npj Flexible Electronics, Article number: (2026) Cite this article
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Antibiotics (ABs) are among the most used pharmaceutical drugs worldwide, as they are currently the most effective medicines for the treatment of bacterial infections. An excessive use of these drugs, however, can damage the gut microbiota, the population of microorganisms living in the intestines that help us to digest food.
Bacteria and other microorganisms in the gut are known to also communicate with the brain via a communication pathway that is referred to as the gut-brain axis. Recent research suggests that some gut bacteria help to reduce inflammation and support the healthy functioning of the brain.
Researchers at the First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University have carried out a study exploring the possibility that the effects of ABs on gut bacteria could also facilitate the development of mental health disorders, particularly increasing anxiety. Their findings, published in Molecular Psychiatry, suggest that ABs do in fact damage gut bacteria that help regulate mood, linking their excessive use with higher levels of anxiety.
A solid—rather than liquid—electrolyte between the opposite electrodes of a battery should, in theory, enable a rechargeable lithium metal battery that is safer, packs much more energy, and charges considerably faster than the lithium-ion batteries commercially available today.
For decades, scientists and engineers have explored several paths to realize the great promise of lithium-metal batteries. A major problem with the solid, crystalline electrolytes under study has been the formation of microscopic cracks that grow during use until the battery fails.
Stanford researchers, building on findings they published in 2023 that identified how these tiny fractures, dents, and other imperfections form and expand, have discovered that annealing an extremely thin silver coating on the solid electrolyte’s surface seems to largely solve the problem.
To reliably complete household chores, assemble products and tackle other manual tasks, robots should be able to adapt their manipulation strategies based on the objects they are working with, similarly to how humans leverage information they gain via the sense of touch. While humans attain tactile information via nerves in their skin and muscles, robots rely on sensors, devices that sense their surroundings and pick up specific physical signals.
Most robotic hands and grippers developed so far rely on visual-tactile sensors, systems that use small cameras to capture images, while also picking up surface deformations resulting from contact with specific objects.
A key limitation of these sensors is that they need to be made of stiff materials, to ensure that the cameras capture high-quality images. This reduces the overall flexibility of robots that rely on the sensors, making it harder for them to handle fragile and unevenly shaped objects.
Scientists have discovered a new quantum state of matter that connects two significant areas of physics, potentially leading to advancements in computing, sensing and materials science.
A study published in Nature Physics, co-led by Rice University’s Qimiao Si, brings together quantum criticality, where electrons fluctuate between different phases, and electronic topology, which describes a form of quantum organization based on the wave behavior of electrons.
The researchers found that strong interactions among electrons can produce topological behavior, paving the way for new technologies that could use this quantum state in real-world applications.
An interesting bioinformatic analysis which offers evidence suggesting that laboratory handling of AAVs may have contributed to horizontal gene transfer of the M-wide capsid across lineages in the wild. [ https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2505928122](https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2505928122)
Adeno-associated viruses (AAVs) are nonpathogenic DNA viruses with potent gene delivery capabilities, making them essential tools in gene therapy and biomedical research. Despite their therapeutic importance, key aspects of AAV natural biology remain obscure, complicating efforts to explain rare AAV-associated diseases and optimize gene therapy vectors. By analyzing sequence data from virus isolates and endogenous viral elements (EVEs), I reveal a striking evolutionary pattern: While AAV sublineages, defined by the replication-associated (rep) gene, have broadly codiverged with host groups over millions of years, capsid (cap) diversity has been shaped by extensive recombination. In particular, one capsid lineage, Mammalian-wide (M-wide), has spread horizontally across diverse rep lineages and host taxa through multiple recombination events.
Deng et al. constructed a comprehensive bacterial and archaeal genome catalog from groundwater and uncovered extensive previously unknown microbial diversity. This study reveals genome size as an axis underlying allocation of microbial defense and redox regulation and identifies groundwater as a hotspot of selenium metabolism and functional innovation.
Unlike other epithelial cancers, small cell lung cancer (SCLC) shares features with neuronal cells, including lack of caspase-8 expression, a protein involved in programmed, non-inflammatory cell-death (apoptosis), a mechanism that is essential to eliminate faulty or mutated cells and to maintain health.
To better mimic the features of human SCLC, the team generated and characterized a novel genetically engineered mouse model lacking caspase-8. Using this new model, the team observed that when this protein is missing, an unusual chain reaction sets off.
“The absence of caspase-8 leads to a type of inflammatory cell death called necroptosis that creates a hostile, inflamed environment even before tumors fully form” explains the senior author. “We were also intrigued to find that pre-tumoral necroptosis can in fact promote cancer by conditioning the immune system,” the author continues.
The inflammation creates an environment where the body’s anti-cancer immune response is suppressed, preventing immune cells from attacking threats like cancer cells. This, in turn, can promote tumor metastasis. Surprisingly, the researchers observed that this inflammation also pushes the cancer cells to behave more like immature neuron-like cells, a state that makes them better at spreading and that is associated with relapse.
While it remains unknown whether similar pre-tumoral inflammation also occurs in human patients, this work identifies a mechanism contributing to the aggressiveness and patient relapse in SCLC that could be exploited as a way to improve the efficiency of future therapies and early-stage diagnostic methods. ScienceMission sciencenewshighlights.
Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is one of the most aggressive forms of lung cancer, with a five-year survival rate of only five percent. Despite this poor prognosis, SCLC is initially highly responsive to chemotherapy. However, patients typically relapse and experience very rapid disease progression. Current research into the biological mechanisms behind SCLC remains essential in order to prolong treatment responses, overcome relapse and, ultimately, improve long-term patient outcomes.
Published, peer-reviewed research shows a patent-pending, virus-mimicking platform technology developed at Purdue University improves upon traditional methods of targeting bladder cancer cells with messenger RNA (mRNA) therapies.
The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, highlights compelling features of the therapy-delivering system with respect to size, targetability, encapsulation efficiency, complex stability, gene expression and “green” manufacturability.
David Thompson led the team conducting research about layer-by-layer elastin-like polypeptide nucleic acid nanoparticle (LENN). He is a professor in the James Tarpo Jr. and Margaret Tarpo Department of Chemistry and a member of the Purdue Institute for Cancer Research and the Purdue Institute for Drug Discovery. Saloni Darji, a commercialization postdoctoral research associate, is the paper’s lead author.
