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Category: biotech/medical

Diffractive networks enable optical information transfer through random and unknown diffusers

The transmission of optical information through random scattering media is a major challenge in optics, biomedical imaging, telecommunications and remote sensing. When light passes through a turbid or diffusive medium, such as biological tissue or a randomly structured optical material, the original image information can be severely distorted, making reliable recovery difficult.

Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) have introduced interleaved diffractive networks to address this challenge by enabling optical information transfer through random and unknown diffusers. The work is published in the journal Laser & Photonics Reviews.

Light flips bacterial signaling enzyme between two shapes, unlocking how signals travel

Researchers at the University of Bayreuth and Forschungszentrum Jülich have demonstrated that specific light-sensitive enzymes—so-called sensor histidine kinases (SHKs)—transmit their signal through a light-controlled change in asymmetry. With their new study, the researchers contribute to a better understanding of a central mechanism of bacterial signal processing. This may help develop new tools for biomedicine or biotechnology. The findings are reported in the journal Science Advances.

SHKs are key bacterial signaling proteins that play an important role in many processes, from controlling which genes are active at a given time to enabling the ability to cause disease. Artificially engineered light-sensitive SHKs are also used in optogenetics to precisely control gene activity with light. However, only limited structural information has been available so far for the full protein.

The new study provides important insights into how natural and engineered SHKs transmit signals across multiple protein domains. In the long term, the study may help develop new optogenetic tools that allow biological processes to be precisely controlled using light. This is particularly relevant for applications in biotechnology and biomedicine.

MOF thin films reveal hidden dense packing, challenging decades of porous assumptions

Due to their high porosity, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are regarded as promising materials for innovative applications, which is why the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded in 2025 for their discovery. They are used, for example, to store gases, to capture CO2 and for the targeted delivery of medicines.

While the structure of MOFs in the form of large crystals can be determined with relative ease, thin films have largely remained a mystery. Yet it is precisely the structure that is decisive for the properties and for potential applications.

A team led by Roland Resel and Egbert Zojer from the Institute of Solid State Physics at Graz University of Technology (TU Graz), together with colleagues from the Institute of Physical and Theoretical Chemistry (led by Paolo Falcaro) and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (led by Christof Wöll), has now solved this puzzle.

Network-driven discovery of repurposable drugs targeting hallmarks of aging

The authors introduce a network medicine framework showing that the hallmarks of aging form interconnected molecular modules in the human interactome. This new approach can help to identify existing drugs that might influence aging-associated transcriptional changes.

Safety and efficacy of mRNA vaccines: a mechanistic and public health perspective

MRNA vaccines represent a transformative advance in vaccinology, combining rapid development timelines, scalable manufacturing, and strong immunogenicity with a favourable safety profile. Global deployment of mRNA vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic provided an unprecedented real-world evaluation of this platform, with billions of doses administered across diverse populations. In this Review, we critically examine the safety and efficacy of mRNA vaccines from mechanistic, preclinical, clinical, and public health perspectives.

1 Department of Molecular Medicine, Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, USA

2Cleveland Clinic Center for Therapeutics Discovery (C3TD), Cleveland Clinic Research, Cleveland, Ohio, USA.

3College of Pharmacy, Korea University, Sejong, Korea.

Biomarker-matched drug combos shrink treatment-resistant melanoma in preclinical models

A new study led by researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center has identified a way to tailor drug combinations based on specific tumor biology to improve outcomes for treatment-resistant advanced melanoma.

In preclinical models from patients with treatment-resistant tumors, combining standard BRAF and MEK inhibitors with a drug to block proteins in the BCL2 family—which drive tumor growth—induced tumor regression in a molecularly defined subset of resistant tumors, suggesting a path toward biomarker-guided therapy.

The study, published in Nature Communications, was led by Vashisht Gopal Yennu Nanda, Ph.D., associate professor of Melanoma Medical Oncology and Translational Molecular Pathology, in collaboration with senior author Michael A. Davies, M.D., Ph.D., chair of Melanoma Medical Oncology.

Current Status and Perspectives of Dual-Targeting Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-Cell Therapy for the Treatment of Hematological Malignancies

Single-targeted chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells tremendously improve outcomes for patients with relapsed/refractory hematological malignancies and are considered a breakthrough therapy. However, over half of treated patients experience relapse or refractory disease, with antigen escape being one of the main contributing mechanisms. Dual-targeting CAR T-cell therapy is being developed to minimize the risk of relapse or refractory disease. Preclinical and clinical data on five categories of dual-targeting CAR T-cell therapies and approximately fifty studies were summarized to offer insights and support the development of dual-targeting CAR T-cell therapy for hematological malignancies. The clinical efficacy (durability and survival) is validated and the safety profiles of dual-targeting CAR T-cell therapy are acceptable, although there is still room for improvement in the bispecific CAR structure. It is one of the best approaches to optimize the bispecific CAR structure by boosting T-cell transduction efficiency and leveraging evidence from preclinical activity and clinical efficacy.

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