The Science & Technology desk gathers a weekly digest of impactful and interesting research publications and developments at Stanford. Read the latest in this week’s Research Roundup.
Microplastics in California
Starting Oct. 1, California will list microplastics as a candidate chemical of concern, which won’t restrict any individual product immediately, but rather open the door to future regulations after public comment and formal review.
A Stanford-led paper, published in Frontiers in Environmental Science, details the state’s approach to the problem, starting with a 2015 ban on plastic microbeads in cosmetics and extending through SB 54, a law that makes producers responsible for their products’ full life cycle.
The authors, Amelia Meyer, co-lead of Stanford’s plastics and health working group, Kara Meister, pediatric otolaryngologist and head and neck surgeon at Stanford Medicine, and Sarina Patel, policy and engagement program manager at Stanford’s Woods Institute, argue California’s strategy could serve as a model for other states and countries, especially with international plastics treaty negotiations stalled over production caps.
Meyer acknowledged the science on health harms is still developing but said “uncertainty is a reason to continue research,” in an interview with the Woods Institute.
Meister, whose lab has detected microplastics in children’s tonsil tissue, described the particles as “Trojan horses” that may ferry along other harmful chemicals, including plasticizers with documented health effects. With regulatory conversations ahead, California will lead the way in tackling this health concern.
New lymphedema drug
Following a year-long clinical trial led by Dr. Stanley Rockson, a professor of lymphatic research and medicine at Stanford, 23 patients with lower-limb lymphedema — a condition in which excess lymph fluid builds up instead of draining properly — took an experimental drug called acebilustat.
By the end of the trial, patients had lost an average of a liter of fluid volume from the affected leg, alongside eased skin thickening and scarring. There is currently no FDA-approved medication for lymphedema; patients typically manage it with compression garments and time-intensive physical therapy that, at best, cuts disease severity by about half.
Acebilustat works by blocking a specific inflammatory protein, LTB4, that Rockson’s lab identified after an earlier drug candidate was found to raise long-term heart disease risk. Trial participant Matthew Holbreich, who has lived with lymphedema for more than two decades, called the results “the most significant breakthrough for lymphedema treatment in my lifetime,” in an interview with Stanford Medicine.
Rockson also said he’s hopeful that “effective pharmacologic therapy could supplant physical self-care” for patients down the line, and possibly even prevent the condition in high-risk individuals. A trial testing the drug for upper-limb lymphedema is already underway, with an international phase 3 trial planned if the results hold up.
Bhutan becomes first country to adopt gross ecosystem product measurement (GEP)
At a New York Climate Week event co-hosted by Stanford’s Natural Capital Alliance, Bhutanese Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay announced the country’s first official calculation of gross ecosystem product (GEP). GEP metric assigns a dollar value to the services nature provides, from clean water and pollination to carbon storage and flood protection.
Bhutan’s figure amounted to $6.2 billion, roughly twice the size of its GDP.
“What we measure, we value. What we value, we protect,” Tobgay said at the announcement.
Stanford’s Natural Capital Alliance worked directly with Bhutan’s government to calculate the figure and is now helping the country’s National Statistics Bureau fold GEP into policy and financing decisions.
The move builds on Bhutan’s reputation as a serial pioneer in alternative economic measurement. Bhutan was already the world’s first carbon-negative country and the originator of “gross national happiness” (GNH) as a national metric. Looking forward, Bhutan plans to report GEP alongside both GDP and GNH.
Gretchen Daily, the alliance’s faculty director, called it part of a “nature-positive path to economic prosperity,” at last week’s event. Similar GEP frameworks are already shaping policy elsewhere, from guiding flood-recovery investment in Italy’s Emilia Romagna region to prioritizing forest-restoration financing tied to tourism in Colombia.