Human embryo research is a challenging field – ethically, scientifically, and legally. The “14-day rule,” established in 1990, is a widely adopted limit prohibiting in vitro research on human embryos beyond 14 days post-fertilization. Recently developed stem cell-based embryo models may reduce (but cannot entirely substitute for) the use of donated embryos created by IVF, but the most advanced of these models are similarly limited to around 14 days. In December, the UK national fertility regulator recommended that the government…

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Here in Austria, as in many other places, it’s been a hot end to another unusually warm month (this year, only May has been cooler than average). Blistering heatwaves like the one expected to peak in Europe this week are just one consequence of climate change. Another is the spread of vector-borne diseases, as mosquitoes and other vectors expand into new regions. For example, mosquito-borne flaviviruses causing diseases like dengue fever, Zika, and West Nile fever already infect over 400…

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If you aren’t a cell biologist, you may have never heard of focal adhesions (FAs): these are complexes at the surface of many animal cells, mediating the attachment of the cell to its environment and the exertion of force via that environment to help the cell move (or not). FAs are still revealing their secrets, but we know that they contain various specialized proteins that exchange signaling through receptors called integrins. FAs also host a specific mRNA, the one that…

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Seventeen years ago, when I was pregnant with my daughter, I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes. I assumed it would go away after delivery, as it does for many people. But it didn’t. Today, like about 1 in 3 American adults, I live with prediabetes, marked by elevated HbA1c—a quiet signal that my blood sugar regulation is off. What’s more troubling is that most people with prediabetes don’t know they have it. And the consequences aren’t trivial: about 70% of…

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Among my favorite characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is King T’Challa, the title character in Black Panther (2018) who appears in other MCU movies. T’Challa was portrayed by the brilliant Chadwick Boseman—even if you are not a fan of the MCU, you might know Boseman from his portrayal of Jackie Robinson in 42 or of Thurgood Marshall in Marshall. He worked on Black Panther while terminally ill, somehow keeping this fact largely unknown and keeping it from stopping…

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Misuse and overuse of antimicrobials have led to a global health crisis: antimicrobial resistance (AMR), including multidrug-resistant superbugs. Common misconceptions that contribute to the problem have proven difficult to dispel; for example, 30% of Europeans believe that antibiotics are effective against colds (Eurobarometer 2022). One important arm of the multipronged strategy to tackle AMR is surveillance, but the current focus on clinical settings is too narrow. Microbes – including bacteria carrying antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) – are everywhere, and environments…

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When food shopping, I tend to opt for organic products. These often have an extra label touting their GMO-free status, since organic farming prohibits the use of genetically modified organisms. That includes organisms created with “new genomic techniques” (NGTs) like CRISPR. But there’s a paradox: plants bred using conventional mutagenesis (i.e., random mutagenesis with chemicals and radiation) are generally allowed in organic farming, even though these techniques are more likely than modern gene editing to produce unintended mutations in the…

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Chronic stress is not just unpleasant; it degrades human health in several ways. One effect of chronic stress is increased susceptibility to depression, which itself exerts damaging effects on health and wellbeing. Neither of these conditions is deeply understood, and so perhaps it is unsurprising that the link between chronic stress and depression is unclear. A recent paper in Nature provides interesting and useful clues to that link, in a set of experiments that journey from effects of antidepressants to…

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I am regularly awestruck by the feats accomplished by our fellow animals. Here’s one that might not seem particularly praiseworthy: eating your body weight in a single meal. This is regularly achieved by ticks, and that’s a second reason you might want to stop reading, but hear me out. A tick gorges itself on blood (perhaps yours) until it has ballooned to at least ONE HUNDRED TIMES its pre-meal body weight. How is this even possible? Specifically, how does this…

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Autism is extremely heterogeneous. It is shaped by a complex interplay of genetic and environmental factors, which have been studied for decades, making RFK Jr’s pledge to determine “what has caused the autism epidemic” by September highly questionable. Some worry that the effort will be biased towards vaccine-autism theories, which have been repeatedly and thoroughly debunked. The strongest known contributors to autism risk are genetic, but there is reasonable evidence that environmental factors during pregnancy can affect autism risk in offspring (and,…

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