EurekAlert! News by Subject: Biology - Home

Biology

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 30-Oct-2026 16:16 ET (30-Oct-2026 20:16 GMT/UTC)

Targeting NINJ1 protein could make donor livers more resilient

The Hospital for Sick Children
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Targeting NINJ1 protein could make donor livers more resilient

Journal: Science Advances

Taylor Swift becomes bugs

University of California - Riverside
Peer-Reviewed Publication

She’s a Grammy Award-winning international superstar, and now, Taylor Swift is also a genus of plant-feeding insects from Australia that were previously unknown to science.

Journal: Insect Systematics & Evolution

New $2.4 million NIH study will explore exposures of e-cigarettes before birth and future health implications

Wayne State University - Office of the Vice President for Research
Grant and Award Announcement

Researchers at the Wayne State University School of Medicine’s C.S. Mott Center for Human Growth and Development st have been awarded a five-year, $2.4 million grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences of the National Institutes of Health to study how exposure to e-cigarette components and flavors during pregnancy affect fetal respiratory immune development and the risk of respiratory viral infections in offspring.

VCU Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center researchers receive $2.5M NIH grant to inform breast, pancreatic cancer care

Virginia Commonwealth University
Grant and Award Announcement

Researchers at VCU Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center were recently awarded a $2.5 million R01 grant from the National Cancer Institute. The five-year grant will allow Massey to evaluate the efficacy of TROP2 targeted antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) to further enhance therapeutic benefits in both breast and pancreatic cancer care.

Massey researchers, led by principal investigator Chuck Harrell, Ph.D., member of the Cancer Biology research program at Massey and professor in the Department of Pathology at the VCU School of Medicine, will look to define what enables responses and resistance to ADCs in order to identify predictive biomarkers and establish therapeutic strategies to optimize TROP2-targeted ADC efficacy in both triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) and pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC).

A ‘WHOLISTIC’ view of cellular communication across an entire animal

Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new method developed by Virginie Ruetten, a postdoctoral scientist in the lab of Janelia Senior Group Leader Misha Ahrens, enables scientists to image the activity of nearly every cell in a living larval zebrafish, providing a never-before-seen look at cellular signaling and body-wide circuits across a behaving vertebrate.

Journal: Nature

Scientists reveal what damages the DNA in most prostate cancers

Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Oncológicas (CNIO)
Peer-Reviewed Publication

The work is based on reading the complete DNA of 959 tumours from men in seven countries — the largest set of prostate cancer genomes examined in this way. Eight faulty cellular processes together account for the DNA damage in 85% of prostate cancers. Most tumours are driven by several of the eight at once, and what differs between patients is which ones and in what balance. “The balance of these faulty processes is what determines how likely the cancer is to spread,” says Geoff Macintyre, head of the Computational Oncology Group at the CNIO, who co-led the study. The processes are almost all internal to the cell: hormone signalling, failures in DNA copying and repair, and ageing. The marks that tobacco and sunlight leave on other cancers are practically absent.These results offer clues that could help stratify patients and personalise treatment — but not yet.

Journal: Nature

Electrical fingerprint on tiny cell particles could offer new way to spot pancreatic cancer signals

Rice University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

An electrical fingerprint found on tiny particles in the blood may help detect signs of pancreatic cancer that are often overlooked, according to new research from Rice University. The researchers developed a device that separates these particles based on their electrical charge, making cancer-associated signals more visible.

Journal: ACS Nano
Funder: National Cancer Institute, Sid W. Richardson Foundation, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

Beyond the prescription: How GLP-1 companion digital programs address persistence to medication and postcessation weight regain

JMIR Publications
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) medications have revolutionized weight management, yet high dropout rates and rapid weight regain remain significant hurdles for many patients. A new viewpoint paper published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research highlights a fundamental challenge: medication alone is not enough to secure long-term behavioral change.

Journal: Journal of Medical Internet Research

Weight loss injections and pregnancy – new guidelines support safe decision making

University of Plymouth
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Weight loss injections are an increasingly popular way for people to manage their weight. However, the injections’ impact on reproductive health – from fertility onwards – is relatively unknown.

Now an international study led by the University of Plymouth has examined available research to understand what science tells us to date, and use that to form a set of evidence-based guidelines for families and health professionals seeking to understand if and when incretin-based medications – such as weight loss injections – could be used safely before and after pregnancy.

Journal: Obesity Reviews

68
69
70
71
72