EurekAlert! News by Subject: Biology - News by Subject: Biology

Biology

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 9-Jul-2025 10:10 ET (9-Jul-2025 14:10 GMT/UTC)

MSU study reveals dopamine’s unexpected role in memory devaluation

Michigan State University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

New research out of Michigan State University expands on current understanding of the brain chemical dopamine, finding that it plays a role in reducing the value of memories associated with rewards. The study — published in the open access journal Communications Biology — opens new avenues for understanding dopamine’s role in the brain.

Journal: Communications Biology

Spotiphy integrative analysis tool turns spatial RNA sequencing into imager

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Scientists at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and the University of Wisconsin-Madison today share a generative algorithm for achieving both high genome and image resolution in spatial transcriptomics.

Journal: Nature Methods

New study explores the link between diet, blood sugar and cancer risk across species

Arizona State University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new study analyzing diet, average plasma sugar levels and cancer prevalence in some 273 vertebrate species showed surprising results. The study found no significant link between diet and plasma sugar levels across nonhuman vertebrate species, suggesting that glucose regulation is likely influenced more by evolutionary and physiological adaptations than diet alone. Birds in particular did not suffer increased cancer rates compared with mammals and reptiles, despite having higher blood glucose levels, which are associated with increased cancer risk in other animals, including humans.

Journal: Nature Communications

Critically endangered hawksbill turtles migrate up to 1,000km from nesting to foraging grounds in the Western Caribbean, riding with and against ocean currents to congregate in popular feeding hotspots

PLOS
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Critically endangered hawksbill turtles migrate up to 1,000km from nesting to foraging grounds in the Western Caribbean, riding with and against ocean currents to congregate in popular feeding hotspots

Journal: PLOS One

MD Anderson Research Highlights for March 12, 2025

University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center
Peer-Reviewed Publication

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center’s Research Highlights showcases the latest breakthroughs in cancer care, research and prevention. These advances are made possible through seamless collaboration between MD Anderson’s world-leading clinicians and scientists, bringing discoveries from the lab to the clinic and back.

Want to preserve biodiversity? Go big, U-M researchers say

University of Michigan
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Large, undisturbed forests are better for harboring biodiversity than fragmented landscapes, according to University of Michigan research.

Ecologists agree that habitat loss and the fragmentation of forests reduces biodiversity in the remaining fragments. But ecologists don't agree whether it's better to focus on preserving many smaller, fragmented tracts of land or larger, continuous landscapes. The study, published in Nature and led by U-M ecologist Thiago Gonçalves-Souza, comes to a conclusion on the decades-long debate.

"Fragmentation is bad," said study author Nate Sanders, U-M professor of ecology and evolutionary biology. "This paper clearly shows that fragmentation has negative effects on biodiversity across scales. That doesn't mean we shouldn't try to conserve small fragments when we can with our limited conservation dollars, but we need to be wise about conservation decisions."

Journal: Nature

Atapuerca rewrites the history of Europe’s first inhabitants

University College London
Peer-Reviewed Publication

IPHES-CERCA leads a study published in Nature on ‘Pink,’ a facial fragment discovered in Sima del Elefante.

This fossil has been assigned to Homo aff. erectus, a different and more primitive species than Homo antecessor.

This study confirms that Western Europe was inhabited by at least two different species of hominins during the Early Pleistocene.

Journal: Nature