Scientific Frontline: 2025

Monday, December 29, 2025

Researchers find breast cancer drug boosts leukemia treatment

Jeffrey Tyner, Ph.D., and Melissa Stewart, Ph.D., led a team at OHSU that discovered a new drug combination that may help people with acute myeloid leukemia.
Photo Credit: OHSU/Christine Torres Hicks

A research team at Oregon Health & Science University has discovered a promising new drug combination that may help people with acute myeloid leukemia overcome resistance to one of the most common frontline therapies.

In a study published in Cell Reports Medicine, researchers analyzed more than 300 acute myeloid leukemia, or AML, patient samples and found that pairing venetoclax, a standard AML drug, with palbociclib, a cell-cycle inhibitor currently approved for breast cancer, produced significantly stronger and more durable anti-leukemia activity than venetoclax alone. The findings were confirmed in human tissue samples as well as in mouse models carrying human leukemia cells.

“Of the 25 drug combinations tested, venetoclax plus palbociclib was the most effective. That really motivated us to dig deeper into why it works so well, and why it appears to overcome resistance seen with current therapy,” said Melissa Stewart, Ph.D., research assistant professor in the OHSU School of Medicine and Knight Cancer Institute and lead author of the study.

More than 20,000 Americans are diagnosed with AML each year, making it one of the most common types of leukemia — and one of the most aggressive.

Research explores what happens when people face goal obstacles
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When it comes to our most important long-term goals in life, it is not uncommon to face obstacles that may lead us to doubt whether we can achieve our ambitions.

But when life hands you doubts, the answer may be to question your doubts, a new study suggests.

A psychology professor found that when people who were worried about achieving an identity goal were induced to experience what is called meta-cognitive doubt, they actually became more committed to achieving their goal.

“What this study found is that inducing doubts in one’s doubts can provide a formula for confidence,” said Patrick Carroll, author of the study and professor of psychology at The Ohio State University at Lima.

PhD student Joshua Snarski is using stable water isotopes to study how water is stored and released from soil in agricultural settings.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of University of Connecticut

When it rains, what happens to the water once it enters the soil? Does the new precipitation mix with all of the water that was already there? In their recent paper in Water Resources Research, Department of Natural Resources and the Environment Ph.D. student Joshua Snarski and assistant professor James Knighton show the answer is more complicated than previously assumed, but knowing the age of water gives a more accurate picture.

Hydrologists use models to simulate what is happening in natural systems. Since hydrologic processes are complex, researchers need to make assumptions about some aspects, such as how water mixes within the soil profile. Though previous hydrologic research is focused on the amount and timing of precipitation, Snarski says shifting the focus to the age of water within the soil profile can reveal more about what is happening beneath the surface.

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Zoology is the branch of biology dedicated to the scientific study of the animal kingdom, encompassing the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and distribution of all living and extinct animals. As a discipline, it seeks to understand how animals interact with their ecosystems, how they function physiologically, and how they have adapted to diverse environments over millions of years.

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Virology is the branch of biological science dedicated to the study of viruses—submicroscopic, parasitic particles of genetic material contained in a protein coat—and virus-like agents. Its primary goal is to understand the structure, classification, and evolution of these pathogens, their mechanisms of infection and exploitation of host cells, and their interactions with host organism physiology and immunity.

Daniel Bexell leads the research group in molecular pediatric oncology, and Katarzyna Radke, first author of the study.
Photo Credit: Lund University

Using machine learning and a large volume of data on genes and existing drugs, researchers at Lund University in Sweden have identified a combination of statins and phenothiazines that is particularly promising in the treatment of the aggressive form of neuroblastoma. The results from experimental trials showed slowing of tumor growth and higher survival rates.

The childhood cancer, neuroblastoma, affects around 15-20 children in Sweden every year. Most of them fell ill before the age of five. Neuroblastoma is characterized by, among other things, tumors that are often resistant to drug treatment, including chemotherapy. The disease exists in both mild and severe forms, and the Lund University researchers are mainly studying the aggressive form, high-risk neuroblastoma. This variant is the form of childhood cancer with the lowest survival rate.

