SustainOlive: Extracting Green Gold from Olive Waste

Only a fraction of a pressed olive’s nutrients reaches your bottle of oil, leaving behind a goldmine of unused compounds and proteins. Through SustainOlive, researchers at BKEA Ltd and Türkiye’s METU are transforming this neglected agricultural byproduct into eco-friendly food products and biomaterials, keeping this resource out of our waste systems.

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A Blood Test That Could Follow Cancer in Real Time

A pioneering collaboration between Omnigene Medical Technologies Ltd and the University of Malta is developing a liquid biopsy platform that could transform how cancer is monitored. Called M3Profiler, the technology analyses tumour-derived exosomes – tiny vesicles released into the bloodstream by cancer cells – to generate detailed molecular profiles from just a small blood sample.

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Xjenza Malta and TÜBİTAK Support Five New Transnational R&I Projects

A kick-off meeting, organised by Xjenza Malta on 28 July 2026, marked the launch of five new research and innovation (R&I) projects that foster greater collaboration between Malta-based researchers and partners in Türkiye. The projects, awarded funding under the fifth Xjenza Malta–TÜBİTAK Joint Call for Research and Innovation R&I Proposals (2025), cover a range of research areas, including aviation, health, water management, and farming systems.

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Reproducibility in Science – Why It Matters More Than Ever

Have you ever scrolled past a viral claim online and thought, ‘That sounds true’? Maybe it was a headline about a miracle cure or a diet hack. Or noticed how quickly new ideas spread online – sometimes before anyone has checked if they’re real? From scientific labs to TikTok feeds, we’re constantly asked to decide: What is true? And more often than not, the answer lies in one underappreciated scientific principle – reproducibility.

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Life Against Entropy

Most of us move through life with a quiet certainty that being alive is self-evident. We grow, think, love, worry, plan. We distinguish instinctively between what lives and what does not. A person is alive; a stone is not. A dog is alive; a machine is not. The line feels obvious, until someone asks us to explain it.

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Reading Between the Scans: Enhancing Patient Communication and Evidence-Based Radiology

At the European Society of Oncologic Imaging (ESOI) Touchdown 2025 in Malta, radiologists and imaging specialists from around the world gathered to explore not just the science of oncologic imaging, but its soul. In a field defined by technology and precision, last year’s focus turned inward – to the art of communication, empathy, and the enduring humanity that binds medicine together.

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Squeezing Out Waste: Transforming Malta’s Olive Waste into Green Goods

While olive oil production generates vast amounts of nutrient-rich waste, approximately 98% of the antioxidant-rich phenolics in olives are lost during oil extraction. To combat rapid degradation, the OliveGREEN team is exploring a novel strategy using sulphur dioxide and enzymes to stabilise olive pomace. THINK speaks with Dr Frederick Lia to learn why saving this discarded byproduct makes a difference.

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Unseen Invaders: An Investigation into the Pathogenic Threats Facing Malta’s Cannabis Industry

As Malta’s cannabis sector continues to develop, understanding plant health risks is becoming increasingly important. This study provides the first structured insight into the presence of Hop Latent Viroid (HLVd) in local cultivations, offering practical guidance for growers and contributing to long-term industry sustainability.

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