New York University researchers have pinpointed the molecular players responsible for plants “feeling full” once they’ve taken up enough nitrogen—a finding that could help scientists to develop plants that absorb more nitrogen from the soil and allow farmers to reduce environmentally and economically costly fertilizer application.

Virginia Tech researchers have identified a natural protective protein that maintain healthy lung blood vessels. Increasing the expression of this protein in preclinical models of pulmonary arterial hypertension reversed key features of the disease, including pulmonary vascular remodeling and heart dysfunction.