Microvascular research is providing important biological insights that may help guide how we diagnose and treat patients living with complex chronic disorders such as Long COVID and ME/CFS. The Complex Disorder Alliance (CODA) will support experts to focus on key hypotheses to more quickly determine which patients can benefit from treatment.

In a breakthrough that could transform medical testing, data transmission and future quantum technologies, scientists at the University of Witwatersrand and the University of East Anglia have uncovered a hidden property of light that allows it to twist, spin and behave differently - without mirrors, materials or special lenses.

The research, led by Professor Kevin J. Naidoo working with Dr Lateef Nashed (SCRU Glycobiomedical laboratory) and SCRU computational scientists Dr Tharindu Senapthi and doctoral student Kyllen Dilsook, focused on Mucin 1 (MUC1), a protein that behaves very differently in healthy and cancerous cells due to changes in glycosylation, the process by which sugar molecules attach to proteins. Using a novel “one-pot” synthetic biology method, combined with advanced computer-based reaction simulations, the team recreated the complex conditions found inside the cell’s Endoplasmic Reticulum (ER) and Golgi apparatus.

An international team of ornithologists has overturned one of the oldest assumptions in natural history by directly documenting how common cuckoos lay their eggs in host nests located inside cavities. The findings provide definitive evidence that cuckoos do not carry eggs in their beaks; a theory that has persisted since ancient times.

A remarkable new discovery is shedding light on one of the greatest survival stories in Earth’s history, and answering a decades-old scientific mystery. Lystrosaurus, a hardy, plant-eating mammal ancestor, rose to prominence in the wake of the End-Permian Mass Extinction some 252 million years ago, the most devastating extinction event our planet has ever experienced. While countless species vanished, Lystrosaurus not only survived, but thrived in a world marked by extreme environmental instability, intense heat, and prolonged droughts.