Sometimes highly impactful serendipitous discoveries are made when performing genetic loss-of-function studies that were initially focused on putative tumor suppressors or other hypotheses.

A proportion of patients with COVID-19 develop neurological symptoms, including headaches, encephalopathy and seizures, but it is unknown to which extent.

Resveratrol-triggered genetic switches, which can control in vivo tumor-targeted chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR T) therapy, have been developed by Chinese researchers, who demonstrated that the new tools enabled maximized in vivo immunotherapeutic efficacy while minimizing toxicity.

LONDON – Swedish researchers have devised a method for binding insoluble antibiotics to graphene coatings, in an advance that could prevent the formation of biofilms on medical implants. In comparison to other long-winded methods for loading antibiotics onto implant surfaces, they say the way in which they bind active molecules to graphene is simple and could easily be integrated into manufacturing processes.

Researchers have shown that glucocorticoids, a type of steroid hormones, target both neuroplasticity-related genes and genes related to ciliary function in the brain. However, the effects on the different processes are mediated via different receptors, and in response to different stimuli. A study investigated the specific targets of glucocorticoids, giving new insights into the biological mechanisms of stress adaptations, and how they are linked to neural plasticity.

It's a good news, bad news scenario for exhausted T cells in chronic infections. Multiple groups of investigators reported in the July 26, 2021, online issue of Nature Immunology that even after a chronic hepatitis C virus infection was cured, T cells that had become dysfunctional during the infection retained epigenetic "scars" that prevented them from becoming fully functional memory T cells.

Immunologists at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, China, have been the first to show that interferon-induced protein 35 family proteins promote neuroinflammation and multiple sclerosis (MS), as they reported in the August 2, 2021, edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Researchers led by Emanuel Hanski at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have identified a class of molecules that inhibit endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress and could decrease mortality in mice infected with Streptococcus pyogenes, also known as the group A streptococci.

Investigators at the University of California at San Francisco have identified a confounder that appears to be behind the purported anti-SARS-CoV-2 effects of a number of therapeutic candidates that were identified via repurposing.

A genome-wide association study has identified 290 genetic variants, including a wide range of DNA damage response genes, that are associated with age at menopause.