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Research Highlights How Diverse Animals Coordinate Behavior for Mutual Benefit

Even in the animal world, teamwork requires communication – just ask the fish, dolphins, birds and butterflies who rely on other species for help with food, protection from prey and even parasite removal.

23 Jun 2026

Study Reveals Major Body Size Jump Within the Genus Homo

The biggest jump in body size among our ancestors happened around 2 to 2.5 million years ago, with the appearance of Homo rudolfensis or Homo erectus/ergaster, rather than gradually across the whole human family tree.

23 Jun 2026

Scientists Move Beyond Individual Genes to Decode Schizophrenia’s Complex Genetic Network

Scientists have long known that schizophrenia runs in families, but pinpointing exactly which genes contribute to risk has been like searching for needles in a haystack. Now, researchers at the Lieber Institute for Brain Development and a consortium of collaborators from the University of Bari, Italy, and over 60 psychiatric hospitals all over the world, have developed a groundbreaking approach that looks beyond individual genes.

23 Jun 2026

Mathematical Models Uncover the "Churning" Secrets of Super-Sized Sperm

The supersize sperm of fruit flies swim about their storage cavity with elegant churning choreography, and scientists at the Simons Foundation's Flatiron Institute have figured out why.

23 Jun 2026

Study Reveals How Arsenic Pollution Alters Bacterial Metabolism and Detoxification

As arsenic levels increased, bacterial richness and diversity declined, while arsenic-tolerant groups such as Proteobacteria became more abundant. The study also found that bacteria strengthened stress-response pathways, including signal transduction and cell motility, and upregulated arsenic-resistance genes such as arsC2 and arsB.

23 Jun 2026

Cryo-EM Imaging Uncovers the Structure of a Mysterious Molecular "Gate"

How large, fully folded proteins can pass through cell membranes without destroying them has long been one of the open questions in cell biology. Using cryo-electron microscopy (cryo‑EM), Leonid Sazanov and Ziyu Zhao at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) have now uncovered new details about a molecular "gate." Their findings were published in Molecular Cell.

23 Jun 2026

New Genetic Discovery Explains Why Colorectal Cancer Spreads so Quickly

Loss of GATA6-a transcription factor that controls which genes are turned on or off-can reprogram colorectal cancer cells into more primitive, adaptable states that can then spread to the liver and establish new tumors, according to Weill Cornell Medicine and Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers.

23 Jun 2026

Scientists Discover Hidden Brain Development Signaling Pathway

The cytoskeleton gives cells their shape and helps them move. Researchers at Helmholtz Munich and the Ludwig Maximilian University now show that, in neural stem cells, proteins of the cytoskeleton are also found in the cell nucleus, where they can influence developmental programs.

23 Jun 2026

Scripps Research Identifies Erucamide Molecule as Shield Against Blindness

Many conditions that cause vision loss share a common feature: the gradual breakdown of the retina, the light-sensing tissue at the back of the eye.

23 Jun 2026

Decoding Hidden Metabolic Tissue Crosstalk via Advanced Proteomic Tracking

The body's organs are in constant communication. Fat tissue tells the liver when to store or release energy, the immune system signals localized inflammation, and thousands of proteins carry these messages to organs throughout the body.

23 Jun 2026

Aberdeen Researcher Awarded Prestigious $1.2 M International Grant to Uncover How New Traits Evolve

An Aberdeen-based researcher has been awarded a highly prestigious international research grant to investigate one of biology’s most enduring mysteries: how completely new traits evolve in animals.

23 Jun 2026

Research Identifies Essential Genes for Designing New Strep Vaccines

A fast-rising strep bacterium has become increasingly notorious for causing serious infections in humans, including complications that can lead to muscle damage and patient death. New Houston Methodist research appearing in The American Journal of Pathology, published by Elsevier, sheds light on how Streptococcus dysgalactiae subspecies equisimilis (SDSE) causes disease and may provide important insights to aid in vaccine development.

22 Jun 2026

New Progenitor Cell Platform Offers Scalable Source for Immunotherapy

In a paper published in Cell, a USC Stem Cell-led team reports a new way of generating a renewable and expandable supply of the progenitor cells that give rise to macrophages.

22 Jun 2026

Penn Study Uses AI to Discover Prion-Based Antibiotics

New antibiotic candidates for drug-resistant bacteria may reside inside prions, mis-folded protein in the brain best known for rare and fatal degenerative brain diseases.

22 Jun 2026

Targeting Iron Metabolism Offers a New Strategy to Kill Cancer Cells

Researchers from the University of Michigan Health Rogel Cancer Center have discovered a key metabolic pathway that allows colorectal cancer cells to accumulate large quantities of iron. Blocking that pathway reduced iron levels and caused the cancer cells to die.

22 Jun 2026

New Study Reveals How Introns Jump Between Species Without Viral Help

Jumping genes are parasites in the genetic material of bacteria, plants, animals and humans. They are released into the cell as small RNA molecules from ribonucleic acid (RNA) and possess complex mechanisms for inserting themselves into other parts of the genetic material within the cell, thereby often conferring new properties on the cell and thus accelerating evolution. There are also jumping genes that free themselves from the RNA using an RNA enzyme. These ribozymes or self-splicing introns are a special group of jumping genes.

22 Jun 2026

New Research Examines How Blood Cancer Mutations Progress from Healthy States

Researchers have found that a genetic mutation associated with a rare group of blood cancers does not always result in development of the disease. The work provides insight into the initial phases of the disease and may eventually lead to tailored monitoring techniques that improve patient outcomes.

22 Jun 2026

Scientists Find Weak Point in Bacteria Causing Severe Childhood Diarrhea

The bacteria enterotoxigenic E. coli and Shigella together cause hundreds of millions of infections each year and are among the leading causes of diarrheal death, especially in children. Decades of vaccine development efforts have come up short, in part because the usual vaccine targets vary too much from one strain to the next.

22 Jun 2026

Single-Cell Analysis Uncovers How Cancer Tumors Diversify and Resist Treatment

A comprehensive multi-cancer study from researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center has revealed that cancer cells within tumors are genetically diverse, yet all carry the same core genetic changes that can be traced back to a common ancestral cell, providing a single-cell view of how tumors adapt, survive and diversify. Understanding this helps explain why some cancer cells manage to survive treatments, paving the way for more tailored diagnostic and therapeutic strategies.

22 Jun 2026

Small Forest Fragments Can Protect More Birds When the Surrounding Landscape is More Helpful

Larger areas contain more species. This is one of the most ironclad laws of ecology, which explains why large natural areas usually receive higher priority in conservation strategies.

19 Jun 2026