UCLA researchers find “protective switches” that may make damaged livers suitable for transplantation

 

Photo Credit: Sasin Tipchai

In a mouse model of liver transplantation, UCLA researchers have identified proteins that act as “protective switches” guarding the liver against damage occurring when blood supply is restored during transplantation, a process known as ischemia-reperfusion injury.

The finding could increase the supply of donor organs by using molecular therapies to strengthen the liver’s protective pathways. By boosting this protection,  organs that would otherwise be discarded as damaged or suboptimal could be made suitable for transplantation and added to the donor pool, said Kenneth J. Dery, Ph.D , an associate adjunct professor of surgery in the division of liver and pancreas transplantation at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and the study’s co-senior author.

“One of the most intractable problems in the field of organ transplantation remains the nationwide shortage of donor livers, which has led to high patient mortality while waiting for a liver transplant,” Dery said. “This could ultimately help address the national transplant shortage and lower mortality rates.”

Supercritical subsurface fluids open a window into the world

Interpreted 3D seismic characteristics.
The seal layer, interpreted by looking at data on the supercritical fluid’s movement, appears as a distinct region. It’s disrupted where it meets a fault which makes it appear porous to the fluid, allowing it to migrate upwards, causing seismic vibrations.
Image Credit: ©2025 Tsuji et al.
(CC BY 4.0)

Researchers including those from the University of Tokyo build on past studies and introduce new methods to explore the nature and role of subsurface fluids including water in the instances and behaviors of earthquakes and volcanoes. Their study suggests that water, even heavy rainfall, can play a role in or even trigger seismic events. This could potentially lead to better early warning systems. The study improves models of seismic activity and can even help identify optimal sites for drilling to tap sources of supercritical geothermal energy.

As far as is currently known, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions cannot be predicted, certainly not on the timescales with which we expect from typical weather reports. But as physical theories improve, so does the accuracy of statistical models which could be useful for planning, and potentially also early warning systems, which can save lives when disaster does strike. Another benefit of improving such models is that they could help locate areas suitable for tapping into geothermal energy. So, it’s the improvement of theories, based on good observations, that geologists and other researchers strive for. And a recent development in this field has added another factor into the mix which may be more significant than was previously thought.

Grassland Butterflies – Important Indicators of the State of Nature

Small Copper (Lycaena phlaeas), a species for which the index shows a positive trend.
Photo Credit: Werner Messerschmid

With the Grassland Butterfly Index for Germany, UFZ scientists are providing important input for the implementation of the EU Nature Restoration Regulation.

One of the goals of the EU Nature Restoration Regulation, which came into force in 2024, is to halt species loss and preserve important ecosystem services provided by agricultural landscapes. Scientists at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), in collaboration with the Senckenberg German Entomological Institute (SDEI), have now calculated the Grassland Butterfly Index for Germany – an indicator of the state of biodiversity proposed in the EU regulation. The results, published in the journal Nature Conservation, show a negative trend, especially in recent years. For their calculations, the researchers were able to draw on 4 million observation data collected at the UFZ over the last 20 years as part of the ‘Butterfly Monitoring Germany’ program.

How mosquito-borne viruses breach the brain’s defenses

Stem cell-derived blood-brain barrier cells.
Image Credit: Pablo Alvarez/Li Lab 

Mosquito-borne viruses can cause more than fevers and joint pain. In severe cases, they invade the brain, leading to seizures, encephalitis, lasting memory loss and sometimes death. But thanks to a new UCLA study, researchers have uncovered how some of these viruses breach the brain’s defenses — and point toward ways of keeping them out.

The research, published in Cell Reports, focuses on Sindbis virus, a relatively mild pathogen that scientists use as a safe stand-in for more dangerous mosquito-borne viruses such as chikungunya. 

Using a stem cell-based model of the human blood-brain barrier, developed with collaborators from Florida State University, the UCLA team compared two closely related Sindbis strains — one brain-invading and one not — and found that small changes in viral surface proteins called glycoproteins dictate whether the virus can cross.

The team discovered that the invasive strain grips just one or two specific proteins on blood-brain barrier cells, turning those proteins into doorways that let the virus inside. By contrast, the non-invasive strain spreads its efforts across many receptors and is far less successful.

Innovative transistors for quantum chips

Walter Weber, Masiar Sistani and Andreas Fuchsberger
Photo Credit: Technische Universität Wien

The smaller electronic components become, the more complex their manufacture becomes. This has been a major problem for the chip industry for years. At TU Wien, researchers have now succeeded for the first time in manufacturing a silicon-germanium (SiGe) transistor using an alternative approach that will not only enable smaller dimensions in the future, but will also be faster, require less energy and function at extremely low temperatures, which is important for quantum chips.

The key trick lies in the oxide layer that insulates the semiconductor: it is doped and produces a long-range effect that extends into the semiconductor. The technology was developed by TU Wien (Vienna), JKU Linz and Bergakademie Freiberg.

