Autoimmune rheumatic diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, lupus and scleroderma are debilitating and occasionally life-threatening. An EU and industry-funded project aims to improve treatment by getting the right therapies to the right patients, fast.

Obesity - a leading cause of preventable illness and death - has soared in Europe in recent decades. Analysis by EU-funded researchers has helped identify integrated, community-based approaches to tackle the problem. The findings could foster new ways to save lives and cut healthcare costs.

EU-funded researchers are turning teenagers' ever-ready smartphones into a pioneering tool to prevent anxiety and depression, revolutionising access to effective, scalable and personalised digital mental healthcare.

Thousands of children across Europe care for a sick or elderly relative, potentially to the detriment of their schooling, social development and mental health. A pioneering EU-funded project will provide much-needed support for this largely unrecognised group of young people.

How do vaccination programmes influence child survival in low-income countries? Protection against the targeted illness is not the only aspect to consider, according to an EU-funded project that explored associated outcomes known as 'non-specific effects'. The research focused on public health interventions in Burkina Faso, Ghana and Guinea-Bissau.

International mobility fosters scientific exchange, a key element in advances in all areas of the life sciences. An EU-funded project supports this by awarding bursaries to postdoctoral scientists for research and training abroad - boosting Europe's capacity to make groundbreaking advances in medical research.

Existing data suggest that immune reactions reduce the lifespan of animal-derived heart valves implanted in cardiac patients. An EU-funded project discovered how to overcome this limitation, to produce valves with improved biocompatibility and novel immunological strategies that will benefit younger patients in particular.

Various options exist for the replacement of failing heart valves. However, none of the conventional ones are particularly well suited to persons in their teens or twenties, say EU-funded researchers who have developed an innovative solution to boost such patients' chances of leading normal lives.

An innovative smartphone app developed in an EU-funded project is helping doctors provide thousands of heart patients across Europe with better, more personalised treatment for atrial fibrillation - a major cause of stroke, dementia, heart failure and premature death.

Powerful mathematical modelling and simulation systems are being made accessible to all by an EU-funded project that is driving innovation aimed at addressing societal and environmental challenges.

An EU-funded project is exploring what keeps people committed to a task even when they get bored, distracted or are tempted to stop. The findings could foster productivity-boosting strategies, improve robot-human interactions and even help treat borderline personality disorder.

Human welfare is closely linked to the health of animals and the environment. An EU-funded joint research programme has been created to align developments in medicine, veterinary science and consumer health protection to tackle food-borne health threats in a more integrated way across Europe.

An EU-funded project has made recommendations to protect the rights of intersex people and prevent unnecessary, non-consensual medical interventions. This could strengthen European efforts to support sexual minorities.

EU-funded researchers are applying innovative techniques to detect early-warning signs of some of the most widespread and deadly diseases in Europe, enabling underlying health conditions to be treated sooner and more effectively, and ultimately saving lives.

Graphene, an atomically thin lattice of carbon, has many exceptional properties. An EU-funded project is developing ways to use this unique nanomaterial efficiently in novel optical technologies with potential applications in medical imaging, biosensing, signal processing and computing.

EU-funded researchers have created the first-ever full simulation of the growth of the lens within the eye of a mouse. It has given insights into how the lens develops and the formation of cataracts.

An EU- and industry-funded project has built an extensive public-private network to speed up the development of treatments to combat antibiotic-resistant bacteria that cause infections in intensive care units, helping address a major issue for hospitals.

Microfluidic bioreactors allow chemical reactions to take place on a very small scale, saving time, money and materials. An EU-funded project has developed microfluidic bioreactor technologies that could lead to a wide range of applications, including innovative medicines.

As more and more people travel and global warming paves the way for diseases to spread, human health and welfare are no longer the preserve of single countries, regions or even continents. European researchers teamed up with African partners to bridge the gap in biomedical research and biobanking practices between the regions. Its biobank-in-a-box is now ready to be unwrapped.

Are neurological conditions like Asperger's syndrome and autism the new frontier of inequality and discrimination? The EU-funded NEDBELS project is investigating the legal and social challenges society faces if it is to be more inclusive of those with such neurological disorders - a concept known as 'neurodiversity'.