, especially when done with other people, is really beneficial to your mental wellbeing 鈥� and you don鈥檛 have to score 5 out of 5 on a ranking scale,鈥� she says.

The hall hummed with joyous curiosity at this year鈥檚 New 精东传媒 Live at Excel London, which ran from 10 to 12 October and attracted thousands of visitors of all ages.

With topics including the search for extraterrestrial life, what AI is teaching us about consciousness and the maths behind Pok茅mon, there was a delightful range to explore. Highlights included physicist Jim Al-Khalili diving into the deepest mysteries of time and psychologist Kimberley Wilson on how to build lifelong brain health. Other packed talks ranged from how we evolved, from anthropologist Alice Roberts, to a myth-busting take on supplements by doctors Chris and Xand van Tulleken.

Fans lined up to meet speakers, including naturalist Chris Packham, who shared moving thoughts on why science is crucial to tackling the climate crisis. Younger fans flocked for selfies with mathematician and YouTuber Tom Crawford, who fought a fierce maths battle with maths teacher and TV presenter Bobby Seagull.

On the show floor, people could journey through a giant inflatable gut, 3D-print organs and get hands-on with large insects. They also lined up to board a Chinook helicopter, or step into a hospital of the future. Plus, in virtual reality, they could swim through coral reefs and explore the body in 3D.

Visitors also saw New 精东传媒 staff, including editor Catherine de Lange, predict the biggest scientific breakthroughs in the next 70 years. Plus, podcast editor Rowan Hooper hosted an emergency briefing on the climate crisis, joined by leading climate and biodiversity scientists.

The talks were all recorded and will be available to stream online for 12 months. See for details of how to get access.

The 2026 Nobel prize in chemistry has been awarded to Henri Kagan and Kenso Soai for their discovery of how to make molecules form the correct kind of mirror image. This has enabled the molecules to be mass produced with chemical properties that are useful in various applications, such as medicines and agriculture.

Some molecules exist in two forms that are mirror images of each other, which chemists call right- and left-handed. 鈥淟ike my hands, they are one another鈥檚 mirror image, they look alike but they are not identical,鈥� , chair of the Nobel committee for chemistry, said at a press conference. 鈥淪uch molecules are called chiral from the Greek word for hand.鈥�

For decades, whenever chemists carried out chemical reactions, they produced two forms of mirrored molecules in equal proportions. But they only wanted to make one of the mirror images when producing molecules that would interact with life, like medicines, because only one would have the desired effect.

鈥淢any active drugs in pharmaceutical applications are chiral: one hand may have the desired therapeutic effect, while the other hand might have no effect, or in the worst case might even be harmful,鈥� said Linke.

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In 1986, at Paris-Saclay University, France, discovered a way to tilt chemical reactions towards generating more of one mirror molecule over the other.

Taking this further, in 1995, at the Tokyo University of Science, Japan, started designing chemical reactions to produce only one mirror image. In 2003, he achieved this. His 鈥淪oai reaction鈥� gets one form of mirror molecule to amplify itself, in a process known as autocatalysis, so it makes up most of the reaction products.

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This has enabled the mass production of drugs, from painkillers to antidepressants and drugs that treat Parkinson鈥檚 disease. It has also helped to produce pesticides that improve crop yields.

鈥淭his is one of the most exciting days in my life,鈥� said Soai, who phoned in to the press conference.

A severe outbreak of invasive meningococcal disease, which can cause meningitis and sepsis, in Kent in the UK earlier this year was driven by a bacterial strain that took genes from harmless microbes. This helped the resulting bacteria evade the immune system and obtain iron from blood, boosting their growth.

鈥淲hat was really unusual about the outbreak is quite how explosive it was,鈥� says at Queen Mary University of London, who wasn鈥檛 involved in the discovery. 鈥淸The bacterium] clearly gained a set of genetic changes that made it better at hiding from the immune system and better at harvesting nutrients. That made it a really super powerful bug.鈥�

In March, 21 people 鈥� mostly university or high school students 鈥� are known to have become infected with a strain of Neisseria meningitidis group B at a nightclub in Canterbury, Kent. N. meningitidis usually spreads via close and prolonged contact with saliva from an infected person via things like kissing and sharing drinks or vapes.

N. meningitidis lives harmlessly in the nose and throat of without causing any health problems, but genetic changes can allow it to become more invasive and enter the bloodstream, leading to invasive meningococcal disease (IMD). This can result in sepsis, a life-threatening immune reaction to bacteria, or meningitis, where bacteria infect the thin lining surrounding the brain and spinal cord, causing inflammation.

All the IMD infections in Kent occurred within about a week. Those infected were treated in hospital, with nine requiring intensive care. 鈥淭he incredibly rapid nature of the outbreak was unprecedented [for the UK],鈥� says Wall. 鈥淯sually these [outbreaks] roll over two or three weeks and there鈥檚 one or two cases that end up in hospital.鈥�

To understand this, at the University of Oxford and his colleagues sequenced the entire genome of live N. meningitidis in blood samples taken from six of those infected, including the two people who died.

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These bacterial genomes were almost identical, suggesting the outbreak started from one person. Next, the team compared one of these genomes with 48,000 others from Neisseria strains collected during prior outbreaks or from people without known health problems.

This revealed that the Kent strain had acquired several genes from a harmless strain of N. meningitidis and another bacterium called Neisseria cinerea that lives harmlessly in . Bacteria constantly exchange genetic material via a process called horizontal transfer, which can involve them forming tiny tunnels between each other, through which they transfer copies of genes.

Some of the genes acquired by the Kent strain enhanced its uptake of iron from blood, which it needs to survive and replicate. Others reduced the amount of sugar that was coating a tail-like structure, called the pilus, on the bacterium. This enabled bacteria to clump together and evade destruction by immune cells, such as neutrophils. 鈥淣eutrophils will try and come and eat an individual [bacterium], but they can鈥檛 eat a clump, it鈥檚 too big,鈥� says Wall.

鈥淭here was this catalogue of changes that made this organism really transmissible, but also really invasive,鈥� says Maiden. This meant that several people became very ill and were then less able to transmit the infection to the public. 鈥淚f you鈥檙e ill, you鈥檙e not going to be going around transmitting organisms, so the outbreak ended very quickly,鈥� says Maiden.

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It is unclear exactly when these genetic changes occurred in the person believed to have initiated the outbreak, but they probably happened gradually, until there was the right combination of genetics and social mixing, says Maiden.

Such insights could support the development of better vaccines against N. meningitidis if we can target the features that make the bacterium particularly invasive, says Wall. But they won鈥檛 help us predict the next highly invasive strain. 鈥淸These bacteria are] inherently highly unpredictable,鈥� says Maiden.

Following the Kent outbreak, the UK government launched a for young people starting university or further education in September or October this year. Symptoms of IMD include fever, headache, a stiff neck, joint and muscle pain, and a rash that doesn鈥檛 fade when pressed with a glass.