From extreme cold to strong magnets and high pressures, the Synergetic Extreme Condition User Facility (SECUF) provides conditions for researching potential wonder materials
‘Science Magazine – May 2, 2024: The new issue features ‘Superspreading Seeds’ – Influencers spread health messages across remote villages; making sense of evidence on early childhood education; Brain and muscle clocks cooperate to resist aging…
‘Science Magazine – April 25, 2024: The new issue features ‘Born to Explore’ – Exploratory tendency leads to diversification; Can science address loneliness?; Vitamin D, microbiota, and cancer immunity; A safer version of a 140-year-old chemical reaction…
Vitamin D modulates intestinal epithelial cell function to enhance antitumor microbes
The gut microbiome has been shown to modulate the response of cancer patients to therapy, but precisely how microbiota affect anticancer immunity is still being elucidated. Giampazolias et al. report that vitamin D bioavailability in mice influences the composition of the gut microbiome (see the Perspective by Franco and McCoy). After dietary manipulation, vitamin D levels were observed to affect gut bacteria, which in turn improved cancer immunotherapy and antitumor immunity. In humans, low vitamin D levels were correlated with tumor development, and gene signatures of vitamin D activity were associated with improved patient responses to immunotherapy. These findings highlight the connection between vitamin D and the immune system through gut bacteria and may have applications for improving cancer therapies.
The power of curiosity
Lake Tanganyika contains one of the most impressive adaptive radiations, with about 250 species of cichlid occupying a variety of niches. Much research has focused on understanding the drivers of this and other adaptive radiations. Trembo et al. looked in depth at 57 of these cichlid species with regard to their behavior, ecomorphology, and genomics. They found that one behavior in particular, a tendency to explore, was related to niche adaptation, and they identified a regulatory gene that is highly associated with this behavior. These findings suggest the existence of an adaptive syndrome driven in part by a tendency to explore what is new.
‘Nature Magazine – April 24, 2024: The latest issue cover features‘ Switching Channels’ – Organoids and assembloids offer model way to test potential therapy for Timothy syndrome…
The bioengineered immune players called CAR T cells last longer and work better if pumped up with a large dose of a protein that makes them resemble stem cells.
Nature Magazine – April 11, 2024: The latest issue cover features the environmental challenges now facing insect populations, with climate change emerging as a key factor whose influence has potentially been underestimated…
Science Magazine – April 4, 2024: The new issue features ‘Lucy At 50’ – Fifty years ago in Ethiopia, paleoanthropologists unearthed the 3.2-million-year-old skeleton known as “Lucy” and transformed our views of humanity’s origins.
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