Veterinary Science: In-Depth Description

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Veterinary Science is the branch of medicine and science concerned with the prevention, control, diagnosis, and treatment of diseases, disorders, and injuries in animals. Beyond clinical care, the field encompasses animal rearing, husbandry, breeding, research on nutrition, and product development. Its primary goals are to safeguard animal health, relieve animal suffering, conserve animal resources, promote public health through the control of zoonotic diseases, and advance medical knowledge through comparative medicine.

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Technology is the rigorous application of scientific knowledge, mathematical principles, and engineering techniques to create tools, systems, and processes that solve practical problems and extend human capabilities. Its primary goal is to bridge the gap between theoretical understanding and real-world utility, transforming abstract discoveries into tangible solutions that enhance efficiency, communication, health, and sustainability.

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A spacecraft is a vehicle or machine designed to fly in outer space. A type of artificial satellite, a spacecraft is used for a variety of purposes, including communications, earth observation, meteorology, navigation, space colonization, planetary exploration, and transportation of humans and cargo. The discipline involves the complex integration of engineering, physics, and computer science to ensure these vehicles can survive the harsh environment of the vacuum, extreme temperatures, and radiation inherent to the cosmos.

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Space Weather refers to the dynamic, variable conditions within the Solar System—specifically the space environment surrounding the Earth—driven primarily by solar activity. It encompasses the physical processes occurring on the Sun, in the solar wind, and within Earth’s magnetosphere, ionosphere, and thermosphere that can influence the performance and reliability of space-borne and ground-based technological systems, as well as endanger human health and life.

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Space Science is the multifaceted scientific discipline dedicated to the exploration and study of natural phenomena and physical bodies occurring beyond Earth's atmosphere. Its primary goals are to understand the origins, evolution, and future of the Universe, to discover the fundamental physical laws governing the cosmos, and to explore the potential for life beyond our planet.

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Social Science is the systematic study of human society, social relationships, and the complex interactions that govern individual and collective behavior. It encompasses a broad spectrum of academic disciplines that seek to understand how societies function, how they evolve over time, and how individuals navigate the structures of power, culture, and economy that surround them. Unlike the natural sciences, which focus on the physical world, social science investigates the intangible yet powerful forces of human organization and thought.

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Quantum Science is the multidisciplinary study and application of the physical properties of matter and energy at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles. Its primary goal is to understand the non-intuitive behaviors of the universe at its most fundamental level—characterized by probability, wave-particle duality, and non-locality—and to harness these phenomena to develop revolutionary technologies in computing, communication, and sensing.

Psychology: In-Depth Description

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Psychology is the scientific study of the mind and behavior, encompassing all aspects of conscious and unconscious experience as well as thought. Its primary goals are to describe, explain, predict, and control behavior and mental processes to understand the complexities of human nature and improve individual and societal well-being.

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Psychiatry is the branch of medicine exclusively dedicated to the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders.

Unlike psychology, which is the study of the mind and behavior, psychiatry is a medical discipline. Psychiatrists are qualified medical doctors (MD or DO) who specialize in the complex intersection of physical and mental health. The primary goal of the field is to alleviate suffering and improve well-being by managing conditions ranging from transient emotional crises to chronic, life-altering mental illnesses through a combination of pharmacological, psychotherapeutic, and psychosocial interventions.

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Planetary Science is the cross-disciplinary scientific study of planets, moons, and planetary systems—including our Solar System and those orbiting other stars—aiming to understand their formation, evolution, and current physical and chemical states. By integrating principles from astronomy, geology, atmospheric science, and physics, planetary science seeks to decipher the history of matter in the solar neighborhood and determine the potential for habitability beyond Earth.

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Physics is the fundamental natural science dealing with the study of matter, energy, space, and time, and the interactions between them. Its primary goal is to understand how the universe behaves at every scale, from the subatomic particles that constitute matter to the vast structure of the cosmos.

