Molecular biology, genetics, microbiology, ecology and animal health.
Professor Hsiuying Wang reviews evidence that roses have medicinal uses, including against inflammation, diabetes and depression, and that rose petal structures can inspire materials for flexible electronics.
Dr. Jean Jiang's team describes a step-by-step protocol for altering connexin hemichannel function in chicken lens fiber cells with a retrovirus, then testing cell survival under oxidative stress.
Dr. Analía López's team found that brood parasitic birds build tougher eggshells through more complex crystal grain boundaries in the outer shell layer, not through thickness alone.
Dr. Elisabetta Mileo and Professor Barbara Zambelli's teams found that the bacterial nickel-delivery protein UreG stays flexible inside living cells, shifting between loose and compact shapes.
Dr. Ruxandra Gref and Dr. Kirill Afonin's teams showed that engineered metal-organic framework nanoparticles can carry therapeutic nucleic acids into cancer cells and reduce target gene activity.
Professor Carl Creutz found that yeast producing annexin proteins from animals survived toxic levels of the biofuel isobutanol much better, as the proteins appear to patch damaged cell membranes.
Dr. Kirill Afonin's team found that building DNA aptamers into fibrous nucleic acid nanoparticles can tune down the immune response the particles trigger in cells.
Professor Carl Creutz found that E. coli producing the cow protein annexin A4 kept dividing under beta-lactam antibiotics instead of forming long filaments that resist immune cells.
Dr. Ana-Maria Dragoi's team found that the protein FLASH plays a dual role in the cell changes that let cancer spread, and cancer cells lacking it were overall less aggressive.
Dr. Bing Yao's team found that chronic loss of TDP-43 disturbs the interplay between R-loops and 5hmC, unsettling gene activity and transposable elements in ways that may contribute to neurodegeneration.
Dr. Elias Volkmer's team found that keloid scars and Dupuytren's disease, though both involve excessive scarring, show entirely distinct gene activity profiles with no shared pattern.
Professor Hongyu Ma's team tracked how mud crab sperm change from spermatophore formation through storage and dispersion in the female, insights that could support artificial breeding.
