This innovative framework has the potential to significantly improve approaches to personal development, as well as the clinical treatment of compulsive disorders (for example obsessive compulsivedisorder, addiction, and eating disorders).

The research was led by Dr Eike Buabang, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the lab of Professor Claire Gillan in the School of Psychology and has been published as a paper, Leveraging cognitive neuroscience for making and breaking real-world habits, in the journal Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

Dr Buabang explains: “Habits play a central role in our daily lives, from making that first cup of coffee in the morning, to the route we take to work, and the routine we follow to prepare for bed. Our research reveals why these automatic behaviours are so powerful — and how we can harness our brain’s mechanisms to change them. We bring together decades of research from laboratory studies as well as research from real-world settings to get a picture of how habits work in the human brain.”

Our habits are shaped by two brain systems — one that triggers automatic responses to familiar cues and another that enables goal-directed control. So for example, scrolling through social media when you are bored is the result of automatic response system, and putting your phone away to focus on work is enabled by the goal-directed control brain system.

It is precisely the imbalance between these two brain systems that is key. The research found that such imbalance can lead to everyday action slips such as inadvertently entering an old password instead of the current one. In more extreme cases, Professor Gillan’s research has shown that it can even contribute to compulsive behaviours seen in conditions such as obsessive compulsivedisorder, substance use disorders, and eating disorders.

Habits happen when automatic responses outweigh our ability to consciously control them. Good and bad habits are two sides of the same coin — both arise when automatic responses overpower goal-directed control. By understanding this dynamic, we can start to use it to our own advantage, to both make and break habits.

The new framework describes several factors that can influence the balance between automatic responses and goal-directed control:

• Repetition and reinforcement are essential to making our habits stick. Repeating a behaviour builds strong associations between environmental cues and responses, while rewarding the behaviour makes it more likely to be repeated. In leveraging the same mechanism to break habits, we can replace old behaviours with new ones to create competing automatic responses.
• The environment also plays a key role in habit change. Adjusting your surroundings can help; making desired behaviours easier to access encourages good habits, while removing cues that trigger unwanted behaviour disrupts bad habits.
• Knowing how to engage your own goal-directed system can help strengthen and weaken habits. Disengaging from effortful control, such as listening to a podcast while exercising, accelerates habit formation. However, stress, time pressure, and fatigue can trigger a return to old patterns, so staying mindful and intentional is key when trying to break them.

Dr Buabang explains, “Our research provides a new ‘playbook’ for behaviour change by connecting brain science with practical, real-world applications. We include effective strategies like implementation intentions, so-called, if-then plans (“if situation X occurs, then I will do Y”), and also integrate clinical interventions such as exposure therapy, habit reversal therapy, contingency management, and brain stimulation. It is important that our framework not only captures existing interventions but also provides targets for the development of new ones.”

This research also opens new possibilities for personalising treatments based on how different people form and break habits, making interventions more effective. Professor Gillan explains “We are all different; depending on your neurobiology, it might make more sense to focus on avoiding cues than reducing stress or allowing yourself more time for your daily routine.” Beyond individual treatment, these insights could reshape public health strategies. Understanding the brain’s role in habit formation could help policymakers design more effective health campaigns, from encouraging regular exercise to reducing sugar consumption.

“By working with, rather than against, how our brains naturally form habits, we can create strategies that make healthier choices more automatic at both individual and societal levels.”

A single intranasal dose of EV25, a bispecific small molecule developed by Eradivir, acts faster than the current standard of care, eliminating the detectable virus within 24 hours. EV25 also has a window of efficacy of 96 hours postinfection, which is broader than the current standard of care.

A research paper titled “Targeted recruitment of immune effector cells for rapid eradication of influenza virus infections” has been published in the peer-reviewed Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

EV25 was built on a platform created by Philip Low, the Presidential Scholar for Drug Discovery and the Ralph C. Corley Distinguished Professor of Chemistry in Purdue University’s College of Science. He is part of Purdue’s One Health initiative and on the faculty of the Purdue Institute for Drug Discovery and the Purdue Institute for Cancer Research. Low is Eradivir’s chief scientific officer and on its board of directors.

He disclosed the immunological innovations to the Purdue Innovates Office of Technology Commercialization, which has applied for patents to protect the intellectual property. OTC licensed the innovations to Eradivir for further development and commercialization.

Serious threats posed by influenza

Imrul Shahriar, a scientist at Eradivir, said the influenza virus remains a serious health threat for multiple reasons. One is that current FDA-approved drugs are only effective when administered early during an influenza infection, but they are less effective when administered in later stages of the disease.

“This emphasizes the need for a therapy that can treat more severe infection,” he said. “Familiarity with influenza may mollify public concerns about its risk, but infections still cause tens of millions of illnesses and medical visits annually in the United States, hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations, and tens of thousands of deaths.”

