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Scientists just gave the powerhouses of our cells a high-tech upgrade

Scientists have developed a way to coat mitochondria, the tiny structures that produce energy inside our cells, with advanced materials without interfering with their function. The achievement could eventually help researchers develop new approaches to treating diseases caused by malfunctioning mitochondria.

The research was conducted by IRCCS Fondazione Istituto Neurologico Carlo Besta (FINCB) and Politecnico di Milano through their joint BraiNs laboratory, established in 2023. The collaboration combines the mitochondrial biology expertise of Dr. Valeria Tiranti (FINCB), a researcher in the Medical Genetics and Neurogenetics Complex Unit (SC) and head of the Fondazione Mariani Centre for Paediatric Mitochondrial Diseases, with the chemistry and materials engineering expertise of Professor Pierangelo Metrangolo (Politecnico di Milano).

Physicists Built a Black Hole in a Lab. Then It Swallowed Sound

Sound can be a tricksy beast to try to harness.

It fills the world around us, bursting from its multitudinous sources, bouncing off surfaces as echoes – a property that makes sound both incredibly useful and deeply vexing, depending on where and how its reverberations occur.

There are some circumstances where echoes can cause problems. The most obvious example is sound recording studios, but one major problem area is probably less obvious because it’s far more ubiquitous – pipes.

Magnetic sculpting transforms single-source fields into predetermined shapes with mathematical precision

Magnetic fields are invisible yet essential components in technologies ranging from MRI scanners and particle accelerators to atomic clocks and future quantum computers. Each of these applications requires magnetic fields with specific shapes and properties. Today, creating such tailored magnetic fields requires researchers and engineers to design specialized, carefully optimized magnets or large systems of coils for each individual application—a complex and resource-intensive process.

Now, a team of physicists from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) and Chalmers University of Technology has developed a method that makes it possible to transform the magnetic field from a single source, such as a coil or a permanent magnet, into a broad class of predetermined magnetic fields with exact mathematical precision.

Known as magnetic omniconversion, the method enables simple magnetic sources to be used for a wide range of important applications. The research is published in the journal Science Advances.

The human gut microbiome primes fever after vaccination

Fever is a common adverse reaction to vaccination, contributing to vaccine hesitancy and reduced uptake. To understand variation in fever risk, we longitudinally profiled fecal microbiota, oral temperature, and serological markers in 171 healthy adults receiving Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 mRNA vaccines. Fever risk correlated with low-grade intestinal inflammation, increased abundance of flagellated Lachnospiraceae bacteria, and increased flagellin expression prevaccine. Microbiomes from fever-high donors triggered stronger inflammation in human intestinal organoids and drove flagellin-dependent vaccine reactions in gnotobiotic mice. Moreover, microbiome flagellin phenotypes and murine vaccine reactions were modifiable by diet. Consistent with this, human fever risk was associated with self-reported diet and metabolic markers.

Disease Stage and Efficacy Interpretation in Gene Therapy for Arrhythmogenic Cardiomyopathy

Department of Molecular Medicine University of Pavia Pavia Italy Department of Cardiology IRCCS ICS Maugeri Pavia Italy View all articles by Andrea Mazzanti*Correspondence to: Andrea Mazzanti, MD, PhD, Department of Molecular Medicine, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy. Department of Cardiology, IRCCS ICS Maugeri, Pavia, Italy. Email: [email protected]

Tumor-derived Ilp8 and Upd3 contribute to intestinal progenitor cells depletion during cachexia in Drosophila larvae

Falconi et al. show that neoplastic tumors in Drosophila wing discs trigger cachexia-like distant organ wasting, and alter larval midgut development by depleting adult midgut precursors and inducing premature differentiation of peripheral niche cells. These early defects define a previously unrecognized paraneoplastic phenotype controlled by tumor-derived Ilp8 and Upd3.

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