Although scientists have known some of the factors that raise a person’s risk of Parkinson's disease, the question remains of why some people with genetic risk factors develop the disease while others never do. A team at Baylor College of Medicine, the Duncan Neurological Research Institute (Duncan NRI) at Texas Children’s Hospital and collaborating institutions found in the laboratory fruit fly that it takes two mutant genes to drive neurodegeneration. The findings can lead to novel interventions for this devastating condition.

A Hiroshima University-led project has secured a $1.8 million grant to develop a way to store bull semen using simple refrigeration instead of costly cryopreservation, a shift that could remove a major barrier to modern dairy cattle breeding that has long shut out farmers in low-resource regions. If successful, the technology is expected to boost milk yields, stabilize incomes for small-scale dairy farmers, and improve nutrition.