The liver’s job clearing harmful substances from the body is so essential that the organ may have implications for addressing unexpected diseases, including Alzheimer’s and heart disease. A promising example comes from new Keck School of Medicine of USC research published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

The study, conducted in aged rats, shows that an experimental drug called cinaciguat reverses effects of aging in the liver. This, in turn, may lower risk for Alzheimer’s disease and clogged arteries. The researchers also revealed what’s behind that rejuvenation, including a specific biochemical pathway used for local communication between liver cells, which suggests a potential therapeutic target.

Everleap Fertility, a leader in fertility care and assisted reproduction, delivers 19 scientific presentations at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) Annual Scientific Congress & Expo on topics ranging from endometrial thickness and cycle cancellation, to the impact of maternal obesity on embryonic aneuploidy, third-party reproductive services, predictive modeling, fertility insurance mandates, access disparities, and more.

Why does the chromosome machinery that makes eggs and sperm look so similar across hundreds of millions of years of evolution, yet work by different rules? Stowers Institute scientists found that the sea anemone Nematostella carries many of the same synaptonemal-complex proteins used by vertebrates to pair chromosomes during meiosis. But when researchers disabled key components, the effects were unexpectedly sex-specific: mutations that caused female sterility could leave males fertile. The work challenges the assumption that similar-looking cellular machines necessarily function the same way and establishes transparent Nematostella as a promising system for watching meiosis in living tissue, with relevance to the basic biology underlying infertility, miscarriage and chromosome errors.

Punching a virtual response box or swinging a virtual lightsaber dramatically improved learning on certain tasks, revealing something fundamental about how people learn. New research challenges the long-held view that movement is simply a response to what the brain has already learned, suggesting instead that physical movement can actively shape learning. The findings could inform training in fields such as medicine and aviation, where integrating information and recognizing patterns are critical.