Diseases caused by Candida are among the most common fungal infections worldwide / The new guideline was developed over four years by a team of more than one hundred experts from 35 countries, led by researchers from the University of Cologne

In a recent study, scientists at Leipzig University have for the first time demonstrated play-like behaviour in flies. They found that fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) voluntarily and repeatedly visited a carousel. “Until now, play-like behaviour has mainly been described in vertebrates,” says Professor Wolf Huetteroth, who led the study at the Institute of Biology at Leipzig University and recently moved to Northumbria University in Newcastle, England, as an associate professor. He and his colleagues have just published their findings in the journal Current Biology.

The brains of birds and mammals have diverged substantially during the course of evolution. A research team at the Center for Molecular Biology of Heidelberg University has investigated how similar cognitive functions could still arise in some bird species. Analyses of the composition, development and evolution of the pallium – the brain region in birds and mammals largely responsible for memory, learning, and thinking – show that some brain cell types remained nearly unchanged over hundreds of millions of years, whereas others evolved quite differently.

A fungal infection has been shown to trigger a fruit fly’s own immune system to destroy brain cells leading to signs of neurodegeneration, a new study published in PLOS Biology today (Thursday 13 February) has found.