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Pharmaceutical science is the multidisciplinary field concerned with the discovery, development, manufacturing, and regulation of medications. It acts as the critical bridge between the chemical and biological sciences, focusing on the complex process of turning a chemical entity or biologic agent into a safe and effective therapeutic product. Its primary goals are to understand how drugs interact with biological systems, to design optimal delivery mechanisms for these drugs, and to ensure their safety and efficacy for the prevention and treatment of human and animal diseases.

The Invisible Scale: Measuring AI’s Return on Energy

The Coin of Energy: Efficiency Paying for Itself
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In the public imagination, Artificial Intelligence is often visualized as a chatbot writing a poem or a generator creating a surreal image. This trivializes the technology and magnifies the scrutiny on its energy consumption. When AI is viewed as a toy, its electricity bill seems indefensible.

But when viewed as a scientific instrument—akin to a particle accelerator or an electron microscope—the equation shifts. The question is not "How much power does AI use?" but rather "What is the return on that energy investment?"

When measured across a single human lifetime, the dividends of AI in time, cost, and survival are staggering.

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Paleontology is the scientific study of the history of life on Earth as based on fossils. It examines the origins, evolution, distribution, and extinction of ancient organisms, seeking to reconstruct the biological and environmental history of our planet spanning over 3.5 billion years.

Mice that lost their molars showed significant memory decline despite receiving the same diet as controls, hinting at the impact of reduced chewing on brain health.
Illustration Credit: Rie Hatakeyama

Tooth loss doesn’t just make eating harder, it may also make thinking more challenging. A new study from Hiroshima University shows that aging mice missing their molars experience measurable cognitive decline, even when their nutrition remains perfectly intact.

“Tooth loss is common in aging populations, yet its direct neurological impact has remained unclear,” said Rie Hatakeyama, postdoctoral researcher at Hiroshima University’s (HU) Graduate School of Biomedical and Health Sciences and first author of the study.

What Is: Biological Plasticity

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The Paradigm of the Reactive Genome

The history of biological thought has long been dominated by a tension between the deterministic rigidity of the genotype and the fluid adaptability of the phenotype. For much of the 20th century, the Modern Synthesis emphasized the primacy of genetic mutation and natural selection, often relegating environmental influence to a mere background filter against which genes were selected. In this view, the organism was a fixed readout of a genetic program, stable and unwavering until a random mutation altered the code. However, a profound paradigm shift has occurred, repositioning the organism not as a static entity but as a dynamic system capable of producing distinct, often dramatically different phenotypes from a single genotype in response to environmental variation. This capacity, known as biological or phenotypic plasticity, is now recognized as a fundamental property of life, permeating every level of biological organization—from the epigenetic modification of chromatin in a stem cell nucleus to the behavioral phase transitions of swarming locusts, and ultimately to the structural rewiring of the mammalian cortex following injury.

Photo Credit: Vitaly Gariev

A major review of prior research has found no evidence that menopause hormone therapy either increases or decreases dementia risk in post-menopausal women, in a new study led by University College London researchers and supported by the University of Exeter.

The findings, commissioned by the World Health Organization (WHO) and published in The Lancet Healthy Longevity, add much-needed clarity to a hotly debated topic, and reinforce current clinical guidance that menopause hormone therapy, also called hormone replacement therapy or HRT, should be guided by perceived benefits and risks and not for dementia prevention.

Professor Chris Fox from the University of Exeter Medical School said: “The role of menopause hormone treatment and relationship to dementia is a worry for many women. But our state-of-the-art review indicates there is no evidence that menopause hormone treatment reduces or increases the risk of dementia. When deciding whether to take menopause hormone treatment, reducing one’s risk of dementia should not be part of that decision “

Animal to human bacteria pathways
Escherichia albertii is primarily found in mammals and birds, suggesting it is a novel zoonotic pathogen.
Image Credit: Osaka Metropolitan University

Escherichia albertii, initially identified as Hafnia alvei, by the commercial identification biochemical strip, API 20E, was isolated from an infant with diarrhea in Bangladesh in 1989. However, this bacterium was later renamed as a novel species, E. albertii because of its similarities in biochemical and genetic properties to the genus Escherichia, but different from those of any known species in the genus. E. albertii possesses many pathogenic attributes including a key one, which is the ability to produce attaching and effacing (A/E) lesions in the intestinal mucosa mediated by genes on a 35-kb pathogenicity island called the locus of enterocyte effacement. Therefore, it is a member of the family of A/E pathogens.

