The latest findings on the interaction between cell death and cellular senescence in cancer and their pathophysiological significance have been reviewed by a team led by Osaka Metropolitan University researchers.

Prior to this discovery, the site of Dmanisi in the country of Georgia was thought to contain the oldest evidence of hominin activity outside of Africa, dated to roughly 1.8 million years ago. Confirming the age of the marks establishes both the presence of hominins in Eurasia 200,000 years earlier than previously thought as well as tool use by them, providing some of the earliest evidence of hominin activity in this area. 

One would think that a volcano was not the most hospitable place for living organisms. However, the Borealis Mud Volcano, at 400 m water depth, acts as a sanctuary for a number of marine species.

Proteins, the pillars of cellular function, often assemble into “complexes” to fulfill their functions. A study by the University of Geneva (UNIGE) and the Weizmann Institute, in collaboration with the Technion, reveals why this assembly often begins during the very process of protein synthesis or ‘‘birth’’. These early interactions involve proteins whose stability depends on their association. They can be compared to a couple in which each partner supports the other. This model paves the way for new strategies to understand and correct assembly errors, which are often associated with pathologies, including neurodegenerative disorders and certain cancers. These findings are published in the journal Cell.

A prominent research group from Ehime University and its close partner at Kiel University have published their third collaborative paper detailing PEPPI-MS, their experimental protocol combining high-resolution protein fractionation using SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) with the latest mass spectrometry technology to enable highly sensitive analysis of proteoforms, the diverse chemical structures of proteins. This protocol paper, published online in Nature Protocols, is expected to contribute to the development of disease diagnostics based on proteoform information.