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.

Sequencing environmental DNA in seawater shows the local presence or absence of species, but until now could give little information about those measures of biodiversity that are the most useful in conservation. As a proof-of-principle, scientists in the US have now shown that mitochondrial DNA in water sampled near schools of dolphins contains enough information to measure their local effective population size and monitor the health of these populations.

​For the first time, scientists have directly measured how smoking changes the mechanical behavior of human lung tissue. The researchers found that smoking substantially stiffens this tissue in ways resembling fibrosis, a disease that scars and toughens the lungs.

For decades, ultrasound has been associated with diagnostics – a routine scan in a hospital room, a monitor displaying organs, tissues, or the first image of a baby. However, researchers are now looking at ultrasound from an entirely different perspective. New findings from scientists at Kaunas University of Technology (KTU) suggest that ultrasound waves might not only help doctors see inside the body, but low-frequency ultrasound directly influences blood flow – potentially opening new possibilities to support the treatment of cardiovascular diseases, Alzheimer’s disease, and diabetes, reducing the need for invasive procedures or medication in the future.

Davis Joseph was awarded the 2025 Ciechanover International Biology Award at the Sustainability through Science and Technology Summit 2025 (FLOGEN SIPS 2025) in Cebu, Philippines, for a breakthrough cancer discovery proposing organ-agnostic treatment strategies. His work identifies three universal cancer types based on dysfunctions in p14ARF/p53, DINO lncRNA, and MDM2 activity, and introduces a universal apoptosis network flowsheet built from the analysis of 174 scientific publications. The discovery supports a unified therapeutic framework for treating cancers regardless of the organ in which they originate and is presented as an example of Sustainable Medicine under the FLOGEN Sustainability Framework.

 

Neurons in the visual brain undergo quick, dynamic structural changes from hibernation that may eventually inform treatment strategies for conditions in which neuron function is lost or hindered, such as poststroke.