Restoring the healthy form of a protein could revive blood vessel growth in premature infants’ lungs

A blood vessel organoid.
Video Credit: Yunpei Zhang and Enbo Zhu, Mingxia Gu Lab

A UCLA-led research team has discovered a molecular switch that determines whether tiny blood vessels in premature infants’ lungs can regenerate after injury. A failure of this repair process is a hallmark of bronchopulmonary dysplasia, or BPD, a serious lung disease that affects babies born very early. It arises from a combination of premature birth, inflammation or infection, and exposure to the high levels of oxygen and breathing support that are necessary to keep these infants alive during a critical period of lung development.

The researchers found that in BPD, the blood vessel cells in the lungs begin producing a shortened, nonfunctional isoform — a version of a protein — called NTRK2, which has been extensively studied in the nervous system but not in the pulmonary vasculature. When this shortened isoform dominates, the lung cannot rebuild the delicate network of tiny blood vessels needed for healthy breathing.

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These days, large language models can handle increasingly complex tasks, writing complex code and engaging in sophisticated reasoning.

But when it comes to four-digit multiplication, a task taught in elementary school, even state-of-the-art systems fail. Why?

A new paper by University of Chicago computer science Ph.D. student Xiaoyan Bai and faculty co-director of the Data Science Institute's Novel Intelligence Research Initiative Chenhao Tan finds answers by reverse-engineering failure and success.

They worked with collaborators from MIT, Harvard University, University of Waterloo and Google DeepMind to probe AI’s “jagged frontier”—a term for its capacity to excel at complex reasoning yet stumble on seemingly simple tasks.

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Oncology is the branch of medicine and biology dedicated to the study, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of cancer. Derived from the Greek word onkos (meaning "mass" or "bulk"), this field focuses on understanding neoplasms (tumors) and the complex biological mechanisms that cause uncontrolled cell division. The primary goal of oncology is to improve patient survival and quality of life through the development of therapeutic interventions and the early detection of malignancies.

Spike Timing" difference (Biology vs. Silicon)
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The modern AI revolution is built on a paradox: it is incredibly smart, but thermodynamically reckless. A large language model requires megawatts of power to function, whereas the human brain—which allows you to drive a car, debate philosophy, and regulate a heartbeat simultaneously—runs on roughly 20 watts, the equivalent of a dim lightbulb.

To close this gap, science is moving away from the "Von Neumann" architecture (where memory and processing are separate) toward Neuromorphic Computing—chips that mimic the physical structure of the brain. This report analyzes how close we are to building a "synthetic synapse."

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Nutritional Science is the multidisciplinary study of food and nutrients, investigating how the body ingests, digests, absorbs, transports, utilizes, and excretes these substances, and how they impact overall health, growth, and disease prevention.

Its primary goals are to define the physiological requirements for nutrients across the lifespan, understand the metabolic pathways involved in nutrient utilization, and determine the optimal dietary patterns to reduce the risk of chronic diseases and promote well-being.

Scientists Crack Ancient Salt Crystals to Unlock Secrets of 1.4 Billion-Year-Old Air

Microscopic image of fluid inclusions in 1.4-billion-year-old halite crystals, which preserve ancient air and brine.
Image Credit: Justin Park/RPI

More than a billion years ago, in a shallow basin across what is now northern Ontario, a subtropical lake much like modern-day Death Valley evaporated under the sun’s gentle heat, leaving behind crystals of halite — rock salt.

It was a very different world than the one we know today. Bacteria were the dominant form of life. Red algae had only just appeared on the evolutionary scene. Complex multicellular life like animals and plants wouldn’t show up for another 800 million years.

As the water evaporated into brine, some of it became trapped in tiny pockets within the crystals, effectively frozen in time. Those trapped fluid inclusions contained air bubbles revealing, in fine detail, the composition of the early Earth’s atmosphere. The crystals were buried in sediment, effectively sealed off from the rest of the world for 1.4 billion years, their secrets unknown. Until now.

