The DIVINE cohort brings together clinical data from 5,813 patients hospitalised with COVID-19 during the first four waves of the pandemic and makes it available to the scientific community through an open, accessible and reusable resource. Published in Scientific Data, this multicentre database has already contributed to several studies and aims to support further research into the clinical progression of COVID-19, associated risk factors and the development of predictive models.

Biophotonics refers to the development and application of light-based technologies to study biological systems. The application of terahertz (THz) frequency range in biophotonics is considered a promising avenue for advancing biological research. However, several challenges still limit practical adoption, although recent developments show strong potential. In a new study, researchers present a comprehensive review of recent advancements and emerging applications of THz biophotonics, highlighting promising areas and future research directions that can expand its adoption.

Researchers at Yokohama City University, Japan, have uncovered evidence that the Y chromosome gene UTY still retains regulatory activity in human embryonic stem cells, offering a rare glimpse into what may represent an evolutionary transitional state of the human Y chromosome.

Researchers developed MARVAL, an automated platform for measuring the shape of brain blood vessels from time-of-flight magnetic resonance angiography. In more than 3,000 community participants and nearly 9,000 stroke patients with high-quality imaging, the team built an East Asian cerebrovascular template, charted age-related vascular changes, and found that small-vessel integrity and network complexity were strongly associated with disability, recurrence and mortality after ischemic stroke.

Over the last few decades, physical principles have been proposed to explain some biological processes and functions. However, biological principles remain elusive. A biological principle is a governing rule that guides the structure and functions of cells. Biological principles are built upon the laws of physics and chemistry, but they go beyond these laws and are unique to living matter. Here, we discuss what differentiates a biological principle from a physical principle and discuss candidates for biological principles. We review evidence from literature that regulation of cytoskeletal prestress (endogenous cytoskeletal pre-existing tensile stress) is essential for governing biological structures and functions of living cells. We propose that, in addition to the biological principles of Central Dogma and metabolism, cytoskeletal prestress homeostasis is a biological principle of a living cell across all domains of life. We propose that living cells regulate their stress and modulus to limit maximum strain on the cells. Homeostasis of endogenous energy-dependent, stress-supported systems that use cytoskeletal (CSK) prestress (the force of life) to stabilize structure represents a biological principle of a living cell that is not observed in inorganic systems, whereas other basic principles (e.g., self-assembly) are required for living systems but are also found in simpler nonliving systems. Leveraging biological principles of cells may have far-reaching implications in understanding the essence of cell life and designing effective interventions for therapeutics to advance medicine and enhance human health.