A team of researchers at IOCB Prague headed by Dr. Tomáš Slanina has developed a new method for labeling molecules with fluorescent dyes that surpasses existing approaches in both precision and stability. The new fluorescent label remains covalently bonded to its target molecule and does not fall apart even under demanding conditions inside living cells. This allows scientists to track labeled molecules over long periods with high reliability – an advantage for research in biology, chemistry, and medicine. The study was published in Angewandte Chemie International Edition.

Excessive screen use among school-aged children has been linked to sleep disturbances and behavioral problems, but its effects on brain development have remained unclear. Now, researchers from Japan have examined data from over 11,000 children to explore the relationship between screen time, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms, and brain structure. Their findings reveal that longer daily screen exposure is linked to increased ADHD symptoms and measurable changes in brain development.

Researchers have developed a new culture medium for canine iPS cells, enabling their stable differentiation into cardiomyocytes.

In a groundbreaking exploration of the environmental impacts of fires, researchers are shedding light on how gaseous smoke pollutants affect both air and soil quality. This critical study, titled "Impact of Gaseous Smoke Pollutants from Modelled Fires on Air and Soil Quality," is spearheaded by Mikhail Nizhelskiy from the Academy of Biology and Biotechnology Named After D.I. Ivanovskiy at Southern Federal University in Rostov-on-Don, Russian Federation. His work offers a deeper understanding of the often-overlooked consequences of fires on our environment.

Loggerhead turtles are able to sense the Earth’s magnetic field in two ways, but it wasn’t clear which sense the animals use to detect the magnetic field when navigating using the magnetic map they are born with. Now researchers from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA, reveal in Journal of Experimental Biology that hatchling loggerhead turtles feel the Earth’s magnetic map to tell them where they are on their epic migration routes.