The AI technology was utilized to automatically clarify causal relationships from measurement data obtained at NanoTerasu Synchrotron Light Source
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Tohoku University and Fujitsu Limited announced their successful application of AI to derive new insights into the superconductivity mechanism of a new superconducting material. Their findings demonstrate an important use case for AI technology in new materials development and suggests that the technology has the potential to accelerate research and development. This could drive innovation in various industries such as environment and energy, drug discovery and healthcare, and electronic devices.

The two parties used Fujitsu's AI platform Fujitsu Kozuchi to develop a new discovery intelligence technique to accurately estimate causal relationships. Fujitsu will begin offering a trial environment for this technology in March 2026. Furthermore, in collaboration with the Advanced Institute for Materials Research (WPI-AIMR), Tohoku University , the two parties applied this technology to data measured by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES), an experimental method used in materials research to observe the state of electrons in a material, using a specific superconducting material as a sample.

Among the approximately 16,000 new species described every year, roughly 6,000 are insects. Pictured here is a lanternfly from India.
Photo Credit: John J. Wiens

About 300 years ago, Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus set out on a bold quest: to identify and name every living organism on Earth. Now celebrated as the father of modern taxonomy, he developed the binomial naming system and described more than 10,000 species of plants and animals. Since his time, scientists have continued to describe new species in the quest to uncover Earth's biodiversity.

According to a new University of Arizona-led study published in Science Advances, scientists are discovering species quicker than ever before, with more than 16,000 new species discovered each year. The trend shows no sign of slowing, and the team behind the new paper predicts that the biodiversity among certain groups, such as plants, fungi, arachnids, fishes and amphibians is richer than scientists originally thought.

"Some scientists have suggested that the pace of new species descriptions has slowed down and that this indicates that we are running out of new species to discover, but our results show the opposite," said John Wiens, a professor in the University of Arizona Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, in the College of Science, and senior author of the paper. "In fact, we're finding new species at a faster rate than ever before."

This experimental setup at Michigan Technological University allows researchers to create and study clouds under carefully controlled conditions. Researchers from Brookhaven National Laboratory used it to demonstrate the capabilities of a new ultra-high-resolution lidar, a laser-based remote sensing instrument for studying cloud properties.
Photo Credit: Michigan Technological University

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory and collaborators have developed a new type of lidar — a laser-based remote-sensing instrument — that can observe cloud structures at the scale of a single centimeter. The scientists used this high-resolution lidar to directly observe fine cloud structures in the uppermost portion of laboratory-generated clouds. This capability for studying cloud tops with resolution that is 100 to 1,000 times higher than traditional atmospheric science lidars enables pairing with measurements in well-controlled chamber experiments in a way that has not been possible before.

The results, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, provide some of the first experimental data showing of how cloud droplet properties near the tops of clouds differ from those in the cloud interior. These differences are crucial to understanding how clouds evolve, form precipitation, and affect Earth’s energy balance.

“This is the first time we’ve been able to see these cloud-top microstructures directly and non-invasively,” said Fan Yang, an atmospheric scientist at Brookhaven Lab and the lead author of the study. “These structures occur on scales smaller than those used in most atmospheric models, yet they can strongly affect cloud brightness and how likely clouds are to produce rain.”

Neuroscience: In-Depth Description

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Neuroscience is the multidisciplinary scientific study of the nervous system, encompassing the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nerves. Its primary goal is to understand the biological basis of consciousness, perception, memory, and behavior by investigating the structure, function, genetics, biochemistry, physiology, and pathology of nervous tissue.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of King’s College London

Scientists reveal that the scale of analysis determines whether invasive plants succeed by resembling or differing from native species, resolving decades of conflicting ecological evidence.

Researchers from King’s College London have uncovered why decades of ecological studies have produced conflicting evidence about species invasions.

Their findings, published in Ecology, show that the spatial scale of analysis fundamentally alters conclusions about how introduced plants interact with native communities.

