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When the sun sets in Tasmania, a creature with fur as dark as the night emerges from its den to begin its search for food, scavenging for carrion and hunting small mammals and birds. To many, it’s best known as the inspiration for the whirling Looney Tunes character Taz. But to others, like University of Cambridge geneticist Elizabeth Murchison, it’s far more than a cartoon. To her, the devil is a national icon.Growing up in Tasmania, Murchison recalled rare glimpses of these elusive creatures during camping trips in the remote wilderness, though they were more often heard than seen. She…

Credit: spawns / iStock / Getty Images Plus The history of medicine is, in many ways, a history of learning to see. From the earliest clinicians relying on the direct evidence of their senses to decipher the body’s narratives through touch and sound to the transformative moment when lenses first bent light to reveal the hidden world of microbes and cells, progress has often hinged on acquiring new ways of perceiving. The late 19th century brought another such revolution with Röntgen’s discovery of X-rays—invisible emanations that could pierce flesh and etch the shadows of bones onto photographic plates, offering the…

Many people have never heard of the Goldenberry fruit (Physalis peruviana) before; it is a sweet tasting, minor crop that some consider to be a superfood because of its high nutritional value. However, it is underutilized and grown in only a few regions. Primarily grown in South America, goldenberry growers still rely on bushy crops that are “not really domesticated,” says Miguel Santo Domingo Martinez, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Zach Lippman, PhD, at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL). Colombia is the main producer of goldenberries, with some additional production occurring in Peru, Ecuador, South Africa, and…

Researchers found that tanning bed users had a higher proportion of melanocytes with pathogenic mutations.Image credit:©iStock.com, fiphotoTanning beds have long been popular for achieving a sun-kissed glow, but mounting evidence links indoor tanning usage to less glamorous consequences like wrinkles and skin cancer. The World Health Organization considers tanning beds to be carcinogens alongside hazards like asbestos or cigarette smoke; despite this, estimates suggest that millions of people, especially young women, continue to use them.Because sunbed usage coincides with an increased incidence of melanoma, dermatologist Pedram Gerami from Northwestern Medicine sought to elucidate their molecular effects on skin cells. In…

A new observational study spanning two human cohorts has found a link between theobromine, a phytochemical abundant in cocoa, and slower epigenetic aging [1]. A yummy geroprotector? Popular wisdom has it that not many things in life are both healthy and delicious, but according to research, one of them is chocolate. Studies have repeatedly linked chocolate and cocoa consumption with improved health outcomes, including beneficial effects on cholesterol, inflammation, and cellular senescence [2]. Cocoa and coffee share a family of alkaloids called methylxanthines, which includes caffeine, theophylline, paraxanthine, theobromine, and 7-methylxanthine. Coffee is caffeine-heavy, while cocoa is theobromine-heavy. Theobromine has…

Credit: JDawnInk / Getty Images / DigitalVision Vectors A new analysis from researchers at UC Riverside and UC Irvine found that only six percent of pivotal trials conducted to gain approval for new drugs from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) between 2017 and 2023 reflected the racial and ethnic makeup of the U.S. population. The study, published in Communications Medicine, showed that there is a trend of declining enrollment of Black and Hispanic participants beginning in 2021 and cited structural features of where and how trials are conducted as key contributors to this inadequacy. “Precision medicine relies on…

Medra lands $52m to advance drug discovery platform combining AI and robotics to enable continuous experimentation. San Francisco tech startup Medra has closed a $52 million Series A financing round to accelerate development of what it describes as “the world’s first end-to-end physical AI scientist platform” for drug discovery. The company’s approach is designed to enable “continuous experimentation” by combining AI-driven hypothesis generation with robotic execution in the lab – an approach that has the potential to drive progress in the fight against aging and age-related disease. Medra is targeting what it claims are two key issues in drug R&D:…

Ebola virus and Marburg virus are both highly contagious filoviruses and are among the most lethal viruses known. Patient deaths are often a consequence of gastrointestinal damage leading to diarrhea and severe dehydration. A team from Boston University (BU) aimed to elucidate the mechanisms behind how these viruses impact the gastrointestinal tract. The findings were published in PLOS Pathogens in a paper titled, “Filovirus Infection disrupts epithelial barrier function and ion transport in human iPSC-derived gut organoids.” Using induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), the researchers created organoids mimicking intestinal and colonic tissues. The authors wrote, “Our iPSC-derived model is unique…

ATP bioluminescence assays reveal microbial contamination in laboratory samples, enabling more rapid and sensitive quality control testing than traditional culture-based methods.©iStock, rsporeaResearchers and therapeutic manufacturers have long relied on classical microbiological methods to check their samples and surfaces for microbial contamination, primarily using lengthy culture-dependent approaches.1 Such quality control (QC) testing is essential, but despite their widespread use and regulatory acceptance, traditional methods pose challenges in the modern laboratory, where rapid results and objective measurements are needed to strengthen scalable workflows. Scientists and regulatory experts increasingly turn to luminometry to automate and accelerate QC via ATP bioluminescence assays.The Trouble with…

Discussions on longevity say future of aging isn’t about fat loss but about calming inflammation, restoring energy and protecting metabolism. Longevity used to be tied to wrinkle creams, detox teas and vague promises of “antiaging.” But on a recent episode of the Come Together podcast, host Abe Lichy sits down with Dr Amanda Kahn, board-certified internist and longevity specialist, who’s pushing the conversation into far more serious, biological territory. Instead of treating aging as something that shows up on your face, she frames it as something that begins at the cellular level. In her view, modern life chips away at…