A mitochondria-induced metabolic pathway helps cancer cells lay low in lymph nodes. Plus, why this year’s flu season is so bad and tips on how to overcome ‘the fear of the blank page’.
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Mitochondria — tiny cellular energy factories — can move from one cell to another in a process called mitochondrial transfer. (Professors P. Motta & T. Naguro/Science Photo Library)
Cancer cells use mitochondria stolen from immune cells to escape detection and spread. Researchers found that when cancer cells take on these mitochondria in mice, it both weakens the immune cells and triggers a molecular pathway in the cancer cells that help them fly under the immune system’s radar and invade lymph nodes. This beneficial molecular pathway was activated even when researchers disrupted the mitochondria’s ability to produce the energy-carrying molecule ATP. The findings could explain how cancer cells survive in lymph nodes, which are packed with immune cells that should be able to kill them.
Nature | 4 min read
Reference: Cell Metabolism paper
A genomic analysis of around 14,400-year-old woolly rhino (Coelodonta antiquitatis) tissue — recovered from the stomach of an ice age wolf (Canis lupis) — has revealed clues as to the cause of the species’ rapid extinction around 14,000 years ago. Researchers compared the animal’s genetic diversity to genomes belonging to older woolly rhino samples and found no evidence of inbreeding, which suggests the species’ downfall was not a long, gradual process. The team instead proposes that a warming climate destroyed the rhinos’ habitat, which caused a swift population collapse.
Nature | 4 min read
Reference: Genome Biology and Evolution paper
In many parts of the world, the 2025–26 flu season started earlier and has accelerated faster than in previous years. Scientists suspect that a newly dominant strain of the influenza virus, H3N2, is behind this surge in cases. This strain has several key mutations that differentiate it from the strain used in this year’s vaccine, which might make it easier for the virus to shrug off the immune protection the jab confers. Population immunity to this strain was relatively low when this flu season began because H3 flu viruses haven’t circulated much in the last few seasons.
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