The study, led by Dr. Maria Perez-Navarro in the Department of Geography, tested two long-standing hypotheses - preadaptation and limiting similarity - using 33 years of data from Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve in Minnesota.

A drone (center) begs worker bees for food. HHU researchers found that the associated complex interaction pattern is genetically specified.
Photo Credit: HHU/Steffen Köhle

Is complex social behavior genetically determined?

Yes, as a team of biologists from Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU), together with colleagues from Bochum and Paris, established during an investigation of bees. They identified a genetic factor that determines the begging behavior of drones, which they use to socially obtain food. They are now publishing their results in the journal Nature Communications.

Male bees, the "drones," do not have an easy time when trying to access vital proteins. They cannot digest the most important protein source for bees, pollen, on their own. To avoid starvation, they rely on workers to feed them a pre-produced food slurry, which the workers manufacture themselves from pollen. However, to obtain this food, the drones must convince the workers to hand it overusing a specific sequence of behaviors.

MIT physicists propose that under certain conditions, a magnetic material’s electrons could splinter into fractions of themselves to form quasiparticles known as “anyons.”

In the past year, two separate experiments in two different materials captured the same confounding scenario: the coexistence of superconductivity and magnetism. Scientists had assumed that these two quantum states are mutually exclusive; the presence of one should inherently destroy the other.

Now, theoretical physicists at MIT have an explanation for how this Jekyll-and-Hyde duality could emerge. In a paper appearing today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the team proposes that under certain conditions, a magnetic material’s electrons could splinter into fractions of themselves to form quasiparticles known as “anyons.” In certain fractions, the quasiparticles should flow together without friction, similar to how regular electrons can pair up to flow in conventional superconductors.

For the first time, researchers at OHSU evaluated the long-term impact of air pollution on adolescent brain health and development.
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Physician-scientists at Oregon Health & Science University warn that exposure to air pollution may have serious implications for a child’s developing brain.

In a recent study published in the journal Environmental Research, researchers in OHSU’s Developmental Brain Imaging Lab found that air pollution is associated with structural changes in the adolescent brain, specifically in the frontal and temporal regions — the areas responsible for executive function, language, mood regulation and socioemotional processing.

Air pollution causes harmful contaminants, such as particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide and ozone, to circulate in the environment. It has been exacerbated over the past two centuries by industrialization, vehicle emissions, and, more recently, wildfires.

Aina Vaivade and Kim Kultima have measured the levels of common environmental pollutants in the blood of people with MS using a mass spectrometer (pictured).
Photo Credit: Tobias Sterner/Uppsala University

People who have been exposed to both PFAS and PCBs are more likely to be diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS). These new research findings are based on analyses of blood samples from more than 1,800 individuals in Sweden, one of the most comprehensive studies to date on the influence of chemical environmental exposure on the development of MS.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease in which both genetic and environmental factors can contribute to the risk of the disease. In the current study, researchers analyzed blood from individuals who had recently been diagnosed with MS to investigate concentrations of the common environmental contaminants PFAS and PCBs.

A study by the Mildred Scheel Early Career Center group led by Dr. Mohamed Elgendy at the TUD Faculty of Medicine provides fundamental insights into cancer biology. Published in the renowned journal Nature Communications, the study shows for the first time that the protein MCL1 not only inhibits programmed cell death but also plays a central role in tumor metabolism.

The researchers have succeeded in tracing two classic hallmarks of cancer – the evasion of apoptosis (a form of programmed cell death) and the dysregulation of energy metabolism – back to a common molecular mechanism.

Capturing the moment a cell shuts the door on free radicals

The moment a cell shuts the door on free radicals.
Illustration Credit: Catrin Jakobsson, Lund University

For the first time, researchers have been able to show how a cell closes the door to free radicals – small oxygen molecules that are sometimes needed, but that can also damage our cells. The study is published in Nature Communications and was led by Lund University.

For our cells to function, they need to maintain a careful balance between beneficial and harmful oxygen molecules known as free radicals. One of the most important is hydrogen peroxide – the same substance found in disinfectants, but which our cells use in very small amounts to send important signals. However, in excessive concentrations, hydrogen peroxide can cause damage and even cell death.