Other reasons influenza remains a serious health problem are:

• Only 50% of people in the U.S. get vaccinated, and the effectiveness of current vaccines ranges from only 19% to 60%.
• Current therapies are less effective against some strains of the flu as they mutate.
• Pandemic strains of the flu like the current H5N1 avian strain may mutate enough to be transmitted from animals to people and eventually from people to people. They are now being transmitted to dairy cattle that, in turn, are infecting people.

Developing and testing EV25

Shahriar, who recently earned his PhD in Low’s laboratory, said EV25 reduces viral loads of advanced-stage influenza in two ways.

“It binds and inhibits viral neuraminidase expressed on both free virus particles and virus-infected cells,” he said. “It also recruits naturally occurring antibodies to fight the virus.”

Shahriar said tests showed EV25 lowered secretions of pro-inflammatory markers and protected against virus-induced damage to lungs better than current therapies.

“As a result, we believe that combining an immunotherapy with a chemotherapy in a single pharmacological agent constitutes a promising new approach for treating the more challenging forms of influenza virus infection,” he said.

Next development steps

Recently EV25 was approved by the European and Belgian regulatory agencies to be used in a Phase 1 human trial that will conclude early next year. Shortly following the Phase 1 trial, a Phase 2a trial will be conducted to further establish the safety and begin to define the efficacy of EV25. Data from the Phase 2a will be available in July 2025.

Eradivir at OPTIONS XII

Jeffery Nielsen, vice president for research and development at Eradivir, presented information on two Eradivir drug compounds during OPTIONS XII, a global scientific conference focused on influenza held Sept. 29-Oct. 2 in Brisbane, Australia.

The poster presentation “Ligand-Targeted Immunotherapy for the Rapid Clearance of Influenza Infections” disclosed data about EV25. It won the Best in Clinical Science and Vaccinology award at the conference.

The oral presentation “Novel Ligand-Targeted Immunotherapy for the Treatment of Human Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV)” disclosed data about Eradivir’s small-molecule therapy to treat human RSV infections in all age groups.

Both EV25 and the RSV therapeutic are built on the BAiT platform, or Bispecific Antigenic immunoTherapy, developed at Purdue.

“It was tremendous that presentations about both therapeutics were accepted at OPTIONS XII, the premier conference on influenza and respiratory viruses,” Nielsen said. “EV25 is a game changer in how effective it is compared to existing therapeutics in preclinical models. The RSV drug is another game changer because it rapidly clears out infection in preclinical models; there are currently no therapies to treat a person who has been infected with RSV.”

A new study reveals that piangua populations are showing concerning signs of decline, largely due to overharvesting. Researchers used cutting-edge DNA analysis to examine these shellfish in two key locations along Colombia’s Pacific coast, providing the first detailed genetic profile of these important creatures.

The findings paint a worrying picture. “While piangua populations have been stable for over 100,000 years, recent decades of intensive harvesting have taken their toll,” explained Silvia Restrepo, president of the Boyce Thompson Institute and lead author of the study.

The numbers are striking. Piangua exports from Colombia skyrocketed from just 100 tons per year in 1980 to over 3,000 tons by 2004. In some areas, like Bahía Málaga, the population has plunged by 60%. This dramatic increase in harvesting has forced the piangua onto Colombia’s endangered species list.

“We discovered that the piangua are experiencing a significant loss of genetic diversity,” said Restrepo. “This is evidenced by a high level of inbreeding and a reduction in heterozygosity.”

Why is genetic diversity so important? Imagine the gene pool of a species as a deck of cards. Each card represents different genetic traits that help the species survive various challenges — disease resistance, temperature tolerance, or the ability to find food. When overharvesting reduces the population, it’s like removing cards from the deck. With fewer “cards” in play, the species becomes less equipped to handle new threats.

The study, recently published in Scientific Reports, also revealed something unexpected. Despite living in connected coastal waters, piangua populations in different areas maintain subtle genetic variations. This suggests that local populations might have special adaptations to their specific environments, making it even more crucial to protect them all.

This research has real-world implications for conservation. Equipped with this new genetic information, scientists, the Colombian government, and local communities can work together to develop better protection strategies. These might include creating protected areas, establishing sustainable harvesting quotas, or implementing restoration programs.

The study marks a significant milestone as the first genetic investigation of piangua in Colombia, complete with the first detailed mapping of its genome. This genetic blueprint will be an invaluable tool for future conservation efforts.

The message is clear for the communities along Colombia’s Pacific coast: without immediate action to protect these vital shellfish, they risk losing not just an important food source, but a crucial part of their cultural and economic heritage. The race is on to save the piangua while there is still time.

This research was funded by the Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación (MinCiencias) of Colombia.