Human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the most common type of primary liver cancer in adults, has a high rate of mortality. Most patients diagnosed with the advanced form of HCC have a relatively low long-term survival rate. Proteins called “integrins” play a major role in all stages of hepatocarcinogenesis, including initiation, progression, and metastasis. Therefore, integrins serve as attractive drug targets with tremendous chemotherapeutic potential. A recent review jointly published by researchers from the United States and China describes how integrins could be targeted in the fight against HCC.

Increasing temperature or nutrients in an ecosystem can destabilize food webs, but when temperature and nutrients increase together it can be difficult to predict the combined effects. This study examined a laboratory microbial food web consisting of bacterial prey and protist predators. It found that temperature and nutrients can alter the dynamics of microbial communities by changing how species’ abundances and average body sizes relate to each other.

Stars emit light that travels through empty space without significant attenuation. The visual signal is essentially lossless until detected. After many years and billions of kilometers, starlight-photons may eventually encounter the earth’s atmosphere and be decoded as a speck in the night sky by some lucky person’s retina and brain.

Protein-protein interactions are essential for life. Researchers used DeepMind’s AlphaFold 2 to develop a deep learning approach for predicting and modeling multi-protein interactions. The AF2Complex approach generates much more accurate structural models than previous methods for modeling a protein complex. As a proof of concept, the researchers used AF2Complex to virtually screen key proteins in E. coli, discovering unexpected protein-protein interactions.

In a new study published in Ecology Letters, Luke Frishkoff, assistant professor of biology at The University of Texas at Arlington, explores an age-old question: Why do some locations have more species than others?

Bioengineers formulated a mathematical model that clarified the importance of bat ear motions in direction detection, making way for lean, mean sonar navigation machines.