Researchers from Johns Hopkins Children’s Center say they have identified a gene pathway involving the mineral zinc in mice that may someday point the way to using zinc-based supplements to directly help people with a rare disorder called short bowel syndrome (SBS).

Researchers at WashU Medicine discovered potentially far-reaching effects of a particular gut bacterium that was linked to better growth in Bangladeshi children receiving a therapeutic food designed to nurture healthy gut microbes. A strain of the bacterium harbored in the children’s gut microbial communities possessed a previously unknown gene capable of producing and metabolizing key molecules involved in regulating many important functions ranging from appetite, immune responses, neuronal function, and the ability of pathogenic bacteria to produce disease.

A new mouse model mimicking the liver symptoms of myotonic dystrophy type 1 — the most prevalent form of adult-onset muscular dystrophy — provides insight into why patients develop fatty liver disease and display hypersensitivity to medications, making treatment difficult. The new model opens avenues for screening new medications for liver toxicity prior to patient trials, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers said.

A new biomedical tool successfully delivers genetic material to edit faulty genes in developing fetal mouse brain cells. This might stop disease progression of genetic-based neurodevelopmental conditions before birth.