Learn more about the differences in brain structure for those born blind and how a new study is changing our understanding of these developments.
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Protein excess tips the balance of cellular health
For cells to function properly, they must produce the right amount of each protein. It is a delicate balance: both too little and too much can compromise essential cellular functions. A research team has now shown that even a modest excess of tubulin – the protein that assembles into microtubules, the cell’s internal scaffolding – is enough to disrupt tissue architecture and reduce cell viability. Published in Nature Communications, the study demonstrates that the quantity of a protein is just as important as its function.
Microtubules, built from tubulin, form the cell’s internal skeleton. They help cells maintain their shape, transport molecules, divide, and remain firmly attached to neighbouring cells. Rather than being rigid structures, microtubules are constantly assembled and disassembled to adapt to the cell’s changing needs. This dynamic behavior depends directly on the amount of tubulin available.
For more than forty years, biologists have known that cells possess a mechanism that slows tubulin production when its levels become too high. However, the biological purpose of this regulatory pathway remained unknown. To address this question, the team used three-dimensional spheroids. “These 3D cell culture models behave like tissues and reproduce cell-cell interactions much more faithfully than conventional two-dimensional cultures,” the author explains.
3D multiomics tumour atlases: from technology to biology and clinical translation Reviews Cancer
In this Review, Liu et al. describe the established and emerging tools for the generation of comprehensive 3D tumour atlases, the analysis of which has the potential to uncover novel biomarkers for risk stratification, early detection, preventive interventions, and transformative diagnostic and treatment strategies.
Rotating metamaterial units could enable long-range wave control beyond conventional limits
A Seoul National University College of Engineering research team, led by Professor Joo Hwan Oh of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, in collaboration with Dr. Myung Hwan Bae of the Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science (KRISS), has developed a new elastic metamaterial platform that enables the free design of how externally applied forces and vibrations propagate.
The team proposed a design principle that allows nonlocal metamaterials—in which forces or vibrations applied in one region can interact not only with adjacent areas but also with distant regions—to be more easily extended into diverse structural configurations.
They demonstrated experimentally that this design overcomes the longstanding issue of interference among multiple vibrations in conventional nonlocal metamaterials, enabling more precise control of the propagation and motion of elastic waves.
Butterfly gliomas: to biopsy or to ablate cohort study NeuroOncology
Butterfly gliomas are an aggressive subset of high-grade glioma characterized by bilateral hemispheric involvement. These patients often only receive biopsy followed by chemoradiation rather than surgical resection. Laser interstitial thermal therapy (LITT) provides a minimally invasive alternative that can improve survival.
We retrospectively compare outcomes in biopsy alone versus LITT cohorts. Demographic characteristics, perioperative outcomes, and survival metrics were analyzed. Within the LITT cohort, procedural and volumetric analyses were performed to examine the relationship between extent of ablation (EOA), residual tumor burden (RTB).
Of 44 patients, 15 underwent biopsy only and 29 received LITT was associated with a longer median overall survival compared to biopsy (14.86 versus 4.93 months, p = 0.0489), and median progression-free survival (4.67 versus 2.53 months, p = 0.0389). Within the LITT cohort, larger preoperative tumor volumes were associated with lower EOA (r²=0.46, p = 0.0002) and a higher RTB (r2 = 0.90, p = 0.0001). Longer ablation times correlated with a larger EOA (r2 = 0.21, p = 0.0320). Neither EOA nor RTB were associated with survival. Postoperative KPS improvement correlated with improved OS after multivariable Cox proportional hazards analysis (HR (death) = 0.93, 95%CI:0.87–0.99, p = 0.026), with a similar trend in PFS. Total operating room time was longer in the LITT group (median 4.0 vs. 2.57 h, p = 0.0034), while time-to-chemoradiation, ICU stay, and hospital stay were comparable. Post-operative re-admissions and complications were not statistically different between groups.