In a study published March 5 in Science, Ke Cheng and his colleagues describe a therapy designed to enhance the heart’s own ability to protect and repair itself after injury. Cheng’s innovation in drug delivery points to a future where RNA therapy allows the body to produce its own medicine targeted at specific organs. 

Researchers from the School of Biomedical Sciences at the LKS Faculty of Medicine, the University of Hong Kong (HKUMed), in collaboration with the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute at Sinai Health in Toronto, Canada, have achieved a major breakthrough in regenerative medicine. The team has genetically engineered human stem cells that can ‘cloak’ themselves to evade immune rejection, while carrying a built-in kill switch to prevent tumour formation. This innovation opens the door to a safe, off-the-shelf source of cells and tissues, potentially transforming treatment for conditions such as Parkinson’s disease, diabetes, heart failure, and spinal cord injuries, without the need for lifelong immune suppression. 

By studying mouse lemur families, HHMI Investigator Mark Krasnow uncovered an important role for magnesium in human heart health and disease.

A recent study revisits a century-old question about how turbulence starts. The findings could potentially influence not only aircraft engineering but even design of mechanical heart valves, and treatment of heart disease. Computer simulations at Stockholm’s KTH Royal Institute of Technology indicate that very small vortices may create increasingly larger swirls of flow—the opposite of the traditional view of how energy is transferred in turbulence.

Google Earth’ for human organs made available online

An international team of scientists and clinicians has announced, in Science Advances, the launch of a new open-access 3D portal that allows users to explore intact human organs in unprecedented detail — from the whole organ down to individual cells locally. The Human Organ Atlas, created using a powerful synchrotron imaging method, brings together some of the most detailed 3D images of human organs ever produced. It enables scientists, doctors, educators, students and the wider public to interactively “fly through” organs such as the brain, heart, lungs, kidney and liver, providing a new way of understanding human anatomy and human diseases.

Children born with single‑ventricle heart disease, a rare and serious heart defect, often undergo multiple surgeries in their first years of life. A new study shows the challenges for these children can last well into adolescence and sometimes throughout their lives.