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Glial replacement therapy slows Huntington’s disease in adult mice

Huntington’s disease has long defied attempts to rescue suffering neurons. A new study in Cell Reports shows that transplanting healthy human glial progenitor cells into the brains of adult animal models of the disease not only slowed motor and cognitive decline but also extended lifespan. These findings shift our understanding of Huntington’s pathology and open a potential path to cell-based therapies in adults already showing symptoms.

“Glia are essential caretakers of neurons,” said Steve Goldman, MD, Ph.D., co-director of the University of Rochester Center for Translational Neuromedicine and lead author of the study.

“The restoration of healthy glial support—even after symptoms begin—could reset neuronal gene expression, stabilize synaptic function, and meaningfully delay disease progression. This study shifts the perspective on Huntington’s from a neuron-centric view to one that shows a critical role for glial pathology in driving synaptic dysfunction. It also tells us that the adult brain still has the capacity for repair when you target the right cells.”

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Enzyme inhibitor strategy converts neuroblastoma cells into healthy neurons in mice

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet and Lund University in Sweden have identified a new treatment strategy for neuroblastoma, an aggressive form of childhood cancer. By combining two antioxidant enzyme inhibitors, they have converted cancer cells in mice into healthy nerve cells.

The study, “Combined targeting of PRDX6 and GSTP1 as a potential differentiation strategy for treatment,” is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Neuroblastoma is a type of childhood cancer that affects the and is the leading cause of cancer-related death in young children. Some patients have a good prognosis, but those with often cannot be cured despite modern combinations of surgery, radiation, chemotherapy and immunotherapy.

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Brain study reveals how humans intuitively navigate different environments, offering direction for better AI

How do you intuitively know that you can walk on a footpath and swim in a lake? Researchers from the University of Amsterdam have discovered unique brain activations that reflect how we can move our bodies through an environment.

Published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the study not only sheds new light on how the human brain works, but also shows where artificial intelligence is lagging behind. According to the researchers, AI could become more sustainable and human-friendly if it incorporated this knowledge about the human brain.

When we see a picture of an unfamiliar environment—a mountain path, a busy street, or a river—we immediately know how we could move around in it: walk, cycle, swim or not go any further. That sounds simple, but how does your brain actually determine these action opportunities?

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Advanced software uncovers elusive protein variants tied to genetic mutations

Scientists at UCLA and the University of Toronto have developed an advanced computational tool, called moPepGen, that helps identify previously invisible genetic mutations in proteins, unlocking new possibilities in cancer research and beyond.

The tool, described in Nature Biotechnology, will help understand how changes in our DNA affect proteins and ultimately contribute to cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, and other conditions. It provides a new way to create and to find treatment targets previously invisible to researchers.

Proteogenomics combines the study of genomics and proteomics to provide a comprehensive molecular profile of diseases. However, a major challenge has been the inability to accurately detect variant peptides, limiting the ability to identify at the protein level. Existing proteomic tools often fail to capture the full diversity of protein variations.

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New Material Breaks the Rules: Scientists Turn Insulator Into a Semiconductor

Once considered merely insulating, a change in the angle between silicon and oxygen atoms opens a pathway for electrical charge to flow.

A breakthrough discovery from the University of Michigan has revealed that a new form of silicone can act as a semiconductor. This finding challenges the long-held belief that silicones are only insulating materials.

“The material opens up the opportunity for new types of flat panel displays, flexible photovoltaics, wearable sensors or even clothing that can display different patterns or images,” said Richard Laine, U-M professor of materials science and engineering and macromolecular science and engineering and corresponding author of the study recently published in Macromolecular Rapid Communications.

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Scientists Identify Hidden Rule That Shapes All Life on Earth

Scientists found that species cluster in core bioregions and spread outward, likely due to environmental filtering, a pattern that could inform conservation and climate planning. A new study in Nature Ecology & Evolution has identified a simple rule that appears to shape how life is organized

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Scientists Detect Unusual Airborne Toxin in the United States for the First Time

University of Colorado Boulder researchers made the first-ever airborne detection of Medium Chain Chlorinated Paraffins (MCCPs) in the Western Hemisphere. Sometimes, scientific research feels a lot like solving a mystery. Scientists head into the field with a clear goal and a solid hypothesis, bu

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Light Squeezed Out of Darkness in Surprising Quantum Simulation

A careful alignment of three powerful lasers could generate a mysterious fourth beam of light that is throttled out of the very darkness itself.

What sounds like occult forces at work has been confirmed by a simulation of the kinds of quantum effects we might expect to emerge from a vacuum when ultra-high electromagnetic fields meet.

A team of researchers from the University of Oxford in the UK and the University of Lisbon in Portugal used a semi-classical equation solver to simulate quantum phenomena in real time and in three dimensions, testing predictions on what ought to occur when incredibly intense laser pulses combine in empty space.

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