EurekAlert! News by Subject: Biology - News by Subject: Biology

Biology

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 10-Dec-2025 01:11 ET (10-Dec-2025 06:11 GMT/UTC)

New research: Atherosclerosis shows similarities to tumor development

University of Southern Denmark Faculty of Health Sciences
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers from the University of Southern Denmark and Odense University Hospital have studied tissue from patients with atherosclerosis. They found that many of the cells in the diseased tissue carried the same genetic alteration and appeared to originate from a single ancestral cell that had divided repeatedly – a pattern otherwise associated with tumour biology.

Journal: JCI Insight

New use for old drug: study finds potential of heart drug for treating growth disorders

Ritsumeikan University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Phosphodiesterase 3 (PDE3) inhibitors are clinically approved drugs used for treating thrombosis, heart diseases, and asthma. Now, however, scientists have found that PDE3 inhibitors can also stimulate key signaling pathways that trigger Ca2+ influx into bone cells, promoting extracellular matrix production and bone growth. This new therapeutic potential of PDE3 inhibitors was demonstrated using both in vivo and ex vivo approaches, suggesting that existing PDE3 inhibitors could be repositioned as therapies for skeletal disorders.

Journal: British Journal of Pharmacology

ERC awards €2.5 million to TIGEM scientist for project on programmable genetic circuits

Fondazione Telethon
Grant and Award Announcement

Diego Di Bernardo of the Telethon Institute of Genetics and Medicine (TIGEM) has received a €2.5 million ERC Advanced Grant for DIMERCIRCUITS, a project that combines synthetic biology, artificial intelligence, and systems biology to create programmable genetic circuits. These tools aim to precisely and reversibly control gene expression, paving the way for safer, more personalized gene therapies. Using rare diseases like Friedreich’s ataxia as testbeds, the project could unlock new treatment strategies for a broad range of genetic conditions..

Funder: European Research Council

ERC grant will support the placement of tens of thousands of previously unknown fungi in the evolution tree

Estonian Research Council
Grant and Award Announcement

Leho Tedersoo, Professor of Mycorrhizal Studies at the University of Tartu, has received the Advanced Grant from the European Research Council to systematise and describe members of the 95% majority of previously unclassified microscopic fungi, and other eukaryotic organisms not yet included in the current tree of life system. Using the kingdom Fungi as an example, a new system for DNA-based classification of organisms can then be created.

Funder: European Research Council

Tarantulas bend rules to keep running after losing two legs

The Company of Biologists
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Losing limbs is routine for spiders, but how does limb loss affect their ability to run? Researchers led by Suzanne Amador Kane (Haverford College, USA) and Tonia Hsieh (Temple University, USA) publish in Journal of Experimental Biology that immediately after losing two legs tarantulas mix up limping (alternating between balancing on two and four limbs) and running on six legs, like ants, to move as fast as they had when all eight legs were intact.

Journal: Journal of Experimental Biology
Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation

Enabling healthy ageing: Leopoldina discussion paper recommends shift in focus in research and medicine

Leopoldina
Reports and Proceedings

Ageing is the primary risk factor for cancer, dementia, and cardiovascular diseases. As the understanding of the biology of ageing constantly improves, there are already initial approaches to geroprotection, which seeks to reduce the age-related risk of disease and thus extend healthy lifespan. In a discussion paper published today by the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, the researchers involved recommend a paradigm shift in how research and medicine approach age-related diseases. In the paper “Health-Extending Medicine in an Aging Society – Prospects for Medical Research and Practice” they call for better research into the ageing process, so that medicine can focus on ageing itself – rather than waiting to treat age-related diseases.

From food to textile – agricultural waste can become the clothes of the future

Chalmers University of Technology
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Cellulose-based textile material can make the clothing sector more sustainable. Currently, cellulose-based textiles are mainly made from wood, but a study headed by researchers from Chalmers University of Technology points to the possibility of using agricultural waste from wheat and oat. The method is easier and requires fewer chemicals than manufacturing forest-based cellulose, and can enhance the value of waste products from agriculture.

Journal: RSC Sustainability