At a conference in Washington D.C. in 2000, the secretoglobin super family of proteins was named to classify proteins with structural similarities to its founding member uteroglobin. Now, 25 years later, there is still little known about the basic functions of these proteins, prompting researchers at the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology to dive into their evolutionary origins.

This bioinformatic survey reported that secretoglobins, or SCGBs—originally thought to be exclusive to mammals—are also found in turtles, crocodilians, lizards, and birds. These new findings, published in Genome Biology and Evolution, suggest that these proteins evolved earlier than dinosaurs and share a basic function that is not yet discovered.

Researchers at the UTSA Sleep and Memory Computational Lab are studying how Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep could influence individuals who are regularly exposed to stressful experiences and are at higher risk of developing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

The study, led by UTSA psychology professor Itamar Lerner, involves collaboration with first responders, such as firefighters and law enforcement personnel. The researchers examined their baseline levels of REM sleep, also known as “dream sleep,” and how that could have lasting effects on them over time. 

“Our ongoing hypothesis is that REM sleep affects your ability to process threatening situations in two different ways, based on the predictiveness of the cues associated to the threat,” Lerner said. “Proving that would not only have clinical implications but also tell us something fundamental about the memory processes that occur in the brain and how sleep affects them.”

This research began as a pilot study two years ago. Since then, Lerner has secured a five-year, $725,000 CAREER award from the National Science Foundation for his research. This funding will allow his team to recruit more than 100 participants overall, with nearly 70 participants already enrolled.

The fact that left-handedness resp. mixed-handedness are strikingly common in patients with certain neurological disorders such as autism spectrum disorders is a frequently reported observation in medical practice. The reason why handedness is associated with these disorders is probably because both are affected by processes in early brain development. Various studies have explored this link for individual disorders and have sometimes been able to show it, and sometimes not. A meta-analysis carried out by an international research team from Bochum, Hamburg, Nijmegen and Athens shows that left and mixed-handedness is particularly common in people who suffer from a disorder that manifests itself early in life and is associated with linguistic symptoms. These include dyslexia, schizophrenia and autism. They published their findings in the journal Psychological Bulletin on May, 2, 2025.

The ambient temperature has a profound impact on the physiology and behaviour of most species. In regions where individuals rely on low temperatures to hibernate effectively, global warming is likely to significantly affect their survival. A team of scientists studied how ambient temperatures shape the energy expenditure of common noctule bats and built a model to predict at which latitudes they could survive hibernation. This model also predicts how the hibernation areas of these bats could change over time. It accurately tracks the northward range shift of this species over the past 50 years and shows a further northeast expansion of up to 14 percent of its current range by 2100 – driven by shorter and warmer winters in Europe.

A recent study shows that marine oxygen levels were crucial to the evolution of Early Paleozoic trilobite body size, suggesting that oxygen may have influenced the evolution of other animals' body size as well.