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Intriguing science discoveries of 2023

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This year, Rockefeller scientists plumbed the depths of wound repair and tackled how songbirds solve problems; they used microchips to grow mini-lungs and proposed an environmental trigger for multiple sclerosis. Efforts to combat COVID, Hepatitis B, and other infections bore fruit, and countless papers shed light on basic research, answering questions that have long baffled biologists. Here are some of the intriguing discoveries that came out of Rockefeller in 2023.

Old sperm, new mutations

As the male reproductive system ages, it becomes more and more susceptible to mutations. New research from the laboratory of Li Zhao explored this phenomenon in fruit flies, by focusing on how mutations arise during the formation of sperm. The team found that, while mutations are common in the testes of both young and old flies, the repair mechanisms that remove those mutations and maintain genomic integrity during spermatogenesis become less efficient in older individuals, leading to the accumulation and persistence of more mutations in older flies.

Evaluating outcomes of extended thrombolytic therapy for ischemic stroke

Thrombolytic therapy administered longer after the onset of ischemic stroke than current recommendations did not demonstrate improved clinical outcomes as compared to placebo, according to a recent trial published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Minjee Kim, MD, associate professor in the Ken and Ruth Davee Department of Neurology’s Division of Neurocritical Care, was a co-author of the study.

Ischemic stroke occurs when a blood vessel supplying blood to the brain is blocked or reduced, and accounts for nearly 90% of all strokes, according to statistics from the American Stroke Association.

Unveiling the Binding Mechanisms of Cancer-Promoting Proteins

The Melanoma Antigen Gene (MAGE) family consists of more than 40 proteins in humans, most of which are only present in the testes under healthy conditions. However, in many cancers, these proteins are found in high levels in tissues where they are not usually expressed and are believed to play a role in promoting cancer progression. Researchers from the Bhogaraju group at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) Grenoble have gained new insights into how these proteins bind their targets. The findings could potentially aid in the development of drugs against chemotherapy-or radiotherapy-resistant cancers.

The findings are published in The EMBO Journal, in an article titled, “Structural basis for RAD18 regulation by MAGEA4 and its implications for RING ubiquitin ligase binding by MAGE family proteins.”

“MAGEA4 is a cancer-testis antigen primarily expressed in the testes but aberrantly overexpressed in several cancers,” the researchers wrote. “MAGEA4 interacts with the RING ubiquitin ligase RAD18 and activates translesion DNA synthesis (TLS), potentially favoring tumor evolution. Here, we employed NMR and AlphaFold2 (AF) to elucidate the interaction mode between RAD18 and MAGEA4, and reveal that the RAD6-binding domain (R6BD) of RAD18 occupies a groove in the C-terminal winged-helix subdomain of MAGEA4.”

In fight against brain pathogens, the eyes have it

The eyes have been called the window to the brain. It turns out they also serve as an immunological barrier that protects the organ from pathogens and even tumors, Yale researchers have found.

In a new study, researchers showed that vaccines injected into the eyes of mice can help disable the herpes virus, a major cause of brain encephalitis. To their surprise, the vaccine activates an immune response through lymphatic vessels along the optic nerve.

Dr. Calvin Roberts, M.D. — Program Manager, Transplantation of Human Eye Allografts (THEA), ARPA-H

Transplanting Whole Human Eyes To Restore Vision In Patients Who Are Blind Or Visually Impaired — Dr. Calvin Roberts, MD — Program Manager, Transplantation of Human Eye Allografts (THEA), Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H)


Dr. Calvin Roberts, M.D. is Program Manager at the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) where manages for the Transplantation of Human Eye Allografts (THEA — https://arpa-h.gov/research-and-fundi…) program, which aims to transplant whole human eyes to restore vision in patients who are blind or visually impaired by reconnecting the nerves, muscles and blood vessels of whole donor eyes to the brain.

Dr. Roberts joined ARPA-H in September 2023 from Lighthouse Guild International, where is the president and chief executive officer. Lighthouse Guild is a not-for-profit organization that provides programs and services to people who are blind or visually impaired.

Previously, Dr. Roberts was the chief medical officer for the global eye care company Bausch + Lomb.

For the past 40 years, Roberts has also served as a clinical professor of ophthalmology at Weill Cornell Medical Center. As a practicing ophthalmologist from 1982 to 2008, he performed more than 10,000 cataract surgeries, as well as 5,000 refractive and other corneal surgeries. He is credited with developing surgical therapies, over-the-counter products for vision care, prescription ocular therapeutics and innovative treatment regimens. He also holds patents on the wide-field specular microscope and has done extensive research on ophthalmic non-steroidals and post-operative cystoid macular edema.