Tiffany Miele (Hawthorne, N.Y.), a second-year Environmental Management major, spent her summer internship looking through a microscope at organisms smaller than a grain of rice, using them to help answer much larger questions about the long-term health of Otsego Lake in Cooperstown, the source of the 444-mile Susquehanna River. Miele, an undergraduate research intern, worked with Dr. Mairi Meehan, Assistant Professor of Biology, on a project that sought to interpret 30 years of zooplankton monitoring data to identify and describe ecosystem change in the lake.

Wiley announces the launch of two new journals, Advanced Medicine and Advanced Healthy Aging, the latest additions to its expanding Advanced Portfolio.

Tiny, striped zebrafish are helping scientists trace how a gene linked to albinism influences eye development, work that may ultimately help explain some of the vision problems experienced by people with the condition and guide the search for new treatments. In a study published in Developmental Biology, Washington State University researchers found that mutations in OCA2, a gene responsible for one of the most common forms of albinism, caused unexpected changes in pigment cells, eye formation and the activity of dozens of other genes in zebrafish embryos.

An international research team has discovered that the protein HERC4 is a key component in the signalling pathways involved in programmed cell death, which is responsible for triggering inflammatory diseases. The discovery will potentially lead the way to new therapeutic approaches for chronic inflammatory bowel diseases, rheumatism and psoriasis, as well as for inflammation-related types of cancer / Publication in ‘Nature Structural and Molecular Biology’

Marine plastic debris can persist for long periods and gradually break down into microplastics that are difficult to remove. Researchers from Ritsumeikan University used a system dynamics model to examine how reducing marine plastic inputs and varying the timing and intensity of cleanup could affect plastic accumulation by 2050. The findings show that halting plastic inputs is essential but insufficient on its own. Earlier cleanup of legacy macroplastics can reduce accumulation, but at higher costs.

The enigmatic assembly pathway behind the refractile-body proteins may have finally been resolved, as reported by researchers from Science Tokyo. Using genetic engineering and several protein structural analysis techniques, they investigated how four different proteins work together to produce the correct nanoscale to microscale structure of these complex, pH-responsive protein machines. These findings could help establish new frameworks to engineer dynamic protein systems as biotechnological tools.

Using an integrated New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) framework combining bioinformatics, 3D modeling, machine learning, and in vitro assays, this study analyzed 107 ecological factors and estrogen receptor alpha (ERα) diversity across 169 mammalian species. Key discoveries include an expanded ligand-binding pocket in omnivores, a cetacean-specific substitution, and brain-to-body mass ratio as a sensitivity predictor. These findings provide essential molecular mechanisms for predicting wildlife chemical sensitivity.

A new AI tool can identify aging patterns in blood stem cells by analyzing DAPI-stained nuclear images and chromatin architecture. It may accelerate the discovery and testing of cellular rejuvenation strategies.

Researchers have substantially expanded the known genomic diversity of Aoguangviridae, a family of marine viruses associated with the abundant archaeal order Poseidoniales. By increasing the non-redundant genome set from 59 to 227, the study revealed extensive previously unrecognized diversity and distinct ecological distribution patterns across the global ocean. The researchers also identified auxiliary metabolic genes and evidence of transcriptional activity, providing new insights into the potential ecological roles of these viruses and their interactions with archaeal hosts. The findings were published on 2 September in Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Research.