What Is: The Phanerozoic Eon

Defining the Eon of Complex Life
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The Phanerozoic Eon constitutes the current and most biologically dynamic division of the geological time scale. Spanning the interval from approximately 538.8 million years ago (Ma) to the present day, it represents roughly the last 12% of Earth's 4.54-billion-year history. Despite its relatively short duration compared to the preceding Precambrian supereon—which encompasses the Hadean, Archean, and Proterozoic eons—the Phanerozoic contains the overwhelming majority of the known fossil record and the entirety of the history of complex, macroscopic animal life.

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Nanotechnology is the branch of science, engineering, and technology conducted at the nanoscale, which is about 1 to 100 nanometers. It involves the manipulation and control of matter on an atomic, molecular, and supramolecular scale to create materials, devices, and systems with fundamentally new properties and functions.

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Molecular Science is the cross-disciplinary study of the structure, properties, composition, reactions, and functional arrangements of molecules. This broad field integrates principles from chemistry, physics, and biology to understand how atoms interact to form matter and how molecular interactions govern natural phenomena. Its primary goal is to elucidate the fundamental rules of molecular behavior to manipulate matter at the nanoscale, enabling the design of new materials, medicines, and energy systems.

Membrane magic: Researchers repurpose fuel cells membranes for new applications

Daniel Hallinan Jr. works with perfluorosulfonic acid (PFSA) polymers in his lab in the Aero-Propulsion Mechatronics & Energy building at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering.
Photo Credit: Scott Holstein/FAMU-FSU College of Engineering

FAMU-FSU College of Engineering researchers are applying fuel cell technology to new applications like sustainable energy and water treatment.

In a study published in Frontiers in Membrane Science and Technology, the researchers examined a type of membrane called a perfluorosulfonic acid polymer membrane, or PFSA polymer membrane. These membranes act as filters, allowing protons to move through, but blocking electrons and gases.

In the study, the researchers examined how boiling these membranes — a common treatment applied to the material — affects their performance and helps them work as specialized tools for different applications.

Juvenile Atlantic manta ray swimming over sandflat with remora symbionts in South Florida.
Photo Credit: Bryant Turffs

A new study from the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science and the Marine Megafauna Foundation finds that young Caribbean manta rays (Mobula yarae) often swim with groups of other fish, creating small, moving ecosystems that support a variety of marine species.

South Florida—particularly along Palm Beach County—serves as a nursery for juvenile manta rays. For nearly a decade, the Marine Megafauna Foundation has been studying these rays and documenting the challenges they face from human activities near the coast, such as boat strikes and entanglement in fishing gear, which can pose significant threats to juvenile mantas

Edgar Engleman, MD, professor of pathology
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Stanford School of Medicine

A single signaling pathway controls whether immune cells attack or befriend cells they encounter while patrolling our bodies, researchers at Stanford Medicine have found. Manipulating this pathway could allow researchers to toggle the immune response to treat many types of diseases, including cancers, autoimmune disorders and those that require organ transplants.

The research, which was conducted in mice, illuminates the mechanism of an important immune function that prevents inappropriate attacks on healthy tissue. Called peripheral immune tolerance, the key cellular players, known as regulatory T cells (or Tregs, pronounced “tee-regs”), were first described in the late 1990s in a series of discoveries that were recently recognized with the 2025 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine.

Differentiated hepatic cells growing in a flask re-gain the appearance of cells present in liver.
Image Credit: © FAMOL, UNIGE

Overcoming acquired treatment resistance is one of the major challenges in the fight against cancer. While combination therapies hold promise, their toxicity to healthy tissue remains a major hurdle. To anticipate these risks, researchers at the University of Geneva (UNIGE) have developed in vitro models of the kidneys, liver, and heart – three organs particularly sensitive to such therapies. This fast, animal-free approach paves the way for safer evaluation of new treatments. The findings are published in Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy.

