GoKawiil
Tech News
Scientists at EPFL used mass spectrometry imaging (MALDI-MSI) alongside liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry and single-nucleus RNA sequencing to catalog lipid molecules across coronal brain sections from adult mice. The study included comparisons between male and female mice, as well as pregnant females, sampling six specific brain regions to examine how lipid composition varies by sex and physiological state.
Researchers at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital used CRISPR-Cas9 screening in mouse T cell models to identify ZMYND8 as a regulator of T cell exhaustion. Removing ZMYND8 boosted IL-2 signalling in antigen-specific CD8+ T cells, including those engineered with CAR constructs, helping the cells retain function against tumours in mouse models.
Stanford researchers who previously showed human brain organoids could survive and function inside baby mice have now genetically engineered mice so their own brains don't fully develop, allowing human tissue to fill the gap more extensively. The approach aims to create better models for studying brain injury and development, while forcing the team to set explicit ethical limits on how far the chimeric brain research should go.
A Stanford team led by Sergiu Pașca genetically engineered mice to lack most of their cortex and hippocampus, then implanted human brain organoid cells into the resulting gap. The human cells expanded to fill much of that space within weeks to months, and mice with the human tissue performed better on memory maze tests than mice without it.
Researchers grafted lab-grown human brain tissue into mice that were bred without a cortex, and the transplanted tissue integrated and took root in the animals' brains. The study demonstrates that human neural tissue can survive and develop within a living rodent brain that lacks its own corresponding structure.
Researchers at the Allen Institute and Johns Hopkins used Dbh-Cre mice with fluorescently labeled nuclei, tissue clearing, and light-sheet microscopy to image and count noradrenaline-producing neurons in the locus coeruleus at cellular resolution. They applied a deep-learning pipeline to detect neuron centroids and registered the data to a standard brain atlas to build detailed 3D density maps of this small but influential brainstem nucleus.
Researchers engineered mice with genetically depleted cortical tissue using Emx1-cre and Esco2 conditional knockout lines, then implanted human-derived brain organoids grown from induced pluripotent stem cells into the resulting cavity. The organoids were produced by aggregating dissociated hiPS cells in microwell plates and guiding them through early neural differentiation with dorsomorphin and SB-431542 before transplantation.
Researchers testing a GLP-1 receptor agonist, the class of drug behind popular weight-loss treatments, observed that female mice given the compound showed slower markers of biological ageing compared to untreated mice. The effect was notably more pronounced in females than in males in the study.
Researchers at UC Berkeley gave 20-month-old female mice daily low-dose subcutaneous semaglutide, the active ingredient in drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy, and compared them with saline-treated and calorie-restricted counterparts. Over months of treatment, the semaglutide group showed slowed markers of aging and, in a full lifespan cohort of about 80 mice, longer survival than untreated controls.
Researchers at KAIST and the Institute for Basic Science, using APP/PS1 and 5×FAD mouse models along with human brain tissue from a Seoul National University Hospital bank, examined the role of the ERBB4 protein in excitatory neurons. Their experiments indicate that abnormal expression of ERBB4 in these neurons contributes to the progression of Alzheimer's disease-related brain changes.