Researchers compared gut microbiota from people with and without disease and found several bacterial genera, including Bacteroides uniformis, enriched in healthy individuals. In mouse experiments, oral dosing with B. uniformis colonized the gut, reduced aortic plaque buildup measured by Oil Red O staining, and affected metabolic markers such as glucose tolerance tests and liver mass compared with controls.
A research paper describes a human lung organoid system developed to study tissue-resident memory T cells (TRM) and their antiviral responses in the respiratory tract. The work draws on prior findings about TRM cells' role in protecting against influenza, SARS-CoV-2, and other pulmonary infections, aiming to recreate these dynamics outside the human body for closer study.
Researchers analyzing the Jurassic mammaliaform Megacauda identified a derived, therian-like pterygoid hamulus structure in its skull, contrasting with the more primitive configuration seen in Morganucodon. Comparisons with the modern marsupial Didelphis virginiana, including diceCT scans, show how this bony hook relates to muscles controlling the soft palate and pharynx.
Researchers used cryo-electron microscopy to resolve the structure of a supercomplex formed between nitrogenase and a PII signal transduction protein in a methanogen archaeon. The structure captures how PII, a widely conserved regulator of nitrogen metabolism, physically associates with the nitrogen-fixing enzyme, offering a molecular view of this interaction not previously visualized at this resolution.
Researchers used two-photon calcium imaging and optogenetics in fruit flies to study how the central complex, specifically the fan-shaped body region of the brain, encodes a navigational goal. They describe a neural mechanism called a 'split attractor' design that allows flies to rapidly write and update a heading goal used for orientation behaviors. The experiments combined live brain imaging with tethered flies walking on an air-supported ball to track behavior alongside neural activity.
A research team describes a metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) process that grows monolayer MoS2 and MoS2-MoSe2 superlattices with spatially controlled nucleation, using an etching-flux barrier patterned via electron-beam lithography on sapphire or SiO2 substrates. The technique relies on tuning gas flow rates, temperature and pressure, with HfO2 or ZrO2 barriers defining where crystal growth begins.
A research team has proposed a technique for retrofitting pretrained subword-based language models so they operate directly on raw UTF-8 bytes rather than tokenized text. The approach builds on existing subword-trained models instead of training byte-level models from scratch, addressing a gap between prior academic claims and the lack of real-world adoption of byte-level LLMs.
Researchers reviewing fire science literature argue that the suppression of Indigenous cultural burning practices after European colonisation contributed to shrub encroachment and the conditions behind Australia's intensifying bushfires. The analysis draws on multiple studies, including work on the 2019-20 mega-fire season and broader global fire trends under climate change.
Researchers analyzed single-nucleus and spatial transcriptomic data from human embryonic and fetal heart tissue samples, obtained from terminated pregnancies under ethical approval from UK research bodies including Cambridge University Hospitals and the Human Developmental Biology Resource at UCL. The study aimed to characterize how heart cells normally develop and how this process is altered in fetuses with Trisomy 21 (Down syndrome).
A multi-institution research team, including groups at Washington University, Harvard and collaborating US laboratories, reports a new method using a chiral superlattice structure to engineer spin-split topological antiferromagnetic behavior in a material system. The work was funded through several US agencies and foundations, including the Department of Energy's Center for the Advancement of Topological Semimetals and the National Science Foundation.
Researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center analyzed metastatic prostate cancer samples and cell line models, including treatment-resistant variants, to study how transfer RNA (tRNA) abundance influences tumor behavior. The work examined patient tumor samples collected via rapid autopsy alongside multiple prostate cancer cell lines adapted to mimic lineage plasticity and resistance to androgen-deprivation therapy.
A body of recent research, including a 2023 phylogenetic survey and a 2025 study on archaea, documents that multicellularity has arisen independently at least 45 times across the tree of life, spanning bacteria, archaea and eukaryotes. The studies identify six distinct structural types of simple multicellularity and show that even archaea, previously thought incapable of complex tissue-like organization, can form clonal multicellular structures under mechanical compression. Together these findings are organized under a newer conceptual framework that treats multicellularity as a continuum of evolutionary stages rather than a single fixed trait.
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