A novel bioengineering strategy utilizing peptide display technology on the AAV1 capsid has successfully generated next-generation viral vectors with significantly enhanced specificity and efficiency for inner ear cell transduction, offering a promising advance toward targeted gene therapies for hearing and balance disorders.

A groundbreaking study introduces a novel classification framework based on the video Head Impulse Test (vHIT) that significantly improves the ability to differentiate between peripheral and central causes of vertigo, offering clinicians a more precise tool for critical diagnostic decisions.

There is no known cure for Huntington's disease. A genetic mutation creates harmful proteins that accumulate and cause the disease's typical symptoms. A team from the Department of Human Genetics at Ruhr University Bochum has now shown how targeted ubiquitin tagging at two positions in the mutated huntingtin protein affects its breakdown and distribution within the cell. This insight could provide a starting point for future therapies. The team in Bochum, led by Professor Hoa Huu Phuc Nguyen, worked closely with Israeli researcher Professor Aaron Ciechanover, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2004 for his work on the protein degradation system. The journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reports the findings in its issue of January 8, 2026.

LimbLab is an open-source tool that can help developmental biology researchers visualise and analyse 3D data for developmental processes. LimbLab is a specialised pipeline that can organise messy 3D data into clear and aligned information.

Researchers at the School of Biological Sciences of The University of Hong Kong (HKU) have uncovered how eukaryotic cells can control gene activity even after losing one of their major gene-regulatory systems during evolution. By studying a microscopic soil-living roundworm, the team revealed how an alternative, conserved epigenetic mechanism can take over when a common one is missing. The study has just been published in the scientific journal Nature Communications. The findings provide new insights into how gene regulation adapts through evolution and may help scientists better understand disease mechanisms involving massive gene dysregulation, such as cancers, neurological disorders and autoimmune diseases.

For planning animal conservation measures, it is vital to know where endangered species live and how they interact. Ecologists are successfully using tracking technology to learn about the movements of individual animals. Yet, leveraging this knowledge to understand how entire populations change in space and time, including long-term persistence and survival chances in a given area, remains a long-standing open question in ecology. A major step toward answering this question was now achieved through a collaboration between researchers from São Paulo State University (UNESP, Brazil) and the Center for Advanced Systems Understanding (CASUS) at Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR): The scientists introduced a new theoretical framework that shows how individual animal movements and their home ranges shape population dynamics across space and time (Ecology Letters, DOI: 10.1111/ele.70269).

Some Argentinian penguins are experiencing high levels of predation from pumas recolonising their historical territory. A new study has quantified the risk on long-term penguin population survival.

Over four years, pumas at a national park on the Argentinian Patagonia coast are thought to have killed over 7,000 adult penguins (7.6% of the colony’s adult population) – but left many uneaten.

Long-term, however, puma predation alone is unlikely to threaten colony viability, while low breeding success and reduced juvenile survival appear to be greater threats to the survival of these penguins.

The findings have been published today (5 February) in the Journal for Nature Conservation.