Area residents looking to build a career in the life sciences have a place to gain essential professional experience at an expanded Bioversity laboratory and training space at UMass Lowell.

So-called rock-eating microorganisms obtain their energy to convert carbon dioxide (CO₂) from inorganic sources and make up the vast majority of biomass producers. Using electron microscopy and infrared spectroscopy, a research team from the universities of Potsdam and Marburg has investigated the structure of DAB2 in the sulfur bacterium Halothiobacillus neapolitanus. Their findings have been published in “Nature Communications”.

Ependymoma is a central nervous system tumor that occurs primarily in children and can arise in the supratentorial region, posterior fossa, or spinal cord. Although molecular classification has substantially improved disease stratification and prognostic assessment, the metabolic phenotypes associated with the major pediatric subtypes have remained poorly defined. Because pediatric ependymoma is rare, assembling a cohort that spans multiple molecularly defined subtypes for systematic metabolic comparison is itself challenging.

How does the innate immune system distinguish pathogens from self-components while avoiding excessive immune response and inflammation? Toll-like receptors (TLRs) have provided the answer to this central question over four decades of research. This review synthesizes the multilayered and interactive regulatory mechanisms—from post-translational modifications to phase separation—that ensure balanced TLR signaling, and explores the translational promise of targeting these pathways in infectious diseases, autoimmune diseases, cancer, and inflammatory aging.

A multicenter study found that the advanced lung cancer inflammation index (ALI) predicts outcomes in acute ischemic stroke patients receiving thrombolysis. Lower ALI levels were strongly linked to poorer functional recovery, with a non-linear J-shaped relationship and a threshold effect. Derived from routine clinical measures, ALI offers a simple, accessible biomarker for early risk stratification.