Stem cells and diabetes reversal & HIV reservoirs and new treatments - News (Feb 26, 2026)

We’ll start in health and medical research—where two very different stories share the same theme: moving from long-term management toward long-term fixes. In China, researchers are reporting what they describe as a major step for diabetes treatment: stem-cell-based transplants intended to restore natural insulin production. In one type 2 case, lab-made insulin-producing pancreatic cells were transplanted, and the patient reportedly stopped needing insulin injections and even diabetes medications to keep blood sugar under control. The same coverage also points to an earlier type 1 case where a patient’s own fat-derived cells were reprogrammed into insulin-producing islet-like cells, with the patient staying off injections for more than a year. The promise here is obvious—treating the missing cell function, not just the symptoms. But so is the caveat: these are individual patient reports, not the kind of large, controlled trials that can prove durability and safety across many people. Still, for a world with hundreds of millions living with diabetes, it’s a development worth watching closely.

Now to HIV—where researchers are taking aim at one of the biggest barriers to a cure: the viral reservoir. A team from Weill Cornell Medicine, Rockefeller University, and collaborators published a Nature paper on February 24 describing a new way to isolate and grow extremely rare HIV-infected immune cells called “authentic reservoir clones,” or ARCs. These are CD4+ T cells with HIV genetic material integrated into their DNA. They can sit dormant—quiet enough to evade immune detection—yet capable of reigniting infection if antiretroviral therapy stops. What the researchers found helps explain why some “wake-and-kill” cure strategies have struggled: only a small fraction of these reservoir cells were producing virus at any given moment, and they were hard to reliably “wake up.” But there was another important twist. When HIV-killing immune cells—cytotoxic T lymphocytes, or CTLs—stayed in long-term contact with ARCs, most reservoir clones were gradually eliminated over time, even though viral expression was rare. The idea is that strong CTLs, sustained for long periods, may catch reservoir cells during brief windows when viral proteins become visible. Yet the study also underscores the toughest part: some ARCs survived even under extreme immune pressure—both proliferating survivors and non-proliferating ones—suggesting a double shield of latency plus resistance to death. To crack that resistance, the team tested deferoxamine, an FDA-approved drug, and found it boosted oxidative stress in resistant reservoir cells, making them more vulnerable to CTL killing. Next steps include refining the ARC-growing method, sharing tools with other labs, and building a broader “library” of reservoir survival mechanisms to guide combination approaches.

Staying with HIV, there’s also notable progress on simplifying treatment for people with limited options. At CROI in Denver on February 25—and published simultaneously in The Lancet—researchers presented phase 3 results from the ARTISTRY-1 trial led by Professor Chloe Orkin at Queen Mary University of London. The study tested switching people who rely on complex, multi-pill regimens—often due to drug resistance or contraindications—onto a once-daily single tablet combining bictegravir and lenacapavir, known as BIC/LEN. The trial included more than 550 participants across 15 countries, with a median age of 60 and a median of 28 years on HIV treatment—an unusually experienced and medically complicated group. Nearly 96% who switched maintained viral suppression, with no new resistance seen, and the study reported no major new safety signals. Participants also described the simpler regimen as easier to live with—an important point, because convenience often translates into better adherence.

Turning to science and technology: MIT neuroscientists have introduced three AI-based tools designed to solve a painfully practical problem—keeping track of individual neurons over time while an animal moves, bends, and deforms. In a study published February 17 in eLife, the team describes BrainAlignNet for registering cells across long recordings, AutoCellLabeler for identifying cell types using some human-annotated training, and CellDiscoveryNet for discovering cell types without training or supervision. The performance claims are eye-catching: BrainAlignNet is reported to run roughly 600 times faster than the lab’s earlier method while hitting single-pixel, 99.6% alignment accuracy. AutoCellLabeler reached 98% accuracy with NeuroPAL labeling and still performed well with fewer colors, and CellDiscoveryNet reportedly clustered cell types in a way that matched well-trained human labelers. They also tested BrainAlignNet on highly flexible jellyfish, where drifting neurons had made it difficult to pull reliable activity signals from behavioral videos. The bigger takeaway is that as microscopy datasets explode in size, tools like these may shift neuron tracking from a manual bottleneck into something close to routine.

Now the AI economy—where scale is the story, and the price tags are hard to ignore. Meta has reportedly struck a deal to buy AMD’s latest MI450 AI chips that could total more than $100 billion, structured as a 6-gigawatt agreement. Shipments for the first 1 gigawatt are expected to begin in the second half of this year. The deal also includes a performance-based warrant that could allow Meta to buy up to 160 million AMD shares at a fraction of a cent, vesting as purchase milestones are hit—potentially leading to an option for up to a 10% stake. This comes just days after Meta talked up long-term plans involving millions of Nvidia chips as well. Put simply: Meta appears to be hedging suppliers while building out enormous AI data center capacity. Investors liked what they heard—AMD shares jumped in premarket trading on the report—but the broader question remains whether these massive AI infrastructure bets will translate into durable profit and productivity gains.

