Insights

Insight articles are related to original research papers in eLife and explain why the results reported in the paper are significant in a given field of research. Insight articles are commissioned by eLife staff.

Latest articles

    1. Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics

    Membrane Biology: Two binding sites are better than one

    Mackenzie K Scott, John E Burke
    The reasons why two multiprotein complexes – VPS34 complex I and VPS34 complex II – are activated by different Rab proteins are becoming clearer.
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    Insight
    1. Neuroscience

    Psychedelic Drugs: Reshaping human neurons

    Jessica L Maltman, Javier González-Maeso
    Human neurons derived from stem cells show increased structural complexity and stronger synaptic connections after exposure to psilocin, the active metabolite of the psychedelic psilocybin.
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    Insight
    1. Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics

    Membrane Proteins: A missing link for efflux pumps

    Hilal Wehbi, Isabelle Broutin
    A lipoprotein called YbjP could be the answer to a puzzle about efflux pumps in gram-negative bacteria.
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    Insight
    1. Microbiology and Infectious Disease

    Gut Microbiome: Bacteria weigh up costs and benefits of mobile weapons

    Zhao Wang, Yang Fu
    Gaining the ability to kill rival microbes is not always an advantage for bacteria in complex gut microbiomes.
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    Insight
    1. Neuroscience

    Neuropathic Pain: Closing in on the causes of chronic neuropathic pain

    Geoffroy Laumet
    Chronic neuropathic pain in mice is maintained by the translation of messenger RNA in inhibitory neurons, so drugs that modulate translational pathways may be able to treat this condition.
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    Insight
    1. Immunology and Inflammation
    2. Neuroscience

    Microglia: Replacing the immune system of the brain

    Julie Rebejac, Soyon Hong
    A new method enables engineered immune progenitor cells to replace microglia in mice and reveals how a genetic mutation can lead to inflammation in the brain.
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    Insight
    1. Neuroscience

    Non-Visual Light Perception: Ancient photoreceptor shapes behavioural responses

    N Sören Häfker
    Experiments on Drosophila show that an evolutionarily conserved photoreceptor that senses light outside of the retina can regulate responses to direct visual cues.
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    Insight
    1. Ecology

    Insect Migration: A sense of direction

    Aleksandr Pakhomov, Dmitry Kishkinev
    Migratory moths use both magnetic and visual cues for navigation when travelling long distances in the dark.
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    Insight
    1. Genetics and Genomics
    2. Microbiology and Infectious Disease

    Virus Evolution: Scaling up efforts to target evolving viruses

    Lin Wang, Henrik Salje
    High-throughput neutralisation tests could lead to a better understanding of the evolution of human influenza.
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    Insight
    1. Developmental Biology

    Oocyte Development: The discovery of the mammalian fusome

    Michael Buszczak, Anirban Dasgupta
    The presence of an organelle called the fusome in species as diverse as Drosophila and mammals indicates an ancient, conserved programme of germ cell development.
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    Insight