The road ahead: Why conserving the invisible 99% of life is fundamental to planetary health
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Updates every hour. Last Updated: 23-Dec-2025 06:11 ET (23-Dec-2025 11:11 GMT/UTC)
In July 2025, IUCN formally launched the MCSG within its Species Survival Commission, co-chaired by Professor Gilbert and Raquel Peixoto (KAUST / ISME). This came out of a meeting that Professor Gilbert led in May of conservation experts and microbiologists to define the premise of conservation in a microbial world.
This is the first global coalition dedicated to safeguarding microbial biodiversity, which is the ‘invisible 99% of life’, to ensure that microbes are recognized as essential to the planet’s ecological, climate, and health systems.
C-reactive protein (CRP) is a widely used biomarker for sepsis evaluation in newborns. However, although it has a high negative predictive value, its optimal cut-off levels during the first few days have not been fully established. Now, researchers have investigated CRP’s diagnostic performance to detect early-onset sepsis (EOS) in newborns. They found distinct postnatal dynamic patterns of CRP levels across gestational age groups, which limit its diagnostic accuracy in term infants but may offer useful insights into sepsis risk in preterm babies.
Selenium-based compounds play vital roles in human and animal health; however, accurately detecting their various forms has long been a challenge. Researchers from Chiba University have developed a new method that uses selenium’s unique isotopic “fingerprints” to identify its compounds with high precision. Using this approach, they discovered previously unknown selenium molecules produced by gut bacteria. This technique could contribute to the fields of biology, helping deepen our understanding of selenium’s functions in the body.
Beyond its efficacy, Cinainu has shown to treat Alopecia Areata – a chronic autoimmune disease - without immunosuppression-related adverse events, and with a persistent effect, which are probably both a first. Botanical drug is an overlooked regulatory pathway, but these results show that a botanical drug can treat a complex disease with no chemicals and potentially no long-term health risks. Publication in the British Journal of Dermatology marks a key milestone for Cinainu development and botanical drug innovation overall.
The bacterial components of the CRISPR/Cas9 gene scissors trigger an immune response. Consequently, this method delivers unreliable results in certain mouse models for cancer.
Researchers at ETH Zurich have now developed gene scissors that are camouflaged from the immune system and used them to identify factors that promote the development of metastases.
The newly developed CRISPR method can be put to universal use in medical research and development.
A novel study empirically linking a standardized measure of community resilience in more than 3,100 U.S. counties to cognitive, mental, and physical health outcomes shows that counties with fewer healthcare resources, limited digital tools, and weaker support systems exhibit poorer overall health among their residents. The article appearing in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, published by Elsevier, indicates that resilience can be measured, strengthened, and designed into our systems of care using modifiable tools like healthcare access, support networks, and technology.
Osaka Metropolitan University researchers studied the impact of Modeling Behavior on nurse workplace adaptation.