Let’s shift to geopolitics, starting with Iran and the United States. A third round of indirect nuclear talks took place in Geneva on Thursday, again mediated by Oman, with Omani Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi shuttling between delegations. Iran’s team was led by Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, while the US delegation was led by special envoy Steve Witkoff, accompanied by Jared Kushner. The talks are happening under the shadow of military positioning—reports describe the US assembling a sizable fleet presence in the Middle East—while both sides insist they want to avoid war. Iran says it has a right to enrich uranium and rejects expanding negotiations to its missile program or regional allies such as Hamas and Hezbollah. Araghchi warned that any conflict would be devastating and could pull the whole region in, pointing to US bases as potential targets. There are also serious verification and damage-assessment questions after last year’s strikes on Iranian nuclear sites. Iran says it hasn’t enriched since June, but it has barred IAEA inspectors from visiting bombed locations. Meanwhile, satellite imagery analysis indicates activity at some sites consistent with assessing damage and possibly recovering material. The delegations paused after several hours and planned to reconvene following consultations with their governments, with both sides describing the discussions as intensive and—including the mediator—saying “creative” ideas were on the table.

On the economic front in the US, a new tariff baseline is now in effect—and it’s not the one many executives were bracing for. Just after midnight Tuesday, a 10% tariff on most global imports took effect, rather than the 15% rate President Trump had threatened over the weekend. The change added to uncertainty after the Supreme Court struck down many earlier Trump tariffs on Friday. US Customs and Border Protection issued the notice confirming the 10% rate, while the White House said the 15% level is still being worked on and would require additional presidential action. There are exemptions—including aircraft, some agricultural products like tropical fruit, certain iron and steel categories, specific Central American textiles, and goods qualifying under the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement. Economists note the 10% rate leaves the average US tariff level below what it would have been under a 15% plan, at least for now—though trade investigations could still bring more targeted tariffs later.

Next, security in the Indo-Pacific. Japan says it plans to deploy a surface-to-air missile unit to Yonaguni—its westernmost island—by March 2031. It’s the first time Tokyo has put a specific timeline on a plan first announced in 2022. Yonaguni sits about 110 kilometers from Taiwan and, on a clear day, Taiwan is visible from the island—so the location is more than symbolic. Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said the unit will field Japanese-made medium-range missiles with roughly a 50-kilometer range and 360-degree coverage, able to track up to 100 targets and engage up to 12 at once. The announcement lands amid heightened Japan–China tension, including new Chinese export curbs on Japanese entities and prior incidents involving Chinese drones near the island and Japanese jet scrambles. Japan has already expanded its posture on Yonaguni with coastal surveillance forces and plans to add an electronic warfare unit in fiscal year 2026.

And in Europe, maritime security is getting a sharper focus—especially where undersea cables and “shadow fleets” are concerned. Ireland is set to unveil a National Maritime Security Strategy that would deepen naval cooperation with France and the UK, potentially allowing their vessels to help patrol Irish-controlled waters. The plan emphasizes protecting critical subsea infrastructure and improving “maritime domain awareness,” including cooperation through Nato-linked channels. A key goal is linking up with the UK-led Joint Expeditionary Force, or JEF, via a “JEF+” model—letting Ireland participate in specific exercises and operations without becoming a full member. Irish officials point to Russia’s so-called shadow fleet—hundreds of vessels moving sanctioned oil—as a concern, with reports that some ships enter Irish economic waters and loiter near subsea cables, raising security and environmental risks. There may be legal complexities, including how foreign patrols interact with Ireland’s constitution and the distinction between territorial waters and the broader Exclusive Economic Zone. Proposed measures also include improved radar, a sonobuoy program, forward operating bases, and a maritime-focused special forces unit.

Finally, a quick note on experimental cancer therapy that sounds unusual—but is grounded in a known biological reality. Researchers at the University of Waterloo say they’ve engineered bacteria designed to attack tumors from the inside out. The approach uses Clostridium sporogenes, a soil bacterium that thrives in low-oxygen environments—conditions often found inside solid tumors. The concept is that injected spores won’t grow in oxygen-rich blood, but once they reach a tumor’s oxygen-poor interior, they can germinate, colonize, and consume tumor tissue as they multiply. The team also modified the bacteria’s DNA to tolerate some oxygen at the tumor’s edges, aiming to expand the area it can target. Researchers stress it’s not a standalone cure, but a potential addition to a multi-therapy toolkit. They estimate clinical trials could be three to four years away, with possible patient treatments in roughly five years if funding and development stay on track.