Magazine

Latest articles

1. 1. Neuroscience

   Metabolism: Insulin control in fruit flies

   Omowumi Kayode

   Investigating how the production of insulin is regulated in fruit flies reveals surprising insights that may help to better understand how this process unfolds in humans.
2. 

   Activism and Science: Anne Urai and Clare Kelly on responding to the climate and biodiversity crises

   How an economic framework may inspire new ways to tackle the climate crisis.
3. 1. Developmental Biology
   2. Genetics and Genomics

   Vascular Development: Enhancing our understanding of endothelial cells

   Guillermo Luxán

   What determines whether an endothelial cell becomes part of an artery, a vein or a capillary?
4. 1. Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
   2. Microbiology and Infectious Disease

   Cellular Energy Production: Mycofactocin and the mycobacterial electron transport chain

   Stephanie M Stuteley, Ghader Bashiri

   In the bacterium M. smegmatis, an enzyme called MftG allows the cofactor mycofactocin to transfer electrons released during ethanol metabolism to the electron transport chain.
5. 1. Chromosomes and Gene Expression
   2. Genetics and Genomics

   Transcription: The plusses and minuses of DNA torsion

   Steven Henikoff, David L Levens

   A new method for mapping torsion provides insights into the ways that the genome responds to the torsion generated by RNA polymerase II.
6. 

   Episode 97: February 2025

   In this episode we hear about opioid overdoses, a new technique for studying teamwork in animals, making the most of fMRI data, how childhood adversity blunts the fear response in later life, and the neuroscientists looking to link patterns of brain activity to specific thought processes - by performing brain scans on people as they watch movies.
7. 1. Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
   2. Neuroscience

   Neurodegeneration: A role for RNA knots in Alzheimer’s disease

   Silvia Galli, Marco Di Antonio

   The buildup of knot-like RNA structures in brain cells may be the key to understanding how uncontrolled protein aggregation drives Alzheimer’s disease.
8. 1. Developmental Biology

   Morphogenesis: Fluid transport comes to the fore

   Yufei Wu, Sean X Sun

   Proteins that allow water to move in and out of cells help shape the development of new blood vessels.
9. 1. Developmental Biology
   2. Neuroscience

   Axon Guidance: Watching axons on the move

   Maria I Lazaro-Pena, Carlos A Diaz-Balzac

   The ligand Netrin mediates axon guidance through a combination of haptotaxis over short distances and chemotaxis over longer distances.
10. 1. Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
    2. Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics

    Drug Discovery: How to exploit the recycling system of a cell

    Sasha L Evans, Bethany A Haynes ... Rivka L Isaacson

    Nature has inspired the design of improved inhibitors for cancer-causing proteins.