Whether in the gut, mouth, or on the skin, the human body is colonized by bacteria. Most of them are beneficial and we find distinct microbial communities at different body sites. A team led by the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and King’s College London has now found strong evidence that bacteria from the mouth migrate to the gut in chronic liver disease and exacerbate the disease.

A selective protein degradation system known as Golgi membrane-associated degradation (GOMED), which identifies and removes unwanted proteins, has been delineated by researchers at Science Tokyo. This system works by tagging problematic proteins with a “molecular label” called K33-linked ubiquitin and using an adaptor protein, optineurin (OPTN), to guide them to GOMED structures for breakdown. These findings improve our understanding of cellular self-cleanup processes and may help in developing new treatments for neurodegenerative diseases.

A Perspective by QST outlines a practical roadmap for “quantum life science,” spanning ultra‑sensitive diamond sensors in living cells, high-sensitivity hyperpolarized MRI for real‑time metabolism, and quantum effects that inspire new biotechnologies. The authors describe near‑term medical and industrial impacts—from precision diagnostics and drug discovery to efficient energy technologies—along with steps to scale these tools beyond specialized fields.

Arizona State University scientists are part of an international research team that discovered a simple, soil-based method to keep locusts from eating crops. To their knowledge, it’s the first study to test this method in real-world farming conditions. The team worked with 100 farmers in Senegal who experience outbreaks of the Senegalese grasshopper, which are consistently devastating for Senegalese farmers. Each farmer grew two plots of millet — one treated with nitrogen fertilizer and one untreated. Compared with the untreated plots, the treated plots showed three clear differences: fewer locusts, less crop damage, and a twofold increase in crop yield. This breakthrough represents an important step forward in the sustainable management of migratory pests.

A study led by IRB Barcelona and the IBMB-CSIC, reveals how the bacterium that causes cholera activates its virulence programme, uncovering a single amino acid as a critical contact point. The study opens new avenues for future therapies.

Using cryo-electron microscopy, researchers have solved five structures of the V. cholerae activation complex, revealing how virulence gene expression is triggered once the bacterium reaches the human intestine.

Researchers at IRB Barcelona and the IBMB-CSIC, in collaboration with EMBL Heidelberg and partners in the United States, mapped the infection process with unprecedented detail, unveiling how the cell’s transcription machinery is recruited to the DNA and virulence genes are transcribed.