View flipbook
Download current issue
Archives
Discoveries
Could biochemical engineering tools reveal new insights into lung cancer?
For cancer cells to grow and proliferate, they must be able to rapidly build and renew their outer membranes. These membrane structures are made of fatty molecules called lipids, but technical limitations have made it difficult to measure the dynamics…
Could a dietary supplement make the difference between life and death during illness?
Why is it that two people can develop the same infection but have dramatically different disease trajectories? Salk scientist Janelle Ayres, PhD, and her colleagues discovered that the kidney plays a key role in filtering inflammatory molecules out of the…
Should younger and older people receive different treatments for the same infection?
Dealing with an infection isn’t as straightforward as simply killing the pathogen. Our bodies must carefully monitor and steer the immune response to tackle the infection without hurting healthy tissues. If the immune system overreacts and leads to sepsis, this…
How do nature and nurture shape our immune cells?
How can two people infected by the same pathogen have such different responses? It largely comes down to variability in genetics (the genes you inherit) and life experience (your environmental, infection, and vaccination history). These two influences are imprinted on…
Genome-informed restoration could save our oceans and coastlines
Seagrasses preserve our oceans and planet by absorbing carbon dioxide, calming rough waters, and offering a safe harbor for sea life. Unfortunately, these underwater meadows are under threat, and coastal restoration efforts to replant them often fail. In the waters…
Does the motion of our DNA influence its function?
How does our DNA store the massive amount of information needed to build a human being? And what happens when it’s stored incorrectly? Jesse Dixon, MD, PhD, has spent years studying the way this genome is folded in 3D space,…
Epigenetic changes regulate gene expression, but what regulates epigenetics?
All the cells in an organism have the exact same genetic sequence. What differs across cell types is their epigenetics, meticulously placed chemical tags that influence which genes are expressed in each cell. Mistakes or failures in epigenetic regulation can…
How do brains stay stable, and when might a dose of flexibility be helpful?
Young minds are easily molded. Each new experience rewires a child’s brain circuitry, adding and removing synaptic connections between neurons. These wiring patterns become more stable with age, but biology has left some wiggle room to ensure that adult brains…