When we think of the immune system, most people imagine white blood cells putting up a fight against invading germs within our bloodstream. But now, in research publishing June 4^th in the Cell Press journal Molecular Cell, scientists detail a separate but equally important route by which our bodies fight infection—directly inside already infected cells. In the report, the authors define a previously undescribed method of germ resistance they coin “antibody-directed xenophagy” (ADX), where cells can digest bacteria and viruses that cross the cell membrane, including Salmonella and adenoviruses.

Breast cancer can remain dormant in the bone marrow for decades before reactivating, resulting in cancer relapse. A study published in Bone Research unveils the critical role of Notch2 signaling pathway in promoting this dormant state. The study explains how dormant cancer cells mimic healthy stem cells and activate stress pathways to survive in the bone marrow—paving the way for innovative targeted therapies against dormant cancer cells.

CardioNVT is an end-to-end deep learning platform for rapid, immunostaining-free assessment of cardiomyocyte nuclear ploidy in situ. Using only DAPI-stained heart sections, it segments cardiomyocyte nuclei, tracks them across z-stack planes, reconstructs 3D nuclear volumes, and infers ploidy from volume measurements, enabling scalable studies of cardiac development, remodeling, and repair.