The animal world is full of species that can perform astonishing, and sometimes disgusting, feats. Take vultures, for example. “They eat this rotten meat that is full of pathogens and toxins, and they stay healthy,” Neta Raab told BioWorld. Raab is the co-founder and CEO of Wild Biotech Ltd., an Israeli startup that is seeking to understand gut microbiome contributions to these animal superpowers, and harness them for therapeutic use.

A Chinese study has shown that small extracellular vesicles produced by microRNA-overexpressing mesenchymal stem cells improved cardiac function, reduced infarct size and promoted angiogenesis without arrhythmia in nonhuman primate models of myocardial infarction.

BioWorld looks at translational medicine, including: Ultrarare variants give insights into schizophrenia; T-cell ‘auto-aggression’ causes liver damage in NASH; Engineered myeloid cells prevent pro-metastatic microenvironments.

A study by Korean and U.S. geneticists has demonstrated that the newly developed Gene set analysis Association Using Sparse Signals (GAUSS) is more powerful than existing methods for detecting phenotype-associated gene sets and facilitating interpretation of gene set analysis results.

LONDON – The alchemy of induced pluripotent cells has broken another barrier, delivering a model of the earliest preimplantation stages of human development, when fertilized eggs form a blastocyst.

Vaccines now in clinical trials can raise broad-spectrum antibodies against more than one form of hemagglutinin and provide protection against the flu strains that have been most troublesome from a public health perspective.

BioWorld looks at translational medicine, including: Brain cell alcohol metabolism affects behavior, addiction.