Onboard the International Space Station (ISSInternational Space Station), the Extant Life Volumetric Imaging System, dubbed ELVIS, is not about resurrecting rock-n-roll legends but pioneering scientific discovery. Using innovative holographic technology to deliver detailed 3D views of cells and microbes, the system allows scientists to study the adaptability and resilience of life under extreme conditions. Knowledge gained could reveal how life might persist on distant moons and planets, significantly enhancing our search for life outside Earth.

WARSAW, Poland, April 16, 2025 — Researchers from the International Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology in Warsaw (IIMCB) described a new mechanism that improves the efficiency of mRNA-based therapies. The research findings will facilitate the development of novel therapeutics against cancers and infectious diseases. The scientific experiments were carried out at IIMCB, but important contributions also came from collaborators at the Faculty of Physics and Faculty of Biology of the University of Warsaw, the Medical University of Warsaw, and the Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics of the Polish Academy of Sciences. The breakthrough study by the Polish researchers has just been published in Nature. 

This study conducts a comparative analysis of the standard-sample-bracketing (SSB) method and the double-spike (DS) method, aiming to provide practical recommendations to researchers for selecting optimal analytical approaches for natural samples. The DS method shows greater potential to reveal subtle Mg isotope fractionations in processes such as equilibrium inter-mineral Mg isotope fractionation, partial melting of magma, and the possible fractionation during crystallization differentiation. Continuous optimization efforts will further improve the versatility and accuracy of the DS method, particularly through expanding its application scope to incorporate more diverse standard samples. Such expansion is critical for thoroughly investigating the fundamental causes of analytical discrepancies between DS and SSB methods in Mg isotope studies.

The team of Professor Heng-Yu Fan from the Life Sciences Institute (LSI) of Zhejiang University (with ph.D. student Yuxuan Jiao as the first author) published a research paper titled “DHX36-mediated G-quadruplexes unwinding is essential for oocyte and early embryo development in mice” in Science Bulletin. This study, for the first time, revealed the spatiotemporal consistency of DHX36 with the formation of G4 structures during mammalian oocyte and early embryo development. DHX36 specifically binds to G4 structures on DNA (particularly in rDNA regions and transcription start sites) and pre-rRNA, thereby regulating chromatin conformation, gene transcription, and pre-rRNA processing, which are essential for maintaining normal oocyte and embryo development.

Many animal species become smaller or larger in recent decades, with climate change often mentioned as a cause. Red knots, shorebirds travelling 10 thousand kilometers every year between breeding grounds in Arctic Russia and wintering grounds in West Africa, are becoming smaller. Researchers have now discovered why: in the period that the chicks grow up, their most important food source is less available. They publish their findings this week in Global Change Biology.