Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is an aggressive malignancy characterized by poor survival due to rapid progression, metastasis, and cisplatin resistance. The chaperonin containing TCP-1 subunit 2 (CCT2), a subunit of the chaperonin-containing TCP-1 (CCT) complex, has been previously implicated in several cancers, but its specific role and contribution to chemoresistance in HNSCC remain elusive.

Wildlife researchers have found that both recreation and roads affect wolverine populations in Canada's Rocky Mountains and Columbia Mountains. It’s believed to be the first time that a study has shown, at a landscape scale, that recreation is linked to lower population density in a carnivore.

Pyrimidine-nucleoside phosphorylase adopts different conformations that influence how it interacts with molecules. Researchers from Shibaura Institute of Technology, Japan, used molecular dynamics simulations to show that closed conformations retain ligands more strongly than open ones and that sugar preference varies by compound and conformation, highlighting enzyme flexibility as an important consideration for drug design, artificial nucleoside synthesis, and greener biocatalytic manufacturing, and provide a framework for future enzyme engineering and inhibitor-design studies. 

An autoinhibitory domain in the C-terminal tail of TMEM63B, a mechanosensitive lipid scramblase, helps maintain its inactive state under resting conditions, report researchers from Institute of Science Tokyo. Any modifications in this regulatory region, particularly the Leu776 residue, reverses the inhibitory action and causes constitutive lipid scrambling, disrupting normal phospholipid asymmetry. These findings provide new insights into TMEM63B regulation and may improve our understanding of how its dysregulation contributes to neurodegenerative disease pathogenesis.

A study by IRCCS Fondazione Istituto Neurologico Carlo Besta and Politecnico di Milano, published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, demonstrates that it is possible to coat mitochondria with innovative materials (MOF) without compromising their ability to produce energy, opening up new prospects for diseases linked to their dysfunction

Evolutionary neurobiologist Dr. Max Farnworth joined Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz from the University of Bristol on August 1, 2026, with funding from the Emmy Noether Program. At JGU’s Department of Biology, Farnworth is establishing the “Neural Circuit & Systems Evolution” research group. The German Research Foundation (DFG) is providing around EUR 1.8 million in funding for the project over six years. Using insects as model organisms, Farnworth and his team aim to uncover fundamental principles of brain evolution and determine why some neural circuits are far more evolutionarily flexible than others.

Cholesterol is an essential component of cell membranes and a key molecule for maintaining metabolic homeostasis. LDL-derived cholesterol is delivered to lysosomes, where NPC1 and NPC2 cooperate to transport free cholesterol to other cellular compartments. When this process is impaired, cholesterol abnormally accumulates in lysosomes, a hallmark of Niemann-Pick disease type C. While NPC1 was known to undergo palmitoylation, a reversible lipid modification regulating protein trafficking, localization, and stability, the enzyme catalyzing this modification and its functional impact on NPC1 remained unknown.

 

Plants of the same species can differ considerably in their chemical composition, affecting their smell, taste, and even toxicity. A new study shows that the term “chemotype” has so far not been used consistently. Researchers at Bielefeld University propose clear criteria for describing chemical differences within a plant species in a precise and unambiguous way.