Researchers at Korea University have achieved a significant breakthrough in regenerative medicine. They have demonstrated how fibroblast growth factor 4 and Ascorbic acid, known as vitamin C, can induce the trans-differentiation of fibroblasts into functional cardiomyocytes. This discovery activates key cellular pathways and offers hope for developing treatments for cardiovascular diseases, the leading cause of death worldwide.

An often-overlooked mechanism of gene regulation may be involved in the failure of antifungal drugs in the clinic. This has been discovered by a German-Austrian research team led by the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology - Hans Knöll Institute (Leibniz-HKI). The study focused on the mold fungus Aspergillus fumigatus, which can cause life-threatening infections, especially in immunocompromised people. Targeted changes to the fungal RNA allow a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms, which are responsible for the development of resistance and the fungus' defense mechanisms against drugs.

It´s been long known that bacteria are becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotics. The risk of no longer being able to successfully treat bacterial infections is constantly increasing. Equally critical - although not in the public focus - is the resistance of fungal pathogens to antimycotics, which is exacerbated by the massive use of similar active ingredients in agriculture. This problem is reflected in alarming data: With over one billion infections and around 3.75 million deaths per year, fungal infections are a significant threat to humans - the trend is rising.

The treatment of fungal infections is currently based on a few groups of medical active substances such as echinocandins, polyenes, azoles or the synthetic molecule fluorocytosine. The team led by Matthew Blango, head of a junior research group at the Leibniz-HKI, used the known mode of action of fluorocytosine on A. fumigatus as the basis for the investigation of the development of fungal resistance.

In the vast, open ocean with no place to hide, sardines group together for protection. When they cannot rely on speed to escape, the sardines’ best chance is to outmaneuver the predator altogether. However, predators also seek ways to find weak spots in the group’s defence. In a study published in Communications Biology, researchers from the Cluster of Excellence “Science of Intelligence” (SCIoI), the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, the Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB), and Cambridge University uncover the connection between how prey’s collective escape patterns emerge and why predators adopt specific strategies to attack them. Using a combination of computational modeling and observations from the aerial video footage, an interdisciplinary research team investigated the predator-prey behaviour of striped marlins (Kajikia audax) and sardine shoals (Sardinops sagax caerulea) in the open ocean. Their findings reveal that individual prey in groups follows simple decision-making rules, which lead to complex, collective self-organized manoeuvers – and that this response is something predators can capitalize on.