EurekAlert! News by Subject: Biology - News by Subject: Biology

Biology

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 19-Oct-2025 08:11 ET (19-Oct-2025 12:11 GMT/UTC)

8-Jul-2025

scSCC: A swapped contrastive learning-based clustering method for single-cell gene expression data

Higher Education Press
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Recently, Hongwei Li’s team from China University of Geosciences published a research article titled “scSCC: A swapped contrastive learning-based clustering method for single-cell gene expression data” in the journal Quantitative Biology, proposing a novel clustering method combining instance contrastive learning and swapped contrastive learning for scRNA-seq data.

Journal: Quantitative Biology

8-Jul-2025

Eliminating invasive rats may restore the flow of nutrients across food chain networks in Seychelles

PLOS
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Ecosystems are characterized by interconnected structure and functions. A study published July 8^th in the open-access journal PLOS Biology by Casey Benkwitt at Lancaster University, United Kingdom and colleagues suggests that restoring seabird populations via eradication of rats may help coral reefs by restoring nutrient connectivity in disrupted food chains.

Journal: PLOS Biology

8-Jul-2025

Gut length driven by ‘sexual conflict’ in fish species

North Carolina State University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new study that looked at gut length variation between cichlid fish species found that some of the genetic loci for the trait are sex-specific even though males and females of the same species have the same gut length.

Journal: Genetics
Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation, Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation, U.S. Department of Agriculture, NIH/National Institutes of Health

8-Jul-2025

Meet the “plastivore” caterpillars that grow fat from eating plastic

Society for Experimental Biology
Reports and Proceedings

Plastics play a fundamental role in modern life, but their resistance to biodegradation makes them very difficult to dispose of. New research reveals how “plastivore” caterpillars can metabolically degrade plastics in a matter of days, not decades, and store them internally as body fat – but at what cost?

Meeting: SEB Conference 2025

8-Jul-2025

Swimming in the deep: MSU research reveals sea lamprey travel patterns in Great Lakes waterways

Michigan State University

MSU researchers found that sea lampreys — a parasitic fish considered an invasive species in the Great Lakes region of the U.S. — follow a clear pattern of staying in the deepest parts of a river. These findings are important for informing sea lamprey management strategies, conservation of fish species native to the Great Lakes and protecting the region’s $7 billion fishing industry and the 75,000 jobs it provides.

Journal: Journal of Experimental Biology

8-Jul-2025

Inhibitory neurons catch up during brain development

Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
Peer-Reviewed Publication

New insights into the emergence of brain cells that keep neural activity in balance

Journal: Nature Neuroscience

8-Jul-2025

Study: Why some lung cancer treatments stop working — and possible fixes

University of Missouri-Columbia
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A fundamental discovery by University of Missouri scientists could help solve one of the most frustrating challenges in treating lung cancer: Why do some patients initially respond to drug treatment, only for it to stop working 18 months later?

The team, led by Dhananjay Suresh, Anandhi Upendran and Raghuraman Kannan at Mizzou’s School of Medicine, identified a hidden molecular “seesaw” involving two proteins inside cancer cells — AXL and FN14. When investigators try to block one protein to stop the cancer, the other one takes over, helping the tumor survive. To fix this, the team developed a new solution: a gelatin-based nanoparticle that can shut down both proteins at the same time.

Journal: ACS Nano