Understanding the packing and folding of DNA in sperm cells is a fundamental question in modern biology, related to infertility and to genetic and developmental defects. UC Davis researchers have now unveiled an important new piece of this puzzle. They have identified a protein, called DAXX, that guides how sperm DNA is organized, silences numerous genes and keeps some switched on. The work was published recently in Genes & Development. 

A new Thought Leaders invited review in Genomic Psychiatry synthesizes more than two decades of work on HuD, a neuronal RNA-binding protein encoded by the ELAVL4 gene. Drawing on RIP-seq and CLIP-seq data from embryonic and adult mouse brain, the authors compare close to 4,000 HuD-bound messenger RNAs and identify 1,926 shared targets. Despite different molecular casts at different ages, fifteen canonical pathways and thirty-one disease and function categories recur across development and maturity. The synthesis suggests that adult neuronal plasticity is, at the molecular level, a recapitulation of early development.A new Thought Leaders invited review in Genomic Psychiatry synthesizes more than two decades of work on HuD, a neuronal RNA-binding protein encoded by the ELAVL4 gene. Drawing on RIP-seq and CLIP-seq data from embryonic and adult mouse brain, the authors compare close to 4,000 HuD-bound messenger RNAs and identify 1,926 shared targets. Despite different molecular casts at different ages, fifteen canonical pathways and thirty-one disease and function categories recur across development and maturity. The synthesis suggests that adult neuronal plasticity is, at the molecular level, a recapitulation of early development.A new Thought Leaders invited review in Genomic Psychiatry synthesizes more than two decades of work on HuD, a neuronal RNA-binding protein encoded by the ELAVL4 gene. Drawing on RIP-seq and CLIP-seq data from embryonic and adult mouse brain, the authors compare close to 4,000 HuD-bound messenger RNAs and identify 1,926 shared targets. Despite different molecular casts at different ages, fifteen canonical pathways and thirty-one disease and function categories recur across development and maturity. The synthesis suggests that adult neuronal plasticity is, at the molecular level, a recapitulation of early development.

The Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology has a new clinical research study open to explore whether a more targeted form of radiation therapy lowers the chance of lung cancer returning after surgery. The study (Alliance A082402) is for people with non‑small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who underwent chemotherapy and immunotherapy before surgery, but who still have cancer cells found in lymph nodes at the time of their operation. This is a situation many patients with lung cancer face.

A study led by researchers at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson showed that giving the antibiotic azithromycin did not help preschool children seen in the hospital emergency room with bouts of severe wheezing.