Researchers at Beijing Tiantan Hospital have developed a one-stage hybrid approach that combines embolization and microsurgical removal of hypervascular central nervous system (CNS) tumors in a single operation. In a decade-long study of 31 patients, this innovative method reduced blood loss, avoided embolization-related complications, and preserved neurological function. Published in the Chinese Neurosurgical Journal, the findings suggest a safer alternative to traditional staged surgeries for treating high-risk brain and spinal tumors.

'Drink your milk and you will have strong bones and healthy teeth'. We’ve all heard this advice. It's supposed to help us meet our bodies' high calcium requirements. However, our cells keep calcium levels as low as possible at all times. They achieve this by literally pumping calcium ions out of their interior using high-speed pumps in their membrane. Now, a team of researchers led by Stefan Raunser, Director at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology in Dortmund, and Bernd Fakler, Director at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Freiburg, has succeeded in establishing the first comprehensive transport model of the plasma membrane Ca²⁺-ATPase (PMCA) by resolving its 3D structure in various states of activity and tracking PMCA-mediated Ca2+ pumping in intact cells. The researchers were thus able to show that its high speed is primarily due to interactions with the plasma membrane lipid PIP₂. This mechanism could be a promising starting point for developing new drugs that manipulate calcium concentrations in cells.

Until now, the early phase of drug discovery for the development of new therapeutics has been both cost- and time-intensive. Researchers at KIT (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology) have now developed a platform on which extremely miniaturized nanodroplets with a volume of only 200 nanoliters per droplet – comparable to a grain of sand – and containing only 300 cells per test can be arranged. This platform enables the researchers to synthesize, characterize, and test thousands of therapeutic agents on the same chip, saving time and resources. The researchers report on their findings in the journal “Angewandte Chemie” (DOI: 10.1002/anie.202507586)

The findings challenge the widely accepted theory of brain plasticity.