The study of natural toxins and their derivatives may help in the development of medicines to treat diseases like cancer and osteoarthritis, says coordinator of the Center of Excellence in New Target Discovery.

The Research Center for Gas Innovation is developing technology to separate CO2 and methane in oil and gas exploration and store it in offshore salt caverns.

Animal experiments have shown that caloric restriction causes cellular changes that can prevent diseases, the subject of a session at FAPESP Week London.

Redox traits characterize the microbial communities of the biosphere.

Gene-edited pigs may reduce Brazil's transplant waiting list. Still in its initial stages and presented at FAPESP Week London, a project will assess how patients awaiting kidney transplants react to porcine blood.

Background noise is usually regarded as a nuisance that masks important sounds. But noise can convey information about important environmental conditions and allow animals to make informed decisions. When bat researchers played rain sounds for two different species of bats, both species chose to delay emergence from their roosts.

Among golden-collared manakins, a bird found only in Panama and western Colombia, males emit a particular mating call, the 'chee-poo', to attract females. Smithsonian researchers explore the role of androgens -- male hormones -- in the expression of this vocal behavior, by administering testosterone to females and juvenile males.

Considering that light is the driving force behind the growth and productivity of reef ecosystems, scientists are interested in understanding the relationship between primary productivity and varying light conditions. In a recent PLoS ONE paper, postdoctoral researcher Yvonne Sawall and her advisor, associate scientist Eric Hochberg (both at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences) present evidence that reefs optimize their photosynthetic capacities to prevailing environmental conditions, such as general availability of light, nutrients, and temperature.

Scientists from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro explored mRNA and protein public databases to unravel hidden meanings of the genetic code. Using a metric derived from mRNA codon composition, they found out how gene sequence choice can predict different aspects of protein synthesis, such as protein production efficiency. The study, published in Nucleic Acids Research, could help the development of new biotechnological applications of genes and proteins.