Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory’s Cifani lab has developed a new mass spectrometry technique that pushes the performance of their instruments to deliver scans that are more sensitive than ever before. Their innovation may improve drug target discovery while helping scientists answer long-standing questions about human health and biology.

A groundbreaking new study from Bar-Ilan University shows that one of sleep’s core functions originated hundreds of millions of years ago in jellyfish and sea anemones, among the earliest creatures with nervous systems. By tracing this mechanism back to these ancient animals, the research demonstrates that protecting neurons from DNA damage and cellular stress is a basic, ancient function of sleep that began long before complex brains evolved.

A study led by Maria Carmo-Fonseca at the GIMM Foundation has helped clarify one of the main limitations of lab-grown heart cells, which are widely used around the world to study heart disease and test new drugs. Although these cells make it possible to investigate the human heart without invasive procedures or animal models, they still fail to fully reproduce the characteristics of real heart cells, which can compromise the accuracy of certain studies.

This study introduces the Multidimensional Antiviral Antibody Database (MAAD), a comprehensive and standardized platform integrating sequence, structure, and functional data for antibodies targeting three high-impact RNA virus families. MAAD serves not only as a curated data repository but also as an interactive analytical toolbox designed to support rational antibody engineering, structure-based vaccine design, and AI-driven antibody discovery.

A new global study published with the defining authorship of HUN-REN Centre for Ecological Research, Institute of Ecology and Botany in Conservation Biology, the leading journal in the field, highlights that many governments still do not fully recognize the contribution of Indigenous Peoples and local communities, and other traditional knowledge holders to the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. The researchers examined the two most recent national reports submitted by the 195 state Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, amounting to more than 400 reports in total—two reports in the case of some countries—and approximately 58,000 pages of material. Europe stood out in a negative sense: while countries frequently referred to traditional land use practices, many states considered the issues related to Indigenous Peoples and local communities and traditional knowledge to be irrelevant, due to terminological confusion. The timeliness of the study is primarily underscored by the next round of national reports due in 2026, as well as by the fact that the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework states that achieving its goals is impossible without the genuine involvement of Indigenous Peoples and local communities.

Dr. Maria Margarita Behrens traces her journey from South America to the Salk Institute in a Genomic Press Interview exploring brain epigenomics and the BRAIN Initiative's groundbreaking cell atlas research.