Roughly 10,000 years ago, humans started shifting from being nomadic hunter-gatherers to building large agricultural settlements, marking one of the greatest transformations in human history. This transition, known as the Neolithic Revolution, began in the Fertile Crescent of the Middle East and led to the spread of farming throughout Europe. For decades, researchers have debated what drove this change. Did farming spread mainly because farmers themselves moved into new lands, or because hunter-gatherers adopted farming practices?

Pelvic organ prolapse (POP) affects millions of women, causing pain and diminished quality of life. Current options are limited, with surgery often the only choice. Lehigh University bioengineer Anand Ramamurthi, in collaboration with the Cleveland Clinic, has received NIH funding to develop a nonsurgical therapy using nanoparticles to regenerate pelvic tissue and slow or reverse POP progression.

Researchers have long known that a particular subset of neurons die as Parkinson’s disease progresses, but they aren’t sure why. The new work, published by scientists at Gladstone Institutes in the scientific journal eLife, shows that in mice, chronic activation of these neurons can directly cause their demise.