Scientists visualize atomic structures in moiré materials

On the left is an artistic depiction of a twisted double layer forming a moiré pattern created by overlapping 2D sheets; each layer’s structure is shown separately on the right.
Image Credit: Sumner Harris/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Researchers with the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, have created an innovative method to visualize and analyze atomic structures within specially designed, ultrathin bilayer 2D materials. When precisely aligned at an angle, these materials exhibit unique properties that could lead to advancements in quantum computing, superconductors and ultraefficient electronics.

These developments bolster U.S. leadership in materials innovation, energy technologies and secure communication, and they lay the groundwork for a future defined by leading-edge progress.

Solar fuel conundrum nears a solution

 

Transition-metal complexes are promising light harvesters. Petter Persson, Zehan Yao and Neus Allande Calvet are getting closer to a breakthrough
Photo Credit: Johan Joelsson

Solar energy stored in the form of fuel is something scientists hope could partially replace fossil fuels in the future. Researchers at Lund University in Sweden may have solved a long-standing problem that has hindered the development of sustainable solar fuels. If solar energy can be used more efficiently using iron-based systems, this could pave the way for cheaper solar fuels.

“We can now see previously hidden mechanisms that would allow iron-based molecules to transfer charge more efficiently to acceptor molecules. This could effectively remove one of the biggest obstacles to producing solar fuels using common metals,” says Petter Persson, a chemistry researcher at Lund University.

An intense search for new ways to produce environmentally friendly fuels is underway. These could help phase out the fossil fuels that currently dominate global energy. One promising strategy is to develop catalysts that utilize solar energy to produce fuels such as green hydrogen.

In recent years, significant progress has been made in this area, including the development of solar-powered catalysts based on iron and other common elements. Despite these achievements, the conversion of energy from solar to fuel has proved too inefficient in the iron-based systems.

Deaths Rose in Emergency Rooms After Hospitals Were Acquired by Private Equity

Researchers linked the increase in mortality to cuts in salary and staffing levels.
Photo Credit: Sungmin Cho

Patient death rates increased in the emergency departments of U.S. hospitals acquired by private equity firms compared to similar hospitals not acquired by private equity, according to a nationwide study of hundreds of hospitals conducted by researchers at Harvard Medical School, the University of Pittsburgh, and the University of Chicago.

The results, published Sept. 23 in Annals of Internal Medicine, offer more concrete evidence that this for-profit ownership model of health care has led to higher patient mortality.

The federally funded study also found that private equity hospitals experienced large cuts in staffing and salaries, which the researchers propose is the likely explanation for the increase in patient deaths.

“Staffing cuts are one of the common strategies used to generate financial returns for the firm and its investors,” said senior author Zirui Song, associate professor of health care policy in the Blavatnik Institute at HMS and HMS associate professor of medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, who has published extensively on the implications of private equity in health care.

Koala stress linked to disease threat

Many koalas in the study were successfully treated for Chlamydia before being released back into the wild.
Photo Credit: Currumbin Wildlife Hospital

Researchers have revealed a clear relationship between stress and increased disease risk in koalas in South East Queensland and on the New South Wales North Coast.

A study led by Dr Michaela Blyton at The University of Queensland measured and tracked the level of koala retrovirus (KoRV) in groups of captive and wild koalas.

“We wanted to see what happened to their KoRV loads over time and how it related to chlamydial infection and levels of the stress hormones cortisol and corticosterone in their feces,” Dr Blyton said.

“Virus load likely weakens the immune system, so those with a higher KoRV load are more at risk of diseases such as Chlamydia which can cause blindness, infertility and death.

“Poor quality or disappearing habitat may increase stress and the koalas with higher average cortisol levels had higher average KoRV loads.

Wildfire Smoke May Lead to Thousands More U.S Deaths

Mammoth Mountain in California’s Sierra Nevada Range on September 8, 2025. The photo reveals significant haze and smog, much of that the result of continual wildfires in the state.
Photo Credit: Marshall Burke.

A study led by Stony Brook University faculty and published in Nature projects that smoke exposure from wildfires in the coming decades toward 2050 could result in tens of thousands of excess deaths in the United States.

This projection, by a national team of investigators led by Stony Brook’s Minghao Qiu, is based on research that assesses wildfire activity in an increasingly dry and warming climate.

Wildfires have significantly increased in recent years, often in the western U.S. but also in other regions. Warmer, drier conditions are increasing the scope, damage, and exposures to people from wildfires. The study details the use of historical data from wildfires and smoke pollution, along with statistical models and machine learning tools to estimate deaths caused by exposure to smoke particulates in climate change scenarios.

Deaths from wildfire smoke result from inhaling a complex mix of chemicals. Wildfires can expose large numbers of people to these toxic pollutants for days or weeks at a time, contributing to deaths up to three years after the initial exposure, according to the study.