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Biology

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 22-Oct-2026 20:16 ET (23-Oct-2026 00:16 GMT/UTC)

Tumor cells: Disorder can promote spread

Institute of Science and Technology Austria
Peer-Reviewed Publication

In 2024, malignant tumors caused more than 21,300 deaths in Austria, 4.7% more than in 2014. Faced with a similarly pressing global challenge, scientists are striving to better understand what drives cancer cells to grow, spread, and invade healthy tissue. In Science Advances, a team at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) now offers new clues: Using a simplified model, the researchers show how a chaotic environment around tumor cells can promote their invasive behavior. This theoretical concept will need to be examined further in real tumor tissue.

Journal: Science Advances
Funder: European Research Council, Austrian Academy of Sciences

Clever elephants can think before they act

PLOS
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Asian elephants can resist their impulses and choose a more rational course of action, according to a study published September 9, 2026 in the open access journal PLOS One by Sydney Hope of Hunter College, New York and colleagues.

Journal: PLOS One

Dolphin milk microRNAs may be substantially similar to those of terrestrial mammals, with preliminary analysis indicating potentially similar lactation despite dolphins' evolution to an aquatic lifestyle

PLOS
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Dolphin milk microRNAs may be substantially similar to those of terrestrial mammals, with preliminary analysis indicating potentially similar lactation despite dolphins' evolution to an aquatic lifestyle

Journal: PLOS One

Ice Age origins of one of humanity’s oldest drug habits

Griffith University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers uncover evidence that betel nut - one of the world’s most widely used psychoactive substances - was consumed in Indonesia up to 25,000 years ago. By combining archaeological and biochemical analysis, the team identified distinctive tooth wear and traces of arecoline in ancient human remains from Sulawesi.

Journal: Science Advances

Researchers find Asian elephants can resist impulsive behavior

The Graduate Center, CUNY
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers at the CUNY Graduate Center and Hunter College have found that Asian elephants can suppress impulsive behaviors and adjust their actions when circumstances change—a cognitive ability that may help explain the animals’ sophisticated problem-solving skills and social behavior. The findings could ultimately contribute to conservation strategies aimed at reducing conflict between elephants and people, particularly in areas of Asia where elephants and human communities increasingly share the same landscapes.

Journal: PLOS One

Targeting NINJ1 protein could make donor livers more resilient

The Hospital for Sick Children
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Targeting NINJ1 protein could make donor livers more resilient

Journal: Science Advances

Taylor Swift becomes bugs

University of California - Riverside
Peer-Reviewed Publication

She’s a Grammy Award-winning international superstar, and now, Taylor Swift is also a genus of plant-feeding insects from Australia that were previously unknown to science.

Journal: Insect Systematics & Evolution

New $2.4 million NIH study will explore exposures of e-cigarettes before birth and future health implications

Wayne State University - Office of the Vice President for Research
Grant and Award Announcement

Researchers at the Wayne State University School of Medicine’s C.S. Mott Center for Human Growth and Development st have been awarded a five-year, $2.4 million grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences of the National Institutes of Health to study how exposure to e-cigarette components and flavors during pregnancy affect fetal respiratory immune development and the risk of respiratory viral infections in offspring.

VCU Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center researchers receive $2.5M NIH grant to inform breast, pancreatic cancer care

Virginia Commonwealth University
Grant and Award Announcement

Researchers at VCU Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center were recently awarded a $2.5 million R01 grant from the National Cancer Institute. The five-year grant will allow Massey to evaluate the efficacy of TROP2 targeted antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) to further enhance therapeutic benefits in both breast and pancreatic cancer care.

Massey researchers, led by principal investigator Chuck Harrell, Ph.D., member of the Cancer Biology research program at Massey and professor in the Department of Pathology at the VCU School of Medicine, will look to define what enables responses and resistance to ADCs in order to identify predictive biomarkers and establish therapeutic strategies to optimize TROP2-targeted ADC efficacy in both triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) and pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC).

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