Cities profoundly shape how animals interact with one another. A new comprehensive review by researchers at Bielefeld University shows that urbanisation alters animal social behaviour – from mate choice to group living. The findings are striking and highly relevant for conservation and urban planning.

Alkaline media simultaneously modified both the bacterial exopolysaccharides (EPSs) yield and its monosaccharide profile, promoting the synthesis of rare sugars such as fucose and arabinose, indicating the effectiveness of alkaline media in enhancing the yield of rare sugars.

This large-scale UK Biobank study of 89,935 individuals with MASLD demonstrates that accelerated biological aging—measured by PhenoAge, KDM-BA, and leukocyte telomere length—is associated with a higher risk of cirrhosis. Combined with polygenic risk scores (PRS), accelerated aging identifies high-risk individuals, and mitigating biological aging may substantially reduce cirrhosis risk, even among those with high genetic susceptibility.

Infection with the neurotropic pathogen Toxoplasma gondii induced release of extracellular vesicles (EVs) with microRNAs involved in regulating long term potentiation, depression and neuronal growth. The EVs down-regulated calcium-signaling calmodulin.

MSC-derived extracellular vesicles provide a novel cell-free nanotherapeutic strategy for hepatorenal syndrome and reveal a multi-organ protective mechanism through alleviating necroptosis, reprogramming immune responses, and resolving fibrosis.

A team of researchers led by the University of Plymouth have earned £3.7million from UK Research and Innovation to conduct an unprecedented assessment of the response and resilience of deep sea coral ecosystems. The five-year project will be delivered in collaboration with organisations across the Maldives, Seychelles and Mauritius and will focus on coral reefs below the surface of the Indian Ocean, employing a number of methods to assess their vulnerability to climate change.