COVID-19 has disrupted science in the way it has disrupted everything else. In the short term, universities have largely closed shop as a way to maximize social distancing, and lots of science – or at least, lots of bench work – is not getting done.

BioWorld looks at translational medicine, including: Microbiome changes precede tumor development in CRC; Converting catch and release to PARP traps; Smart bacterium senses environment; The dose makes the poison – timing, too; Minimal phenotyping gives minimal insights into MDD genetics; Hypoxia linked to common form of muscular dystrophy; Stopping tau in its tracks; Optogenetic plaque model traces neurodegeneration in AD; Once repulsive, always repulsive.

COVID-19 has disrupted science in the way it has disrupted everything else. In the short term, universities have largely closed shop as a way to maximize social distancing, and lots of science – or at least, lots of bench work – is not getting done.

As organisms adapt to their environment, adaptations that serve them in their current environment can become liabilities if that environment changes. The control of traits that are an asset in one situation and a liability by the same gene is called antagonistic pleiotropy. In the March 16, 2020, online issue of Nature Genetics, researchers reported a method to systematically identify mutations that conferred antagonistic pleiotropy – in the form of resistance to one drug, but heightened sensitivity to another – in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cells.

BioWorld looks at translational medicine, including: How the eye cleans itself up; In blood stem cells, selection drives driver mutations early on; Dead cells do tell tales; Selective TGF-beta inhibition helps checkpoint blockade; How lung tumors seed to brain; Butyrate affects regulatory B cells, rheumatoid arthritis; Lamin A/C’s presence in nucleus, absence from membrane both problematic in progeria; Females, males have different metabolic response to intermittent fasting; Ditching PAMs expands CRISPR.