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A single-cell transcriptional reference for the functional and developmental diversity of neonatal innate lymphoid cells

Mononuclear cells (MNCs) were isolated from fresh umbilical cord blood (CB) via a Ficoll gradient (n = 3). Unwanted cells were depleted using biotinylated antibodies (anti-CD3, anti-CD14, anti-CD19, and CD66b) and magnetic beads. The cells were stained to faithfully sort cILC1s (Lin−CD94−CD127+CD117−CRTH2−), cILC2s (Lin−CD94−CD127+CD117−/+ CRTH2+), cILC3s (Lin−CD94−CD127+CD117+CRTH2−), and NK cells (Lin−CD94+), as previously described.5,7,33 The four individual populations were individually multiplexed, pooled, and stained with Ab-Seq antibodies.

(A) scRNA-seq was performed via the BD Rhapsody protocol.

(B and C) UMAP visualization of sorted populations (B) and individual clusters of CB cILCs and NK cells with color coding of the individual cluster 0–10. The following clusters were identified: 0, CD56dim NK cells (GZMBhigh); 1, CD56dim NK cells (GZMBlow); 2, cILC2s (GATA3); 3, cILC progenitor (KIT); 4, CD56bright NK cells (GZMK); 5, intermediate zone (NK/cILCs); 6, cILC1s (CD5); 7, activated CD56dim NK cells (PCNA); 8, cycling CD56dim NK cells (MKI67); 9, cILC3s (RORC); and 10, CD56dim NK cells (FOXP2) ©.

Cell-type specific TDP-43 pathology in the motor cortex

The hallmarks of cancer comprise six biological capabilities acquired during the multistep development of human tumors. The hallmarks constitute an organizing principle for rationalizing the complexities of neoplastic disease. They include sustaining proliferative signaling, evading growth suppressors, resisting cell death, enabling replicative immortality, inducing angiogenesis, and activating invasion and metastasis. Underlying these hallmarks are genome instability, which generates the genetic diversity that expedites their acquisition, and inflammation, which fosters multiple hallmark functions.

Evolutionary causes and consequences of gene duplication

Gene duplication is a key evolutionary mechanism, as initially redundant paralogues diverge over time. The authors review how adaptive and non-adaptive forces influence the evolutionary fates of gene duplicates, highlighting the importance of function–fitness relationships and gene expression dynamics.

Adenosine signaling driven by the gut microbiota underlies chronic alcohol-induced anesthetic resistance

Wang et al. demonstrate that long-term alcohol consumption diminishes anesthetic sensitivity via a gut-microbiome-brain pathway. Their findings indicate that alcohol-induced dysbiosis elevates the metabolite adenosine, which subsequently downregulates brain GABAA receptors, thereby compromising anesthetic effectiveness.

Brain scans reveal link between thinner brain cortex regions and higher psychopathic traits

A team of researchers from Spain was curious to know if people with high psychopathic traits have anomalies in the brain’s physical structures, which make them incapable of feeling regret or capable of manipulation and other antisocial behavior. They conducted an experiment in which they interviewed men convicted of intimate partner violence (IPV) and a control group with no history of violence to measure their psychopathic traits, followed by brain scans.

The results showed that men with thinner cortex in certain brain regions—particularly fronto-temporo-parietal areas —tended to display higher antisocial tendencies, regardless of their history of violence.

Fronto-temporo-parietal cortex regions refer to parts of the brain’s outer layer, which houses gray matter and supports functions such as sensory processing, motor control, and higher cognitive activities. The findings further reinforce a broader idea in neuroscience that regions in these brain regions play a major role in shaping behaviors such as callousness, a lack of empathy, and manipulative tendencies.

‘Bugs delivering drugs’: A new approach to colorectal cancer treatment using common food-borne bacteria

Baylor University researchers have developed a novel approach to fight colorectal cancer, using modified bacteria as a courier to deliver potent cancer-killing proteins into tumor cells. Michael S. VanNieuwenhze, Ph.D., FRSC, University Distinguished Professor and chair of the Department of Biology, along with Baylor doctoral students and a colleague at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, have published their research in Cell Chemical Biology.

Colorectal cancers accounted for the second-most deaths caused by cancer in 2025, according to the National Cancer Institute, highlighting the importance of new strategies for therapy and treatment.

Building on growth in the use of bacteria as a tool in fighting cancer, VanNieuwenhze and his team attached saporin, a known cancer-killing toxin, to the surface Listeria monocytogenes, which delivers the toxin to tumor cells. Listeria, commonly recognized as a food-borne bacteria, can be modified for express therapeutic purposes while maintaining its ability to penetrate human cells—making it, VanNieuwenhze said, a particularly promising agent in the fight against colorectal cancer.

CSF Proteomic Profiles Associated With White Matter Integrity in Cognitively Normal Older Adults With and Without Amyloid Pathology

Background and ObjectivesIncreasing evidence indicates a potential role of white matter (WM) damage in the onset and progression of Alzheimer disease (AD). However, the biological processes underlying in vivo WM imaging biomarkers remain unclear. We…

New Pancreatic Cancer Treatment Wipes Out Tumors and Blocks Drug Resistance

A triple drug approach that blocks the KRAS pathway at three points eliminated pancreatic tumors and prevented resistance in mouse models.

Existing treatments for pancreatic cancer often stop working within a few months because tumors quickly develop resistance to the drugs. Researchers at Spain’s National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO) report that they have prevented this resistance in animal studies by using a three-drug combination therapy.

The researchers say their findings “pave the way for the design of combined therapies that may improve survival,” although they caution that this progress will not immediately translate into new treatments for patients. Mariano Barbacid, head of the Experimental Oncology Group at CNIO, emphasizes that “we are not yet in a position to carry out clinical trials with this triple therapy.”

The Singularity Needs a Navigator

In 2013, physicist Alex Wissner-Gross published a single equation for intelligence in [ITALIC] Physical Review Letters [/ITALIC]: # F = T∇Sτ

The force of an intelligent system equals its temperature — computational capacity, raw horsepower — multiplied by the gradient of its future option-space. Intelligence is not a mysterious property of carbon-based brains.

It is a physical force: the tendency of any sufficiently energetic system to maximize the number of future states accessible to it.

The equation was elegant. Correct. And incomplete.

It describes the force. It does not describe the geometry of the space through which that force navigates.

A gradient without a metric is a direction without distance — it tells the system where to push but not what distortion it will encounter on the way there.

We spent three years building the geometry. We tested it across 69 billion simulations. What we found changes everything. ## The Missing Geometry — From Force to Navigation.

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