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Synthetic RNA Platform Converts Viral Replication Into Detectable Cellular Signals

The technology, called the Viral-Engineered RNA-based Activation System (VERAS), hijacks the virus's own replication machinery to switch on reporter or therapeutic genes precisely in infected cells.

9 Jan 2026

Giant Ushikuvirus Discovery Sheds Light on the Origins of Life

The origin of life on Earth becomes even more fascinating and complex as we peer into the mysterious world of viruses.

8 Jan 2026

Unusual Antibody Tactics Hinder Pathogen Attachment to Cells

Pathogens can create sticky situations. When microbes invade the body to cause an infection, often one of their first lines of attack is to cling tenaciously to the surfaces of targeted human cells.

8 Jan 2026

Scientists Develop Noise Controller to Tame Random Cell Behavior

Why does cancer sometimes recur after chemotherapy? Why do some bacteria survive antibiotic treatment? In many cases, the answer appears to lie not in genetic differences, but in biological noise - random fluctuations in molecular activity that occur even among genetically identical cells.

5 Jan 2026

Engineered EVs Offer a Modular and Clinically Adaptable Immune-Tolerance Platform

A research team at the Nano Life Science Institute (WPI-NanoLSI) and the Faculty of Medicine at Kanazawa University has developed a new class of engineered extracellular vesicles (EVs) capable of inducing antigen-specific regulatory T cells (Tregs), the immune cells that play a central role in suppressing excessive immune responses.

24 Dec 2025

Mapping the Four Dimensional Organization of the Human Genome

A new study challenges what's long been assumed about genetic variants thought to always cause inherited blindness.

23 Dec 2025

Simple Vibration Platform Enables Uniform Biomolecular Condensate Formation

A research group led by Professor Hiroaki SUZUKI and Takeshi HAYAKAWA from the Faculty of Science and Engineering at Chuo University, graduate student Zhitai HUANG, graduate students Kanji KANEKO (at the time) and Ryotaro YONEYAMA (at the time), together with Specially Appointed Assistant Professor Tomoya MARUYAMA from the Research Center for Autonomous Systems Materialogy (ASMat), Institute of Integrated Research (IIR), Institute of Science Tokyo, and Professor Masahiro TAKINOUE from the Laboratory for Chemistry and Life Science, Institute of Integrated Research, Institute of Science Tokyo, has developed a novel and highly accessible technology for producing uniform Biomolecular Condensates using a simple, low-cost vibration platform.

23 Dec 2025

Passive Adaptation Balances Protein Synthesis and Degradation in Cells

Every cell depends on proteins to function and stay healthy. These proteins are made inside the cell from amino acids but cannot simply accumulate inside the cell forever.

23 Dec 2025

New Microscopy Reveals How Cells Actively Capture the Flu Virus

Researchers at ETH Zurich have achieved an unprecedented live, high-resolution visualization of influenza virus infection within living cells.

5 Dec 2025

Innovative Sensor Enables Live Observation of DNA Repair in Living Cells

Cancer research, drug safety testing and ageing biology may all gain a major boost from a new fluorescent sensor developed at Utrecht University.

22 Nov 2025

Breakthrough Microscope Enhances Detection Range for Cellular Observations

Researchers Kohki Horie, Keiichiro Toda, Takuma Nakamura, and Takuro Ideguchi of the University of Tokyo have built a microscope that can detect a signal over an intensity range fourteen times wider than conventional microscopes.

17 Nov 2025

RNA Imaging Predicts Early Cell Damage with High Sensitivity

NIMS, in collaboration with Nagoya University, Gifu University, and the University of Adelaide, has developed a method for simultaneously imaging DNA and RNA inside cells using harmless infrared to near-infrared light.

14 Nov 2025

New Tool Studies Kinase Activity During DNA Damage

Cornell researchers have developed a powerful new biosensor that reveals, in unprecedented detail, how and where kinases – enzymes that control nearly all cellular processes – turn on and off inside living cells.

14 Nov 2025

Global Constraint Principle Offers Fresh Insight into Life’s Growth Limits

A research team including a scientist of Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI) at Institute of Science Tokyo, Japan, has identified a novel principle in biology that mathematically explains why the growth of organisms slows as nutrients become more abundant-a phenomenon known as "the law of diminishing returns."

12 Nov 2025

Inter-Organelle Crosstalk Regulates Protein Biogenesis in Eukaryotic Cells

Janelia researchers have uncovered a novel way that two of the structures inside cells-the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and lysosomes-coordinate the production of proteins, highlighting how interactions between organelles are important for regulating cellular processes.

11 Nov 2025

Muscle Tissue from a 3D Printer – Produced in Zero Gravity

On their way into space, astronauts' bodies deteriorate dramatically in zero gravity. To address this problem and protect our pioneers in space, researchers are looking for realistic test models.

7 Nov 2025

Smart Proteins Bring Precision Drug Delivery Closer to Reality

Targeted drug delivery is a powerful and promising area of medicine. Therapies that pinpoint the exact areas of the body where they're needed - and nowhere they're not - can reduce the medicine dosage and avoid potentially harmful "off target" effects elsewhere in the body.

10 Oct 2025

New Synthetic Polypeptides Prevent Freezer Burn and Preserve Biological Medicines

Anyone who has experienced freezer burn knows that ice crystals can be a problem at low temperatures.

8 Oct 2025

Golden Broccoli Aptamer Enables Real-Time Measurement of Glycine

The amino acid glycine is an important neurotransmitter that regulates memory, reflex and brain development, and it may also be a biomarker for bacterial virulence.

6 Oct 2025

A Molecular Magnifying Glass for Tracking Protein Misfolding in Living Cells

A novel strategy developed at Rice University allows scientists to zoom in on tiny segments of proteins inside living cells, revealing localized environmental changes that could indicate the earliest stages of diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and cancer.

15 Sep 2025