19 October 2026 / Kiel / San Diego. Last weekend, the research vessel SONNE set sail from San Diego into the Pacific Ocean for expedition SO322. Its destination: the Clarion-Clipperton Zone north of the equator - the area that harbours the largest known deposits of polymetallic nodules on the seafloor. Germany, among others, holds an exploration licence in this region. Under the guidance of Dr Matthias Haeckel from the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, a multidisciplinary team will investigate sites where nodule mining was tested five and a half years ago. The goal of the expedition is to assess the impacts on habitats in the water and on the seafloor. The results will directly feed into fact-based recommendations for international regulations of deep-sea mining.

Cells constantly recycle proteins and other cellular components. But how do they ensure that the right cargo ends up in the right recycling vesicle – one of the cell’s transport carriers? A team at the University of Basel has identified a molecular switch that controls this process. The small protein ARF-1 ensures that recyclable cargo is efficiently loaded into transport vesicles and returned to the cell’s surface.

Nearly all metabolic processes require protons—positively charged hydrogen atoms. Although these are abundant in the cellular fluid, the biocatalysts involved depend on mechanisms for efficiently capturing protons and transporting them to the site where catalysis occurs. Enzymes from microorganisms can produce hydrogen (H₂) by combining electrons with protons. These so-termed hydrogenases are so efficient that one biocatalyst can capture nearly 10,000 protons per second. A team of researchers from the Photobiotechnology group at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, has discovered how they do this. The researchers report their findings in the Journal of the American Chemical Society from October 27, 2026.

Subcutaneous immunization with live influenza virus in mice provided durable protection against lethal flu, outperforming intramuscular or inactivated vaccines. The virus remained restricted to the injection site and lymph nodes without causing lung damage. A single dose gave 100% protection for 277 days through strong germinal center responses.

Researchers developed SwiVirScan, a screening platform containing 36,416 peptides from 140 swine-associated viruses. In 127 adult breeding pigs, every serum sample showed antibody reactivity to peptides assigned to multiple viruses. The study also identified a persistent association between antibody signals for porcine bufavirus and porcine circovirus 3. The findings can guide follow-up surveillance, but antibody signals alone do not establish active infection.

A review finds exosome/small extracellular vesicle therapies can improve diabetic wound healing through multiple microenvironmental effects, but direct evidence that they guide keratinocyte plasticity and barrier recovery remains limited.

A 71-year-old woman with a two-year history of a slowly deepening skin depression on her trunk was found to have atrophic dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans (DFSP)—a rare variant of skin cancer that mimics benign conditions such as scars or morphea. The case highlights the importance of biopsying firm, persistent atrophic lesions, as early diagnosis and complete surgical excision are key to preventing local recurrence.

The fusion of two cells is a decisive event in the sexual reproduction of many organisms. In fungi, cells must not only bring their membranes together and merge them, but also locally open their protective cell wall. A study conducted at the University of Geneva (UNIGE) shows how a mechanism that prevents cells from repairing their wall at the fusion site makes this process irreversible. Published in the journal Current Biology, these findings provide new insights into how cells coordinate fusion and repair mechanisms and could ultimately open new avenues for targeting the cell wall of pathogenic fungi.