The evolutionary path from dinosaurs to birds included the development of a tiny wrist bone that ultimately proved crucial for stabilizing wings in flight. A new study suggests that the bone appeared in bird ancestors millions of years earlier than first thought.

Paleontologists at Yale and Stony Brook University led a research team that made the discovery after examining fossils from two species of bird-like dinosaurs — an unnamed troodontid and a Citipati from the Late Cretaceous period 66 to 100 million years ago — found in the Gobi Desert in Mongolia. The findings were published in the journal Nature.

Singapore researchers have discovered that a Singapore-developed cancer drug, originally developed at A*STAR Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (A*STAR IMCB), shows potential as a new treatment approach for two leading causes of blindness worldwide. In pre-clinical studies published in Nature Communications, PRL3-zumab effectively reduced leakage from damaged blood vessels—a major cause of vision loss—showing promise as a potential new treatment for patients whose conditions do not respond well to current therapies. 

A research group at KAIST has successfully engineered a microbial strain capable of producing lutein at industrially relevant levels. The team, led by Distinguished Professor Sang Yup Lee from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, developed a novel C. glutamicum strain using systems metabolic engineering strategies to overcome the limitations of previous microbial lutein production efforts. This research is expected to be beneficial for the efficient production of other industrially important natural products used in food, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics.