Using genes borrowed from bacteria, researchers led by Macquarie University have demonstrated fish and flies can be engineered to break down methylmercury and remove it from their bodies as a less harmful gas, offering new ways to tackle one of the world's most dangerous pollutants.

Researchers at Ehime University successfully assessed the risk of DDTs on endocrine disruption in killer whales using New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) that avoid animal testing. By in vitro experiments and computer analysis, they found that DDTs activate killer whale estrogen receptor α, potentially disrupting hormone balance. This is concerning because DDTs levels in killer whales are high enough to cause harm. This study highlights the potential of NAMs for assessing chemical risks in wild species.

he research team led by Dr. Heh-In Im at the Center for Brain Disorders of the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) has identified a novel brain region and neural mechanism involved in regulating nicotine withdrawal symptoms.

 A team from Osaka University has developed scSPOT, a new technique that reveals how immune cells called Tregs simultaneously control the immune system. The team identified key immune cells controlled by Tregs and found that Tregs are targets for the cancer drugs ipilimumab and tazemetostat. They also found that Tregs are indicators of serious viral infection. This valuable technique may accelerate the development of treatments for cancer and other diseases.

Professor Ma's team at Harbin Institute of Technology has recently achieved a breakthrough in the field of gas temperature detection. For the first time, they proposed a calibration-free temperature detection method based on light-induced thermoelastic spectroscopy (LITES) technology. This technique leverages the steady-state and transient response characteristics of a quartz tuning fork (QTF) to achieve rapid and highly stable temperature measurements in complex environments, providing a new solution for combustion diagnostics. The related results, titled "High stability and fast calibration-free temperature measurement based on light-induced thermoelastic spectroscopy," were recently published in Ultrafast Science.

Accumulation of fat molecules is detrimental to the cell. Researchers from the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore (NUS Medicine), have made a breakthrough in understanding how our cells manage to stay healthy by recycling important fat molecules. Their study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), reveals how a protein called Spinster homolog 1 (Spns1) helps transport fats out of cell compartments known as lysosomes.

Research team led by Chuliang Weng introduces D2-GCN, a groundbreaking disentangled graph convolutional network that dynamically adjusts feature channels for enhanced node representation, outperforming traditional methods in node classification tasks.