Two enduring biological mysteries have remained unsolved for decades: why almost everyone who loses weight gains it back, no matter how they lost it, and why obesity passes from mother to child at rates that diet and environment cannot explain. Now, scientists from Harrington Discovery Institute at University Hospitals and Case Western Reserve University have identified why.

11 Sep 2026

New Insights Into How Giant-Nucleus Cells Promote Early-Stage Cancer Growth

Iron is an essential micronutrient, but excess iron can damage cells and increase cancer risk. While many cells die from iron-induced oxidative stress, a subset survives and may become cancerous. Previously, the identity of these surviving cells was unclear.

11 Sep 2026

Unlocking the Genetic History of Grasses for Future Food Security Solutions

An international team of scientists, including Donald Danforth Plant Science Center Member Emerita Elizabeth "Toby" Kellogg, PhD, has produced a chromosome-level genome assembly that offers a new view of the earliest evolution of grasses, the plant family that includes many of the world's most important food crops.

11 Sep 2026

Molecular Circuit Linking Abscisic Acid Signaling to Tanshinone Production Uncovered

Salvia miltiorrhiza, also known as Danshen, is a highly regarded traditional Chinese medicine widely used for treating cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. Its medicinal properties are largely attributed to tanshinones-a group of more than 40 diterpenoid quinone compounds, including tanshinone I, tanshinone IIA, and cryptotanshinone, which predominantly accumulate in the plant's roots.

11 Sep 2026

SMART Researchers Discover First PLP-Dependent Enzyme That Influences Bacterial Protein Production

Researchers from the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research & Technology’s (SMART) Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) interdisciplinary research group, alongside collaborators from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Nanyang Technological University (NTU Singapore), and institutions in the United States, Poland, and France, have discovered aminovaleramididine synthetase (AvaS), the first identified pyridoxal phosphate (PLP)-dependent enzyme responsible for producing a chemical modification linked to how bacteria respond to metabolic stress.

10 Sep 2026

IU Biologists Find a Hidden Weak Spot in How Bacteria Build the Tails They Use to Move

New research from Indiana University has uncovered a previously unknown vulnerability in how bacteria build the whip-like tails they use to move.

10 Sep 2026

Synchronized Gene Regulatory Pathways Defend C. diff Against Host and Microbiota Threats

The pathogen Clostridioides difficile (C. diff) - a leading cause of hospital-acquired infections - must contend with a variety of threats inside the harsh environment of the gut to survive and grow.

10 Sep 2026

Study Reveals Structural Roughness as Key Factor in Tumor Detachment Dynamics

In 2024, malignant tumors caused more than 21,300 deaths in Austria, 4.7% more than in 2014. Faced with a similarly pressing global challenge, scientists are striving to better understand what drives cancer cells to grow, spread, and invade healthy tissue.

10 Sep 2026

Multi-Omic Integration Reveals Novel Gene-Disease Links in Undiagnosed Rare Conditions

Researchers from Queen Mary University of London, the Berlin Institute of Health at Charité (BIH) and Genomics England have shown that measuring proteins in the blood can provide important additional clues about the effects of genetic variants, helping to identify diagnoses and potential new disease-causing genes that genome sequencing alone has been unable to resolve.

10 Sep 2026

Advanced Gene Editing Provides Essential Tool for Studying Early Human Embryonic Development

A study by researchers at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons has found that new cutting-edge techniques can accurately edit genes in human embryos-giving scientists indispensable tools for understanding normal human development-but has also uncovered important risks that currently preclude the use of the techniques in the clinic.

10 Sep 2026