Researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) have engineered baker’s yeast to sense and respond to red and blue light. This breakthrough enables scientists to control cell behaviour using light, opening exciting new doors for programmable and predictable biological manufacturing. This is the first time that a single strain of yeast has been engineered to respond to multiple colors of light. Now, the NUS team is boosting its light sensitivity to help produce valuable chemicals and materials.

Bacteria naturally release microscopic particles known as bacterial extracellular vesicles. This review considers how these vesicles could be adapted for precision cancer medicine, from carrying drugs and activating immune responses to limiting metastasis and identifying cancer biomarkers. It also examines the practical obstacles ahead, including inconsistent production, safety risks, contamination and the lack of shared manufacturing and quality standards.

Scientists—and dog lovers—have long known that dogs are remarkably good at interpreting our laughs, frowns, and tears. But the biology behind this ability has remained largely unexplored until now. 

In a study published in the Cell Press journal iScience on August 7, researchers peered inside the brains of dogs as they viewed images of various human expressions. The brain scans revealed that dogs process smiles in a unique brain region and, for the first time, provided evidence that dogs can distinguish between negative facial expressions, including anger, sadness, and fear. 

Researchers from ELTE Eötvös Loránd University and the HUN-REN Hungarian Research Network have now experimentally demonstrated that an ectothermic vertebrate infected with a virus actively seeks cooler, rather than warmer, environments to regulate its body temperature. This strategy, known as behavioural cooling, has so far been documented only rarely in the animal kingdom, having previously been reported in a handful of arthropod species infected with bacterial or viral pathogens and in rats infected with bacteria. The new findings suggest that behavioural cooling may also help animals to combat viral infections.