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Mar 29
2026

Epigenetic regulation of serine biosynthesis by PHF8 during neurogenesis

Linking epigenetics and metabolism in neurogenesis!

Epigenetic regulation and metabolism are tightly coordinated during progenitor cell growth but the processes linking this crosstalk is not well understood.

The researchers examined in neural stem cells the role of PHF8, a histone demethylase whose mutations are linked to Siderius-Hamel syndrome, a rare neurodevelopmental disorder.

The authors show that PHF8 regulates neural progenitor proliferation by coordinating epigenetic and metabolic programs and drives serine biosynthesis by maintaining chromatin accessibility of serine synthesis genes.

They also demonstrate that loss of PHF8 disrupts metabolism, autophagy, and vesicle formation and its deficiency leads to DNA damage and halts neurogenesis in vivo. sciencenewshighlights ScienceMission https://sciencemission.com/Epigenetic-regulation-of-serine-biosynthesis

Progenitor proliferation during neurodevelopment requires tight coordination of epigenetic regulation and metabolism. However, the crosstalk between these processes remains poorly understood. To investigate this, we examine in neural stem cells the role of PHF8, a histone demethylase whose mutations are linked to Siderius-Hamel syndrome, a rare neurodevelopmental disorder. Through an integrated multi-omics approach — combining transcriptomics, epigenomics, and metabolomics — we identify PHF8 as a key driver of the serine biosynthesis pathway, safeguarding the intracellular serine pool essential for neural progenitor proliferation. PHF8 fine-tunes chromatin accessibility at promoters of metabolic genes, ensuring their activation during development. Loss of PHF8 disrupts amino acid metabolism, blocks autophagy, and hinders vesicle formation.

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Mar 29
2026

Nasal swab test spots early Alzheimer’s signals

Schwann cell-derived exosomes are powerful promoters of nerve repair, capable of enhancing axon regrowth, remyelination, and functional recovery in numerous models. These effects are mediated via multifactorial cargo (miRNAs, mRNAs, proteins) that modulate neurons, glia, endothelial, and immune cells. Importantly, what began as a novel biological insight is now rapidly moving toward therapeutic innovation. Schwann cell-derived exosomes thus represent both a novel mode of glia–neuron communication and a promising avenue for next-generation therapies for nerve regeneration.

Mar 29
2026

JSPS Transformative Area (A) 2023–2028

Summary: Establishing Qualia Structure Paradigm

Do subjective conscious experience and objective brain matters belong to completely different worlds? How are qualia, the contents of consciousness, related to the brain? The question of consciousness and the brain is not only of scientific interest, but it is also directly related to the problems associated with difficulties in understanding human feelings in the real world. Because qualia are difficult to even define in objective terms, conventional studies of consciousness have attempted to explore their neural correlates by fixing perceptual stimuli and reducing experience to binary judgments, such as seen vs. not seen. Recently, we have established a new paradigm to characterize the structure of qualia by measuring the similarity between visual qualia on a large scale, and to reveal their neural correlates and their information structure.

Mar 29
2026

Lipocalin 2 orchestrates resistance to ferroptosis via AXL

Wang et al. show that lipocalin-2 suppresses iron-dependent cell death in glioblastoma. Targeting multiple members in this pathway activates iron-dependent cell death, increases survival in mouse models, and demonstrates a potential therapy for glioblastoma.

Mar 29
2026

A radical new way to alkylate aromatic rings

Chemists made a photocatalytic discovery when their control reaction led to an unexpected product

Mar 29
2026

Scientists Track Bees in 3D and Discover Remarkable Secret Navigation Skills

Honeybees fly consistent, landmark-guided routes with remarkable precision, revealing better navigation than their waggle dance suggests.

Mar 29
2026

Scientists Finally Capture Elusive Lipids in Action Inside Cells

A new imaging approach is shedding light on one of cell biology’s most elusive questions: how lipids are organized and sorted within membranes.

Mar 29
2026

The CISO Gap: Why Every Business Needs Cybersecurity Leadership

Despite this reality, an excessive number of organizations, notably small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs), lack designated leadership in this crucial domain.

#cybersecurity #business #ciso #tech

By Chuck Brooks.

Cybersecurity is no longer an IT concern; it has become a fundamental business requirement. Viability, survivability, and ultimately commercial success are dependent on securing the devices and network for any business in the evolving digital era.

Mar 29
2026

Natural competition between brain circuits may boost information processing

Over the past decades, neuroscience studies have painted an increasingly detailed picture of the human brain, its organization and how it supports various functions. To plan and execute desired behaviors in changing circumstances, networks of neurons in the brain can either work together or suppress each other, thus employing both cooperative and competitive interaction strategies.

Researchers at University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, McGill University, University of Aarhus and Pompeu Fabra University recently set out to better understand the mammalian brain’s underlying dynamics, specifically how its underlying architecture balances cooperative and competitive interactions between neural circuits. Their paper, published in Nature Neuroscience, offers new insight that could both improve the understanding of the brain and inform the development of brain-inspired computational models.

“Building models of the brain is an important part of modern neuroscience,” Andrea Luppi, first author of the paper, told Medical Xpress. “As Nobel winner Reichard Feynman said, ‘what I cannot create, I do not understand.’ Most current models, however, share a limitation. Everyday experience, from focusing attention or switching between tasks, also reveals that brain systems must compete for limited resources.

Mar 29
2026

Circadian rhythm drives metabolic dysfunction in fat cells, study finds

Northwestern Medicine scientists led by Joseph Bass, MD, Ph.D., the Charles F. Kettering Professor of Endocrinology and Metabolism and director of the Center for Diabetes and Metabolism, have discovered how disruptions in the circadian rhythm impair metabolic function in fat cells, providing new insights into the molecular mechanisms that cause obesity and metabolic disease, according to a recent study published in Nature Metabolism.

“It’s not simply the accrual of excess fat that leads to disease. It’s a change in the actual function and the capacity of the energy center within the cell to work properly,” said Bass, who is also chief of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Molecular Medicine in the Department of Medicine and a member of the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University.

The circadian rhythm is the body’s own internal 24-hour clock that regulates the sleep-wake cycle, hormone levels and metabolism, among other systems throughout the body.