Recent advances in immunotherapy, targeted therapies, and gene therapies have significantly improved survival rates for patients with cancer. However, over time, many tumors develop resistance to these treatments, undermining their effectiveness. This phenomenon, known as ‘acquired resistance’, has become one of the major challenges in oncology.

Visible satellite image showing storms sweeping across the Southern Ocean on 4 January 2019.
Photo Credit: NASA Worldview Snapshot

Intense storms that sweep over the Southern Ocean enable the ocean to absorb more heat from the atmosphere. New research from the University of Gothenburg shows that today’s climate models underestimate how storms mix the ocean and thereby give less reliable future projections of our climate.

The Southern Ocean is a vast expanse of ocean encircling the Antarctic continent, regulating Earth’s climate by moving heat, carbon, and nutrients out in the world’s oceans.

It provides a critical climate service by absorbing over 75 per cent of the excess heat generated by humans globally. The Southern Ocean’s capacity to reduce climate warming depends on how efficiently it can absorb heat from our atmosphere.

The researchers traveled on the research vessel Polarstern to South Sandwich Trench where they collected sediment samples.
Photo Credit: ©Anni Glud/SDU

Halalaimus is a microscopic nematode genus commonly found in sediment on the seafloor. It lives 1–5 cm below the sediment surface and grazes on bacteria or organic materials in the sediment.

It does so in the Aleutian Trench as well, which lies in the northern Pacific Ocean, near the Bering Sea. We now know this because PhD Yick Hang Kwan from Danish Center for Hadal Research at the Department of Biology has isolated its eDNA in sediment samples collected from the depths of the Aleutian Trench.

“But we also found its eDNA in sediment samples from the South Sandwich Trench, which lies 17,000 km away in the South Atlantic. And that inevitably makes you ask: How is it possible that the same nematode genus exists in such extremely isolated deep-sea environments so far apart, when it has a very limited ability to move – and when the trenches are up to eight kilometers deep?” Kwan asks rhetorically.

Immune system keeps mucosal fungi in check

The yeast fungus Candida albicans (blue) breaks out of human immune cells (red) by forming long thread-like cells called hyphae. The part of the hypha that has already left the immune cells is colored yellow.
Image Credit: Erik Böhm, Leibniz-HKI

The yeast Candida albicans colonizes mucosal surfaces and is usually harmless. However, under certain conditions it can cause dangerous infections. A research team at the University of Zurich has now discovered how the immune system prevents the transformation from a harmless colonizer to a pathogenic mode. This happens, among other things, by sequestering zinc.

The microbiome not only consists of bacteria, but also of fungi. Most of them support human and animal health. However, some fungi also have pathogenic potential. For instance, the yeast Candida albicans can grow in an uncontrolled manner on the oral mucosa, causing oral thrush.

In severe cases by growing in a filamentous form, it can enter the bloodstream and cause systemic infections, which account for over one million deaths per year. This happens primarily in people with a weakened immune system on intensive care units, for instance individuals who are immunosuppressed because of a transplantation or cancer.

A particle (red sphere) is guided from left to its destination (right) using a laser trap (double-cone) by means of a protocol developed in the study, which is described by the parameter λ. A known time-dependent external force field F (t) acts on this environment. The optimised protocol exploits this force field in a way that extracts the maximum amount of work. This can be applied to various external fields, to active particles and to micro-robot transport problems.
Image Credit: HHU/Kristian S. Olsen

Conditions can get rough in the micro- and nanoworld. To ensure that e.g. nutrients can still be optimally transported within cells, the minuscule transporters involved need to respond to the fluctuating environment. Physicists at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) and Tel Aviv University in Israel have used model calculations to examine how this can succeed. They have now published their results – which could also be relevant for future microscopic machines – in the scientific journal Nature Communications.

When planning an ocean crossing, sailors seek a course, which makes optimum use of favorable wind and ocean currents, and maneuver to save time and energy. They also react to random fluctuations in wind and currents and take advantage of fair winds and waves. Such considerations regarding energy costs are also important for transport processes at the micro- and nanoscale. For example, molecular motors should use as little energy as possible when transporting nutrients from A to B between and within biological cells.

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